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TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


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6"     — 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


c^ 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  canadien  de  microreproc^uctions  historiques 


O 


\ 


Technical  and  Bibliograph'c  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
o.iginal  copy  available  for  filming    Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


L'Institut  a  microfilme  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  ete  possible  de  se  procurer    Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut  etre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique.  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite    ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  m6thode  normale  de  filmage 
sent  indiqu^s  ci  dessous 


□ 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


□ 


Coloured  pages/ 
Pages  de  couleur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 

I I    Couverture  endommagee 


□    Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagees 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur6e  et/ou  pelliculee 


c 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Pages  restaurees  et/ou  pelliculees 


□    Cover  title  missing/ 
Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


p    }    Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 
I  .'•,  !    Pages  decolorees,  tachetees  ou  piquees 


□ 


Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  geographiques  en  couleur 


Pages  detached/ 
Pages  detachees 


□ 


Coloured  ink  (i  e    other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


D 


Showthrough/ 
Transparence 


□ 


Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


D 


Quality  of  print  varies/ 
Qualite  inegale  de  I'impression 


j    Bound  with  other  material/ 
J    Reli6  avec  d'autres  documents 


D 


Includes  supplementary  material/ 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplementaire 


n 


Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

Lareliure  serree  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  int^rieure 


~!     Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
J     appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajoutees 
lors  dune  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  etait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  ete  film6os. 


n 


Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc  ,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  derrata,  une  pelure, 
etc  ,  ont  ete  filmees  a  nouveau  de  facon  a 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible 


□ 


Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplementaires 


'1 


.\, 


■-(.■■ 


f^l 


r- 


/v 


/■ 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  filme  au  taux  de  reduction  indique  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

SOX 

\ 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


The  ropy  tilnied  fioro  bar,  buen  reproduced  thrinks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Librnry  o!  Coiiiiress 
PhotodiipliCHtion  Servicf; 


I.  i»yiMtipl<iirt'  filtno  fut  f<'(Hvi(hiit  cjfin.c  .'I  i;i 
g^n^rositi^)  de 

LltjTiiry  ot  Ci)iu]r(!ss 

f  InifodiipliciitKHi  Sorviri- 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Les  images  suivanti.'s  ont  6t6  reproduitos  avei;  le 
plus  grand  soin    cornpte  term  de  l.i  condition  vi 
de  la  nettetd  de  I  oxeniplaire  film6,  et  en 
conforrnit^  avec  les  conditions  du  contra;  de 
filniage. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filrred  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres 
sion,  and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


Les  Hxeniplaires  oriqinaux  dont  la  coiiverture  fMi 
papior  est  imprinnie  sont  filmes  en  commencant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
derni6re  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
dirnpression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas   Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
oriqinaux  sont  film6s  en  commencant  par  la 
premii>re  page  qui  cortiporte  une  empreinte 
d  impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  derni^re  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — ^  (meaning  "CON 
TINUED"),  or  the  symbol  V  (meaning     END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
derni6re  image  de  chaque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbo  a  — ^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE ',  le 
symbole  V  signifie    FIN 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  etre 
film6s  ^  des  taux  de  reduction  differents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  etre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  cliche,  il  est  film6  d  partir 
de  Tangle  sup6rieur  gauche    de  gauche  ^  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  n6cessaire    Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  m^thode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

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4i. 


K .(i>H>t>mit   ilei.' 


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A   GENERAL   COLLECTION 

BEST  AND  MOST  INTERESTI!^  X/%     ** 


V.V     \ 


VOYAGES  AND  TRAVELS, 

IN  ALL  PARTS  OF  THE  WORLD ;         ^ 

MANY  OF  WHICH  ARE  NOW  FIRST  TRANSLATED  INTO  ENGLISH. 


■.^*'^- 


W:      i)lGESTED  ON  A  NliW  PLAN. 


■f 


^.)^'- 


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-^v. 


i^  JOHN  ^INKERTON,     \ 

AUTHOR    or     M0DERI9    OEOQRAPHYf.&Ci 


dlteasaa*)* 


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ttXVSTBATED  AND  AD(»lSBD  VWH  NtfMBBOUS  ENGHAMNftS. 

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PUlLADELPHIAt 
•W         PUBLISHED  BY  KIMBER  AND  CONRAp,  NO.  93,  MARKET  STREEt, 

William  Falconer,  New  York*  8amuey«fferi8,  Baitim0i*:i  Jwiies Kennedy,'seri.  Alexandria;  FitzwUylsoni' 
and  Potter,  Richmond  ;  John  Hoff, ^^leston,  Soutiti  Carolina;  Henry  dishing,  Providence,  R.  I. ;  Jnliii 
West  and  Co.  Boston ;  Cushing  and  Appleton,  Salem ;  Edward  Little  and  Co.  Ncwbuiyport ;  Ciiiti  le^ 

BROWN  &  MERltlTT,  PRINTERS; 


Tappan,  Portsmouth. 


1810, 


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CONTENTS  OF  VOL 


rt*. 


-.4, 


*'!• 


The  Voyages  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughhy  and  others  to  the  Northern  Parts  of  Russia 

and  Siberia^ 

First  Voyage  of  the  Dutch  to  the  North  qf  Europe, 
Second  Voyage  of  the  same,        .... 

Third  Vouage  qf  the  same ^         ••*',,  n 

Dissertation  qfJohn  Isaac  Pontanus  concerning  the  North-east  Passage, 

Regnard's  Journey  to  Lapland,  fi'c.  •        •        •         • 

Journey  qfMaupertuis  to  the  Polar  Circle, 

Outhier's  Journal  qfa  Voyage  to  the.  North, 

Travels  qfM.  Arwidkkninmalminto  fVestcm  Nordland,  Uc. 

Account  qf  Danish  Lapland,  by  Leems,      .... 

Allison's  Voyage  from  Archangel, 

A  new  Account  qf  Samoiedia  and  the  Samoiedes, 

Journal  qfseven  seamen  ^fi  at  Spitsbergen, 

Account  qf  Forty-two  Persons  shiprvreeked  near  Spitsbergen, 

Phipp'sJoutaalofa  Voyage  to  the  North  Pole,  .        •  ,  Q^„h^„^    <oe 

j!^%s  NarraLqffour  Russian  Sailors,cast  upon  the  IstandofEast  SpUsbergen,   595 

Backstrom's  Voyage  to  Spitsbergen,     ..^ 

Von  TroiPs  Letters  on  Iceland,  .  ; .    • 

Kerguelen's  Voyage  to  the  North, 

Earl  of  Cumberland's  Voyage  to  the  Azores, 

Raleigh's  Report  of  an  Engagement  near  the  Azores, 

Voyage  to  Tercera,  by  De  Chaste,       *'      '    - 


1 

81 

85 

90 

127 

ISl 

231 

259 

337 

376 

491 

522 

535 

537 

538 


•rtft^'-;- 


^^^::^^'h:r,'^j£:"':i's:muj:^-j!'.::'.-::^:^h£im^ 


T7;iTi",^?iiff.|-*»-Trn;griT'''r-rr&7r;'  -  v 


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-...U.,.44^>-«MaL^' 


AUG  13  1890 


::J^i« 


JLI^ 


-/ 


; 


•  • 


A  GENERAL  COLLECTION 


OF 


VOYAGES  AND  TRAVELS- 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  SIR  HUGH  WILLOUGHBY,  RICHARD  CHANCELOR,  AND  OTHERSi 

TO  THE  NORTHERN  PARTS  OF  RUSSIA  AND  SIBERIA.  ^ 


(iTROH  HAKLinrra  couJtcnoN,  vol.  u  p.  ••••) 


T, 


HESE  interesting  Voyages  are  introduced  with  a  genealogy  of  the  dukes  of  Mos. 
covy,  which  being  extraneous  to  the  subject,  and  often  erroneous,  shall  be  here  omitted. 
But  the  instructions  of  Sebastian  Cabot  deserve  preserv^ation  on  account  of  their  curi. 
osity,  and  the  celebrity  of  the  author,  not  to  mention  that  the  first  English  voyage  of 
discovery  deserves  to  be  detailed  with  all  its  circumstances ;  and  in  a  plan  of  this  extent, 
the  Gothic  building  may  sometimes  form  an  agreeable  variety  amidst  modern  edifices. 

Ordinances,  instructions.,  and  advertisements  of  and  for  the  direction  qfthe  intended  voy- 
age for  Catliay,  compiled,  made,  and  delivered  by  the  right  worshi/i/ul  M.  Sebastian 
Cabota,  ^squire,  governor  of  the  mystery  and  company  qf  the  merchants  adventurers 
for  the  discovery  of  regions,  dominions,  islands,  and  places  unknown,  the  9th  day  qf 
May,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  God  1553,  and  in  the  1th  year  of  the  reign  of  our  most 
dread  sovereign  lord,  Edward  the  Sixth,  by  the  grace  of  God,  king  of  England, 
France,  and  Ireland,  defetder  qfthe  faith,  and  qf  the  church  of  England  and  Ire- 
land,  in  earth  supreme  head,  , -;. 

First,  Th(  captain-general,  with  the  pilot-major,  the  masters,  merchants,  and  other 
officers,  to  be  so  knit  and  accorded  in  unity,  love,  conformity,  and  obedience,  in  every 
degree  on  all  sides,  that  no  dissention,  variance  or  contention,  may  rise  or  spring  betwixt 
them  and  the  mariners  of  this  company,  to  the  damage  or  hindrance  of  the  voyage ;  for 
that  dissention,  by  many  experiences,  hath  overthrown  many  notable  intended  and 
likely  enterprises  and  exploits.  "  ^' »>• 

2.  Item,  for  as  much  as  every  p^ifson  hath  given  an  o^th  to  be  true,  faithful,  and 
loyal  subjects  and  liegemen  to  the  king's  most  excellent  majesty,  his  heirs  and  suc- 
ces^rs,  and  for  the  observation  of  all  laws  and  statutes  made  for  the  preservation  of  his  ' 
most  excellent  majes^,  and  his  crown  imperu^  of  lus  realms  of  England  and  Ireland, 

VOL.   I,  ,  % 


-»».  •»•' 


■# 


m 


V 


■>': 


VOYAGES  or  SIR  iiifiii  wiu.oif.rtnv  and  otkek^. 


\i. 


and  to  scn'C  his  grucc,  the  rcnim,  and  this  present  voyage,  truly,  and  not  to  f^ivc  up,  In- 
termit, or  leave  ofl'thc  same  voyaj^e  and  entcq)rise  until  it  shall  Ix:  accomplishul,  so  far 
forth  as  |iossibility  and  life  of  man  may  serve  or  extend :  therefore  it  behoveth  every 
person,  in  his  degree,  as  well  for  eonseience  as  for  duty's  sake,  to  rememlxT  his  said 
charge,  and  the  accomplishment  thereof. 

3.  Item,  where  furtnermore,  ever)'  mariner  or  passenger  in  his  ship  hath  given  like 
oath  to  Ik'  ol)edicnt  to  the  captain-f^encral,  and  to  every  captain  and  master  in  his  ship, 
for  the  obst;rvation  of  these  present  orders  contained  in  this  book,  and  all  other  which 
hereafter  shall  Ix-  made  by  the  twelve  counsellors  in  this  present  book  named,  or  the 
most  nart  of  them,  for  the  better  conduction  and  preservati'tn  of  the  fleci,  and  achiev- 
ing ot  the  voyage,  and  to  be  prompt,  ready,  and  obedient  in  all  acts  and  feats  of  ho- 
nesty,  reason,  aj»d  duty,  to  be  nuiiistered,  shewed,  and  executed,  in  advancement  and 
preferment  of  the  voyage  and  exploit :  therefore  it  is  convenient  that  this  present  lK)ok 
shall  once  every  >Aeek,  by  the  discretion  of  the  captain,  Ix;  read  to  the  said  company,  to 
the  intent,  that  every  man  may  the  better  remember  his  outh,  conscience,  duty,  and 
ehargi. 

4.  Item,  every  person,  by  virtue  of  his  oath,  to  do  efiectually,  and  with  gootl  will 
(as  far  forth  as  him  shall  comply)  all  and  every  such  act  and  acts,  deed  and  deeds,  as 
shall  i)c  to  him  or  them  from  time  lo  lime  commanded,  committed,  and  enjoined  (during 
the  voyage)  by  the  captain- g-eneral,  with  the  iissentof  the  counsel  and  assistants,  as  well 
in  and  dining  the  whole  navigation  and  voyage,  as  also  in  discovering  and  landing,  as 
cases  and  occasions  shall  recjuire. 

5.  Item,  all  courses  in  navigation  to  be  set  and  kept,  by  the  atlviec  of  the  captain, 
pilot-major,  masters,  and  masters'  mates,  with  the  assents  of  the  counsellors,  and  the 
most  number  of  them,  and  in  voices  uniformly  agreeing  in  one,  to  prevail,  and  take 
place,  so  that  the  captain- genera  I  shall  in  all  counsels  ami  assemblies  have  a  double  voice. 

6.  Item,  Uiat  the  Beet  shall  keep  together,  and  not  separate  themselves  asunder,  as 
much  as  by  wind  and  weather  may  be  done  or  permitted,  and  tliat  the  captains,  pilots, 
and  masters,  shall  speedily  come  aboard  the  admiral,  when,  and  as  often,  a*  he  shall  seem 
to  have  just  cause  to  assemble  them  for  counsel  or  consultation  to  be  had,  concerning  the 
affaira  of  the  fleet  and  voyage. 

7.  Item,  that  the  mercliants,  and  other  skilful  persons  in  writing,  shall  dmly  write, 
describe,  and  put  in  memory,  the  navigation  of  eveiy  day  and  night,  with  the  points,  and 
observation  of  the  lands,  tides,  elements,  altitude  of  the  sun,  course  of  the  moon  iuad 
stars,  and  the  same  so  noted,  by  the  order  of  the  master  and  pilot  of  every  ship,  to  be 
put  in  writing,  the  captain-general  assembling  the  masters  together  once  every  week  (if 
wind  and  weather  sliall  serve)  to  confer  all  the  observations  and  notes  of  the  said  ships, 
to  the  intent  it  may  appear  wherein  die  notes  do  agree,  and  wherein  they  dissent,  and 
upon  good  debatement,  deliberation,  and  conclusion  determined,  to  put  the  same  into 
a  common  ledger,  to  remain  of  record  for  the  company  :  the  like  order  to  be  kept  in 
proportioning  of  the  cards,  astrohbes,  and  other  instruments,  prepared  for  the  voyage  at 
the  choi^  of  the  company. 

8.  Item,  that  all  enterprises  and  exploits  of  discovering  or  landing  to  search  isles, 
regions,  and  such  like,  to  be  searched,  attempted,  and  enterpriscd,  hy  good  deliberation, 
and  common  assent,  determined  advisedly.  And  that  in  all  enterprises,  notable  ambas- 
sages,  suits,  requests,  or  presentment  of  ^fts  or  presents  to  pnnces,  to  be  done  and 
executed  by  the  captun-general  in  person,  or  by  such  other  as  he  by  conuaon  assent 
shall  appoint  or  assign  to  do,  or  cause  to  be  done,  in  the  same.  v,— r- 


'rt'j 


I 


-  ^-acy 


in- 


TO  Tiir,  NtmrnrisN  rvxur.t  nv  ulh.htv  \m)  sinruiv  3 

9.  Item,  the  irtcwanl  arui  cook  of  every  fihip,  and  their  associates,  to  \^vc  and  render 
to  the  captain  and  other  head  officers  ol  their  ship  weekly  (or  oltener  if  it  shall  seem 
rcquiHitc)  tt  just  or  plain  and  perfect  accompt  of  expcjiccs  of  the  vietuuN,  as  well  Hesh, 
fish,  biscuit,  meat,  or  bread,  aa  also  of  beer,  wine,  ill,  cr  -inejrar,  and  all  other  kind  of 
victualling  under  their  charj^e,  and  they,  and  every  of  ilvjui,  so  to  order  and  disiKud 
the  same,  that  no  waste  or  unprofitable  excess  Ix.*  made  otherwise  than  reason  and  neccs- 
sity  shall  command. 

10.  Item,  when  any  inferior  or  mean  officer,  of  what  def;rnc  or  condition  he  shall 
be,  shall  be  tried  nntfue,  remiss,  neglij^'nt,  or  unprofitable,  in  or  about  his  office  in  the 
voj  afrc,  or  not  to  use  himself  in  his  charge  accordingly,  then  every  such  officer  to  be 
punisned  or  removetl,  ut  the  discretion  of  the  captain  and  assistants,  or  the  most  part  of 
them,  and  the  person  so  removed  not  to  be  reputed,  accepted,  or  taken,  from  the  time 
of  his  remove,  any  more  lor  an  officer,  but  to  remain  in  such  condition  and  place  as  he 
shall  be  assigned  unto,  and  none  of  the  company  to  resist  such  chastisement  or  worthy 
punishment  as  shall  Ix;  ministered  to  him  moderately,  according  to  the  fault  ordes(rt  of 
nis  oflencc,  after  the  law»  and  common  customs  of  the  seas  m  such  cases  hercioi'orc 
used  and  observed. 

11.  Item,  if  any  mariner,  or  officer  inferior,  shall  be  found  by  his  labour  not  meet  nor 
worthy  the  place  that  he  is  presently  shipped  for,  such  jKTson  may  be  unshipped  and  put 
on  land  at  any  place  within  the  king's  majesty's  realm  and  dominion,  and  one  other  person 
more  able  and  worthy  to  bt  put  in  his  place,  at  the  discretion  of  the  captain  and  masters, 
and  order  to  be  taken  that  the  party  dismissed  shall  be  allowed  nroix>rtionably  the  value 
of  that  he  shall  have  deserved  to  the  time  of  his  dismission  or  discharge,  and  he  to  give 
order,  with  sureties,  pawn,  or  other  assurance,  to  repay  the  overplus  of  that  he  shall  have 
received  which  he  shall  not  have  deserved,  and  such  wages  to  be  made  with  the  party 
newly  placed  as  shall  be  thought  reasonable,  and  he  to  nave  the  furniture  of  all  such 
necessaries  as  were  prepared  for  the  party  dismissed,  according  to  right  and  conscience, 

12.  Item,  that  no  blaspheming  of  God,  or  detestable  swearing,  be  used  in  any  ship, 
nor  communication  of  ribaldry,  filthy  tales,  or  ungodly  tidk,  to  be  suffered  in  the  com- 
pany of  any  ship,  neither  dicing,  carding,  tabling,  nor  other  devilish  games,  to  be  fre- 
quented, whereoy  cnsueth  not  only  poverty  to  the  players,  but  also  strife,  variance, 
brawling,  fighting,  and  oftentimes  murder,  to  the  utter  destruction  of  the  parties,  and 
provoking  of  God's  most  just  wiath  and  sword  of  vengeance.  These,  and  all  such  like 
pestilences  and  contagions  of  vices  and  sins,  to  be  eschewed,  and  the  offenders  once 
monished,  and  not  reforming,  to  be  punished  at  the  discretion  of  the  captain  and  mas- 
ter, as  appertaineth. 

13.  Item,  that  morning  and  evening  prayer,  widi  other  common  services  appointed 
by  the  king's  majesty  and  laws  of  this  realm,  to  be  read  and  siid  in  every  ship  daily  by 
the  minister  in  the  admiral,  and  the  merchant  or  some  other  person  learned  in  other 
ship,  and  the  Bible  or  paraphrases  to  be  read  devoutly  and  christianly,  to  God's  honour, 
and  for  liis  grace  to  be  obtained  and  had,  by  humble  and  hearty  prayer  of  the  navigants 
accordingly. 

14.  Item,  that  every  officer  is  to  be  charged  by  inventory  with  the  particulars  of 
his  charge,  and  to  "rnder  a  perfect  accompt  of  the  defraying  of  the  same,  together  with 
modest  and  temp<  rate  dispending  of  powcler,  shot,  and  use  of  all  kind  of  artillery,  which 
is  not  to  be  misused,  but  cfiligently  to  be  preserved,  for  the  necessary  defence,  of  the  fleet 
and  voyage,  tt^ther  with  due  keeping  of  all  instruments  of  your  navigation,  and  other 
requiMtes. 


& 


»  ' 

I 
; 


ll 


'1 


'I 


I 


4  vov.voM  or  «n  iiffjii  w(i.i,oirr.iinv  and  otiip.r^ 

15.  Item,  no  lifiuor  to  Ih'  spill  on  the  hidlast,  nor  filtliineHs  tf)  l)c  left  within  l)onrd ; 
the  cook-room  anil  all  otiu  r  pliK  es  to  Ik-  kept  clean,  for  the  better  health  of  the  com- 
pany  ;  the  gromaN  and  pa^n  to  Ik-  hroiight  up  according  to  the  laudable  order  and 
use  of  the  sea,  as  well  in  learning  of  navigation,  as  in  exercising  of  that  which  lo  them 
ap|Krtaineth. 

If).  Item,  the  liveries  in  apparel  given  to  the  mariners  be  to  be  kept  by  the  merchanta, 
and  not  to  be  worn  but  by  the  ordir  of  the  captain,  when  he  shall  see  cause  to  nuister 
or  shew  them  in  gtx)d  array,  for  the  advancement  and  honour  of  the  voyagi-,  and  the  li. 
veries  to  be  re-delivered  to  the  kee[)ing  of  the  merchants,  luUil  it  shall  Ix;  thought  con- 
venient  for  everj-  person  to  have  the  full  use  of  his  garment. 

17.  Item,  Avhen  any  mariner  or  any  other  |)assengtr  shall  have  need  of  any  neceii- 
shry  furniture  of  apparel  for  his  b'Kly,  anil  conservation  of  his  health,  the  siuue  shall  be 
delivered  him  by  the  merchant,  at  the  assiginnent  of  the  captain  and  master  of  that  ship 
wherein  such  needy  jK-rson  shall  Ik-,  at  such  reasonable  price  as  the  same  cost,  without 
any  gain  lo  be  exacted  by  the  merchants,  the  value  thereof  to  Ix;  entered  by  the  nier- 
chant  in  his  book,  and  the  same  to  be  discounted  off  the  party's  wages  that  so  shall  re- 
ceive and  wear  the  same. 

18.  Item,  the  sick,  diseaicd,  weak,  and  visited  person  within  board,  to  l)e  tendered, 
relieved,  comfoiled,  and  hel^ied,  in  the  time  of  his  infirmity  ;  and  every  manner  of  |Krson, 
without  resix.'ct,  to  bear  another's  burthen,  and  no  man  to  a'fuse  such  labour  as  shall  Ijc 
p'U  to  him,  for  the  most  benefit  and  pul>lic  wealth  of  the  voyage  and  enterprise  to  be 
achieved  exactly. 

19.  Item,  if  any  person  shall  fortune  to  die,  or  miscarry  in  the  voyage,  such  apparel 
and  other  goixis  as  he  shall  have,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  is  to  be  kept  by  the  order  of 
the  captain  imd  master  of  the  ship,  and  an  inventory  to  be  made  of  it,  and  conserved  to 
the  use  of  his  wife  and  children,  or  otherwise,  according  to  his  mind  and  will,  and  the 
day  of  his  death  to  be  entered  in  the  merchant's  and  steward's  books,  to  the  intent  it  may 
be  knoAvn  what  wages  he  shall  have  deserved  to  his  death,  and  what  shall  rest  due  to  him. 

20.  Item,  that  the  merchants  appointed  for  this  present  voyage  shall  not  make  any 
shew  or  sale  of  any  kind  of  mercnandises,  or  open  their  commodities,  to  any  foreign 
princes,  or  any  of  their  subjects,  without  the  consent,  privity,  or  agreement  of  the  cap- 
tains, the  cape  merchants,  and  the  assistants,  or  four  them,  whereof  tlie  captain-gene- 
ral, the  pilot-major,  and  cape  merchant,  to  be  three,  and  every  of  the  petty  merchants  to 
shew  his  reckoning  to  the  cajxj  merchant,  when  they,  or  any  of  them,  shall  be  required  : 
and  no  commutation  or  truck  to  be  made  by  any  of  the  petty  merchants,  without  the 
assent  abovesaid :  and  all  wares  and  commodities  trucked,  bought,  or  given  to  the  com- 
pany by  way  of  lerchandise,  truck,  or  any  other  respect,  to  be  booked  by  the  mer- 
chants, and  to  !>:  well  ordered,  packed,  and  conserved  in  one  mass  entirely,  and  not  to 
be  broken  or  altered  until  the  ship  shall  return  to  the  right  discharges,  and  inventory 
of  all  goods,  wares  and  merchandises,  so  trucked,  bought,  or  otherwise  dispended,  to  be 
presented  to  the  governor,  consuls,  and  assistants  in  London,  in  good  order,  to  the  intent 
the  king's  majesty  may  be  truly  answered  of  that  which  to  his  grace  by  his  g:.'..»  of  cor- 
porations is  limited,  according  to  our  most  bound  duties,  and  the  whole  oi  '.>|^»any  also 
to  have  that  which  by  right  unto  them  apperlaineth,  and  no  embezzlemejit  shrUi  Le  used, 
but  the  truth  of  the  whole  voyage  to  be  opened,  to  the  commonwealth  and  btiu  ik  of  the 
whole  company  and  mystery,  as  appertaineth,  without  guile,  fraud,  or  mi<l  ■liitn-!'-'. 

21.  Item,  no  particular  person  to  hinder  or  prejudicate  the  common  hi-n-A  of  the 
(;6mpany,  in  sale  or  preferment  of  his  own  proper  wares  and  things,  and  no  particular 


( 


s-^ 


TO  TIIF.  NOHTIIKHN   I'.MMM  (»K  ll»  HHIA  AM)  SIIU.ItIA 


A 


emcixcntor  purchasf  to  Ik-  nnployrd  to  any  Ncvcnl  profit,  until  the  cotninoii  stock  ol 
the  rompaiiy  Hhall  Ik  i'lirninhcd,  and  no  |)crson  to  hinder  tlu-  rdninion  licnciU  in  hiidi 
purchaHCH  or  continKi-ntn  as  shall  fortune  to  any  oi»"  ot'tiuni,  by  hit  own  pro|Kr  |)olicy, 
industr)',  or  chance,  nor  no  eoiuention  to  rise  m  that  hehalC,  by  any  occasion  of  jewel, 
atone**,  pearls,  precious  nutals,  or  other  thinfjfs  of  the  re^ion,  where  it  shall  chance  thr 
Banic  to  rise,  or  to  be  fouml,  lK)U^ht,  trucked,  |K-rnuited,  or  ^j^ven :  but  every  per. 
son  to  Ix'  bound  in  such  case,  and  upf)n  sui.h  <K;casion,  by  ortlir  and  direction,  as  thr 

Seneral-captaiu    and  the  comril    shall  establish  and  determine,    to  whosi-  order  and 
iscretion  tlic  H«mc  i»  left :  for  that  of  things  uncertain,  no  certain  rules  may  or  can 
be  given. 

22.  Item,  not  to  disclose  to  any  nnticm  the  state  of  our  religion,  but  to  pass  it  over  In 
silence,  without  any  declaration  of  it,  sccining  to  Ixiir  with  siuch  luwsi  uiid  riicsi  iis  the 
place  huth,  where  you  hhall  arrive. 

23.  Item,  for  as  much  as  our  people  and  »h*'  ay  appear  imto  them  strange  and 
wonderouH,  and  theirs  also  to  ours,  it  is  to  Ik;  considered,  how  they  may  be  used, 
learninfr  much  of  their  natures  and  dispositions  by  some  one  such  person,  as  you  may 
first  eitner  allure,  or  take,  to  be  brought  aboard  your  ships,  and  there  to  learn  as  you 
may,  without  violence  or  force  ;  and  no  woman  to  be  tempted  or  entreated  to  inconti- 
nence, or  dishonesty. 

24.  Item,  the  person  so  taken  to  be  well  entertiiined,  used,  and  appaalled,  to 
be  set  on  land,  to  the  intent  that  he  or  she  may  ullua*  others,  to  draw  nigh,  to  she\^  the 
conmiodities :  and  if  the  |)erson  taken  may  be  n\ade  dnink  with  your  l)eer,  or  wine, 
you  shall  know  the  secrets  of  his  heart. 

25.  Item,  our  people  may  not  pas»  farther  into  a  land,  than  that  they  may  be  able. 
to  recover  tlwir  pinnaces,  or  shins,  and  not  to  credit  the  fair  words  of  the  stiangc 
people,  which  lie  many  timest  tried  subtle,  and  false,  nor  to  be  drawn  into  peril  of  loss, 
lor  the  desire  of  gf)ld,  silver,  or  riches,  and  esteem  jour  own  commodities  above  all 
other,  and  in  cotmtenancc  shew  not  much  to  desire  the  foreign  commodities  :  neverthe- 
less, take  them  as  for  friendship,  or  by  way  of  pcrmuiation. 

26.  Item,  every  nation  and  ref^ion  is  to  be  considered  advisedly,  nnd  not  to  pro- 
voke them  by  any  disdain,  laughmg,  contempt,  or  such  like,  but  to  use  them  with 
prudent  circumspection,  with  all  gentleness  and  courtesy,  and  not  to  tarry  long  in  one 
pkice,  until  you  shall  have  attained  the  most  worthy  place  that  may  be  found,  m  such 
sort  as  you  may  return,  with  victuals  sufficient,  prosi)erously. 

27.  Item,  the  names  of  the  people  of  every  island  are  to  be  taken  in  writing,  uith 
the  commodities  and  incommodities  of  the  s:mie,  the*  natures,  qualities,  and  disposi- 
tions, the  site  of  the  same,  and  what  things  they  are  most  desirous  of,  and  what  com- 
modities they  will  most  willingly  depart  witn,  and  what  metals  they  have  in  hills,  moun- 
tains, streams,  or  rivers,  in,  or  under  the  earth. 

28.  Item,  if  people  shall  appear  gathering  of  stones,  gold,  metal,  or  other  like,  on  the 
sand,  your  pinnaces  may  draw  nigh,  marking  v,I.ut  things  they  gather,  using  or  playing 
upon  the  drum,  or  such  other  instruments,  as  may  allure  them  to  hearkening,  to  fantasy 
or  desire  to  see  and  hear  your  instruments  and  voices,  but  keep  you  out  of  clanger,  and 
shew  to  them  no  point  or  sign  of  rigour  and  hostility. 

29.  Item,  if  you  shall  be  invited  into  any  lord's  or  ruler's  house,  to  dinner,  or  other 
parliance,  go  in  such  order  of  strength,  that  you  may  be  stronger  than  they,  and 
be  wary  of  woods  and  ambushes,  and  that  your  weapons  be  not  out  of  your  posses* 
sions. 


0v 


i  I 


'I 


1 1 

<  I 

:   I 


i\i 


11' 


'#f 


t}  VOV  *C.K8  OP  STR  IH'Olf  >MLL0Ur.H8Y  AND  OTHERS, 

30.  Item,  if  you  shall  see  them  wear  lions'  or  bears'  skins,  having  long  bows  and  ?r. 
rows,  be  not  afraid  of  that  sight :  for  such  be  worn  oftentimes  more  to  fear  strangers, 
than  for  any  other  cause. 

31.  Item,  there  are  people  that  can  swim  in  the  sea,  havens,  and  rivers,  naked,  hav- 
ing bows  and  shafls,  covetmg  to  draw  nigh  your  ships,  which,  if  they  shall  find  not  well 
watched  or  Avarded,  they  will  assault,  desirous  of  the  bodies  of  men,  which  they  covet 
for  meat :  if  you  resist  them,  dicy  dive,  and  so  will  flee,  and  therefore  diligent  watch  b 
to  be  kept  both  day  and  night  in  some  islands. 

32.  Item,  if  occasion  shall  serve,  that  you  may  give  advertisements  of  your  pro- 
ceedings in  such  things  as  may  correspond  to  the  exj>cctation  of  the  company,  and  like- 
lihood of  SUCCC3S  in  the  voyage,  passing  such  dangers  of  the  seas,  perils  of  ice,  in- 
tolerable colds,  ai;d  other  impediments,  which,  by  sundry  authors  and  writers,  have 
ministered  matter  of  suspicion  in  some  heads  that  this  voyage  could  not  succeed,  for 
the  extremity  of  the  north  pole,  lack  of  passage,  and  such  like,  which  have  caused 
wavering  mmds  and  doubtful  heads  not  only  to  withdraw  themselves  from  the  ad- 
venture of  this  voyage,  but  also  dissuaded  others  from  the  same,  the  certainty  whereof, 
Avhen  you  shall  have  tried  by  experience  (most  certain  master  of  all  worldly  knov/- 
ledge)  then,  for  declaration  of  the  truth  which  you  shall  have  experted,  you  may,  by 
common  assent  of  counsel,  send,  either  by  land  or  otherwise,  such  two  or  one  person, 
to  bring  the  same  by  credit,  as  you  shall  think  may  pass  in  safety  :  which  sending  is  not 
to  be  done  but  upon  urgent  causes,  in  likely  success  of  the  voyage,  in  finding  of 
[)assage,  in  towardliness  of  beneficial  trafiic,  or  such  other  like,  whereby  the  company, 
being  advertised  of  your  estates  and  proceedings,  may  further  provide,  foresee,  and  de- 
termine that  which  may  seem  most  good  and  beneficial  for  the  public  wealth  of  the 
same  ;  either  providing  beforehand  such  things  as  shall  be  requisite  for  the  continu- 
ance of  the  voyage,  or  else  otherwase  to  dispose  as  occasion  shall  serve :  in  which  tilings 
your  wisdoms  and  discretions  are  to  be  used,  and  shewed,  and  the  contents  of  this 
capitule  by  you  much  to  be  pondered,  for  that  you  be  not  ignorant  hcv  many  persons, 
as  well  as  the  king's  majesty,  the  lords  of  his  honourable  counsel,  this  whole  company, 
as  also  your  wives,  children,  kinsfolks,  allies,  friends,  and  familiars,  be  replenished 
in  their  hearts  with  ardent  desire  to  learn  and  know  your  estates,  ccmditions,  and  wel- 
fares, and  in  what  likelihood  you  be  in  to  obtain  this  notable  enterprize,  which  is 
hoped  no  less  to  succeed  to  you,  than  the  Orient  or  Occident  Indies  have  to  the  high 
benefit  of  the  emperor  and  kings  of  Portugal,  whose  subjects,  industries,  and  travels 
by  sea,  have  enriched  them,  by  those  lands  and  islands,  which  were  to  all  cosmogra- 
phers  and  other  writers  both  unknown,  and  also  by  appearances  of  reason  void  of  ex- 
perience thought  and  reputed  unhabitable,  for  extremities  of  heats  and  colds,  and  yet 
indeed,  tried,  most  rich,  peopled,  temperate,  and  so  commodious,  as  all  Europe  hath  not 
the  like. 

33.  Item,  no  conspiracies,  part-takings,  factions,  false  tales,  imtrue  reports,  which 
be  the  very  seeds  and  fruits  of  contention,  discord,  and  confusion,  by  evil  tongues, 
to  be  suffered,  but  the  same,  and  all  other  ungodliness,  be  chastened  charitably  with 
brotherly  love,  and  always  obedience  to  be  used  and  practised  by  all  persons  in  their 
degrees,  not  only  for  duty  and  conscience  sake  towards  God,  under  whose  mercifiil 
hand  navigants  above  all  other  creatures  naturally  be  most  nigh  and  vicine,  but  also 
for  prudent  and  worldly  policy,  and  public  weal,  considering  and  always  having  present 
in  your  minds,  that  you  be  all  one  most  royal  king's  subjects  and  n^urals,  with  daily 
remembrance  of  the  great  importance  of  the  voyage,  the  honour,  glory,  praise,  and 


...#?:, 


.*.. 


li. 


TO  THE  NORTHERN  PARTS  OP  RUSSFA  AKD  STOERIA.  f 

benefit,  that  depend  of  and  upon  the  same,  toward  the  conimon  wealth  of  this  noble 
realm,  tlx  advancement  of  you  the  travellers  therein,  your  wives,  and  children,  and 
30  to  endeavour  yourselves  as  that  you  may  satisfy  the  expectation  of  them,  who  at  their 
great  costs,  charges,  and  expences,  have  so  furnished  you  in  good  sort,  and  plenty  of 
all  necessaries,  as  the  like  was  never  in  any  realm  seen,  used,  or  known,  reauisitc  and 
needful  for  such  an  exploit,  which  is  most  likely  to  be  achieved  and  brought  to  good 
effect,  if  every  person  in  his  vocation  shall  cndeavoy  himself,  according  to  his  charge 
and  most  boundcn  duty :  praying  the  living  God  to  give  you  his  grace  to  accom][>lish 
your  charge  to  his  glory,  whose  merciful  hand  shall  prosper  your  voyage,  and  preserve 
you  from  all  dangers. 

In  witness  whereof  I,  Sebastian  Cabota,  governor  aforesaid,  to  these  present  ordinan* 
ces  have  subscribed  my  name,  and  put  my  seal,  the  day  and  year  above  written. 

THE  NAMES  OF  THE  TWT.LAE  COUNSELLORS  APPOINTED  IN  THIS  VOYAGE. 

1.  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  knight,  captain  general. 

2.  Richard  Chancelor,  captain  of  the  Edward  Bonaventurc,  and  pilot-general  of  the 
fleet. 

3.  George  Burton,  cape  merchant. 

4.  Master  Richard  Stafford,  minister. 

5.  Thomas  Langlie,  merchant. 

6.  James  Delahere,  gentleman. 

7.  William  Gcfferson,  master  of  the  Bona  Speranza  admiral. 

8.  Stephen  Burrough,  master  of  the  Edward  Bonaventure. 

9.  Cornelius  Durforth,  master  of  the  Confidentia. 

10.  Roger  Wilson, 

11.  John  Buckla 

12.  Richard  Ingram, 

The  copy  of  the  letters  missive,  which  the  right  noble  Prince  Edward  the  Sixth  sent  to 
the  kings,  princes,  and  other  potentates,  inhabiting  the  north-east  parts  of  the  world, 
toward  the  mighty  empire  of  Cathay  ;  at  such  time  as  sir  Hugh  IFilloughhy,  knight, 
and  Richard  Chancelor,  with  their  company,  attempted  their  voyage  thither  in  the 
year  of  Christ  1553,  and  the  seventh  and  last  year  of  his  reign. 

Edward  the  Sixth,  by  the  grace  of  God,  king  of  England,  France,  and  Ireland,. 
&c.  To  all  kings,  princes,  nilers,  judges,  and  governors  of  the  earth,  and  all  other 
having  any  excellent  dignity  on  die  same,  in  all  places  under  the  universal  heaven : 
peace,  tranquillity  and  honour,  be  unto  you,  and  your  lands  and  regions,  which  are  un- 
der  your  dominions,  and  to  every  of  you,  as  is  convenient. 

For  as  much  as  the  great  and  Almighty  God  hath  given  unto  mankind,  above  all 
other  liymg  creatures,  such  a  heart  an*'  desire,  that  every  man  desireth  to  join  friend- 
ship with  other,  to  love  and  be  loved,  also  to  g^ve  and  receive  mutual  benefits :  it 
is  therefore  the  duty  of  all  men,  according  to  their  power,  to  maintain  arid  increase 
this  de^re  in  every  man,  with  well  deserving  to  all  men  and  especially  to  shew  this 
good  affection  to  such  as,  being  moved  with  this  desire,  come  unto  them  from  far 
countries.  For  how  much  the  longer  voyage  they  have  attempted  for  this  intent,  so 
much  the  more  do  they  thereby  declare  timt  this  desire  hath  been  ardent  in  diem. 
Furthermore,  also,  the  examples  of  our  fathers  and  predecessors  do  invite  us  hereunto, 


1  uurronn, 
^ilson,     ^ 
kland,     > 
ngram,   ) 


masters'  mates. 


iii»tW!rr|fc.a»^gjii*fj-*Oyr/~IgT...   .aj.!-**— -■ 


l! 


9  VOYAGES  OF  S!tt  HUGH  WILLOUCMBY  AND  OTVfERS. 

forasmuch  as  they  have  ever  gently  and  lovingly  intreated  such  as  of  friendly  mind 
came  to  them,  as  well  from  countries  near  hand  as  far  remote,  commending  them- 
selves  to  their  jprotection.  And  if  it  be  right  and  equity  to  shew  such  humanity  toward 
all  men,  doubtless  the  same  ought  chiefly  to  be  shewn  to  merchants,  who,  wandering 
about  the  world,  search  both  the  land  and  the  sea,  to  carry  such  good  and  profitable 
tilings,  as  are  found  in  their  countries,  to  remote  regions  and  kingdoms,  and  again,  to 
bring  from  the  same  such  things  as  they  find  there,  commodious  for  their  own  coun- 
tries :  both  as  well  that  the  people,  to  whom  they  go,  may  not  be  destitute  of  such 
commodities  as  their  countries  bring  not  forth  to  them,  as  that  also  they  may  be  par- 
takers  of  such  thin^  whereof  they  abound.  For  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  greatly 
providing  for  mankmd,  would  not  that  all  things  should  be  found  in  one  agion,  to  the 
end  that  one  should  liave  need  of  another,  that  by  this  means  friendship  might  bf; 
established  among  all  men,  and  every  one  seek  to  gratify  all.  For  the  establishing  and 
furtherance  of  which  universal  amity,  certain  men  of  our  realm,  moved  hereunto  by 
the  said  desire,  have  instituted,  and  taken  upon  them  a  voyage  by  sea  into  far  countries, 
to  the  intent,  that  between  pur  people  and  them  s^  way  may  be  opened,  to  bring  in 
and  carry  out  merchandises,  desiring  us  to  further  their  enterprize.  Who,  assenung  to 
their  petition,  have  licensed  the  right  valiant  and  worthy  sir  Hugh  Willoughby, 
knight,  and  other  our  trusty  and  faiUiful  servants,  wWch  are  with  him,  according  to 
their  desire,  to  go  to  countries  to  them  heretofore  unknown,  as  well  to  seek  such 
things  as  we  lack,  as  also  to  carry  unto  them  from  our  re^ons  such  things  as  they 
lack.  So  that  hereby  not  only  commodity  may  ensue  both  to  them  and  us,  but  also 
an  undissoluble  and  perpetual  league  of  friendship  be  established  between  us  both, 
while  they  permit  us  to  take  of  their  things  such,  whereof  they  have  abundance  in 
their  regions,  and  we  ag^n  grant  them  such  things  of  ours,  whereof  they  are  destitute. 
We  therefore  desire  you  kings  and  princes,  and  all  other  to  whom  there  is  any  power 
on  the  earth,  to  permit  unto  these  our  servants  free  passage  by  your  regions  and  do- 
minions :  for  they  shall  not  touch  any  thing  of  youra  unwilling  unto  vou.  Consider 
you  that  they  also  are  men.  If,  therefore,  they  shall  stand  in  need  of  any  thing,  we 
desire  you  of  all  humanity,  and  for  the  nobility  which  is  in  you,  to  aid  and  help  them 
with  such  things  as  they  lack,  receiving  agun  of  them  such  things  as  they  shall  be  able 
to  give  you  in  r^compence.  Shew  yourselves  so  towards  them,  as  you  would  that  we 
and  our  subjects  should  shew  ourselves  towards  your  servants,  if  at  any  time  they  shall 
pass  by  our  regions. 

Thus  doing,  we  promise  you,  by  the  God  of  all  things  that  are  contained  in  heaven, 
earth,  and  the  sea,  and  by  the  life  and  tranquillity  of  our  kingdoms,  that  we  will  with 
like  humanity  accept  your  servants,  if  at  any  time  they  shall  come  to  our  kingdoms, 
where  they  shall  as  friendly  and  gently  be  entertained,  as  if  they  were  bom  in  our 
dominions,  that  we  may  hereby  recompence  the  favour  and  benignity  which  you  have 
shewed  to  our  men.  Thus,  after  we  have  desired  you  kings  and  princes,  &c.  with  all 
humanity  and  favour  to  entertain  our  well-beloved  servants,  we  will  pray  our  Al- 
mighty God  to  grant  you  long  life  and  peace,  which  never  shall  have  end.  Written 
in  London,  which  is  the  chief  city  of  our  kingdom,  in  the  year  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  5515,  in  the  month  of  Jiar,*  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month,  and  seventh  year  of 
our  reign. 

*  Hakluyt  supposes  this  to  be  the  Saracen  name  of  February.  In  the  geography  of  these  times,  the 
ravages  of  the  north  of  Europe  were  supposed  to  be  Saracens.  This  letter  is  translated  by  Uakluyt  from 
the  Latin,  and  he  adds,  that  it  was  likewise  written  in  Greek  and  other  languages.  '~r 


■--na 


TO  TUF,  NORTFIF.IIX  PARTS  OF  RUSSIA  AND  SinRIilA. 


<J 


The  true  copy  of  a  note  found  written  in  one  of  the  two  ships,  to  wit,  the  Speranza, 
which  wintered  in  Lappia,  where  sir  Hugh  fVilioughby  and  all  his  company  died, 
being  frozen  to  death,  anno  1553. 

The  voyage  intended  for  the  discovery  of  Cathay,  and  divers  otlier  regions,  domi. 
nions,  islands  and  places  unknown,  set  forth  by  the  right  worshipful  master  Sebastian 
Cabota,  esquire,  and  governor  of  the  mystery  and  compiiny  of  the  merchants  adventur- 
ers of  the  city  of  London  :  which  fleet,  being  furnished,  did  set  forth  the  tenth  day  of 
May,  1553,  and  in  the  seventh  year  of  our  most  dread  sovereign  lord  and  king,  Edward 
the  Sixth. 

The  names  of  the  ships  of  the  fleet,  and  of  their  burden,  together  with  the  names  of  the 
captains,  and  counsellors,  pilot-major,  masters  of  the  ships,  merchants^ith  other 
officers,  and  mariners,  as  nereafter  followeth. 

THE  BONA  ESPBRANZA,  ADMIRAL  OF  THE  FLEF-T,  OP  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY  TONS,  HAV- 

ING  WITH  HER  A  '^•NNACE  AND  A  UOAT. 

Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  knight,  captain-general  of  the  fleet. 
William  Gefferson,  master  of  the  ship. 
Roger  Wilson,  hb  mate. 

Wflliam  Gittons,  Charles  Barrett,  Gabriel  Willoughby,  John  Andrews,  Alexander 
Woodfoord,  Ralph  Chatterton,  merchants. 

MARINERS  AND  OFFICERS,  ACCORDING  TO  THE  USE  AND  CUSTOM  OF  THE  SEAS. 

John  Brooke,  master  gunner. 

Nicholas  Anthony,  boatswain. 

John  Web,  his  mate. 

Christopher  Banbrucke,  Thomas  Davison,  Robert  Rosse,  Thomas  Simpson,  quarter 
masters. 

William  White,  James  Smith,  Thomas  Painter,  John  Smith,  Uieir  mates. 

l^chard  Gwinne,  Geoi^  Goiswine,  carpenters.  .    < 

Robert  Gwinne,  purser. 

Laurence  Edwards,  his  mate  and  cooper. 

Richard  Morgan,  cook. 

Thomas  Nashe,  his  mate. 

William  Light,  John  Brande,  Cuthbert  Chelsie,  George  Blage,  Thomas  Walker, 
Thomas  Allen,  Edward  Smith,  Edward  Hunt,  John  Fawkner,  Rowland  Brooke. 

Alexander  Gardiner,  Richard  Molton,  Surgeons,  which  two  were  taken  in  at  Harwich. 

Disch^i^d  at  Harwich,  by  reason  of  sackness,  George  Blake,  Nicholas  Anthony. 

For  pickerie,  ducked  at  the  yard's  arm,  and  so  discharged,  Thomas  Nashe. 

TUB  EDWABD  BONAVBNTUBE,  OF  ONE  HUNDRRD  AMD  SIXTY  TONS,  WITH  HBR  A  PINNACE  AND  A  BOAT. 

Richard  Chancelor,  captain  and  pilot-major  of  the  fleet.  ^ 
Stephen  Burrough,  master  of  the  ship.  ;/.•.. 

John  Buckland,  his  mate.  .   , .. 

Ckorge  Burton,  Arthur  Edwards,  merchants. 
John  Stafford,  minister. 

James  Dallaber,  Nicholas  Newborrow,  John  Segswike,  Thomas  Francis,  John  Hasse, 
lUchard  Johnscm,  William  Kempe. 

VOL.  I.  c 


10 


VOYACIES  OF  SIR  IIVGII  WII-LOUGUBY  AMD  OTHERS, 
MARINERS  AND  OFFICERS,  ACCORDING  TO  TIIF.  USE  AND  CUSTOM  OF  THE  SEAS. 


Robert  Stanton,  master  gunner. 

John  Walker,  his  mate. 

James  Long,  John  Cocks,  gunners. 

Thomas  Walter,  surgeon. 

Peter  Palmer,  boatswain. 

Richard  Strowde,  his  mate. 

John  Robinson,  John  Carowe,  Thomas  Stone,  Roger  Lishbie,  quarter  masters. 

John  Austen,  stewi\rd,  Patrick  Stevens,  his  mate. 

Austen  Jacks,  cook. 

William  Every,  cooper. 

Griffin  Wagham,  carpenter. 

Thomas  Stelston,  Thomas  Townes,  John  Robinson,  John  White,  William  Laurence, 
Miles  Butter,  John  Browne,  William  Morren,  William  Watson,  'I'homas  Handcocks, 
Edward  Pacie,  Thomas  Browne,  Arthur  Pet,  George  Philiarie,  Edward  Paterson,  Wil- 
liam Bear€,  John  Potter,  Nicholas  Lawrence,  William  Burrough,  Roger  Welford,  John 
Williams. 

THE  nONA  CONFroENTIA  OF  NINETY  TONS,  HAVING  WITH  HER  A  PINNACE  AND  A  BOAT. 

Cornelius  Durfoorth,  master  of  the  ship. 
■  Richard  Ingram,  his  mate. 
Thomas  Langlie,  Edward  Kever,  Henry  Dorset,  merchants. 

MARINERS  AND  OFFICERS,  ACCORDING  TO  THE  USB  AND  CUSTOM  OF  THE  SEAS. 

Henry  Tailer,  master  gunner. 

George  Thurland,  his  mate. 

William  Hamane,  boatswain. 

John  Edwards,  his  mate. 

Thomas  Kirbie,  Henry  Dickenson,  John  Haye,  William  Shepwash,  quarter  masters. 
"  John  Reyne,  steward. 

Thomas  Haute,  cook,  William  Lassie,  his  mate. 

Nicholas  Knight,  carpenter.  '  '.        ^ 

Peter  Lewike,  Nicholas  Wiggleworth,  John  Moore,  William  Chapman,  Brian  Ches. 
ter,  William  Barrie,  Richard  Wood,  Clement  Gibson,  John  Clarecke,  Erasmus  Bent- 
ley,  John  Duriforth. 

THE  JURAMENTUM,  OR  OATH,  IkHNISTERED  TO  THE  CAPTAIN.  ? 

You  sliall  swear  to  be  a  faithful,  true,  and  loyal  subject,  in  all  points  and  duties  that 
to  a  subject  appertaincth,  to  our  sovereie:n  lord  the  king's  majesty,  his  heirs,  and  suc- 
cessors :  and  that  you  shall  well  and  truly,  to  the  uttermost  of  your  capacity,  wit,  and 
knowledge,  serve  this  present  voyage,  committed  to  your  charge,  and  not  to  give  up, 
nor  sooner  intermit  the  same,  until  you  shall  have  achieved  the  same,  so  far  forth  as 
you  may  without  danger  of  your  life,  and  loss  of  the  fleet :  you  shall  give  good,  true, 
and  faithful  counsel  to  the  said  society,  and  to  such  as  shall  have  the  charge  with  or 
under  you,  and  not  to  disclose  the  secrets,  or  privities,  of  the  same  to  any  per- 
son, by  any  manner  of  mean,  to  the  prejudice,  hurt,  or  damage  of  it.  You  shall 
minister  justice  to  all  men  under  your  charge,  without  resjiect  of  person,  or  any  af- 
fection, that  nught  move  you  to  decline  fixjm  the  true  ministration  of  jusdce.  And 
further,  you  shall  obseirve,  and  cause  to  be  observed,  as  much  as  in  you  lieth,  all  and 
singular  rules,  articles,  provisions  hitherto  made,  or  hereafter  to  be  made,  for  the  pre- 


TO  TUB  NOHTMKHN  PARTS  OF  HUSSIA  AND  SIDEItlA. 


11 


pence, 

ocks, 

Wil- 

,  John 


AT. 


asters. 


Ches. 
Bent- 


es  that 
d  suc- 
it,  and 
I'e  up, 
)rth  as 
,  true, 
irith  or 

y  Per- 
a  shall 
my  af- 
And 
all  and 
le  pre- 


scrvation  or  safe  conduct  of  the  fleet  and  voyage,  and  benefit  of  the  company. 
You  shall  not  permit  nor  suffer  the  stock  or  goods  of  the  company  to  be  wasted,  em- 
bezzled, or  consumed,  but  shall  conserve  the  same  whole  and  entire,  without  diminish- 
ment,  until  you  shall  have  delivered  or  cause  to  be  delivea'd  the  same,  to  the  use  of  the 
company.  And  finallVi  you  shall  use  yourself  in  all  points,  sorts,  and  conditions,  as  to 
a  faithful  captain  and  brother  of  this  company  shall  belong  and  appertain :  so  help  yon 
Gud,  &c. 

THE  OATH  MINISTERED  10  THE  MASTER  OF  THE  SHII',  Sec. 

You  shall  swear,  by  the  holy  contents  in  that  book,  that  you,  according  and  to  the 
uttermost  of  your  knowledge,  and  good  understanding  in  mariner's  science  and  craft, 
shall  in  your  vocation  do  your  best  to  conduct  the  good  ship  called  the  N.  &c.  whcrcof 
you  now  lu-e  master,  under  God,  both  unto  and  from  the  ports  of  your  discovery ,  and 
so  use  your  endeavour  and  faithful  diligence,  in  charging,  discharging,  lading  again, 
and  rooma^ng  of  the  same  ship,  iis  may  be  most  for  the  benefit  and  profit  of  this  right 
worshipful  fellowship :  and  you  shall  not  privately  bargain,  buy,  sell,  exchange,  barter, 
or  distribute  any  goods,  wares,  merchandise,  or  things  whatsoever  (necessary  tackles 
and  victuals  for  the  ship  only  excepted)  to  or  for  your  own  lucre,  gain,  or  profit, 
neither  to  nor  for  the  private  lucre,  gain,  or  profit  of  any  other  person  or  persons  what- 
soever. And  further,  if  you  shall  know  any  boatswain,  mariner,  or  any  other  person  or 
persons  whatsoever,  to  buy,  sell,  barter,  truck,  or  exchange  any  goods,  wiu-es,  mer- 
chandises or  things,  for  private  account,  reckoning,  or  behalf,  you  shall  do  your  best  to 
withstand  and  let  the  same  :  and  if  you  cannot  commodiously  so  do,  that  then,  before 
the  discharge  of  such  goods  bought  for  private  account,  you  shall  give  knowledge 
thereof  to  the  cape  merchant  of  this  said  fellowship  for  the  time  being.  And  you  shall 
not  receive  nor  take,  nor  suffer  to  be  received  or  uiken  into  your  said  ship,  during  this 
voyage,  any  manner  of  person  or  persons  whatsoever,  going  or  returning,  but  only  those 
mariners,  which  without  fraud  or  guile  shall  be  hired  to  be  of  your  company,  and  to 
serve  in  mariners'  craft  and  science  only :  So  help  you  God,  &c. 

These  foresaid  ships  being  fully  furnished  with  their  pinnaces  and  boats,  well  ap- 
pointed with  all  manner  of  artillery,  and  other  things  necessary  for  their  defence,  with 
all  the  men  aforesaid,  departed  from  Ratcliffe,  and  valed  unto  Deptford  the  tenth  day  of 
May,  1553. 

The  eleventh  day,  about  two  of  the  clock,  we  dep"xted  firom  Deptford,  passing  by 
Greenwich,  saluting  the  king's  majesty,  then  Ixing  there,  shooting  off  our  ordnance, 
and  so  valed  unto  Blackwall,  and  tnere  remained  until  the  seventeenth  day,  and  that 
day  in  the  morning  we  went  from  Blackwall,  and  came  to  Woolwich  by  nine  of  the 
clock,  and  there  remained  one  tide,  and  so  the  same  night  unto  Heyreth. 

The  eighteenth  day  from  Heyreth  unto  Gravesend,  and  there  remained  until  the 
twentieth  day :  that  day  being  Saturday,  from  Gravesend  unto  Tilbury  Hope,  remain- 
ing there  until  the  two  and  twentieth  day.  m  •    > 

The  t^venty-second  day  from  Tilbury  Hope  to  HoUie  Haven. 

The  twenty-third  day  from  Hollie  Haven,  till  we  came  against  Lee,  and  there  remained 
that  night,  by  reason  that  the  whid  was  contrary  to  us. 

The  twenty-fourth  day,  the  wind  being  in  the  S.  W.  in  the  morning,  we  sailed  along 
the  coast  over  the  Spits,  until  we  came  against  St.  O^yth,  about  six  of  the  clock  at 
night,  and  there  came  to  anchor,  and  abode  there  all  that  night. 


if 


I 


19 


V0TA0R9  OP  SIR  HUOff  WILLOUOHDY  AND  OTlIEnS, 


The  twenty-fifth  day,  about  ten  of  the  clock,  we  departed  from  St.  Osyth,  and  so  sail- 
ed forward  unto  the  Niise,  and  there  abode  that  night  for  wind  and  tide. 

Tile  twenty-sixth  day,  at  five  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  we  weighed  our  anchor, 
and  sailed  over  the  Nase,  the  wind  being  at  the  S.  W.  until  we  came  to  Orwell  Wands, 
and  there  came  to  an  anchor,  and  abode  there  until  the  twenty-eighth  day. 

The  same  day  being  Trinity  Sunday,  al)out  seven  of  the  clock  before  noon  we 
weighed  our  anchors,  and  sailed  till  we  came  athwart  Walsursyc,  and  there  came  to  an 
anchor. 

The  twenty-ninth  day  from  thence  to  Holmehead,  where  we  stayed  that  day,  where 
we  consulted  which  way  and  what  courses  were  best  to  be  holden,  for  the  discovery  of 
our  voyage,  and  there  agreed. 

The  thirtieth  day  of  May,  at  five  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  we  set  sail,  and  came 
against  Permouth,  about  tnree  leagues  into  the  sea,  riding  there  at  anchor  all  that  night. 

The  last  of  May  into  the  sea  six  leagues  N.  £.  and  'lere  tarried  Uiat  night,  where 
the  wind  blew  very  sore. 

The  first  of  June,  the  wind  being  at  north,  contrary  to  us,  we  came  back  again  to 
Orwell,  and  remained  there  until  the  fifteenth  day,  tarrying  for  the  wind,  for  all  this 
time  the  wind  was  contrary  to  our  purpose. 

The  fifteenth  day,  being  at  Orwell,  in  the  latitude  of  fifty-two  degrees,,  in  the  morning 
we  weighed  our  anchors,  and  went  forth  into  the  Wands,  about  two  miles  from  the 
town,  and  lay  there  that  night. 

The  sixteenth  day,  at  eight  of  the  clock,  we  set  forward,  and  sailed  until  we  came 
athwart  Alburrough,  and  there  stayed  that  night. 

The  seventeenth  dav ,  about  five  of  the  clock  before  noon,  we  went  back  unto  Orfoid- 
nesse,  and  there  remained  until  the  nineteenth  day. 

The  nineteenth  day,  at  eight  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  we  went  back  to  Orwell, 
and  abode  there  three  days,  tarrying  for  the  wind. 

The  twenty-third  day  of  June,  the  wind  being  fair  in  the  S.  W.  we  hailed  into  the  seas 
to  Orfordnesse,  and  from  thence  into  the  seas  ten  leagues  N.  E.  then  being  past  the 
sands,  we  changed  our  course  six  leagues  N.  N.  £.  about  midnight  we  changed  our 
course  again,  and  went  due  N.  continuing  in  the  same  unto  the  twenty-seventh  day. 

The  twenty-seventh  day,  about  seven  of  the  clock,  N.  N.  W.  forty-two  leagues,  to 
the  end  to  fall  with  Shetland :  then  the  wind  veered  to  the  W.  so  that  we  cotild  lie  but 
N.  and  by  W.  continuing  in  the  same  course  forty  leagues,  whereby  we  could  not  fetch 
Shotland :  then  we  sailed  N.  sixteen  leagues  by  estimation,  after  that  N.  and  by  W.  and 
N.  N.  W.  then  S.  E.  with  divers  other  courses,  traversing  and  tracing  the  seas,  by  rea- 
son of  sundry  and  manifold  contrary  winds,  until  the  fourteenth  day  of  July :  and  then 
the  sun  entering  into  Leo,  we  discovered  land  eastward  of  us,  unto  the  which  we  sailed 
that  night  as  much  as  we  might :  and  after  we  went  on  shore  with  our  jiinnace,  and  found 
little  houses  to  the  number  of  thirty,  where  we  knew  tliat  it  was  inhabited,  but  the  peo- 
ple were  fled  away,  as  we  judged,  for  fear  of  us. 

The  land  was  all  full  of  little  islands,  and  that  innumerable,  which  were  called  (as 
we  learned  afterwards)  iEgeland,  and  Halgeland,  which  lieth  from  Orfordnesse  N.  and 
by  E.  being  in  the  latitude  of  sixty-six  degrees.*  The  distance  between  Orfordnesse 
and  ^geland  two  hundred  and  fifty  leagues.  Then  we  sailed  fi"om  thence  twelve  leagues 
N.  W.  and  found  many  other  islands,  and  there  came  to  anchor  the  luneteenth  day,  and 

*  In  fact  between  fifty-four  and  fifty-five  degrees. 


i-vi' 


'71*^!,'  ■  ,1.- 


TO  THE  NORTIIKRN  TARTS  OF  RUSSIA  ANU  SIDKRIA. 


l;i 


t 


manned  our  pinnace,  and  went  on  shore  to  the  islands,  and  found  tKoplc  mowinj^ 
and  making  of  hay,  which  came  to  the  shore  and  welcomed  us.  In  which  place  were 
an  innumerable  sort  of  islands,  which  were  called  the  Isles  of  Rost,  being  imucr  the  do 
minion  of  the  king  of  Denmark  :  which  place  was  in  lat'tude  sixty*six  degrees,  and 
tliirty  minutes.  The  wind  being  contrary,  we  remained  there  three  days,  and  tlierc  was 
an  innumerable  sort  of  fowls  of  clivers  kinds,  of  which  we  took  very  many. 

The  twenty-second  day,  the  wind  coming  fair,  we  departed  from  Rost,  sailing  N.  N. 
E.  keeping  the  sea  until  the  twenty-seveiuh  day,  and  then  we  drew  near  unto  the  land, 
which  was  still  E.  of  us ;  then  went  forth  our  pinnace  to  seek  harbour,  and  found  mam- 
good  harbours,  of  the  wliich  we  entered  into  one  with  our  ships,  which  was  called  Stan- 
few,  and  the  land  lieing  islands,  were  called  Lewfoot,  or  Lofoot,*  which  were  plentifully 
inhabited,  and  very  gentle  people,  being  also  under  the  king  of  Denmark  ;  but  we  could 
not  learn  how  far  it  was  from  the  main  land :  and  we  remained  there  until  the  thirtieth  day, 
being  in  latitude  sixty-eight  degrees,  and  from  the  aforesaid  Rost  about  thirty  leagues 
N.  N.  E. 

The  thirtieth  day  of  July  about  noon  we  weighed  our  anchors,  and  went  into  the  seas, 
and  sailed  along  these  islands  N.  N.  E.  keeping  the  land  still  in  sight  until  the  second  day 
of  August :  then  hailing  in  close  aboard  the  land,  to  the  intent  to  know  what  land  it  was, 
there  came  a  skiff  of  the  bland  aboard  of  us,  of  whom  we  asked  many  questions,  who 
she\ved  unto  us  that  the  island  was  called  Scynam,t  which  is  the  latitude  of  seventy  dc 
grees,  and  from  Staniew  thirty  leagues,  being  also  under  the  king  of  Denmark  ;  and  that 
there  was  no  merchandise  there,  but  only  dried  fish  and  train  oil.  Then  we,  being  purpos- 
ed to  go  unto  Finmark,  inquired  of  him  if  we  might  have  a  pilot  to  bring  us  unto  Fin* 
mark :  and  he  said,  that  if  we  could  bear  in,  we  should  have  a  good  harbour,  and  on  the 
next  day  a  pilot  to  bring  us  to  Finmark,  unto  the  Wardhousc,  which  is  the  strongest  hold 
in  Finmark,  and  most  resorted  to  by  report.  But  when  we  would  have  entered  into  an 
harbour,  the  land  being  very  high  on  eveiy  side,  there  came  such  flaws  of  wind  and  ter. 
rible  whirlwinds,  that  we  were  not  able  to  bear  in,  but  by  violerce  were  eon  >irained  to  take 
the  sea  again,  our  pinnace  being  unshipped :  we  sailed  N.  and  by  E.  the  wind  increasing 
so  sore  that  we  were  not  able  to  bear  any  sail,  but  took  them  in,  and  lay  adrift,  to  the  end 
to  let  the  storm  overpass.  And  that  night,  by  violence  of  wind  and  thickness  of  mists, 
we  were  not  able  to  keep  together  within  sight,  and  then  about  midnight  we  lost  our  pin- 
nace,  which  was  a  discomfort  unto  us.  As  soon  as  it  was  day,  and  the  fog  overpast,  we 
looked  about,  and  at  the  last  we  descried  one  of  our  ships  to  leeward  of  us  ;  then  we 
spread  an  huilock  of  our  foresail,  and  bare  room  with  her,  which  was  the  Confidence,  but 
the  Edward  we  could  not  see.  Then  the  flaw  somediing  abating,  we  imd  the  Confidence 
hoisted  up  our  sajls  the  fourth  day,  sailing  N.  E.  and  by  N.  to  the  end  to  fall  with  the  Ward- 
house,  as  we  did  consult  to  do  before,  in  case  we  should  part  company.  Thus  running 
N.  £.  and  by  N.  and  N.  E.  fifty  leagues,  then  we  sounded,  and  had  one  hundred  and  ty 
&thoms,  whereby  we  thought  to  be  far  from  land,  and  perceived  that  the  land  lay  not  as 
the  globe  made  niention.  Wherefore  we  changed  our  course  the  sixth  day,  and  sailed 
S.  E.  and  by  S.  eight-and-forty  leagues,  thinking  thereby  to  find  the  Wa;-dhouse. 

The  eighth  day,  much  wind  rising  at  the  W.  N.  W.  we,  not  knowing  how  the  coast  lay, 
struck  our  s^s,  and  lay  adrift,  where  we  sounded,  and  found  one  hundred  and  sixty 
fathoms  as  afore. 

The  ninth  day,  the  wind  veering  to  the  S.  S.  E.  we  sailed  N.  £.  twenty-five  leagues; 


Loflfoden. 


4  Setijan. 


11 


u 


VOYAGES  OP  SIR  IIUOII  WILLOlCimV  AND  OTIIEnS. 


The  tenth  day  we  sounded,  and  could  get  no  ground,  neither  yet  could  see  any  land, 
whereat  we  wondered' ;  then  the  wind  coming  at  the  N.  E.  we  ran  S.  E.  about  forty, 
eight  leagues. 

The  eleventh  day,  the  wind  being  at  S.  we  sounded,  and  found  forty  fathoms  and 
fair  sand. 

The  twelfth  day,  the  wind  being  at  S.  and  by  E.  we  lay  with  our  sail  £.  and  E.  and 
by  N.  thirty  leagues. 

The  fourteenth  day,  early  in  the  morning,  we  descried  land,  which  land  we  bare  with 
idl,  hoisting  out  our  boat  to  discover  what  land  it  might  be :  but  the  Iwat  could  not 
come  to  land  the  water  was  so  shoal,  where  was  very  much  ice  also,  but  there  was  no 
similitude  of  habitation,  and  t  s  land  lieth  from  Seynam  E.  and  by  N.  one  hundred  and 
sixty  leagues,  being  in  latitude  seventy-two  degrees.  Then  we  plied  to  the  northward 
the  fifteenth,  sixteentli,  and  seventeenth  day. 

The  eighteenth  day,  the  wind  coming  at  the  N.  E.  and  the  Confidence  being  troubled 
with  bilge  water,  luid  stocked,  we  thought  it  good  to  seek  harbour  for  her  redress :  then 
wc  bare  room  the  eighteenth  day  S.  S.  E.  about  seventy  leagues. 

The  twenty-first  day  we  sounded,  and  found  ten  fathom,  after  that  we  sounded  again, 
and  found  but  seven  fathom,  so  shallower  and  shallower  water,  and  yet  could  see  no 
land,  where  we  mar  \  died  greatly :  to  avoid  this  danger,  we  bare  roomer  into  the  sea  all 
that  night  N.  W.  and  by  W. 

The  next  day  we  sounded,  and  had  twenty  fathoms,  then  shaped  our  course,  and  raa 
W.  S.  W.  until  the  twenty-third  day  :  then  we  descried  low  land,  unto  which  we  bare  as 
nigh  as  we  could,  and  it  appeared  unto  us  unhabitable.  Then  we  plied  westward  along 
by  that  land,  which  lieth  W.  S.  W.  and  E.  N.  E.  at>dmuch  wind  blowing  at  the  W.  we 
haled  into  the  sea  N.  and  by  F..  thirty  leagues.  Then  the  wind  coming  about  at  the  N. 
E.  wc  sailed  W.  N.  W.  after  that,  the  wind  bearing  to  tlie  N.  W.  we  lay  with  our  sails 
W.  S.  W.  about  fourteen  leagues,  and  then  descried  land,  and  bare  in  with  it,  being  the 
twenty-eighth  day,  finding  shoal  water,  and  bare  in  till  we  came  to  three  fathom,  then  per« 
ceiving  it  to  be  shoal  water,  and  also  seeing  dry  sands,  we  haled  out  again  N.  E.  along 
that  land,  until  we  came  to  the  point  thereof.  That  land  turning  to  the  westward,  we  ran 
along  sixteen  leagues  N.  W.  then  coming  into  a  fair  bay,  we  went  on  land  with  our  boat, 
which  place  was  unhabited,  but  yet  it  appeared  unto  us  that  the  people  had  been  there, 
by  cross(;s  and  other  signs  :  from  thence  we  went  all  along  the  coast  westward. 

The  fourth  day  of  September  we  lost  sight  of  land,  by  reason  of  contrary  winds,  and 
the  eighth  day  we  descried  land  again.  Within  two  days  afler  we  lost  the  sight  of  it : 
then  running  W.  and  by  S.  about  thirty  leagues,  we  got  the  sight  of  land  again,  and 
bare  in  with  it  until  night :  then  perceiving  it  to  be  a  lee  shore,  we  got  us  into  the  sea,  to 
the  end  to  liave  sea  room. 

The  twelfth  of  September  we  haled  to  shoreward  again,  having  then  indiflPerent  wind 
and  weather :  then  being  near  unto  the  shore,  and  the  tide  almost  spent,  we  came  to  an 
anchor  in  thirty  fathoms  water. 

The  thirteenth  day,  we  came  along  the  coast  which  lay  N.  W.  and  by  W.  and  S.  E. 
and  by  E. 

The  fourteenth  day  we  came  to  an  anchor  within  two  leagues  of  the  shore,  having 
sixty  fathoms. 

There  we  went  ashore  with  our  boat,  and  found  two  or  three  good  harbours,  the  land 
being  rocky  and  high,  but  as  for  people  we  could  see  none.  The  fifteenth  day  we  ran 
still  along  the  coast,  until  the  seventeenth  day :  then  the  wind  being  contrary  unto  us, 


M  ' 


TO  THE  NOIiTIIKUN  I'AHTH  OK  HI  »MIA  AND  hlHKRIA 


15 


wc  thought  It  best  to  return  unto  the  hurbour  which  we  had  found  before,  and  so  wc 
bare  roomer  with  the  same,  howlxit  we  could  not  accomplisli  our  desire  that  day.  The 
next  day,  Ixing  the  eighteenth  of  SepUmber,  wc  entered  uUo  the  haven,  and  there  came 
to  an  anchor  at  six  fathoms.  This  haven  runneth  into  the  main,  about  two  leagues, 
and  is  in  breadth  half  a.  league,  wherein  were  very  many  seal  fishes,  and  other  great  fishes, 
and  upon  die  main  wc  saw  Ixam,  great  deer,  foxes,  with  divers  strange  JK-asts,  as  jju- 
loines,*  and  such  oUier  which  were  to  us  unknown,  and  also  wonderful.  Thus  remaining 
in  this  luven  the  space  of  a  week,  seeing  the  year  far  six;nt,  and  also  very  evil  weather,  as 
frost,  snow,  and  hail,  as  though  it  had  been  the  deep  ot  winter,  we  tliought  licst  to  winter 
there.  Wherefore  wc  sent  out  three  men  S.  S.  W.  to  search  if  they  could  find  people,  who 
went  three  days  journey,  but  could  find  none  :  after  that  wc  sent  other  three  westward, 
four  days  journey,  wliich  also  returned  without  finding  any  people.  Then  sent  we  three 
men  S.  E.  three  davs  journey,  who  in  like  sort  returned  without  finding  of  people,  or 
any  similitude  of  habitation. 

These  two  notes  following  were  written  ujwn  the  outside  of  this  pamphlet  or  book. 

"  1.  The  proceedings  of  sir  Hugh  Willougliby,  after  he  was  separated  from  the  Ed- 
ward  Bonaventurc. 

"2.  Our  ship  being  at  an  anchor  in  the  harbour  culled  Sterfier,  in  the  island  Lofoote." 

The  river  or  haven,  wherein  sir  Hugli  Willougliby  with  the  company  of  his  two  ships 
perished  for  cold,  is  called  Arzina,  in  Lapland,  near  unto  Kegor.  But  it  appeareth  by 
a  will  found  in  the  ship,  that  sir  Hugh  Willoughby  and  most  of  the  company  were  alive 
in  January  1554. 

*  Hakluyt  add*  upon  the  margin,  or  elloru :  and  adds,  that  in  this  harb\  jr  they  died. 


>.-*>H 

.■ ,/»     '. 

fV  i' 

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, 

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1  i.-jti- 

Wu., 

r^^/*--- 

.'fit 

>«-« 

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■«(  ..>'(• 


JjS^;  .^•,- ^v^iatt-:-,'    J^iV.»   !    •^..'■*i4« 


».«  kl-jK'-!, 


~J'»*»« 


16 


VOYAf.FJ  OP  SIR  IIUOII  WK.LOUGIIBV  AND  OTRRH^ 


♦        i-^;.*    .' :.      tw 


The  Book  of  the  great  and  mighty  Emperor  qf  Jius-ua,  and  duke  (\f  Afnseovia,  and  of 
the  domiuions,  orders  ana  commodities  thereunto  belonging :  drawn  by  Richard 
Chancelor.  ■       ,  |     •    ••  •    ■  • 

FOR  UM  much  as  it  is  meet  and  necessary  for  all  those  that  mind  to  tnku  in  hand  the 
travel  into  Cur  or  strange  countries,  to  endeavour  themselves  not  only  to  understand 
the  orders,  commodities,  and  fruitfulness  thereof,  but  also  to  apply  them  to  the  setting 
forth  of  the  same,  whereby  it  may  encourage  others  to  the  like  tnwail :  therefore  hive 
I  now  thought  good  to  moke  a  brief  rehearsal  of  the  orders  of  this  my  travail  in  Uussia 
and  Moscoviu,  and  other  countries  thereunto  adjoining ;  lx:cause  it  was  my  chance  to 
fall  with  the  north  parts  of  Russia  Ijeforc  I  came  towards  Moscoviu,  I  will  partly  declare 
my  knowledge  therein.  Russia  is  very  plentiful  both  of  land  and  people,  and  also 
wealthy  for  such  commodities  as  they  have.  They  be  very  great  fisnen  for  salmons 
and  small  cods :  they  have  much  oil,  which  we  call  train  oil,  the  most  whereof  is  made 
by  a  river  called  Duina.  They  make  it  in  other  places,  but  not  so  much  as  there. 
They  have  also  u  great  trade  in  seething  of  salt  water.  To  the  north  part  of  that  country 
are  the  places  where  they  have  their  furs ;  as  sables,  martems,  greesse  beavers,  foxes 
white,  black,  and  red ;  minks,  ermines,  miniver,  and  harts.  There  arc  also  a  fish's  teeth, 
which  fish  is  called  a  morsse.  The  takers  thereof  dwell  in  a  place  called  Postesora, 
which  bring  them  unon  harts  to  Lampas  to  sell,  and  from  Lampas  carry  them  to  a  place 
called  Colmogro,  where  the  high  market  is  holden  on  St.  Nicholas  day.  To  the  west 
of  Colmogro  there  is  a  place  called  Gratanove,  in  our  language  Novogorode,  where 
much  fine  flax  and  hemp  groweth,  and  also  much  wax  and  honey.  The  Dutch  mer. 
chants  have  a  staple  house  there.  There  is  also  great  store  of  hides,  and  at  a  place  called 
Flesco :  and  thereabouts  is  great  store  of  flax,  hemp,  wax,  honey  ;  and  that  town  is 
from  Colmogro  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles. 

There  is  a  place  called  Vologtla,  the  commodities  whereof  are  tallow,  wax,  and  flax  ' 
but  not  so  great  plenty  as  is  in  Gratanove.  From  Vologda  to  Colmogro  there  runneth 
a  river  called  Duina,  and  from  thence  it  falleth  into  the  sea.  Colmogro  serveth  Gra- 
tanove, Vologda,  and  the  Mosco,  with  all  the  country  thereabout,  with  salt  and  salt  fish. 
From  Vologoi  to  Jeraslave  is  two  hundred  miles ;  which  town  is  very  great :  the  com- 
modities thereof  are  hides,  and  tallow,  and  com  in  great  plenty,  and  some  wax,  but  not 
so  plentiful  as  in  other  places. 

The  Mosco  is  from  Jeraslave  two  hundred  miles.  The  country  betwixt  them  is  very 
well  replenished  with  small  villages,  which  are  so  well  filled  with  people,  that  it  is  wonder 
to  see  them :  the  ground  is  well  stored  with  com,  which  they  carry  to  the  city  of  Mosco 
in  such  abundance,  that  it  is  wonder  to  see  i;  You  shall  meet  in  a  morning  seven  or 
eight  hundred  sledges  coming  or  goin^  thither,  that  carry  com,  and  some  carry  fish. 
You  shall  have  some  that  carry  com  to  the  Mosco,  and  some  that  fetch  com  from  thence, 
that  at  the  least  dwell  a  thousand  miles  off*;  and  all  their  carriage  is  on  sledges.  Those 
which  come  so  far  dwell  in  the  north  parts  of  the  duke's  dominions,  where  the  cold 
will  suffer  no  com  to  grow,  it  is  so  extreme.  They  bring  ttuther  fishes,  furs,  and  beasts* 
skins.     In  those  parts  they  have  but  small  store  of  cattle. 

The  Mosco  itself  is  great :  I  take  the  whole  town  to  be  greater  than  London  with  the 
suburbs ;  but  it  is  very  mde,  and  standeth  without  all  or&r.  Their  houses  are  all  of 
timber,  very  dangerous  for  fire.    There  is  a  fair  castle,  the  walls  whereof  are  of  brick, 


fe*' 


i:^- 


^^.. 

^ 


TO  Till'.  NOitTIIKRN  PAIITN  OV  RiMMIA  AND  KIIU'.III  \.  |7 

and  very  high;  tlioy  say  tlvcy  arc  clghtiTti  fret  tliirk,  hut  I  do  not  hdicvc  it,  it  doth  not 
■o  bccm,  itotwitKstundiMK  I  do  not  cirtuinly  know  it ;  for  no  htrungvr  may  conu-  to  view 
k.  The  one  Mdc  is  ditched,  and  on  the  other  side  niimcth  a  river  called  MfMcua,  uhicK 
runneth  into  Turtur)',  and  so  into  the  Hca  called  Maa-  Caspium  :  and  on  the  north  side 
tlk-re  i(i  a  Uuie  town,  the  which  hath  also  a  brick  wall  ut)0ut  it,  and  vi  it  joincth  with  (lir 
cattle  wall.  The  emperor  lieth  in  the  caitUe,  wherein  na*  nine  fair  churches,  and  ilieaiu 
•re  religious  men.  Also  there  is  a  mctrr)politnn,  with  divcnt  bislvipii.  I  will  not  stand 
in  di'iicription  of  their  buiklings,  nor  of  tiie  strength  tlK-reof,  because  wc  Ivivc  Ix-ttcr  in 
all  points  in  England.     They  be  well  fumi.shed  widi  ordinance  of  all  soi  ts. 

The  emperor's  or  duke's  house,  neither  in  building,  nor  in  the  outward  shew,  nor  yet 
within  tlx:  house,  is  so  sumptuous  as  I  have  seen.  It  is  very  low  built  in  eight  srpnuv, 
niucli  like  the  old  building  of  Knglarul,  with  small  windows,  and  so  in  otln-r  |)oints. 

Now  to  declare  my  conung  before  his  nuijesty :  ai\er  I  luid  rcmiiined  twelve  da}'s, 
the  secretary  which  hath  the  hearing  of  strangers  did  send  for  me,  advertising  mc  that 
the  duke's  |ileasurc  was  to  have  me  to  come  before  his  majesty  with  the  kuig's  my 
master's  letters ;  whereof  I  was  right  glad,  aiul  so  I  gave  miiK*  attencLince.  And  when 
the  duke  was  in  his  place  appointed,  tlic  inteq)retcr  came  for  mc  into  the  outer  churi- 
ber,  where  sat  one  hundred  or  more  gentlemen,  all  in  cloth  of  gold,  very  sumptuous, 
IUkI  from  thence  I  came  into  the  council  chaml)er,  where  siU  the  duke  himself  with  his 
nobles,  which  were  a  fair  company  :  they  sat  round  about  the  chamlxr  on  high,  yet  so 
that  he  iiimaelf  sat  much  higher  than  any  of  his  nobles,  in  a  chair  gilt,  and  in  a  long 
garment  of  beaten  gold,  with  an  imperial  cmwn  upon  his  liead,  and  a  stalT  of  cr>'stal  and 
gold  in  hb  right  hand,  and  lus  other  hand  half  leaning  on  his  chair.  The  chancellor 
stood  up  with  the  aecretary  before  the  duke.  Ailer  my  duty  done,  and  my  letter  deli- 
vered, be  bade  me  welcome,  and  inquired  of  me  the  health  of  the  king  my  master ;  and 
I  answered  that  he  waa  in  good  health  at  my  departure  from  his  court,  and  that  my  trust 
was,  that  he  was  now  in  the  same.  Upon  the  which  he  bade  mc  to  dinner.  I'he  chan- 
cellor  presented  my  present  unto  his  grace  bareheaded  ^for  before  they  were  all  covered) 
and  wnen  his  grace  nod  received  my  letter,  I  waa  required  to  depart :  for  I  had  charge 
not  to  speak  to  the  duke,  but  when  he  spake  to  mc.  So  I  departed  unto  the  secretary's 
chamber,  where  I  remained  two  hours,  and  then  I  was  sent  for  again  unto  another  palace, 
wluch  b  called  the  golden  palace,  but  I  saw  no  cause  why  it  should  be  so  called ;  for  I 
have  seen  many  fairer  than  it  in  all  points  :  and  so  I  came  into  the  hall,  which  was  small 
and  not  great,  as  is  the  king's  majesty's  of  England,  and  the  table  was  covered  with  a 
table-cloth ;  and  the  marshall  sat  at  the  end  of  the  table  with  a  little  white  rod  in  his 
hand,  which  board  was  full  of  vessels  of  gold :  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  hall  did 
stand  a  fair  cupboard  of  plate.  From  thence  I  came  into  the  dining  chamber,  where 
the  duke  himself  sat  at  his  table  without  cloth  of  estate,  in  a  gown  of  silver,  with  a  crown 
imperial  on  his  head ;  he  sat  in  a  chair  somewhat  high :  there  sat  none  near  him  by  a 
great  wav.  There  were  long  tables  set  round  about  the  chamber,  which  were  ii.ll  set 
with  sucn  as  the  duke  had  at  dinner :  they  were  all  in  white.  Also  the  places  where 
the  tables  stood  were  higher  by  two  steps  than  the  rest  of  the  house.  In  the  midst  of 
the  chamber  stood  a  taUe  or  cupboard  to  set  plate  on ;  which  stood  full  of  cups  of  gold : 
and  amongst  all  the  rest  there  stood  four  marvellous  great  pots  or  crudences,  as  they 
call  them,  of  gold  and  silver :  I  think  they  were  a  good  yard  and  a  half  high.  By  the 
cupboard  stood  two  gentlemen  with  napkins  on  their  shoulders,  and  in  their  hands  each 
of  them  had  a  cup  of  gold  set  with  pearls  and  precious  stones,  which  were  the  duke's 
own  drinking-cupe :  when  he  was  disposed,  he  drank  them  off  at  a  draught    And  for 

vol.,  I.  o 


■I 


t 


t  I 


>l 


1   '    ' 

!  i 


:  ''I 


I 


iS 


%UYA(1KS  OP  SIH  IIKIH  WIl.l.OirniinT  AND  (rrilKM, 


his  ler  ice  nt  meat  it  came  in  without  ortlcr,  yet  it  wan  very  rich  service  :  for  ull  were 
served  in  {^oUl,  not  only  lie  hitnnclf,  hut  nino  all  tlu*  rc^t  of  us,  und  it  wiw  very  nmssy  : 
till"  ctipn  also  were  of  gt)UI,  and  very  massy.  The  number  Uut  dintd  there  timt  day  was 
two  hundred  |Knions,  and  ull  were  served  in  (folden  venseK.  The  (gentlemen  that  waited 
were  all  in  cloth  of  ((old,  and  they  served  hint  with  their  caps  on  their  hcuch.  Before 
the  service  came  in  the  duke  sent  to  every  man  u  great  shiver  of  bread,  and  the  l)earer 
called  the  party  so  sent  to  by  his  name  aloud,  and  said,  John  Kasiliuich,  emixror  of 
lluHsiu,  and  frreat  duke  of  Moseovia,  doth  rewatxl  thee  with  breail :  then  must  all  men 
stand  up,  ana  do  at  all  times  wIku  these  words  arc  stK)ken.  And  then  last  of  all  lie 
givcth  the  marshall  bread,  whereof  he  catcth  Ijcfore  the  duke's  grace,  and  so  doth  re- 
verence and  de()arteth.  Tlwn  comcth  tlic  duke's  service  of  the  swans,  all  in  pieces, 
and  every  one  in  a  several  dish  :  the  which  the  duke  sendeth  as  he  did  the  l)rcad,  and 
the  l)carcr  saith  the  same  wonis  as  he  said  before.  And  as  I  said  iH'fore,  the  service  of 
his  meat  is  in  no  order,  but  comcth  in  dish  by  dish  :  and  then  after  that  the  duke 
scncLth  drink,  with  the  like  sa^^ing  as  lK>foa*  is  told.  Also  lx;fore  dinner  he  changed  his 
crown,  and  in  dinner  time  two  crowns ;  so  that  I  saw  three  several  crowns  upiou  his 
head  in  one  day.  And  thus,  when  his  service  was  all  come  in,  he  gave  to  every  one  of 
his  gentlemen  waiters  meat  with  his  own  hand,  and  so  likewise  drink.  His  intent 
thereby  is,  as  I  have  heard,  that  every  man  shall  know  perfectly  his  servants.  Thus,  wlicn 
dinner  is  done,  he  calleth  his  nobles  before  him  name  by  name,  that  it  is  wonder  to  hear 
how  he  could  name  them,  having  so  many  as  he  hath.  Thus,  when  dinner  was  done,  I 
de|)arted  to  my  lodging,  which  was  an  hour  widiin  night,  I  will  leave  this,  and  six:alc 
no  more  of  him  nor  nis  household  :  but  I  will  somewhat  declare  of  his  land  and  |xx)ple, 
with  their  nature  and  power  in  the  wars.  This  duke  is  lord  and  emperor  of  many 
countries,  and  his  (Mwcr  is  marvellous  great ;  for  he  is  able  to  bring  into  the  field  two 
or  three  hundred  thousand  men  :  he  never  goeth  into  the  field  himself  with  under  two 
hundred  thousand  lAcn  :  and  when  he  goetn  himself  he  furnisheth  his  borders  all  with 
men  of  war,  which  are  no  small  number.  He  leaveth  on  the  borders  of  Liefliuid  forty 
thousand  men,  and  upon  the  borders  of  Letto  sixty  thousand  men,  and  toward  the  Na- 
gayan  Tartars  sixty  thousand,  which  is  wonder  to  hear  of:  yet  doth  he  never  take  to 
his  wars  neither  husbandmen  nor  mcrchimt.  All  his  men  are  horsemen :  he  useth  no 
footmen,  but  such  as  go  with  the  ordinance  and  labourers,  which  are  thirty  thousand. 
The  horsemen  arc  all  archers,  with  such  bows  as  the  Turks  have,  and  they  ride  short  as 
do  the  Turits.  Their  armour  is  a  coat  of  plate,  with  a  skull  on  their  heads.  Some  of 
their  coats  are  covered  with  velvet  or  cloth  of  gold ;  their  desire  is  to  be  sumptuous  in 
the  field,  and  especially  the  nobles  and  gentlemen :  as  I  have  heard,  their  trimming  is 
very  costly,  and  parUy  I  have  seen  it,  or  else  I  would  scarcely  have  believed  it :  but  the 
duke  himself  is  richly  attired  above  ull  measure ;  his  pavilion  is  covered  either  with 
cloth  of  gold  or  silver,  and  so  set  vr'iih  stones,  that  it  is  wonderful  to  see  it.  I  have  seen 
the  king's  majesty's  of  England,  and  the  French  king's  pavilions,  which  are  fair,  yet 
not  like  unto  hb.  And  when  they  be  sent  into  far  or  strange  countries,  or  that  strangers 
come  to  them,  they  be  very  gorgeous  :  else  the  duke  himself  goeth  but  meanly  in  ap- 
parel ;  and  when  he  goeth  betwixt  one  place  and  another,  he  is  but  reasonably  appa. 
reiled  over  other  times.  In  the  while  that  I  was  in  Mosco  the  duke  sent  two  ambassadors 
to  the  king  of  Poland,  which  had  at  the  least  five  hundred  horses ;  tlieir  sumptuousness 
was  above  measure,  not  only  in  themselves,  but  also  in  their  horses,  as  velvet,  cloth  of 
gold,  and  cloth  of  silver,  set  with  pearls,  and  not  scant.  What  shall  I  ilu-ther  say  ?  I 
never  hrxd  of  nor  saw  men  so  sumptuous ;  but  it  is  no  diiily  guise,  for  when  they  have 


VJx 


Y'^f;, 


....■•— I 


TO  THB  NORTIIRMM  PART*  Q¥  Rl'MU  ANU  MJH/.NIV' 


19 


not  orcAfiion,  as  I  nuid  iK'fijrt',  (ill  their  doiiin^  \h  hut  mean.  And  now  to  the  effect  of 
thi ir  warn :  tlwy  urr  nu n  witlioiil  all  (trtUr  in  the  fit-Ul ;  for  the y  nui  hurling  on  Iicuim, 
uiul  for  tlic  moHt  |mrt  tlu-y  never  give  buttle  to  their  cncnuc; ;  hut  that  which  tlnry  tlo, 
they  do  it  ull  hy  ittculth.  Hut  I  iKlicve  they  Ix:  itnch  men  lor  hard  livinir  uh  are  not 
under  the  Mm,  for  no  cold  will  hurt  tluin  :  yea,  and  thou(j;h  they  lie  in  tlu-  field  two 
niontliH,  at  such  time  at  it  aiiall  freeze  more  than  u  yard  thick,  the  cunmion  soldier  luih 
neither  tent  nor  any  thing  clue  over  his  hciui ;  the  monl  defence  they  Imvc  ugainut  tlu 
U'cutlier  iH  a  felt,  which  iH  Hct  against  the  wind  and  weather,  luul  witen  snuw  conieth  he 
doth  emt  it  oB',  and  maketh  him  a  fia*,  and  layeth  him  down  theahy.  Thus  do  tlu 
most  of  ull  his  men,  except  they  he  gentlemen,  which  have  other  provihiuu  of  their  own. 
Their  lying  in  the  lield  is  not  ho  Htrange  lus  in  their  hardine^ ;  for  every  man  must  carry 
and  malce  |)rovision  for  himHclf  and  his  horse  for  a  month  or  two,  which  is  very  won- 
detful.  For  he  him.srlf  nhall  live  u|)on  water  and  oatmeal  mingled  togi  tlur  cold,  and 
drink  water  thereto :  hiH  honte  Nbill  eat  ga*en  wood,  and  hucIi  like  haggage,  and  hhall 
btand  open  in  the  cold  field  without  covert,  and  yet  will  he  lahour  and  st  r\e  him  right 
well.  I  pray  you,  among  all  our  lx)usting  waiTioni,  how  many  hhould  we  find  to  endun 
the  field  with  them  hut  one  month.  I  know  no  such  region  ahout  us  that  iKareth  that 
name  for  man  and  Ix-'Uht.  Now  what  might  l)e  made  of  tliese  men,  if  Uiey  were  trained 
and  hmken  to  order  and  knuvvledge  of  civil  wani  ?  If  this  prince  had  within  hii  countries 
buch  men  att  could  make  them  to  understand  the  things  aforesiiid,  1  do  helicve  that  two 
of  the  best  or  greatest  princes  in  Christendom  were  not  well  ahU>  to  match  with  him, 
considering  the  greatness  of  his  power  uiul  the  hardiiK^sn  of  his  |K'ople,  and  strait  living 
both  of  people  and  horse,  and  the  small  charges  which  his  wars  stand  him  in  ;  for  he 
giveth  no  wages  except  to  strangers.  They  liuve  a  yearly  sti|K'nd,  and  not  much.  As 
for  his  own  countrymen,  every  one  scrveth  of  his  own  proper  costs  and  cluirges,  saving 
tliut  he  giveth  to  his  arcubussiers  certain  allowance  for  powder  and  shot,  or  else  no  man 
•  in  all  his  country  hath  one  penny  wages.  But  if  any  man  hath  done  very  good  service, 
he  giveth  him  a  fiirm  or  a  piece  of  land  ;  for  the  which  he  is  bound  at  all  times  to  Ix- 
ready  with  so  many  men  as  the  duke  shall  apfx^int ;  who  considetvlh  in  his  mind  what 
that  land  or  farm  is  well  able  to  find  :  and  so  many  shall  he  he  bound  to  furnish  at  ull 
and  every  such  time  as  wars  are  holden  in  any  of  die  duke's  dominions.  For  there  is  no 
man  of  living  but  he  is  bound  Ukewise,  whether  die  duke  call  for  either  soldier  or  la- 
bourer, to  furnish  them,  with  all  such  necessaries  as  to  them  belong. 

Also,  if  any  gentleman  or  man  of  living  do  die  without  issue  mule,  immediately  oAcr 

his  death  the  d'vke  entereth  his  land,  notwithstanding  he  Iiavc  never  so  many  daugh. 

•ters,  and  peradventure  giveth  it  forthwith  to  another  man,  except  a  small  portion  tnat 

he  spareth  to  many  the  daughters  withal.     Also,  if  there  be  a  rich  man,  a  fermour,  or 

man  of  living,  which  is  stricken  in  age,  or  by  chance  is  maimed,  and  be  not  able  to  do 

the  duke's  service,  some  other  gentkman  that  is  not  able  to  live,  and  more  able  to  do 

service,  will  come  to  the  duke  and  complain,  saying,  your  grace  hath  such  an  one, 

which  is  unmeet  to  do  service  to  your  highness,  who  hath  great  abundance  of  wealth, 

and  likewise  your  grace  hath  many  gentlemen  which  are  poor,  and  lack  living,  and  wc 

that  lack  are  \fe\\  able  to  do  good  service,  your  grace  might  do  well  to  look  upon  him, 

and  make  him  to  help  those  that  want.     Immediately  the  duke  sendeth  forth  to  inquire 

,  of  his  wealth ;  and  if  it  be  so  proved,  he  shall  be  called  before  the  duke,  and  it  shall 

r  be  said  unto  him,  friend,  you  have  too  much  living,  and  are  unserviceable  to  your 

'  prince ;  less  will  serve  you,  and  the  rest  will  serve  other  men  that  lu^e  more  able  to 

serve ;  whereupon  immediately  his  living  shall  be  taken  away  Irom  him^  saving  a  little 


RB 


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II  a 


I  I.** 


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ill', 


I'. 


i; 


20 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  HUGH  WtLLOUCIfBY  AND  OTimitS, 


to  find  himself  and  his  ^vife  on,  and  he  may  not  once  repine  thereat :  but  for  answer 
he  will  aay,  that  he  hath  nothing,  but  it  is  God's  and  the  duke's  grace's,  and  cannot 
say,  as  we  the  common  people  in  Kngland  say,  if  we  have  any  thing,  that  it  is  God's 
and  our  own,  Men  may  say  that  these  men  are  in  wonderful  great  awe,  and  obedi- 
ence, that  thus  one  must  give  and  grant  his  goods,  which  he  hath  been  scraping  and 
scratching  for  all  his  life,  to  be  at  his  prince's  pleasure  and  commandment.  Oh  that 
our  sturdy  rebels  were  had  in  the  like  subjection  to  know  their  duty  tovrards  their 
princes.  They  may  not  say,  as  some  knaves  m  England  say,  I  would  find  the  queen  a 
man  to  serve  in  my  place,  or  make  his  friends  tarry  at  home,  if  money  have  the  upper 
hand.  No,  no,  it  is  not  so  in  this  country  :  for  he  shall  make  humble  suit  to  serve  the 
duke.  And  whom  he  sendcth  most  to  the  wars,  he  thinketh  he  is  most  in  his  favour : 
and  yet,  as  I  before  have  said,  he  giveth  no  wages.  If  they  knew  their  strength,  no 
man  were  able  to  make  match  with  them  :  nor  they  that  dwell  near  tliem  should  have 
any  rest  of  them.  But  I  think  it  is  not  God's  will :  for  I  may  compare  them  to  a 
young  horse  that  knoweth  not  his  strength,  whom  a  little  child  ruleth  and  guideth  with  a 
bridle,  for  all  his  great  strength :  for  if  he  did,  neither  child  nor  man  could  rule  him. 
Their  wars  are  holden  against  the  Crimme  Tartarians  and  the  Nagaians. 

I  will  stand  no  longer  in  the  rehearsal  of  their  i)ower  and  wars.  For  it  were  too 
tedious  to  the  reader.  But  I  will  in  part  declare  their  laws  and  punishments,  and  th6 
execution  of  justice.  And  first,  I  will  begin  with  the  commons  of  the  country,  which 
the  gentlemen  have  rule  on :  and  that  is,  that  every  gentleman  hath  nile  and  justice 
upon  his  own  tenants.  And  if  it  so  fall  out  that  two  gentlemen's  servants  or  tenants  do 
disagree,  the  two  gentlemen  examine  the  matter,  and  have  the  parties  before  them,  and 
80  give  the  sentence.  And  yet  cannot  they  make  the  end  betwixt  them  of  the  contro- 
versy, but  either  of  the  gentlemen  must  bring  his  servant  or  tenant  before  the  high 
judge  or  justice  of  that  country,  and  there  present  them,  and  declare  the  matter  and 
case.  The  plaintiff  saith,  I  require  the  law ;  which  is  granted :  then  cometh  an  officer 
and  arresteth  the  party  defendant,  and  useth  him  contrary  to  the  laws  of  England.  For 
when  they  attach  any  man,  they  beat  him  about  the  legs,  until  such  time  as  he  findeth 
sureties  to  answer  the  matter :  and  if  not,  his  hands  and  neck  are  bound  together,  and 
he  is  led  about  the  town,  and  beaten  about  the  legs,  with  other  extreme  punishments, 
till  he  come  to  his  answer :  and  the  justice  demandeth,  if  it  be  for  debt,  and  saith : 
owest  thou  this  man  any  such  debt  ?  He  will,  perhaps,  say  nay.  Then  saith  the  judge : 
art  thou  able  to  deny  it?  Let  us  hear  how.  By  oath,  saith  the  defendant.  Then  he 
commandeth  to  leave  beating  him,  till  furtlier  trial  be  had. 

Their  order  in  one  point  is  commendable.  They  have  no  man  of  law  to  plead  their 
causes  in  any  court;  but  eVery  man  pleadeth  his  own  cause,  and  giveth  bill  and  answer 
in  writing,  contrary  to  the  order  in  England.  The  complahi*:  is  in  manner  of  a  suppli- 
cation, and  made  to  the  duke's  grace  ;  and  delivered  him  into  his  own  hand,  n^uiring 
to  have  justice,  as  in  his  complaint  is  alleged. 

The  duke  giveth  sentence  himself  upon  all  matters  in  the  law :  which  is  very  com- 
mendable,  that  such  a  prince  will  take  pains  to  see  ministration  of  justice.  Yet  not- 
withstandi:ig  it  is  wonderfully  abused ;  and  thereby  the  duke  is  much  deceived.  But  if 
it  fall  out  that  the  officers  be  espied  in  cloaking  the  truth,  they  have  most  condign  pun- 
ishment. And  if  the  plaintiff  can  nothing  prove,  then  the  defendant  must  take  his 
oath  upon  the  crucifix  whether  he  be  in  the  right  or  no.  Then  is  demanded  if  the 
plaintiff  be  any  thing  able  farther  to  make  proof :  if  he  be  not,  then  sometimes  he  will 
8ay,  iam  able  to  prove  it  by  my  body  and  hands,  or  by  my  champions's  body,  so  re- 


m^ 


TO  THE  NORTHERN  PARTS  OH  RUSSIA  AND  STBF.IUA.  Ql 

quiring  the  camp.  After  the  other  hath  his  oath,  it  is  granted  as  well  to  the  one  as  to  the 
other.  So  when  they  go  to  the  field  they  swear  upon  the  criicilix,  that  they  be  both 
in  the  right,  and  that  the  one  shall  make  the  other  to  confess  the  truth  before  they  de- 
part forth  of  the  field  :  and  so  thcv  go  both  to  the  battle,  armed  with  such  weapons  as 
they  use  it.  that  country  :  they  fight  all  on  foot,  and  seldom  the  parties  themselves  do 
fight,  except  they  be  gentlemen.  For  they  stand  much  upon  their  reputation,  for  they 
will  not  fight,  but  with  such  as  are  come  of  as  good  an  house  as  themselves.  So  that 
if  either  party  require  the  combat,  it  is  granted  unto  them,  and  no  caampion  is  to  serve 
in  their  room  :  wherein  is  no  deceit :  but  other^vise  by  champions  there  is.  For  al- 
though they  take  great  oaths  upon  them  to  do  the  battle  truly,  yet  is  the  contrary  often 
seen :  because  the  common  champions  have  none  other  living.  And  as  soon  as  the 
one  party  hath  gotten  the  victory,  he  demandeth  the  debt,  and  the  other  is  carried  to 
prison,  and  there  is  shamefully  used  till  he  take  order.  There  is  also  another  order  in 
the  law,  that  the  plaintiff  may  swear  in  some  causes  of  debt.  And  if  the  party  defend- 
ant be  poor,  he  shall  be  set  under  the  crucifix,  and  the  party  plaintiff  must  swear  over 
his  head ;  and  when  he  hath  taken  his  oath,  the  duke  taketh  the  party  defendant  home 
to  his  house,  and  useth  him  as  his  bondman,  and  putteth  him  to  labour,  or  letteth 
him  for  hire  to  any  such  as  need  him,  until  such  time  as  his  friends  make  provision  for 
his  redemption  :  or  else  he  remaineth  in  bondage  all  the  days  of  his  life.  Again,  there 
are  many  that  will  sell  themselves  to  gentlemen  or  merchants,  to  be  their  bondmen,  to 
have,  during  their  life,  meat,  drink,  and  cloth,  and  at  their  cuniliig  to  have  a  piece  of 
money.  Yea,  and  some  will  sell  their  wives  and  children  to  be  bawds  and  drudges  to 
the  buyer.  Also  they  have  a  law  for  felons  and  pickers,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  Eng. 
land.  For  by  their  law  they  can  hang  no  man  for  his  first  oflence ;  but  may  keep  him 
long  in  prison,  and  oftentimes  beat  him  with  whips  and  other  punishment :  and  there 
he  shall  remain  until  his  friends  be  able  to  bail  him.  If  he  be  a  picker,  or  a  cut-purse, 
as  there  be  very  many,  the  second  time  he  is  taken  he  hath  a  piece  of  his  nose  cut  off, 
and  is  burned  in  the  forehead,  and  kept  in  prison  till  he  find  sureties  for  his  good 
behaviour.  And  if  he  be  taken  the  third  time,  he  is  hanged.  And  at  the  first  time 
he  is  extremely  punished,  and  not  released  except  he  have  very  good  friends,  or  that 
some  gentleman  require  to  have  him  to  the  wars :  and  in  so  doing  he  shall  enter  into 

g*eat  bonds  for  him :  by  which  means  the  country  is  brought  into  good  quietness, 
ut  they  be  naturally  given  to  great  deceit,  except  extreme  beating  did  bridle  them. 
They  be  naturally  given  to  hard  living,  as  well  in  fare  as  in  lodging.  I  heard  a  Russian 
say,  that  it  was  a  great  deal  merrier  living  in  prison  than  forth,  but  for  the  great  beat- 
ing. For  they  have  meat  and  drink  without  any  labour,  and  get  the  charity  of  well- 
disposed  people :  but  being  at  liberty  they  get  nothing.  The  poor  is  very  innume- 
rable, and  live  most  miserably  :  for  I  have  seen  them  eat  the  pickle  of  herring  and  other 
stinking  fish ;  nor  the  fish  cannot  be  so  stinking  nor  rotten,  but  they  will  eat  it,  and 
praise  it  to  be  more  wholesome  than  other  fish  or  fresh  meat.  In  mine  opinion  there 
b?  »^o  such  people  under  the  sun  for  their  hardness  of  living.  Well,  I  will  leavfe  them 
in  this  point,  and  will  in  part  declare  their  religion.  They  do  observe  the  law  of  the 
Greeks  with  such  excess  of  superstition,  as  the  like  hath  not  been  heard  of.  They 
have  no  graven  images  in  their  churches,  but  all  painted,  to  the  intent  they  will  not 
break  the  commandment :  but  to  their  painted  images  they  use  such  idolatry,  that  the 
like  was  never  heard  of  in  England.  They  will  neUher  worship  nor  honour  any  image 
that  is  made  forth  of  their  own  country.  For  their  own  images  (say  they)  have  pic- 
tures to  declare  what  they  be,  and  how  they  be  of  God,  and  so  be  not  ours.    They 


23 


voyac;e9  ok  sm  m.fiic  willouciidy  and  others. 


say,  look  how  the  painter  or  carver  hath  made  them,  so  we  do  worship  them ;  and 
they  worship  none  before  they  be  christened.     They  say  we  be  but  half  christians  :  be- 
cause we  observe  not  part  of  the  old  law  \\ith  the  Turks.     Therefore  they  call  them- 
selves  more  holy  than  us.     They  have  none  other  learning  but  their  mother  tongue, 
nor  will  suffer  no  otiier  in  their  countrj-  among  them.     All  their  service  in  churches 
is  in  their  mother  tongue.    They  have  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  which  are  daily 
reatl  among  them  :  and  vet  their  superstition  is  no  less.     For  when  the  priests  do  read, 
they  Innc  such  tricks  m  their  reading,  that  no  mtin  can  understand  them,  nor   no 
man  giveth  ear  to  them.     For  all  the  while  the  priest  readeth,  the  people  sit  down, 
and  talk  one  with  another.     But  when  the  priest  is  at  service  no  man  sitteth,  but 
gaggle  and  duck  like  so  many  geese.     And  as  for  their  prayers,  they  have  but  litUe 
skill,  but  use  to  say  Js  bnd't  pumcle :  as  much  to  say.  Lord  have  mercy  upon  me. 
For  the  tenth  man  within  the  land  cannot  say  the  Pater  Noster.     And  as  for  the  creed, 
no  man  may  be  so  bold  as  to  meddle  therewith  but  in  the  church :  for  they  say  it 
should  not  be  spoken  of  but  in  the  churches.     Speak  to  them  of  the  commandments, 
and  they  will  saj-  they  were  given  to  Moses  in  the  law  which  Christ  hath  now  abrogated 
by  his  precious  death  and  passion  ;  therefore  (say  they)  we  observe   little  or  none 
thereof.     And  I  do  believe  them.     For  if  they  were  examined  of  their  law  and  com- 
mandments together,  they  should  agree  but  in  few  points.     They  have  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  both  kinds,  and  more  ceremonies  than  we  have.     They  pre- 
sent them  in  a  dish  In  both  kinds  together,  and  carry  them  round  about  the  church 
upon  the  priest's  head,  and  so  do  minister  at  all  such  times  as  any  shall  require.     They 
be  great  offerers  of  candles,  and  sometimes  of  money,  which  we  call  in  England, 
Soul-pence,  with  more  ceremonie?.  than  I  am  able  to  declare.     They  have  four 
Lents  in  the  year,  whereof  our  Lent  is  the  greatest.     Look,  as  we  do  begin  on  the 
Wednesday,  so  they  do  on  the  Monday  l)efore,  and  the  week  before  that  they  call 
the  Butter. week  ;  and  in  that  week  they  eat  nothing  but  butter  and  milk.     Howbeit,  I 
believe  there  be  in  no  other  country  the  like  people  for  drunkenness.     The  next  Lent 
is  called  Saint  Peter's  L'?"*,  and  beginneth  always  the  Monday  next  after  Trinit)- 
Sunday,  and  endeth  on  Saint  Peter's  even.     If  they  should  break  that  fast,  their  be- 
lief is,  tliat  they  should  not  come  in  at  Heaven  gates.     And  when  any  of  them  die, 
they  have  a  testimonial  with  them  in  the  coffin,  that  when  the  soul  cometh  to  Heaven 
gates  it  may  deliver  the  same  ♦o  Siiint  Peter,  which  declareth  that  the  party  is  a  true 
and  holy  Russian.     The  third  Lent  lieginneth  fifteen  days  before  the  later  Lady-day, 
an*^^  endeth  on  our  Lady-even.     The  fourth  Lent  beginneth  on  Saint  Martin's-day,  and 
etj  th  on  Christmas-even :  which  Lent  is  fasted  for  Saint  Philip,  Saint  Peter,  Saint 
N  .;holas,  and   Saint  Clement     For  they   four  be  tlie  principal  and  greatest  saints  in 
that  countr}'.     In  these  Lents  Uiey  eat  neither  butter,  eggs,  milk,  nor  cheese ;  but 
they  are  very  straitly  kept  \\  itli  fish,  cabbages,  and  roots.     And  out  of  their  Lents  they 
observe  truly  the  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  throughout  the  year ;  and  on  the  Saturday 
diey  do  eat  flesh.    Furthermore,  they  have  a  great  number  of  religious  men ;  which 
are  black  monks,  and  they  eat  no  flesh  throughout  the  year,  but  fish,  milk,  and  but- 
ter.     By  their  order  they  should  eat  no  fresh  iish,  and  in  their  Lents  they  eat  nothing 
but  coleworts,  cabbages,  salt  cucumliers,  with  other  roots,  as  radish  ami  such  like. 
Their  drink  is  like  our  penny  ale,  and  is  called  quass.     They  have  service  daily  in  their 
churches,  and  use  to  go  to  service  two  hours  before  day,  and  that  is  ended  by  day- 
light.    At  nine  of  the  clock  they  go  to  mass :  that  ended,  to  dinner ;  and  after  that 
to  service  again ;  and  then  to  supper :  you  shall  understand  that  at  every  dinner  and 


n 


TO  THE  XORTIIERN  PAKTS  OF  IIUSSIA  AN»  .SIUF.RIA. 


23 


m;  and 
ns:  be- 
ll them- 

tongue, 
;hurches 
re  daily 
do  read, 

nor   no 
it  down, 
eth,  but 
but  little 
pon  me. 
ic  creed, 
:y  say  it 
idments, 
brogated 
or  none 
nd  com- 
acrament 
'hey  pre- 
e  church 
;.    They 
England, 
lave  four 
1  on  the 
they  call 
owbeit,  I 
lext  Lent 
r  Trinit)- 
their  be- 
hem  die, 

0  Heaven 
is  a  true 

jady-day, 
-day,  and 
ter,  Saint 

saints  in 
;csc ;  but 
,ents  they 

Saturday 
n;  which 

and  but- 
it  nothing 
>uch  hke. 
y  in  their 

1  by  day- 
after  that 
inner  and 


supper  they  have  declared  the  exposition  of  the  Gospel  that  day  :  but  how  they  wrest  and 
twme  the  Scn|»Hire  and  that  together  by  re|X)rt  it  is  wonderful.  As  for  whoredom  and 
drunkenness  there  be  none  such  living ;  and  for  extortion  they  be  the  most  abominable 
under  the  sun.  Now  judge  of  their  holiness.  They  have  twice  as  much  land  as  Uie 
duke  himself  hath  :  but  yet  he  is  reasonable  exen  with  them,  as  thus :  when  they  take 
briloes  of  any  of  the  poor  and  simple,  he  hath  it  by  an  order  ;  when  the  abbot  of  any 
of  their  houses  diedi,  then  the  duke  hath  all  his  gwxls,  moveable  and  immoveable ; 
so  that  the  successor  buyeth  all  at  the  duke's  hands :  and  by  this  mean  they  be  the 
best  fermours  the  duke  hath.     Thus  with  their  religion  I  make  an  end,  trusting  here- 

after  to  know  it  better.  .  „  .      ,         .       , 

To  the  right  worshipful  and  my  singular  good 
uncle,  Master  Christopher  FrotliinghiuTi, 
give  these. 
Sir,  read  and  correct ; 
For  great  is  the  defect. 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  M.  HICHARD  EDEN,  IS  HIS  DECADE8,  CONCERNINO  THE  DOOK  FOLLOWIKO . 

And  whereas  (saith  he)  I  have  before  made  mention  how  Moscovy  was  in  our  time 
discovered  by  Richard  Chancelor,  in  his  voyage  toward  Cathay,  by  the  direction  and 
information  of  M.  Sebastian  Cabota,  who  long  before  had  this  secret  in  his  mind ;  I 
shall  not  need  here  to  de?  :;ribe  that  voyage,  forasmuch  as  the  same  is  largely  and  faith- 
fully  written  in  the  Latin  tongue,  by  that  learned  young  man  Clement  Adams,  school- 
master to  the  queen's  henshmen,  as  he  received  it  at  the  mouth  of  the  said  Richard 
Chancelor. 

The  new  navigation  and  discovery  qf  the  kingdom  o/Moscovia,  by  the  north-east,  in 
the  year  1553  .•  enterprised  by  sir  Hugh  fFtfloiighby,  Anight,  and  performed  by 
Richard  Chancelor,  pilot-major  of  the  voyage :  written  in  Lctin  by  Clement 
Adams. 

At  what  time  our  merchants  perceived  the  comnodities  and  wares  of  England  to  be 
in  small  request  with  the  countries  and  people  i«bout  us,  and  near  unto  us,  and  that 
those  merchandises  which  strangers  in  the  time  j\nd  memory  of  our  ancestors  did  ear- 
nesdy  seek  and  desire  were  now  neglected,  and  ihe  price  thereof  abated,  although  by 
us  carried  to  their  own  ports,  and  all  foreign  merchandises  in  great  account,  and  their 
prices  wonderfully  raised ;  certain  grave  citizens  of  London,  and  men  of  great  wisdom, 
and  careful  for  the  good  of  their  countrj',  began  to  think  with  themselves,  how  this 
mischief  might  be  remedied.  Neither  was  a  remedy  (as  it  then  appeared)  wanting  to 
their  desires,  for  the  avoiding  of  so  great  an  inconvenience  :  for  seeing  that  the  weahh 
of  tlie  Spaniards  and  Portingales,  by  the  discovery  and  search  of  new  trades  and  coun- 
tries,  was  marvellously  increased,  supposing  the  same  to  be  a  course  and  mean  for 
them  also  to  obtain  the  like,  they  thereupon  resolved  upon  a  new  and  strange  naviga- 
tion.  And  whereas  at  the  same  time  one  Sebastian  Cabota,  a  man  in  those  days  very 
reno\vned,  happened  to  be  in  London,  they  began  first  of  all  to  deal  and  consult  dili- 
gently with  him,  and  after  much  speech  and  conference  together,  it  was  at  last  con- 
cluded that  three  ships  should  be  prepared  and  furnished  out,  for  the  search  and  dis- 
covery of  the  northern  part  of  the  world,  to  open  a  way  and  passage  to  our  men  for 
travel  to  new  and  unknown  kingdoms. 


34 


VOiAGl'.S  Of  Sm  lILT.lt  WUXOLT.imY  AND  OTFIERS. 


And  whereas  many  things  seemed  necessary  to  be  regarded  m  tliis  so  hard  and 
difficult  a  matter,  they  first  made  choice  of  certain  grave  and  wise  persons  in  manner 
of  a  senate  or  company,  which  should  lay  their  hcadj.  together  and  give  their  judg- 
ments, and  provide  things  requisite  and  profitable  for  all  occasions  :  by  this  company 
it  was  thought  expedient,  that  a  certain  sum  of  money  should  publicly  be  collected, 
to  serve  for  the  furnishing  of  so  many  ships.  And  lest  any  private  man  should  be  too 
much  oppressed  and  charged,  a  course  was  taken,  that  every  man  willing  to  be  of  the 
society  should  disburse  the  portion  of  twenty  and  five  )x)unds  a-piece  :  so  diat  in  short 
time,  by  this  meims,  the  sum  of  six  thousand  pounds  being  gathered,  the  three  ships 
were  bought,  the  most  part  whereof  they  provided  to  be  newly  built  and  trimmed. 
But  in  this  action,  I  know  not  whether  I  may  more  admire  the  care  of  the  merchants, 
or  the  diligence  of  the  shipwrights :  for  the  merchants,  they  get  very  strong  and  well- 
seasoned  planks  for  the  building ;  the  shipwrights,  they  with  daily  travail,  and  their 
greatest  skill,  do  fit  them  for  the  di:>i)atch  of  the  ships :  they  calk  them,  pitch  them, 
and  among  the  rest  they  make  one  most  staunch  and  firm,  by  an  excellent  and  inge- 
nious invention.  For  they  had  heard  that  in  certain  parts  of  die  ocean  a  kind  of 
worms  is  bred,  which  many  times  pierceth  and  eateth  through  the  strongest  oak  that 
is :  and  therefore,  that  the  mariners  and  die  rest  to  be  employed  in  this  voyage  might 
be  free  and  safe  from  this  danger,  they  cover  a  piece  of  the  keel  of  the  ship  with  thin 
sheets  of  lead:  and  having  thus  built  the  ships,  and  furnished  them  with  armour  and 
artillery,  then  followed  a  second  care  no  less  troublesome  and  necessary  than  the  for- 
mer, namely,  the  provision  of  victuals,  which  was  to  be  made  according  to  the  time 
and  length  of  the  voyage.  And  whereas  thej'  afore  determined  to  have  the  east  part 
of  the  world  siiiled  unto,  and  j  et  that  the  sea  towards  the  same  was  not  open,  except 
they  kept  the  northern  tract,  whereas  yet  it  was  doubtful  whether  there  were  any  pas- 
sage yea  or  no,  they  resolved  to  victual  the  ships  for  eighteen  months ;  which  they 
did  for  this  reason.  For  our  men  being  to  pass  that  huge  and  cold  part  of  the  world, 
they  wisely  foreseeing  it,  allow  them  six  months  victual  to  sail  to  the  place,  so  much 
moTP  to  remain  there  if  the  extremity  of  the  winter  hindered  their  return,  and  so  much 
more  also  for  the  time  of  their  coming  home. 

Now  this  provbion  being  made  and  carried  aboard,  with  armour  and  munitbn  of 
all  sorts,  sufficient  captains  and  governors  of  so  great  an  enterprise  were  as  yet  want- 
ing ;  to  which  office  and  place,  although  many  men  (and  some  void  of  experience) 
offered  themselves,  yet  one  sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  a  most  valiant  genUeman,  and  well 
born,  verj'  earnestly  requested  to  have  that  care  -and  charge  committed  unto  him :  of 
whom  .before  all  others,  lx)th  by  reason  of  his  goodly  personage  (for  he  was  of  a  tall 
stature)  as  also  for  his  singular  skill  in  the  services  of  war,  the  company  of  the  mer- 
chants made  greatest  accompt ;  so  that  at  the  last  they  concluded,  and  made  choice  of 
him  fjr  the  general  of  this  voyage,  and  appointed  to  him  the  admiral,  with  authority 
and  command  over  all  the  rest.  And  for  the  government  of  other  ships,  although 
divers  men  seemed  willing,  and  made  offers  of  themselves  thereunto,  yet  by  a  com- 
mon consent  one  Richard  Chancelor,  a  man  of  great  estimation  for  many  good  parts 
of  wit  in  him,  was  elected,  in  whom  alone  great  hope  for  the  performance  of  this 
business  rested.  This  man  was  brought  up  bv  one  Master  Henry  Sydney,  a  noble 
young  gentleman,  and  very  much  beloved  of  kmg  Edward,  who  at  this  time  coming 
to  the  place  where  the  merchants  were  gathered  together,  began  a  very  eloquent  speech 
or  oration,  and  spake  to  them  after  this  manner  following : 


TO  Tiir.  xoHTiiF.nN  PAnrfirop  kussia  avd  ainnniA. 


A5 


lard  and 
1  manner 
pir  judg- 
conipun} 
:ollccted. 
Id  be  too 
be  of  the 
t  in  short 
ree  ships 
trimmed, 
crchants, 
and  well* 
and  their 

h  them, 
md  inge. 
I  kind  of 

oak  that 

gc  might 

with  thin 

nour  and 

n  the  for- 

>  the  time 
east  part 

n,  except 
any  pas • 

hich  they 

;he  world» 
so  much 

I  so  much 

lunition  of 

yet  want« 

itperience) 

and  well 

>  him:  of 
US  of  a  tall 
f  the  mer- 

choice  of 
I  authority 
,  although 
3y  a  com- 
;ood  parts 
ice  of  this 
',  a  noble 
le  coming 
ent  speech 


oj 


i 


^m? 


"  My  very  worshipful  friends,  I  cannot  but  greatly  commend  your  present  godly  and 
virtuous  intention,  in  the  serious  enterprising  (for  the  singular  love  you  bear  to  your 
country)  a  matter,  which  ^I  hope)  will  prove  profitable  for  this  nation,  and  honour- 
able  to  this  our  land.  Which  intention  of  yours  we  also  of  the  nobility  are  rcadv  to 
our  power  to  help  and  further ;  neither  do  we  hold  any  thing  so  dear  and  precious 
unto  us,  which  we  will  not  willingly  forego,  and  lay  out  in  so  commendable  a  cause. 
But  principally  I  rejoice  in  myself,  that  I  have  nourished  and  maintained  that  wit, 
which  is  like  by  some  means  and  in  some  measure  to  profit  and  steed  you  in  this  wor- 
thy action.  But  yet  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant  of  this  one  thing,  that  I  do  now 
part  with  Chancelor,  not  because  I  make  little  reckoning  of  the  man,  or  that  his  main, 
tenance  is  burdcnous  and  chargeable  unto  me,  but  that  you  might  conceive  and  un- 
dcrstand  my  good  will  and  promptitude  for  the  furtherance  of  this  business,  and  that 
the  authority  and  estimation  which  he  deserveth  may  be  given  him.  You  know  the 
man  bv  report,  I  by  experience ;  you  by  words,  I  by  deeds ;  you  by  speech  and  com- 
pany, but  I,  by  the  daily  trial  of  his  life,  have  a  full  and  perfect  knowledge  of  him. 
And  you  are  also  to  remember,  into  how  many  perils  for  your  sakes,  and  his  countrj''s 
love,  he  is  now  to  run :  whereof  it  is  requisite  that  we  hie  not  unmindful,  if  it  please 
God  to  send  him  good  success.  Wc  commit  a  little  money  to  the  chance  and  hazard 
of  fortune :  he  commits  his  life  (a  thing  to  a  man  of  all  things  the  most  dear)  to  the 
raging  sea,  and  the  uncertainties  of  many  dangers.  We  tihall  here  live  and  rest  at 
home  quietly  with  our  friends,  and  acquaintance :  but  he  in  the  mean  time  labouring 
to  keep  the  ignorant  and  unruly  mariners  iri  good  order  snd  obedience,  with  how 
many  cares  shall  he  trouble  and  vex  himself?  with  how  many  troubles  shall  he  break 
himself?  and  how  many  disquictings  shall  he  be  forced  to  sustain  ?  We  shall  keep  our 
own  coasts  and  country :  he  shall  seek  strange  and  unknown  kingdoms.  He  shall 
commit  his  safety  to  barbarous  and  cruel  people,  and  shall  hazard  his  life  amongst  the 
monstrous  and  terrible  beasts  of  the  sea.  Wherefore,  in  respect  of  the  greatness  of  the 
dangers,  and  the  excellency  of  his  charge,  you  are  to  favour  and  love  the  man  thus 
depardng  from  us :  and  if  it  fall  so  happily  out  that  he  return  again,  it  is  your  part  and 
du^  also  liberally  to  reward  him."  sn..- ;<  •;  r.   -  i  -  ?..  > 

After  that  this  noble  young  gentleman  had  delivered  this,  ot  some  such  like  speech, 
much  more  eloquently  than  I  can  possibly  report  it,  the  company  then  present  began 
one  to  look  upon  another,  one  to  question  and  confci*  with  another :  and  some  (to 
whom  the  virtue  and  sufficiency  of  the  man  was  known)  began  secretly  to  rejoice  with 
themselves ;  and  to  coned'  e  a  spjecial  hope,  that  the  man  Avould  prove  in  time  very 
rare  and  excellent,  and  that  his  virtues,  already  appearing  and  shining  to  the  world, 
would  grow,  to  the  great  honour  and  advancement  of  this  kingdom. 

Afler  all  tWs,  the  company  growing  to  some  silence,  it  seemed  good  to  them  that  were 
of  greatest  gravity  amongst  them,  to  inquire,  search,  and  seek  what  might  be  learned 
and  known  concerning  the  easteriy  part  or  tract  of  the  worki.  For  which  cause  two 
Tartarians,  wluch  were  then  of  the  king's  stable,  were  sent  for,  and  an  interpreter  ^vas 
gotten  to  be  present,  by  whom  they  were  demanded  touching  their  country,  and  the 
manners  of  their  nation.  But  they  were  able  to  answer  nothing  to  the  purpose ;  being 
nideed  more  acqudnted  (as  one  there  merrily  and  openly  said)  to  toss  pots,  than 
to  learn  the  states  and  dispositions  of  people.  But  after  much  ado,  and  many  things 
passed  about  this  matter,  they  grew  at  last  to  this  issue,  to  set  down  and  appoint  a  time 
for  the  departure  of  the  ships :  because  divers  were  of  opinion,  that  a  great  part  of 
the  best  time  of  the  year  was  already  spent,  and  if  the  delay  grew  longer,  the  way 

VOL.  I.  K 


so 


voYAC.r.a  OF  sir  mc;ir  wiu.otr.iiuY  and  oTiiF.n*, 


would  be  stopped  and  barred  by  the  force  of  the  ice,  and  the  cold  climate  :  and 
therefore  it  was  thought  best  by  the  opinion  of  them  ull,  that  by  the  tenth  day  of 
May,  the  captains  and  nuiriiiers  should  take  shini)i\i  ,,  and  depart  from  llatcliffe  upon 
the  ebbe,  if  it  pleased  God.  They  having  saluted  their  acquaintance,  one  his  wife, 
another  his  children,  another  his  kinsfolks,  and  another  his  friends  dearer  than  his 
kinsfolks,  were  present,  and  ready  at  die  day  apjwinted  :  and  having  weighed  anchor, 
they  departed  with  the  turning  of  the  water,  and  sailing  easily,  came  first  to  Greenwich. 
The  greater  ships  are  towed  down  with  lx)ats,  and  oars,  and  the  mariners  being  ull 
apparelled  in  watehet  or  sky-coloured  cloth,  rowed  amain,  and  made  away  with  dili- 

Sence.  And  Ixiiig  come  near  to  Greenwich  (where  the  court  then  lay)  presently,  on 
le  news  thereof,  the  couitiers  came  running  out,  and  the  common  |K;onle  flocked 
together,  standing  very  thick  upon  the  shore ;  the  privy  council  they  looked  out  at  the 
w  indows  of  the  court,  and  the  rest  ran  up  to  the  tops  of  the  towers  :  the  ships  here- 
upon  discharge  their  ordnance,  and  shoot  off  their  pieces  after  the  manner  of  war, 
and  of  die  sea,  insomuch  that  the  tons  of  the  hills  sounded  therewith,  the  vallies  and 
the  waters  gave  an  echo,  and  the  mariners  they  shouted  in  such  sort  that  the  sky  rang 
again  with  the  noise  thereof.  One  stood  in  the  poop  of  the  ship,  and  by  hb  gesture 
bids  farewell  to  his  friends  in  the  lx\st  manner  he  could.  Another  walks  upon  the 
hatches,  anoUier  climbs  the  shrouds,  another  stands  upon  the  main  yard,  and  another 
in  the  top  of  the  ship.  To  be  short,  it  was  a  very  triumph  (after  a  sort)  in  all  respects 
to  the  beholders.  But  (alas !)  the  good  king  Edward  (in  resjiect  of  whom,  principally, 
all  this  was  prepanxl)  he  only  by  reason  of  his  sickness  was  absent  from  this  shew,  and 
not  long  after  the  departure  of  these  ships,  the  lamentable  and  most  sorrowful  accident 
of  his  death  followed. 

But  to  proceed  in  the  matter. 

The  ships  going  down  with  the  tide,  came  at  last  to  Woolwich,  where  they  stayed  and» 
cast  anchor,  with  purpose  to  depart  therehenee  again  as  soon  as  the  turning  of  the  wa. 
ter  and  a  better  wind  should  draw  them  to  set  sail.  After  this  they  departed  and  came 
to  Harwich,  in  which  port  they  staid  long,  not  without  great  loss  and  consuming  of 
time  :  yet  at  the  last  with  a  good  wind  they  hoisted  up  sail,  and  committed  themselves 
to  the  sea,  giving  their  last  adieu  to  their  native  country,  which  they  knew  not  whether 
they  should  ever  return  to  see  again  or  not.  Many  of  them  looked  oftentimes  back, 
and  could  not  refrain  from  tears,  considering  into  what  hazards  they  were  to  iiill,  and 
what  uncertainties  of  the  sea  they  were  to  make  trial  of. 

Amongst  the  rest,  Richard  Chancelor,  the  captain  of  the  Edward  Bonaventure,  was 
not  a  little  grieved  >vith  the  fear  of  wanting  victuals,  part  whereof  was  found  to  be 
corrupt  and  putrified  at  Harwich,  and  the  hogsheads  of  wine  also  leaked,  and  were 
not  staunch :  his  natural  and  fatherly  affection  also  somewhat  troubled  him ;  for  he 
left  behind  him  his  two  little  sons,  which  were  in  the  case  of  orphans  if  he  sped  not 
well ;  the  estate  also  of  his  company  moved  him  to  care,  being  in  the  former  respects 
after  a  sort  unhappy,  and  were  to  abide  with  himself  every  good  or  bad  accident : 
but  in  the  mean  time,  while  his  mind  was  thus  tormented  with  the  multiplicity  of  sor- 
rows and  cares,  after  many  days  sailing,  they  kenned  land  afar  off,  whereunto  the 
pilot  directed  the  ships;  and  being  come  to  it,  they  land,  and  find  it  to  be  Rost 
Isl:«nd,  where  they  stayed  certain  days,  and  afterwards  set  sail  again,  and  proceeding 
towards  the  north,  they  espied  certain  other  islands,  which  were  called  the  Cross-of- 
Islands.  From  which  places  when  they  were  a  little  departed,  sir  Hugh  Willoughby 
the  general,  a  man  of  good  foresight  and  providence  in  all  his  actions,  erected  and 


w 


TO  THE  XOIITIIERV  I'AnTS  OF  RUSSIA  AND  SIIIEUIA 


27. 


set  out  his  fliifij,  by  which  he  called  together  the  chiefest  men  of  the  other  shins,  that 
by  the  help  and  assistance  of  their  counsels,  the  order  of  tin  fjjovernment  and  tV  con 
duction  of  the  ships  in  the  whole  voyage  might  Ik-  the  lx.tter :  who  being  come  to- 
gether accordingly,  thej-  conclude  and  agree,  that  if  any  great  tem|X!st  should  arise  at 
any  time,  and  happen  to  disperse  and  scatter  them,  every  ship  should  endeavour  hi> 
best  to  go  to  Wardliouse,  a  hawp  or  castle  of  some  name  in  tlie  kingdom  of  Norway, 
and  that  they  that  arrived  Uierc  ii^st  iu  safety  should  stay,  and  expect  the  coming  of  tlu 
rest. 

The  very  same  day  in  the  afternoon,  about  four  of  the  clock,  so  great  a  tempest  sud 
denly  arose,  and  the  seas  were  so  outrageous,  that  the  ships  could  not  keep  their  Intended 
course,  but  some  were  per  force  driven  one  ^vay,  and  some  another  way,  to  their  great 
peril  and  hazard :  die  general  with  his  loudest  voice  cried  out  to  Richard  Chancelor, 
and  earnestly  rccjuested  him  not  to  go  far  from  him  ;  but  he  neither  would  nor  could  keef» 
company  with  him,  if  he  sailed  still  so  fast :  for  the  admiral  was  of  better  sail  than  hi> 
ship.  But  the  said  admiral  (I  know  not  by  what  means)  bearing  all  his  sails,  was  car- 
ried away  with  so  great  force  and  swiftJicss,  that  not  long  after  he  Wiis  (juite  out  o< 
sight,  and  the  third  ship  iilso  with  the  same  storm  and  like  nigc  was  disjxrscd  and 
lost  us. 

The  ship  boat  of  the  admiral  (striking  against  the  ship)  was  overwhelmed  in  the 
sight  and  view  of  the  mariners  of  the  Bonaventure  .  and  as  for  them  that  are  already 
returned  and  arrived,  they  know  nodiing  of  Uie  n;st  of  the  ships  wliat  was  become 
of  them. 

But  if  it  be  so,  that  any  miserable  mishap  have  overtaken  them,  if  the  rage  and 
fury  of  the  sea  have  devoured  those  good  men,  or  if  as  yet  they  live,  and  wander  up 
and  down  in  strange  countries,  I  must  needs  say  they  \\'ere  men  worthy  of  better 
fortune,  and  if  they  be  living,  let  us  wish  them  safety  and  a  good  return :  but  if 
the  cruelty  of  death  hath  taken  hold  of  them,  God  send  them  a  christian  grave  and 
sepulchre. 

Now  Richard  Chancelor,  with  his  ship  and  company,  being  thus  left  alone,  and  be- 
come very  pensive,  heavy,  and  sorrowful,  by  Uiis  dispersion  of  the  fleet,  he  (accord- 
ing to  the  order  before  taken)  shapeth  his  course  for  Wardliouse  in  Norway,  there  to 
expect  and  abide  the  arrival  of  the  rest  of  the  ships.  And  bemg  come  thither,  and 
having  staid  there  the  space  of  seven  days,  imd  looked  in  vain  for  their  coming,  he 
determined  at  length  to  proceed  alone  in  the  purposed  voyage.  And  as  he  was  pre- 
paring himself,  to  depart,  it  happened  that  he  fell  in  company  imd  siieech  with  certain 
Scottishmcn ;  who  having  understanding  of  his  intention,  and  wishing  well  to  his 
actions,  be^n  eamesdy  to  dissuade  him  from  the  further  prosecution  of  the  discovery, 
by  amplifying  the  dangers  which  he  was  to  fall  into,  iuid  c.-nitted  no  reason  that  might 
serve  to  that  purpose.  But  he  holding  nothing  so  ignominious  and  reproachful,  as  in* 
constancy  and  levity  of  mind,  and  persuading  himself  that  a  man  of  valour  could  not  com- 
mit a  more  dishonourable  part,  than  for  fear  of  danger  to  avoid  and  slum  great  attempts, 
was  nothing  at  all  changed  or  discouraged  with  the  speeches  and  words  of  the  Scots, 
remaining  stedfast  and  immutable  in  his  first  resolution;  determining  either  to  bring 
that  to  piiss  which  was  intended,  or  else  to  die  the  death. 

And  as  for  them  which  were  with  Miuster  Chancelor  in  his  ship,  although  they  had 
great  cause  of  discomfort  by  the  loss  of  their  company  (whom  the  foresaid  temiiest  had 
separated  from  them)  and  were  not  a  litde  troubled  with  cogitations  and  perturbations 
of  mind«  in  respect  of  their  doubtful  course ;   yet  notwitiistanding  they  were  of  suck 


28 


VOYACKS  OF  SIR  llUfill  WIM.Olf.llBV  AND  OTIIEUH, 


consent  and  agreement  of  mind  with  Muster  Chiineclor,  that  they  were  resuluie,  and 
yrepured,  under  his  direction  uiid  government,  tr)  make  jiroof  and  trial  of  all  adven- 
tures, without  all  fear  or  mistrust  of  future  clangers.  Whieh  constancy  of  mind  in 
all  the  connxuiy  did  exceedingly  increase  their  captain's  carefulness  ;  for  he  Ixing  swal- 
lowed up  with  like  good  will  luid  love  towaixls  them,  Icarid,  lest  through  any  error  of 
his,  the  safety  of  the  company  should  Ik:  endangtred.  To  conclude,  when  they  saw 
Iheir  desire  iuid  hope  of  the  arrival  of  the  rest  of  the  ships  to  be  every  day  more  anil 
more  frustrated,  they  provided  to  nea  again,  and  Master  Clumcelor  held  on  !ii.>  course 
towards  that  unknown  part  of  the  world,  and  sailed  so  far,  that  he  came  at  last  to  the 
place  whetv  he  found  no  night  at  all,  but  a  continual  light  and  brightness  of  the  sun 
shining  clearly  upon  the  huge  and  mighty  sea.  And  having  the  benefit  of  diis  per- 
petual light  for  certain  days,  at  the  length  it  pleased  God  to  bring  them  into  a  certain 
great  bay,  which  was  of  one  hundred  miles  or  Uiercabouts  over.  Whereinto  they 
entered,  and  somewhat  far  within  it  cast  anchor,  and  looking  every  way  about  them, 
it  liappened  that  they  espied  afar  oft'  a  certain  fisher  boat,  which  Master  Chancelor, 
accompanied  with  a  few  of  his  men,  went  towards,  to  commune  with  the  fishermen 
that  were  in  it,  and  to  know  of  them  what  country  it  was,  and  what  people,  and  of 
what  manner  of  living  they  were  :  but  they  being  amazed  with  the  strange  greatness 
of  his  ship  (for  in  those  parts  before  Uiat  time  they  had  never  seen  the  like)  began 
presently  to  avoid  and  to  flee  :  but  he  still  following  them,  at  last  overtook  them,  and 
being  come  to  them,  they  (being  in  great  fear,  as  men  lialf-dead)  prostrated  Uicmselves 
before  him,  ottering  to  kiss  his  feet :  but  he  (according  to  his  great  and  singular  cour- 
tesy) looked  pleasantly  upon  them,  comfortin}^  them  by  signs  and  gestures,  refusing 
those  duties  and  reverences  of  theirs,  and  takmg  them  up  in  all  loving  sort  from  the 
ground.  And  it  is  strange  to  consider  how  mucn  favour  afterwards  in  that  place  this 
humanity  of  his  did  purchase  to  himself.  For  they  being  dismissi  d,  spread  by  and  by  a 
report  abroad  of  the  arriv  '  of  a  strange  nation,  of  a  singular  gentleness  and  courtesy  : 
whereupon  Uie  common  people  came  together,  offering  to  these  new  come  guests  victuals 
freely,  and  not  refusing  to  traffic  with  them;  except  they  had  been  bound  by  a  certain 
religious  use  and  custom  not  to  buy  any  foreign  commodities,  without  the  knowledge 
jmd  consent  of  the  king. 

By  this  time  our  i.ieu  had  learned  that  this  country  was  called  Russia  or  Moscovy, 
and  that  Juan  Vasiliwich  (which  was  at  that  time  their  king's  name)  ruled  and  go- 
vemed  far  and  mde  in  those  places.  And  the  barbarous  Russes  asked  likewise  of  our 
men,  whence  diey  were,  and  what  they  came  for :  whereunto  answer  vyas  made,  that 
they  were  Englishmen  sent  Into  those  coasts,  from  the  most  excellent  king  Edward  the 
Sixth,  having  from  him  in  commandment,  certain  things  to  deUver  to  their  king,  and 
seeking  nothing  else  but  his  amity  and  friendship,  and  traffic  with  his  people,  whereby 
they  doubted  not,  but  that  great  commodity  and  profit  would  grow  to  the  subjects  of 
both  kingdoms. 

The  tmrbarians  heard  these  things  very  gladly,  and  promised  their  aid  and  furtherance 
to  acquaint  their  king  out  of  hand  with  so  lionest  and  a  reasonable  request. 

In  the  mean  time  Master  Chancelor  entreated  victuals  for  his  money  of  the  governor 
of  that  place  (who  together  with  others  came  aboard  him)  and  required  hostages  of  them 
likewise  for  the  more  assurance  of  safety  to  himself  and  his  company.  To  whom 
the  governors  answered,  that  they  knew  not  in  that  case  the  will  of  their  king,  but  yet 
were  willing  in  such  things  as  they  might  lawfully  do  to  pleasure  him  :  which  was  as 
Ihen  to  affbnl  hiro  the  benefit  of  victuals.  ■       ,        ....  ,  .   .. 


TO  IIU.  NoHlllKIIV  I'AK'IM  01'  R(  SSIA  .\NI)  SinF.IUA. 


29 


Now  while  these  thiiijj^*  wen*  i\  tloinp;,  they  M'crclly  sent  u  mcssciigtr  unto  the  em- 
peror, to  certify  him  of  the  arrival  of  a  stranp^e  nation,  uiul  withal  to  know  his  pleasure 
concerninp;  them.  Which  messa(i;e  was  very  weleome  imto  him,  insoniueh  that  volun- 
tarily lie  invited  them  to  come  to  liis  eourt.  Hut  if  by  reason  of  the  tedionsness  of  so 
!onf{  a  journey,  they  thou|;ht  it  not  best  so  to  do,  then  he  granted  liberty  to  his  stibjects 
to  b  ufif  lin,  anil  to  traffic  with  them  :  and  further  promised,  that  if  it  would  please  them 
to  come  to  him,  he  himself  woidd  Inarthe  uhole  charges  of  post  horses.  In  the  mean- 
time the  governors  of  the  place  deferred  the  matter  from  day  to  day,  pretending  divei 
excuses,  and  sciyingone  while,  that  the  consent  of  all  the  governors,  and  another  while, 
tluit  the  great  and  weighty  affairs  of  the  kingdom  eomiH  lied  them  to  defer  their  answer : 
and  this  they  did  of  purpose,  so  long  to  protract  the  tmie,  until  the  messenger  (sent  be- 
fore to  the  king)  did  return  with  relation  of  his  will  and  pleasure. 

But  Master  Chancelor  (seeing  himself  hekl  in  this  susiK'rvse  with  long  and  vain  ex- 
pectation, and  thinking  that  of  intention  to  delude  him  they  ix)sted  the  matter  off  so 
often)  was  very  instant  with  them  to  perform  their  promise  ;  which  if  they  woukl  nol 
do,  he  told  them  that  he  would  depart,  and  jjroceed  in  his  voyage.  So  that  the  Mosco- 
vites  (although  as  yet  they  knew  not  the  mind  of  their  king)  yet  fearing  the  departure 
indeed  of  our  men,  who  had  such  wares  and  commodities  as  they  greatly  desired,  they 
at  last  resolved  to  furnish  our  people  with  all  things  necessary,  and  conduct  them  by 
land  to  the  presence  of  their  king.  And  so  Master  Chancelor  began  his  journey,  which 
was  very  long,  and  most  tmublesome,  wherein  he  hiul  the  use  of  certam  sleds,  which 
in  that  country  arc  very  common,  for  they  arc  carried  themselves  upon  sleds,  and  all 
their  carriages  arc  in  the  same  sort,  the  people  almost  not  knowing  any  other  manner 
of  carriage,  the  cause  whereof  is  the  pvrreding  hiydness  of  the  ground  congealed  in 
the  >\uiier  ihuc  liv  lUr  force  of  the  cold,  which  in  those  places  is  very  extn;me  and 
horrible,  whereof  herealtei  wc  will  say  something. 

But  now  they  having  passed  the  greater  part  of  thrir  jnnniey,  met  at  last  with  the 
sleddcman  (of  whom  1  spake  before)  sent  to  the  king  secretly  from  the  justices  or  go- 
vemors,  who  by  some  ill  hap  had  lost  his  Avay,  and  had  gone  to  the  sea  side,  which  is 
near  to  the  country  of  the  Tartars,  thinking  there  to  have  found  our  ship.  But  having 
long  erred  and  Wiuidered  out  of  his  way,  at  the  last,  in  his  direct  return,  he  met  (as  he 
was  coming)  our  captiiin  on  the  way.  To  whom  he  by  and  by  delivered  the  emperor's 
letters,  which  were  written  to  him  with  all  courtesy  and  in  the  most  loving  manner  that 
eould  be  :  wherein  express  commiindmcnt  was  given,  that  post  horses  should  tie  gotten 
for  him  and  the  rest  of  his  company  without  any  money.  Which  thing  was  of  all  the 
Rus'ics  in  the  rest  of  their  joumey  so  willinjjly  done,  that  they  lx?gan  to  quarrel,  yea,  and 
to  fni:ht  also,  in  striving  and  contending  which  of  them  should  put  their  post  horses  to  the 
sleddc  :  so  that  after  much  ado  and  great  pains  taken  in  this  long  and  weary  joumey, 
(for  ihey  had  travelled  very  near  fifteen  hundred  miles)  Master  Chancelor  came  at  last 
to  Mosco,  the  chief  city  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  seat  of  the  king:  of  which  city,  and 
of  the  emperor  himself,  and  of  the  principal  cities  of  Moscovy,  we  will  speak  immedi- 
ately more  at  large  in  this  discourse. 

OP  M0SC0\'y,  WHICH  IS  ALSO  CALLED  RUSSIA. 

Moscow,  „l.ich  hath  the  name  also  of  Russia  the  White,  is  a  very  large  and  spacious 
country,  every  way  bounded  with  divers  nations.  Towiutls  the  south  and  the  east,  it 
is  compassed  with  Tartaria :  the  northern  side  of  it  strctcheth  to  the  Scythian  ocean : 


md 


'y 


'I 


.10 


viiVAriKs  or  ttm  iiii.a  \\u.i.or(.iiHv  ^vuulll»;u», 


wmn  the  west  part  borclrr  the  Liippians,  a  rude  niu!  savaj^t*  nation,  living  in  wootT*, 
\vn()!*c  langiia^;!!  is  not  liiiown  to  any  other  people  :  next  unto  these,  more  towards  tht 
south,  ih  Swccin,  then  Finlsuidia,  then  Livonia,  and  last  of  all  Lituania.  This  country 
oF  MoHCOvy  hath  also  very  many  and  ^'Ut  rivcrn  in  it,  and  is  miirish  ground  in  man) 
places :  and  as  for  the  rivers,  the  greatest  and  most  famous  amongst  all  the  rest,  is  that, 
which  the  HuHses  in  their  own  tongue  call  Volga ;  but  others  know  it  by  the  name  of 
Rha.  Next  inito  it  in  fame  is  Tanais,  which  they  call  Don,  and  the  third  Boristhenes, 
which  at  this  day  Uicy  call  Ne|x:r.  Two  of  these,  to  wit,  Rha  and  BorisilK-nes,  issuing 
both  out  of  one  fountain,  run  ver)'  far  through  the  land :  Rha  receiving  many  other 
pleasant  rivers  int(j  it,  ami  running  from  the  very  head  or  spring  of  it  towards  the  east, 
Hfter  many  crooked  turnings  iuid  windings,  dischargeth  itself,  and  all  the  other  waters 
and  rivers  that  fall  into  it  by  divers  passages,  into  the  Caspian  Sea.  I'anais,  springing 
fmm  u  fountain  of  great  name  in  those  parts,  and  growing  great  neiu*  to  his  head, 
sorcads  itself  at  length  very  largely,  and  makes  a  great  lake  :  and  then  growing  narrow 
again,  doth  so  run  for  certain  miles,  until  it  fiilletli  itito  another  lake,  which  they  call 
Juan:  and  therehence  fetching  a  very  crooked  course,  comes  very  near  to  the  river 
V^olga  :  but  disdaining  as  it  were  the  company  of  any  other  river,  doth  thea"  turn 
itself  agiiin  from  Volga,  and  riuis  towards  the  south,  and  falls  at  last  into  the  lake  of 
Mtcotis.  Boristhenes,  which  comes  from  the  same  head  that  Rha  doth  {as  we  said  be- 
fore) carrieth  both  itself,  and  other  waters  that  are  near  unto  it,  towards  the  South, 
not  refusing  the  mixture  of  other  small  rivers  ;  and  running  by  many  great  and  large 
countries  falls  at  last  into  Pontus  Euxinus.  Besides  these  rivers,  are  also  in  Moscovy 
certain  lakes  and  pools,  the  lakes  breed  fish  by  the  celestial  influence :  and  amongst 
them  all,  the  chiefest  and  most  principal  is  rMoA  Rralozera,  which  is  very  famous  uy 
Rason  of  a  very  strong  town  built  in  it,  wherein  the  kings  of  Muai,ovy  icscivc  and 
repose  their  treasure  in  all  time  of  war  and  danger. 

Touching  the  Rhiplie.in  mnnntains,  whereupon  the  snow  lieth  continually,  and 
where  hence  in  times  past  it  was  thought  that  Tiuiais  the  river  did  spring,  and  that  the 
rest  of  the  wonders  of  nature,  which  the  Grecians  feigned  and  inventecl  of  old,  were 
there  to  be  seen  :  our  men  which  lately  came  from  thence,  neither  siiw  them  nor  yet 
have  brought  home  any  perfect  relation  of  them,  although  they  rcmained  there  for 
the  space  of  thii:e  months,  and  had  gotten  in  that  time  some  intelligence  of  the  language 
of  Moscovy.  The  whole  country  is  plain  and  champion,  and  few  hills  in  it .  and 
towards  the  north  hath  very  large  and  spacious  woods,  wherein  is  great  store  of  fir 
trees,  a  wood  very  necesSiir}-,  and  fit  for  the  building  of  houses  :  there  are  also  wild 
beasts  bred  in  those  woods,  us  bufles,  bears,  and  black  wolves,  and  another  kind  of 
Ixast  imknown  to  us,  but  called  by  tliem  Rossomakka  ;  and  the  nature  of  the  same  is 
\'erj'  rare  and  wonderful :  for  when  it  is  great  witli  young,  and  ready  to  bring  forth,  it 
\cekcth  out  some  niurow  place  between  two  stakes,  and  so  going  through  them,  pressetli 
itself,  and  by  that  means  is  eased  of  her  burden,  which  otherwise  could  not  be  done. 
They  hunt  their  bufTes  for  the  most  part  a  horseback,  but  their  bears  afoot,  with 
wooden  lorks.  'J'he  north  parts  of  the  country  arc  reported  to  be  so  cold,  that  the 
very  ice  or  water  which  distilleth  out  of  the  moist  wood  which  they  lay  upon  the  fire 
is  presently  congealed  and  frozen  :  the  diversity  groweth  suddenly  to  be  so  great,  that 
in  one  and  the  self  same  firebrimd  a  man  shall  see  both  fire  and  ice.  When  the  winter 
dolh  once  begin  there,  it  doth  still  more  and  more  increase  by  a  perpetuity  of  cold  : 
neither  doth  that  cold  slack,  until  the  force  of  the  sun  beams  doth  dissolve  the  cold,  and 
make  glad  tlic  earthy  returning  to  it  again.    Our  marinerb  which  we  left  in  the  ship  in 


K. 

y 


TO  Tiir.  Nontmiiv  pmith  or  ri>ms  am>  *inr.Hi\, 


31 


th^  mean  time  to  kcTp  it,  in  their  Q^l)ill^  up  only  tiom  tluir  cahiiis  to  the  hatclirn,  hiid 
thtir  hrcuth  oftciitiiiKs  so  Hiulilnil\  taken  auay,  that  the  v  often  llll  down  as  min  very 
near  (lead,  so  ^reat  is  the  sharpness  of  that  cold  cliinulc  :  but  its  fur  the  MiUth  |Mirtti  ul' 
tlic  country,  they  arc  v)me\vhat  mnn-  teni|K-ntte. 


Th 


or  MOHLO,  TIIK  IMIF.I'  (.ITV  OF  THK  Kt\I.IM)\|,  AM)  OK  1  MK  KMIM'-KOU   nir.llKOF 

It  rcmaineth  that  a  larj^r  discourHC  Ix:  made  of  Moseo,  the  principal  city  oC  that  coun 
tfy,  and  of  the  prince  also,  as  IxI'orc  we  have  pix)iniM  d.  The  empire  and  j^ovenuiient 
of  the  kin^;  is  very  large,  and  his  wealth  ut  this  tinu  exceediiiff  ((reat.  And  Ixcause  the 
city  of  MoHco  is  the  chicfest  of  all  the  rest,  it  setnit  th  ot  itself  to  challen^*  the  first  [)luce 
in  this  discourse.  Our  men  nay,  that  in  bif^u  ss  it  is  as  p;reut  as  the  city  of  London 
with  the  suburbs  Uiercof.  There  arc  many  and  ^'n■at  buildings  in  it,  but  for  Ixiuuly  and 
fuirnes-H  nothing  comnarable  to  oura.  There  are  many  towns  and  villages  also,  but 
built  out  of  order,  anu  with  no  h.mdsomcnesH  :  their  streets  and  wajs  are  not  paved  with 
stone  as  ours  aa* :  the  walls  (if  their  houses  iire  of  wo'xl :  the  rouh  for  the  most  pari 
are  covered  with  shingle  boards.  There  is  hard  by  the  city  a  very  fair  castle,  strong, 
and  furnished  with  artillery,  whereunto  the  city  is  joined  directly  towards  the  north  wita 
a  brick  uall :  the  walls  also  of  the  castle  arc  built  with  brick,  and  are  in  breadth  or 
thickness  eighteen  feet.  This  castle  hath  on  the  one  side  a  dry  ditch,  on  the  other  side 
the  river  Moscua,  whercliy  it  is  made  almost  inexpugnable.  The  same  Moscua  trend- 
ing towards  tlie  east  doth  admit  info  if  the  ronii)uiiy  nl  the  river  Occa. 

In  the  castle  aforesaid,  there  aiv  in  number  nine  churches,  or  chaples,  not  alto- 
gether unhandsome,  which  are  used  and  kept  by  certain  religious  men,  over  whom 
tliere  is,  after  a  sort,  a  patriarch  or  governor,  and  with  him  other  reverend  fathers,  all 
which  for  the  greater  part  dwell  within  the  cabtle.  As  fcr  Uie  king's  court  and  palace, 
it  is  not  of  the  neatest,  only  in  form  it  is  four  square,  and  of  low  building,  much  sur- 
passed  and  excelled  by  the  beauty  and  elegance  of  the  houses  of  the  kings  of  Kngland. 
The  windows  are  very  narrowly  built,  and  some  of  them  by  glass,  some  other  by 
lattices,  admit  the  light :  and  whereas  the  palaces  of  our  princes  are  decked  and  adorned 
with  hangings  of  cloth  of  gold,  there  is  none  such  there :  they  build  and  join  to  all 
their  walls  benches,  and  that  not  only  in  the  court  of  the  emperor,  but  in  all  private 
men's  houses. 

Now  after  that  they  had  remained  about  twelve  days  in  the  city,  there  was  then  a  mes- 
senger sent  unto  them,  to  bring  them  to  the  king's  house  :  and  they  being  after  a  sort 
wearied  with  their  long  stay,  were  very  ready  and  willing  so  to  do  :  and  being  entered 
widun  the  gates  of  the  court,  there  sat  a  very  honounible  company  of  courtiers,  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred,  all  apparelled  in  cloth  of  gold,  down  to  their  ancles  :  and  there 
hence  being  conducted  into  the  chamljer  of  presence,  our  men  began  to  wonder  at  the 
majesty  of  the  emperor :  his  seat  was  aloft,  in  a  very  royal  throne,  having  on  his  head 
a  diadem,  or  crown  of  gold,  apparelled  with  a  robe  all  of  goldsmith's  work,  and  in, 
his  hand  he  held  a  sceptre  garnished  and  beset  with  precious  stones :  and  t)csides  all 
other  notes  and  appearances  of  honour,  there  was  a  majesty  in  his  countenance  pro- 
portionabie  with  the  excellency  of  his  estate :  on  ihe  one  side  of  him  stood  his  chief 
secretary,  on  the  other  side  the  great  commander  of  silence,  both  of  them  arrayed  also 
in  cloth  of  gold  ;  and  then  there  sat  die  council  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  number, 
all  in  like  sort  arrayed,  and  of  great  state.  This  so  honourable  an  assembly,  so  great  a 
majesty  of  the  emperor,  and  of  the  place,  might  very  well  have  amazed  our  men,  and 


•l 
I 


i 

'» 


33  voYAoi'.!!  or  •tilt  iiroii  utUiOrcimv  and  oTitrnii, 

Iwvc  dnnhcd  them  out  of  counttn;iiH »•  ;  lint  notwitiiVandiiiff  Muster  Clianrdor,  iK'lnp; 
therewithal  nothing;  diimiiycd,  siihitcd,  luid  did  hin  dutv  to  tnc  i mtK-ror,  after  thf  man- 
ner of  Knulanfl,  and  withal  dLlivcnd  unto  him  ilu-  Icitert  of  our  kinp;,  Kdwnrd  ihr 
Sixth.     The  in)|K:ror  haviiin;  token,  and  n*ad  the  IcttifH,  Ix'^an  a  little  to  (|iH-itioiiuith 
thc-m,  and  to  ask  ihcm  of  the  urlfan*  of  onr  king:   whcn.'unto  our  men  answcnd  him 
directly,  aiul  in  fiw   uordi:  hereupon  our  men  pasented  something  t(«  the  em|Kn>r, 
by  the  chief  secretary,  whici>,  at  the  delivery  of  it,  put  oft'  his  hat,  biing  afore  all  the 
time  eo\en(I :  and  ho  the  emperor  having  invited  then\  to  dinner,  dismissed  them  from 
Itis  |)rev me  :   and  going  into  the  chamlKT  of  him  that  was  master  of  the  re(|U<'sts  to 
the  empen)r,  aiul  having  staid  there  the  space  of  two  hours,  at  the  last  the  messenger 
comelh,  and  calleth  them  to  dinner :  they  go,  and  iK'ing  coixhicted  into  the  golden 
court  (for  so  they  call  it,  ahhough  not  very  fair)  they  find  the  emperor  sitting  upon 
nil  high  and  stately  seat,  apparelled  with  a  rohe  of  silver,  and  with  another  diailem  on 
his  head  :  our  men  tx:ing  placed  over  against  him,  sit  down  :  in  the  midst  of  the  room 
sto<xl  a  mighty  cupboard  unon  a  Mjuare  f(K)t,  wheaiipon  stood  also  a  round  l)oard,  in 
manner  of  a  diamond,  brojul  beneath,  and  towards  the  top  narrow,  and  every  step  rose 
up  more  narrow  than  another.     Upon  this  cupboard  was  placed  the  emperor's  plate, 
wliich  wiw  so  nuich,  that  the  very  cuplK)ard  itself  was  scant  able  to  sustain  the  weight  of 
it :  the  bcttir  part  of  all  the  vessels,  and  goblets,   was  made  of  very  fine  gold :  and 
among  the  rest,  there  were  four  i)ots  of  very  largx;  bigju  ss,  which  did  adorn  the  rest  of 
the  |)late  in  great  measure  :  for  they  were  so  high,  that  they  thought  them  at  the  least 
five  feet  long.     The»e  were  aloo  upon  thio  uupboinxl  uurtuin  silver  casks,  not  much 
iliftering  from  the  mianlity  of  our  firkins,  wherein  was  reserved  the  emperor's  drink : 
on  each  side  of  the  Ivall  st(Kxl  four  tables,  each  of  Uiem  laid  and  covered  with  very  clean 
t;jble  cloths,  whereuntr  the  company  ascended  by  three  steps  or  decrees :  all  which 
were  filled  with  the  assembly  present :  the  g'lests  were  all  appanlled  with  linen  without, 
and  with  rich  skins  wiUiin,  and  so  did  not^-lily  set  out  this  royal  feast.     The  emjKTor, 
when  he  takes  any  bread  or  knife  in  his  laxivl,  doth  first  of  all  cross  himself  upon  his 
forehead :  they  that  are  in  special  favour  wha  the  emiKror  sit  upon  the  same  IxMich  with 
him,  but  somewhat  far  from  him  :  and  lx:ibrc  the  coming  in  of  the  meat,  the  emperor 
himself,  according  to  an  ancient  custom  of  the  kings  of  Moscovy,  dodi  first  Ixjstow  a 
piece  of  bread  upon  every  one  of  his  guests,  with  a  loud  pronunciation  of  his  tide,  and 
honour,  in  this  manner ;  the  great  duke  of  Moscovy,  imd  chief  emperor  of  Russia, 
John  Basiliwich  (and  then  the  officer  nameth  the  guest)  doth  give  thee  bread.     Wherc- 
\\[iOtt  all  the  guests  rise  tip,  and  by  and  by  sit  down  again.     This  done,  the  jTcndeman 
usher  of  the  hall  comes  in  with  a  notable  company  of  servants,  carrying  the  dishes,  and 
having  done  his  reverence  to  the  emperor,  puts  a  young  swan  in  a  golden  platter  upon 
the  *'ible,  and  immediately  takes  it  thence  again,  delivering  it  to  the  carver,  and  seven 
other  of  his  fellows,  to  Ix:  cut  up  :  which  being  performed,  the  meat  is  then  distributed 
to  the  guests,  with  the  like  pomp  and  ceremonies.     In  the  mean  time,  the  genUeman 
usher  receives  his  bread,  and  lasteth  to  the  emperor,  and  afterward,  having  done  his 
re\'ercnce,  he  depiirteth.     Touching  the  rest  of  the  dishes,  because  they  were  brought  in 
out  of  order,  our  men  can  report  no  certainty  :  but  this  is  true,  that  all  the  furniture  of 
dishes,  and  drinking  vessels,  which  were  then  for  the  use  of  a  hundred  guests,  was  all  of 
pure  gold,  and  the  tobies  were  so  laden  with  vessels  of  gold,  that  there  was  no  room 
for  some  to  stand  upon  them. 

Wc  may  not  forget  that  there  were  one  hundred  and  forty  servitors  arrayed  in  cloth 
of  gold,  that  in  the  dinner  time  changed  thrice  their  habif  and  apparel,  which  servitors 


■.••V 


TO  Tiir.  Nonriirns  i'ahti  c»^•  ni'isfA  avd  smr.iKA 


S3 


V  man- 
iird  ihc 
toil  with 
ni\  liiin 
in|K-n)r, 
all  the 
in  from 
iKsts  to 

f^oldcn 

)if  upon 

ickm  oil 

he  room 

H):ucl,  ill 

hU[t  rose 

's  platf, 

■vx'iglit  of 

)1(1 :  unci 

ic  rest  of 

the  Itiist 

ot  much 

s  drink : 

cr}'  clean 

all  which 

I  without, 

emperor, 

upon  his 

:nch  with 

;  cmpcroi 

bestow  a 

tide,  and 

•f  Russia, 

Wherc- 

jcndeman 

ishes,  and 

itter  upon 

and  seven 

istributcd 

^enUeman 

done  his 

)rought  in 

rniture  of 

was  all  of 

>  no  room 

d  in  cloth 
1  servitors 


arc  in  likr  sort  terved  with  bread  iWxii  ilu-  eiiineror,  an  the  rent  of  the  p;uenti.  Laht  of 
all,  dinner  iK-iiif;  ended,  and  candles  bion^fit  m  (for  by  tliit  time  iii^ht  w.ih  come)  the 
emperor  ealleth  all  his  muils  and  iiobU  nun  b\  ihiir  nanus,  in  siu:h  sort,  that  it  neemsi 
miraeuloUH  that  a  prince,  otherwise  oeciipied  in  great  matteni  of  estate,  should  so  well 
rememlnr  so  many  and  sundry  particular  iiaineH.  'I'lu:  Kiisseit  told  our  men,  that  the 
reason  thereof,  as  also  of  the  iKstowing  of  bread  in  that  in  inner,  was  to  the  end  that  the 
empc  mr  might  keep  the  knowledge  f)f  his  own  household  :  luid  wittutl,  that  hucIi  ;ts 
are  under  hid  diitplciuiurc  might  by  tliis  mcan^  Ix:  known, 

Ol'  TIIR  DWeil'I.INK  OP  WAR  A  MONO  TIIR  IltTNJIKII. 

Whensoever  the  injuries  of  their  neighbours  do  call  the  king  forth  to  battle,  he 
never  armeth  a  less  numlK'r  avainst  the  enemy  than  three  liuiidred  thousand  soldiers, 
one  hundred  thousiuid  whereol  he  carrieth  out  into  the  field  with  him,  and  leaveth  the 
reM  in  garrison  in  some  fit  places,  for  the  Initter  safety  of  his  empire.  He  ptesseth  no 
husbaimman  nor  merchant ;  for  the  country  is  so  populous,  that  these  being  left  at  home, 
the  } outh  of  the  realm  is  sulHeient  for  all  his  wars.  As  many  as  go  out  to  wariiuv  do 
provide  all  things  of  their  own  cost :  they  fight  not  on  fool,  but  altogether  on  horse, 
back  :  their  ;irmour  is  u  coat  of  mail  and  a  lu-lnut :  the  c;oat(jf  mail  is  gilded,  or  else 
adorned  with  silk,  aliliough  it  pvrtaiii  to  a  conunon  soldier  :  they  have  a  great  pride  in 
shewing  their  weal  !<  .  they  I'.ie  bows  and.iiTows,  astlie  Turks  do  :  they  carry  lances 
also  into  the  field.  They  ride  with  a  short  siirrup,  after  the  manner  of  the  Turks.  They 
are  a  kind  of  jK-ople  most  sparii^r  in  diet,  and  most  patient  in  extreraUy  of  col*'.,  above 
all  others ;  for  when  tlie  ground  Is  covered  with  snow,  and  is  grown  terrible  and  hard 
with  tlie  frost,  thli  Husse  hangs  up  his  mantle,  or  soldier's  coat,  against  that  part  from 
whence  the  wind  and  snow  drives,  and  so  making  a  little  firc,  licth  down  with  his  back 
towards  the  weather :  this  mantle  of  his  serves  him  for  his  bed,  wall,  house  and  all :  his 
drink  is  cold  water  of  the  river,  mingled  with  oatmeal,  and  this  is  all  his  good  cheer, 
and  he  thinketh  himself  well  and  daintily  fed  therewith,  and  so  sitteth  down  by  his  iire, 
and  uiK)n  the  hard  ground  roasteth  as  it  were  his  w  eiuy  sides  thus  daintily  stuffed ;  th« 
hard  ground  is  his  feat)ier.bed,  and  some  block  or  stone  his  pillow  :  and  as  for  his  norse, 
he  is  as  it  were  a  chamber  fellow  with  his  master,  faring  both  alike.  How  justly  may 
this  barbarous  and  rude  Russe  condemn  the  daintiness  and  niceness  of  our  capt  lins,  who, 
living  in  a  soil  and  air  much  more  tem[jerate,  yet  commonly  use  furred  bcx)ts  and  clc»aks  ! 
But  thus  much  of  the  furniture  of  their  common  soldiers.  But  those  that  are  of  higher 
degrees  come  into  the  field  a  little  better  provided.  As  for  the  furniture  of  the  emperor 
himself,  it  is  then  above  all  other  times  most  notable.  The  coverings  of  his  tent,  for 
the  most  part,  lu-e  all  of  gold,  adorned  with  stones  of  great  price,  and  with  the  curious 
workmanship  of  plumasiers.  As  often  as  they  are  to  ihlimish  with  the  enemy,  they  go 
forth  without  any  order  at  iill :  they  make  no  wings,  nor  military  divisions  of  their  jnen, 
as  we  do,  but  lying  for  the  most  part  in  ambush,  do  suddenly  set  upon  the  enemy. 
Their  horses  can  well  abstain  two  whole  days  from  any  meat :  they  feed  upon  the  barks 
of  trees,  and  the  most  tender  branches,  in  all  the  time  of  war.  And  this  scant  and  mi- 
serable  inrmner  of  living  both  the  horse  and  his  master  can  well  endure,  sometimes  for 
the  spac;  of  two  months,  lusty  and  in  good  state  of  bodj-.  If  any  man  behave  himself 
valianily  in  the  field,  to  the  contentation  of  the  emperor,  he  bestoweth  upon  him  in  re- 
comijense  of  bis  service  some  farm,  or  so  much  ground  as  he  and  his  vnuy  live  upon, 
which  notwithstanding  after  his  death  returneth  again  to  the  emperor,  il'  he  die  without 

▼OL.    I.  F 


1 


04 


VOYAGES  OP  SIR  UVV.U  WILLOUGIIBY  AND  OTIlFJtS, 


i 


i 


a  male  issue.  For  although  his  daughters  be  never  sc  many,  yet  no  part  of  that  inherit- 
ance comes  to  them,  except  peradventure  the  emperor  of  his  goodness  give  some  por- 
tion of  the  land  amongst  tliem,  toIx;sto\v  them  vithal.  As  for  the  man,  whosoever  he 
be,  that  is  in  this  sort  rewarded  by  the  emperor's  liberality,  he  is  bound  in  a  great  sum 
to  maintain  so  many  soldiers  for  the  war  when  nted  shall  require,  as  that  land,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  emperor,  is  able  to  maintain.  And  all  those  to  whom  any  land  falls  by- 
inheritance  are  in  no  better  condition  ,  for  if  they  die  without  any  male  issue,  all  their 
lands  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  emperor.  And  moreover,  if  there  be  any  rich  man 
amongst  them,  who  in  his  own  |x.'rson  is  unfit  for  the  wars,  and  yet  hath  such  wealth, 
that  thereby  many  noblemen  and  warriors  might  be  maintained,  if  any  of  the  courtiers 
present  his  name  to  the  emperor,  the  luihappy  man  is  by  and  by  sent  for,  and  in  that 
instant  deprived  of  all  his  riches,  which  with  gi-eat  pains  and  trav;.il  all  his  lifetime  he 
hath  flatten  together ;  except  perhaps  stjme  small  (Xirtion  thereof  be  left  him,  to  main- 
tain his  wife,  children,  and  family.  But  all  this  is  done  of  all  the  people  so  willingly 
at  the  emperor's  commandment,  that  a  man  would  think  tht'y  rather  make  restitution 
of  other  men's  goods,  than  give  that  which  is  their  own  to  other  men.  Now  the  em  • 
peror  having  taken  these  goods  into  his  hands,  bestoweth  them  among  his  courtiers 
according  to  their  deserts ;  and  the  oftf.ner  that  a  man  is  sent  to  the  wars,  the  more 
favour  he  thinketh  is  borne  to  him  by  the  emperor,  althcighhe  go  upon  his  own  ehaige, 
as  I  said  before  ;  so  great  is  the  obedience  cf  all  men  gfierally  to  their  prince. 

OF  THK  AMBASSADORS  OF  TMK  F,>lPKROIl  OK  MOSCOW. 

The  Moscovite,  with  no  less  pomp  and  magnificence  than  that  which  we  have  spoken 
of,  sends  his  ambassadors  to  foreign  princes  in  the  ;. (Fairs  of  estate.  For  while  our  men 
were  abiding  in  the  city  of  Mosco,  there  were  two  ambassadors  sent  to  the  king  of  Poland, 
accompanied  with  five  hundred  notable  horses,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  men  were 
arrayed  in  cloth  of  gold,  iuid  of  silk,  and  the  worst  apparel  was  of  garments  of  blue 
coloni ,  to  speak  nothing  of  the  trappings  of  the  horses,  which  were  adorned  with  gold 
a'ld  silver,  and  very  curiously  embroidered :  they  had  also  with  them  one  hundred 
.  I'hite  and  fair  spare  horses,  to  use  them  at  such  times  as  any  weariness  came  upon  them. 
hjit  now  the  time  re(juireth  me  to  speak  briefly  of  other  cities  of  the  Moscovitcs,  and  of 
the  wares  and  commodities  that  the  country  yieldeth. 

NOVOr.ORODE. 

Next  unto  Mosco,  the  city  of  Novogorode  ib  reputed  the  chiefest  of  Russia ;  for  al- 
though  it  be  in  majesty  inferior  to  it,  yet  in  greatness  it  goeth  beyond  it.  It  is  the  chiefest 
and  greatest  mart  town  of  idl  Moscovy  :  and  iJbeit  the  emperor's  seat  is  not  there,  but 
at  Mosco,  yet  the  commodiousness  of  the  river,  falling  into  .that  gulf  which  is  called 
Sinus  Finnicus,  whereby  it  is  weil  frequented  by  merchants,  makes  it  more  famous  than 
Mosco  itself.  This  to\vn  excels  all  the  rest  in  the  commodities  of  flax  and  hemp  :  it 
yields  also  hides,  honey,  and  wax.  The  Flemings  there  sometimes  h;>d  a  hous<'  of  mer- 
chandise, but  by  reason  that  the  y  used  the  like  ill-dealing  there,  which  they  did  with  us, 
they  lost  their  privileges,  a  res''.tution  whereof  thev  earnestly  sued  for  at  the  time  that  our 
men  were  there.  But  those  Flemings  hearing  of  the  arrival  of  our  men  in  those  parts, 
v/rote  their  letters  to  the  emjieror  against  them,  accusing  them  for  pirates  and  rovers, 
wishing  h'«m  to  detain  and  imprison  them.  Which  things  when  they  were  known  r  £  our 
men,  they  conceived  fear  that  they  should  never  have  returned  home.    But  the  erapercr 


(• 


.l--"«fe^ 


hat  inherit- 
somt'  por- 
losoevcr  he 
great  sum 
unci,  in  the 
incl  falls  by 
Lit',  all  their 
y  rich  man 
iich  wealth, 
le  courtiers 
anil  in  that 
lifetime  he 
m,  to  main- 
so  willingly 
;  restitution 
bw  the  em  • 
lis  courtiers 
i,  the  more 
)wii  chiuge, 
cc. 


lave  spoken 
lile  o\ir  men 
g  of  Poland, 
e  men  were 
;nts  of  blue 
d  with  gold 
mc  hundred 
upon  them, 
vites,  and  of 


ssia;  for  al- 
>  the  chiefest 
It  there,  but 
ich  is  called 
famous  thar. 
id  hemp :  it 
)usr*  of  mer- 
did  with  us, 
time  that  our 
those  parts, 
and  rovers, 
Lnown  riour 
the  ernperci- 


TO  THE  \OnTllF.RN  TARTS  OF  RUSSIA  ANH  SIRRRIA. 


35 


believing  rather  the  king's  letters,  which  our  men  brought,  than  the  lying  and  false  sug. 
gtstions  of  the  Flemings,  used  no  ill  inireaty  towards  them. 

VKRASLaVB. 

Yeraslave  also  is  a  town  of  some  good  fame,  for  the  commodities  of  hides,  tallow, 
and  ( om,  which  it  yields  'ii  great  abundance.  Cakes  of  wax  are  there  also  to  be  sold, 
although  other  places  have  greater  store.  This  Yeraslave  is  distant  from  Mosco  about 
two  hundred  miles;  ar.ci  betwixt  them  are  many  populous  villages.  Their  fields  yield 
such  store  of  corn,  th;<tin  conveying  it  towards  Mosco,  sometimes  m  a  torenoon  a  man 
shall  sec  seven  hundred  or  eight  hundred  sleds  going  and  coming,  laden  widi  corn  and 
salt  fish :  the  people  come  a  thousand  miles  to  Mosco  to  buy  that  corn,  and  then  carry 
it  away  upon  sleds  ;  and  these  are  tho^e  people  that  dwell  in  the  orth  parts,  where  the 
cold  is  so  terrible,  that  no  corn  doth  gro\v  there,  or  if  it  sprl,;^  .,  it  never  comes  to 
ripeness.     The  commodities  that  they  bring  with  them  are  salt  fi  ih ,  skins,  and  hides. 

VOLOGDA. 

Vologda,  being  from  Mosco  five  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  yields  the  commodities  of 
hemp  and  flax  also ;  although  the  greatest  store  of  flax  is  sold  at  Novogorode. 

I'LESCO. 

The  town  of  Plesco  is  frequented  of  merchants  for  the  good  store  of  honey  and  wax 
that  it  yieldeth. 

COLMAGRO. 

The  north  parts  of  Russia  yield  very  rare  and  precious  skins;  and  amongst  the  rest 
those  principally  which  we  call  sables,  worn  about  the  necks  of  our  noble  women  and 
ladies  :  it  hath  also  martin's  skins,  white,  black,  and  red  fox  skins,  skms  of  hares,  and 
ermine.,  luid  others,  which  they  call  iuid  term  barbarously,  as  beavers,  minxes,  and 
minivers.  The  sea  adjoining  breeds  a  certain  beast  which  they  call  the  mors,  which 
seeketh  his  food  upon  the  rocks,  climbing  up  with  the  help  of  his  teeth.  The  Russes 
use  to  take  them  for  the  great  virtue  that  is  in  their  teeth,  whereof  they  mAc  us  great 
accompt  as  we  do  of  the  elephaMt's  tooth.  These  commodities  they  carry  upon  dcers' 
backs  to  the  town  of  Lampas,  and  from  thence  to  Colmagro,  and  there  in  the  winter 
time  are  kept  great  fairs  for  the  sale  of  them.  This  city  of  Colmagro  serves  all  the 
country  about  it  with  salt  and  salt  fish.  The  Russians  also  of  the  north  paits  send  thither 
oil  which  they  call  trane,  which  they  make  in  a  river  called  Una,  although  it  be  also 
made  elsewhere  :  and  here  they  use  to  boil  the  water  of  the  sea,  whereof  they  make 
very  great  store  of  salt. 

OF  CONTROVF,RSn-S  IN  LAW,  AND  HOW  THEY  ARE  ENDED. 

Having  hitherto  spoken  so  much  of  the  chiefest  cities  of  Russia  as  the  matter  re- 
quired, itremaineth  that  we  speak  somewhat  of  the  laws  that  the  Moscov?tes  do  use,  as 
far  forth  as  the  same  are  come  to  our  knowledge.  If  any  controversy  arise  among 
them,  they  first  make  their  landlords  judges  in  the  matter;  and  if  they  cannot  end  it, 
then  they  i>refer  it  to  tlie  magistrate.    The  plaintiiF  craveth  of  the  stud  magistrate  tliat 


3G 


VOYAGES  OP  SIR  IIUOII  WILLOUGHBY  AND  OTHF^RS, 


he  may  have  leave  to  enter  law  against  his  adversary ;  and  having  obtained  it,  the  officer 
fctchcth  the  defendant,  and  beateth  him  on  the  legs  till  he  bring  forth  a  surety  for  him ; 
but  if  he  be  not  of  such  credit  as  to  procure  a  surety,  then  are  his  hands  by  an  officer 
tied  to  his  neck,  and  he  is  beaten  all  the  way  till  he  come  before  the  judge.  The  judge 
then  asketh  him  (as  for  example  in  the  matter  of  debt)  whether  he  oweth  any  thing  to 
the  plaintiff.  If  he  denies  it,  then  saith  the  Judge,  how  canst  thou  deny  it  ?  the  defendant 
answereth,  by  an  oath :  thereupon  the  officer  is  commanded  to  cease  from  beating  of 
him,  until  the  matter  be  further  tried.  They  have  no  lawyers,  but  every  man  ia  hb 
own  advocate,  and  both  the  complaint  of  the  accuser,  and  the  answer  of  the  defendant, 
are  in  manner  of  petition  delivered  to  the  emperor,  intreating  justice  at  his  hands. 
The  emperor  himself  heareth  every  great  controversy,  and  upon  the  hearing  of  it  giveth 
judgment,  and  ihat  with  great  equity,  which  I  take  to  be  a  thing  worthy  of  special  com- 
mendation  in  the  n.ijesty  of  a  prince.  But  although  he  do  this  with  a  good  purpose  of 
mind,  yet  the  corrupt  magistrates  do  wonderfully  pervert  the  same  ;  but  if  the  *;mperor 
take  them  in  any  fault,  he  doth  punish  them  most  severely.  Now  at  the  last  wh'"i  each 
party  hath  defended  hi;  cause  with  his  best  reasons,  the  judge  demandeth  o' '  "^  cr 

whether  he  hath  any  more  to  say  for  himself;  he  answereth,  that  he  will  try  fac  matter 
in  fight  by  his  champion,  or  else  intreateth  that  in  fight  betwixt  themselv  a  the  matter 
may  be  ended ;  which  being  granted,  they  both  fight  it  out :  or  if  both  of  them,  c" 
either  of  them,  seem  unfit  for  that  kind  of  trial,  then  they  have  public  champions  to  be 
.  jrcd,  which  live  by  ending  of  quarrels.  These  champions  are  armed  with  iron  axes 
and  spears,  and  fight  on  foot,  and  he  whose  champion  is  overcome  is  by  and  by  taken 
and  imprisoned,  and  terribly  handled,  until  he  agreeth  with  his  adversary.  But  if  either 
of  them  be  of  any  good  o'illing  and  degree,  and  do  challenge  one  anodier  to  fight,  the 
judge  grantech  it ;  in  which  case  they  may  not  use  public  champions :  and  he  that  is  of 
any  good  birth  doth  contemn  the  other,  if  he  be  basely  bom,  and  will  not  fight  with 
him.  If  a  poor  man  happen  to  grow  in  debt,  his  creditor  takes  him  and  maketh  him 
pay  the  debt,  in  working  either  to  himself,  or  to  some  other  man,  whose  wages  he  taketh 
up.  And  there  are  some  an.ong  them  that  use  willingly  to  make  themselves,  their  wives, 
and  children,  bond-slaves  unto  rich  men,  to  have  a  little  money  at  the  first  into  their 
hiuids,  and  so  for  ever  after  content  themselves  with  meat  and  chink ;  so  little  accompC 
do  they  make  of  liberty. 


OF  PUNISHMENTS  UPON  THIEVES. 


If  any  man  be  taken  upon  committing  of  dieft,  he  is  imprisoned  and  often  beaten, 
but  not  hanged  for  the  first  offence,  as  the  manner  is  with  us ;  and  this  they  call  the 
law  of  mercy.  He  that  ofFendeth  the  second  time  hath  his  nose  cut  off,  and  is  burned 
in  the  forehead  with  a  hot  iron.  The  third  time  he  is  hanged.  There  are  many  cut- 
purses  among  them ;  and  if  the  rigour  of  the  prince  did  not  cut  them  cfT,  they  could 
not  be  avoided. 


OF  THEIR  RELIGION. 


/  * 


'I 


They  maintain  the  opinions  of  the  Greek  church :  they  suffer  no  graven  images  oi 
saints  in  their  churches,  but  their  pictures  painted  in  tables  they  have  in  great  abund- 
ance, which  they  do  adore  and  offer  unto,  and  bum  wax  candles  before  them,  and  cast 
holy  wster  upon  them  without  other  honour.  They  say  that  ou/  imrges  which  are  set 
up  in  churches  and  carved  have  no  divinity  in  them.    In  their  private  hoises  diey  liave 


TO  TFIF.  XOUTIIF.nN  PAIITS  OP  IIUSSIA  A\F)  SmRRIA. 


3: 


the  officer 

for  him ; 

an  officer 
rhe  judge 
y  thing  to 
defendant 
beating  of 
[nan  xa  his 
defendant, 
his  hands. 
)f  it  giveth 
ecial  com- 
jurpose  of 

emperor 
wh' n  each 
'-"?  n.  '.xr 
iac  matter 
the  matter 
f  them,  c" 
>ions  to  be 

iron  axes 
i  by  taken 
lut  if  either 

fight,  the 
le  that  is  of 

fight  with 
laketh  him 
s  he  taketh 
heir  wives, 
t  into  their 
le  accompC 


ten  beaten, 

ey  call  the 

d  is  burned 

many  cut- 

ihty  could 


k  images  oi 
reat  abund> 
n,  and  cast 
lich  are  set 
js  they  have 


images  for  their  household  saints,  and  for  the  most  part  they  iirc  put  in  the  daikcst  place 
of  the  house :  he  that  comes  into  his  neighbour's  house  doth  first  suluic  hi:>  siiiius, 
although  he  sec  them  not.  If  any  form  or  stool  stand  in  his  way,  he  olkiitinKs  bcatcth 
his  brow  upon  the  sjime,  and  often  ducking  down  with  his  head  and  body,  wt^rahinpcth 
the  chief  image.  The  habit  and  attire  of  the  priests  and  of  the  laymen  doth  nothing  at 
all  differ.  As  for  marriage,  it  is  forbidden  to  no  man,  only  this  is  received  and  lukl 
amongst  them  for  a  rule  and  custom,  tliat  if  u  priest' i  wife  doth  die,  he  may  not  murry 
again,  nor  take  a  second  wife;  and  there  ore  they  of  secular  priests,  as  they  call  them, 
are  made  monks,  to  whom  then  chastity  for  ever  is  commanded.  Their  divine  service 
is  all  done  and  said  in  their  own  language,  that  every  man  may  understand  it :  they  re- 
ceive the  Lord's  supper  with  leavened  bread,  and  after  the  consecration  they  carry  it 
about  the  church  in  a  saucer,  and  prohibit  no  man  from  receiving  and  taking  of  it  that 
is  willing  so  to  do.  They  use  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  and  read  both  in 
their  own  language,  but  so  confusedly,  that  they  themselves  that  do  read  understand  not 
what  themselves  do  say  ;  and  while  any  part  of  either  Testament  is  read,  there  is  liberty 
given  by  custom  to  prattle,  talk,  and  make  a  noise  :  but  in  the  time  of  the  rest  of  the 
service  they  use  very  great  silence  and  reverence,  and  behave  themselves  very  motlcstlj', 
and  in  good  sort.  As  touching  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  tenth  man  amongst  them  knows 
it  not ;  and  for  the  articles  of  our  fiuth,  and  the  ten  commandments,  no  man,  or  at  the 
least  very  few  of  them,  do  either  know  them  or  can  say  them ;  their  opinion  is, 
that  such  secret  and  holy  things  as  they  are  should  not  rashly  and  imprudently  be  com- 
municated with  the  common  people.  They  hold  for  a  maxim  amongst  them,  that  the 
old  law  and  the  commandments  also  are  abolished  by  the  death  and  blood  of  Christ : 
all  studies  and  letters  of  humanity  they  utterly  refuse :  concerning  the  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Hebrew  tongues,  they  are  altogether  ignorant  in  them. 

Every  year  they  celebrate  four  several  fasts,  which  they  call  according  to  the  names 
of  the  sdnts.  The  first  begins  with  them  at  the  time  that  our  Lent  begins;  the  second 
is  called  amongst  them  the  fast  of  St.  Peter ;  the  third  is  taken  from  the  day  of  the 
Virgin  Mary ;  and  the  fourth  and  last  begins  upon  St.  Philip's  day.  But  as  we  begin 
our  Lent  upon  Wednesday,  so  they  begin  th<'irs  upon  the  Sunday.  Upon  the  Saturday 
they  eat  flesh.  Whensoever  any  of  those  fasting  feasts  do  d/aw  near,  look  what  week 
doth  immediatelv  go  before  them,  the  same  week  they  live  altogether  ujwn  white  meats ; 
and  in  their  common  language  they  call  those  weeks  the  fast  of  butter. 

In  the  time  of  their  fasts,  the  neighbours  everywhere  go  from  one  to  another,  and 
visit  one  another,  and  kiss  one  juiother  with  kisses  of  peace,  in  token  of  their  mutual  love 
and  christian  concord ;  and  then  also  they  do  more  often  than  at  any  other  time  go  to 
the  holy  communion.  When  seven  days  are  past  from  the  be^nning  of  the  fast,  then 
they  do  often  either  go  to  their  churches,  or  keep  themselves  at  home  and  use  often 
prayer ;  and  for  that  sevennight  they  eat  nothing  but  herbs :  but  after  that  seven- 
night's  fast  is  once  past,  then  they  return  to  their  old  intemperance  of  drinking,  for 
they  are  notable  tosspots.  As  for  the  keeping  of  their  fasting  daj'S,  they  do  it  very 
straightly  ;  neither  do  they  eat  any  thing  besides  herbs  and  sah  fish  as  long  as  those 
fasting  days  do  endure ;  but  upon  every  Wednesday  and  Friday  in  every  week  through- 
out the  year  they  fast. 

There  are  very  many  monasteries  of  the  order  of  St.  Benedict  amongst  them,  to 
which  many  great  livings  for  their  maintenance  do  belong ;  for  the  friars  and  the  monks 
do  at  the  least  possess  the  third  part  of  the  livings  througnout  the  whole  Moscovite  em- 
pire.   To  those  m(xiks  that  are  of  this  order  tl^re  is  amongst  them  a  perpetual  prohi- 


38 


A  OYAGES  OP  Sm  IUtOTI  WIM.OtTfJiinY  AVD  OTHF.nS, 


•  I 


hition  that  they  may  eat  no  flesh,  and  therefore  their  meat  is  onl^  salt  fish,  milk,  and  but- 
ter ;  neither  is  it  pennitted  them  by  the  laws  and  customs  of  their  nlif^on  to  eat  any  fresh 
fish  at  all ;  and  at  those  four  Histing  times  whereof  we  spake  before,  they  eat  no  fish  at 
all,  only  they  live  with  herbs  :ind  eucumbers,  whi<;h  they  do  eontinuiilly  for  that  pur- 
pose cause  and  take  order  to  grow  and  spring,  for  their  use  and  diet. 

As  for  tiieir  drink,  it  is  very  weak  and  small.  For  the  discharge  of  theif  office,  they 
do  every  day  say  service,  and  that  eiu^ly  in  the  morning  before  day ;  and  they  do  in  such 
sort,  and  with  such  obser\'ation,  begin  ihcir  service,  that  they  will  be  sure  to  make  an 
end  of  it  before  day ;  and  about  nine  of  the  clock  in  the  morning  they  celebrate  the 
communion.  When  they  have  so  done,  they  go  to  dinner,  and  after  dinner  they  go  again 
to  service,  and  the  like  i '  c  after  biijjpcr ;  and  in  the  mean  time,  while  they  are  at  ditiner, 
there  is  some  ex)X)sition    f      '    pretation  of  the  gospel  used. 

Whensoever  any  abbot  o.  monastery  dieth,  the  emperor  taketh  all  his  household 
stuff,  beasts,  flocks  of  sheep,  g-.ij,  silver,  and  all  that  he  hath ;  or  else  he  that  is  to  succeed 
him  in  his  place  and  dignity  doth  redeem  all  those  things,  and  buyeth  them  of  the  em- 
peror for  money. 

Th(;ir  churches  are  built  of  timber,  and  the  towers  of  their  churches,  for  the  most 
part,  are  covered  ^vith  shingle  boards.  At  the  doors  of  their  churches  they  usually 
iniild  some  entrance  or  porch,  as  we  do;  and  in  their  church  yards  they  erect  a  certain 
hous«  of  wood,  ;vlierein  they  set  up  their  bells,  wherein  sometimes  they  have  but  one, 
in  some  two,  and  in  some  also  three. 

There  is  one  use  and  custom  amongst  them  which  is  strange  and  rare,  but  yet  it  is 
very  ridiculous,  and  that  is  this :  when  any  man  dieth  amongst  them,  they  take  the  dead 
body  and  put  it  in  a  coffin  or  chest,  and  in  the  hand  of  the  corpse  they  put  a  little  scrawl, 
and  in  the  same  there  are  these  words  written,  that  the  same  man  died  a  Russe  of  Russes, 
having  received  the  faith,  and  died  in  the  same.  This  writing  or  'etter,  they  say,  they 
send  to  St.  Peter,  who  receiving  it  (as  they  affirm)  reads  it,  and  by  and  by  admits  him 
into  heaven,  and  that  his  glory  and  place  is  higher  and  greater  than  the  glory  of  the 
christians  of  the  Latin  church,  reputing  themselves  to  be  followers  of  a  more  sincere 
faith  and  religion  than  they :  they  hold  opinion  that  wc  are  but  half  christians,  ancT 
themselves  only  to  be  the  true  and  perfect  church.  These  are  the  foolish  and  childish 
dotages  of  such  ignorant  barbarians. 

OF  THE  MOSCOVITES  THAT  ARE  IDOLATERS,  DWELLING  NEAR  TO  TARTARIA, 

There  is  a  certain  part  of  Moscovy,  bordering  upon  the  countries  of  the  Tartars, 
wherein  those  Moscovites  that  dwell  are  very  great  idolaters.  They  have  CMie  famous 
idol  amongst  them,  which  they  call  the  golden  old  wife  ;  and  they  have  a  custom  that 
whensoever  any  plague  or  any  calamity  doth  afflict  the  country,  as  hunger,  war,  or  such 
like,  then  they  go  to  consult  with  their  idol,  which  they  do  after  this  manner :  they  fall 
down  prostrate  before  the  idol,  and  pray  unto  it^  and  put  in  the  presence  of  the  same  a 
cymbal ;  and  about  the  same  certain  persons  stand,  which  are  chosen  amongst  them  by 
lot ;  upon  their  cymbal  they  place  a  silver  toad,  and  sound  the  cymbal,  and  to  whom- 
soever of  those  lotted  persons  that  toad  goeth,  he  is  taken,  and  by  and  by  slain  ;  and  im- 
mediately, I  know  not  by  what  illusions  of  the  devil  or  idol,  he  is  again  restored  to  life, 
and  then  doth  reveal  and  deliver  the  causes  of  the  present  calamity.  And  by  this  means 
kno\ving  how  to  pacify  the  idol,  they  are  delivr  i«d  from  the  imminent  danger. 


TO  THE  NOnTlfERN  PARTS  OF  RUSSfA  AND  SinElH.i. 


39 


i,  and  but- 

t  any  i'lcsh 

t  no  fish  ut 

thiit  pur- 

)fficc,  they 
do  in  such 
J  mukc  an 
lebrate  the 
y  go  again 
I  at  dinner, 

household 
to  succeed 
of  the  em- 
ir the  most 
ey  usually 
:t  a  certain 
c  but  one, 

ut  yet  it  is 
ce  the  dead 
ittle  scrawl, 
:  of  Russes, 
y  say, they 
admits  him 
lory  of  the 
ore  sincere 
istians,  and 
md  childish 


OF  THE  FORM  OF  THEIR  PRIVATE  HOUSES.  AND  OF  THE  APPAREL  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

The  common  houses  of  the  country  are  every  where  built  of  beams  of  fir-tree  ;  the 
lower  earns  do  so  receive  the  round  hollowness  of  the  uppermost,  that  by  the  means  ol 
thi-  building  thereupon,  they  resist  and  exjicl  all  winds  that  blow ;  and  where  the  timber 
is  joined  together,  there  they  stop  the  chinks  with  moss.  The  form  and  fashion  of  their 
houses  in  all  places  is  four  square,  with  strait  and  narrow  windows,  whereby  vvith  a 
transparent  casement,  made  or  covered  with  skin  like  to  parchment,  they  receive  die 
light.  The  roofs  of  their  houses  are  made  of  boards  covered  without  with  the  bark  of 
trees ;  within  their  houses  they  have  benches  or  griczes  hard  by  their  walls,  which  com- 
monly  they  sleep  on,  for  the  common  people  know  not  the  use  of  beds ;  they  have 
stoves  wherein  m  the  morning  they  make  a  fire,  and  the  same  fire  doth  eiUier  mode- 
rately warm,  or  mnke  very  hot  the  whole  house. 

The  apparel  of  the  people  for  the  most  part  is  made  of  wool ;  their  caps  are  peaked 
like  unto  a  tike  or  diamond,  broad  beneath,  and  sharp  upward.  In  the  manner  of  mak- 
ing whereof  there  is  a  sign  and  representation  of  nobility ;  for  the  loftier  or  higher  their 
caps  are,  the  greater  is  their  birth  supposed  to  be,  and  the  greater  reverence  is  given 
them  by  the  common  people. 

THE  CONCLUSION.  TO  QUF.F.N  MARY. 

These  are  the  things,  most  excellent  queen,  which  your  subjects  newly  returned  from 
Russia  have  brought  home  concerning  the  state  of  that  country ;  wherefore,  if  your 
majesty  shall  be  tavourable,  and  grant  a  continuance  of  the  travel,  there  is  no  doubt 
but  that  the  honour  and  renown  of  your  name  will  be  spread  amongst  those  nations, 
whereunto  three  only  noble  personages  from  the  very  creation  have  had  access,  to  whom 
no  man  hath  been  comparable. 

THE  COPY  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  MOSCOVY   AND  EMPEROR  OF  RUSSIA  HIS  LETTERS  SENT   TO 
KING  EDWARD  THE  SIXTH.  BY  THE  HANDS  OF  RICHARD  CHANCELOR 


'ARIA. 

he  Tartars, 
one  famous 
custom  that 
i^ar,  or  such 
r :  they  fail 
'  the  same  a 
^st  them  by 
id  to  whom- 
n ;  and  im- 
tored  to  life, 
Y  this  means 
;er. 


THE  almighty  power  ofGod,  and  the  incomprehensible  Holy  Trinity,  rightful  Christian 
belief,  t.c.  We,  great  duke  Juan  Vasilivich,  by  the  grace  of  God,  great  lord  and 
emperor  of  all  Russia,  greatdukeof  Volodemer,  Mosco,  and  Novograd,  king  of  Kazan, 
king  of  Astracan,  lord  of  Plesco,  and  great  duke  of  Smolensko,  of  Twerria,  Joughoria, 
Permia,  Vadska,  Bulghoria,  ai«l  others,  lord  and  great  duke  of  Novograd  in  the  low 
country,  of  Chemigo,  Rezan,  Polotskoy,  Ro?tove,  Yaruslaveley,  Bealozera,  Liefland, 
Oudoria,  Obdoria,  and  Condenza,  commander  of  alt  Siberia,  and  of  the  north  parts, 
and  lord  of  many  other  countries,  greeting.  Before  all,  right,  great,  and  worth)  of 
honour,  Edward  king  of  England,  &c.  according  to  our  most  hearty  and  good  zeal, 
with  good  intent  and  friendly  desire,  and  according  to  our  holy  christian  faith,  and  great 
governance,  and  being  in  the  light  of  great  understanding,  our  answer  by  this  our  ho- 
nourable  writing  unto  your  kingly  governance,  at  the  request  of  your  faithful  servant, 
Richaixl  Chancelor,  with  his  company,  as  diey  shall  let  you  wisely  know,  is  this.  In 
the  strength  of  the  twentieth  year  of  our  governance,  be  it  known,  that  at  our  sea  coasts 
arrived  a  sdiip  widi  one  Richard  and  his  company,  and  s«ud  Uiat  he  was  desirous  to  come 


T"- 


40 


VOYAOES  OF  SIR  MiTr.H  Wnj.OUO!IDY  AND  OTIIRRS, 


into  our  dominions,  and  according  to  his  request  hath  seen  our  majesty  and  our  eyes  ; 
and  hath  declared  unto  us  your  majesty's  desire,  as  that  we  should  grant  unto  your  sub- 
jects to  go  and  come,  and  in  our  dominions,  and  among  our  subjects,  to  frequent  free 
marts  with  all  sorts  of  merchandises,  and  upon  the  same  to  have  wares  for  their  return  ; 
and  they  have  also  delivered  us  your  letters,  which  declare  the  same  request.  And  here- 
upon we  have  given  order,  that  wheresoever  your  faithful  servant  Hugh  Willoughby 
land  or  touch  I '  our  dominions,  to  be  well  entertained,  who  as  yet  is  not  arrived,  as 
your  servant  Richard  can  declare. 

And  we,  with  christian  belief  and  faithfulness,  and  according  to  your  honourable 
request,  and  my  honourable  commandment,  will  not  leave  it  undone ;  and  are  further- 
more willing  that  you  send  unto  us  your  ships  and  vessels,  when  and  as  often  as  they 
may  have  passage,  with  good  assurances  on  our  part  to  see  them  harmless.  And  if  you 
send  one  of  your  majesty's  coui\sel  to  treat  with  us,  whereby  your  country  merchants 
may,  with  all  kind  of  wares,  and  where  they  will,  make  their  market  in  our  dominions, 
they  shall  have  their  free  mart,  with  all  free  liberties  through  my  whole  dominions, 
with  all  kinds  of  wares,  to  come  and  go  at  their  pleasure,  without  any  let,  damage,  or 
impediment,  according  to  tliis  our  letter,  our  word,  and  our  seal,  which  we  have  com- 
manded to  be  undersealed.  Written  in  our  dominion,  in  our  city,  and  our  palace  in 
the  castle  of  Mosco,  in  the  year  7060,  the  second  month  of  Febniaiy. 

This  letter  was  written  in  the  Moscovian  tongue,  in  letters  much  like  to  the  Greek 
letters,  very  fair  written  in  paper,  with  a  broad  seal  hanging  at  the  same,  sealed  in  paper 
upon  wax.  This  seal  was  much  like  the  broad  seal  of  England,  having  on  the  one  side 
the  image  of  a  man  on  horseback,  in  complete  harness,  fighting  with  a  dragon.  Under 
this  letter  was  another  paper,  written  in  the  Dutch  tongue,  which  was  the  interpretation 
of  the  other,  written  in  the  Moscovian  letters.  These  letters  were  sent  the  next  year 
after  the  date  of  king  Edward's  letters,  1554.  '      .     .*  ■    .      .       .     , 

THE  COINS,  ATEIGHTS,  AND  KIEASURES  USED  IN  RUSSIA  |  WRTfTEN  BT  JOIIN  HASSE,  IS  THE  TEAR  IfM. 


FORASMUCH  as  it  is  most  necessary  lor  all  merchants  who  seek  to  have  traffic  in  any 
strange  regions,  first  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  coins  of  those  lands  with  which 
they  do  intend  to  join  in  traffic,  and  how  they  are  called  from  the  valuation  of  the 
highest  piece  to  the  lowest,  and  in  what  sort  they  make  their  payments,  as  also  what  their 
common  weights  iuid  measures  be  ;  for  these  causes  I  have  thought  good  to  write  some- 
thing thereof,  according  to  mine  own  knowledge  and  experience,  to  the  end  that  the 
merchants  of  that  new  adventure  may  the  better  understand  how  the  wealth  of  that 
new  frequented  trade  will  arise. 

First,  it  is  to  be  noted,  that  the  emperor  of  Russia  hath  no  other  coins  than  silver  in 
all  his  land,  which  goeth  for  payment  amongst  merchants ;  yet  notwithstanding  there 
is  a  coin  of  copper  which  serveth  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  in  Mosco,  and  no  where  else, 
and  that  is  but  only  for  quasse,  water,  and  fiiiit,  as  nuts,  apples,  and  such  other  like. 
The  name  of  which  money  is  called  pole  or  poles,  of  which  poles  there  go  to  the  least 
of  the  silver  coins  eighteen.  But  I  will  not  stand  upon  this,  because  it  is  no  current 
money  among  merchants. 

Of  silver  coins  there  be  three  sorts  of  pieces :  the  least  is  a  poledenga ;  the  second  a 
denga  ;  the  third,  nowgrote,  which  is  as  much  to  say  in  English,  as  halfpenny,  penny, 
and  two-pence ;  v-uid  for  other  valued  money  than  this,  there  is  none :  there  are  often- 


TOTIIK  NOUrilKKN  k'AHTS  Ol'  HL'SSIA  AND  SUlKltlV. 


41 


'.ti 


times  there  coins  of  ^M,  but  they  come  out  on'oi-eigii  countries,  whereof  there  is  no 
ordinary  vahiution,  but  they  pass  according  to  the  agaement  of  merchants. 

'i'heir  order  in  summing  of  money  is  this  :  as  we  say  in  England  halfpenny,  penny, 
shiUing,  and  jwund,  so  say  they  ix)lcdenga,  denga,  altine,  and  rubble  :  there  goeih  two 
poledengus  to  a  denga,  six  dengas  to  an  altine,  and  twenty-three  altincs  and  two  den- 
gas  to  a  rubble. 

Concerning  the  weights  of  Russia  they  are  these :  there  are  two  sorts  of  pounds  in 
use  amongst  them  ;  the  one  great,  the  other  small :  the  great  pound  is  just  two  small 
pounds :  they  call  the  great  weight  by  the  name  of  bcasemar,  and  the  small  they  call 
the  skalla  weight :  with  this  small  weight  they  weigh  their  silver  coins,  of  the  which  the 
emperor  hath  commanded  to  put  to  every  small  |xjund  three  rubbles  of  silver  ;  and  with 
die  same  weight  they  weigh  all  grocery  wares,  and  almost  all  other  wares  which  come  into 
the  land,  except  those  which  they  weigh  by  the  pode,  as  hops,  salt,  iron,  lead,  tin,  and 
batrie,  with  divers  others,  notwithstanding  they  use  to  weigh  batrie  more  often  by  the 
small  weight  thim  by  the  great. 

Whensoever  you  find  the  prices  of  your  wares  rated  by  the  pode,  consider  that  to  be 
the  grcat  weight,  and  the  {X)und  to  ^c  the  small.  Also  they  divide  the  small  pound 
into  forty -eight  parts,  and  they  call  the  eight-and- fortieth  part  a  slotnike,  by  tie  which 
slotnike,  the  retailers  sell  their  wares  out  of  their  shops,  as  goldsmiths,  grocers,  silk- 
sellers,  and  such  other,  like  as  we  do  use  to  retail  by  the  ounce  :  and  as  for  their  great 
weight  which  they  call  the  beasemar,  they  sell  by  pode,  or  ship^iond.  The  pode  doth 
contain  of  the  great  weight  forty  pounds,  and  of  the  small  eighty  :  there  go  ten  jxxlcs 
to  a  shippond. 

Yet  you  must  consider  that  their  great  weight  is  not  full  with  ours  :  for  I  take  not 
their  ^at  pound  to  be  full  thirteen  ounces,  but  above  twelve  1  think  it  be.  But  for 
your  lust  proof,  weigh  six  rubbles  of  Russia  money  with  our  pound  weight,  and  then 
you  shall  see  what  it  lacketh  :  for  six  rubbles  of  Russia  is  by  the  emperor's  standard 
the  great  ix)iuid  :  so  that  I  think  it  be  the  next  way  to  know  the  just  weight,  as  well  of 
the  great  pound  as  of  the  small. 

There  is  another  weight  needful  to  be  known,  which  is  the  weight  of  Wardhouse, 
for  so  much  as  they  weigh  all  their  dry  fish  by  weight,  which  weight  is  the  beasemar,  as 
thev  of  Russia  do  use,  notwithstanding  there  is  another  sort  in  it :  the  names  of  those 
weights  are  these :  the  mark  pound,  the  great  pound,  the  weie,  and  the  shijipond. 
The  mark  pound  is  to  be  understood  as  our  pound,  and  their  great  ix>und  is  twenty- 
four  of  their  mark  pound :  the  weie  is  three  great  pound,  and  eight  weie  is  a  shippond. 

Now  concerning  their  measures,  as  they  have  two  sorts  of  weights,  so  they  have  also 
two  sorts  of  measures,  wherewith  they  measure  cloth,  both  linen  and  woollen :  they 
call  the  one  an  areshine,  and  the  other  a  locut :  the  arcshine  I  take  to  be  as  much  iis 
the  Flanders  ell,  and  their  locut  half  an  English  yard :  with  their  areshine  they  may- 
mete  all  such  sorts  of  cloths  as  come  into  the  land,  and  >vith  the  locut  all  such  cloth, 
both  linen  and  woollen,  as  they  make  themselves.  And  whereas  we  use  to  give  yard 
and  inch,  or  yard  and  handful,  they  do  give  nothing  but  bare  measure. 

They  have  also  a  measure  wherewith  they  do  meet  their  corn  which  they  call  a 
setforth,  and  the  half  of  that  an  osmine :  this  setforth  I  take  to  be  three  bushels  of 
London  measure.  And  as  for  their  drink  measure,  they  call  it  a  span,  which  is  much 
liki^  a  bucket,  and  of  that  I  never  saw  any  true  rate,  but  that  some  was  greater  tb.m 
other  some.     And  as  for  the  measures  of  Wardhouse,  wherewith  they  mete  their  cloth, 

VOL.  I,  c 


43 


VOVAOEA  OF  SIR  IIIICII  WIIXOLCIIBY  AND  OTHRRS. 


i 


I 

'f'l 


I 


there  Is  no  diflfcrence  between  that  and  the  measure  of  Dansk,  which  is  half  an  Eng- 
lish ell. 

Concerning  the  tolls  and  customs  of  Russia,  it  was  reported  to  me  in  Moscovia,  that 
the  Turks  and  Armenians  |>ay  the  tcntli  penny  custom  of  uU  the  wares  they  bring  into 
the  emperor's  land,  and  above  that  thev  pay  for  all  such  goods  as  they  weigh  at  the  em- 
peror's  !.^am,  two  pence  of  the  rubble,  which  the  buyer  or  seller  must  make  report 
of  to  the  master  of  the  beam  they  :  also  pay  a  certain  horse  toll,  which  is  in  divers 
places  of  his  realm  four  |)ence  of  a  horse. 

The  Dutch  nation  are  free  of  this :  notwithstanding,  for  certain  offences,  tliey  had 
lost  their  privileges,  which  they  have  recovered  this  summer,  to  their  great  charge.  It 
was  reported  to  me  by  a  justice  of  that  countrv,  that  they  paid  for  it  thirty  thousand 
rubbles,  and  also  that  Rye,  Dorpte,  and  Revel  have  yielded  tliems  elves  under  the  go- 
vernment of  the  emperor  of  Russia  :  whether  this  was  u  brag  of  the  Russes  or  not,  I 
know  not,  but  thus  he  said,  and  indeed  while  we  were  there,  there  came  a  great  am- 
bassador out  of  Liefland,  for  tlie  assurance  of  their  privileges. 

To  speak  somewhat  of  the  commodities  of  this  country,  it  is  to  be  understood,  that 
there  is  a  certain  place  four  score  miles  from  the  sea  called  Colmogro :  to  which  place 
there  resort  all  tlie  sorts  of  wares  tkit  are  in  the  north  parts,  as  oils,  salt,  stockfish, 
salmon,  feathers,  and  furs :  their  salt  they  make  of  salt  water  by  the  sea  side :  their 
oils  they  make  of  seals,  whereof  they  have  great  store,  which  is  brought  out  of  the  bay 
where  our  ships  came  in :  they  make  it  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  and  bring  it  to  Col- 
mogro to  sell,  and  tlie  merchants  there  carry  it  to  Novogrode,  and  so  sell  it  to  the 
Dutch  nation.  Their  stockfish  and  salmon  cometh  from  a  place  called  Mallums,  not 
far  from  Wardhouse  :  their  salmon  and  their  salt  they  carry  to  Mosco,  and  their  dry 
fish  they  carry  to  Novogrode,  and  sell  it  there  to  the  Lieflanders. 

The  furs  and  feathers  which  come  to  Colmogro,  as  sables,  beavers,  minks,  armine, 
lettis,  graies,  woolverings,  and  white  foxes,  with  deer  skins,  they  are  brought  thither, 
by  the  men  of  Penning,  Lampas,  and  Povvstezer.  which  fetch  them  from  the  Samoedes 
that  are  counted  savage  people :  and  the  merchants  that  bring  these  furs  do  use  to 
tnick  with  the  merchants  of  Colmogro  for  cloth,  tin,  batrie,  and  such  other  like,  and 
the  merchants  of  Colmogro  carry  mem  to  Novogrode,  Vologda,  or  Mosco,  and  sell 
them  there.     The  feathers  which  come  from  Penning  they  do  little  esteem. 

If  our  merchants  do  desire  to  know  the  meetest  place  of  Russia  for  the  standmg  house, 
in  mine  opinion  I  take  it  to  be  Vologda,  which  is  a  great  town  standing  in  the  lieart  of 
Russia,  with  many  great  and  good  towns  about  it.  There  b  great  plenty  of  com, 
victuals,  and  of  all  such  wares  as  are  raised  in  Rusland,  but  specially  flax,  hemp,  tallow, 
and  bacon  :  there  is  also  great  store  of  wax,  but  it  cometh  from  the  Mosca 

The  town  of  Vologda  is  meetest  for  our  merchants,  because  it  lieth  amongst  all  the 
best  towns  of  Russia,  and  tliere  is  no  town  in  Russia  but  trades  with  it :  also  the  water 
is  a  great  commodity  to  it.  If  they  plant  themselves  in  Mosco  or  Novogrode,  their 
charge  will  be  great  and  wonderful,  but  not  so  in  Vologda :  for  all  things  will  there 
be  had  better  cheap  by  the  one  half.  And  for  their  vent  I  know  no  place  so  meet  It 
is  likely  that  some  will  think  the  Mosco  to  be  the  meetest  by  the  reason  of  the  court, 
but  by  that  reason  I  take  it  to  be  worse  :  for  the  charge  there  would  be  so  great  by 
Gravers  and  exigences,  that  the  moiety  of  the  profit  would  be  wholly  consumed,  which 
in  the  other  place  will  be  saved.  And  yet  notwithstanding  our  merchants  may  be  there 
ill  the  winter  to  serve  the  emperor  and  his  court.    The  emperor  is  a  great  merchant 


TO  TIIR  NORTIIF.riN  PARTA  OF  nUMIA  AND  .SinF.KI* 


49 


himself  of  wax  and  sablcH,  which  with  gootl  forc»ij?ht  may  Ix-  procured  to  their  hanils : 
UH  for  other  commcxlities  there  are  little  or  uouc  in  Moscovia,  besides  those  alxjve  re. 
hearsed :  if  there  be  other  it  is  brought  thither  by  the  Tiirlcx,  who  will  Ik:  dainty  to 
buy  our  clothes,  considering  the  charprcs  of  curri.iRe  over  laml. 

Our  merchiints  nrwy  do  well  to  provide  for  the  Ruswes  such  wares  as  the  Dutch  nation 
doth  serve  them  of,  as  Flanders  and  Holland  cloths,  which,  I  believe,  they  shall  serve 
better  and  with  less  charge  than  they  of  Rye,  or  Dori)te,  or  Revel :  for  it  is  no  small 
adventure  to  bring  their  clothes  out  of  Flanders  to  either  of  these  places,  and  Uieir 
charge  not  little  to  carry  them  over  land  to  Novogrode,  which  is  from  Rye  nine  him. 
dred  Russian  miles. 

This  Novogrode  is  a  place  well  furnished  with  flax,  wax,  hides,  tallow,  and  many 
other  things  :  the  best  flax  in  Russia  is  brought  thither,  and  there  sold  by  the  hundred 
bundles,  which  is  done  also  at  Vologda,  and  they  that  bring  the  flax  to  Novogrode, 
dwell  as  near  Vologda,  as  Novogrode,  and  when  they  hear  of  the  utterance  which  they 
may  have  with  our  nation,  they  will  as  willingly  come  to  them  as  go  to  oUier. 

They  have  in  Russia  two  sorts  of  flax,  the  one  b  called  great  flax,  and  the  other 
small :  that  which  they  call  great  flax  is  better  by  four  rubbles  in  one  hundred  bundles 
than  the  small :  it  is  much  longer  than  the  other,  and  cleaner  without  wood :  and 
whereas  of  the  small  flax  there  go  twenty-seven  or  twenty-eight  bundles  to  a  shippondi 
there  goeth  not  of  the  greater  sort  above  twenty- two  or  twenty- four  at  the  most. 
There  are  many  other  trifles  in  Russia,  as  soap,  mats,  ^c.  but  I  think  there  will  be  no 
great  account  made  of  them. 


\'i 


»''»M   ».*I   1>)J      f\ 


u 


voYACi^a  or  im  high  wiixouGiinv  anu  otiium*. 


The  letter  of  M.  Georfre  A'i/lhiffjvorth,  the  company^n  first  agent  in  Afotcovif,  touch' 
ing  their  entertainment  in  their  svcimd  voyage.     Anno  1555,  the  twenty -aeventh  ij/* 
Jsovemher  in  Mosco. 

RIGHT  worshipful,  my  duty  coniiidcrcd,  he.     It  may  please  your  wornhlp  to  under, 
stand,  that  at  the  making  ncrcof  wc  all  Ik:  in  g(Hxl  health,  tlvinks  Ik-  to  God,  »uve  only 
William  our  cook  as  we  came  from  Colmogro  fell  into  tlx*  river  out  of  the  boat,  and  was 
drowned.     And  the  eleventh  diiy  of  September  we  came  to  Vologda,  and  there  we  laid 
all  our  wares  up,  and  sold  very  little  :  but  one  merchant  would  have  given  us  twelve 
rubbles  for  a  broad  cloth,  and  he  said  nc  would  have  had  them  all,  and  four  altines  for  a 
pouiKl  of  sugar,  but  we  did  refuse  it  lx:causc  he  was  the  first,  and  the  merchants  were 
not  come  thither,  nor  would  not  come  before  winter,  trusting  to  have  more :  but  I 
fear  it  will  not  Ik  much  better.     Yet  notwithstanding  we  did  for  the  best.     And  the 
house  that  our  wares  lie  in  costs  from  that  day  until  Kaster  ten  rubbles.    And  the  twenty, 
eighth  day  of  September  we  did  determine  with  ourselves  that  it  was  good  for  M.  Gray, 
Arthur  Ldwards,  Thomas  Hautory,  ChristoplKT  Hudson,   John  Segewic.k,  Wchard 
Johnson,   and  Richard  Judd,  to  tarry  at  Vologda,  and  M.  Chancelor,  Henry  Lane, 
Kdward  Prise,  Rolxrt  Best,  and  I,  should  go  to  Mosco.     And  we  did  lade  the  en»|)e. 
ror's  sugar,  with  part  of  all  sorts  of  wares,  to  have  had  to  the  Mosco  with  us,  but  the 
way  was  so  deep,  that  we  were  fain  to  turn  back,  and  leave  it  still  at  Vologda  till  the 
fix)st.     And  we  went  forth  with  post  horse,  and  the  charge  of  every  horse  being  still 
ten  in  numl)er  comes  to  ten  shillings  and  seven  pence  half-|)enny,  besides  the  guides.  And 
wc  came  to  the  Mosco  the  fourth  day  of  October,  and  were  lodged  that  night  in  a  sim* 
pic  house  :  but  the  next  day  we  were  sent  for  to  the  emperor  his  secretary,  and  he  bade 
us  welcome  with  a  cheerful  countenance  and  cheerful  words,  and  we  shewed  him  that 
we  had  a  letter  from  our  queen's  grace  to  the  emperor  his  grare,  and  then  he  desired  to 
see  them  all,  and  that  they  might  remain  with  him,  to  have  th?m  perfect,  that  the  true 
meaning  might  be  declared  to  the  emperor,  and  so  we  did :  an    then  we  were  appoint- 
ed to  a  better  house  :  and  the  seventh  day  the  secretary  sent  for  us  again,  and  then  he 
shewed  us  that  wc  should  have  a  better  house,  for  it  was  the  emperor  his  will  that  %ve 
should  have  all  things  that  we  did  lack,  and  did  send  us  meat  of  two  sorts,  and  two  hens, 
our  house  free,  and  every  two  days  to  receive  eight  hens,  seven  altines,  and  two-pence 
in  money,  and  meat  a  certain  portion,  and  a  poor  fellow  to  make  clean  our  house,  and 
to  do  that  whereunto  we  would  set  him.     And  we  had  given  many  rewards  before, 
which  you  shall  perceive  by  other,  and  so  we  gave  the  messengers  a  reward  with  thanks  : 
and  the  ninth  dav  we  were  sent  to  makt  us  ready  to  speak  with  the  emperor  on  the 
morrow.     And  the  letters  were  sent  us,  that  we  might  deliver  them  ourselves,  and  we 
came  before  him  the  tenth  day  :  and  before  we  came  to  his  presence  we  went  through  a 
great  chamber,  where  stood  many  small  tuns,  pails,  bowls,  and  pots  of  silver,  I  mean, 
like  ^vashing  l)owls,  all  parsel  ^It :  and  within  that  another  chamber,  wherein  sat  (I 
think)  near  a  hundred  in  cloth  of  gold,  and  then  into  the  chamber  where  his  grace  sat, 
and  there  I  think  were  more  than  in  the  other  chamber  also  in  cloth  of  gold,  and  we 
did  our  duty,  and  shewed  his  grace  our  queen's  grace's  letters,  with  a  note  of  your 
present  which  was  left  in  Vologda :  and  Uien  his  grace  did  ask  how  our  queen's  grace 
did,  calling  her  cousin,  saying  that  he  was  glad  that  we  were  come  in  health  into  his 
realm,  and  we  went  one  by  one  unto  him,  and  took  him  by  tlie  hand,  and  then  bis 


■  II 


TO  nil:  NOHIIIRUN  PAKTb  UK  Rl  i4SI.\  MiO  <Uhl'.ltL\ 


It 


grace  did  bid  us  f^y  in  health,  mid  come  to  dinner  ngsiiii,  and  uc  dined  in  his  pr<  ■ 
scncc,  nnd  were  set  with  our  face*  towiirds  his  grace,  and  none  in  the  chaniln  r  sat  w  itU 
their  backM  towards  him,  Ix-ing  I  think  near  a  hundred  at  dinner  then,  and  all  rxrved 
with  gold,  as  plutters,  chargers,  |v.ts,  eups,  and  iill  not  slender  hut  vny  ni.ihsy,  and  yet 
a  great  numlKT  ol'  platters  of  gokl  standing  still  on  the  cupboard  not  moved :  and 
divers  times  in  the  dinner  time  Im  grace  sent  us  meat  and  doik  Crom  his  owi«  table,  .md 
when  we  luid  dined,  we  went  up  to  hii*  grace,  and  received  a  cup  with  drink  at  his  own 
hand,  and  tlic  same  night  his  grace  sent  certain  gentlemen  to  us  with  divers  sorts  of 
wine  and  meal,  to  whom  we  gave  a  reward,  and  afterward  we  were  by  divers  Italians 
counselled  to  take  heed  whom  we  did  trust  to  make  the  copy  of  the  |)rivileges  that  we 
would  desire  to  have,  for  feur  it  should  not  Ik*  written  in  the  Russian  t(jngue,  as  we  did 
mean.  80  first  a  Kussian  did  write  for  us  u  breviat  to  the  emperor,  the  tenor  whereof 
was,  that  we  diddettirc  a  stronger  privilege  :  and  when  the  secretary  saw  it,  he  did  deliver 
it  to  his  grace,  and  when  \:c  «ame  again,  his  grace  willed  us  to  write  our  minds,  and  he 
would  see  it,  and  so  we  did.  And  his  grace  is  so  troubled  with  pirparations  to  wars, 
that  as  vet  we  liave  had  no  answer :  Init  we  linve  btx-n  re(|uirtd  of  his  secretary,  and  of 
the  uncier  chancellor,  to  know  what  wares  we  had  brought  into  the  realm,  and  what 
wares  ^ve  do  intetid  to  have,  that  are,  or  may  Ixr  had  in  this  realm  :  and  we  shewed 
them,  and  they  slewed  the  emperor  thereof.  And  then  they  said  his  grace's  pleasure 
was,  that  his  best  merchants  of  the  Mosco  shotdd  be  spoken  to,  to  meet  and  talk  with 
us.  And  so  a  day  was  appointed,  and  we  met  in  the  secretJiry  his  office,  and  there  was 
the  under  chancellor,  who  was  not  jKist  two  years  since  tlx;  empen)r's  merchant,  and 
tiot  his  chancellor :  and  then  the  conclusion  of  our  talk  was,  that  the  chancellor  wilk  d 
us  to  bethink  us,  where  we  would  desire  to  have  a  house  or  houses,  that  we  might 
come  to  them  a*  to  our  own  house,  and  for  merchandise  to  be  made  pre|)aration 
for  us,  and  they  would  know  our  prices  of  our  wares  and  frisc  :  and  we  tut- 
nwered  that  for  our  prices  they  must  see  the  wares  before  Ave  could  make  any  price 
thereof,  for  the  like  m  goodness  h<ith  not  been  brought  into  the  realm,  and  we  did 
look  for  an  example  of  all  sorts  of  our  wares  to  come  from  Vologda,  with  the  first 
sled  way,  and  then  they  should  sec  them,  and  then  we  would  shew  them  the  prices  of 
them :  and  likewise  we  could  not  tell  tliem  what  we  would  give  them  justly,  till  we  did 
know  as  well  their  just  weights  as  their  measures :  for  in  all  places  where  we  did  come, 
all  weights  and  measures  di  i  vary.  Then  the  secretarj'  (who  had  made  promise  unto  us 
before)  said,  that  we  should  have  all  the  just  measures  under  seal,  and  he  that  was  found 
faulty  in  the  contrary,  to  buy  or  sell  with  any  other  measure  than  that,  the  law  was,  that 
he  should  be  punished :  he  said  moreover,  that  if  it  so  ha|)pen  that  any  of  our  mcrchiints 
do  promise  by  covenant  at  any  time  to  deliver  you  any  certain  sum  of  \rares  in  such  a 
place,  and  of  such  like  goodness,  at  such  a  daj^,  for  such  a  certain  price,  that  then  be- 
cause of  variance,  we  should  cause  it  to  be  written,  according  as  the  bargain  is,  before 
a  justice  or  the  next  ruler  to  the  place  :  if  he  did  not  keep  covenant  and  promise  in  tdl 
points,  according  to  hi  .covenant,  that  then  look  what  loss  or  hindrance  we  could  justly 
prove  that  we  lave  thereby,  he  should  make  it  good  if  he  be  worth  so  much  :  and  in 
like  case  we  must  do  to  them  ;  and  to  that  wc  did  agree,  save  only  if  it  were  to  come 
over  the  sea,  then  if  any  such  fortune  should  be  (as  God  forbid)  that  the  ship  should 
mischance  or  be  robbed>  and  the  proof  to  be  made  that  such  kind  of  \vares  were  laden, 
the  English  merchants  to  bear  no  loss  to  the  other  merchant.  Then  the  chancellor 
said,  methinks  you  shall  do  best  to  have  your  house  at  Colmogro,  which  is  but  one 
hundred  miles  from  the  right  discharge  of  the  ships,  and  yet  1  trust  the  ships  shall  come 


4(\ 


vovAr.ri  or  mit  iiunii  willouomhv  awd  ortiFR^, 


nearer  hereafter,  because  the  ships  may  not  tnrry  lotig  for  their  ludinfif,  which  is  one 
thousand  miles  fn)in  Vologda  hy  water,  and  all  our  inerehants  shall  liring  all  our  nier- 
chundiH(  to  Coltno^ro  to  you,  and  !to  shall  our  merchai)t!i  neither  go  empty  nor  come 
empty :  for  if  they  luck  hiding  homeward,  dica-  is  »alt,  which  is  good  ware  Ik-re,  that 
Ihcy  may  come  loaden  again.  So  we  were  very  glad  to  heiir  thnt,  and  did  agree  to 
h's  Huying :  for  we  shall  neverthelesM,  if  we  list,  have  a  house  at  Vologda,  and  ar  flie 
Mosco,  yen,  and  at  Novngrode,  or  where  we  will  in  Rutland  :  but  the  thrte-and> 
twentieth  of  this  present  we  were  with  the  secretary,  and  then,  among  other  talk,  wc 
moved,  that  if  wc  should  tarry  at  Colmogro  with  our  warcn,  and  should  not  come  to 
Volowia,  or  further  to  seek  our  market,  but  tarry  still  at  Colmogrt),  and  then  the 
merchants  of  the  Mosco  and  others  should  not  come  and  bring  their  wares,  and  so  the 
shi|>s  should  come,  ai\d  not  have  their  lading  ready,  that  then  it  were  a  great  loss  and 
hin(hance  for  us  :  thens;ud  he  again  to  us,  that  the  merchantM  had  lx:en  again  together 
with  him,  and  had  put  the  like  uoubt,  that  if  they  should  come  and  bring  their  wares 
to  Colmogro,  and  tnat  they  sliould  not  find  wares  there  sufficient  to  serve  th  ^,  that 
then  they  should  be  at  a  j'reat  loss  ami  hindrance,  they  leaving  their  other  tn  'o  fall 
to  that :  and  to  thai  we  did  answer,  that  after  the  time  that  we  do  apinint  .hem 

to  bring  llieir  wares  to  Colmogro,  Ci(xl  willing,  they  should  never  come  thither,  but  at 
the  'x'giuning  of  the  year,  they  should  find  that  or"  merchants  would  have  at  the  least 
for  a  thousand  nibbles,  although  the  ships  were  not  come  :  so  that  he  said,  that  then  wc 
must  talk  further  with  the  merchants  b  so  that  as  yet  I  know  not  but  th  t  we  shall  have 
need  of  one  house  at  Colmogro,  and  another  at  Vologda,  and  if  that  they  bring  not 
their  wares  to  Colmogro,  then  wc  shall  be  sure  to  buy  some  at  Vologda,  and  to  be  out 
of  Ijondage. 

And  thus  may  we  continue  three  or  four  years,  and  in  this  space  wc  shall  know  the 
country  and  the  merchants,  and  which  way  to  save  ourselves  best,  and  where  to  plant 
our  houses,  and  where  to  seek  for  wares  :  for  the  Mosco  is  not  best  for  any  kind  of  wares 
for  us  to  buy,  save  only  wax,  which  wc  cannot  have  under  seven  pence  the  Russe 
pound,  and  it  lacks  two  ounces  of  our  pound,  neither  will  it  Ix*  much  better  cheap, 
for  I  have  bidden  six  pence  for  a  pound.  And  I  have  bought  more,  five  hundred 
weight  of  yam,  which  stands  me  in  eight  pence  farthing  the  Kussc  pound,  one  with 
another.  And  if  we  had  received  any  store  of  money,  and  were  dispatched  here,  of 
that  we  tarry  for,  as  I  doubt  not  but  we  shall  be  shortly  (you  know  what  I  mean)  then 
as  soon  as  we  have  made  sale,  I  do  intend  to  go  to  Novogrode,  and  to  Plesco,  whence  all 
the  great  number  of  the  best  tow  flax  cometh,  and  such  wares  as  are  there  I  trust  to 
buy  part.  And  fear  you  not  but  we  will  do  that  may  be  done,  if  God  sends  us  health, 
desiring  you  to  prepare  fully  for  one  ship  to  be  ready  in  the  beginning  of  April  to  depart 
oft'  the  coast  of  England. 

Concerning  all  tnose  things  which  we  have  done  in  the  wares,  you  shall  receive  a 
perfect  note  ^  the  next  bearer  (God  willing)  for  he  that  carrieth  these  from  us  is  a 
merchant  of  Terwill,  and  he  was  caused  to  carry  these  by  the  commandment  of  the 
emperor  his  secretary,  whose  name  is  Juan  Mecollawich  Weskawate,  whom  we  take 
to  be  our  very  friend.  And  if  it  please  you  to  send  any  letters  to  Dantiske  to  Robert 
Elson,  or  to  William  Watson's  servant  Dunstan  Walton,  to  be  conveyed  to  us,  it  may 
please  you  to  enclose  ours  in  a  letter  sent  from  you  to  him,  written  in  Polish,  Dutch, 
Latin,  or  Italian  :  so  enclosed  coming  to  the  Mosco  to  his  hands,  he  will  convey  our 
letters  to  us  wheresoever  we  be.  And  I  have  written  to  Dantiske  already  to  them  for 
the  conveyance  of  letters  from  thence. 


I'u  h  is  one 
I  our  nicr- 
nor  come 
Iwrf,  that 
(I  iififnt'  to 
and  at  tlie 
ihrt'c-and> 
r  talk,  wc 
)t  conu'  to 

I  then  the 
and  Hr>  the 

It    loHS  ill  id 

in  together 

their  warc» 

th    1,  that 

o  fall 

.hem 

ler,  but  at 

at  the  least 

lat  then  we 

shall  have 

bring  not 

d  to  be  out 

II  know  the 
LTc  to  plant 
nd  of  wares 
:  the  Rusue 
ctter  cheap, 
ve  hundred 
],  one  with 
ed  here,  of 
mean)  tlien 
,  whence  all 
e  I  trust  to 
Is  us  health, 
iril  to  depart 

ill  receive  a 
rom  us  is  a 
Kient  of  the 
om  we  take 
e  to  Robert 
D  us,  it  may 
lish,  Dutch, 
convey  our 
to  them  for 


TO  Tiir.  NonTiir.RN  p\nTs  of  nir«siA  and  siiikria.  47 

And  to  certify  you  of  the  weather  Wn,  men  nay  that  these  liiiiidi id  years  was  iicvei 
80  warm  weather  ni  this  country  at  this  time  of  the  year.  Hut  .iHycsterm^lu  we  recei\ed 
a  letter  from  Christo|)her  Iltidvm  from  a  city  (tailed  Yeraslave,  who  is  r.onjiug  hifhci 
with  certain  of  our  wares,  but  the  winter  did  deceive  him,  so  tluit  he  was  fain  to  tarr) 
by  the  way  :  and  he  wrote  that  the  empen)r's  present  was  delivered  to  a  gentlenum  at 
Vi>logda,  and  the  sled  did  overthrow,  and  the  butt  of  hollocL  was  lo^t,  which  made  us 
all  very  sorr)'. 

I  pray  you  Ik*  not  offended  with  these  my  rude  letters  for  lack  of  time  :  but  ;us  soon 
Ott  sales  be  made,  1  will  fnid  the  means  to  convey  you  a  letter  with  speed  :  for  the  way  is 
made  so  doubtful,  that  the  right  messenger  is  so  much  in  doubt,  that  he  would  not  have 
any  letters  of  any  effect  sent  by  any  man,  if  he  might,  for  Ik  knows  not  of  these:  and 
to  say  the  truth,  the  way  is  not  for  him  to  travel  in.  But  I  will  make  another  shift  be- 
side, which  I  trust  shall  serve  the  turn  till  he  come,  if  sales  be  made  Ixl'oa-  he  be  ready, 
which  is,  and  shall  be  as  pleaseth  God  :  who  ever  preserve  your  worship,  and  send  us 
good  soles.     Written  in  lutst 

By  your's  to  command 

GEORGE  KILLINGWORTH,  Draper. 

A  COPY  OF  THE  FIRST    PRIVILEGRS   fillANTKn  UV   TUK  RMPKKOli   OF  IIUSSIA  TO  TUB  ENGLISH 

MKKCIIANTS  IN  THE  VF.AU  1555. 

John  Vasilivich,  by  the  grace  of  God  emperor  of  Russia,  great  duke  of  Novogrodc, 
Mfwcovia,  &c.  To  all  people  that  shall  see,  read,  hear,  or  understiuid  these  prcst;nts, 
greeting.  Forasmuch  as  God  hath  planted  all  realms  and  dominions  in  the  whole 
world  with  sundry  commodities,  so  as  the  one  liath  need  of  the  amity  and  commodities 
of  Jje  other,  ana  by  means  thereof  traffic  is  used  from  one  to  another,  and  amity 
thercby  increased :  and  for  that  as  amongst  men  nothing  is  more  to  be  desired  than 
amity,  without  the  which  no  creature  l)eing  of  a  natural  good  disposition  can  live  in 
quietness,  so  that  it  is  as  troublesome  to  be  utterlj-  wanting,  as  it  is  perceived  to  Ix; 
grievous  to  tlie  body  to  lack  air,  fire,  or  any  other  necessaries  most  requisite  for  the  con- 
servation and  maintenance  thereof  in  health  :  considering  also  how  needful  mcrchan<lisc 
is,  which  fiimisheth  men  of  all  that  which  is  convenient  for  their  living  and  nouriturc, 
for  their  clothing,  trimming,  the  satisfying  of  their  delights,  and  all  other  things  con- 
venient and  profitable  for  them,  and  that  merchandise  bringcth  the  same  commodities 
from  divers  quarters  in  so  great  abundance,  as  by  means  thereof  nothing  is  lacking  in 
any  part,  and  that  all  things  be  in  every  place  (where  intercourse  of  merchandises  is 
received  and  embraced)  generally  in  such  sort,  as  amity  thereby  is  entered  into,  and 

Elanted  to  continue,  and  tne  enjoyers  thereof  be  as  men  living  in  a  golden  world : 
Tpon  these  res|Kcts  and  other  weighty  and  good  considerations,  us  hereunto  moving, 
and  chiefly  upon  tlie  contemplation  of  the  gracious  letters,  directed  from  the  right  high, 
right  excellent,  and  right  mighty  queen  Mary,  by  the  grace  of  God  queen  of  England, 
P  ranee,  &c.  in  the  favour  of  her  subjects,  merchants,  the  governor,  consuls,  assistants, 
and  commonalty  of  merchants  adventurers  for  discovery  of  lands,  &c. 

Know  ye  therefore,  that  we  of  our  grace  special,  mere  motion,  and  certain  know- 
ledge, have  given  and  granted,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
do  pve  and  grant  as  much  as  in  us  is  and  lieth,  unto  Sebastian  Cabota  governor,  sir 
George  Barnes  knight,  &c.  consuls :  sir  John  Gresham,  &c.  assistants,  and  to  the 
commonalty  of  the  afore-named   fellowship,   and  to  their  successors  for  ever,  and 


13 


voY.vr.Ks  OF  ^n  iiurnc  wiix«uoiiby  and  v')TiniRS, 


to  the  successors  of  every  of  them,  these  article:,  grants,  immunities,  franchises,  liber- 
tics  and  privileges,  and  every  of  them  hereafter  following  expressed  and  declared, 
\  idelicet : 

1.  We  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  do  by  these  presents  give  pnd  grant  free 
licence,  fac.lty,  authority  and  ix>vver  unto  the  said  governor,  consuls,  assistants  and  com- 
moniJty  of  the  said  fellowship,  and  to  their  successors  forever,  that  all  and  singular  the 
mtirchaiKs  of  the  same  company,  their  agents,  factors,  doers  of  their  business,  attomies, 
ser/unts,  and  ministers,  and  every  of  them,  may  at  all  times  hereafter  for  evermore, 
surely,  freely,  a-id  safely,  with  their  ships,  merchandises,  goods,  and  things  whatsoever, 
sail,  come  and  tnterjnto  all  and  singular  our  lands,  countries,  dominions,  cities,  iowns, 
villages,  castles,  ports,  jurisdictions,  and  districts  hy  sea  laud,  or  fresh  waters,  and 
there  fairy,  abide,  or  sojourn,  and  buy,  sell,  barter  and  change  all  kind  of  merchan- 
dises, with  all  manner  of  merchants,  and  people,  of  w!.:;tsi)ever  nation,  rite,  condition, 
state  or  degrees  they  be,  and  v/ith  the  same  or  other  ships,  wares,  merchandises,  goods, 
and  things,  \\'hatt,oever  they  be,  unto  othev  empires,  kingdoms,  dukedoms,  parts,  and  to 
any  other  place  or  places  at  their  pleasure  and  liberty  by  sea,  land,  or  fresh  waters 
may  depart,  md  exercise  all  kind  of  merchandises  in  our  empire  ?ind  dominions,  and 
every  part  thereof  freely  and  quietly,  without  any  restraint,  impeachment,  price,  exae- 
tion,  prest,  strait,  custom,  toll,  imposition,  or  subsidy,  to  be  demanded,  taxed,  paid,  or 
at  any  time  hereafter  to  be  demanded,  taxed,  set,  levied,  or  inferred  upon  them,  or  any 
of  tliem,  or  upon  their  goods,  ships,  wares,  merchandises,  and  things  of,  for,  or  i;fjon 
any  part  or  parcel  thereof,  or  upon  the  ^joods,  ships,  wares,  merchandises,  rnH  things  of 
ai»y  of  them,  so  that  they  shall  not  nt  ^d  any  othci  safe  conduct  or  licence-genPi  al  nor 
spe<,ial  of  us,  our  aeirs,  or  successors ;  neither  shall  be  bound  to  ask  any  sffe  conduct 
or  licence  in  any  of  the  aforesaid  places  subject  unto  us. 

2.  Item,  we  give  and  grant  to  the  said  merchants  this  power  and  liberty,  that  they, 
nor  any  of  them,  nor  their  goods,  wares,  merchandises,  or  things,  nor  any  part  thereof, 
shall  be  liv  uny  means  within  our  dominions,  lands,  countries,  castles,  towns,  villages,  or 
other  place  or  places  of  our  jurisdiction,  at  any  lime  hereafter  attached,  stayed,  arrested, 
noi  disturbed  for  any  debt,  duty,  or  other  thing,  for  the  which  they  be  not  principal 
debtors  or  sureties,  nor  also  for  any  offence  or  trespass  committed,  or  that  shall  be  com- 
mitted, but  only  for  such  as  they,  or  any  of  them,  shall  actually  comm't ;  and  the  same 
offence^  (if  any  such  happen)  shall  be  by    is  only  heard  and  determined. 

3.  Item,  we  {>;i\e  and  grant  that  the  said  merchants  shall  and  may  have  free  liberty, 
power,  and  ai'tliority  to  name,  choose,  and  assign  brokers,  shippers,  packers,  weighers, 
measurers,  waggoners,  and  all  other  meet  and  necessary  labourers,  for  to  serve  diem  in 
their  leat  of  merchandises,  and  minister  .^'iid  ^ve  unto  them,  and  every  of  them,  a  cor- 
poral  oath,  to  serve  them  well  and  truly  in  their  offices,  and  finding  them,  or  any  of 
them,  doing  contrary  to  his  or  their  oath,  may  punish  and  dismiss  them,  and  from  time 
to  time  choose,  swear,  and  admit  other  in  their  place  or  places,  without  contradiction,  let, 
\'ex?.tion,  or  disturbance,  either  of  us,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  or  of  any  other  our  jus- 
tices, officers,  ministers,  or  subjects  whatsoever. 

4.  Item,  we  give  and  grant  unto  the  said  merchants,  and  their  successors,  that  such 
person  as  '^^  or  shall  be  commended  unto  us,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  by  the  governor, 
consuls,  and  assistants  of  the  said  fellowship  resiant  within  thec.fyof  London,  within  the 
realm  of  England,  to  be  their  chief  factor  within  this  our  empire  ai.d  dominione,  may 
and  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  govern  arid  rule  all  Englishmen  that  have  l.>ad, 
or  shall  have  access,  or  repair  in  or  to  this  said  empire  and  jurisdictions,  or  any  part 


TO  THK  NOHTIIKUV  I'AUTS  OV  Ul  SSI  A  AND  SiriKlM  V. 


49 


es,  liber, 
dcclured, 

grant  free 
and  com- 
igular  the 
attomies, 
evermore, 
hatsocver, 
es,  iowns, 
aters,  and 
mcrchan- 
condition, 
ies,  goods, 
irts,  and  to 
:sh  waters 
nions,  and 
"ice,  exac- 
d,  paid,  or 
im,  or  any 
r,  or  i»;jon 
1  things  of 
eppiil  nor 
fe  conduct 

that  they, 
irt  thereof, 
tillages,  or 
I,  arrested, 
it  principal 
U  be  com- 
the  same 

ee  liberty, 
weighers, 
e  tiiem  in 
em,  a  cor- 
or  any  of 
rom  time 
iction,  let, 
:r  our  jus- 

that  such 
governor, 
within  the 
ion«,  may 
have  l>ad, 
r  any  part 


thereof  i  and  shall  and  n>iiy  nunistcr  unto  them,  and  every  of  them,  good  justice  in  all 
their  causes,  plaints,  (|uarrcls,  and  disorders  between  them,  moved  and  to  be  moved, 
and  assemble,  deliberate,  consult,  coucIikIc,  define,  determine,  and  make  such  acts  and 
ordinances  as  he  so  commended  with  his  assistants  shall  think  good  and  meet  for  the 
good  order,  government,  and  rule  of  the  said  merchants,  and  all  other  Englishmen  re- 
pairing to  this  our  said  emi)ire  and  dominions,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  to  set  and  levy 
upon  all  and  every  Englishman,  oftlnder  or  offenders,  of  such  their  acts  and  ordinances 
made  and  to  be  made,  penalties  and  mulcts  oy  fine  or  imprisonment. 

5.  Item,  ii  ir.  happen  that  any  of  the  said  merchants,  or  other  Englishman,  as  one  or 
more  do  rebel  against  such  chief  factor  or  factors,  or  his  or  their  deputies,  and  will  not 
dispose  him  or  themselves  to  obey  them,  and  every  of  them,  us  shall  appertain ;  if  the 
said  rebels  or  disobedients  do  come,  and  be  found  in  our  said  empire  and  jurisdictions, 
or  any  part  and  place  thereof,  then  we  promise  and  grant  that  all  and  every  our  officers, 
ministers  and  subjects,  shall  effectually  aid  and  assist  the  said  chief  factor  or  factors,  and 
their  deputies,  and  for  their  power  shall  really  work  to  bring  such  rebel,  or  disobedient 
rebels,  or  disobedients,  to  due  obedience ;  and  to  that  intent  shall  lend  unto  the  same 
factor  or  factors,  and  their  deputies,  upon  request  therefore  to  be  made,  prisons  and 
instruments  for  punishments  from  time  to  time. 

6.  Item,  we  promise  unto  the  said  merchants,  and  their  successors,  upon  their  request, 
to  exhibit  and  do  unto  them  good,  exact,  and  favourable  jusdce,  with  expedition  m  all 
their  causes ;  and  that  then  they,  or  any  of  them,  shall  have  access,  or  come  to  or  before 
any  of  our  justices,  for  any  their  plaints  moved,  and  to  be  moved,  between  any  our 
subjects  or  other  stranger  and  them,  or  any  of  them,  that  then  they  shall  be  first  and 
forthwith  heard,  as  soon  as  the  party  which  they  shall  find  before  our  justices  shall  be 
deijeached,  which  party  being  heard  forthwith,  and  as  soon  as  may  be,  the  said  English 
merchants  shall  be  rid  and  dispatched ;  and  if  any  action  shall  be  moved  by  or  against 
any  of  the  snd  merchants,  benig  absent  out  of  our  said  empire  and  dominions,  then 
such  n  »rchants  may  substitute  an  attorney  in  all  and  singular  his  causes,  to  be  followed 
as  need  shall  require,  and  as  shall  seem  to  him  expedient. 

7.  Item,  we  grant  and  promise  to  the  said  merchants,  and  to  their  successors,  that  if 
the  same  merchants,  or  any  of  them,  shall  be  wounded,  or  (which  God  forbid)  slain  in 
any  part  or  place  of  our  empire  or  dominions,  then  good  information  thereof  given,  we 
and  our  justices  and  other  officers  shall  execute  due  correction  and  punishment  without 
delay,  according  to  the  exigence  of  the  case  ;  so  that  it  shall  be  an  example  to  all  others 
not  to  commit  the  like.  And  if  it  shall  chance  the  factors,  servants,  or  ministers  of  the 
said  merchants,  or  any  of  them,  to  trespass  or  oftend,  whereby  they,  or  an}  of  them, 
shall  incur  the  danger  of  deatlv  or  punishm.ent,  the  gootls,  wares,  merchandises,  and 
things  of  their  masters  shall  not  therefore  be  forfeited,  confiscated,  spoiled,  nor  s?'zed 
by  any  means  by  us,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  or  by  any  our  officers,  ministers,  or  sub- 
jects, but  shall  remain  to  their  use,  frank,  fi-ee,  and  discharged  from  all  punishment  and 
loss. 

8.  Item,  we  grant  that  if  any  of  the  English  nation  be  arrested  for  any  debt,  he  shall 
not  be  laid  in  prison,  so  far  as  he  can  put  in  sufficient  surety  and  pawn ;  neither  shall 
any  sergeant  or  officer  lead  them,  or  any  of  them,  to  prison,  before  he  shall  have  known 
whether  the  chic  f  factor  or  factors,  or  their  deputies,  shall  be  sureties,  or  bring  in  pavm 
for  such  arrested ;  then  the  officers  shall  release  the  party,  and  shall  set  him  or  them  at 
Ulxrtj\ 

vol..  I.  H 


50 


VOYACiES  or  sill  mUill  UILLOIT-HHY  ANDOrUKItS, 


9  Moreover,  wc  give,  grimt,  and  promise,  to  the  siiid  merchants,  that  if  any  of  their 
shins,  or  other  vessels,  shall  be  spoiled,  robbed,  or  dc.:nnified  in  sailing,  anchotmg,  or 
returning  to  or  from  our  said  empires  and  dominions,  or  any  part  thercot,  by  any  pirates, 
merchant^,  or  other  person,  whatsoever  he  or  tliey  be,  that  then,  anrl  „,  such  case,  we 
\vill  do  all  that  in  us  is  to  cause  restitution,  reparation  and  satisfaction,  to  be  duly  made 
to  tiie  said  linglisl;  merchants,  by  our  letters,  and  otherwise,  as  shall  stand  with  our  ho- 
nour, and  be  consonant  to  equity  and  justice.  _  ,         .   .         r 

10  Item,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  Miccessors,  we  do  promise,  and  grant,  to  perform, 
maintain,  corroborate,  authenticate,  and  observe,  all  and  singular  the  aforxsaid  liberties, 
franchises,  and  privileges,  like  as  presently  we  firmly  do  intend,  ana  will  corroborate, 
authenticate,  and  perform  the  same,  by  all  mean  and  way  that  we  can,  as  much  as  may 
be,  to  the  commodity  and  profit  of  the  said  English  merchants,  and  their  successors, 

""^And 'to  the  intent  that  all  and  singular  the  said  gifts,  grants,  and  promises,  may  be 
inviolably  observed,  and  performed,  we,  the  said  John  Vasilivich,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
emperor  of  Russia,  great  duke  of  Novogrode,  Mosco,  &.c.  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  sue 
cessors,  by  our  imperial  and  lordly  word,  instead  of  an  oath,  have,  and  do  pronuse,  by 
these  presents,  inv"iolably  to  maintain  and  observe,  and  cause  to  be  inviolably  observed 
and  maintained,  all  and  singuUu-  the  aforesaid  gifts,  grants,  and  promises,  from  time  to 
time,  and  at  all  and  every  time  and  times  hereafter;  and  for  the  more  corroboration 
hereif,  have  caused  our  signet  hereunto  to  be  put.*  Dated  in  our  castle  of  Mosco,  the 
twentieth  day  of  ,  in  the  year 

*  The  charter  cranled  by  Philip  and  Mary  to  the  Russia  merchants  does  not  deserve  insertion ;  but 
it  is  singular,  tliat  tlie  right  of  conquest  is  permitted  over  any  part  possessed  by  infidels. 


TO  TIIF.  NOUTHERN  l'AHTff  OF  RUSSIA  AND  SIREKIA. 


HI 


we 


77te  navigation  ami  discovenj  toward  the  river  of  Oh,  made  by  master  Stephen  liur- 
rou^rh.  master  of  the  pinnace  called  the  Serchthrift,  with  divers  things  worth  the 
noting,  passed  in  the  year  1556. 

(HACKLUYT,  VOL.  I.  P.  »74.; 

WE  departed  from  Ratcliffc,  to  Blackwall,  the  twenty-third  of  April.  Saturday,  being 
St.  Mark's  day,  we  departed  from  Biackwall  to  Grays. 

I'he  twenty-seventh,  being  Monday,  the  right  worshipful  Sebastian  Cabota  came 
aboard  our  pinnace,  at  Gxavesend,  accompanied  with  divers  gentlemen  and  gentlewomen, 
who,  after  that  they  had  viewed  our  jjinnacc,  and  tasted  of  such  cheer  as  we  could  make 
them  aboiuti,  they  went  on  shore,  giving  to  our  mariners  right  liberal  rewards ;  and  the 
good  old  gentleman,  master  Cabotii,  gave  to  the  poor  most  liberal  alms,  wishing  them  to 
pray  for  the  good  fortune  and  prosjx;rous  success  of  the  Serchthrift,  our  pinnace  ;  and 
then,  at  the  sign  of  the  Christopher,  he  and  his  friends  banquetted,  and  made  me,  and 
them  that  were  in  the  company,  great  cheer;  and  for  very  joy  that  he  had  to  see  the 
towardness  of  our  intended  discovery,  he  entered  into  the  dance  himself,  among  the  rest  of 
the  young  and  lusty  company ;  which  being  ended,  he  and  his  friends  departed  most 
gently,  commending  us  to  the  governance  of  Almighty  God. 

Tuesday  we  rode  still  at  Gravesend,  making  provision  for  such  things  as  we  wanted. 

Wednesday,  in  the  morning,  we  depiu-ted  from  Gravesend,  the  wind  being  at  S.  W. 
that  night  we  came  to  an  anchor  thwart  our  Lady  of  Holland's. 

Thursdiiy,  at  three  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  we  weighed,  and  by  eight  of  the 
clock  we  were  at  an  anchor  in  Orvvcl  Wanns,  and  then,  incontinent,  I  wr^nt  aboard  the 
Edward  Bonaventure,  wher  'he  worshipful  company  of  merchants  appointed  me  to  be, 
until  the  said  good  ship  arn ,    I  :it  Wardhouse ;  then  I  returned  again  mto  the  pinnace. 

Friday,  the  fifteenth  ot  May,  ac  were  within  seven  leagui  s  oi  the  shore,  on  the  coast 
of  Nonvay,  the  latitude,  at  a  south  sui  58"  30',  where  we  sa^v  three  sails,  beside  our 
own  company  ;  and  thus  we  followed  the  shore  or  land,  which  lieth  N.  N.  W.  N.  and 
by  W.  and  N.  W.  and  N.  as  it  doth  appear  by  the  plat. 

Saturday,  at  an  east  sun,  we  came  to  St.  Dunstan's  island  which  is'and  I  so  named;  it 
was  off  us  east,  two  leagues  and  a  half,  the  wind  l>  ing  at  S.  E.  the  latitude  this  day,  at  a 
south  sun,  59**  42'.  Also  the  high  round  mountain  bare  east  of  us,  at  a  south  sun ;  and 
when  this  hill  is  east  of  you,  and  Ijeing  bound  to  the  northward,  the  land  lieth  north,  and 
half  a  point  westerly,  from  this  said  south  sun,  unto  a  north  sun,  twenty  leagues  N.  W. 
along  the  shore. 

Upon  Sunday,  at  six  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  '  c  farthest  land  that  we  could  see, 
that  lay  N.  N.  W.  was  east  of  us  three  leagues,  at  .a  then  it  trended  to  the  northwards, 
and  to  the  eastwards  of  the  north ;  which  headland  I  judged  to  be  Scoutsness.  At  seven 
of  the  clock  we  changed  our  course,  and  went  N.  the  wind  being  at  S.  S.  E.  and  it 
waxed  very  thick  and  misty,  and  wnen  it  cleared,  we  went  N.  N.  E.  At  a  south  sun  we 
lost  sight  of  the  Serchthrift,  because  of  the  mist,  making  our  way  N.  and  when  we  lost 
sight  of  the  shore  and  pinnace,  we  were  within  two  leagues  and  a  half  of  the  shore. 
The  last  land  that  we  saw,  when  this  mist  came  upon  us,  which  is  to  the  northwards  of 
Scoutsness,  lay  N.  N.  E.  and  S.  S.  W.  and  we  made  our  way  N.  until  a  west  sun  five 
leagues. 

Frcm  that  until  Monday,  three  a-clock  in  the  morning,  ten  leagues  N.  N.  E. 
and  then  we  went  N.  and  by  E.  because  the  wind  came  at  the  W.  §.  W.  with  thick 


53 


voYAr.F.s  OP  SfR  mr.ir  willouoiiby  and  OTifr-iis, 


mist ;  the  latitude  this  day  at  u  south  sun  63°  30'  truly  taken  :  at  this  season  we  had 
sight  of  our  pinnace  aj^ain. 

From  that  until  Tuesday  a  south  sun  >  .  N.  E.  forty-four  leagues,  and  then  N.  E. 
from  a  south  sun  until  ei^ht  of  the  clock,  fifteen  leagues  N.  E. 

From  that  until  Wednesday  a  south  sun  N.  N.  L.  except  the  first  watch  N.  E.  then 
had  \vc  the  latitude  in  67°  39'.  From  that  unto  a  N.  W.  sun  eighteen  li'ugues  N.  E. 
and  then  we  were  within  tw  o  leagues  of  the  shore,  luid  saw  the  high  land  to  the  south* 
wards  of  Lo\vfoot  break  out  through  the  mist,  and  then  we  went  N.  and  by  E. 

From  the  said  N.  W.  sun  until  four  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  N.  and  by  E.  ten 
leagues  and  a  half,  and  then  N.  N.  E.  until  a  south  sun,  the  latitude  being  69°  30'. 
From  that  until  half  an  hour  past  seven  of  the  clock,  N.  N.  E.  eleven  leagues  and  a 
half,  and  then  we  went  N.  E.  ten  leagues.  From  that  three  leagues  and  a  hall"  E.  N.  E. 
and  then  we  saw  the  land  through  the  clouds  and  hazy  thwart  on  the  broadside  of  us, 
the  wind  being  then  at  S.  S.  VV. 

From  that  tmtil  Saturday,  at  eight  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  E.  N.  E.  and  to  tlie 
northwards  forty-eight  leagues,  and  then  the  wind  came  up  at  N.  we  being  aboard  the 
shore,  and  thwart  of  the  chapel  which  I  suppose  is  called  Kedihvike ;  then  we  cast  the 
ship's  head  to  the  seawards,  because  the  wind  was  very  scant ;  and  then  I  caused  tlie 
pinnace  to  bear  in  with  the  shore,  to  see  whether  she  might  find  an  harbour  for  the 
ships  or  not,  and  that  she  found  and  saw  two  roaders  ride  in  the  sound  ;  and  also  they 
saw  houses.  But  notwithstanding,  God  l^e  praised,  the  wind  enlarged  upon  us,  that  we 
had  not  occasion  to  go  into  the  harbour ;  and  then  the  pinnace  bare  her  mizen  mast 
overboard  with  flag  and  all,  and  lost  the  flag :  with  the  mast  there  fell  two  men  over- 
board, but  God  be  praised  they  were  saved ;  the  flag  was  a  token,  whereby  we  might 
understand  whether  there  were  a  good  harbour  there  or  not. 

At  a  north  sun  the  North  Cape  (which  I  so  named  the  first  voyage)  was  thwart  of  us, 
which  is  nine  leagues  to  the  eastwards  of  the  aforesaid  chapel  from  the  easternmost 
point  of  it. 

iune  7.  The  Sunday  we  weighed  in  Corpus  Christi  bay,  at  a  N.  E.  and  by  E.  sun  ; 
the  bay  is  almost  half  a  league  deep ;  the  headland,  which  is  Corpus  Christi  point,  lieth 
S.  E.  and  by  E.  one  league  from  the  head  of  the  bay,  where  we  had  a  great  tide,  like  a 
race  over  the  flood :  the  bay  is  at  the  least  tv\'o  leag  les  over ;  so  do  I  imagine  from  the 
Fair  foreland  to  Corpus  Christi  point  ten  leagues  S.  E.  and  bv  E,  it  floweth  in  this 
bay  at  a  S.  and  by  W.  moon,  full  sea.  From  that  wc  went  until  seven  o'clock  at  after- 
noon twenty  leagues  S.  E.  and  by  S.  and  then  we  took  in  all  our  nails,  because  it  was 
then  very  misty,  and  also  we  met  with  much  ice  that  ran  out  of  the  bay  ;  and  then  we 
went  S.  S.  E.  with  our  foresail.  At  eight  of  the  clock  we  heard  a  piece  of  ordnance, 
which  was  out  of  the  Edward,  which  bade  us  farewell,  and  then  we  shot  off"  another 
piece,  and  bade  her  farewell ;  we  could  not  one  see  the  other  because  of  the  thick  mist : 
at  a  N.  W.  sun  it  began  somewhat  to  clear  and  then  we  saw  a  headland,  and  the  shore 
trended  to^the  southwestward,  which  I  judged  to  be  about  Cr<  >  Island;  it  was  oflf  us 
at  a  N.  N.  W.  sun,  W.  S.  W. 

8.  From  this  N.  N.  W.  sun  until  Monday  we  went  S.  E.  aiul  this  morning  we  came 
at  anchor  among  the  shoals  that  lie  off"  Point  Lookout,  at  a  N.  E.  and  by  E.  sun,  the 
wind  being  at  E.  S.  E.  At  this  point  Lookout,  a  south  ...'^.m  maketh  a  full  sea.  Cape 
Good  Fortune  lieth  from  the  Isle  of  Crosses  S.  E.  and  between  them  is  ten  leagues. 
Point  Lookout  lieth  from  Cape  Good  Fortune  E.  S.  E.  and  between  tlum  are  six 
leagues.     St.  Edmond's  point  lieth  from  Point  Lookout  E.  S.  £.  and  half  a  point  to 


TO  TIIR  NORTIIKRS  PARTS  OF  UL'SHr.\  AVI)  SIHUJI A 


53 


the  southwards,  and  between  them  are  six  leagues.  There  is  between  these  two  points 
a  buy  that  is  half  a  league  deep,  and  is  full  of  shoals  aiul  d.mgers.  At  a  S.  K.  sun  we 
weighed,  and  tinned  to  the  windwards,  the  wind  being  at  L.  iS.  K.  and  at  a  S.  E.  sun 
we  eame  to  an  anchor,  Ix'ing  then  a  full  sea,  in  five  fathoms  and  a  half  water.  It  hicth 
at  this  plaee  where  we  rode,  and  also  at  |X)int  Lookout,  (our  fathom  water.  At  u 
W.  N.  W.  sun  wc  weighed,  and  drived  to  the  windwards  until  Tuesday,  a  N.  N.  E. 
sun,  and  then,  being  a  high  water,  we  came  to  an  anehor  open  of  the  river  Cola,  in 
eight  fathom  water.  Cape  St.  Bernard  lieth  from  St.  Edmond's  point  S.  E.  and  b}  S. 
and  betwixt  diem  are  six  leagues;  and  also  betwixt  them  is  the  river  Cola,  into  which 
river  .we  went  this  evening. 

10.  Wednesday  we  rode  still  in  the  said  river,  tlie  wind  lx;ing  at  the  N.  we  sent  our 
skiff  a-land  to  be  dressed;  the  latitude  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  Cola  is  65"  48'. 

11.  Thursday,  at  six  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  theix*  came  aboard  of  us  one  of 
the  Russc  lodias,  rowing  with  twenty  oars,  and  tliere  were  Ibur-and-twenty  men  in 
her.  The  master  of  the  Ixwt  presented  m  i  >^'ith  a  great  loaf  of  bread,  and  six  rings  of 
bread,  which  they  call  colaches,  and  four  dried  pikes,  and  a  peck  of  fine  oatmeal ;  and 
I  giwe  unto  the  master  of  the  boat  a  comb  and  a  small  glass  :  and  he  declaad  unto  mc 
that  he  was  lx>und  to  Pechora;  and  after  that  I  made  them  to  drink,  the  tide  being 
somewhat  broken,  they  gently  departed.     The  master's  name  was  Pheodtr. 

Whereas  the  tenUi  day  I  sent  our  pinnace  on  shore  to  be  mended,  Ix'cause  she  was 
leaky  and  weak,  wiUi  the  carjienter  and  three  men  more  to  help  him,  the  weather 
chanced  so,  Uiat  it  was  Sunday  before  they  could  get  alx)ard  our  ship.  All  that  time 
they  were  without  provision  of  victuals,  but  only  a  little  bread,  which  they  spent  by 
Thursday  at  night,  thinking  to  have  come  aboard  when  they  had  listed,  but  wind  and 
weather  denied  them  ;  insomuch  that  they  were  fain  to  cat  grass  and  such  weeds  as  they 
could  find  then  above  ground,  but  fresh  water  they  had  plenty  ;  but  the  meat  with  some 
of  them  could  scant  frame,  by  reason  of  their  queazy  stomachs. 

14.  From  Thursday  at  afternoon,  until  Sunday  in  the  morning,  our  bark  did  ride 
such  a  roadsted,  that  it  was  to  be  marvelled,  without  the  help  of  God,  how  she  was  able 
to  abide  it. 

In  the  bight  of  the  S.  E.  shore  of  the  river  Cola,  there  is  a  good  road  in  five  fathom, 
or  four  fathom  and  a  half,  at  a  low  water;  but  you  shall  have  no  land  N.  N.  E.  of  you 
then.     I  proved  with  our  pinnace  that  the  depth  goeth  on  the  S,  E.  shore. 

18.  Thursday  we  weighed  our  anchors  in  the  river  Cola,  and  went  into  the  sea  seven 
or  eight  leagues,  where  we  met  with  the  wind  far  northerly,  that  of  force  it  constrained 
us  to  go  again  back  into  the  said  river,  where  came  aboard  of  us  sundry  of  their  boats, 
which  declared  unto  me  that  they  were  also  bound  to  the  northwards,  a  fishing  for  morse 
and  salmon,  and  gave  me  liberally  of  their  white  and  wheaten  bread. 

As  we  rode  in  this  river,  we  saw  daily  coming  down  the  rivei  many  of  their  lodias, 
and  they  that  had  least  had  four-and-twenty  men  in  them,  and  at  the  last  they  grew  to 
thirty  s^l  of  diem ;  and  among  the  rest  there  wjis  one  of  them  whose  name  was  Gabriel, 
who  shewed  me  very  much  friendship,  and  he  declared  unto  me  that  all  they  were 
bound  to  Pechora,  a  fishing  for  salmons  and  morses ;  insomuch  that  he  shewed  me  by 
demonstrations,  that  with  a  fair  wind  we  had  seven  or  eight  days  sailing  to  the  river 
Pechoi-a,  so  that  I  was  glad  of  their  company.  This  Gabriel  promised  to  give  me  warn- 
ing of  shoals,  as  he  did  indeed. 

21.  Sunday  beii.;pjthe  one-and-twentieth  day,  Gabriel  gave  me  a  barrel  of  mead,  and 
one  of  his  special  friends  gave  me  a  barrel  of  beer,  which  >vas  carried  upon  men's  backs 
at  least  two  miles. 


•'  -! 


B^ 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  UVCU  WllJ.OlIfilinV  AND  OTHERS, 


22.  Monday  wc  departed  from  the  river  Cola,  with  all  the  rest  of  the  said  lodias, 
but  sailing  Ixfore  the  wind  they  were  all  too  good  for  us;  but  accordin)^  to  pujunse, 
this  Gabriel  and  his  friend  did  o  ften  strike  their  sails  luid  tirried  for  us,  forsaking  their 
own  company. 

23.  Tuesday,  at  an  E.  N.  E.  sun,  wc  were  thwart  of cajx;  St.  John.  It  is  to  be  un- 
dprstO(jd  that  from  the  Cape  Si.  John  unto  the  river  or  bay  that  goeth  to  Mezen,  it  is 
all  suii!:  lai.d,  and  full  of  shoals  and  dangers,  you  shall  have  scant  two  fathom  water, 
and  see  no  land.  And  this  present  day  we  came  to  an  anchor  thwart  of  a  creek,  which 
is  four  or  five  kMgues  to  the  northwards  of  the  said  cape,  into  which  creek  Gabriel  and 
his  fellow  rowed,  but  we  could  not  get  in ;  and  before  night  there  were  above  twenty 
sail  that  went  into  the  said  creek,  the  wind  being  at  the  N.  £.  We  had  indifierent 
go(xl  landfang. 

This  afternoon  Gabriel  came  aboard  ^vith  his  skiff,  and  then  I  rewarded  him  for  the 
good  company  that  he  kept  with  us  over  the  shoals  with  two  small  ivory  combs,  and  a 
steel  glass,  with  two  or  three  trifles  more,  for  which  he  was  not  ungrateful ;  but  not* 
withstanding  his  first  company  had  gotten  further  to  the  northwards. 

24.  Wednesday  being  Midsummer-day,  we  sent  our  skiff  aland  to  sound  the  creek, 
where  they  found  it  almost  dry  at  a  low  water;  and  all  the  lodias  within  were  on 
ground. 

Although  the  harbour  were  evil,  yet  the  stormy  similitude  of  northerly  winds  tempted 
us  to  set  our  sails,  and  we  let  slip  a  cable  and  an  anchor,  and  bare  with  the  harbour, 
for  it  was  then  nei^u*  a  high  water :  and  as  always  in  such  joumies  varieties  do  chance, 
when  we  came  upon  the  bar  in  the  entrance  of  the  creek,  the  wind  did  shrink  so  sud- 
denly upon  us,  that  we  were  not  able  to  lead  it  in,  and  before  we  could  have  flatted  the 
ship  before  the  wind,  we  should  have  been  on  ground  on  the  lee  shore ;  so  that  we  were 
constrained  to  let  fall  an  anchor  under  our  sails,  and  rode  in  a  very  breach,  thinking  to 
have  warped  in.  Gabriel  came  out  with  his  skiff,  and  so  did  sundry  others  also,  shewing 
their  gooid  will  to  help  us,  but  all  to  no  purpose,  for  they  were  likely  to  have  been 
drowned  for  their  labour ;  insomuch  that  I  desired  Gabriel  to  lend  me  his  anchor,  be- 
cause our  own  anchors  were  too  big  for  our  skiff  to  lay  out,  who  sent  me  liis  own,  and 
borrowed  another  also  and  sent  it  us.  Then  we  laid  out  one  of  those  anchors,  with  a 
hawser  which  he  had  of  one  hundred  and  forty  fathom  long,  thinking  to  have  warped  in, 
but  it  would  not  be,  for  as  we  shorted  upon  the  said  warp  the  anchor  came  home,  so  that 
\ye  were  fain  to  bear  tlie  end  of  the  warp,  that  we  rushed  in  upon  the  other  small  anchor 
th  It  Gabriel  sent  aboard,  and  laid  that  anchor  to  seawards  ;  and  then  between  these 
two  anchors  we  traversed  the  ship's  head  to  seawards,  and  set  our  foresail  and  mainsail, 
anc'  when  the  bark  had  way  we  cut  the  hawser,  and  so  gat  the  sea  to  our  friend,  and  tried 
out  all  that  day  with  our  main  course. 

25.  The  Thursday  we  went  room  with  Cape  St.  John,  where  we  found  indifferent 
good  road  for  a  N.  N.  E.  wind,  and  for  a  need,  for  a  N.  and  by  W.  wind. 

26.  Friday  at  afternoon  we  weighed  and  departed  from  thence,  the  weather  being 
meetly  fair,  and  the  wind  at  E.  S.  E.  and  plied  for  the  place  where  we  left  our  cable 
and  anchor,  and  our  hawser ;  and  as  soon  as  we  were  at  an  anchor,  the  foresaid  Gabriel 
came  aboard  of  us,  with  three  or  four  more  of  their  small  boats,  and  brought  with  them 
of  their  aquavitae  and  mead,  professing  unto  me  very  much  friendship,  and  rejoiced  to 
see  us  again,  declaring  that  they  earnestly  thought  that  we  had  been  lost.  This  Gabriel 
declared  unto  me  that  they  hud  saved  both  the  anchors  and  our  hawser ;  and  after  we 
had  thus  communed,  I  caused  four  or  five  of  them  to  go  into  my  cabin,  where  I  gave 


TO  TirR  VOnTIIERV  PARTS  OP  Rl'SSIA  AND  SllirniA. 


5.) 


them  figs,  and  made  them  such  cheer  as  I  could.  While  I  was  thus  ban«|iicttin|?  ol" 
thim  there  came  another  of  their  skiffs  aboard  with  one  who  was  a  Keril,  whose  name 
afterwards  I  learned,  and  Uiat  he  dwelt  in  Colmogro,  and  Gabriel  dwelt  in  the  town  of 
Cola,  which  is  not  far  from  the  river's  mouth.  'I  his  foresaid  Keril  said  unto  me  tha( 
one  of  the  anchors  which  I  Ijorrowed  was  his ;  I  gave  him  thanks  for  the  loan  of  it, 
thinking  it  had  been  sufficient.  And  as  I  continued  in  one  accustomed  manner,  that  if 
the  present  which  they  brought  were  worth  entertainment,  they  had  it  accordingly ;  he 
brought  nothing  with  him,  and  therefore  I  regarded  him  but  little.  And  thus  we 
ended,  and  they  took  their  leave  and  went  ashore.  At  their  coming  ashore  Gabriel  and 
Kcri!  were  at  inconvenient  words,  and  by  the  ears  as  I  understand  ;  the  cause  was  l)e- 
cause  the  one  had  Ix'tter  entertainment  than  the  other :  but  you  shall  understand  that 
Gabriel  was  not  able  to  make  his  party  good,  because  there  were  seventeen  lodiasofthe 
Kcril's  company  who  took  his  part,  iuuj  but  two  of  Gabriel's  company. 

The  next  high  water  Gabriel  and  his  connxiny  departed  from  thence,  and  rowed  to 
their  former  company  and  neijjhbours,  which  were  in  number  twcnty-eight  at  the  least, 
and  all  of  them  belonging  to  the  river  Cola. 

27.  And  as  I  understood  Keri!  made  reckoning  that  the  hawser  which  was  fast  in  his 
anchor  should  have  been  his  own,  ind  at  first  would  not  deliver  it  to  our  boat,  insomuch 
that  I  sent  him  word  that  I  would  complain  upon  him,  whereupon  he  delivered  the 
hawser  to  my  comjiany. 

The  next  day  being  Saturday,  I  sent  our  boat  on  shore  to  fetch  fresh  water  and  wood, 
and  at  their  coming  on  shore  this  Keril  welcomed  our  men  most  gently,  and  also  ban* 
quetted  them  ;  and  in  the  mean  time  caused  some  of  his  men  to  fill  our  barricoes  with 
water,  and  to  help  our  men  to  bea"  wood  into  their  boat ;  and  then  he  put  on  his  best 
silk  coat,  and  his  collar  of  pearls,  an:!  came  aboard  agiiin,  and  brought  his  present  with 
him  ;  and  thus  having  more  respect  anto  his  present  than  to  his  person,  because  I  |ier- 
ceivedhim  to  be  vain  glorious,  I  bade  him  welcome,  and  gave  him  a  dish  of  figs ;  and 
then  he  declared  unto  me  that  his  father  was  a  ^^ntlemiui,  and  that  he  was  able  to  shew 
me  pleasure,  and  not  Gabriel,  who  was  but  a  priest's  son. 

28.  After-  their  departure  from  us  we  weighed,  and  plyed  a'l  the  ebb  to  the  wind- 
wards, the  wind  being  northerly,  and  towards  night  it  waxed  ery  stormy,  so  that  of 
force  we  were  constrained  to  go  room  with  Cape  St.  John  again,  in  which  storm  we 
lost  our  skiff  at  our  stem  that  we  bought  at  Wardhouse,  and  there  we  rode  until  the  fourth 
of  July.  The  latitude  of  Cape  St.  John  is  66°  50'.  And  it  is  to  be  noted,  that  the 
land  of  Cape  St.  John  is  of  height  from  the  full  sea  mark,  as  I  judge,  ten  fathoms,  being 
clean  without  any  trees  growing,  and  also  without  stones  or  rocks,  and  consists  only  of 
black  earth,  which  is  so  rotten,  that  if  any  of  it  fall  into  the  sea,  it  will  swim  as  though 
it  were  a  piece  of  wood,  In  which  place,  about  three  leagues  from  the  shore,  you  shall 
not  have  above  nine  fathom  water  and  clay  ground. 

July  4.  Saturday  at  a  N.  N.  W.  sun,  the  wind  came  at  E.  N.  E.  and  then  we  weighed 
and  plyed  to  the  northwards  ;  and  as  we  were  t^.vo  leagues  shot  past  the  cape,  we  saw  a 
house  standing  in  a  valley,  which  is  dainty  to  be  seen  in  those  parts,  and  by  and  by  I  saw 
three  men  on  the  top  of  the  hilh  then  I  judged  them,  as  it  afterwards  proved,  that  they 
were  men  which  came  from  aome  other  place  to  set  traps  to  take  vermin  for  their  furs ; 
which  traps  we  did  perceive  very  thick  along  the  shore  as  we  vvcnt 

5,  Sunday  at  an  E.  sun,  we  were  thwart  of  the  creek  where  the  huoses  lay,  and  there 
came  to  an  anchor,  and  perceiving  the  most  parr  of  the  lodias  to  be  gone,  we  thought  it 
jiot  good  to  tany  any  longer  there,  but  weighed  and  sixint  all  the  ebb  plying  to  the 
windwards, 


3Ct 


VUVAGKH  Ol'  SIH  llt'GM  WIl.I.OlTCIinY  AND  OTIIKRS, 


6.  Monday  at  a  south  sun  it  was  high  water.  All  along  the  coast  it  flowcth  little, 
only  a  south  moon  makes  a  full  sea  ;  and  as  we  were  a  weighing  we  espied  the  Uusse 
lodias  whieii  we  fust  lost ;  they  came  out  of  a  exeek  amongst  iIk*  sandy  hills ;  which  hills 
begin  fifteen  leagues  N.  N.  E.  from  Cape  St.  John. 

7.  Plying  this  ebb  to  an  end,  we  came  to  an  anchor  six  leagues  N.  N.  K.  fmm  the 
place  wnea"  we  siiw  the  Russes  come  out ;  and  there  the  Uutises  harboured  iheniselvcg 
within  a  sinik  bank,  but  there  was  not  water  enough  for  us. 

At  a  north  sun  we  weighed  and  plyed  to  the  northwards,  the  land  lying  N.  N.  E.  and 
S.  S.  \V.  until  a  south  sun,  and  then  we  were  in  ^}^c  latitude  of  68°  30' ;  and  in  this 
latitude  end  those  sandy  hills,  and  the  land  l)eginneth  to  lie  N.  and  by  W. .  S.  aiKl  E. 
and  N.  N.  VV.  and  to  the  westwards,  and  there  the  water  beginncth  to  wax  deep. 

At  a  N.  W.  sun  we  came  to  an  anchor  within  half  a  league  of  the  shore,  where  wc 
had  good  plenty  of  fish,  both  haddocks  and  cods,  riding  in  ten  fathom  water. 

8.  Wednesday  wc  weighed  and  plyed  nearer  to  the  headland,  which  is  called  Ca- 
ninoz,  the  wind  being  at  E.  and  by  N. 

9.  Thursday,  the  wind  lx;ing  scant,  we  turned  to  windwards  the  ebb,  to  get  about 
Caninoz  :  the  latitude  this  day  at  noon  was  68°  40'. 

10.  Friday  we  turned  to  the  windwards  of  the  ebb,  but  to  no  purpose  ;  and  as  we 
rode  at  an  anchor,  we  saw  the  similitude  of  a  storm  rising  at  N.  N.  W.  and  could  not 
tell  where  to  get  rode  nor  succour  for  that  wind,  and  harbour  we  knew  none  ;  and  that 
land  which  we  rode  under  with  that  wind  was  a  lee  shore.  And  as  I  was  musing  what 
was  best  to  be  done,  I  saw  a  sail  come  out  of  a  creek  under  the  foresaid  Caninoz,  which 
was  my  friend  Gabriel,  who  forsook  his  harbour  and  company,  and  came  as  near  us  as 
he  might,  and  pointed  us  to  the  eastwards,  and  then  we  weighed  and  followed  him,  and 
went  E.  and  by  S.  the  wind  being  at  W.  N.  W.  and  very  misty. 

11.  Saturday  we  went  E.  S.  E.  and  followed  Gabriel,  and  he  brought  us  into  an 
harbour  called  Margoivets,  which  is  thirty  leagues  from  Caninoz,  and  we  had  upon  the 
bar  going  in  two  fathom  and  a  fourth  part ;  and  after  we  were  past  in  over  the  bar  it 
waxed  deeper,  for  we  had  five  fathoms,  four  and  a  half,  and  three  fathom,  &c.  Our 
bark  being  moored,  I  sent  some  of  our  men  to  shore  to  provide  wood,  where  they  had 
plenty  of  drift  wood,  but  none  growing ;  and  in  this  place  we  found  plenty  cf  young 
fowl,  as  gulls,  seapies,  and  others,  whereof  the  Russes  would  eat  none,  wher.-of  we  were 
nothing  sorry,  for  there  came  the  more  to  our  part. 

12.  Sunday  our  men  cut  wood  on  shore  and  brought  it  aboard,  and  we  ballasted 
our  ship  with  stones. 

This  moi  ning  Gabriel  saw  a  smoke  on  the  way,  who  rowed  into  it  with  his  skiff,  which 
smoke  was  two  leagues  from  the  place  where  we  rode  ;  and  at  a  N.  W.  sun  he  came 
aboard  again,  and  brought  with  him  a  Samoed,  which  was  but  a  young  man  ;  his  ap- 
parel was  then  strange  unto  us,  and  he  presented  me  with  three  young  wild  geese,  and 
one  young  barnacle. 

13.  Monday  I  sent  a  man  to  the  main  in  Gabriel's  boat,  and  he  brought  us  aboard 
eight  barricoes  of  fresh  water  :  the  latitude  of  the  said  Margiovets  is  68°  20'.  It  iloweth 
there  at  a  S.  S.  W.  moon  full  sea,  and  hieth  two  fathom  and  a  half  water. 

14.  At  a  W.  N.  W.  sun  we  departed  from  this  place,  and  went  E.  twenty-five  leagues, 
and  then  saw  an  island  N.  and  by  W.  of  us  eight  leagues,  which  island  is  called  Dol- 
goieve ;  and  from  the  easternmost  part  of  this  island  there  lieth  a  sand  E.  and  by  S. 
seven  leagues  long. 

15.  Wednesday  at  a  N.  and  by  E.  sun,  Swetinoz  was  S.  of  us  five  leagues.  This 
day  at  afternoon  we  went  in  over  the  dangerous  bar  of  Pechora,  and  had  upon  the  bar 
but  one  fatliom  water. 


TO  TIIF.  NOHTIIV.nS'  TARTS  OF  niTMIA  AND  «iar.!lf  V  57 

16.  Thursday  wc  rode  still. 

17.  Friday  I  went  on  shore  and  observed  tin-  variation  of  the  cotnpass,  which  was 
3®  30'  from  the  N.  to  the  VV.  the  hititiule  this  du>  was  69"  10'. 

From  two  or  tha-e  leagues  to  the  eastward  of  Swctiiioz,  until  the  eiuvring  of  the* 
river  Pechora,  it  is  all  sandy  hills,  and  towards  Kchora  the  sandy  hills  are  \ erv  low. 

It  hieth  on  the  bar  of  Pechora  four  feet  water,  and  it  ttowcth  there  at  u  S.  W.  imwn 
a  full  sea. 

20.  Monday  at  a  N.  and  by  E.  sun  we  weighed,  and  came  cut  over  tin;  said  dangerous 
bar,  where  we  had  but  five  feet  water,  insomuch  that  we  fouid  a  foot  less  water  coming 
out  than  we  did  going  in.  I  think  the  reason  was  U'causc  r^'hen  we  wer.t  in  the  wind 
was  oft'  the  aci;,  which  caused  the  sands  to  break  on  either  side  of  us,  and  we  kept  in 
the  smoothest  between  the  bn-aches,  which  we  durst  not  hav«  Jonc,  except  we  had  seen 
the  Russes  to  have  gone  in  before  us ;  and  at  our  coming  o'u  the  wind  was  off" the  shore, 
and  fair  weather,  and  then  the  sands  did  v^t  appear  with  breaches  iis  at  uur  going  in  : 
we  thank  God  that  our  ship  did  draw  so  littL  water. 

When  we  were  a  sea  board  the  bar  the  •  d  scanted  upon  us,  and  was  at  E.  S.  E. 
insomuch  that  we  stopped  the  ebbs,  and  plird  all  the  floods  to  the  windwards,  and 
made  our  way  E.  N.  L. 

21.  Tuesday  at  a  N.  W.  sun,  we  thought  tl'at  we  had  seen  land  at  E.  or  E.  and  by  N. 
of  us,  which  afterwards  proved  to  be  a  monsU  ous  heap  of  ice. 

Within  a  little  more  tnan  half  an  hour  aftei  we  first  saw  this  ice,  we  were  enclosed 
within  it  before  wc  were  aware  of  it,  which  was  a  fearful  sight  to  see  ;  for,  for  the  space 
of  six  hours,  it  was  as  much  as  we  could  do  to  keep  our  ship  aloof  from  one  heap  of 
ice,  and  bear  roomer  from  another,  with  as  much  wind  as  we  might  bear  acourse  ;  and 
when  we  had  passed  from  the  danger  of  this  ice,  wc  lay  to  tlie  eastwards  close  by  the 
wind. 

22.  The  next  day  we  were  agam  troubled  with  the  ice. 

23.  Thursday  being  calm,  wc  plied  to  the  windwards,  the  wind  being  northerly  :  we 
had  the  latitude  this  day  at  noon  in  70°  11'. 

We  had  not  run  past  two  hours  N.  W.  the  wind  being  at  N.  N.  E.  and  N.  E.  and 
by  N.  a  good  gi\le,  but  we  met  again  with  another  heap  of  ice  :  we  weathered  the  head 
of  it,  and  lay  a  time  to  the  seawards,  and  made  way  W.  six  leagues. 

24.  Friday  at  a  S.  E.  sun  wc  cast  about  to  the  eastwards,  the  wind  being  at  N.  N.  E. 
the  latitude  this  day  at  noon  was  70°  15'. 

25.  On  Lt.  James  his  day,  bolting  to  the  windwards,  we  had  the  latitude  at  noon  in 
70°  20'.  The  same  day  at  a  S.  W.  sun,  there  was  a  monstrous  whale  aboard  of  us,  so 
near  to  our  side  that  we  might  have  thrust  a  sword  or  any  other  weapon  in  him,  which 
we  durst  not  do  for  fear  he  should  have  overthrown  our  ship ;  and  then  I  called  my 
company  together,  and  all  of  us  shouted,  and  with  the  cry  that  we  made  he  de- 
parted from  us  :  there  was  as  much  above  water  of  his  back  as  the  breadth  of  our  pinnace, 
and  at  his  falling  down  he  made  such  a  terrible  noise  in  the  water,  that  a  man  would 
greatly  have  marvelled,  except  he  had  known  the  cause  of  it ;  b . .  God  be  thanked  we 
were  quietly  delivered  of  him.  And  a  little  after  we  spied  certain  islands,  with  which 
we  bare,  and  found  good  harbour  in  fifteen  or  eighteen  fathom,  and  black  oze :  we 
came  to  an  anchor  at  a  N.  E.  sun,  and  named  the  island  St.  James  his  island,  where  we 
found  fresh  water. 

26.  Sunday  much  wind  blowing,  we  rode  still. 

27.  Monday  1  went  on  shore  and  took  the  latitude,  which  was  70°  42'.  The  varia- 
tion of  the  compass  was  7°  30'  from  the  N.  to  the  W. 

vox..  1.  I 


i 


98 


VOVAOtH  OF  Hilt  IILT.M  WIIXUl'GIIIIY  AND  Oril(:R4, 


28.  Tuesday  wc  plied  to  the  westwards  ulonpf  the  shore,  the  wind  Ix-ing  at  N.  W. 
and  us  1  was  iU)out  to  come  to  anchor,  we  Niiw  a  sail  coming  about  the  |)<)int,  when  inulcr 
we  thought  to  have  anchored ;  then  I  sent  a  skiif  ul)o;ird  of  liim,  and  at  their  conung 
aboard  tiiey  t(X)k  acmiaintunce  of  them,  and  the  cliief  man  said  lie  had  been  in  our 
company  in  the  river  Cola,  and  also  declared  unto  them  that  we  were  |)ast  the  way  which 
hhould  bring  us  to  the  Ob.  This  land,  said  he,  is  called  Nova  Zembia,  that  is  to  say, 
the  New  Lund  ;  and  then  he  came  ulx)urd  himself  with  his  skifl',  undut  his  coining  utx)ard 
he  told  me  die  like  ;  and  said  further,  that  in  this  Nova  Zembia  is  the  highest  motnUaiii 
in  the  world,  as  he  thought,  and  that  Camen  Uolshay,  which  is  on  the  main  of  Pechoru, 
is  not  to  be  compared  to  this  mountain,  but  I  saw  it  not ;  he  made  me  ;ilso  certain  de< 
inonstrations  of  the  way  to  Ctv:  Ob,  and  seemed  to  make  haste  on  his  own  way,  Ixing 
very  loth  to  tarrj',  iKcause  the  year  was  far  past,  and  iiis  neighbour  had  fet  Pechora, 
and  not  he  ;  so  1  gave  him  a  steel  glass,  two  pewter  spoons,  and  a  pair  of  velvet  sheathed 
knives,  and  then  he  seemed  somewhat  tlie  more  willing  to  tarry,  and  shewed  mc  as  much 
us  he  knew  for  our  puqiose ;  he  also  gave  me  seventeen  wild  geese,  and  shewed  me  that 
four  of  their  lodiiis  were  driven  {ler  force  from  Cuninozc  to  this  Novu  Zcmblu.  This 
man's  name  was  Loshak. 

29.  Wednesday,  as  we  plied  to  the  eastwards,  we  espied  another  sail,  which  was  one 
of  this  Loshak 's  company,  and  we  bare  room  and  spake  with  hii  who  in  like  sort  told 
us  of  the  Ob,  as  the  other  had  done. 

30.  Thursday  we  plied  to  the  eastwards,  the  wind  being  at  £.  N.  E. 

31.  Friday  the  gale  of  wind  began  to  inca-asc,  and  came  westerly  withal,  so  that  by 
a  N.  W.  sun  we  were  at  an  imchor  among  the  islands  of  Vaigats,  where  we  saw  two 
small  lodias,  the  one  of  them  came  aboard  of  us,  and  presented  me  with  a  great  loaf  of 
bread ;  and  they  told  me  that  they  were  all  of  Colmogro,  except  one  man  that  dwelt 
at  Pechora,  who  seemed  to  be  the  chiefest  among  them  in  killing  of  the  morse. 

There  were  some  of  their  company  on  shore  which  did  chase  a  white  bciu-  over  the 
high  cliffs  into  the  water,  which  l^ear  the  lodia  that  was  aboard  of  us  killed  in  our 
sight. 

This  day  there  was  a  great  gale  of  wind  at  N.  and  we  saw  so  much  ice  driving  a 
seaboard,  that  it  was  then  no  going  to  sea. 

August  1.  Saturday  I  went  ashore,  and  there  I  saw  three  morses  that  they  had  killed : 
they  held  one  tooth  of  a  morse,  which  was  not  great,  at  a  roble,  and  one  white  bear  skin*^ 
at  three  robles  and  two  roblcs :  they  further  told  me  that  there  were  people  called 
Samoeds  on  die  great  island,  and  that  tl»ey  would  not  abide  them  nor  us,  who  have  no 
houses,  but  only  coverings  made  of  dcers'  skins,  set  over  them  with  stakes :  they  are 
men  expert  in  shooting,  and  have  great  plenty  of  deer. 

This  night  there  fell  a  cruel  storm,  the  wind  being  at  W. 

2.  Sunday  we  had  very  much  wind,  with  plenty  of  snow,  and  we  rode  with  two 
anchors  a-head. 

3.  Monday  we  weighed  and  went  room  with  another  island,  whi.  h  was  five  leagues 
E.  N.  E.  from  us ;  iu;d  there  I  met  again  with  Loshak,  and  went  on  shore  with  him,  and 
he  brought  mc  to  a  heap  of  the  Samoeds'  idols,  which  were  in  number  about  three 
hundred,  the  worst  and  the  most  unartificial  work  that  ever  I  saw  :  the  eyes  and  mouths 
of  sundry  of  them  were  bloody ;  they  had  the  shape  of  men,  women,  and  children, 
ver)'  grossly  wrought ;  and  that  which  they  had  made  for  other  parts  was  also  sprinkled 
with  blood.'  Some  of  their  idols  were  an  old  stick,  with  two  or  three  notches  made 
with  a  knife  in  it.  I  saw  much  of  the  footing  of  the  said  Samoeds,  and  of  the  sleds 
that  they  ride  in.    There  was  one  of  their  sleds  broken,  and  lay  by  tlie  heap  of  idols ; 


TO  Till:  NOUTIir.HN  I'AKTli  OK  UUSttA  AND  SIOERIA. 


50 


and  there  I  mw  n  dccrN  nkin  which  the  fowls  hnd  spoiled ;  and  before  certain  of  their 
idols  blocks  were  made  as  hi({h  as  their  moviths,  Ixing  all  bl<KKly,  I  thought  that  to  Ix.' 
the  table  wheaon  they  offered  their  sncriiicr  :  I  saw  also  the  inslruments  whereupon 
they  had  roasted  flesh,  and  as  far  as  I  could  perceive  they  make  their  fire  directly  under 
the  spit. 

Loshak  being  then*  present  told  me  that  these  Samocds  were  not  so  hurtful  as  they 
of  Ob  are,  and  that  they  have  no  houses,  as  indeed  I  s;iw  none,  but  only  tents  matle  of 
decrs'  skins,  which  they  under-prop  with  stakes  and  |xjles  :  tluir  IkkUs  are  made  of  deers' 
skins,  and  when  they  come  on  shore  they  carry  their  boiUs  with  them  ujwn  their  backs ; 
for  their  carriages  they  have  no  other  lx;asts  to  serve  them  but  deer  only.  As  for  bread 
and  corn  they  nave  none,  except  the  Russes  biing  it  to  them  :  their  knowledge  is  very 
base,  for  they  know  no  letter. 

4.  Tuesday  we  turned  for  die  harl)otir  where  I^oshak's  bark  lay,  whereas  Ixforc  we 
rode  under  an  island ;  and  there  he  came  aboard  of  us,  and  said  unto  me,  if  God  send 
wind  and  weather  to  serve,  I  will  go  to  the  Ob  with  you,  Ix-amse  the  morses  were  scant 
at  these  islands  of  Vaigats ;  but  if  he  could  not  get  to  tlie  river  of  Ob,  then  he  said  he 
would  go  to  the  river  of  Naramzay,  where  the  people  were  not  altogether  so  savage  as 
the  Samocds  of  the  Ob  are  :  he  shewed  me  that  they  will  shoot  at  all  men  to  the  utter- 
most of  their  power,  that  cannot  speak  their  spee<^h. 

5.  Wednesday  \w  saw  a  terrible  heap  of  ice  approach  near  unto  us,  and  therefon?  wc 
thought  gootl  with  all  speed  possible  to  dejxirt  from  thence,  and  st)  I  returned  to  the 
westwards  again,  to  the  ishinct  where  we  were  the  thirty-first  of  July. 

6.  Thursday  I  went  ashore  and  took  the  latitude,  which  was  70^  25' ;  and  the  varia- 
tion of  the  compass  was  8°  from  the  N.  to  the  W. 

Loshak  and  the  two  small  lodias  of  Pechora  departed  from  this  island,  while  I  was  on 
shore  taking  the  latitude,  and  went  to  the  southnards :  I  marvelled  why  he  departed  so 
suddenly,  and  went  over  the  shoals  amongst  the  i  )lands,  where  it  was  im[X)ssible  for  us  to 
follow  them ;  but  after  I  perceived  them  to  be  weather^vise. 

7.  Friday  we  rode  still,  the  wind  \mng  at  N.  N.  E.  with  a  cruel  storm  :  the  ice  came 
in  so  abundantly  about  us  at  both  ends  of  the  island  that  wc  rode  under,  that  it  was  n 
fearful  sight  to  behold  :  the  storm  continued  with  snow,  rain,  and  hail  plenty. 

8.  Saturday  we  rode  still  also,  the  storm  being  somewhat  abated,  but  u  was  altogether 
misty,  that  wo  were  not  able  to  sec  a  cable's  length  about  us,  the  wind  being  at  N.  E.  and 
by  JL. 

9.  Sunday,  at  four  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  wc  departed  from  this  island,  the 
wind  being  at  S.  E.  and  as  we  were  clear  a  seaboaitl  the  small  islands  and  shoals,  it 
came  so  thick  with  mists  that  we  could  not  see  a  base  shot  from  us ;  then  we  took  in 
all  our  sails  to  make  little  way. 

At  a  S.  E.  sun  it  waxed  clear,  and  then  wc  set  our  sails,  and  lay  close  by  the  wind  to 
the  southwards  along  the  islands  of  Vaigats.  At  a  \V.  sun  we  took  in  our  sail  again, 
because  of  the  great  mist  and  rain.  We  sounded  at  this  place,  and  had  five-and-twenty 
fathoms  water,  and  soil  black  oze,  being  three  leagues  from  the  shore,  the  wind  being 
at  S.  and  by  E.  but  still  misty. 

10.  Monday  at  an  E.  sun  we  sounded,  and  had  forty  fathoms,  and  oze,  still  misty. 
At  noon  we  soiuided  again,  and  had  thirty-six  fathom,  still  mist) . 

11.  Tuesday  at  an  L.  N.  E.  sun  we  let  fall  our  anchor  in  three-and-twenty  fathom, 
the  mist  still  continuing. 

12.  Wednesday,  at  three  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  the  mist  brake  up,  the  wind 
being  at  N.  E.  and  by  E.  and  then  we  saw  jiart  of  the  islands  of  Vaigats,  which  we  bare 
withal,  and  went  E.  S.  E.  close  by  tlie  ^vind :  at  a  W.  sun  we  ^vere  at  an  anchor  under 


t 


(MJ 


voYAori  Of  fiR  inroii  wn.T.o(rnfinv  \sv  orirens, 


It  hicth  here  foiir  I'cct  water,  and  flowith  by  fits  uncertain  to  be  judged. 

'"    "  -,     -  wind  at  8.  W.  with  very  much  rain,  and 


the  S.  \V.  part  of  the  miid  Vaif^at*,  and  then  I  sent  our  hkiff  to  shoro  with  three  men  in 
her,  to  see  if  they  might  H|K'ak  with  any  of  the  Samocds,  but  could  not :  all  that  day 
WUH  rainy  but  not  windv. 

13.  Ihuitiday  the  wind  came  wcHtcrly,  so  that  we  were  Fain  to  neck  us  anotlicr  place* 
to  ride  in,  lx:caus<*  the  wind  came  a  sea  boiuxl  land,  and  although  it  were  misty,  yet  wc 
followed  the  shore  bv  our  lead  :  and  as  we  brought  land  in  the  wind  of  us,  we  let  fall 
our  anchor.  At  a  VV.  sim  the  mist  brake  up  so  that  we  might  see  about  us,  and  then 
wc  might  |)erceive  that  we  were  entered  into  a  sound. 

This  aftenux)n  we  t<Xik  in  two  or  three  skifls'  lading  of  stones  to  l^nllast  our  sliip  withal. 

eth  b V  I 

14.  Friday  wc  rotic  still  in  the  sound,  the 
at  the  end  oi  the  rain  it  waxed  again  misty. 

15.  Saturday  there  was  ;r.u«  h  wind  at  W.  and  much  rain,  and  then  again  misty. 

16.  Simday  was  very  misty,  and  much  wind. 

17.  Monday  very  misty,  the  wind  at  W.  N.  W. 

18.  Tuesday  whs  also  misty,  except  at  noon :  then  the  sun  brake  out  through  the 
mist,  so  that  we  had  the  latitude  in  70"  10' :  the  aflcmoon  was  misty  again,  the  wind 
being  at  W.  N.  W. 

19.  Wednesday  at  three  of  the  clock  afternoon  the  mist  brake  up,  and  the  wind 
came  at  E.  N.  K.  and  then  we  weighed,  and  went  S.  and  by  E.  until  seven  of  the 
clock  eight  leagues,  thinking  to  have  had  sight  of  the  sandy  hills  that  are  to  the  east« 
wards  of  the  river  Pechora.  At  a  N.  W.  sun  wc  took  in  our  mainsail,  because  the 
wind  increased,  and  went  with  a  foresail  W.  N.  W.  the  wind  being  at  E.  N.  E.  at 
night  there  grew  so  terrible  a  storm,  that  we  saw  not  the  like,  although  we  had  endured 
many  storms  since  we  came  out  of  England.  It  was  wonderful  that  our  bark  was  able 
to  brook  such  monstrous  and  t'.-rrible  seas,  without  the  great  help  of  God,  who  never 
faileth  them  at  need,  that  put  their  sure  trust  in  him. 

20.  Thursday  at  a  S.  S.  W.  sun,  thanks  be  to  God,  the  storm  was  at  the  highest,  and 
then  the  wind  begjm  to  slack,  and  came  northerly  withal,  and  then  I  reckoned  the  west- 
ermost  point  of  the  river  Pechora  to  be  S.  of  us  fifteen  leagues.  At  a  W.  S.  W.  sun 
we  set  our  mainsail,  and  lay  close  by  tlie  wind,  the  wind  being  at  N.  W.  and  by  N. 
making  but  little  way,  l)ccause  the  billow  went  so  high  :  at  midnight  wc  cast  about,  and 
the  ship  caped  N.  N.  E.  making  little  way. 

21.  Friday  at  noon  we  had  tne  latitude  in  70**  8',  and  we  sounded  and  had  twenty, 
nine  fathoms  sand,  and  in  manner  streamy  ground.  At  a  W.  sun  we  cast  about  to  the 
westwards,  and  a  little  after  the  wind  came  up  at  W. 

22.  Saturday  ^vas  calm  :  the  latitude  this  day  at  noon  was  70°  20',  we  sounded  here, 
and  had  nine-and-forty  fathom  and  oze,  which  oze  signified  that  we  drew  towards 
Nova  Zembla. 

And  thus  we  being  out  of  all  hope  to  discover  any  more  to  the  eastward  this  year, 
wc  thought  it  best  to  return,  and  that  for  three  causes. 

The  first  the  continual  N.  E.  and  northerly  winds,  which  have  more  power  after  a 
man  is  past  to  the  eastwards  of  Caninoze,  than  in  any  place  that  I  do  know  in  these 
northerly  regions. 

Second,  because  of  great  and  terrible  abundance  of  ice  which  we  saw  with  our  eyes, 
and  we  doubt  greater  store  abideth  in  those  parts  :  I  adventured  already  somewhat  too 
far  in  it,  but  I  thank  God  for  my  safe  deliverance  from  it. 

Third,  because  the  nights  waxed  dark,  and  the  winter  began  to  draw  on  with  his 
storms :  and  therefore  I  resolved  to  take  the  first  best  wind  that  God  should  send,  and 


m 


-"*» 


ttXf 


TO  Tiir  NoiiTrip.nv  parts  or  \\v%n\\  axd  Mnrnu  51 

ply  townrdn  the  bay  of  S  .  NichoLw,  and  to  sec  if  uc  might  do  aii)  ro(k!  there,  if  God 
would  |)crmit  it. 

'l'hi!»  present  Suturdny  we  m\\  very  mucli  iee,  nnd  were  within  two  or  thr<  e  Icaf^iien  of 
it :  it  shewed  unto  iih  um  though  it  had  Ixeii  a  Hrnt  land  a**  far  ns  we  might  nee  from 
N.  \V.  off  us  to  the  eantwurds  :  und  diis  alurnoon  the  Lord  sent  us  a  httle  gale  of  wind 
at  S.  so  that  we  Ixire  clear  of  the  wcsternio«>l  pari  of  it,  thanks  be  to  (lod.  And  then 
Against  night,  it  waxed  ealm  again,  and  the  wind  was  at  S.  VV.  we  made  our  way  until 
Smulay  nof)n  N.  VV.  and  by  VV.  and  then  we  had  the  latitude  in  70**  30',  the  wind  at 
S.  VV.  there  was  a  billow  no  that  we  eould  not  discern  to  take  the  latitude  exactly,  but 
by  a  rea-Honable  guess. 

24.  Monday  there  was  a  pretty  gale  of  wind  at  8.  so  that  we  went  VV.  and  by  S. 
the  latitude  this  day  at  n(X)n  was  70"  10' :  we  had  little  wind  all  day :  nt  a  VV.  N.  VV. 
■un  we  sounded,  and  had  twenty-nine  fathoms  blaek  sandy  07.e,  and  then  we  were 
N.  K.  five  leagues  from  the  N.  K.  part  of  the  island  Colj^oieve. 

25.  Tuesday  the  wind  ill  westerly  we  plied  to  the  wnidward*. 

26.  Wednesday  the  wind  was  all  westerly,  and  calm  :  we  had  the  latitude  this  day 
in  70"  10',  we  being  within  three  leagues  of  the  north  part  of  the  island  Colgoii  ve. 

27.  'i'hursday  we  went  room  alxjut  the  westermosi  part  of  the  island,  seeking  where 
we  might  find  a  place  to  ride  in  for  a  N.  VV.  wind,  but  could  find  none,  and  then  we 
cast  about  again  to  the  seawards,  and  the  wind  came  at  VV.  S.  VV.  and  this  morning 
we  lud j)lenty  of  snow. 

28.  Friday,  tlK  wind  being  at  S.  VV.  and  by  W.  we  plied  to  the  windwards. 

29.  Satuixlay,  the  wind  being  at  S.  we  plied  to  the  westwards,  and  at  afternoon  the 
mist  jrake  up  and  then  we  might  see  the  land  seven  or  eight  leagues  to  the  eastward  of 
Caninozc :  we  sounded  a  little  before,  and  had  thirty-five  fathoms  and  oze.  And  a 
while  after  we  sounded  again,  and  had  nineteen  fathom  and  sand  :  then  we  were  witlVm 
three  leagues  and  a  half  of  the  shore,  and  towards  night  there  came  down  so  much  wind, 
that  we  were  fain  to  bring  our  ship  atric,  and  laid  her  head  to  the  westwards. 

30.  Sunday,  the  wind  became  more  calm,  and  then  it  waxed  very  misty  :  at  noon 
we  cast  about  to  the  eastwards,  the  wind  being  at  S.  and  ran  eight  hours  on  that  Ik )ard, 
and  then  we  cast  about  and  caped  W.  S.  W.  we  sounded  and  had  thirty-two  fathoms, 
and  tough  oze  like  clay. 

31.  Monday,  we  doubled  about  Caninoze,  and  came  at  an  anchor  there,  to  the  in- 
tent we  might  kill  some  fish,  if  God  would  permit  it,  and  there  we  gat  a  gnat  nusc, 
which  nuses  were  there  so  plenty,  that  they  would  scarcely  sufter  any  other  fish  t(» 
come  near  the  hooks  :  the  said  nuses  carried  away  sundry  of  our  hooks  and  leads. 

A  little  after  at  a  W.  sun,  the  wind  began  to  blow  stormy  at  VV.  S.  W.  so  that  wc 
were  fain  to  weigh  and  forsake  our  fishing  ground,  and  went  close  by  the  wind  S.  VV. 
and  S.  W.  and  by  W.  making  our  way  S.  S.  VV. 

September  1.  Tuesday  at  a  W.  sun,  we  sounded  and  had  twenty  fathoms,  and  broken 
wilkeshells  :  I  reckoned  Caninoze  to  be  twenty-four  leagues  N.  N.  E.  from  us. 

11.  The  eleventh  day  we  arrived  at  Colmogro,  and  there  we  wintered,  expecting 
the  approach  of  next  summer  to  proceed  farther  in  our  intendi  d  discovery  for  the  Ob  : 
which  (by  reason  of  cjr  employments  to  Wardhouse  the  next  spring  for  the  search  of 
some  English  ships)  was  not  accordingly  performed. 


% 


69 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  HUGH  mLLOUGHDY  AND  OTHERS, 


Certain  notes  unperfectlu  written  by  RichardJohnson,  servant  to  master  JR'chard  Chan- 
color,  ivhieh  was  in  the  discovery  of  l^aigatz  and  JS'ova  Zemb/a,  xvith  Stephen  Bur- 
rough  in  the  Serchthrift^  1556,  and  qfterward  among  the  Samoeds,  whose  devilish 
rites  he  d""-'ideth. 


^1 


FIRST,  iiftci'  we  departed  out  of  England  we  fell  with  Norway,  and  on  that  coast 
lieth  Northbern  or  Northbergin,  and  this  people  are  under  the  king  of  Denmark  ;  but 
they  differ  i'l  tlicir  speech  from  the  Danes,  for  they  speak  Norsh.  And  north  of  North- 
Ijcrn  lie  the  isles  of  Rost  and  Lofoot,  and  these  islands  pertain  unto  Finmark,  and  they 
keep  the  laws  and  speak  xhe  langr^jit:  of  the  islanders.  And  at  the  eastermost  part  of 
that  land  is  a  castle  which  is  called  the  Wa:'dliousc,  and  the  king  of  Denmark  doth 
fortify  it  with  men  of  war:  and  the  Russes  may  not  go  to  the  westward  of  that  castle. 
And  E.  S.  E.  from  that  castle  is  a  land  called  Lappia :  in  which  land  be  two  manner 
of  people,  that  is  to  say,  the  Lappians,  and  ihe  Scrickfinns,  which  Scrickfinns  are  a 
wild  people,  which  neither  know  God,  nor  yet  good  order :  and  these  people  live  in 
tents  made  of  deer  skins :  and  they  have  n  j  certain  habitations,  but  continue  in  herds 
and  companies  by  one  hundred  and  t  vo  hundreds.  And  they  are  a  people  of  small 
stature,  and  are  clothed  in  deers'  skins,  and  drink  nothing  but  water,  and  eat  no  bread 
but  flesh  all  raw.  And  the  Lappians  be  a  people  adjoining  to  them,  and  be  much  like 
to  them  in  all  conditions,  but  the  emperor  of  Russia  ham  of  late  overcome  many  of 
thern,  and  they  are  in  subjection  lo  him.  And  this  people  will  say  that  they  believe 
in  the  Russes'  God.  And  they  live  in  tents  as  the  other  do.  And  S.  E.  and  by  S.  from 
Lappia,  lieth  a  province  called  Corelia,  and  these  people  are  called  Kerilli.  And  S.  S.  £. 
from  Corelia  lieth  a  country  called  Novogardia.  And  these  three  nations  are  under  the 
emperor  of  Russia,  and  the  Russes  keep  the  law  of  the  Greeks  in  theii  churches,  and 
write  somewhat  like  as  the  Greeks  write,  and  they  speak  their  own  language,  and  they 
aoiior  the  Latin  tongu*^,  neither  have  they  to  do  with  the  pope  of  Rome,  and  they 
hold  it  not  good  to  worship  any  carved  image,  yet  they  will  worship  painted  images 
on  tables  or  boards.  Arid  m  Russi'".  their  churches,  steeples  and  houses  are  all  of  wood : 
and  their  ships  that  they  have  are  soA^ed  with  withes  and  have  no  nails.  The  Kerilles, 
Russians  and  ^vloscovians  be  much  alike  in  all  conditions.  And  S.  from  the  Mosco- 
vians  lie  the  Tartarians,  which  lie  Mahometans,  and  live  in  tents  and  waggons,  and 
keep  in  herds  and  companies :  and  they  hold  it  not  good  to  abide  long  in  one  place, 
for  they  will  say,  when  they  will  curse  any  of  their  children,  I  would  thou  mightest 
tarry  so  long  in  a  place  that  thou  mightest  smell  thine  own  dung,  as  the  christians  do  : 
and  this  is  the  grea*est  curse  that  they  have.  And  E.  N.  E.  of  F.ussia  lieth  I.ampas, 
which  is  a  place  where  the  Russes,  Tartars  and  Samoeds  meet  twice  a  yeav,  and  make 
the  fair  to  barter  wares  for  Wiwes.  And  N.  E.  from  Lampas  lieth  the  country  of  the 
Somoeds,  which  be  about  the  river  of  Pechere,  an  •  these  Samoeds  be  in  subjection  to 
the  emperor  of  Russia,  and  they  lie  in  tents  made  of  deer  skins,  and  they  use  much 
witchcraft,  and  shoot  well  in  bows.  And  N.  E.  from  the  river  Pechere  lieth  Vaigatz, 
and  there  are  the  wild  Samoeds,  which  will  not  suffer  the  Russes  to  land  out  of  the  sea,  but 
they  will  kill  them  and  eat  them,  as  we  are  told  by  the  Russes :  and  they  live  in  herds, 
and  have  all  their  caniages  with  deer,  for  they  have  no  horses.  Beyond  Vaigatz  lieth 
a  land  called  Nova  Zembla,  which  is  a  great  land,  but  we  saw  no  people,  and  there 
we  had  fowl  enough,  and  there  we  saw  white  foxes  and  white  bears.  And  the  said 
Samoeds  which  arc  about  the  banks  of  Pechere,  which  are  in  subjection  to  the  empe- 


TO  THE  NORTHERN'  PARTS  OF  RUSSIA  AND  Sini.IllA 


05 


but 

?rds, 

ieth 


ror  of  Russia,  wlicn  the}-  will  remove  from  one  place  to  another,  then  they  wiW  make 
sacrifices  in  manner  following.  Every  kindred  doth  sacrifice  in  their  own  lent,  and  he 
that  is  most  ancient  is  their  priest.  And  first  the  priest  doth  begin  to  play  upon  a  thing 
like  to  a  great  sieve,  with  a  skin  on  the  one  end  like  a  drum  :  and  the  stick  that  he 
playeth  with  is  about  a  span  long,  and  one  end  is  round  like  a  ball,  covered  with  the 
skin  of  an  hart.  Also  the  priest  hath  upon  his  head  a  thing  of  whi  c  like  a  garland, 
and  his  face  is  covered  with  a  piece  of  a  shirt  of  mail,  with  many  smail  ribs,  and  teeth 
of  fishes  and  wild  beasts  hangmg  on  the  same  mail.  Then  he  singeth,  as  we  use  here 
in  England  to  hallow,  whope,  or  shout  at  hounds,  and  the  rest  of  the  company  answer 
him  with  this  owtis,  igha,  ig/ia,  igha,  and  then  the  priest  rcplieth  again  with  his  voices. 
And  they  answer  him  with  the  self-same  words  so  many  times,  that  in  the  end  he  be- 
cometh  as  it  were  mad,  and  falling  down  as  he  were  dead,  having  nothing  on  him  but 
a  shirt,  lying  upon  his  back  I  might  jx;reeive  him  to  breathe.  I  asked  them  why  he  lax' 
so,  and  they  answered  me,  now  doth  cur  God  tell  him  what  we  shiill  do,  and  whither 
we  shall  go.  And  when  he  had  lain  still  a  little  while,  they  cried  thus  three  times  to- 
gether, oghao,  ogliaoy  oghao,  and  as  they  use  these  three  calls  he  riseth  with  his  head 
and  lieth  down  again,  and  then  he  rose  up  and  sang  with  like  voices  as  he  did  before  : 
and  his  audience  answered  him  igha,  igha,  igha.  Then  he  commanded  them  to  kill  five 
olens,  or  great  deer,  and  continued  singing  still,  both  he  and  they,  as  before.  Then  he 
took  a  sword,  of  a  cubit  and  a  span  long  (I  did  mete  it  myself)  and  put  it  into  his  belly 
halfway,  and  sometime  less,  but  no  wound  was  to  be  seen  (they  continuing  in  their 
sweet  song  still.)  Then  he  put  the  sword  Into  the  fire  till  it  was  \varm,  and  'io  thrust  it 
into  the  slit  of  his  shirt,  and  thrust  it  through  his  body,  as  I  thought,  in  at  his  navel,  and 
out  at  his  fundament :  the  point  being  out  of  his  shirt  behind,  I  laid  my  finger  upon 
it,  then  he  pulled  out  the  sword  and  sat  down.  This  being  done,  they  set  a  kettle  of 
water  over  the  fire  to  heat,  and  when  the  water  doth  seeth,  the  priest  beginneth  to  sing 
again,  they  answering  him,  for  so  long  as  the  water  was  in  heating  they  sat  and  sang  not. 
Then  they  made  a  thing,  being  four  square,  and  in  height  and  squareness  of  a  chair, 
and  covered  with  a  go\vn,  very  close,  the  forepart  thereof,  for  the  hinder  part  stood  to 
the  tent's  side.  Their  tents  are  round,  and  are  called  chome  in  their  language.  The 
water  still  seething  on  the  fire,  and  this  square  seat  being  ready,  the  priest  put  off  his 
shirt,  and  the  thhig  like  a  garland  which  was  on  his  head,  with  those  things  which 
covered  his  face,  and  he  had  on  yet  all  this  while  a  pair  of  hosen  of  deers'  skins  with 
the  hair  on,  which  c?me  up  to  his  buttocks.  So  he  went  into  the  square  seat,  and  sat 
down  like  a  taylor,  aiid  sang  with  a  strong  voice  or  hallowing.  Then  they  took  a  small 
line  made  of  deers'  skins,  of  four  fathoms  long,  and  with  a  sm?.!i  knot  the  priest  made  it 
fast  about  his  neck,  and  under  his  left  arm,  and  gave  it  unto  two  men  standing  on  both 
sides  of  him,  which  held  the  ends  together.  Then  the  ketde  of  hot  water  was  set 
before  him  in  the  square  seat,  all  this  time  the  square  seat  was  not  covered,  and  then 
it  was  covered  with  a  gown  of  broadcloth,  without  lining,  such  as  the  Russcs  do  wear. 
Then  the  two  men  which  did  hold  the  ends  of  the  line,  still  standing  there,  began  to 
draw,  and  drew  till  they  had  drawn  the  ends  of  the  line  stiff  and  together,  and  then  I 
heard  a  thing  fall  into  the  kettle  of  water,  which  was  before  him  in  the  tent.  There, 
upon  I  asked  them  that  sat  by  me  what  it  was  that  fell  into  the  water  that  stood  before 
lum.  And  they  answered  me  that  it  was  his  head,  his  shoulder,  and  left  arm,  which 
the  line  had  cut  off,  I  mean  the  knot  which  I  saw  afterward  drawn  hard  together. 
Then  I  rose  up,  and  would  have  looked  whether  it  were  so  or  not,  but  they  laid  hold  on 
me,  and  said,  that  if  they  should  see  him  with  their  bodily  eyes,  they  should  live  ito 
longer.    And  the  most  part  of  them  can  sj^ak  the  Russe  tongue  to  be  understood ; 


64 


VOVAOfciS  OF  Sin  HUGH  WILLOUGHUY  AND  OTHKllS, 


aiid  they  took  me  to  be  a  Russian.  Then  thev  began  to  hJlow  will;  these  words,  oghaoo 
oghaoot  oghaoo,  many  times  together.  Ajid  as  they  were  thus  singin^-i-  and  out  culling,  I 
saw  a  thing  like  a  linger  of  a  man  two  times  together  thrust  through  the  gown  from 
the  priest.  I  asked  tl>cm  that  sat  next  to  me  what  it  was  that  I  saw,  and  they  said  not  his 
finger ;  for  he  \vas  yet  dead  :  imd  that  which  I  saw  appear  through  the  gown  was  a  beast, 
but  vviiat  beast  they  know  not  nor  would  not  tell.  And  I  looked  upon  the  gown,  and 
there  was  no  hole  to  be  seen  :  and  then  at  the  last  the  priest  lifted  up  his  head  with  his 
shoulder  and  arm,  and  all  his  body,  and  came  forth  to  the  fire.  Thus  far  of  their 
service  which  I  saw  during  the  space  of  certain  hours  :  but  how  they  do  worship  their 
idols  that  I  saw  not :  for  they  put  up  their  stuff  for  to  remove  from  that  place  where 
they  la}'.  And  I  went  to  him  that  served  the  priest,  and  asked  him  what  their  God 
said  to  him  when  he  lay  as  dead.  He  answered  that  his  own  people  doth  not  know, 
fieither  is  it  for  them  to  know :  for  they  must  do  as  he  commanded.  This  I  saw  the 
fifth  day  of  January  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1556,  after  the  Englbh  account. 

OP  THE  PBRMIANS,  SAMOITES,  AND  LAPPES. 

(HAKLtrVT  L  491.) 

THE  Permians  and  Samoietes  that  lye  from  Russia,  N.  and  N.  E.  are  thought  likewise 
to  have  taken  their  beginning  from  the  Tartar  kind.  And  it  may  partly  be  guessed  by 
the  fashion  of  their  countenance,  as  having  all  broad  and  flat  faces,  as  the  Tartars  have, 
except  the  Chircasses.  The  Permians  are  accounted  for  a  very  ancient  people.  They 
are  now  subject  to  the  Russe.  They  live  by  hunting  and  trading  with  their  furs,  as 
also  doth  ♦he  Samoit,  tliat  dwelleth  more  towards  the  North  Sea.  The  Samoit  hath 
his  name  (as  the  Russe  saith)  of  eating  himself:  as  if  in  times  past  they  lived  as  the 
cannibals,  eating  one  another.  Which  they  make  more  probable,  because  at  this  time 
they  eat  all  kind  of  raw  flesh,  whatsoever  it  be,  even  the  very  carrion  that  lieth  in  the 
ditch.  But  as  the  Samoits  themselves  will  say,  they  were  called  Samoie,  that  is,  of 
themselves,  as  though  they  were  indigene,  or  people  bred  upon  that  very  soil,  that 
never  changed  their  seat  from  one  place  to  another,  as  most  nations  have  done.  They 
are  subject  at  this  time  to  the  emperor  of  Russia. 

I  talked  with  certain  of  them,  and  find  that  they  acknowledge  one  God :  but  repre- 
sent him  by  such  things  as  they  have  most  use  and  good  by.  And  therefore  they  wor- 
ship  the  sun,  the  ollen,  the  losh,  and  such  like.  As  for  the  story  of  Slata  Baba,  or 
the  golden  hag  (which  I  have  read  in  some  maps,  and  descriptions  of  these  countries,  to 
be  an  idol  after  the  form  of  an  old  woman)  that  being  demanded  by  the  priest,  giveth 
them  certain  oracles,  concerning  the  success  and  event  of  things,  I  found  to  be  a  very 
fable.  Only  in  the  province  cf  Obdoria  upon  the  sea  side,  near  to  the  mouth  of  the 
great  river  Obba,  there  is  a  rock,  which  naturally  (being  somewhat  helped  by  imagi- 
nation) may  seem  to  bear  the  shape  of  a  ragged  woman,  with  a  child  in  her  arms  (as 
the  rock  by  the  North  Cape  the  shape  of  a  friar)  where  the  Obdorian  Samoites  use 
much  to  resort,  by  reason  of  the  commodity  of  the  place  for  fishing :  and  there  some- 
time (as  their  manner  is)  conceive  and  practise  tlieir  sorceries,  and  ominous  conjectur* 
ings  about  the  good  or  bad  speed  of  their  iournies,  fishings,  huntings,  and  such  like. 

They  are  clad  in  seal  skins,  with  the  hair  side  outwards,  down  as  low  as  the  knees, 
with  their  breeches  and  netherstocks  of  the  same,  both  men  and  won^icn.  They  are  all 
black  haired,  naturally  beardless.  And  therefore  the  men  are  hardly  discerned  from 
the  women  by  their  looks :  save  that  the  women  wear  a  lock  of  hair  down  along  both 


or 
to 


TO  THE  NOnTIIERN  PARTS  OF  RUSSIA  AND  SIRRRIA. 


()5 


their  ears.  They  live  in  a  manner  a  wild  and  savage  lite,  roving  still  from  one  place  of 
the  country  to  another,  without  any  property  of  house  or  land  more  to  one  than 
to  another.     Their  leader  or  director  in  every  company  is  their  [xipa,  or  priest. 

On  the  north  side  of  Russia,  P'^xt  to  Corelia,  lieth  the  country  of  Lappia,  which 
reacheth  in  length  from  the  farthest  point  northward  (towards  the  North  Cape)  to  die 
farthest  part  S.  E.  (which  the  Russe  calleth  Sweetnesse,  or  Holy  Nose,  the  Englishmen 
Cape  Grace)  about  Uiree  hundred  and  forty-five  verst,  or  miles.  From  Sweetnesse  to 
Candelox,  by  the  way  of  Versega  (which  measureth  the  hreadth  of  d.at  country)  is  ninety 
miles  or  thereabouts.  The  whole  country  in  a  manner  is  either  lakes  or  mountains^ 
which,  towards  the  sea  side,  are  called  Tondro,  because  they  are  all  of  hard  and  craggy 
rock,  but  the  inland  parts  are  well  furnished  with  woods,  that  grow  on  the  hills*  sides, 
the  lakes  lying  between.  Their  diet  is  very  bare  and  simple.  Bread  they  have  none, 
but  feed  only  upon  fish  and  fowl.  They  are  subject  to  the  emperor  of  Russia,  and  the 
two  kings  of  Sweden  and  Denmark  :  which  all  exact  tribute  and  custom  of  them  (as 
was  said  beforc)  but  the  emperor  of  Russia  beareth  the  greatest  hand  over  them,  and 
exacteth  of  them  far  more  than  the  rest.  The  opinion  is  Uiat  they  were  first  termed 
Lappes  of  their  brief  and  short  sjjeech.  The  Russe  divideth  the  whole  nation  of  the 
Lappes  into  two  sorts.  The  one  they  call  Nowremanskoy  Lapary,  that  is  the  Norwe- 
gian Lappes,  because  they  be  of  the  Danish  religion.  For  the  Danes  and  Norwe- 
gians  they  account  for  one  people.  The  other,  that  have  no  religion  at  all,  but  live  as 
brute  and  heathenish  people,  without  God  in  the  world,  they  call  Dikoy  Lapary,  or  the 
wild  Lappes. 

The  whole  nation  is  utterly  unlearned,  having  not  so  much  as  the  use  of  any  alphabet, 
or  letter  among  them.  For  practice  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery  they  pass  all  nations 
in  the  world.  Though  for  enchanting  of  ships  that  sail  along  their  coast  (as  I  have 
heard  it  reported)  aivi  their  giving  of  winds  good  to  their  friends,  and  contrary  to 
other,  whom  they  mean  to  hurt,  by  tying  of  certain  knots  upon  a  rope  (somewhat  like 
to  the  tale  of  Elolus  his  windbag)  is  a  very  fable,  devised  (as  may  seem)  by  themselves, 
to  terrify  sailors  for  coming  near  their  coast.  Their  weapons  are  the  long  bow,  and 
hand  gun,  wherein  they  excel,  as  well  for  quickness  to  charge  and  discharge,  as  for 
nearness  at  the  mark,  by  reason  of  their  continual  practice  (whereto  they  are  forced)  of 
shooting  at  wild  fowl.  Their  manner  is  in  summer  time  to  come  down  in  great  com- 
panies to  the  sea  side,  to  Wardhuyse,  Cola,  Kegor,  and  the  bay  of  Vedagoba,  and 
there  to  fish  for  cod,  salmon,  and  but-fish,  which  they  sell  to  the  Russes,  Danes,  and 
Norwe^ans,  asid  now  of  late  to  the  Englishmen  that  trade  thither  with  cloth,  which 
they  excliaiigc  with  the  Laps  and  Coreli?  "s  for  their  fish,  oil,  and  furs,  whereof  also  they 
have  some  store.  They  hold  their  mart  at  Cola,  on  St.  Peter's  day  :  what  time  the 
captain  of  Wrordhuyse  (that  is  resiant  there  for  the  king  of  Denmark)  must  be  present, 
or  at  least  send  his  deputy,  to  set  prices  upon  their  stock  fish,  train  oil,  furs,  and  other 
commodities :  as  also  the  Russe  emperor's  customer,  or  tribute  taker,  to  receive  his 
custom,  which  is  ever  paid  before  any  thing  can  be  bought  or  sold.  When  their  fishing 
is  done,  their  manner  is  to  draw  their  carbasses  or  boats  on  shore,  and  there  to  leave 
them,  with  the  keel  turned  upwards,  till  the  next  spring  tide.  Their  travel  to  and  fro  b 
upon  sleds,  drawn  by  the  olen  deer :  which  they  use  to  turn  a  grazing  all  the  summer 
time,  in  an  island  called  Kildyn  (of  a  very  good  soil  compared  with  other  parts  of  that 
country)  and  towards  the  winter  time,  when  the  snow  beginneth  to  fall,  they  fetch  them 
home  again  for  the  use  of  their  sled. 

VOL.  I.  ■  K 


■ 


.i 


;! 


if 


66 


VOYAGES  OF  SIU  IIUOIC  WILLOUGHDY  AND  OTHERS, 


^  learned  epistle,  written  in  1581,  unto  the  famous  cosmographer,  M.  Gerard  Af crea- 
tor,  concerning  the  river  Pechora,  Naramsay,  Carareca,  the  mighty  river  of  Ob, 
the  place  of  Yaks  Clgush,  in  Siberia,  the  great  river  Ardoh,  thelakeofKittay,  call- 
ed of  the  borderers  Paraha,  the  country  ofCarrah  Colmak,  giving  good  light  to  the 
discovery  oj  (he  north  east  passage  to  Cathay,  China,  and  the  Malucaes. 

(IIAKLUYT  1,509.)  '' 

To  the  famous  and  renowned  Gerard  Mercator,  his  reverend  and  singular  friend 
at  Duisburgh  in  Cliveland,  Uiese  Ix:  delivered. 

CALLING  to  remembrance  (most  dear  friend)  what  exceeding  delight  5'ou  took  at 
our  being  together,  in  reading  the  ^-ographical  writings  of  Homer,  Strabo,  Aristotle, 
Pliny,  Dion,  and  the  rest,  I  rejoiced  not  a  little  that  1  happened  upon  such  a  messen- 
ger as  the  bearer  of  these  presents  (whom  I  do  especially  recommend  unto  you)  who 
arrived  lately  here  at  Arusburg,  upon  the  river  of  Osella.  This  man's  experience  (as  I 
am  ot  opinion)  will  greatly  avail  you  to  the  knowledge  of  a  certain  matter  which  hath 
been  by  you  so  vcaemently  desired,  and  so  curiously  laboured  for,  and  concerning  the 
which  the  late  cosmographers  do  hold  siJch  variety  of  opinions :  namely,  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  huge  promontory  of  Tabin,  and  of  the  famous  and  rich  countries  sub- 
ject to  the  emperor  of  Cathay,  and  that  by  the  N.  E.  oceri  sea.  The  man  is  called 
Alferius,  being  by  birth  a  Netherlander,  who  for  certain  years  lived  captive  in  the  do- 
minions of  Russia,  under  two  famous  men,  Yucovius  and  Unekius,  by  whom  he  wjis 
sent  to  Antwerp  to  procure  skilful  pilots  and  mariners  (by  propounding  liberal  re- 
wards)  to  go  unto  tlie  two  famous  personages  aforesaid,  which  two  had  set  a  Sweden 
shipwright  on  work  to  build  two  ships  for  the  same  discovery,  upon  the  river  of  Dwina. 
The  passage  unto  Cathay  by  the  N.  E.  (as  he  declareth  the  matter,  albeit  without  art, 
yet  very  aptly,  as  you  may  well  perceive,  wliich  I  request  you  diligently  to  consider) 
IS  without  doubt  very  short  and  easy.  This  very  man  himself  hath  travelled  to  the 
river  of  Ob,  both  by  land,  through  the  countries  of  the  Samoeds,  and  of  Sibier, 
and  also  by  sea,  along  the  coast  of  the  river  Pechora  eastward.  Being  encouraged  by 
this  his  experience,  he  is  fully  resolved  with  himself  to  conduct  a  bark  laden  with  mer- 
chandise (the  keel  whereof  he  will  not  have  to  draw  over  much  water)  to  the  bay  of 
St.  Nicholas,  in  Russia,  being  furnished  with  all  things  expedient  for  such  a  discovery, 
and  with  a  new  supply  of  victuals  at  his  arrival  there,  and  also  to  hire  into  his  company 
certain  Russes  best  known  unto  himself,  who  can  perftictly  speak  the  Samoeds'  language, 
and  are  acc^uainted  with  the  river  of  Ob,  as  having  frequented  tliosc  places  year  by 
year. 

Whereupon,  about  the  end  of  May,  he  is  determined  to  sail  from  the  b'  y  of  St. 
Nicholas  eastward,  by  the  mdin  of  Joughoria,  and  so  to  the  easterly  parts  of  Pechora, 
and  to  the  island  which  is  called  Dolgoia.  And  here  also  he  is  purposed  to  observe 
the  latitudes,  to  survey  and  describe  the  country,  to  sound  the  depth  of  the  sea,  and  to 
note  the  distances  of  places,  where,  and  so  oft,  as  occasion  shall  be  offered.  And  foras- 
much as  the  bay  of  Pechora  is  a  most  convenient  place  both  for  harbour  and  victual, 
as  well  in  their  going  forth  as  in  their  return  home,  in  regard  of  ice  and  tempest,  he  is 
determined  to  bestow  a  day  in  sounding  the  flats,  and  in  searching  out  the  best  entrance 
for  ships  :  in  which  place  heretofore  he  found  the  water  to  be  but  five  feet  deep,  howbeit 
he  doubteth  not  but  that  there  are  deeper  channels :  and  then  he  intendeth  to  proceed  on 


f     r 


TO  THR  NOnrilEHN  PAUTS  OF  RUSSIA  AM)  SIBFKIA 


67 


uloiig  those  consts  for  the  space  of  three  or  four  leagues,  leaving  the  island  called 
Vaigats  almost  in  the  middle  way  between  Ugoria  and  Nova  Zembla,  then  also  to  pass 
by  a  certain  Ixiy  Ixtween  Vaigats  and  Ob,  trending  southerly  into  the  land  of  Ugoria, 
whcreinto  fall  two  small  rivers,  called  Mannesia  and  Carah,  upon  the  which  rivers  do 
inhabit  another  barbarous  and  lavage  nation  of  the  Samoeds.  He  found  many  flats  in 
that  tract  of  land,  and  many  cataracts  or  overfalls  of  water,  yet  such  as  he  was  able 
to  sail  by.  When  he  shall  come  to  the  river  of  Ob,  which  river  (as  the  Samoeds  re- 
port) hath  seventy  mouths,  which  by  reason  of  the  Inigc  breadth  thereof,  containing 
many  and  great  islands,  which  are  inhabited  with  sundry  sorts  of  people,  no  man  scarcely 
can  well  discover,  because  he  will  not  spend  too  much  time,  he  purposeth  to  search 
three  or  four  at  the  most  of  the  mouths  thereof,  diosc  chiefly  which  shall  be  thought 
most  commodious  by  the  advice  of  the  inhabitants,  of  whom  he  meaneth  to  have  cer- 
tain with  him  in  his  voyage,  and  meanetli  to  employ  three  or  four  boats  of  that  coun- 
try in  search  of  these  mouths,  as  near  as  possibly  he  can  to  the  shore,  which  ^vithin 
three  days'  journey  of  the  sea  is  inhabited,  that  he  may  learn  where  the  river  is  best 
navigable.  If  it  so  fall  out  that  he  may  sail  up  the  river  Ob  against  the  stream,  and 
mount  up  to  that  place  which  heretofore,  accompanied  with  certain  of  his  friends,  he 
passed  unto  by  land,  through  the  country  of  Siberia,  which  is  about  twelve  days'  jour- 
ney from  the  sea,  where  the  river  Ob  falleth  into  the  sea,  which  place  is  in  the  conti- 
nent, near  the  river  Ob,  and  is  called  Yaks  Olgush,  borrowing  his  name  from  that 
mighty  river  which  falleth  into  the  river  Ob,  then  doubtless  he  would  conceive  full  hope 
that  he  had  passed  the  greatest  difficulties  ^  for  the  people  dwelling  therealx)ut  report, 
which  were  three  days  sailing  only  from  that  place  beyond  the  river  Ob,  whereby  the 
breadth  tliereof  may  be  gathered  (which  is  a  rare  matter  there,  because  that  m.any 
rowing  with  their  boats  of  leather  one  day's  journey  only  from  the  shore  have  been 
cast  a-  ."-y  in  tempest,  having  no  skill  to  ^'uide  themselves  neither  by  sun  nor  star)  th 
they  have  seen  great  vessels  laden  with  rich  and  precious  merchandise  brought  down 
that  great  river  by  black  or  swart  people.  They  call  that  river  Ardoh,  which  falleth 
into  the  lake  of  Kittay,  which  they  call  Paraha,  whereupon  bordereth  that  mighty  and 
large  nation  which  they  call  Carrah  Colmak,  which  is  none  other  than  the  nation  of 
Cathay.  There,  if  need  require,  he  may  fitly  winter  and  refresh  himself  and  his,  and 
seek  all  things  which  he  shall  stand  in  need  of:  which  if  it  so  fall  out,  he  doubteth  not 
but  in  the  mean  while  he  shall  be  much  furthered  in  searching  and  learning  out  many 
things  in  that  place.  Howbeit,  he  hopeth  that  he  shall  reach  to  Cathay  that  very  sum- 
mer, unless  he  be  hindered  by  great  abundance  of  ice  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  Ob, 
which  b  sometimes  more  and  sometimes  less.  If  it  so  fall  out,  he  then  purposeth  to 
return  to  Pechora,  and  there  to  winter :  or  if  he  cannot  do  so  neither,  then  he  mean- 
eth to  return  to  the  river  of  Dwina,  whither  he  will  reach  in  good  time  enough,  and  so 
the  next  spring  following  to  proceed  on  his  voyage.  One  thing  in  due  place  I  forgat 
before. 

The  people  which  dwell  at  that  place  called  Yaks  Olgush  affirm  that  they  have 
heard  their  forefathers  say,  that  they  have  heard  most  sweet  harmony  of  bells  in  the 
lake  of  Kittay,  and  that  they  have  seen  therein  stately  and  large  buildings :  and  when 
they  make  mention  of  the  people  named  Carrah  Colmak  (this  country  is  Cathay)  they 
fetch  deep  sighs,  and  holding  up  their  hands,  they  look  up  to  Heaven,  signifying,  as  it 
were,  and  declarmg  the  notable  glory  and  magnificence  of  that  nation.  I  would  this 
Oliver  were  better  seen  in  cosm(^raphy,  it  would  greatly  further  his  experience,  which 
doubtless  is  very  great.  Most  dear  friend,  I  omit  many  things,  and  I  wish  you  should 
hear  the  man  himself,  which  promised  me  faithfully  that  he  would  visit  you  in  his 


i 


63 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  IIl'GM  Vn.l.OLT.linV  ANU  OTIIV'RS. 


way  at  Duisburg,  for  he  desircth  to  confer  with  ^ou,  and  doubtless  you  shall  very  much 
further  the  man.  He  seemeth  sufficiently  furnished  with  money  and  friends,  wherein, 
and  in  other  offices  of  courtesy.  I  offered  him  my  furtherance,  if  it  had  pleased  him  to 
have  used  me.  The  Lord  prosper  the  man's  desires  and  forwardness,  bless  his  good 
beginnings,  further  his  proceedings,  and  grant  unto  him  most  happy  issue.  Fiux;  you 
well,  good  sir,  and  my  snigular  friend.  From  Arusburg,  uix)n  tlic  river  of  Osclla,  tlic 
twentieth  of  February,  1 58 1. 

Your's  wholly  at  commandment, 

JOHN  BALAK. 


The  letter  of  Gerard  Afercator,  written  to  M.  Richard  Hakluyt,  ofOxfordy  touching 
the  intended  discovery  of  the  north  east  passage.    Anno  1580.* 

(HACiaUYT,  VOL.  L  P.  444.^ 

[Translated  from  the  Latin,] 

SIR,  I  received  your  letters  the  nineteenth  of  June :  it  grieved  mc  much  that  upon  the 
sight  of  them,  the  time  being  spent,  I  could  not  give  any  convenient  instructions  :  I 
wir*-  Arthur  Pet  had  been  ii»f'^mied  before  his  departure  of  some  special  points.  The 
voyage  to  Cathaio  by  the  east  is  doubtless  very  easy  and  short,  and  I  have  oftentimes 
marvelled,  that  being  so  happily  becun,  it  hath  been  left  off,  and  the  course  changed 
into  the  west,  after  that  more  than  half  of  your  voyage  was  discovered.  For  beyond 
the  island  of  Vaigats  and  Nova  Zembla,  there  followeth  presently  a  great  bay,  which 
on  the  left  side  is  enclosed  with  the  mi^ty  promontory  Tabin-f  Into  the  midst  hereof 
there  fall  great  rivers,  which  passing  through  the  whole  country  of  Serica,  and  being, 
as  I  think,  navigable  with  great  vessels  into  the  heart  of  the  continent,  may  be  an  easy 
means  whereby  to  traffic  for  all  manner  of  merchandise,  and  transport  them  out  of 
Cathaio,  Man^,  Mien,  and  other  kingdoms  thereabout,  into  £ngland.  But  consider, 
ing  with  myself  that  that  navigation  was  not  intermitted,  but  upon  great  occasion,  I 
thought  that  the  emperor  of  Russia  and  Moscovy  had  hindered  the  proceeding  thereof. 
If  so  be  tbi't  with  his  grace  and  favour  a  further  navigadon  may  be  made,  I  would 
counsel  them  certainly  not  first  to  seek  out  the  promontory  Tabin,  but  to  search  this 
bay  and  rivers  aforesaid,  and  in  them  to  pick  and  choose  out  some  convenient  port  and 
harbour  for  the  Englinh  merchants,  from  whence  afterward,  with  more  opportunity  and 
less  peril,  the  promontory  Tabin  and  all  the  coast  of  Cathaio  may  be  discovered.  And 
that  there  is  such  a  huge  promontory  called  Tabin,  I  am  certainly  persuaded,  not  only 
out  of  Pliny,  but  also  other  writers,  and  some  maps  (though  somewhat  rudely  drawn :) 
and  that  the  pole  of  the  loadstone  is  not  far  beyond  Tabin,  I  have  learned  by  the  cer- 
tmn  observations  of  the  loadstone  ;  about  which  pole  and  Tabin  I  think  there  are  very 
many  rocks,  and  very  hard  and  dangerous  sailing :  and  yet  a  more  hard  and  difficile 
passage  I  think  it  to  be  this  way  which  is  now  attempted  by  the  west,  for  it  is  nearer  to 
the  pole  of  the  loadstone,  to  the  which  I  think  it  not  safe  to  approach.  And  because  the 
loadstone  hath  another  pole  than  that  of  the  world,    to  the  which  from  all  parts  it 

*  In  the  original,  this  letter  follows  some  instructions  for  navigators,  by  M.  Richard  Hakluyt,  of  Elton, 
iu  the  county  of  Hereford,  esquire,  anno  1 580.    Was  this  gentleman  the  father  of  our  editor  ? 
t  This  absurd  theory  is  founded  upon  a  misapprehension  of  the  ancient  geography. 


"''St 


to 
he 


■4? 


TO  TiiK  NORTinERN  PAm's!  or  HissiA  \M)  .siiu;ni \. 


(ii) 


luith  a  respect,  tlic  nearer  you  come  unto  it,  the  more  the  needle  of  the  compass  iloth 
vary  from  the  north,  sometimes  to  the  west,  and  sometimes  to  the  east,  according  as  a  man 
is  to  the  castwiuxl  or  to  the  westward  of  that  meridian  that  passcth  Ij}  both  the  poles  nf 
the  magnet  and  the  world. 

This  is  u  strange  alteration,  and  very  apt  to  deceive  die  sailor,  luiless  he  know  thr 
unconstaney  and  variation  of  the  compass,  and  take  the  elevation  of  the  pole  sonie- 
times  with  his  instruments.     If  Master  Arthur  he  not  well  pro\'ided  in  this  hchall",  o\ 
of  such  dexterity,  that  jKrceiving  the  errors  he  he  not  able  to  eoirect  the  simie,  I  fear 
lest  in  wandering  up  and  down  lie  lose  his  time,  and  be  overtaken  with  the  ice  in  the 
midst  of  the  enterprise.     For  that  gulf,  as  the}-  say,  is  frozen  every  year  -.   rv  hard. 
Which  if  it  be  so,  the  best  counsel  1  could  give  for  their  best  safety  were  to  seek  sonv 
harbour  in  that  bay,  and  those  rivers  whereof  I  have  spoken,  and  by  some  ambassador 
to  make  friendship  and  acquaintance  with  the  great  Can,  in  the  name  of  the  (pieen's 
majesty,  whicsi  I  believe  will  be  grateful  to  the  mightiest  emperor  in  the  w  orld,  yea 
most  excellent  for  the  length  of  the  traific,  and  great  distance  of  the  places.     I  think 
from  the  mouths  of  the  mighty  rivers  Bautisus  and  Oechardus  to  Cambalu,  the  ehiefesi 
seat  of  die  prince  the  Can,  there  arc  not  past  three  hundred  German  miles,  and  to  piibs 
bv  Ezina,  a  city  of  the  kingdom  of  Tmgut,  which  seemeUi  to  be  but  one  hunched 
German  miles  from  the  mouths  of  die  said  rivers,  and  is  subject  to  the  great  Can. 

I  would  gladly  know  how  high  the  sea  doth  flow  commonly  in  the  port  of  Moscovia^ 
where  your  men  do  harbour,  and  in  other  easterly  places  unto  Tabin ;  and  also  whe- 
ther the  sea  in  this  strait  do  flow  always  one  way  to  the  E.  or  to  die  W.  or  whether  it 
do  ebb  and  flow  according  to  the  manner  of  the  tides  in  the  middle  of  the  channel, 
that  is  to  say,  whether  it  flow  there  six  hours  into  the  W.  and  as  many  back  again  to 
the  E.  for  hereupon  depend  other  speculations  of  importance.  I  would  wish  M. 
Frobisher  to  observe  the  same  westwards.  Concerning  the  gulf  of  Merosro  and  Ca- 
nada,  and  New  France,  which  are  in  my  maps,  they  were  taken  out  of  a  certain  sea  card 
drawn  by  a  certain  priest  out  of  the  description  of  a  Frenchman,  a  pilot  very  skilful  in 
those  parts,  and  presented  to  the  worthy  prince  George  of  Austria,  bishop  of  Liege  : 
for  the  trending  of  the  coast,  and  the  elevation  of  the  pole,  I  doubt  not  but  they  are 
very  near  the  truth :  for  the  chart  had,  beside  a  scale  of  degrees  of  latitude  passing 
through  the  midst  of  it,  another  particulariy  annexed  to  the  coast  of  New  France, 
wherewith  the  error  of  the  latitudes  committed  by  reason  of  the  variation  of  the  com- 
pass might  be  corrected.  The  history  of  the  voyage  of  Jacobus  Onoyen  Buschwlu- 
censis*  throughout  all  Asia,  Africa,  and  the  north,  was  lent  me  in  time  past  by  a  friend 
of  mine  at  Antwerp.  After  I  had  used  it,  I  restored  it  again  :  after  many  years  I  required 
it  again  of  my  friend,  but  he  had  forgotten  of  whom  he  had  borrowed  it.  The  writings 
of  Gulielmus  Tripolitanus,  and  Joanes  de  Piano  Carpini,  I  never  saw :  only  I  found 
certain  pieces  of  them  in  other  written  hand  books.  I  am  glad  the  epitome  of  Abilfacb 
is  translated,  I  would  we  might  nave  it  shortly. 

Thus  much,  sir,  I  thought  good  to  answer  your  letters :  if  there  be  any  thing  else 
that  you  would  require  of  me,  I  will  most  willingly  communicate  it  with  you,  craving 
this  likewise  of  your  courtesy,  that  whatsoever  observations  of  both  these  voyages  shall 
come  to  your  hands,  you  would  impart  tliem  to  me,  they  shall  all  remain  with  me 
according  to  your  discredon  and  pleasure,  and  whatsoever  I  gather  of  them,  I  will 
faithfully  signify  unto  you  by  letters,  if  happily  they  may  yield  any  help  or  light  unto  diis 
most  excellent  enterprise  of  navigation,  and  most  profitable  to  ouy  christian  common- 

•  OfBoisleDuc. 


<« 


70 


VOYAfJF.S  OK  SMI  rilX.ll  M'II,UOL'(.IinV  AM)  OTIIF.HS, 


wealth.     Fare  you  nxll,  most  Icarncrl  friend.     At  Duisburg  in  Clivclancl,  twenty-eighth 
of  July,  the  year  1580. 

At  Arthur  his  return,  I  pray  you  Iciirn  of  him  the  things  I  have  requested,  and  whc- 
dier  any  where  in  his  voyage  he  found  the  sea  fresh,  or  not  very  salt ;  for  I  suppose  the 
sea  between  Nova  Zembia  and  Tabin  to  be  fresh. 

Yours  wholly  to  my  power  to  be  commanded, 

GKRAUU  MKRCATOR. 


T/w  (Uscoverif  made  by  M.  jirthur  Pet  and  M.  Charles  Jackman  of  the  north-east 
parts,  beyond  the  Island  of  l^aigatz,  with  two  barks ;  the  one  ealled  the  George,  the 
other  the  JFiUiam,  in  the  year  1580.*     IFritten  by  Hugh  Smith. 

(FROM  llAKLUVT,  VOL.  I.  P.  4iS.) 

UPON  Monday  the  thirtieth  of  May  we  departed  from  Harwich  in  the  afternoon, 
the  wind  being  at  S.  and  to  the  eastward.  The  ebb  being  spent  we  could  not  double 
the  pole,  and  therefore  were  constrained  to  put  in  again  until  the  next  cjay  in  the  morn- 
ing, being  the  last  of  May  ;  which  day  we  weighed  our  anchors  about  three  o'clock  in 
the  mornmg,  the  wind  being  W.  S.  W.  The  same  day  we  passed  Orfordnesse  at  an  east 
sun,  and  Stamfortl  at  a  west  sun,  and  Yarmouth  at  a  W.  N.  W.  sun,  and  so  to  Winterton, 
where  we  did  anchor  all  night ;  it  v»as  then  calm,  and  the  flood  was  come. 

The  next  day,  being  the  first  of  June,  we  set  sail  at  three  o'clock  in  tlic  morning,  and 
set  our  course  north,  the  wind  at  the  S.  W.  and  at  S.  S.  W. 

The  tenth  day,  about  one  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon,  we  put  into  Norway,  to  a 
place  where  one  of  the  headlands  of  the  sound  is  called  Bottel ;  the  otlier  headland  is 
called  Moile.  There  is  also  an  island  called  Kene.  Here  I  did  find  the  pole  to  be  ele- 
vated  62°  :  it  doth  flow  there  S.  and  it  hieth  seven  or  eight  feet,  not  above. 

The  eleventh  day  in  the  morning  the  wind  came  to  me  S.  and  to  the  S.  E.  the  same 
day  at  six  in  the  afternoon  we  set  sail  and  bare  along  the  coast ;  it  was  very  foul  weather, 
with  rain  and  fog. 

The  twenty-second  day,  the  wind  being  at  W.  we  did  hall  the  coast  E.  N.  E.  and  E. 
The  same  day,  at  six  in  the  morning,  we  did  double  the  North  Cape.  About  three  in 
the  afternoon  we  passed  Skitesbeareness,  and  hald  along  the  coast  E.  and  E.  S.  E.  and 
all  the  same  night  we  hald  S.  E.  and  S.  E.  by  E. 

The  twenty-third  day,  about  three  in  the  morning,  we  came  to  Wardhouse,  tho 
wind  at  the  N.  W.  The  cause  of  our  coming  in  was  to  seek  the  William,  whose  com- 
pany we  lost  the  sixth  day  of  this  month,  and  to  send  letters  into  England.  About  one 
of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon  the  William  also  came  into  Wardhouse  to  us  in  good  safety, 
and  all  her  company  in  good  health. 

The  twenty -fourth  the  wind  came  to  the  E.  N.  E.  This  day  the  Williatn  was  hald 
aground,  because  she  was  somewhat  leaky,  and  to  mend  her  steerage.  This  night,  about 
twelve  of  the  clock,  she  did  hale  afloat  again. 

The  twenty. fifth  day  the  wind  was  at  E.  N.  E.  , , ,  ,,     , ,    .  • 

*  This  narrative  is  inserted,  though  somewhat  prolix,  as  the  voyage  was  of  »reat  expectation,  and  the 
navigators  had  the  merit  of  making  a  most  obstinate  and  persevering  attempt  for  a  north-east  passage  to 
('hina. 


TO  Tirc  NOnTlfF.UN  PARTS*  OV  TiVHSiX  AM)  .Sini.lllA  74 

The  twenty  .sixth  day  the  Toby  of  Harwich  departed  from  W'urdlioiisc  for  London, 
Thomas  Green  Ixring  master,  to  whom  we  delivered  our  letters. 

The  twenty-seventh  day  the  wind  was  at  S.  S.  K.  and  the  twenty -eighth  also. 

The  twenty-ninth  day,  about  six  in  the  afternoon,  the  wind  came  to  the  W.  N.  \V. 
for  Uic  space  of  one  hour,  and  presently  to  the  K.  again,  and  so  wan  varia!)lc  all  the 
same  ni^rht. 

The  tliirtieth,  about  six  in  the  morning,  tl»c  wind  eamc  to  \\.  S.  E.  and  continued  sr* 
all  the  same  daj-. 

The  first  of  July,  about  five  in  the  afternoon,  the  wind  was  at  N.  N.  W.  and  about 
seven  of  the  clock  wc  set  sail  from  Wardhousc  I*',  and  by  S. 

The  second  day,  about  five  in  the  morning,  the  wind  was  K.  and  E.  S.  E.  and  we  did 
lie  to  the  shorewards ;  and  about  ten  in  the  morning  the  wind  came  to  S.  S.  E.  and  wc 
laid  it  to  the  eastwards  ;  sometimes  we  lay  E.  by  S.  sometimes  E.  S.  E.  and  sometimes 
E.  by  N.  About  five  in  the  afternoon  we  biu*c  with  the  William,  who  was  willing  to 
go  with  Kegor,  because  we  thought  her  to  be  out  ol  trie,  and  sailed  very  ill,  where  we 
might  mend  her  steerage ;  whereujjon  Master  Pet,  not  willing  to  go  into  harbour,  said 
to  Master  Jackman,  that  if  he  thought  himself  not  able  to  keep  the  sea,  he  should  do  as 
he  thought  best,  and  that  he  in  the  mean  time  would  bear  with  Willoughby's  land,  for 
that  it  was  a  parcel  of  our  direction,  and  would  meet  him  at  Verove  Osfrove,  or  Vi:  igats, 
and  so  we  set  our  course  E.  N.  E.  the  wind  Ix^ing  at  S.  E. 

The  third  day  the  wind  at  S.  E.  wc  found  the  pole  to  be  elevated  70°  4<)'.  The  same 
night  at  twelve  of  the  clock  we  sounded,  but  had  no  ground,  in  one  hundred  and  twenty 
fathoms,  being  fifty  leagues  from  the  one  side  by  our  reckoning  E.  N.  E.  from  Kegor. 

The  fourth  day  all  the  morning  was  calm.  This  day  we  found  the  pole  to  be  ele- 
vated 71°  38'.  This  day,  at  nine  in  the  afternoon,  the  wind  atN.  E.  with  a  gentle  gale, 
we  hald  along  S.  E.  by  E. 

The  fifth  day,  the  wind  at  N.  W.  we  hald  E.  and  E.  by  S.  This  day  we  saw  land, 
but  we  could  not  make  it,  the  wind  being  northerly,  so  that  we  could  not  come  near 
to  it. 

The  sixth  day,  about  two  in  the  afternoon,  the  wind  at  N.  N.  W.  we  hald  E.  S.  E, 
with  a  fair  and  gentle  gale.  This  day  we  met  with  ice.  About  six  in  the  afternoon  it 
became  calm ;  we  with  sail  and  oars  laid  it  to  the  N.  E.  part,  hoping  that  way  to  clear 
us  of  it :  for  that  way  we  did  see  the  head  part  of  it,  as  we  thought ;  which  done,  about 
twelve  of  the  clock  at  night  we  gat  clear  of  it :  we  did  think  it  to  be  ice  of  the  bay  of 
St.  Nicholas,  but  it  was  not,  as  we  found  afterwards. 

The  seventh  day  we  met  with  more  ice,  at  the  eas-  art  ol  le  other  ice  :  wr  hald 
along  a- weather  the  ice  to  find  some  eind  thereof  by  E.  N.  E.  Th;^  day  there  appeared 
more  land  north  from  us,  being  perfect  land :  the  ice  was  between  us  and  it,  so  that  wc 
could  not  come  nearer  to  it. 

The  same  morning,  at  six  of  the  clock,  we  put  into  the  ice  to  find  some  way  through 
it ;  we  continued  in  it  all  the  same  day,  and  all  the  night  following,  the  wind  by  the 
N.  N.  W.  we  were  constrained  to  go  many  points  of  our  compass,  but  we  went  most 
an  easterly  course. 

The  eighth  day,  the  wind  at  N.  N.  W.  we  continued  our  course,  and  at  five  in  the 
morning  we  sounded,  and  had  ninety  fathoms  red  oze.  This  day,  at  four  in  the  after- 
noon, we  sounded  again,  and  had  eighty-four  fathoms  oze,  as  before.  At  six  in  the 
afternoon  we  cleared  ourselves  of  the  ice,  and  hald  along  S.  E.  by  S.  we  sounded  again 
at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  had  forty-three  fathom  sandy  oze. 

The  ninth  day,  at  two  in  the  morning,  we  sounded  again,  and  had  forty-five  fathoms, 


/" 


b 


72 


\uYA(.Ks  UI-'  Silt  iitt.ii  wiia.oi  (.iinv  xstt  utiieuh, 


thill  tlita'  apiwari'd  a  shadow  of  land  to  uh  K.  N.  E.  and  so  uc  nin  whh  it  the  space 
of  two  hours,  and  then  pcrct  ivin^r  that  it  was  but  log,  wc  hi»ld  along  S.  K. 

ThLtday,  at  two  in  the  atkriKMin,  wc  soinidcd,  and  had  fifty  fathoms  hiack  ozc  ;  our 
latitude  was  70°  3'.  At  ten  o'clock  at  night  we  Hounded  again,  and  luid  fifty  fathom*) 
black  oze. 

The  tenth  day,  the  wind  kinp^at  N.  N.  W.  we  hald  K.  and  by  N.  which  course  wc 
set,  because  at  ten  of  the  clock  alorcixwii  wc  did  see  land,  and  then  we  sounded,  having 
thirt}  -five  fathoms  black  oze.  All  this  day  there  was  a  great  fog,  so  thiit  we  durst  not 
bear  with  the  land  to  make  it,  and  so  we  kept  an  outwaally  course.  This  day,  at  six 
in  the  afternoon,  we  espied  land,  whcrewitn  wc  hald,  and  then  it  grew  calm  ;  wc 
sounded,  and  had  one  hundred  and  twenty  fathoms  black  oze ;  and  then  wc  sent  our 
boat  a-land  to  sound  and  prove  the  land.  The  same  night  wc  came  with  our  ship  with- 
in an  island,  where  we  rode  all  the  same  night.  The  same  night  we  went  into  a  bay  to 
ride  near  the  land  for  w(kx1  and  water. 

The  eleventh  day  the  wind  came  to  the  E.  S.  E.  This  ■'  ,  about  a  league  from  us 
to  the  eastwards,  wc  saw  a  very  fair  sound  or  river  that  pasi  very  far  into  the  country, 
with  two  or  three  branches,  with  an  island  in  the  midst. 

The  twelfth  of  July  the  wind  was  K.  S.  E.  This  day,  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  there  came  a  great  white  bear  down  to  the  water  side,  and  took  the  ^yate^  of 
his  o^vn  accord ;  wc  chased  him  with  our  Ix)at,  but  for  all  that  wc  could  do  he  got  to 
land  and  escaped  from  us,  where  wc  named  the  bay  Bearbay.  This  day,  at  seven  in  the 
afternoon,  we  set  sail,  for  wc  had  good  hope  that  the  wind  would  come  westerly,  and 
with  sail  and  oars  we  gat  the  sea.     All  the  night  it  ^vas  calm  with  fog. 

The  thirteenth  day  in  the  morning  the  wind  was  very  variable  with  fog,  and  as  it 
cleared  up  we  met  with  great  store  of  ice,  which  at  the  first  shewed  like  laixl :  this  ice 
did  us  much  trouble,  and  the  more  because  of  the  fog,  which  continued  until  the  four* 
teenth  day  twelve  of  the  clock. 

The  fourteenth  djiy  in  the  morning  we  were  so  imbayed  whh  ice,  that  we  were  con- 
strained  to  come  out  as  we  went  in,  which  was  by  great  good  fortune,  or  rather  by  the 
goodness  of  God,  otherwise  it  had  been  impossible ;  and  at  twelve  of  the  clock  we  were 
clciu"  of  it,  the  wind  being  at  S.  and  S.  by  W.  The  same  day  we  found  the  pole  to  be 
elevated  70°  26' :  we  lay  along  the  coast  N.  W.  thinking  it  to  be  an  iskmd ;  but  find- 
ing no  end  in  rowing  so  long,  we  supposed  it  to  be  the  main  of  Nova  Zembla.  About 
two  in  the  afternoon  we  laid  it  to  the  southward  to  double  the  ice,  which  we  could  not 
do  upon  that  boiuxl,  so  that  we  cast  about  again  and  lay  W.  along  under  the  ice.  About 
seven  in  the  afternoon  we  got  about  the  greatest  part  thereof.  About  eleven  o'clock  at 
night  we  brought  the  ice  S.  E.  of  us,  and  thus  we  were  rid  of  this  trouble  at  this  time. 

The  fifteentn  day,  about  three  in  the  morning,  the  wind  was  at  S.  S«  W.  we  cast 
about  and  lay  to  the  eastwards ;  the  wind  did  wester,  so  that  we  lay  S.  S.  W.  with  a 
Hawn  sheet,  and  so  we  ran  alt  the  same  day.  About  eight  in  tlie  afternoon  we  sounded, 
and  had  twenty-three  iiithoms  small  gray  sand.  This  night,  at  twelve  of  the  clock,  we 
sounded  again,  and  had  twenty-nine  fathoms  sand,  as  afore. 

The  sixteenth  day  unto  three  in  the  morning  we  hald  along  E.  S.  E.  where  we  found 
eighteen  fathoms  red  sand,  then  we  hald  along  N.  E.  In  these  soundings  we  had  many 
oveifals.  This  day,  at  ten  of  the  clock,  we  met  with  more  ice,  which  was  very  great, 
so  that  we  could  not  tell  which  way  to  get  clear  of  it :  then  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  S.  E. 
so  that  we  lay  to  the  northwards  :  we  thought  that  way  to  clear  ourselves  of  it,  but  that 
way  we  had  more  ice.  About  six  in  the  afternoon  tlie  wind  came  to  the  E.  then  we 
lay  10  the  southwards,  that  wc  had  thirty  fathoms  black  oze.     This  day  we  found  the' 


1 


TO  THr.  N(Htriil.HN  I'AKTA  Of  lit  MMI  V  AM)  iilHf.lllA. 


7i 


pole  to  \)c  cl(  vated  09**  40' ;  iuul  tliis  night  at  twelve  o'clock  Uf  had  lorty-onc  fathoim 
red  sand. 

The  seventeenth  daj ,  at  three  in  the  nioniiii^,  \vc  had  twelve  fathoms.  At  nine  wc 
hod  eight  and  seven.  All  thi^duy  w*  ran  S.  and  S.  In  W,  at  the  depdi  uibre-iiiid,  ivd 
sand,  being  hot  .<thallow  water.  At  tight  in  ilu-  afterntK)!!,  the  wiinl  with  a  shower  and 
thinider  came  to  the  S.  VV.  ajid  then  we  ran  I*'..  N.  K.  At  twelve  at  night  it  cane  to 
die  S.  aiul  by  E.  and  all  thit  was  in  the  bay  ol  IVchora. 

Tlie  eightix-nth  day,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  we  bare  with  the  headland  of  the  bay, 
where  we  f'oimd  two  islands ;  thrre  were  also  ()\erralls  ol  water  or  tides.  We  went  be- 
tween  the  main  and  the  island,  next  to  the  head,  w  here  w  e  had  about  two  fathonih  and 
u  half;  wc  found  the  |x)lc  elevated  69"  13'.  This  day  wc  had  sight  of  Vaigiitz  :  the 
land  of  the  main  of  Pechora  did  trend  S.  K.  we  haKl  K.  S.  K.  and  had  ten  fathoms  ozc 
all  the  siime  day  until  four  in  the  aiternoon,  dien  being  cahu  we  imchurcd  in  ten  fathonis 
all  the  same  night. 

The  nineteenth  day,  at  two  in  the  morning,  we  set  sail,  and  ran  S.  and  S.  S.  W.  nil 
the  same  day,  at  eight,  seven,  and  six  fathoms ;  this  was  ofl'  the  S.  part  of  Vaigatz  ;  thid 
part  of  the  land  lieU»  N.  and  S.  This  day,  at  four  in  the  afternoon,  we  foinid  shallow 
water,  sometimes  four  fathoms,  sometimes  three,  and  two  and  a  half,  tuid  one  fathom 
and  a  half;  there  we  anchored,  and  sent  lur  boat  away  to  sound,  and  all  to  lecwiuxl 
wc  had  four  feet,  and  three  feet,  and  two  feet ;  there  was  not  water  for  the  boat  betwet'ti 
Vaigatz  and  the  other  side  :  finding  no  mon  vater,  there  was  no  other  way  but  to  go 
back  as  wc  came  in,  having  the  windN.  VV.  so  at  twelve  at  night  we  set  sail. 

Tlic  twentieth  day  we  plied  to  the  northwards,  and  got  di  ep  water  again  six  and  sevei^ 
fathoms. 

The  twenty-first  day,  the  wind  by  the  N.  W.  wc  hald  along  the  coast  N.  and  N.  N.  W. 
wc  had  eight,  and  nine,  and  ten  fiithoms. 

The  twenty-second  day  tlie  wind  came  to  the  S.  W.  we  biu*c  along  the  coast  of 
Vaigatz,  as  we  found  it  to  lie  N.  and  by  W.  and  N.  N.  W.  and  N.  the  wind  blew 
very  much  widi  great  fog :  we  lacking  water  and  wood  bare  within  an  island,  where  we 
found  great  store  of  wood  and  water ;  there  were  three  or  four  goodly  i-ouncLs.  Under 
two  )X)ints  there  was  a  cross  set  up,  and  a  man  buried  at  the  foot  of  it.  Upon  the  said 
cross  Master  Pet  did  grave  his  name,  with  the  date  of  our  Lord,  and  likewise  upon  a 
stone  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  so  did  I  also;  to  the  end  that  if  the  William  did  chance 
to  come  thither,  they  might  have  knowledge  that  we  had  been  there.  At  eight  in  the 
afternoon  the  wind  came  to  the  N.  N.  W.  we  set  sail  and  turned  out  of  die  bay.  The 
same  night  the  wind  came  to  the  W.  so  that  wc  lay  N.  along  the  land. 

The  twenty-third  day,  at  five  in  the  morning,  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  W.  a  sea  board 
we  saw  a  great  number  of  fair  islands,  to  the  number  of  six  ;  a  sea  board  of  these  islands 
d\ere  are  many  great  overfalls,  as  great  streams  or  tides ;  we  hald  N.  E  and  E.  N.  E.  as 
the  land  did  trend.  At  eight  aforenoon  the  wind  came  to  die  S.  E.  widi  very  much 
wind,  rain,  and  fog,  and  very  great  store  of  ice  a  sea  board ;  so  we  lay  to  the  S.  W.  to 
attain  to  one  of  the  islands  to  harbour  us  if  the  weather  did  so  extremely  continue,  and 
to  take  in  our  boat,  thinking  it  meet  so  to  do,  and  not  to  tow  her  in  such  weather. 
About  twelve  of  the  clock  it  became  very  calm  upon  the  sudden,  and  came  up  to  the 
W.  N.  W.  and  N.  W.  by  W.  and  then  we  took  in  our  boat ;  and  tliis  done,  there 
came  down  so  much  wind  as  we  were  not  able  to  steer  afore  it,  with  corse  and  bonnets 
of  each,  we  hald  S.  with  the  land,  for  so  the  land  did  trend.  This  day  all  the  afternoon 
we  siuled  under  a  great  land  of  ice,  we  sailed  between  the  land  and  it,  being  not  able  to 
cross  it.    About  twelve  at  night  we  found  the  ice  to  stretch  into  the  land,  that  we  could 

VOL.    I.  L 


i 


'. 


•f4  VUYAdES  01'  MR  llUCff  WtLLOVniinY  AND  OTIIRRN. 

not  p;ft  clear  to  the  cnntminl,  *o  wc  laid  it  to  the  shore,  and  there  we  found  it  clear  hnnl 
uboard  the  short- ;  nnd  ui-  found  tiliiu  a  very  futr  inluud,  which  makes  t>,  very  gutxl  har- 
bour, and  within  are  twclvr  fathoniit. 

'I'hin  island  is  to  the  castu  irds  of  Vaigntz  four  or  five  leagues.  This  land  of  tht- 
main  doth  trend  S.  E.  and  S.  K.  by  K.  it  is  a  very  fair  C(K»»t,  and  even  and  plain,  and 
not  full  of  mountains  nor  rucks  :  you  have  hut  shallow  water  of  six  or  hcvcu  fathoms 
alxjut  a  league  from  the  shore.  All  this  morning  we  hald  K.  S.  E.  This  day  we 
found  the  pole  to  he  elevated  09"  14'.  AlM)Ut  twelve  o'eUjck  we  were  constrained  to 
put  into  the  ice,  to  seek  some  way  to  get  to  the  northwards  of  it,  hoping  to  have  some 
clear  passage  that  wa\-,  but  there  was  nothing  but  whole  ice.  Alxiut  nine  in  the  at\er< 
ncKJii  we  had  sight  of  the  William,  and  when  we  saw  her  there  was  a  great  land  of  ice 
between  her  and  us,  so  that  we  could  not  come  one  to  the  otlnr;  but  as  we  came 
near  to  her,  wc  sounded  our  triim|)et  and  shot  ofl'two  muskets,  and  sIk*  put  out  her 
flag  u])on  her  foretopmast  in  token  that  she  did  see  us.  All  this  time  we  did  shorten 
our  sails,  and  went  with  our  foresiiil  and  maintopsail,  seeking  the  best  way  through  the 
broken  ice,  she  making  away  the  best  tlut  she  coidd  to  follow  us,  we  nut  our  flag  to 
answer  her  again  with  the  like  ;  thus  wc  continued  all  the  aftcrnooon  till  alK)Ut  twelve 
o'clock  at  night,  and  then  we  moored  our  ship  to  a  piece  of  ice  to  tarry,  for  the 
William. 

The  twenty. fifth  day,  alxjut  five  in  the  morning,  the  William  came  to  us,  being 
both  glad  of  our  meeting.  7  he  William  had  her  stcmpost  broken,  that  the  rudder 
did  hang  clean  besides  the  stem,  so  that  she  could  in  no  wise  port  her  helm  with  all 
hands ;  she  did  lighten  her  stern,  and  trim  her  head,  and  when  wc  had  brought  her 
forward  all  that  we  could,  we  brought  a  cable  under  her  stem,  and  with  our  capstain 
did  wind  up  her  stem,  and  so  we  made  it  as  well  as  the  place  would  give  us  leave,  and 
in  the  end  wc  brought  her  to  steer  again.  We  acknowledge  this  our  meeting  to  be  a 
grea  t  benefit  of  God  for  our  mutual  comfort,  and  so  gave  his  majesty  thanks  for  it. 
All  the  night  after  we  took  our  rest,  being  made  fast  upon  a  piece  of  ice  :  the  wind  was 
at  W.  N.  VV.  but  we  were  so  enclosed  with  ice  that  we  could  not  tell  which  way  to  pass. 
Winds  we  have  had  at  will,  but  ice  and  fogs  too  much  against  our  wills,  if  it  had  pleased 
the  Lord  God  otherwise. 

The  twenty-sixth  day  die  wind  was  at  W.  N.  W.  we  set  sail  to  the  northwards,  to 
seek  if  we  could  find  any  way  clear  to  pass  to  the  eastward ;  but  the  further  wc  went 
that  way,  the  more  and  thicker  was  the  ice,  so  that  we  could  go  no  further ;  so  about 
four  in  the  afternoon  we  were  constrained  to  moor  upon  another  piece  of  ice.  I  think 
we  sailed  in  all  a  league  this  day ;  here  we  had  fifteen  fathoms  oze,  and  this  oze  is  all 
the  channel  over.  All  the  same  day  after  four  of  the  clock,  and  all  the  night,  we  tar- 
ried there,  being  without  all  good  hope,  but  rather  in  despair.  This  day  Master  Jug- 
man  did  see  land  £.  N.  £.  from  us,  as  he  did  think ;  whether  it  were  land  or  no  I 
cannot  tell  well,  but  it  was  very  like  land,  but  the  fogs  have  many  times  deceived  us. 

The  twenty-scventh  day  the  wind  was  at  N.  W.  This  day,  at  nine  in  the  morning, 
Ave  set  sail  to  seek  the  shore.  Further  into  the  ice  we  could  not  go,  and  at  seven  in  the 
afternoon  we  moored  to  a  piece  of  ice,  and  the  William  with  us ;  here  we  had  fourteen 
fathoms  oze.  At  three  in  the  afternoon  we  warped  from  one  ice  to  another.  At  nine 
in  the  afternoon  we  moored  again  to  a  piece  of  ice  until  the  next  day.  All  this  night 
it  did  snow,  with  much  wind,  being  at  W.  N.  W.  and  at  N.  W.  and  by  W. 

The  twenty-eighth  day  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  W.  and  S.  S.  W.  Thii  day  was  a 
very  fair  day.  At  one  in  the  afternoon  Master  Pet  and  Master  Jackman  did  confer 
together  what  was  best  to  be  done,  considering  that  the  winds  were  good  for  us,  and  Wje 


■  f.^. 


TO  riiK.  N-onrir>:itN  vsnih  ov  ittisiA  and  Hin».HiA.  Jg 

Itot  nMc  to  pRM  for  uf,  thvy  did  a^cc  to  v  ck  to  the  land  n^i^ain,  and  ho  to  Vuifi^tz,  and 
llurri  to  confir  further.  At  tliric  in  the  alkiiuMJH  we  ditl  warp  from  one  piece  of  ice 
to  uiiother,  to  get  from  then*  if  it  were  pos!^il)le:  here  were  pieces  of  ice  no  great,  thai 
we  could  not  ?iec  Ix;) ond  them  out  of  the  top.  Thuf»  we  warixd  tuUil  nine  in  the  after. 
n(M)n,  and  then  we  moored  ihMx  our  shipt  to  a  great  and  high  piece  of  ice  until  the 
ncxt  morning. 

The  nine  and-twcntieth  (hiy  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  W.  we  net  siail  at  five  In  the 
morning,  to  ply  into  the  shore  if  it  were  ixwHihle  :  we  made  many  turns  among  the  ice 
to  hmail  pur|X)^K■,  for  with  the  wind  dotli  the  current  rini.  This  day  by  miiifortune  u 
piece  of  ice  staielt  ofl'our  gattp  af(jre  at  two  aforenoon,  yet  f(jr  all  thitt  we  turned  to  do 
our  lx.*»t.  The  William  being  incinnbend  with  ice,  and  perceiving  that  hhe  did  little 
gixKl,  took  in  all  her  sails  and  made  hcrsilf  fast  to  a  piece  of  ice,  anu  about  four  in  the 
uiftern(X)n  sthe  set  sail  to  follow  us :  we  were  afraid  that  she  had  taken  some  hurt,  liut  shu 
was  well.  At  bcveii  albanoon  we  took  in  all  our  sails  to  tarry  for  the  William,  and 
made  our  ship  fast  to  a  piece  of  ice  :  the  William  before  she  came  to  us  took  in  all  her 
sails,  and  moored  to  another  piece  of  ice  ;  and  thus  we  continued  until  the  next 
morning. 

The  thirtieth  day,  the  wind  at  S.  E.  and  b)-  S,  and  at  nine  in  tl»c  morning  wc  set 
sail,  and  sooner  would  have  done  if  the  William  had  been  by  us ;  but  we  did  tarry  for 
her,  to  know  whether  all  was  well  with  h(x  ;  but  as  soon  as  we  made  sail  she  did  the 
like.  All  this  day  we  did  our  best  to  seek  our  way  as  the  ice  would  give  us  leave  ; 
sometimes  we  lay  S.  sometimes  W.  and  sometimes  K,  and  thus  we  continued  until 
eight  at  night,  and  then  being  calm,  wc  made  our  ship  fast  to  a  piece  of  ice,  and  went 
to  supiK-r.  In  the  mean  time  the  wind  with  a  fair  gentle  giUe  came  up  to  the  E.  and  E. 
and  by  S.  but  thea*  came  down  a  shower  of  rain  with  it,  which  continued  the  space 
of  one  hour ;  which  being  done  it  Ixjcame  calm  again,  so  that  wc  could  do  no  good  all 
that  night,  but  took  our  rest  until  die  next  day. 

The  thirty-first,  the  wind  being  at  S.  W.  wc  set  sail  to  turn  to  windward  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  In  this  turning  wc  did  little  good,  for  the  current  would  not 
give  us  leave  ;  for  as  tlic  wind  is,  so  is  the  current.  We  did  our  best  until  ten  of  the 
clock,  and  then  perceiving  that  we  did  no  good,  and  being  enclosed  with  ice,  we  made 
our  ships  fast  to  a  piece  of  ice.  All  this  day  the  William  lay  still,  and  did  as  much  good 
as  we  tnat  did  labour  all  the  forenoon  ;  thus  we  took  our  rest  all  the  same  day. 

In  the  afternoon  we  set  sail,  the  wind  being  at  S.  and  by  E.  we  lay  to  the  westwards, 
as  S.  W.  and  S.  W.  and  by  S.  and  sometime  to  the  westward,  as  we  might :  thus  we 
continued  until  nine  at  night,  and  then  we  could  go  no  further  for  ice  ;  so  we  with  the 
William  were  constrained  to  make  our  ship  fast  to  a  piece  of  ice  all  the  same  night.  This 
day  we  found  the  pole  elevated  69°  20',  and  here  we  hud  seventeen  fathoms  oze. 

The  first  day  of  August  was  very  calm  in  the  morning,  the  wind  being  at  W.  N.  W. 
About  twelve  the  wind  came  to  the  W.  and  continued  so  all  tlic  same  night,  with 
great  fog. 

The  second  dav  the  wind  was  at  S.  W.  all  day,  with  rain  and  fog.  All  this  day  we 
were  inclosed  with  ice,  so  that  we  were  forced  to  lie  still :  here  we  had  one-and-twenty 
fathoms  oze.  At  six  in  the  aflemoon  the  wind  was  at  W.  with  very  much  foul  weather, 
and  so  continued  all  the  same  night 

The  third  day  the  wind  was  at  W.  and  W.  by  N.  and  W.  N.  W.  This  day  we  lay 
still  enclosed  with  ice,  the  weather  being  dark  with  fog  ;  thus  abiding  the  Lord's  leisure, 
we  continued  with  patience ;  and  sounding  we  found  twenty-one  fathoms. 

The  foiujkh  day  we  lay  still  enclosed  wim  ice,  the  wind  being  at  W.  N.  W.    This  ice 


1 


70 


VOYAGES  OP  Sm  HUGH  WILLOriGHBY  AND  OTHKRS, 


did  every  day  increase  upon  us,  yet  putting  our  trust  in  God,  we  hoped  to  be  delivered 
out  of  it  in  good  time. 

The  fifth  day  all  the  morning  it  rained,  with  very  much  wind,  being  at  S.  S.  E.  About 
three  in  the  afternoon  we  .^  sail,  and  presently  it  became  calm  for  the  space  of  one 
hour,  then  the  wind  came  to  the  N.  1 T.  E.  and  here  we  had  thirty-three  fathoms  ;  thus 
we  ii^ade  way  among  the  ice  S.  W.  and  S.  S.  W.  and  W.  as  we  might  find  our  way, 
for  the  space  of  three  'lours  :  then  we  met  with  a  whole  land  of  ice,  so  that  we  could 
go  no  further ;  here  we  moored  our  ship,  to  tarry  for  a  further  opening :  here  we  found 
forty-five  fathoms  oze,  and  all  the  night  was  very  dark  with  fog. 

The  sixth  day  having  no  o]M:ning  of  the  ice  we  lay  still,  the  wind  being  at  W  and 
W.  by  S.  here  we  had  sixty-three  fathoms  oze :  all  the  same  night  the  wind  was  at 
theW.  N.W. 

The  seventh  day  the  wind  was  at  W.  and  W.  and  by  N.  all  day.  All  this  day  we 
lay  still,  being  enclosed  with  ice  that  we  could  not  stir,  labouring  only  to  defend  the  ice 
as  it  came  upon  us  :  hire  we  had  sixty -eight  fathoms  oze. 

The  eig'ith  day  was  ve'^  ft  ir  and  cjim,  but  foggy.  This  day  towards  night  there 
^vas  little  wi"id  by  the  S.  S.  W.  then  the  ice  began  a  litde  to  open,  and  here  we  had  seven- 
ty  fathoms  oze  :  all  the  night  was  foggy. 

The  ninth  day  the  wind  was  at  N.  W.  and  by  W.  all  the  afternoon  we  lay  still  be- 
cause ot  ihe  ice,  which  did  still  inclose  us.  This  day  we  found  the  pole  elevated  70°  4', 
we  had  sixty-three  ♦athoms  oze.  This  night  was  a  very  fair  night,  but  it  freezed  :  in 
the  morning  we  had  much  ado  to  go  through  the  same ;  and  we  were  in  doubt  that  if 
it  should  have  freezed  so  much  the  night  following,  we  should  hardly  have  passed  out  of 
\:.     This  nigl.t  there  was  one  star  that  apiieared  unto  us. 

The  tenth  day  the  wind  was  at  E.  N.  L.  with  a  very  small  gale :  we  with  sail  and  oars 
made  way  through  the  ice.  About  five  in  the  morning  we  set  sail ;  sometime  we  lay 
S.  W.  and  sometime  S.  and  sometime  W.  as  we  might  best  find  t'le  way.  About 
three  in  the  afternoon  the  gale  began  to  fresh.  About  six  in  the  afternoon  the  wind 
was  at  N.  E.  with  fog :  here  we  had  eighty-eight  fathoms :  we  bare  sail  all  the  same 
night,  and  it  snowed  very  much. 

'  ^"^ubled  with  ice,  and  by  great  force  we  made  our 
1  diing  impossible  ;  but  extremity  doth  cause  men 
-nm  God's  strength  most  appeare.h  :  this  day  we 
in  the  afternoon  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  W.  we 
were  forced  to  make  our  ship  *asi  U)  o  piece  of  ice,  for  we  were  enclosed  with  it,  and 
tarried  the  Lord's  leisure :  this  night  we  had  ninety-seven  fathoms. 

The  twelfth  day  the  wind  was  ai  the  S.  E.  not  very  much,  but  in  a  manner  calm. 
At  eleven  of  the  clock  the  wind  came  to  the  W.  S.  W.  all  the  day  was  very  dark, 
wit'i  snow  and  fog.  At  six  in  the  afternoon  we  set  sail,  the  Aviud  being  at  the  N.  N.  E. 
All  this  night  we  bare  away  S.  W.  and  S.  S  W.  as  well  and  as  near  as  the  ice  would 
give  us  leai^e.  All  this  night  we  found  the  ice  somewhat  favourable  to  us  more  than  it 
was  before,  whereupon  we  stood  in  good  hope  io  get  out  of  it. 

The  thirteenth  day,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  the  wind  was  at  the  N.  E.  and  N.  E. 
and  by  E.  All  this  day  we  were  much  troubled  with  the  ice,  for  with  a  blow  against  a 
piece  of  ice  we  brake  the  stock  of^our  anchor,  and  many  other  great  blows  we  had 
against  the  ice,  that  it  was  marvellous  that  the  ship  was  able  to  abide  them  :  the  side  di 
our  boat  was  broken  with  our  ship  which  did  recoil  back,  the  boat  being  betwixt  a  great 
piece  of  ice  and  the  ship,  and  it  perished  the  head  of  our  rudder.  This  day  was  a  very 
hard  day  with  us :  at  night  we  found  m^xh  broken  ice ;  and  all  this  night  it  blew  very 


The  eleventh  day  we  were  mud 
way  through  it,  which  we  thr.iig^,i  - 
to  do  much,  and  in  the  weakness  ' 
had  ninety-five  fathoms.     At  tm-e 


■«> 


TO  TIIR  NORTHRRN  PARTS  OF  RUSSIA  AND  9I0ERTA. 


much  wind,  so  that  we  lay  in  drift  with  the  ice,  and  our  drift  was  S.  for  the  wind  was 
at  N.  all  this  night,  and  we  had  great  store  of  snow. 

The  fourteenth  day  in  the  morning  we  made  our  ship  fast  to  a  piece  of  ice,  and  let 
her  drive  with  it.  In  the  mean  time  we  mended  our  boat  and  our  steerage.  All  this 
day  the  wind  continued  northerly,  and  here  we  had  threescore  and  two  fathoms  :  thus 
we  lay  adrift  all  the  sam'-  night. 

The  fifteenth  day  we  set  sail  at  six  in  the  morning,  the  wind  being  at  N.  E.  At  nine 
aforenoon  we  entered  into  a  clear  sea  without  ice,  whereof  we  were  most  glad,  and  not 
without  great  cause,  and  gave  God  the  praise.  We  had  nineteen  fathoms  water,  and 
ran  in  S.  W.  all  the  morning  until  we  came  to  fourteen  fathoms,  and  thence  we  hiild 
W.  till  we  came  to  ten  fathoms,  and  then  we  went  N.  VV.  for  so  the  land  doth  trend. 
At  twelve  of  the  clock  v\  hiid  sight  of  the  land,  which  we  might  have  had  sooner,  but 
it  was  dark  and  foggy  aii  the  same  day  ;  for  when  we  had  sight  of  the  land,  we  were 
not  passing  three  leagues  from  it.  This  day  we  had  the  jwle  elevated  SQ**  49'.  All  day 
we  ran  along  the  coast  in  ten  and  nine  fathoms  pepered  sand.  It  is  a  very  goodly  coast 
and  a  bold,  arid  fair  soundings  oiF  it,  without  sands  or  rocks. 

The  sixteenth  day  the  wind  was  at  E.  This  day  we  were  troubled  again  with  ice, 
Lut  we  made  great  shift  with  it,  for  we  got  between  the  shore  and  it.  This  day,  at 
twelve  of  the  clock,  we  were  thwart  of  the  S.  E.  part  of  Vaigatz,  all  along  which  part 
there  was  great  store  of  ice,  so  that  we  stood  in  doubt  of  passage,  yet  by  much  ado  we 
got  betwixt  the  shore  and  it.  About  six  in  the  afternoon  was  found  a  great  white  bear 
upon  a  piece  of  ice.  All  this  day  in  the  afternoon  it  was  dark  with  fog ;  and  all  the 
night  we  hald  N.  and  N.  by  W.  and  sometime  N.  and  by  E.  for  so  doth  the  land 
trend. 

Tfie  seventeenth  day  in  the  morning  we  hald  W.  for  so  doth  the  land  lie :  the  wind 
was  it  S.  E.  and  it  was  very  dark  with  fog,  and  in  running  along  the  shore  we  fell 
aground,  but  God  be  praised  without  hurt,  for  we  came  presently  off  again.  The 
William  came  to  an  anchor  to  stay  for  us,  and  sent  some  of  their  men  to  help  us,  but 
before  they  came  we  were  under  sail ;  and  as  we  came  to  the  William  we  did  stow  our 
boats  and  made  saii,  we  went  within  some  of  the  islands,  and  hald  W.  S.  W. 

About  two  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon  we  set  our  course  S.  W.  and  by  S.  so  we 
ran  S.  W.  until  twelve  at  night,  the  wind  came  to  the  N.  N.  E.  and  then  we  hald  W. 

The  eighteenth  day,  at  six  in  the  morning,  we  had  sixteen  fathoms  red  sand  ;  at  six 
in  the  morning,  thirteen  fathoms ;  at  ten,  iburteen  fathoms,  and  we  hald  W.  N.  W. 
At  twelve  a  clock  the  wind  came  to  the  E.  and  E.  by  S.  we  hald  W.  and  by  N.  all 
the  same  day  and  night     At  six  in  the  afternoon  we  had  seventeen  fathoms  red  sand. 

Th^  nineteenth  day  the  wind  was  at  E.  N.  E.  at  six  in  the  morning  we  had  nineteen 
fathoms  red  sand :  at  twelve  of  the  clock  the  wind  blew  N.  and  N.  by  E.  we  had  seven- 
teen  fathoms  of  water,  at  three  in  the  afternoon  fifteen. 

The  twentieth  day  the  wind  was  at  N.  E.  and  N.  N.  E.  at  seven  in  the  morning  we 
had  thirty  fathoms  black  oze  :  at  twelve  of  the  clock  wt  were  upon  the  sudden  in  shoal 
water,  among  great  sands,  and  could  find  no  way  out :  by  sounding  and  seeking  about  we 
came  aground,  and  so  did  the  William,  but  we  had  no  hurt,  for  the  wind  was  off  the 
shore,  and  the  same  night  it  was  calm  :  all  night  we  did  our  best,  but  we  could  not  have 
her  afloat.  These  shoals  do  lie  off  Colgoyeve  ;  it  is  very  flat  a  great  way  off,  and  it  doth 
not  high  above  two  or  three  feet  water :  it  floweth  N.  E.  and  S.  W. 

The  twenty-first  day  the  wind  was  at  S.  W.  and  being  very  fair  weather  we  did 
lighten  our  8hi])s  as  much  as  was  possible  for  us  to  do,  by  reason  of  the  place.  The 
same  high  water,  by  the  lielp  of  God,  we  got  both  afloat,  and  the  wind  being  at  the  S. 
W.  did  help  us,  for  it  caused  it  to  flow  the  more  water. 


78 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  HUGH  ^V1LL0UGHBY  AND  OTHERS, 


This  day  we  found  the  poie  to  be  elevated  68**  40'.  In  the  afternoon  we  both  set 
sail  to  seek  way  to  get  out  of  these  siinds,  our  boat  a-head  sounding,  having  six,  seven, 
and  eight  fathoms,  all  within  the  sand  which  was  without  us.  We  bare  to  the  southward, 
and  the  William  bare  more  to  the  eastwards,  and  night  being  at  hand  the  wind  came 
to  the  S>  E.  whereuix)n  we  laid  it  to  the  southwards,  lying  S.  W.  and  S.  and  by  W. 
and  ran  to  nineteen,  and  twelve,  anr'.  fourteen  fathoms,  and  presently  we  had  but  six 
fathoms,  ^^•hich  was  off  the  sands'  head,  which  we  were  aground  upon  the  day  before. 
Then  we  cast  about  to  the  eastwards  for  deep  water,  which  we  presently  had,  as  ten, 
Jifteen,  and  twenty,  and  so  to  twenty-three  fathoms. 

The  twenty-second  day,  at  eight  in  the  morning,  we  cast  about  to  the  southward,  and 
this  day  in  the  morning  we  saw  the  William  under  our  lee  as  far  as  we  could  sec  her, 
and  with  a  great  fog  we  lost  the  sight  of  her,  and  since  we  have  not  seen  her.  Thus  we 
ran  till  we  came  to  thirty  fathoms  black  oze,  which  we  had  at  twelve  of  the  clock,  and 
at  three  in  the  afternoon  we  had  twenty  and  three  fathoms,  and  then  we  ran  W.  N.  W. 
and  W.  by  N.  all  the  same  night  following. 

The  twenty-third  day  we  had  at  six  in  the  morning  twenty-seven  fathoms,  at  eight 
o'clock  twenty-eight  fathoms  :  at  nine  the  wind  being  at  E.  S.  E.  we  hald  W.  N.  W. 
this  day  we  had  sight  of  the  land  of  Hugri  side.  At  twelve  of  the  clock  we  had  thirty- 
two  fathon:  s  sand.  This  day  we  ran  W.  and  by  N.  and  came  to  five  fathoms  off  the 
bay  of  Morzovets.  Then  we  laid  it  to  the  northwards,  so  that  we  lay  N.  N.  E.  off. 
The  wind  after  came  to  the  N.  and  N.  by  E.  and  we  lay  E.  and  E.  by  N.  then  we 
laid  it  to  the  westward  again :  and  thus  we  lay  till  we  came  to  forty  fathoms,  and  then 
we  went  N.  W.  till  we  came  to  fourteen  fathoms,  and  so  to  ten  fathoms.  Then  we 
cast  a1x}ut  to  the  eastwards,  and  lay  E.  and  E.  by  N.  all  the  same  night. 

The  twenty-fourth  day,  at  eight  in  the  morning,  we  had  thirty-two  fathoms.  We  ran 
N.  W.  till  we  came  to  eleven  fathoms,  then  we  lay  to  the  northwards  till  twelve  at  night, 
and  then  we  came  to  forty  fathoms,  then  the  wind  at  N.  E.  we  lay  to  the  westwards,  and 
hald  N.  W.  along.  .      ••' 

The  twenty-fifth,  at  four  in  the  morning,  we  had  thirty-seven  fathoms,  we  ran  N.  W. 
the  wind  at  N.  N.  E.  very  much. 

The  twent  sixth  day  we  ran  with  the  same  wind,  and  found  the  pole  to  be  elevated 
70°  40'. 

The  twenty-seventh,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  we  saw  land,  which  we  made  to  be 
Kegor,  then  we  hald  N.  W.  and  N.  by  W.  to  double  the  North  Cape. 

The  twenty-eighth  day,  at  three  in  the  morning,  we  ran  N.  W.  and  so  all  day.  At 
night  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  W.  and  we  ran  N.  W.  all  that  night. 

The  twenty-ninth  day  we  put  into  a  sound  called  Tane,  and  the  town  is  called 
Hungon  :  we  came  to  an  anchor  at  five  in  the  afternoon,  at  twenty. five  fathoms  very 
fair  sand.  This  sound  is  very  large  and  good,  and  the  same  night  we  got  'vav^r 
alx)ard. 

The  thirtieth  day  in  the  morning  the  wind  at  N.  E.  and  but  little,  we  set  sail,  and 
with  our  boat  on  head  we  got  the  sea  about  twelve  of  the  clock  :  the  wind  with  a  fair 
gale  came  to  the  E.  S.  E.  and  all  this  day  and  night  we  ran  W.  N.  W. 

The  thirty -first  day  at  twelve  of  the  clock  we  doubled  the  North  Cape,  the  wind 
being  at  E.  S.  E.  we  hald  W.  all  the  same  day,  and  at  night  we  ran  W.  S.  W. 

The  first  day  of  September  the  wind  was  at  N.  E.  with  very  much  fog :  all  this  day 
we  ran  W.  S.  W.  at  two  in  the  afternoon  the  wind  came  N. 

The  second  day  at  three  in  the  morning  we  doubled  Foulenesse,  and  the  wind  was 
this  day  variable  at  all  parts  of  the  compass.    In  the  afternoon  we  made  but  little  way  t 


TO  THE  NORTHERN  PARTS  OF  RUSSIA  AND  SIBERIA. 


70 


at  six  o'clock  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  W.  and  we  went  N.  W.  At  nine  in  the  night 
there  came  down  so  much  wind  by  the  W.  S.  W.  that  we  were  fain  to  lay  it  a  hull,  we 
hald  it  to  northwards  for  the  space  of  two  hours,  and  then  we  laid  her  head  to  the  south, 
wards,  and  at  the  break  of  day  we  saw  land,  wlxich  is  very  high,  and  is  called  by  the  men 
of  the  country  Foulenesse.  It  is  within  full  of  small  islands,  and  without  full  of  rocks 
very  far  out,  and  within  the  rocks  you  have  fair  sand  at  twenty  fathoms. 

The  third  day,  in  the  movning,  we  bare  with  the  sound  aforesaid :  within  it  is  but 
shoal  water,  four,  five,  and  three  fathoms,  sandy  ground,  the  land  is  very  high,  and 
the  church  that  is  seen  is  called  Helike  Kirke.  It  doth  high  here  not  above  eight  or  nine 
feet. 

The  twelfth  day,  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  we  put  into  a  sound  by  Lowfoot,  where  it 
doth  flow  S.  W.  and  by  S.  and  doth  high  seven  or  eight  feet  water. 

The  thirteenth  day  much  wind  at  W .  we  had  a  ledge  of  rocks  in  the  wind  of  us,  but 
the  road  was  reasonable  good  for  all  southerly  and  westerly  wmds.  We  had  the  main 
land  in  the  wind  of  us :  this  day  was  stormy,  with  rain. 

The  twenty-third  day,  at  four  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon,  we  put  «ito  Norway,  into 
a  sound  called  Romesal,  where  it  fioweth  S.  S.  E.  and  doth  high  eight  feet  water.  This 
place  is  full  of  low  islands,  and  many  good  sounds  without  the  high  mountain  land.  Here 
b  great  store  of  wood  growing,  as  fir,  birch,  oiik,  and  hazel :  all  this  night  the  wind  was 
at  the  S.  very  much  wind,  with  rain  and  fog. 

The  twenty-eighth  day  in  the  morning,  the  wind  being  at  E.  N.  E.  we  set  sail  at  eight 
of  the  clock,  and  hald  out  of  the  bay  W.  S.  W.  and  S.  W.  having  a  goodly  gale  until 
one  of  the  clock,  and  then  the  wind  came  to  S.  E.  and  to  the  S.  with  rain  and  fog,  and 
very  much  wind :  at  six  of  the  clock  we  came  into  a  very  good  road,  where  we  did  ride 
all  the  same  night  in  good  safety. 

The  twenty-ninth  day  we  put  into  a  good  sound,  the  wind  being  by  the  S.  W .  at  tliree 
in  the  afternoon  there  came  down  very  much  wind  by  the  S.  and  all  night  with  vehement 
blasts  and  rain. 

The  thirtieth  day,  all  day  the  wind  was  at  W.  S.  W.  And  in  this  sound  the  pole  is 
elevated  63°  10'. 

The  first  day  of  October  the  wind  was  at  S.  with  very  much  wind  and  vehement 
blasts. 

The  seventh  day  we  set  sail :  for  from  the  first  of  this  month  until  this  seventh  day 
we  had  very  foul  weather,  but  specially  the  fourth  day,  v/hen  the  wind  was  so  great,  that 
our  cables  brake  with  the  very  storm,  and  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  possible  that  any  more 
wind  than  that  was  should  blow  :  for,  after  the  breaking  of  our  cable,  we  did  drive  a 
league  before  our  anchors  would  take  any  hold :  but,  God  be  thanked,  the  storm  began 
to  slack,  otherwise  we  had  been  in  ill  case. 

The  seventh  day,  at  night,  we  came  to  an  anchor  until  the  next  day,  which  was  the 
eighth  day  of  the  month,  when,  as  the  wind  grew  great  again  with  rain,  whereupon  we 
set  sail  and  returned  into  the  sound  again  :  and  at  our  first  coming  to  an  anchor,  presently 
there  blew  so  much  wind,  that  although  our  best  anchor  was  out,  yet  the  extremity  of 
the  storm  drove  us  upon  a  ledge  of  rocks,  and  did  bruise  our  ship  in  such  sor.',  that  we 
were  constrained  to  lighten  her  to  save  her,  and  by  this  means  (by  the  help  of  God) 
we  got  off  our  ship  and  stopped  our  leaks,  and  moored  her  in  good  safety,  abiding  for  a 
wind.  We  rid  from  this  day  by  reason  of  contrary  winds,  witli  fog  and  rain,  until 
the  twenty-fourth  day,  which  day,  in  the  morning,  the  wind  came  to  the  N.  E.  and  at 
eight  of  the  clock  we  set  sail.  This  sound  is  called  Moore  Sound,  where  it  hieth  about 
five  feet  water,  and  floweth  S.  S.  E,    The  next  day,  being  the  twenty-fifth  day,  we  put 


HflgHgi 


80 


VOYAGES  TO  THE  NOETHERTf  PARTS  OP  KUS8IA  AND  SIBERIA. 


into  a  sound  which  is  called  Ultar  Sound,  Nvherc  was  a  ship  of  the  king  of  Denmark  put 
into  another  sound  diercby,  bcin^  two  leagues  to  the  southwards  of  us,  that  came  out  of 
Iceland :  the  wiixi  was  contrary  tor  us  at  S.  S.  W. 

The  twelfth  day  of  November  we  set  sail,  the  wind  being  at  the  E.  S.  E.  and  passed 
through  the  sound  where  the  king's  ship  did  lie :  which  sound  is  called  Sloure  Sound. 
But  !»s  we  did  open  the  sound,  we  found  the  wind  at  the  S.  W.  so  that  we  could  do  no 
gocx(,  so  that  we  moored  our  ^ip  between  two  islands,  until  the  eighteenth  day,  and  then 
the  ^treuther  being  fair  and  calm,  we  set  sail,  and  went  to  sea,  hoping  to  find  a  fair  wind, 
but  in  the  sea  we  found  the  wind  at  the  S.  W.  aiid  S.  S.  W.  so  that  we  were  constrained 
to  re tuni  into  the  same  sound. 

The  next  day,  being  the  nineteenth,  the  king's  ship  came  out  also,  because  she  saw  us 
put  to  sea,  and  came  as  far  out  as  we,  and  moored  where  we  did  moor  afore :  and  at  our 
return  back  again,  we  moored  our  ship  in  an  outer  sound,  called  Scorpe  Sound,  because 
the  king's  ship  was  without  victuals,  and  we  did  not  gready  desire  her  company,  althou^ 
they  desired  ours.  In  this  sound  the  pole  is  elevatad  62"  47'.  Thus  we  lay  still  for  a 
ivind  until  the  first  of  December,  whicli  day  we  set  sail  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  at  four  in  the  afternoon  we  laid  it  to  the  inwards. 

The  ninth  thy  we  had  sight  of  the  coast  of  Scotland,  which  was  Buchanness. 

The  tenth  day  we  were  open  off  the  Frith. 

The  eleventh  day,  at  four  in  the  morning,  we  were  thwart  of  Barwike  :  at  six  we  were 
thwart  of  Bamburch :  the  san»e  day,  at  ten  at  night,  we  were  shot  as  ikr  as  Hollyfcote. 
Then  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  and  S.  E.  so  that  we  lay  still  until  the  next  day  in  the 
morning,  and  then  we  were  constiained  to  put  with  Tinmoutli.  The  same  day,  at  night, 
we  hald  aground  to  stop  a  leak,  which  we  found  to  be  in  the  skarf  afore.  The  wind 
continued  by  the  S.  E.  and  S.  S.  E.  until  tlie  twentieth  day,  r  id  then  we  set  sail  about 
twelve  at  night,  bearing  along  the  coast. 

The  twenty-second  day,  by  reason  of  a  S.  E.  wind,  we  thought  we  should  have  been 
put  into  Humber,  but  the  wind  came  to  the  W.  so  that  we  hald  S.  E.  and  at  three  in 
the  afternoon  we  hald  a  sea  board  the  sands,  and  had  shoal  water  off  Lymery  and  Owry, 
and  were  in  four  fathoms  off  them.  The  next  day  we  hald  as  we  might  to  sease 
Orfordnesse. 

The  twenty-fourth  day  we  came  thwart  of  the  Na-se,  about  eight  in  the  morning. 

The  twenty-fifth  day,  being  the  nativity  of  Cl'jist,  we  came  to  an  anchor  ^tween 
Oldliaven  and  Tilbury  Hope,,     The  same  day  we  turned  as  lii^  as  Porshet. 

The  twenty-sixth  day  we  turned  as  high  as  Ratcliffe,  and  praised  God  for  our  safe 
return.     And  thus  I  end,  1580. 

The  William,  with  Charles  Jackman,  arrived  at  a  port  in  Norway,  between  Ti  iMidbm 
and  Rostock,  in  October,  1580,  and  there  did  winter :  and  from  tmutce  iVimrted  again 
in  February  following,  and  went  in  comiituiy  of  a  ship  of  the  king  of  Denmark  toward 
Iceland :  and  since  that  time  he  was  never  heard  of. 


■l—iWUMlJHillUP 


81 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  OF  THE  DUTCH  AND  ZEALANDERS,  BY  THE  NORTH,  ALONG 
THE  COASTS  OF  NORWAY,  MOSCOVY,  AND  TARTARY,  IN  ORDER  TO  SELK  A 
PASSAGE  TO  THE  KINGr  ^'S  OF  CATHAY  AKD  CHINA. 

[Newly  translated  from  the  Reccuil  der.  Voyages,  qui  ont  servi  a  rctablissement  et  aux  progrcz  de  la 

Compitgnie  c'.es  Indea  Orientales.    Turn.  i.  p.  53.] 

THE  ancients,  who  possessed  a  great  taste  for  the  wonderful,  have  not  failed  to  inter- 
mix it  with  the  foundations  of  empires,  and  the  establishments  of  states,  and  of  almost  all 
societies.  At  present,  that  the  world  is  become  more  rational,  nothing  on  these  occa- 
wons  is  recited  but  of  tV\e  most  ordinary  description.  We  even  sometimes  find  our- 
selves  surprised,  and  in  some  measure  displeased,  at  reading  the  feeble  commencement 
of  a  great  intrigue  so  little  corrtsi^nding  with  the  conclusion,  and  the  ideas  it  has 
inspired.  We  feel  inclined  to  call  in  question  the  veracity  of  those,  who  disc  ose  to  us 
the  motives  and  the  simple  means  by  which  the  greatest  events  have  been  proauced. 

The  empire  founded  by  the  Dutch  in  the  East  Indies  is  not  one  of  the  least  brilliant 
ornaments  which  adorn  the  history  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  at  the  same  time 
one  of  those  astonishing  events,  which  have  not  been  in  the  'east  foreseen  when  the  first 
steps  were  made  which  gave  them  birth,  and  as  nothing  was  farther  from  the  views  of 
those  who  n-ere  the  cause  in  producing  this  great  effect,  perhaps  there  also  has  never 
been  so  illustrious  a  foundation,  produced  almost  by  accident,  and  with  so  little  design 
and  power. 

Although  this  firs*  relation,  which  is  placed  at  the  head  of  this  volume,  only  presents 
the  failure  oi  a  &  sign,  it  is  nevertheless  certain  that  the  navigation  it  describes  was 
the  first  instigation  given  to  the  United  Provinces  to  go  in  quest  of  those  rich  regions,  of 
w^ch  they  have  since  acquired  tlie  |x>ssession.  Some  mercnants,  animated  with  a  desire 
of  making  trade  flourish,  submitted  propositions  to  the  States,  and  obtained  a  permission, 
the  consequences  of  whicli  have  been  tJie  sources  of  all  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  their 
native  country. 

At  the  bead  of  the  society  which  undertook  this  enterprise  was  Balthasar  Moucheron, 
of  Zeaknd.  He  requL  ^ted  of  the  States  General  and  prince  Maurice,  high  admiral,  the 
liberty  of  seeking  a  northern  passage  to  the  kingdoms  of  Cathay  and  China :  which  was 
granted. 

Three  vessels  were  immediately  equipped  by  the  society,  one  at  Amsterdam,  another 
at  Zeaiana,  and  the  third  at  ^nchuisen.  Tliese  vessels  set  sail  in  the  year  1594,  to  pass 
around,  if  possible,  by  Norway,  Moscovy,  and  Tartary,  and j;  octed  to  China. 

The  vessel  equipped  at  Amsterdam  had  fkn-  chief  pilot  Wii'  uu  a  Barentsz,  of  the  town 
dt  Schefling,  a  very  skilful  niariner.  He  took  with  nim  a  fisherman  of  the  same  town, 
with  his  bark,  to  keep  him  company,  in  case  the  other  two  vessels  should  be  separated 
from  him.     '  _^        "  .    .         '.  .'';»' 

Tliese  ves8#s  nftvlliff  departed  from  the  Texd  on  the  fifth  of  June,  arrived  on  the 
twenty -third  of  the  same  month  at  the  island  of  Kilduin,  in  Moscovy.' 

During  the  night  of  the  fourth  of  July,  Barentsz  observed  the  altitude,  the  sun  being 
at  the  lowest  pomt,  that  is  to  say,  N.  E.  half  E.  and  he  found  he  was  in  the  latitude  of 
73°  25'.*  TtKy  then  sailed  live  or  six  leagues  from  the  land,  under  Novaya  Zemlia, 
and  Ijavirig:  again  observed  the  altitude,  they  bwe  to  the  east. 

*  tt  apptarn,  at  the  rttiulvislon  of  this  journal,  that  TJai  entsz'was  separated  from  the  olhc  two  vessels, 
and  as  they  all  joined  in  latitude  69*,  it  is  very  probable  they  were  separated  at  leaving  Kiiduin ;  so  that 
hereafter  the  navigation  alone  of  the  vesisel  of  Barentsz,  with  the  bark  of  the  fisherman;)  '.s  inquired  into. 

VOL.  I.  If 


mm 


aii 


^i. 


83 


niiar  voyage  of  thk  uuTt  ii 


When  they  had  run  live  or  six  leagues  in  the  same  course,  thty  found  themselves 
near  a  point  of  land  sufficiently  low,  but  extending  a  considerable  dist^ince  into  the  sea, 
which  they  called  Langenes.  To  the  east  of  this  jioint  there  was  a  great  bay,  by 
wliich  they  sent  the  shallop  to  shore,  where  no  [)erson  was  obsfjrved.  They  afterwards 
remarked  two  creeks  between  the  cape  of  Baxo,  which  is  four  leagues  from  Langenes, 
wild  the  western  point  of  the  bay  of  Loms,  which  is  capacious  and  extensive.  1  o  the 
west  they  founci  a  gtxxl  haven,  where  are  six,  seven,  and  eight  fathoms  of  water. 
Here  the  shallop  approached  the  land,  and  they  formed  a  buoy  of  an  old  mast  which 
tliey  found. 

This  bay  they  called  the  bay  of  Loms,  on  account  of  a  species  of  birds  seen  in  great 
quantity,  which  were  very  heavy.  Lorn  in  the  Dutch  langua^  signifying  heavy.  In 
effect  the  bodies  of  these  birds  appeared  so  large  in  proportion  to  their  wings,  which 
were  very  small,  that  they  were  surprised  at  their  being  able  to  lift  such  heavy  masses. 
They  make  their  nests  on  steep  mountains,  in  order  to  be  secure  from  the  beasts,  and 
they  only  lay  one  egg  at  a  time.  They  are  not  scared  at  the  sight  of  men  :  one  irjirv 
even  be  taken  in  its  nc*,  without  occiisioning  the  others  near  it  to  fly  away  or  qu'r,  «bl' 
stations. 

From  the  bay  of  Loms,  they  sailed  towards  Admiralty  Isle,  the  western  side  of  which 
is  not  clear,  having  little  depth  even  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  shore ;  so  that  it 
is  necessary  to  keep  off  the  coast,  and  not  to  approach  but  with  great  precaution.  The 
depth  is  even  very  unequal,  and  when  at  one  sounding  ten  fathoms  have  been  found, 
sometimes  but  six  are  found  at  another,  and  immediately  afterwards  they  again  find, 
ten,  eleven,  and  twelve. 

The  sixth  of  July,  at  midnight,  they  arrived  at  the  Swarthockf  or  the  Black  Cape, 
lying  in  latitude  75**  29',  and  afterwards  at  William's  Isle  at  the  distance  of  eight 
leagues,  in  the  latitude  of  75*^  5S'. 

They  found  at  this  place  a  great  quantity  of  wood  which  had  been  brought  by  the  sea, 
and  Walrusses,  or  sea-cows,  marine  monsters  of  wonderful  strength,  larger  than  oxen, 
and  having  a  rougher  hide  than  the  marine  dog,  with  very  short  hair.  Their  muzzle 
resembles  that  of  the  lion.  They  almost  constantly  abide  on  the  ice,  and  are  difficult 
to  kill,  unless  the  blow  be  given  exactly  on  tfie  side  of  the  head.  They  have  four  feet 
and  no  ears. 

They  only  bring  forth  one  or  two  young  ones  at  a  time,  and  when  met  by  the  fish- 
ermen on  the  ice,  diey  throw  their  young  ones  before  them  into  the  water,  and  taking 
them  between  their  fore  legs  as  between  the  arms,  they  plunge  with  them  and  re-appear 
at  different  times,  and  when  they  would  revenge  themselves  and  attack  the  barks,  or 
defend  themselves,  they  again  cast  away  tUpir  young,  and  approach  the  bark  with  ex- 
treme fury.  They  have  two  teeth  on  each  side  of  the  mouch.  nearly  fourteen  inches 
long,  which  are  as  much  esteemed  as  the  teeth  of  the  elephant,  especially  in  Moscovy, 
Tartary,  and  the  other  parts  where  they  are  used,  because  they  are  neither  less  white, 
less  hard,  nor  less  smooth  than  ivory.  The  hair  of  the  beard  resembles  little  horns, 
and  is  almost  similar  to  those  of  the  porcupine.  Two  were  seen  in  1612,  at  Amster- 
dam and  other  cities  of  Holland :  one  of  them  was  old  and  dead,  the  other  was  young 
and  still  alive.  The  English  call  them  sea-horses,  and  the  French  sea-cows :  but 
among  the  Russians,  who  have  been  acquainted  with  these  animals  from  time  immemo- 
rial, they  have  the  name  of  Morses. 

On  the  ninth  of  July  they  anchored  in  Berenfort  road,  under  William's  Isle,  where 
having  seen  a  white  bear,  they  got  into  the  shallop  and  wounded  it  with  bullets.  But 
the  bear  finding  itself  wounded,  redoubled  its  fury',  and  exhibited  marks  of  the  greatest 


TO  THE  NORTH  OF  t.UllOPt. 


83 


vigour  \vc  have  ever  heard  of,  rising  and  appearing  again  from  the  bottom,  where  he 
had  phmgcd,  to  swim  m^ew.  The  |)ersons  in  the  shallop  dirceted  it  towards  the  luiimal, 
and  passed  a  cord  roii'id  its  neek  with  a  running  knot,  tliinking  to  take  it  aUve  and 
carry  it  to  Holland ;  nevertheless  tlu'.y  were  very  content  at  seeing  it  die,  and  having 
only  the  skin ;  for  it  cried  so  horribly,  struggled  in  such  a  manner,  and  made  such 
prodigious  eftbrts,  that  those  who  have  never  seen  it  would  not  be  able  to  imagine 
any  thing  similar. 

After  having  tluis  tormented  it,  they  gave  it  a  little  relaxation,  by  not  drawing  tlie 
noozc  tight;  but  diey  always  dragged  it  after  them,  in  order  to  fatigue  it  the  moic. 
Barentsz  having  caused  it  to  be  brought  near,  and  touched  it  with  his  hand,  the  b-ar 
darted  with  vigour  towards  the  shallop,  put  its  f.wo  paws  on  the  stern,  and  ex«  rted 
itself  in  such  a  manner  that  it  entered  with  half  its  body.  The  crew  were  so  alarmed, 
that  they  all  fled  to  die  poop,  and  no  one  expected  to  escape  alive. 

The  adventure  which  delivered  them  from  this  peril  was  very  singular.  The  nooze 
got  entangled  with  the  in,)n  work  of  the  rudder,  and  stopped  the  bear.  When  they 
saw  it  thus  checked,  U\e  most  courageous  of  the  sailors  advanced  ^vith  a  demi-lance, 
and  gave  it  so  violent  a  blow  that  the  animal  fell  inco  the  water.  The  shallop,  which 
then  approached  the  vessel  with  all  possible  speed,  dragged  the  beiu"  after  it,  and  so  ex- 
hausted its  strength,  that  seeing  it  less  agitated  than  before,  they  were  enabled  to  kill 
it,  and  its  skin  was  brought  to  Amsterdam. 

On  the  tenth  of  July  they  observed  the  Isle  of  Cro;:ises,  which  they  thus  named  on 
account  of  two  great  crosses  which  they  saw  there.  They  anchored  at  the  distance 
of  two  long  leagues  from  the  shore,  and  having  landed  in  the  ij.li*nd  they  found  it  barren 
and  full  of  rocks,  being  half  a  league  in  extent  from  East  to  West,  and  hiwing  at  each 
extremity  a  chain  of  rocks  under  wuter. 

Eight  leagues  thence  is  Cape  Nassau,  in  the  latitude  of  76°  30'.  It  is  a  low  and 
level  point  which  must  be  carefully  avoided,  because  there  is  a  bank  of  seven  fathoms 
at  a  great  distance  from  tlic  shore.  From  this  cape  they  sailed  five  leagues  to  the  E.  and 
by  S.  and  to  the  E.  S.  E.  and  then  thought  they  saw  land  to  the  N.  E.  and  by  E. 
They  immediately  steered  in  that  diicction,  conceiving  this  to  be  a  new  land,  to  the 
North  of  Novaya  Zemlia.  But  the  wind  increasing  they  were  obliged  to  furl  all  the 
sails ;  and  the  sea  afterwards  l>ecame  so  troubled,  that  they  sailed  for  more  than  sixteen 
hours  under  bare  poles. 

The  day  foUowmg  they  lost  their  little  bark  by  a  wave  which  sunk  it,  and  after  being 
thus  driven  about  for  a  considerable  time  under  bare  poles,  they  found  themselves  at 
three  in  the  afternoon  under  Novaya  Zemlia,  close  to  the  land. 

On  the  thirteenth  of  July  a  great  quantity  of  ice  was  observed  from  the  top-mast. 
On  the  fourteenth  they  found  themselves  in  the  latitude  of  77°  45',  near  a  surface  of  ice 
perfectly  smooth,  extending  as  far  as  the  eye  could  i-each.  On  the  morning  of  the 
nineteenth  they  returned  to  the  coast  of  Novaya  Zemlia,  near  Cape  Nassau,  and  on 
the  twenty-sixth  they  were  at  Cape  Troost. 

On  the  twentieth  they  arrived  in  latitude  77°,  and  the  nwst  northern  point  of  Novaya 
Zemlia,  called  Ys-hoek,  or  Icy  Cape,  bore  due  E.  Here  they  found  some  little  stones 
shining  like  gold ;  for  which  reason  they  called  them  golden  stones. 

On  the  thirty-first  of  July ,  having  tacked  between  the  ice  and  the  land,  during  fine 
weather,  they  arrived  at  the  Orange  Isles,  near  one  of  which  they  met  with  upwards  of 
two  hundred  sea-cows  on  the  sand,  basking  in  the  sun.  The  crew  thinking  these 
atnphibious  animals  ><ivere  not  able  to  defend  themselves  on  shore,  went  to  attack  them 
to  obtain  their  teeth :  but  theu-  fury  broke  tlie  hatchets,  sabres,  and  pikes,  witiiout 


■Hd 


84 


FIRST  VOYAGE  OP  1  UK  DUTCH 


their  being  able  to  kill  a  single  one,  or  to  obtain  any  other  advantage  than  that  of  seizing 
one  of  their  teeth  which  wus  broken. 

This  ill  suca"  fHH  not  discourage  the  Siiilors.  They  resolved  to  rctnm  on  board  and 
to  bring  guns ;  \  ey  were  not  able  to  accomplish  on  account  of  the  violence  of 

the  wind,  which  very  impetuous,  separating  the  ice  in  large  flakes. 

At  the  same  time  they  found  a  large  white  bear  asleep,  and  firing  upon  him  they 
wounded  him.  Notwithstanding  this  he  ran  away,  and  thre\v  himself  into  Uie  water, 
where  they  followed  him,  steering  the  shallop  iifter  him.  He  was  killed,  and  dragged 
on  the  ice,  upon  which  he  was  stabbed  with  a  demi-larce,  in  order  to  return  and  take 
him,  if  the  wind,  which  continued  strengthening,  and  the  ice  which  was  still  breaking 
into  flakes,  had  not  presented  an  insurmountable  obstiicle. 

After  tliese  adventures,  and  this  navigation  to  the  Orange  Isles,  William  Barentsz 
perceived  that  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  advance  further,  nor  to  discover  more  distant 
countries.  The  crew  themselves  begiin  to  appear  fatigued,  and  little  disposed  to  con< 
tinue  the  voyage.  He  resolved  therefore  to  return,  in  order  to  rejoin  the  other  two 
vessels,  which  had  directed  their  course  towards  the  Weygats  or  strait  of  Nassau,  in  order 
to  learn  what  discoveries  they  had  made. 

On  the  first  of  August  they  resumed  the  same  route  by  which  they  had  come,  and 
having  doubled  the  Capes  of  Troost  and  Nassau,  and  several  others,  they  arrived  on 
the  eighth  at  a  vei^  low  and  small  isle,  lying  at  the  distance  of  half  a  league  from  the 
main  land,  and  which  they  called  Black  Island,  on  account  of  its  surface  having  a  black 
appearance.  Barentsz  having  observed  the  aldtude  here,  found  the  island  to  lie  in 
latitude  71°  45'.  There  was  a  large  creek,  and  the  pilot  was  of  opinion  that  it  was  in 
that  place  Oliver  Beunel  had  formerly  been :  and  that  consequently  the  island  should  be 
called  Constintsarch. 

At  the  distance  of  three  leagues  from  this  isle,  they  discovered  besides  another  litUe 
point,  upon  which  there  was  a  cross.  They  aflerwards  ranged  the  coast  for  four 
leagues,  and  doubled  another  litUe  point,  behind  which  was  a  great  creek,  and  they 
named  it  the  Fifth  Cape,  or  the  Cape  of  St  Laurence. 

Bastion  Cape  is  also  three  leagues  distant  from  this  latter.  There  is  a  black  rock 
quite  close  to  the  shore,  upon  which  was  seen  a  cross.  Some  sailors  havinp;  landed  were 
certain  diere  had  been  men  who  had  fled  at  their  coming:  for  they  found  six  sacks  of 
rye  flour  buried,  and  a  heap  of  stones  about  the  cross. 

Within  gunshot  of  this  latter  place,  there  was  another  cross,  with  three  houses 
constructed  of  wood,  after  the  northern  fashion,  where  they  saw  several  barrel  staves ; 
which  induced  them  to  diink  it  probable  there  might  be  a  salmon  fishery  at  that  place. 
There  were  also  five  or  six  cofiins  on  the  ground,  near  as  many  ditches,  and  they  were 
all  filled  with  stones. 

The  haven  is  very  good,  and  sheltered  from  evenr  wind.  They  named  it  Flour 
Port,  on  account  of  the  flour  which  they  had  found.     Betwixt  this  port  and  Cape  Bas- 


tion is  the  bay  of  St.  Laurence,  also  very  good,  and  sheltered  from  the  N.  E.  and  N.  W. 

~  Fk      ~  

70»  45'. 


winds.    They  observed  the  altitude  in  Flour  Port,  and  found  themselves  in  latitude 


On  the  twelfth  of  August  two  small  islands  were  discovered,  the  latter  of  which  was 
only  a  league  from  the  land,  which  they  named  St.  Clara.  On  the  fifteenth,  at  three 
in  the  afternoon,  Barentsz  having  observed  the  altitude  found  himself  in  latitude  69°  15'. 
They  sailed  two  leagues  more  to  the  east  and  observed  the  isles  uf  M atfloe  and  Delgoi, 
where  the  vessel  in  the  morning  rejoined  those  of  Zealand  and  £nchuisen,  which  had 
also  arrived  the  same  day  from  the  strait  of  Nassau. 


TO  TfCE  NORTH  OF  EUUOPE. 


85 


They  imagined  at  first  that  Burcntijz  Iiud  sailed  round  Novayn  Zcmlia,  and  had  also 
returned  by  tlic  same  strait.  At  their  junction  the  ordinary  saUUations  passed,  and  they 
afterwards  recounted  to  each  other  their  navigation  and  the  discoveries  they  had  made. 

After  tliis  they  sailed  together  to  Holland.  Barcnthz  arrived  at  Amsterdam  on  the 
wxtecnth  of  September  with  the  yacht  he  hail  coraluctcd,  and  a  sea-cow  of  prodigious 
size,  which  liad  been  killed  on  a  bank  of  ice. 


r 


SECOND  VOYAGE  OF  THE  DUTCH  AND  ZEA^ANT>ERS,  BY  THE  NORTH,  ALONG 
THE  COASTS  OF  NORWAY,  MOSCOVY,  AND  TARTARY,  IN  ORDER  TO  REACH 
CATHAY  AND  CHINA. 

THESE  vessels  having  returned  in  the  autumn,  reported  that  there  were  hopes  of 
finding  a  passage  by  the  strait  of  Nassau.  The  crews  of  the  vessels  of  Zealand  and  En- 
chuisen  were  of  this  opinion,  which  was  strongly  supported  by  John  Hugues  of  Lin. 
schooten,  who  had  performed  the  voyage  in  quality  of  steward. 

This  opimon  inciiir^'d  the  states  general  and  the  prince  of  Orange  again  to  equip 
some  vessels  for  the  following  spring,  not  only  in  nrder  to  make  discoveries,  and  as  it 
were  sound  the  passage,  as  they  harl  already  done,  ?)ut  they  were  also  to  carry  merchandi' ''. 
The  merchants  had  tlic  liberty  of  sending  what  goods  they  phased,  with  persons  to  nc- 
gociate  for  them  in  the  places  they  sliould  land  ;  and  they  were  exempted  from  the  taxes 
on  exports,  and  all  custom-house  duticH. 

Peter  Plancius,  the  celebrated  co8mog/a|<li(.i,  wan  one  of  those  entrusted  with  the  care 
and  conduct  of  this  second  voyage.  It  was  lie  wlui  prescribed  the  route,  and  wlio  indi- 
cated the  situations  of  Tartaiy,  Cathay,  and  China,  tiiif  to  the  present  day  we  have 
not  been  enabled  to  judge  whether  Ui.  wm  «<  curate  at  nf.'t,  since  the  three  voyages  which 
liave  been  undertaken  to  oroceed  by  Ih^  nnilli  In  il>ri«e  M/ii|irries  have  failed  of  success, 
and  the  routes  presciibfl  by  him  were  nol  I  m  I  Many  accidents  occurred,  and 
there  were  inconveniences  wljj<. Ii  if/e  short nt-s  ,/   I     time  would  not  permit  to  remedy. 

Seven  vessels  were  therefore  equl|j|jHl  i/i  IhHh:   |  }   ^tdf^r  of  the  states  gentr.il  and 
the  prince  of  Orange,  in  ordt/  to  pass  by  the  Wi 
China.    There  were  two  from  /Un  <     ' 
and  one  from  Rotterdam :  wx  were  laden  uilh  ;.! 
and  merchants  were  appointed  to  nefTn<in(f>  »)Riri 

The  seventh,  whicli  was  a  yacli  I  n/ders  to  return  with  tidings  of  the  six 

others,  when  they  should  have  doubled  (  mjm  labin,  which  they  conceived  to  be  the 
farthest  point  of  Tartnry,  or  at  least  when  tliej  Ik tiild  be  so  far  advanced  that  they  might 
direct  their  course  towaitl  the  south,  djidhai'e  nothing  more  to  dread  from  the  ice. 

The  same  William  Barentsz  was  again  commander  and  pilot  of  the  latest  of  the  two 
vessels  from  Amsterdam ;  and  James  Heeniskerk,  who  was  appointed  steward,  b  that 
Heemskerk  who  twelve  years  ufterf  mat  is  to  say,  in  1607,  acquired  so  gieat  a  reputadon 
in  a  celebrated  naval  combat  which  took  place  in  the  bay,  and  under  the  cannon  of  the 
fortress  of  Gibraltar.  Gerard  de  Veer  also  embarked  in  the  same  vessel ;  ind  it  is  irom 
his  journal  that  the  present  relation  is  publi^ed. 

They  left  the  Texel  on  the  jnd  of  June  1695,  at  sun-rise,  and  on  the  fourteenth 
were  in  sight  of  Norway.  On  tiie  twenty -second,  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  they  saw  by 
the  head  of  the  ship  a  large  whale  aaleep :  it  awoke  at  the  ncpe  of  the  ship's  ^vay  and  the 


i|.  fl 


Ci 


pil  towards  Cathay  and 
'    two  from  Enchuisen, 
iiercluuidise,  and  with  money, 


^    ,( 


T' 


,,*i..^- 


86 


SKCOM)  \OYA«r  01-  TIIK  ULTCIf 


shouts  of  the  crew,  and  tims  escupcd,  otlicrwiiic  the  vessel  would  incvitubly  have  passed 
over  it. 

Oil  the  fourth  of  Auf^ist  the  vice-admiral,  who  was  n  little  way  Ijefoitr,  struck  on  a 
rock ;  hut  the  weather  was  so  favoural)le  that  he  relieved  himself  without  diiliculty. 
The  accident  of  this  vessel  was  a  warning  to  the  others  to  avoid  the  same  r»K^k.  On  the 
sixth  the  same  vessel  of  the  vice-admiral  and  that  of  Barents/  ran  foul  of  each  other, 
ruid  were  much  damaged.  On  tlie  seventh  they  fell  in  with  a  vessel  from  Knchuisen, 
coming  from  the  White  Sea. 

On  the  fourteenth  the  altitude  was  tikcn,  and  they  found  themselves  in  latitude  70°  47'. 
On  the  eighteenth  they  observed  two  islands,  to  which  the  vessels  from  KnchuiM-u  i^ave 
the  names  of  Prince  Maurice,  and  Count  Frederic  his  brother.  On  the  same  day,  at 
six  in  the  evening,  they  discovered  Nassau  Strait,  which  bore  five  leagues  E.  N.  K. 

From  the  latitude  of  70°  to  the  strait,  ihcy  constantly  sailed  through  fragments  of 
ice  ;  but  the  channel,  which  is  situated  exactly  lx.'tween  the  cape  of  Idols  and  the  land 
of  the  Samoiedes,  was  so  full,  that  it  seemed  imjwssible  to  iienetrate  there  :  they  therefore 
determined  to  enter  the  bay,  which  they  named  Train  Bay,  Ixicause  they  there  found 
a  great  quantity  of  train-oil.  This  bay  is  safe ;  a  ship  is  there  protected  from  the  banks 
of  ice,  and  from  almost  every  wind,  and  it  may  be  entered  to  any  distance  in  five,  four, 
and  three  fathoms  of  water,  on  a  sound  bottom  :  hut  it  is  deeper  on  the  eastern  side. 

On  the  twenty-first  of  August  fifiy  peisuns  landed  in  order  to  reconnoitre  the  country. 
When  they  had  proceeded  two  leagues,  they  found  several  sledges  laden  with  furs,  train- 
oil,  and  other  such  merchandise  :  they  also  found  traces  of  men  and  rein-deer,  and  they 
were  of  opinion  that  there  were  men  dwelling  at  no  great  distance,  or  at  least  that  they 
frequented  the  place  ;  besides,  tlie  idols  which  they  observed  on  the  cape  farther  con- 
firmed  them  in  this  idea. 

Penetrating  afterwards  farther  into  the  countiy,  they  were  in  hopes  of  meeting  at  last 
with  houses  and  men,  who  might  inform  them  of  the  state  of  the  sea,  and  the  navigation 
in  those  parts ;  but  notwithstanding  theilr  pains  and  care  they  discovered  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other. 

In  the  mean  time  some  of  them  advancing  to  the  S.  E.  towards  the  shore,  discovered 
a  practicable  path  in  the  marshes ;  for  on  entering  into  the  water  up  to  the  middle  of 
the,  leg  they  found  a  sound  bottom,  and  in  other  places  less  deep,  the  water  was  only 
above  the  shoe. 

When  they  had  arrived  at  the  sea  shore  they  began  to  rejoice,  imagining  they  had 
discovered  a  passage,  for  they  saw  so  little  ice  that  they  were  in  hopes  of  bemg  able  to 
pierce  through;  they  therefore  returned  in  the  evening  on  boat  l^  and  communicated 
this  intelligence  :  the  master  had  also  sent  a  yacht  with  oars  to  observe  if  the  sea  of  Tar- 
tary  was  open.  The  vessel  not  being  able  to  enter  that  sea  on  account  of  the  ice,  re- 
pdb«d  to  Cape  Cross,  where  the  crew  left  it,  and  proceeded  by  land  to  Twist-hoek,  or 
Cape  Dispute ;  •^there  they  perceii'ed  that  the  ice  of  the  sea  of  Tartary  was  in  great  quan> 
tities  along  the  coast  of  Russia,  and  the  point  of  Weigats. 

On  the  twenty-third  day  oC the  same  month  of  ^gust  they  fell  in  with  a  bark  from 
Pitzora,  constructed  of  the  baiks  of  trees  sewed  together,  and  which  was  dispatched  to 
the  north  tO;  seek  for  the  teeth  of  sea.cows,  train-oil,  and  geese,  in  order  to  lade  some 
Russian  vessels  which  were  to  come  by  the  Weigats. 

On  being  spoken  to,  they  answered,  that  those  vessels  were  to  come  round  by  the  sea 
of  Tartary,  and  pass  beybnd  the  river  Obi,  to  go  to  winter  at  Ugolita,  a  place  in  Tar- 
tar}',  as  they  were  accustomed  to  do  every  year :  they  also  said  diat  the  oudet  from  the 
strait  would  not  be  completely  closed  up  before  two  months  or  two  mot.ths  and  a  half; 


TO  TIIK  NORTH  (»F  Kl  UttVV.  fff 

but  timt  then  it  would  he  po't'.ibic  to  proceed  to  Tartury  on  the  ice,  by  the  »tu  which 
they  nunjcd  tlic  sea  of  Marmora. 

On  the  twenty  lifth  ol"  August  the  Dutch  rclurnal  tt)  the  bark,  where  they  were  re- 
ccivcdby  the  KussianHwith  murks  of  IVieiulsliip,  which  they  did  not  fail  to  return.  The 
Uusiiiuns,  whtj  hud  u  great  many  fat  geeh,c,  uiaile  tlicni  a  present  ol*  eight ;  and  tht-  Dutch 
having  entreated  that  some  of  their  company  would  go  to  their  ship,  ^<  vcn  followed 
them. 

When  they  were  arrived,  they  testified  their  s(frprise  and  admiration  at  the  hi|j?ht  of 
so  large  a  vessel,  and  considering  the  manner  and  orcUr  with  which  it  was  ejpiipiKd, 
they  examined  it  with  curiosity  on  all  sides  :  they  were  afterwartls  pivscnted  with  meat, 
butter,  and  cheese,  which  they  would  not  taste,  because  it  was  a  last  day  with  thcni ;  but 
they  ate  voraciously  of  pickled  hening,  swallowing  it  whole  with  the  head  aiid  tail. 
They  also  made  them  a  present  of  u  trough  full,  for  which  they  shewed  much  gratitude  ; 
tht-v'  tlien  carried  them  back  with  the  yacht  to  Tnmc  Hay. 

On  the  thirty. first  of  Aug'  st  Barentsz  sailed  along  th"'  northern  coast  of  Welgats, 
where  they  found  some  of  duyac  men  called  Samoiedes,  and  which  aie  regarded  as  sa- 
vages, though  they  are  not  absolutely  so ;  for  the  Dutch  having  penetrated  a  league 
into  the  country,  and  having  met  with  twenty  of  them,  had  some  conununication.  It  it* 
true  there  was  sf)  great  a  mist  that  they  did  not  perceive  the  Dutch  ;  and  when  die  latter 
'discovered  them  3 icy  were  already  very  near,  and  beheld  them  in  two  companies. 

The  interpreter  being  detached,  s»nd  havinfir  adviuiccd  in  order  to  speak  to  them,  one 
of  the  Samoit-des  also  alvanccd,  and  approaching  he  drew  an  arrow  from  his  quiver, 
threatenuig  to  kill  the  intcqireter.  The  latter  having  no  arms  was  much  alarmed,  and 
cried  out  in  i'  Rtissian  language,  Do  not  shoot,  we  are  friends.  The  Samoiedc  imme- 
diately  laid  do  his  bow  ud  arrow,  and  signified  that  he  was  willing  to  dis(;ourse.  The 
interpreter  liaviu(^  s;\ida  second  time,  IVt  nrc friends :  IVelU  said  he,  then  you  are  wet' 
come :  and  afterwards  tfiey  sauted  each  othtr,  by  inclining  the  head  to  the  ground,  after 
the  Russian  manner.  j« 

The  interprtner  having  asked  some  questions  conreniing  the  state  and  situation  of  tlic 
country  and  s.  a  which  they  observed  oo  the  east,  after  sainng  Uirough  the  straits  of  the 
Weigats ;  he  answered,  that  when  tl|e\  should  have  passed  a  point  which  was  at  the  dis- 
tanee  ofaboutfiv«e  days  journey,  and  wltich  he  infUcated  to  lie  to  the  N.  E.  ihejr  would 
meet  with  a  great  sea  to  tiie  S.  E.  adding  that  tie  was  particularly  acquainted  with  thht, 
one  of  his  coMfMHiions  having  been  sent  there  from  their  king  with  troops  under  hb 
command. 

The  Samoiedes  ar*  clothed  in  the  manner  in  which  savages  are  represented ;  and  in 
♦iuj.  v/'.  ticular  they  may  be  called  savq|;es :  but  on  no  other  accoimt  do  they  merit  the 
uppclittuon,  for  they  exhilil  a  considerable  portion  of  good  sense    i  their  behaviour.     * 

The  r  clothing  consists  of  skins  of  rein-deer,  coit^ring  them  \  <m.  head  to  foot,  the 
chiefs  excepted,  who  cover  the  head*  with  some  coloiired  pieces  lined  with  fur ;  the 
others  have  caps  of  rein^deer  skin,  the  hair  being  oi\  jthe  outside,  sitti^  ^  very  close  about 
the  head.  They  wear  the  hair  long,  tied  in  a  single  tress,  ^nd  hang'uig  'lown  their  backs 
over  their  garments. 

They  are  of  small  stature,  with  broad  and  flat  faces,  small  eyes,  short  .'"gs,  with  the 
knees  bending  out ;  they  nui  swiftly,  and  leap  very  well :  they  place  litt;  confidence 
in  other  nations,  of  which  the  following  are  proofs. 

Though  the  Dutch  had  testified  much  confidehcc  and  friendship  in  this  first  int^^rview, 
yet  having  returned,  on  the  first  of  September,  a  second  time  to  land,  and  requested  to 
examme  one  of  their  bows,  they  refused,  and  appeared  displeasec. 


(I 


88 


HKCONO  VOVACiK  OF  TIIF,  DUTCH 


The  king  had  p;iiards  who  went  everywhere,  and  ciircfully  watched  wliat  Imppcncd, 
particularly  obterving  the  salcH  und  the  piirchnserx.  One  of  the  Dutch  huving  up. 
prouched  a  little  nearer  to  him  than  the  others,  and  luivin^r  Huluted  him  after  the  mtmner 
of  the  country,  nrcsented  him  with  Home  bincuit,  which  the  kinfr  t(x>k  with  much  civi* 
Uty,  and  immediutcly  iK-gan  to  eat  it ;  but  while  eating,  he  looked  around,  and  altcn* 
tivilv  ot)»erved  what  they  were  doing. 

'1  iuir  sledges  are  always  ready,  and  are  drawn  hy  n  a*in-dccr  or  two,  which  run  so 
iwiftly,  that  thev  carry  a  man  or  two  with  greater  celerity  than  honest  could  do. 

One  of  die  Dutch  having  fired  his  gun  towards  the  sea,  they  were  so  terrified  that 
they  ran  and  jimipi-d  like  madmen  :  tliey  were  (Mcified,  however,  when  they  understood 
no  harm  was  mtcntled  to  them.  The  Dutch  gave  them  to  understand  that  those  were 
the  arms  they  used  instead  of  bows. 

But  in  order  to  make  them  understand  the  power  nnd  use  of  this  kind  of  arms,  one 
of  the  Dutch  took  a  flat  stone,  as  large  as  the  half  of  the  palm  of  the  hand,  and  placed  it 
at  a  distance  on  an  eminence.  The  Samoiedes,  who  comprchcnded  by  the  signs  which 
were  made  tliat  he  wan  atx)ut  to  perform  something  singular,  assembled  to  the  number 
of  about  lifty  or  sixty,  and  placed  themselves  near  the  stone  :  the  Hollander  fired,  and 
having  hit  the  mark,  Uic  stone  was  broken  to  pieces,  at  which  the  spectators  evinced  u. 
great  astonishment. 

At  length  they  parted  with  signs  of  amity  on  both  sidr^  and  when  the  Dutch  were  in 
their  yaclit,  they  once  more  took  off  th<'ir  cap»*  and  srninde'd  the  trumpets ;  to  which  the 
SamoiedcM  liaving  answered  in  their  manner,  they  returned  to  their  sledges  and  seated 
themselves. 

A  litde  time  afterwards  they  saw  one  of  them  return  to  the  shore  to  reclaim  a  statue, 
of  very  rude  carving,  which  one  of  the  Dutch  had  carried  away.  He  came  on  board 
the  yacht,  and-lMiving  seen  the  statue,  signified  to  them  that  they  had  been  guilty  of  a 
very  bad  action  in  taking  it  away.  They  returned  it  to  htm,  and  it  was  first  placed  on 
un  eminence  near  the  shore,  from  which  it  tms  afterwards  carried  away  in  a  sledge. 

It  would  ap])ear  from  this  and  many  other  occasions  that  these  stitues  arc  the  gods  of 
the  Samoiedes.  Near  a  hundred  \vcre  also  found  on  the  {mint  of  Weigats,  which  had 
been  named  the  Cape  of  Idols,  not  better  finished  than  the  other :  they  were  a  littk; 
rounded  at  the  top,  and  fan  the  middle  was  a  small  elevation  serving  for  a  nose,  with  two 
lit^e  holes  above  for  the  eyes,  and  an6ther  under  the  nose  fbr  the  nioudi.  A  quantity  of 
ashes  and  bones  of  rein-deer  were  observed  before  them,  which  shewed  tliat  the  Sa- 
moiedes had  oficred  sacrifices  to  them. 

#  The  Dutch  hs^ving  set  sail  on  the  second  of  September,  two  hours  before  suiVrise, 
found  themselves  at  sunset  at  the  distance  of  a  les^e  from  Tvdst-hoek,  to  die  east  of  that 
cape ;  and  sailing  north  till  noon,  performed  about  mx  leagHts  of  their  course.  They 
nilerwardn  met  widi  so  nuich  ice,  die  wind  wa-)  so  changeable,  and  there  arose  so  thick  a 
fog,  that  they  were  under  the  necessity  of  making  short  tacks ;  and  at  kngth  they  drifted 
to  the  east  of  the  Isle  of  the  States,^vithin  musket  shot  of  the  land. 

They  landed  on  the  islan4t  where  they  met  with  a  great  quantity'  of  hares,  many  of 
which  they  killed.  On  the  sixth  of  September  some  sailors  again  landed  to  seek  for  a 
certain  sort  of  stone,  a  species  of  diamond,  of  which  a  sufficient  quantity  is  also  foimd 
in  the  Isle  of  the  States.  During  this  search  two  of  the  sailors  sleeping  by  one  another, 
a  white  bear,  very  lean,  approached  them  softly,  and  seized  one  by  tlie  nape  of  the  neck. 
The  sailor,  not  knowing  what  it  was,  cried  out,  who  has  seized  me  thus  behind  ?  His 
comj^nion  having  raised  his  head  said.  Holloa !  my  dear  friend,  it  is  a  bear ;  and  imme- 
diately rising  ran  away.     The  bear  bit  the  unfortunate  man  in  several  parts  of  the  head, 


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TO  THE  NORTH  OF  CUKOPK. 


89 


and  havinfr  quite  mangled  it,  sucked  the  blood.  The  rest  of  die  persons  who  were  on 
shore,  to  tne  number  of  twenty,  immediately  ran  with  their  firelocks  and  pikes,  and  found 
the  bear  devouring  the  body,  which,  on  '  cicing  them,  ran  towards  them  with  incrcdiblc 
fury,  threw  himself  ui)on  one  of  them,  carried  liim  away,  and  tore  him  to  pieces,  which 
so  terrified  them  that  they  all  fled. 

Those  who  remained  in  the  vessel  and  the  yacht,  seeing  them  thus  flee  and  return 
towards  the  shore,  jumped  into  the  boats  and  rowed  with  all  their  force  to  receive  them. 
When  they  had  landed  and  beheld  this  lamentable  spectacle,  they  encouraged  the  others 
to  return  with  them  to  the  combat,  that  all  together  might  attack  this  ferocious 
animal ;  but  there  were  some  who  could  not  be  induced  to  it.  Our  companions  arc- 
dead,  said  they,  we  cannot  preserve  their  lives ;  if  wc  could  still  have  this  hope,  we  would 
go  with  as  much  ardour  as  you  to  deliver  diem :  but  there  is  nothing  to  be  aspired  at, 
but  a  victory  from  which  will  accnie  neither  honour  nor  advantage,  and  for  whicli  we 
must  expose  ourselves  to  a  frightful  danger.  We  can  either  kill  or  take  the  bear,  and 
probably  this  will  happen,  but  it  will  cost  the  life  of  one  of  us  ;  and  the  glory  of  the  cap- 
ture or  death  of  this  animal  ought  not  to  be  sought  at  this  price. 

Notwithstanding  these  reasons  three  of  them  advanced  a  little,  while  the  bear  continued 
to  devour  his  prey,  without  disturbing  himself  at  the  sight  of  thirty  men  together,  so 
near  him.  THese  three  were  Cornelius  Jacobs,  pilot,  and  Hans  Van  Uftelen,  purser  of 
the  vessel  of  Barentsz,  and  William  Gysen,  pilot  of  the  yacht. 

The  two  pilots  having  fired  three  times  without  hitting  thv.  animal,  the  purser  ad- 
vanced  a  little  farther  and  shot  the  bear  in  the  head  close  by  the  eye,  which  did  not 
cause  him  to  quit  his  prey ;  but  holding  the  body  always  by  the  neck  which  he  was  de- 
vouring, carried  it  away  as  yet  quite  entire.  Nevertheless  they  then  perceived  that  he 
began  himself  to  totter,  and  the  purser  going  towards  him  with  a  Scotchman,  they  gave 
him  several  sabre  wounds,  and  but  him  to  pieces,  without  his 'abandoning  his  prey.  At 
length  the  pilot  Gysen  having  ^ven  him  a  violent  blow  with  the  butt  end  of  his  fire- 
lock on  the  muzzle,  which  brought  him  to  the  ground,  the  purser  leaped  upon  him 
and  cut  his  throat.  The  two  bodies  half  devoured  were  interred  in  the  isle  of  the  States, 
and  the  skin  of  the  bear  was  carried  to  ^.msterdam. 

On  the  ninth  of  September  they  again  set  sail,  but  they  met  with  so  great  a  quantity 
of  ice  banks,  which  struck  against  die  vessel,  that  they  were  not  able  to  pass,  and  were 
under  the  necessity  of  returning  in  the  evening,  and  anchoring  in  the  same  place  from 
which  theyhad  set  sail.  The  admiral  and  the  yacht  of  Rotterdam  touched  on  the 
rocks,  which  however,  did  them  no  damage. 

On  the  eleventh  of  the  same  month  all  the  vesseb  again  sailed  towards  the  sea  of  Tar- 
tary,  without  being  able  to  advance  farther  than  before,  on  account  of  the  ice :  thus  they 
retiuTied  to  the  Weigats,  and  steered  towards  the  cape  of  tlie  Crosses.  On  the  four- 
teenth the  weather  tecame  a  littfe  finer,  the  wind  veered^to  the  N.  W.  and  the  currents 
set  in  with  rapidity  from  tlte  sea  of  Tartary.  ^ 

On  the  same  day  they  crossed  over  from  the  other^ide  ^  the  Weigats  to  the  main 
land,  in  order  to  sound  me  channel,  and  pierced  through  the  extremity  of  the  gulf  behind 
the  Isle  of  the  Tsui,  where  they  found  a  little  wooden  house  and  a  large  channel.  On  the 
following  morning  theyliauled  their  anchors  on  board,  and  raised  their  topmasts,  under 
the  idea  of  endeavouring  a  second  time  to  continue  their  voyage ;  but  the  admiral,  not 
being  of  this  opinion,  remained  at  anchor. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twenty-fifth  they  saw  the  ice  enter  into  the  Weigats,  on  the 
eastern  side,  so  that  they  were  constrained  to  weigh  anchor,  and  to  depart  from  the  strait 
by  the  west,  in  order  to  direct  their  course  homewards.    On  the  thirtieth  the  fleet  was 

vot.  I, 


N 


1i- 


00 


THIRD  VOYAGE  OP  THE  DUTCH 


at  the  island  named  Wardhuys,  and  it  remained  there  at  anchor  until  the  tenth  of  Octo- 
ber, when  it  continued  its  course ;  and  on  the  eighteenth  of  November  entered  the 
Meusc,  after  a  voyage  of  four  months  and  sixteen  days. 


THIRD  VOYAGE  OF  THE  DUTCH  AND  ZEALANDERS,  BY  THE  NORTH,  ALONG 
NORWAY,  MOSCOVY,  AND  TARTARY,  TO  PASS  TO  THE  KINGDOMS  OF  CATHAY 
AND  CHINA,  BY  PERMISSION  OF  THE  COUNCIL  OF  THE  CITY  OF  AMSTER- 
DAM, 1596. 

AFTER  these  two  voyages,  which  had  failed  of  the  desired  success,  the  idea  of  un- 
dertaking a  third  was  not  relinquished;  but  their  high  mightinesses  were  unwilling  to 
countenttiice  the  attempt.  Nevertheless  it  was  decreed,  that  if  there  were  individuals, 
cities,  or  corporations,  willing  to  bear  the  expences  of  the  voyage,  they  would  not  be 
prevented  ;  and  that  if  they  could  furnish  sufficient  proofs  of  having  succeeded,  and 
passed,  the  state  would  make  a  considerable  recompense  in  money,  and  the  sum  was 
stipulated. 

The  council  of  the  city  of  Amsterdam,  which  was  not  discouraged,  ordered  two 
vessels  to  be  equipped,  at  the  commencement  of  the  year  1596,  and  the  crews  engaged 
under  two  conditions,  which  were,  that  they  should  be  paid  according  to  a  certain  rate,  if 
they  returned  without  having  succeeded ;  or  according  to  another  certain  rate,  if  they 
accomplished  their  design.  The  recompense  to  be  made  in  the  latter  case  was  consi- 
derable. They  took  as  few  mairied  persons  as  posable,  lest  their  affection  for  their 
families  should  occasion  them  to  think  too  much  of  return. 

The  two  vessels  were  ready  to  sail  at  the  beginning  of  May.  James  Heemskerk  was 
appointed  master  and  steward,  as  before,  and  William  Barentsz  first  pilot  of  one,  and 
John  Cornelisz  Ryp  was  appointed  steward  of  the  other. 

On  the  eighteenth  of  May  they  departed  from  Vlie,  and  on  the  twenty. second  were 
ill  sight  of  Hitlandt  of  Faverhill.*  On  the  thirtieth  they  found  themselves  in  latitude 
69°  24',  and  on  the  first  of  June  they  experienced  no  night. 

On  the  second  of  June,  at  half  past  ten  in  the  morning,  they  saw  a  surprising  pheno- 
menon in  the  heavens.  On  each  side  of  the  sun  appeared  a  mock  sun,  with  a  rainbow 
passing  through  tliese  three  suns.  There  were  besides  two  other  rainbows,  one  surround- 
ing the  suns,  the  other  crossing  the  true  sun,  the  lowest  part  of  which  was  elevated  28° 
above  the  horizon.  At  noon  they  observed  the  altitude  with  the  astrolabe,  and  found 
themselves  in  latitude  71°. 

The  vessel  of  John  Cornelisz  being  always  to  windward  of  that  of  WiUiam  Barentsz, 
without  coming  up  to  him,  induced  Barentsz  to  stand  to  the  N.  E.  in  order  to  come  to 
the  wind  and  join  him,  thinking  that  he  lay  too  much  to  the  west ;  and  indeed  this  ap. 
peared  in  the  end.  In  the  evening,  when  they  had  joined,  Barentsz  told  him  they  lay 
too  much  to  westward,  and  that  he  must  bear  to  the  east,  Cornelisz  answered,  that  hie 
did  not  wish  to  enter  the  straits  of  Weigats. 

They  then  sailed  N.  E.  and  by  N.  and  were  nearly  sixty  leagues  in  the  main  sea. 
Barentsz  was  of  opinion  that  they  should  rather  bear  to  the  E.  N.  E.  than  to  the  N.  N.  E. 
on  account  of  their  having  drifted  so  much  to  the  west.  He  even  thought  that  they 
should  steer  to  the  east,  at  least  for  some  time,  and  until  they  had  recovered  what  they  had 

•  Probably  FaverliUl  in  Shetland.  *      '  '  " 


TO  TIIF,  NORTH  OF  V'.UllOPr..  9[ 

lost.  But  Cornelisz  would  not  yield  to  these  reasons  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  j)ci  listed  in 
the  desif:fn  of  always  running  in  a  N.  N.  E.  direction,  convinced  that  if  they  bore  to  the 
cast  th'jy  would  enter  the  Weigats.  Barentsz  was  finally  compelled  to  join  him,  and 
steer  N.  E.  and  by  N.  whereas  they  should  have  stood  to  the  N.  E.  and  even  have 
steered  more  to  the  E. 

On  die  fifth  of  June  they  began  to  see  ice,  which  so  surprised  them  tliat  they  imagined 
at  first  they  saw  swans,  and  those  on  deck  cried  out  they  beheld  a  quantity  swimming. 
The  others  who  were  below  having  ascended  to  the  ciuarter  deck,  and  considered  thr 
tiling  with  a  calmer  eye,  told  them  that  the  swans  were  just  converted  into  flukes  of  ice  : 
in  fact,  <hey  were  floating  banks  of  ice  which  had  been  detached.  At  midnight  they 
came  up  with  this  ice,  the  sun  then  being  elevated  al)out  a  degree  above  the  horizon  to 
the  north. 

On  the  sevendi  they  were  in  latitude  74°,  sailing  along  the  ice,  as  if  running  between 
two  shores  :  the  water  was  as  green  as  grass,  and  they  presumed  they  were  near  Green- 
land.     In  the  mean  time  the  ice  thickened  as  they  advanced. 

On  the  ninth  they  discovered  an  island,  lying  in  latitude  74°  30',  which  appeared  to 
ihem  to  be  about  five  ieagties  in  Icngdi.  On  the  eleventh  they  landed,  and  found  a  quan- 
tity of  sea-gulls'  eggs.  They  afterwards  ascended  a  mountain,  so  steep  that  the  sides 
seemed  almost  perpendicular,  from  which  they  descended  with  the  gr(;atest  difficulty  and 
diinger,  not  being  able  to  look  down  without  dismay,  and  beholding  nothing  but  rugged 
points  of  rocks,  where  they  would  have  been  diished  to  pieces  if  they  had  fallen  or  slipped. 
They  therefore  descended  genUy,  some  on  their  knees,  some  sliding,  without  meeting 
any  accident,  although  Barentsz,  who  remained  in  the  shallop,  observing  them,  was  in 
doubt  if  he  should  ever  behold  them  again  alive. 

On  the  morning  of  \i\e  twelfth  they  suw  a  white  bear,  and  directed  the  shallop  after 
him,  to  endeavour  to  throw  a  strong  noose  about  his  neck ;  but  they  found  him  so 
furious,  that  they  dared  not  attempt  it.  John  Cornelisz  having  sent  a  reinforcement 
of  men  and  arms,  they  all  attacked  him  together :  the  combat  lasted  four  glasses,  or 
two  hours,  and  in  the  end  they  cut  off  his  head  with  a  hatchet.  He  was  carried  on 
board  the  vessel  of  Cornelisz,  where  he  was  flayed  :  the  skin  was  twelve  feet  long  :  part 
of  his  flesh  was  eaten,  but  was  not  found  good.  This  incident  induced  them  to  name 
the  island  Beeren-eilandt,  or  the  isle  of  Bears. 

On  the  thirteenth  they  weighed  anchor,  and  while  sailing  |Terceived  towards  the 
evening  something  very  large  floating  on  the  water :  they  imagined  at  first  it  was  a 
vessel,  but  approaching  they  found  it  to  be  a  dead  whale,  upon  which  were  a  great 
number  of  sea-gulls. 

On  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  they  met  with  much  ice,  through  which  having 
passed,  they  came  to  the  southern  point  of  the  island,  and  exerted  every  efl'ort  to  double 
It,  without  being  able  to  succeed. 

On  the  nineteenth  they  again  discovered  land,  and  having  observed  the  altitude, 
found  themselves  in  latitude  80°  11'.  The  country  in  sight  was  of  great  extent,  which 
they  coasted,  running  westward  to  latitude  79°  30',  where  they  met  with  a  good  road; 
but  they  could  not  approach  nearer  on  account  of^  a  N.  E.  wind,  which  came  directly 
from  the  land,  the  bay  stretching  into  the  sea  N.  and  S. 

On  the  twenty -first  they  cast  anchor  in  sight  of  land,  in  eighteen  fathoms  of  water, 
and  the  crew  of  iBarentsz  went  with  that  of  Cornelisz  to  seek  for  ballast  on  the  western 
coast.  As  they  were  returning  on  board  a  white  bear  entered  into  the  water,  and  swam 
towards  their  vessel.  Leaving  the  labour  of  the  ballast,  they  threw  themselves  into 
the  shallop  and  directed  it  towards  the  bear,  who  swan\,  more  than  a  league  into  the  sea. 


l\ 


■■:..■  n 


02 


TlimU  VOYAGE  OF  THE  DUTCH 


V*   ii 


They  follc'tvcd  him  with  three  bhaUops  and  small  boats :  most  of  the  arms  with  which  they 
struck  him  broke  on  hb  body.  Once  also,  on  his  side,  he  darted  his  paws  with  so  great  a 
force  agtiinst  the  stem  of  one  of  the  boats,  that  if  he  had  darted  agiiinst  die  middle  of  the 
vessel  in  the  same  manner,  there  is  every  appearance  he  would  have  overset  it.  At  last 
they  killed  him  and  carried  him  on  board  :  his  skin  was  thirteen  feet  in  length. 

After  this  affair  they  siiiled  in  a  shallop  for  more  than  a  league  tovvanls  the  land, 
where  they  met  with  a  good  port,  sixteen,  twelve,  and  ten  feet  in  depth ;  and  entering 
farther  towards  the  east,  they  saw  two  islands  extending  eastward  into  the  sea.  On  the 
western  side  was  a  very  large  gulf,  and  another  isle  in  the  centre,  having  sailed  towards 
ivhich  they  landed^  and  found  plenty  of  wild  geese,  and  the  geese  themselves  in  their 
nests,  which  flew  away  on  seeing  diem  :  they  killed  one,  which  they  dressed  with  some 
cgp. 

riiey  were  of  the  same  si)ecies  which  come  every  year  in  such  great  flocks  into  Hol- 
land, and  especially  to  Wieringcn,  in  the  Zuiderzee,  between  North  Holland  and  Fries- 
land,  it  not  having  been  known  before  where  Uiey  went  to  lay.  Some  authors  had  asserted 
that  those  eggs  were  the  fruit  of  certain  trees  in  Scotland,  planted  on  the  sea  shore,  and 
that  those  which  fell  to  the  ground  broke  to  pieces,  while  those  which  fell  into  the  sea 
were  immediately  hatched ;  and  that  the  little  goslings  swam  as  soon  as  they  wer  bom. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  pliace  of  the  nests  of  these  geese  should  be  unknown, 
since  it  does  not  appear  that  any  person  till  then  had  ever  sailed  as  far  as  latitude  80°, 
nor  that  this  counuy  liad  ever  been  discovCi'ed. 

It  should  be  remarked,  that  although  this  island,  wluch  these  navigators  conceived  to 
be  Greenland,  lies  in  latitude  80°,  and  even  still  higher,  there  is  neverdieless  verdure  and 
grass,  and  beasts  of  pasture,  as  rein-deer  and  other  animals ;  and  that  neither  herbs  nor 
verdure  exist  in  Novaya  Zemlia,  which  is  farther  distant  from  the  arctic  pole  by  four 
degrees,  and  where  are  only  seen  carnivorous  animals,  as  bears  and  foxes. 

*'  Thb  country,  which  the  author  of  the  journal  hei'e  followed  believed  to  be  Green- 
land, is  the  most  northern  country  which  has  been  d'iscovered  to  the  present  time. 
It  is  situated  between  Greenland,  which  depends  upon  Norway,  and  Novaya  Zemlia, 
which  belongs  to  Moscovy,  directly  by  the  side  of  Finmarch,  or  the  northern  part  of 
Norway.  This  island  extends,  at  least  accorduig  to  the  knowledjge  possessed  when  thb 
journal  was  published,  from  the  seventy-sixth  to  beyond  the  eightieth  degree,  and  conse- 
quendy  is  more  than  sixty  German  leagues  in  lengui. 

**  It  was  the  difference  of  opinion  between  Willbm  Barentsz  and  John  Comelbz, 
which  has  been  mentioned  above,  that  occasioned  the  discovery  of  the  western  coast  of 
the  islaund.  Since  that  time  Henry  Hudson,  an  Englishman,  has  also  sailed  jthere,  of 
whom  Hondius  relates  in  his  great  planbphere  that  he  met  with  a  coast  quite  covered 
with  ice  to  the  N.  W.  of  the  isle,  by  the  ladtude  of  between  eighty-one  and  eighty-two 
degrees. 

*•  Since  tliat  time  the  English  have  sailed  there  every  summer,  to  fetch  the  teeth  of 
the  sea-cow,  whale  fins,  and  the  blubber  of  the  same  fish.  This  fishery  was  first  under- 
taken by  the  Russian  company  at  London ;  but  the  Dutch,  French,  and  Biscayans  have 
since  also  sailed  there.  From  the  knowledge  we  have  of  that  country,  which  the  Eng- 
lish call  Greenland,  and  the  Dutch  Spilberg,  Spitsberg,  or  Spisberg,  we  have  designed 
a  map,*  which  is  here  annexed,  princip^ly  founded  on  the  map  of  John  Daniel,  of 
London. 

"  Tlus  island,  as  before  mentioned,  lies  between  latitude  76°,  and  ladtude  80°  N.  N.  W. 

**  This  map  is  now  very  antiquated  and  erroneous.       ,    •,,,,>,..      j    i 


-ill 


MW-fM-lk^ 


TO  THE  NORTH  OK  EUKOPE. 


93 


from  the  Isle  of  Bears,  which  is  beyond  Norway.  It  is  under  a  climate  which  the  ancients 
had  reason  to  believe  uninhabitable  on  account  of  its  cold.  There  is  no  country  in  the 
world  in  which  the  nights  are  shorter.  During  the  six  months  of  summer  the  light  never 
wholly  fails ;  and  during  two  months  of  the  six  months  of  winter,  when  the  sun  is  beyond 
the  line,  and  in  proportion  as  it  recedes,  the  days  arc  only  of  twelve,  ten,  eight,  mid 
finally  of  one  hour ;  it  docs  not  cease  when  it  is  at  the  lowest,  and  in  the  middle  of  this 
long  night,  to  rise  twelve  degrees  and  a  half  above  the  horizon,  that  is,  in  latitude  80°,  and 
during  the  twenty-four  hours  is  seen  the  light  of  day-break  ;  thus,  according  to  Ptolemy 
and  others,  the  dawn  may  appear,  when  the  sun  is  only  eighteen  degrees  under  tlic 
horizon. 

*'  But  although  die  day  is  of  such  length,  and  the  sun  shines  for  so  long  a  time,  with, 
out  intermission  in  this  rigorous  climate,  it  does  not  prevent  the  summer  from  being  the 
shortest  and  the  least  warm  of  all  the  countries  north  of  the  line.  The  ice  has  sometimes 
been  seen  so  thick  and  strong  on  the  thirteenth  of  June  along  the  coasts,  and  at  the  mouth 
of  the  harbours,  that  the  vessels  could  not  enter.  The  snow  itself,  which  always  remains 
in  certain  places,  had  melted  so  litde  in  others,  that  the  rein  dt-er  could  find  nothing  to 
graze  on,  and  were  become  perfectly  mengre.  v 

♦•  The  cause  of  this  excessive  cold  and  these  long  winters  is,  that  the  sun  never  rises 
higher  on  the  horizon  than  32°  20' :  thus  its  rays  strike  the  earth  obliquely ;  so  that 
only  glidmg  over  it,  instead  of  penetrating,  they  cannot  sufficiently  warm  it.  By  the  same 
reason,  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  not  of  sufficient  strength  to  dissipate  the  vapours  and  fogs 
which  rbe  from  the  earth,  and  which  remain  on  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  often  prevent- 
ing the  crews  of  the  vessels  from  seeing  farther  than  the  length  of  a  ship. 

**  It  is,  be»des,  by  the  same  principle  that  this  land,  of  which  to  the  present  time,  that 
is  to  say,  when  this  relation  was  published,  only  the  coasts  are  known,  appears  overspread 
with  high  mountains,  whose  summits  are  perpetually  covered  with  snow ;  and  that  in 
the  plains  which  intersect  them,  neither  trees,  bushes,  nor  fruits,  are  seen ;  of  verdure 
there  is  nothing  but  a  short  and  thick  moss,  of  a  yelloMdsh  colour,  through  which  shoot 
litde  blue  flowers.  Nevertheless  some  mariners  assert  that  they  liave  observed  a  green 
plant  like  h&y. 

"  The  ammals  which  are  seen  there  are  white  bears,  larger  than  oxen,  and  stags,  or 
rein-deer :  the  latter  feed  on  the  moss,  and  during  the  space  of  a  month  which  some 
vessels  remained  off  these  shon?s  they  were  observed  to  become  so  fat,  that  the  flesh  was 
excellent. 

"  They  ..ave  very  crooked  horns,  and  are  rather  smaller  than  stags:  they  are  unaccus- 
tomed to  the  sight  of  men,  as  may  be  concluded  from  what  has  been  said,  yet  are  not 
starded  at  seeing  them.  Sometimes  they  have  been  wounded  with  mnsquets,  and  have 
run  towards  those  who  fired,  as  if  to  seek  succour  or  refuge  in  their  arms,  and  struck 
them  so  violently  as  to  occasion  their  falling  to  the  ground. 

"  On  these  coasts  are  also  seen  white  and  gray  foxes,  and  even  black.  The  English 
have  found  horns,  which  the  connoisseurs  pretend  to  belong  to  the  unicorn.  Never- 
theless those  which  have  been  brought  to  Holland  have  not  disclosed  to  what  species  they 
belong. 

"  A  great  quantity  of  whales,  of  different  species,  resort  to  the  mouths  of  the  harbours, 
many  of  which  are  eighty  feet  long,  and  have  so  much  fat,  that  from  it  much  oil  is 
derived.  Some  have  no  fins  on  the  back  ;  but  at  the  mouth  have  pendants,  resembling 
great  beards,  sometimes  a  fathom  and  more  long.  Six  hundred  pieces  are  draw  from 
the  same  mouth :  they  are  situated  above,  and  ranged  like  the  teeth  of  a  comb,  in  the 
place  vrb&CG  other  fish  have  their  teeth,  and  there  are  only  those  above.    The  front  and 


ii 


r 


y 


,  riii^r- 


94 


THIRD  VOYACJE  OF  TUB  DUTCri 


back  ones  are  very  small,  so  that  in  general  they  do  not  reckon  on  a  greater  numl)cr 
than  four  huiidrtd.  It  is  the  only  considerable  profit  which  can  be  derived  from  this 
coast. 

*'  On  each  side  of  the  back  part  of  tlie  head  the  whales  have  large  fins,  whea-  they 
are  more  easily  struck  with  the  harpoon,  and  more  dangerously  wounded.  When  they 
are  wounded,  and  the  blood  runs  from  the  head,  they  force  the  water  and  blood  through 
the  vent  which  they  have  above  the  head  as  high  as  the  mast:  when  they  have  exhausted 
their  strength  by  struggling,  the  boats  approach,  and  throw  darts  on  their  head,  and  in 
the  aperture. 

"The  whales  have  a  thick  black  skin,  covered  with  a  black  cuticle,  and  smooth  as 
satin :  their  f(M)d  is  a  small  fish,  called  by  the  French  a  sea-flea,  and  which  is  not  so  large 
as  the  samphire  plant :  they  swim  with  the  mouth  open,  and  swallow  this  little  fish  while 
swimming,  shutting  their  mouth  as  soon  as  it  enters. 

"  There  are  also  white  whales,  which  are  of  little  value.  Whitings  are  also  found, 
but  in  small  quantity.  There  are  many  aquatic  birds,  and  particularly  sea-gulls,  which 
gather  on  dead  whales ;  two  kinds  of  divers ;  loms,  which  proixjrly  are  a  species  of 
parrot,  geese,  mallards,  ducks  which  lay  very  large  eggs,  and  a  great  (|uantity  of  wild 
geese. 

•'  A  litde  farther  norUi  are  found  sea-cows,  which  may  be  named  sea-elephants,  for 
they  much  resemble  the  elephant  by  the  size  of  the  body,  and  by  their  teeth  :  as  to  their 
skin,  though  it  be  very  thick,  and  that  some  have  been  seen  at  Amsterdam  weighing  four 
hundred  pounds,  it  is,  however,. not  esteemed,  because  it  is  unequal  and  foul.  They 
have  much  lard,  which  may  be  clarified  so  as  to  afford  oil.  When  they  see  another  cow 
of  their  species  which  is  dead,  they  assemble  in  great  numbers,  and  placing  themselves 
upon  it,  they  heat  it,  and  occasion  it  to  corrupt. 

"  At  five  leagues  still  farther  north,  where  are  channels  of  fresh  water,  there  are  seen 
marine  dogs,  of  the  same  nature  as  those  which  are  seen  in  these  provinces,  that  is  to  say, 
the  United  Provinces. 

"  This  is  all  the  knowledge  relative  to  the  state  of  this  country,  which  was  possessed  at 
the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  present  relation." 

On  the  twenty- third  of  June  a  part  of  the  crew  landed,  with  the  intention  of  observing 
the  variation  of  the  compass :  while  they  were  thus  occupied  a  white  bear  swam  towards 
the  vessel,  and  would  have  entered,  if  he  had  not  been  perceived.  They  fired  some  shot, 
when  the  bear  returned  to  the  ishmd  in  which  were  the  Jther  part  of  the  sailors.  Those 
who  remained  on  board  seeing  him  return,  sailed  immediately  towards  land,  and  shouted 
with  all  their  strength  to  warn  their  companions,  who  hearing  these  cries,  imagined  the 
vessel  had  struck  on  some  rock.  The  bear  itself  was  so  frightened,  that  it  took  another 
route  leading  from  the  island,  at  which  those  on  board  were  much  rejoiced,  for  their  com- 
panions had  no  arms. 

With  respect  to  the  variation  of  the  compass,  they  found  it  to  differ  16^.  On  the 
twenty.fourth  they  sailed,  and  approached  very  near  to  shore,  where  having  landed,  they 
found  two  teeth  of  the  sea-cow,  each  weighing  six  pounds,  and  also  another  small  one. 
On  the  twenty-fifth  they  sailed  along  the  coast,  in  79°  latitude,  and  having  discovered  a 
large  gulf,  they  entered  it,  and  advanced  about  ten  leagues ;  but  were  obliged  to  tack 
about  quickly,  in  order  to  depart,  on  account  of  contrary  winds. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  they  doubled  a  cape  lyin^  on  the  western  coast,  where  was  so 
great  a  quantity  of  birds,  that  Uiey  cast  themselves  m  great  flights  against  the  sails  of  the 
vessel. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  they  were  obliged  to  bear  off  from  the  land  on  account  of  the  ice, 
and  they  arrived  in  latitude  76°  50', 


^^mii~^.~^.  ~-- 


mrmarmkamm^^' 


TO  THE  NORTFI  OF  FJTHOnR. 


95 


On  the  first  of  July,  they  were  a^ain  in  sight  of  the  Iskitul  of  Boars,  whin  John 
Comclisz,  with  the  other  officers  of  his  vessel,  went  on  board  that  of  VVilllani  Barentsz, 
where  not  being  able  to  agree  as  to  the  route  they  should  take,  it  was  finally  settled  that 
each  should  steer  the  course  he  judged  proper.  In  con'se(juence  Curru Ti!<z,  following  his 
idea,  returned  again  to  latitude  80°,  thinking  he  should  be  able  to  pass  bj  the  c;ist  of  the 
lands  which  are  there,  and  he  then  steered  towards  the  north. 

Barentsz,  on  the  contrary,  pursued  a  southern  direction,  on  account  of  the  ice.  On 
the  eleventh  he  imagined  himself,  by  calculation,  to  lie  N.  and  S.  with  Candinous,  or 
Candnoes,  the  eastern  point  of  the  White  Sea,  which  remained  to  the  S.  and  he  bore 
to  the  S.  and  S.  and  by  E.  in  latitude  72°,  and  conceived  himself  to  Ix*  near  the  land 
of  sir  Hugh  Willoughby.  On  the  seventeenth  he  arrived  in  latitude  74°  40'.  At  noon 
he  observed  Novaya  Zemlia,  towards  the  bay  of  Loms.  On  the  eigliteenth  he 
doubled  the  cape  of  Admiralty  Isle,  and  on  the  nineteenth  saw  the  Isle  of  Crosses, 
under  which  he  anchored  on  the  twentieth,  the  ice  preventing  him  from  advancing 
farther. 

Eight  of  the  seamen  sailed  towards  land  in  the  shallop,  where  they  went  to  visit  one 
of  the  crosses,  and  placed  themselves  at  the  foot  in  order  to  repose,  laeforc  visiting  the 
other.  These  two  crosses  have  given  name  to  the  island.  Proceeding  to  visit  the  other 
cross,  they  perceived  two  bears  at  the  foot,  at  which  they  were  very  much  alarmed,  not 
having  any  arms.  The  bears  raised  themselves  quite  upright  against  the  cross,  in  order 
that  they  might  the  better  see  the  persons  coming  towards  them,  for  they  can  smell  at  a 
far  greater  distance  than  tliey  can  see,  and  afterwards  nin  to  meet  them. 

The  sailors  fled  towards  their  boat,  looking  behind  from  time  to  time,  to  see  if  they  were 
followed  by  these  ferocious  beasts.  But  the  master  stopped  them,  and  threatened  to 
plunge  the  boat  hook  he  held  in  his  hand  into  the  body  of  the  first  man  who  fled ; 
!)ecause,  he  said,  it  would  be  better  to  keep  all  together  than  to  separate,  in  order  to 
frighten  the  bears  by  their  shouts.  They  therefore  walked  an  ordinary  pace  towards  the 
boat,  where  they  escaped  with  much  joy. 

On  the  twenty.first  of  July  they  were  in  latitude  76°  IS',  and  the  variation  of  the 
compass  was  26°  or  a  little  more.  On  the  sixth  of  August  they  passed  by  Cape  Nassau, 
and  on  the  seventh  were  under  Cape  Troost,  where  Barentsz  had  long  wished  to  be.  In 
the  evening  the  weather  became  so  hazy  that  it  was  necessary  to  moor  the  ship  to  a  bank 
of  ice,  of  thirty-six  fathoms  depth  in  the  water,  and  about  sixteen  fathoms  above,  so 
that  it  was  altogether  fiily.two  fathoms  in  thickness. 

On  the  ninth  of  August,  the  vessel  being  still  moored  to  the  bank  of  ice,  the  master, 
who  was  walking  on  deck,  heard  the  breathing  of  an  animal,  and  immediately  beheld  a 
bear  attempting  to  mount  the  ship. 

He  immediately  cried  out,  aH  hands  on  deck  I  and  all  the  crew  having  ascended,  they 
saw  the  bear  with  his  claws  against  the  side  of  the  vessel,  and  endeavouring  to  enter. 
They  began  shouting  all  together  as  loud  as  they  could,  at  which  the  beast,  mghtened, 
retired  a  little  farther  off*.  But  returning  immediately  from  behind  the  bank  of  ice  to 
which  the  /essel  was  moored,  and  walking  fiercely  towards  them,  still  endeavoured  to 
throw  himself  within.  They  had  had  time  to  stretch  the  sail  of  the  shallop  over  the  upper 
works  of  the  vessel,  and  a  part  of  the  crew  was  near  the  windlass  with  four  firelocks.  1  he 
bear  wbs  wounded  and  fled,  without  their  being  able  to  see  on  which  side,  on  account  of 
the  snow,  which  fell  very  thick.  It  is  very  probable  he  went  behind  one  of  the  mountaias 
of  ice  which  had  gathered  on  the  banks. 

-^  On  the  tenth  of  August,  the  ice  having  separated,  the  flakes  began  to  float,  and  it 
was  then  observed  that  the  lai^e  bank  of  ice  to  which  the  vessel  had  been  moored, 


96 


THinn  VOYAGE  OP  THI!  DUTCH 


renched  to  the  liottom,  because  till  the  others,  passing  i.long,  struck  ogtinst  thvi  hank 
without  moving  it.  They  were  therefore  afraid  of  being  cn(!lo8cd  by  the  ice,  and  en- 
deuvoured  to  leave  that  part  of  the  sea;  although  in  passing  they  found  the  water 
already  frozen,  the  vessel  occasioning  the  ice  to  crack  for  a  considerable  distance  around 
it.  1  hey  finally  arrived  at  another  bank,  where  they  prcscnUy  cast  a  stream  anchor, 
and  remained  mo<jred  there  till  night. 

After  sup|KT,  during  the  first  vvutch,  the  ice  began  to  break  with  so  dreadful  a  ncise 
as  not  to  be  described.  The  head  of  the  vessel  lay  in  the  current  which  broke  up  the 
ice,  sn  that  they  were  obliged  to  let  out  more  cable  in  order  to  Im:  clear  of  it.  More 
dian  four  hundred  laive  banks  of  ice  were  counted,  lying  ten  fathoms  under  die  water, 
and  apparently  of  the  height  of  two  fithoms  above. 

They  afterwards  made  the  vessel  fast  to  anotlier  bank,  six  long  fathoms  under  water, 
and  they  moored  it  by  ihe  stem.  When  they  were  settled  there,  they  perceived  at  a 
little  distance  another  bank,  the  top  of  which  ended  in  a  point  like  the  point  of  a 
steeple,  and  it  reached  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  They  advanced  towards  it,  and  fouiui 
it  to  be  twenty  fathoms  under  water  and  nearly  twelve  above. 

On  the  eleventh  of  August  they  sailed  again  towards  another  bank,  being  eighteen 
faUioms  deep,  and  ten  fatnoms  above  the  water. 

On  the  twelfth  they  advanced  towards  the  coast,  that  the  vessel  mi^ht  not  be  carried 
uwav  by  the  ice,  ana  diat  at  all  events  it  might  be  in  greater  security ;  for  the  larger 
banks  of  ice  could  not  approach  it,  being  only  in  four  or  five  fathoms  of  water.  In 
that  place  was  also  a  great  fall  of  water,  which  descended  from  the  mountains.  The 
vessel  was  again  moored  to  a  bank  of  ice,  and  this  place  they  named  the  Little  Cape  of 
the  Ice. 

On  the  Uiirteenth  of  the  same  month  of  August,  in  the  morning,  they  saw  a  bear 
coming  from  the  eastern  point  towards  the  vessel.  A  sailor  broke  one  of  his  legs  by  a 
musket  ball.  Notwithstanding  which  he  went  back  and  climbed  up  a  mountain. 
Several  of  the  crew  left  the  ship,  and  having  pursued  him,  killed  and  flayed  him. 

On  the  fifteenth  Barents?!  steered  along  the  coast  of  Orange  Isle,  where  his  vessel 
was  entangled  in  the  ice,  near  a  great  bank,  in  danger  of  shipwix  k.  But  he  extri> 
cated  himself  by  approaching  the  land,  though  with  extreme  difficulty ;  and  when  he 
liad  moored  himself,  the  wind  veered  to  the  S.  £.  wliich  occabiuncd  him  to  change  his 
anchorage. 

While  the  crew  were  all  engaged  in  performing  this  change,  the  great  noise  Hh  y 
made  awoke  a  bear,  who  was  sleepmg  quite  close.  He  immediately  ran  towards  the 
vessel,  and  obliged  all  the  labourers  to  quit  their  work  in  order  to  defend  themselves. 
The  bear  received  a  musket  ball  in  his  body,  and  fled  thus  wounded  to  the  other  side 
of  the  bland,  where  he  placed  himself  on  a  bank  of  ice.  They  followed  him,  and  seeing 
the  shallop  sailing  towards  him,  he  threw  himself  again  into  the  water  and  endeavoured 
to  get  back  to  the  island.  They  intercepted  his  passage,  and  wounded  him  on  the  head 
with  a  hatchet.  They  endeavoured  to  follow  up  the  blow,  but  every  time  the  hatchet 
was  raised,  he  plunged  into  the  water  and  avoided  the  blows  with  such  dexterity,  that  it 
was  with  great  difliculty  he  was  killed. 

On  the  sixteenth  ten  men  in  the  yacht  sailed  towards  Novaya  Zemlia.  They  drew 
the  schuyt  on  the  highest  part  of  the  ice,  which  resembled  a  litUe  mountain,  and  observed 
the  altitude,  in  order  to  know  in  which  direction  the  main  land  lay.  They  found  it  to  lie 
S.  S.  £.  and  afterwards  still  more  to  the  S.  This  kd  them  to  tlunk,  though  veiy  unsea- 
sonably, that  the  continent  extended  towards  the  south.  At  tlie  same  time  they  ob- 
served tlie  water  to  the  S.  £.  to  be  free,  and  imagined  the  success  of  their  voyage  was 


s' 


TO  Tiff,  vonrii  OF  i:uropk> 


97 


lie 


insured ;  so  that  they  were  cxtrcmcty  impatient  to  cany  this  picas'uig  intelligence  to 
Burentsz. 

On  the  eighteenth  they  g»)t  reocly  and  wished  to  sail,  but  in  vain,  for  having  navigat. 
cd  with  great  UilUculty,  they  Averc  obliged  to  return  to  the  place  l"n)ni  wlucU  they  de- 
parted. 

On  the  nineteenth  they  doubled  Cajx;  Desire,  and  conceived  frcsh  hopes  of  lx;ing  able 
to  soil.  Nevertheless  they  got  entangled  again  in  the  ice,  luid  were  obliged  to  put  Ijack. 
On  the  twenty.fu'st  they  enteaxl  Icy  HarlKHir,  tuid  remained  at  anchor  there  during  the 
night.  On  the  following  morning  they  left  it,  and  moored  tlnir  vessel  to  a  bank  of 
ice  on  which  they  mounted,  and  admired  its  figure,  as  being  of  very  singular  forn^ 

Tliis  bank  was  covered  with  earth  at  the  top,  and  nearly  forty  eggs  were  found. 
The  colour  was  not  that  of  ice,  but  of  u  sky  blue.  Those  who  were  there,  reasoned 
much  concerning  this  object.  Some  said  it  was  in  fact  ice,  while  the  others  maintained 
that  it  was  a  frozen  land.  However  this  might  Ix.',  tlie  bank  was  of  very  great  height, 
being  about  eighteen  fathoms  under  water,  and  ten  above. 

On  the  twenty.fifth  of  August,  at  three  in  the  aflernoon,  the  tide  again  began  to  force 
the  ice  along ;  and  they  imagined  they  could  sail  by  die  south  of  Novaya  Zemlia  towards 
the  west  of  the  Wcigats.  For  as  Uiey  had  passed  Novaya  Zemlia,  and  not  liuving  found 
any  passage  open,  they  had  no  more  hopes  of  being  able  to  proceed  farther,  and  prepiuvd 
to  return  to  Holland,  when  being  arrived  in  the  Bay  of  the  Currents  they  were  mi|)edcd 
by  the  ice,  which  wns  so  thick  that  they  werir  oblig(>d  to  put  back. 

On  the  twenty-sixth,  having  entered  lev  Harbour,  they  remained  there  enclosed  by 
the  ice  which  floated  from  all  parts,  and  rolled  along  with  great  force* ;  so  tliat  they  were 
not  able  to  extricate  themselves.  They  even  had  nearly  lost  three  men,  who  were  on 
the  ice  endeavouring  to  make  an  opening.  But  happily  for  Uiese  three  men,  as  the  vessel 
fell  back,  and  the  ice  was  carried  along  by  the  same  side  the  vessel  was  forced  froni,  and 
that  they  were  active  and  strong,  eacn  of  them  took  so  well  his  opix>rtunity,  that  one 
caught  hold  of  the  tacks,  the  other  the  sheet,  and  the  third  the  bight  of  the  main  brace, 
which  hung  out  of  the  back  part  of  the  ship ;  and  Uius  they  were  all  three  most  mira- 
cuk)usly  saved,  so  nearly  had  they  been  carried  away  by  the  ice. 

In  the  evening  of  the  same  day  they  came  to  the  west  of  Icy  Harbour,  where  they 
were  obliged  to  winter,  and  suffered  a  |;reat  deal,  as  much  by  cold,  as  the  want  of  nece<v. 
sary  articles,  not  to  mention  their  vexation.  On  the  twcnty.seventh  the  ice  floated  about 
the  vessel,  and  as  the  weather  was  fine,  part  of  the  crew  landed,  and  had  jx^netratcd  a  con-  < 
siderablc  distance,  whilst  the  wind,  which  veered  to  the  S.  E.  and  was  sufficiently  strong, 
detaching  yet  more  ice,  forced  't  towards  the  prow  of  the  vessel,  and  occasioned  it  to 
mtch  in  such  a  manner,  and  at  the  same  time  to  fall  astern,  that  it  seemed  to  touch  the 
lx>ttom  with  both  its  extremities. 

In  this  imminent  danger,  the  shallop  was  let  down,  in  order  to  save  themselves  in 
case  of  necessity.  They  also  ViMsted  a  flag,  as  a  signal  to  those  on  shore  to  return  on 
board ;  at  the  sight  of  which  they  made  all  haste  to  repair  there,  though  they  thought 
that  the  vessel  had  already  starteo. 

On  the  tAventy-cighth,  the  ice  being  separated  a  little,  the  ship  was  recovered  in  its 
Station :  but  before  this  vna  quite  accomplished,  Barentsz  went  with  tlie  other  pilot  to 
vbit  the  prow.  While  they  were  there  engaged,  and  on  their  knees  and  elbows  in 
order  to  measure,  the  upper  works  of  the  vessel  started,  and  in  opening  made 
so  dreadful  a  cracking  that  they  believdl  themselves  lost.  On  the  twenty-ninth,  when  it 
was  completely  in  iu»  station,  they  endeavoured  by  means  of  iron  crows  and  other  in- 
strumeiUs  to  break  and  separate  the  ice,  which  lay  in  heaps,  but  without  success ;  so 

VOL.   I.  o 


I 


I' 


'  t 

I 


"^ 


98 


Tnilili  VOYA^K  OK  Tlir.  tHiTCII 


that  they  hud  no  lunger  hopcti  uf  being  able  to  di^cngugc  thcmaclves  and  to  have  a  free 
lutvi^ation. 

On  the  iliirtlith  th^-  flakes  of  ice  In-gan  u^ain  to  gathtT  in  heaps  more  and  more, 
around  the  vessel,  to  whieh  a  sfronif  wind  contributed  much,  and  the  nnow  which  lell 
in  thii  k  Hukes,  and  increaited  the  height  of  these  d;iiigeroiis  rantpartH  which  Mirroinided 
it.  There  waH  a  dreadl'til  cracking  every  when;  t)otn  within  and  around  the  Hhip,  and 
they  were  in  da'ad  of  seeing  it  hurst  and  break  t(.t  nieces. 

As  the  ice  was  much  more  hea|)ed  up  under  «he  vessel  on  the  side  whence  the  cur- 
rent  proceeded,  than  the  other,  it  nrst  lay  very  nuich  inclined;  but  finally  it  gathered  in 
heaps  in  the  same  manner  on  the  other  side,  and  by  this  means  the  vessel  was  set  up- 
right agiiin,  and  lifted  on  these  banks  of  ice,  us  if  it  hud  iK'cn  intentionally  raised  with 
strews  or  other  machines. 

On  the  thirty-first  more  flakes  of  ice  floated  towards  those  at  the  head,  and  en- 
tirely raised  up  the  prow ;  so  that  the  stem  was  elevated  lour  or  five  feet  higher 
than  the  rest  of  the  vessel,  and  the  stern  wiw  sunk  between  the  ice,  as  in  u  pit.  They  were 
in  hopes  tliis  incident  would  preserve  the  rudder,  and  that  the  flukes  of  ice  would  no 
more  strike  against  it :  but  this  did  not  nrevcnt  its  breaking,  as  well  as  the  tiller.  Never- 
theless, if  it  was  not  abh-  to  save  the  rudder,  there  is  every  apixarance  that  it  contributed 
the  most  to  preserve  the  body  of  the  vessel.  For  if  the  stern  frame  had  been  exposed 
to  the  flukes  of  ice  which  incessantly  floated,  like  the  prow,  they  would  have  lifted  up 
the  whole  vessel,  and  finally  overwt  it,  or  even  it  might  have  filled  the  lower  part  with 
water,  which  was  much  ftu  vd. 

Under  this  apprehension  ihey  had  already  got  the  shallop  and  yawl  on  the  ice  to  re- 
tin;  to,  and  after  having  waited  for  four  hours  in  anxious  exjM  ctation  of  what  might 
h  ppen,  the  ice  Ixgan  to  separate,  and  was  carried  away  by  the  current.  They  all  re- 
giirded  this  new  incident  as  a  deliverance  sent  by  God,  and  laboured  with  all  their  might 
to  refit  the  rudder  and  tiller.  It  was  afterwards  judged  pmper  to  unhang  it,  in  order 
that  if  they  were  again  beset  with  the  ice  it  might  run  no  more  hazard. 

On  the  first  of  September  the  flakes  of  ice  began  again  to  heap  t()g(  ther,  so  that  the 
whole  body  of  the  vessel  was  raised  two  feet,  und  nevertheless  remained  entire.  In  the 
afternoon  they  made  the  necessary  preparations  to  draw  the  yawl  and  shallop  to  shore. 
On  the  second  the  vessel  was  still  more  raised  by  new  fliikes,  which  occasioned  it  to 
crack  so  dreadfully,  and  even  to  stitrt  in  several  places,  that  notwithstanding  tlie  bad 
weather  they  resolved  to  drag  the  yawl  to  land,  with  thirteen  casks  of  biscuits,  and  two 
small  casks  of  wine. 

On  the  third  the  vessel  was  beset  with  fi-esh  flakes  of  ice,  which  united  with  those 
which  already  surrounded  it,  and  held  it  so  fast.  Then  the  after-piece  which  was  at 
the  stern  post  separated,  but  the  sheathing  still  remained.  The  cable  which  was  an- 
chored to  the  wind  also  broke,  as  well  as  a  new  cable  which  they  had  fastened  to  the 
ice  :  so  that  it  was  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  body  of  the  vessel  should  remain  entire, 
considering  the  '  >)lence,  the  quantity,  and  the  size  of  the  flakes  of  ice,  some  of  which 
were  seen  floating  as  high  as  the  salt  mountains  seen  in  Spain,  and  were  only  at  musket 
shot  distance  from  the  vessel. 

On  the  fifth,  after  supper,  the  banks  of  ice  pressed  so  against  the  vessel,  that  it  re- 
maincd  quite  inclined  on  one  side,  and  was  greatly  injured,  though  always  without 
separating.  Nevertheless,  as  they  imagined  it  could  not  resist  much  longer,  *; .,  carried 
to  shore  an  old  fore-stui,  powder,  lead,  fireIo<ics,  muskets,  and  other  nr><,  ^n  order 
to  make  a  tent  near  the  place  where  was  the  yawl.  Tbey  also  carried  more  rvi./.iit,  and 
wine,  with  carpenters*  instniments,  to  refit  tne  shallop,  if  necessary.    Jbesi'iku  'Mrc  was 


TO  TIIR  NORTH  0»'  IM'ROM:. 


99 


th 


an- 


•o  little  water  about  the  vessel,  thut  ttu'y  were  not  ubie  at  om-  timo  to  diiuv  up  a  (nil 
bucket. 

On  the  seventh,  five  .suiios^t  having  lauded,  two  of  them  nfurncd  on  iioaiu,  and  tl\r 
three  uthcni  walked  lor  two  leuKUCM  into  du*  country,  whea'  they  h;»w  a  river  of  Irish 
water,  uikI  u  (|uantity  of  wockI  which  had  Hoated  on  its  hanks.  'l'!uy  also  saw  'rac(!«i 
olreirj  deer  and  elks,  at  least  as  well  as  they  could  judjjje  from  die  niarks  of  the  fttf, 
and  the  difleant  size  of  these  vestiges,  such  as  'licy  am>eared  imprinted  on  the  f^round. 

On  the  night  of  the  ninth  two  Ixarn  came  close  to  the  vessel,  which  they  put  to  Hij^hi 
by  the  noise  of  trumix;ts  and  guns  which  they  fired,  although  none  of  them  t(K)k  iHat 
on  account  of  the  fog.  On  tl»c  eleventh,  Ixring  calm  weaiht r,  eight  sailors  well  arni(d 
went  on  shore,  in  ord«r  to  'tec  if  the  three  others  who  had  already  l)et;n  there  had 
well  observed  every  thing,  ut  'I  if  they  were  not  mistaken  in  the  report  ihty  had  made 
concerning  the  wotxl  on  the  bunks  ol  the  river.  I'or  after  having  Ikcii  loekid  in  the 
ice  ut  diflerent  times,  and  extricated  themselves  from  it,  they  founil  tlKln^elves  this 
time  enclosed  in  such  umuiUKi,  that  they  weil  perceived,  it  being  the  season  of  atitmnn 
and  winter  upprouching,  there  was  no  more  room  to  hot)e  diey  should  be  able  to  disen- 
gage themselves.  Thus  preparing  to  pass  the  winter,  tney  had  held  counsel  all  together 
OS  to  what  was  to  be  done,  in  wiuting  what  it  ..  ..ad  picusc  God  to  order  concerning 
tliem. 

It  was  therefore  resolved  to  fortify  themselves  against  the  cold,  and  the  attacks  of 
wild  bcaHi:.,  iind  to  hnild  u  hut  for  this  puri^w o.  "I luy  had  a  favourable  opportimity 
for  executing  their  design.  On  tlie  shore  were  found  even  whole  trees  with  the  nwts, 
which  had  been  brought  either  from  Turtiiry,  or  Moscovy,  for  there  were  none  on 
the  spot ;  so  that  they  foimd  the  three  first  sailors  had  made  a  faithfid  report.  This 
beginning  of  good  fortune  induced  them  to  hofie  that  Heiven  would  grant  them  here- 
after greater  favours,  and  thiit  since  it  furnished  them  with  the  means  of  building  ia 
retreat  to  worm  themselves,  and  to  prevent  their  perishing  by  cold,  which  would  have 
been  inevitable  withou*  this  as&istance,  it  would  also  facilitate  to  them  the  me;u)s  of  re. 
turning  to  their  native  country. 

On  the  fitteenth  of  the  same  month  of  September,  in  the  morning,  the  man  who 
stood  centinel  perceived  three  bears,  one  of  which  remained  behind  a.  bank  f)f  ice, 
while  the  others  advanced  towards  the  vessel.  As  the  crew  were  preparing  to  fire,  one 
of  the  bears  was  about  to  put  his  head  into  a  tub  wherr*  some  meat  lay  in  soak,  at  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  vessel,  because  there. was  no  water  in  the  part  where  it  lay. 
At  the  same  instant  the  bear  received  u  musket  ball  in  his  head,  which  laid  him  dead. 
The  other  bear  remained  as  if  thunderstruck  :  he  attentively  regarded  his  companion 
stretched  on  the  place,  and  seeing  him  make  no  motion,  he  smelt  to  him,  and  at  length 
went  away.  They  followed  him  with  their  eyes,  and  as  they  perceived  him  return,  j  id 
raise  himself  on  his  hind  legs  in  order  to  cast  himself  on  the  sailors,  they  fired  and  shot 
him  in  the  belly,  which  caused  him  to  fall  again  on  Uh  feet,  and  then  he  fled,  making 
a  great  howhng.     They  opened  the  dead  bear,  and  having  taken  out  the  entrails,  they 

K laced  him  on  his  four  legs,  in  order  to  see  if  he  would  be  sufficiently  frozen  to  carry 
im  to  Holland,  if  they  had  the  good  fortune  to  extricate  the  vessel. 
The  work  of  the  building  of  a  hut  was  at  length  begun,  by  preparing  a  sledge  to 
convey  the  wood.  At  this  time  the  sea  was  ali  frozen  to  the  thickness  of  two  fingers. 
On  the  sixteenth  they  brought  four  rafters  from  a  league  distant,  by  walking  always 
on  the  ice  or  the  snow.  During  that  night  it  still  froze  of  the  thickness  o^  two  fingers. 
On  the  seventeenth  thirteen  men  departed  to  seek  for  wood,  ten  of  which  conveyed  it, 
while  the  other  three  cut  it.     On  the  twenty.first  tlie  frost  increased  to  mch  a  degree, 


'X 


«< 


100 


THIRD  VOYAGE  OP  TUB  DUTCH 


that  it  was  necessary  to  traii^port  the  kitchen  articles  to  the  lower  part  of  the  hold,  evtrrjr 
thing  freezing  in  the  cook  room. 

On  the  twenty-third  the  carpenter  died,  and  on  the  twenty  .fourth  was  buried  in  a 
cleft  of  a  mountain,  near  a  water-fall,  for  the  earth  was  so  frozen  that  it  was  impossible 
to  dig  a  grave.  On  the  twenty-fifth  the  rafters  were  ftxedj  and  the  building  began  to 
assume  its  form.  On  the  twenty -sixth  the  wind  blew  from  the  west  and  the  sea  was 
free,  but  the  vessel  not  being  disengaged,  the  crew  only  beheld  tliis  mitigation  of  the 
weather  with  vexation. 

The  whole  of  the  crew  did  not  consist  at  that  fime  of  more  than  sixteen  i^ien,  of 
whom  some  one  was  frequently  sick.  On  the  twenty-seventh  it  froze  so  hard,  that  one 
of  the  crew,  being  at  work,  putting  a  nail  into  his  mouth,  as  is  the  custom  of  workmen, 
the  skin  came  away  when  he  drew  it  out,  and  the  blood  followed.  The  cold  latterly  be- 
came so  intense,  that  it  was  only  an  extreme  de»re  of  preserving  life,  wliich  could  have 
enabled  them  to  support  the  hardship  of  their  labour. 

On  the  thirtieth  die  wind  was  £.  and  £.  S.  £.  and  it  snowed  so  hard  on  the  preceding 
night,  and  all  this  day,  that  the  height  of  the  snow  prevented  their  going  in  quest  of 
wood.  They  made  a  great  fire  along  the  building  to  thaw  the  earth,  and  raise  it  around 
like  a  rampart,  in  order  to  form  a  better  inclosure,  but  in  vain,  for  the  earth  was  frozen 
so  hard  and  to  such  a  depth,  that  it  was  impossible  to  soften  it,  and  if  they  had  been  deter- 
mined to  accomplish  it  in  all  events,  it  would  have  consumed  too  great  a  quantity  of  wood. 

On  the  second  of  October  the  hui  was  in  an  advanced  state,  and  near  it  was  raised  a 
May-pole  of  frozen  snow.  On  the  fifth  the  sea  was  ub»ci  ved  to  be  open  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  extend,  notwithstanding  which  the  ice  about  the  vessel  did  not  melt ;  so  that 
it  seemed  as  if  they  had  built  a  wall  on  purpose  to  raise  it  two  or  three  feet,  and  k 
was  found  that  the  water  in  this  part  was  frozen  to  the  bottom,  that  is*  to  say,  to  the 
depth  of  three  fathoms  and  a  half.  On  the  same  da^  the  ftx}nt  cabin  was  cut  up,  and 
the  plauiks  were  used  to  cover  the  hut,  in  form  of  a  roof,  with  two  sloping ;  <A^ich 
"was  nearly  completed  on  the  same  day.  On  the  seventh  the  aftenuc«t  cabm  was  cut 
up,  to  make  a  fence  around  the  hut 

The  wind,  which  was  violent  during  the  night  of  the  seventh,  continued  all  the  fol- 
lowing  day,  and  brought  so  much  snow,  that  it  seemed  very  probable  that  those  who 
should  be  exposed  to  the  air  would  have  been  suffocated.  Beudes,  it  would  have  been 
totally  impossible  to  walk  as  far  as  the  length  of  a  ship,  and  to  suffer  the  rigour  of  the 
cold,  and  the  inconvenience  of  the  air,  during  that  time. 

On  the  fifteenth  the  dr  became  a  litde  milder,  so  that  they  were  enabled  to  leave  the 
ship.  One  of  the  crew  being  on  shore  met  with  a  bear,  which  he  did  not  perceive  till  he 
was  near  to  him.  He  turned  back,  and  Hed  with  all  haste  towards  the  vessel.  The 
bear  pursued  him,  and  arriving  at  the  spot  where  they  had  placed  the  other  bear  wrhich 
had  been  killed  a  short  time  before  to  freeze,  and  was  completely  covered  with  snow, 
excepting  one  of  his  paws  that  was  raised  in  the  air,  he  stopped  there ;  which  gave  the 
sailor  an  opportunity  of  reaching  the  vessel,  and  saving  his  life. 

As  he  was  very  much  frightened  on  entering  the  ship,  he  could  utter  nothing  but 
a  bear,  a  bear.  The  other  sail<H^  having  ascended  above,  in  wder  to  fire  on  the  bear, 
could  scarcely  perceive  any  thing,  on  account  of  the  smoke  in  the  vessel,  while  the^ 
were  shut  up  in  it ;  and  which  they  could  never  have  believed  possible  to  support,  if  it 
had  been  to  gain  all  the  wealth  of  the  world,  if  they  had  not  been  influenced  to  pre. 
serve  their  lives,  which  they  would  soon  have  lost,  by  the  incredible  severity  of  the 
cold,  and  the  inconvenience  of  the  snow.  The  bear  did  not  wait  till  their  eyes  were 
free,  and  retired  without  being  seen. 


the 

he 

'he 

lich 

)W, 

lUie 


Ihey 

lifit 

sre- 

[the 


-T*- 


. ./ 


#1  #* 


TO  THE  NORTH  OV  EUMOPE. 


101 


On  the  eleventh  the  wine  and  the  other  provisions  were  brouglu  to  land,  and  on  the 
twelfth  half  of  the  crew  slept  in  the  hut  they  had  built,  where  they  suftered  extreme  cold, 
because  as  yet  they  had  no  beds  and  little  covering.  Nor  could  they  make  any  Gre,  the 
chimney  not  being  yet  built,  and  the  smoke  on  this  account  insupportable. 

On  the  thirteenth  three  sailors  went  to  the  ship,  and  placed  some  beer  on  a  sledge,  ui 
order  to  carry  it  away  ;  but  as  they  were  setting  off,  there  arose  so  violent  a  wind,  there 
was  so  great  a  storm,  and  the  cold  so  intense,  that  they  were  not  only  obliged  to  re-enter 
the  vessel,  but  even  to  leave  their  beer  without  on  the  sledge.  The  following  day  they 
found  the  bottom  of  a  cask  of  strong  beer  of  Dantzic^  completely  cracked  by  the  strength 
of  the  frost ;  and  the  beer,  instead  of  running  out,  was  frozen,  and  stuck  to  the  bottom 
as  if  it  had  been  strong  glue.  The  cask  was  carried  into  the  hut,  and  placed  upright. 
They  thawed  the  beer,  for  there  was  very  little  in  the  middle  of  the  cask  which  was  not 
frozen ;  but  what  was  not  congealed,  having  lost  tlie  taste  of  beer,  because  tiie  strength 
had  been  dravm  away,  was  no  longer  fit  to  drink ;  and  that  which  tliey  thawed  had  only 
the  taste  of  water.  They  thought  of  mixing  them  t(^ther  again,  which  however  did  not 
restore  the  original  taste  or  virtue. 

On  the  night  of  the  sixteentli  a  bear  attempted  to  enter  the  vessel ;  but  hearing  the 
voices  of  the  sailors  towards  break  of  day,  he  retired.  On  the  eighteenth,  after  taking 
the  biscuit  from  the  yawl,  which  they  had  dragged  to  land,  they  also  took  out  the  wine, 
which  was  not  yet  frozen,  though  the  frost  had  already  continued  with  great  severity  for 
»x  weeks. 

On  the  nineteenth  another  bear  attempted  to  get  into  the  vessel,  where  only  two  men 
and  a  boy  remained,  who  \^re  very  much  alarmed.  The  two  men  ran  to  the  bottom  of 
tlie  hold,  and  the  boy  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  fore  shrouds.  In  the  mean  time  some 
sailors  advancing  from  the  hut,  the  bear  went  directly  up  to  them  as  soon  as  he  perceiv- 
ed them,  but  %d  at  the  first  shot  they  fired  at  him. 

On  the  twentieth  they  returned  to  the  vessel  to  carry  away  all  the  beer :  they  found 
some  casks  which  the  frost  had  split,  and  several  iron  hoops  broken  on  those  in  which 
was  the  sut)ng  beer.  On  the  twenty-fourth  ail  the  remainder  of  the  crew,  to  the  num- 
ber of  eight,  retired  to  the  house,  and  they  were  obliged  to  convey  on  a  sledge  a  ninth, 
who  was  sick.  They  also  dragged,  with  incredible  labour,  the  shallop  of  their  vessel, 
and  they  placed  it  with  the  keel  upwards,  in  order  to  make  use  of  it  when  opportunity 
should  OTOr. 

In  fine,  seeing  that  the  vessel  was  fix>zen  in  such  a  manner  that  they  could  have  no 
hopes  of  seeing  it  soon  disengaged,  they  carried  back  the  stream  anchor  on  board,  lest  it 
should  be  lost  under  the  snow,  and  that  they  might  use  it  in  the  following  summer,  hoping 
to  find  then  some  &vourable  occasion  for  returning  to  their  country. 

In  the  mean  time  the  sun,  the  sight  of  which  was  the  only  benefit  and  pleasure 
which  remuned,  beginning  to  abandon  them,  they  made  all  possible  diligence  to 
convey  on  their  sledges  the  remaindei'  of  the  victuals  in  the  vessel,  and  the  rigging 
necessary  to  equip  the  shalk)p,  in  order  to  carry  them  to  tiieir  hut.  On  the  twenty- 
fifdi  of  the  same  month  of  October,  while  occupied  in  this  work,  the  master,  who 
happened  to  raise  his  eyes,  saw  three  bears  behind  the  vessel,  who  were  advancing  to- 
wards the  sailors.  He  cried  out  loudly,  in  order  to  frighten  them.  On  their  side,  the 
sailors  threw  their  straps  on  the  ground,  to  put  themselves  in  a  state  of  defence. 
Luckilv  two  halberts  were  found  on  the  sledge :  the  master  took  one,  and  Gerard  de 
Veer  the  other.    The  others  ran  towards  the  vessel,  but  one  of  them  fell  into  a  chasm 

*  A  BtroDg  and  medicinal  beer,  made  with  the  berries  of  sweet  briar.      ,   '^ 


i(^  THmn  VOYAflK  OF  THE  DUTCH 

in  the  ice ;  an  accident  which  miide  all  the  rest  shudder,  thinking  the  bears  would  inevi- 
tably devour  him.  Instead  o(  which  these  ferocious  beasts  pursued  those  who  fled 
towards  the  vessel ;  during  which  time  the  master,  with  De  Veer  and  the  man  who  had 
fallen  into  the  chasm,  went  round  the  vessel,  and  entered  on  the  opposite  side  to  the 
bears. 

These  savage  animals,  seeing  that  they  had  entered,  advanced  furiously  towards  the 
vessel,  where  tne  crew,  having  no  other  arms  but  the  two  halberts,  on  which  they  could 
not  depend,  endeavoured  to  divert  their  attention  by  throwing  pieces  of  wood  at  their 
heads,  and  other  things,  after  which  they  ran  each  time  a  piece  was  thrown,  in  the  same 
manner  as  a  dog  runs  after  a  stone.  One  of  the  sailors  was  sent  into  the  cook  room  to 
strike  a  fire,  and  another  to  seek  for  some  pikes.  The  more  the  sailor  hastened,  the  less 
was  he  able  to  kindle  any  fire,  so  that  there  was  no  opportunity  of  using  their  firelocks. 
In  the  mean  time  the  bears  always  returned  to  the  assault  with  equal  uiry.  A  halbert 
was  thrown,  which  having  struck  the  lai^st  directly  on  the  mouth,  he  began  to  retreat, 
and  the  others,  who  were  considerably  smaller,  followed  him  slowly  at  a  distance,  and 
left  the  crew  to  the  liberty  of  dragging  their  sledge  to  the  hut 

On  the  twenty 'Sixth  the  greater  part  of  the  water  was  free  close  to  the  land,  but  the  ice 
always  continued  about  the  vessel.  On  the  twenty-seventh  a  white  fox  was  killed,  which 
they  roasted ;  it  very  much  resembled  the  rabbit  in  taste.  The  same  day  they  were  em- 
ployed in  mending  and  fixing  the  clock.  They  also  prepared  a  lamp  to  bum  m  the  night 
time,  and  for  this  purpose  they  used  the  fat  of  a  bear,  which  they  melted.  On  the  twenty^ 
ninth  they  carried  on  sledges  a  quantity  of  the  herbs  and  other  things  left  by  the  sea  on 
the  shore,  which  they  placed  about  the  sail  that  enclosed  the  hut,  that  the  cold  might  pe- 
netrate less  through  the  planks,  which  were  not  let  into  each  other,  the  bad  weather  not 
having  permitted  them  to  do  otherwise. 

On  the  first  of  November,  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  they  saw  the  moon  rise  in  the 
east,  and  the  sun  yet  rose  sufficiently  high  on  the  horizon  to  be  perceived.  On  the  second 
they  saw  the  sun  rise  in  the  S.  S.  £..  and  set  near  the  S.  S.  W.  but  the  whole  of  his  disk 
did  not  appear  above  the  horizon  :  he  was  only  seen  on  the  horizon  itself,  and  a  part  of  it 
remained  concealed.  On  the  same  day  they  killed  a  fox  with  a  blow  of  a  hatchet,  which 
they  roasted. 

On  the  third  the  sun  rose  in  the  S.  and  by  E.  a  little  nearer  the  S.  than  the  S.  £.  and 
set  in  the  S.  and  by  W.  also  a  little  nearer  the  S.  and  the  top  alone  of  its  disk  appeai^ed 
above  the  horizon,  although  the  situation  where  they  took  altitude  was  as  high  as  the  top 
of  the  vessel,  which  lay  dose.  On  the  fourth  it  was  no  longer  observed,  although  the 
weather  was  very  serene. 

At  this  time  the  surgeon  took  a  cask,  or  an  emptvpipe,  and  made  a  bath  of  it,  where  they 
bathed  one  after  another :  from  which  they  expenenced  much  benefit.  On  the  same  day 
they  took  a  fox,  this  animal  appearing  ut  that  time  while  the  bears  were  retired  as  welt 
as  the  sun,  and  did  not  again  appear  till  the  return  of  that  star. 

As  the  sun  had  quitted  the  horizon,  the  moon  had  come  to  take  its  plnce,  appearing  all 
day  and  night  without  setting,  when  it  was  in  its  highest  quarter.  The  sixth  was  so  dull 
a  day,  that  it  could  not  be  distinguished  from  the  night,  the  more  as  the  clock,  which 
would  have  assisted  them,  had  stopped ;  so  that  not  conceiving  it  to  be  day,  all  the  people 
remained  for  a  long  time  a-bed,  without  rising  but  on  necessary  occasions,  and  when 
they  rose,  they  were  not  able  to  discern  if  the  light  they  saw  was  that  of  the  day  or  the 
moon.  They  even  had  much  dispute  concerning  it,  but  finally  found  that  it  was4ay,  and 
even  the  middle  of  the  day. 

On  the  eighth  they  distributed  the  -remainder  of  the  bread,  and  the  portions  were 
fixed  at  four  pounds  and  five  ounces  fur  eight  days,  instead,  as  formerly,  of  the  same 


inimii^lHit»«i 


10  THE  NORTH  OP  EUHO!'E. 


103 


portion  only  lasting  for  five  or  six  days.  As  to  the  fish  and  meat,  they  imagined  there 
was  no  necessity  of  distributing  them;  but  for  the  drink ,  they  were  in  want  of  it,  and 
what  beer  remained  possessed  no  strength  nor  taste.  On  the  eleventh  they  fixed  a  net 
made  of  rope  yam  on  a  hoop,  to  catch  foxes  :  so  that  when  a  fox  was  underneath,  he  re- 
mained there  caught  as  in  a  trap,  and  they  could  draw  the  trap  and  the  fox  into  the  hut. 
The  same  day  they  took  a  fox. 

On  the  twelfth  the  distribution  of  the  wine  was  fixed  at  two  small  cups  each  day,  and 
they  had  nothing  besides  to  drink  but  water  from  melted  snow,  which  they  took  from 
witliout.  On  the  eighteenth  the  master  distributed  to  each  person  a  piece  of  thick 
cloth,  to  cover  themselves,  or  to  use  in  any  manner  they  should  choose  against  the  cold. 
On  the  twenty-ninth  the  chest  of  sheets  was  opened,  which  were  also  distributed  to  make 
shirts,  for  the  pressing  necessity  obliged  them  to  seek  every  method  to  relieve  their 
persons. 

On  the  twentieth,  the  weather  being  tolerably  fine,  they  washed  their  linen,  but  it  was 
not  perfectly  waslied:  for  as  soon  as  they  drew  it  from  the  boiling  water,  in  order  to  wring 
it,  it  froze.  It  even  continued  frozen  ..  ;ar  the  fire  on  the  outer  side,  and  only  the  side 
facing  the  fire  thawed ;  so  that  it  was  necessary  to  plunge  the  other  side  again  into  the 
boiling  water,  in  order  to  thaw  it. 

On  the  twenty-second  they  ate  together  a  large  Dutch  cheese,  one  of  seventeen  which 
they  still  possessed,  and  the  remainder  \i'ns  divided,  that  each  man  might  manage  his  por- 
tion at  discretion.  On  the  twenty-third,  as  they  saw  foxes,  they  constructed  traps  of  thick 
planks,  which  tliey  fumbhed  with  stones  in  order  to  render  them  the  heavier,  and  fixed 
short  stakes  in  the  ground  about  the  place  where  the  planks  fell,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
foxes  from  dig^ng,  and  escaping;  and  they  took  some  by  this  method. 

On  the  twenty-iburth  two  men  who  were  indisposed  bathed,  and  on  leaving  the  bath 
the  surgeon  made  them  take  a  purgative  medicine,  from  which  they  derived  much  benefit. 
On  the  twenty-sixtli,  twenty-seventh,  and  twenty-eighth,  there  fell  such  a  prodigious 
quantity  of  snow,  tliat  they  remained  buried  in  their  hut,  without  being  able  to  leave  it  on 
any  occasion  whatever.  But  the  weather  clearing  up  on  the  twenty-ninth,  they  began 
to  dig  the  snow  with  shovels,  made  an  opening,  and  finally  got  out,  by  crawling  through 
the  h(4e  they  had  dug.  They  found  their  traps  covered  with  snow,  but  disengaged 
them,  and  on  the  same  day  took  a  fox ;  an  aliment  which  became  necessary,  there  being 
no  other  to  be  found  in  the  snow,  even  when  it  was  possible  to  remove  it.  By  this  they 
were  also  furnished  with  skins,  to  make  caps  proper  to  secure  their  heads  from  the  seve- 
rity of  the  cold. 

On  the  first  of  December  the  snow  still  environed  their  hut  on  all  sides ;  which  occa- 
sioned so  great  a  smoke  when  they  wished  to  make  a  fire,  that  they  were  obliged  to  lay 
in  bed  almost  all  day,  except  the  cook,  who  at  length  arose  to  prepare  some  victuals.  On 
the  second  day  they  made  use  of  stones,  which  they  heated  and  placed  around  them  in 
their  beds,  because  the  cold  and  smoke  being  equally  insupportable,  they  could  scarcely 
find  means  to  protect  themselves  at  the  same  time  from  both  of  those  evils. 

On  the  third,  while  in  their  beds,  they  heard  the  ice  of  the  sea  crack  with  so  horrible  a 
mnse,  that  they  imagined  the  mountains  of  ice  which  they  had  seen  during  the  summer, 
and  which  had  appeared  of  so  many  fathoms  in  height,  were  detached,  and  heaping  upon 
one  another. 

In  the  mean  time,  as  during  two  or  three  days  that  they  had  not  so  much  fire  as  usual, 
it  fi'oze  so  liard  within  the  hut,  that  on  the  floor  and  walls  was  ice  of  the  thickness  of  two 
fingers,  and  there  was  some  even  in  their  beds  where  they  lay.  They  then  prepared 
the  sand-glass  of  twelve  hours,  and  took  care  to  keep  it  in  goeid  order,  that  they  might 


mp\ 


104 


Tllini*  VOYAGE  OF  THE  DUTCH 


know  the  time,  for  the  frost  had  suspended  the  motion  of  the  dials,  though  they  had 
increased  the  counterpoises. 

On  the  sixth  the  cold  was  so  great,  that  not  being  able  to  support  it  any  loneer,  they 
regarded  each  other  with  languishing  looks  and  pity,  believing  the  cold  would  still  in- 
crease, and  extinguish  their  lives :  in  fact,  however  great  they  made  the  fire,  they  could 
no  more  warm  themselves.  The  dry  wine  of  Serez,  which  is  of  a  very  hot  nature,  also 
froze  then,  and  they  were  obliged  to  thaw  it  on  the  days  of  distribution,  which  was  per- 
formed every  other  day,  when  each  man  had  half  a  pint,  and  after  that  they  had  only 
water,  a  drink  very  little  fit  for  their  condition,  and  the  cold  which  overwhelmed  them, 
and  besides  it  was  snow  water. 

The  seventh  was  as  sad  a  d?y  as  the  preceding.  This  day  they  consulted  together  as 
to  the  best  means  of  resisting  the  cold :  it  was  resolved  to  fetch  from  the  vessel  the  pit- 
coal  which  was  there,  because  it  affords  great  heat,  and  bums  for  a  lon^  time.  In  the 
evening  they  made  a  lai^  fire  of  this  coal,  which  warmed  them  surprismgly ;  but  they 
thought  not  of  the  return  and  the  sad  effects  this  pleasure  might  possess.  This  warmth, 
which  had  done  them  so  much  good,  they  were  mlling  to  preserve  as  much  as  possible, 
and  for  this  purpose  they  entirely  closed  the  windows,  and  went  to  bed,  very  contented  to 
lie  so  warmly,  which  rendered  them  gayer  than  ordinary,  and  occasi(med  them  to  talk  to- 
gether for  a  long  time  after  being  in  oed. 

In  the  end  they  found  themselves  all  attacked  with  vertigos  and  swimmings  in  the  head, 
some  more  than  others,  which  they  perceived  by  the  means  of  one  of  them,  who,  being 
sick,  could  less  support  them,  and  made  lamentations.  They  all  found  themselves  in 
excessive  pmn,  not  being  able  to  stand  up :  some  however  crawled  to  the  chimney  and 
door,  and  opened  them ;  but  the  man  who  opened  the  door  fainted,  and  fell  down  on  the 
snow.  De  Veer,  whose  head  was  near  to  the  door,  having  heard  the  fall,  threw  some 
vinegar  in  the  face  of  the  man  who  had  fallen,  and  brought  him  to  himself. 

When  the  door  was  opened,  the  cold,  which  had  done  them  so  much  harm,  viras  of  ser- 
vice, and  recovered  them ;  witliout  it  they  must  all  have  inevitably  expired  during  the 
fainting  which  seized  them.  The  master  dbtributed  to  eacli  a  glass  of  wine  to  strengthen 
their  spirits. 

On  the  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh,  the  weather  was  fine  and  clear,  and  the  sky  starry ; 
yet  the  cold  increased  to  so  great  a  degree,  that  those  who  have  not  felt  it  are  unable  to 
conceive :  the  leather  of  their  shoes  froze  on  the  feet  as  hard  as  if  it  had  been  horn,  so 
that  they  were  of  no  more  service.  They  made  a  kind  of  covering,  'resembling  large 
slippers,  of  the  upper  part  of  sheep  skins,  which  they  might  wear  with  three  or  four  pair 
of  socks  over  one  another,  in  order  to  warm  their  feet :  their  garments  were  even  quite 
white  with  snow  and  frost :  when  they  remained  without  sufficiently  long,  the  pustules 
and  pimples  on  their  body,  face,  and  ears  also,  were  frozen. 

On  the  fourteenth  of  the  same  month  of  December  they  observed  the  altitude,  and 
found  themselves  in  latitude  76*^.  On  the  eighteenth  seven  of  them  went  to  observe  the 
state  of  the  vessel.  The  water  had  risen  an  inch  ir  eighteen  days,  during  which  time 
they  had  not  visited  the  vessel,  though  it  was  not  properly  water,  but  ice,  because  the 
water  fix)ze  immediately  it  appeared  above  the  ice.  The  water  brought  from  Holland 
in  casks  was  also  coripletely  frozen. 

The  twenty-fourth,  which  was  Christmas-eve,  they  cUsengaged  their  hut  from  the 
snow,  in  order  that  they  might  go  out ;  a  labour  they  were  at  that  time  obliged  to  per- 
form every  day.  Althou^  there  was  no  day-light,  they  were  enabled  to  see  to  a  tolerable 
distance,  and  they  perceived  there  were  several  [^aces  in  the  sea  perfecdy  free,  which  was 
occasioned,  no  doubt,  when  the  violent  cracking  of  the  ice  was  heard.    Churistmas- Jay 


n 


ii 


the 


TO  Tire  NORTH  OP  p.rnopF. 


10.^ 


was  dreary,  yet  they  heard  foxes  around  the  hut,  which  they  would  have  been  well 
pleased  to  have  caught,  to  use  in  the  prchsing  want.  The  lire  no  longer  appeared  to 
cast  its  accustomed  heat,  or  at  least  it  could  not  pass  to  near  objects ;  for  their  stockings 
were  burned  before  their  feet  received  any  warmth,  and  the  burning  of  the  stockings 
would  not  liave  been  |x:rccived,  if  the  smell  had  not  been  affected. 

In  this  manner  passed  the  close  of  the  yeiu",  and  in  the  midst  of  these  suflferings  the 
remainder  of  the  crew  of  the  vessel  entered  on  the  year  1597.  The  commencement 
was  not  less  severe  than  the  preceding  year  had  been  :  they  began  it  by  again  diminish- 
ing the  portions  of  wine  distributed  every  other  day ;  and  as  some  of  them  feared  it 
would  be  a  considerable  length  of  time  before  they  Icil  the  place,  though  they  always 
flattered  themselves  with  tlVis  hope,  tl\ey  spared  that  very  necessary  aliment,  in  order  to 
make  it  last  the  longer,  and  to  retain  some  in  case  of  a  more  pressing  occasion. 

On  the  fourth  of  January  they  put  on  their  chimney  a  lance  with  a  small  piece  of 
cloth,  in  order  to  know  the  quarter  of  the  wind ;  but  to  learn  it,  they  did  Vv'ell  to  ob- 
serve it  in  placing  the  linen,  for  it  was  frozen  in  a  moment  after,  and  became  as  stift'  as 
a  stick,  without  being  able  to  play  or  turn. 

On  tlie  fiflh,  the  air  being  a  little  milder,  they  cleared  their  door,  which  had  been  shut 
for  some  days,  and  opened  it :  they  made  use  of  this  opi^rtunity  for  regulating  the  most 
necessiiry  matters ;  among  others,  they  cut  some  wood  and  carried  it  into  the  hut,  that 
they  might  not  be  in  want  of  it,  if  possible. 

The  whole  of  the  day  being  thus  passed  in  laborious  occupation,  they  recollected  at 
night  that  it  was  twelfth-day,  and  entreated  the  master  to  ^lermit  them  to  take  at  least 
some  hours  of  recreation,  among  so  many  hardships  and  causes  of  grief.  They  were 
unwilling  to  use  any  thing  but  the  wine  they  had  voluntarily  spared,  and  perhaps  two 
pounds  of  flour,  of  which  they  made  a  kind  of  fritters  cooked  with  oil ;  a  mess  which 
W'iS  eaten  with  as  good  an  appedte  as  they  would  have  eaten  the  greatest  delicacies,  if 
they  had  been  at  their  own  dwellbgs.  They  even  celebrated  the  feast  in  all  its  cere- 
monies, drawing  tickets,  and  the  gunner  was  king  of  Novaya  Zemlia ;  a  country  perhaps 
more  than  two  hundred  leagues  long,  situated  between  two  seas. 

On  the  tenth  of  January  they  found  the  water  had  risen  nearly  a  foot  in  the  vessel. 
On  the  twelfth  they  observed  the  altitude  of  the  star  called  the  Bull's  Eye ;  and  it  ap- 
peared to  them  that  the  altitude  of  this  star,  and  some  others  besides,  which  they  had 
observed,  and  that  of  the  sun,  accorded  very  well,  and  that  they  were  in  latitude  76°,  but 
rather  higher  than  lower. 

On  the  thirteenth  the  weather  was  clear  and  serene,  and  they  perceived  the  light  of 
day  began  to  increase ;  for  on  throwing  a  ball  they  perceived  it  roll,  which  they  could 
not  before.  From  this  time  they  went  out  every  day,  and  exercised  themselves  at  walk- 
ing, running,  throwing,  in  order  to  revive  their  limbs  t  they  also  remarked  at  the  same 
time  a  redness  m  the  sky,  which  was  to  them  an  aurora,  the  harbinger  of  the  sun.  The 
air  was  also  found  less  cold  during  the  day ;  so  that  when  thev  had  a  good  fire  in  the 
hut,  there  fell  from  the  boards  and  partitions  large  pieces  of  ice,  which  thawed  in  the 
beds,  a  circumstance  which  never  happened  before,  however  great  they  made  their  fire ; 
but  at  night  it  always  froze  equally  strong. 

On  the  eighteenth,  as  the  wood-fuel  diminished  greatiy,  they  again  used  pit-coal,  with 
the  precaution  of  not  closing  the  chimney,  which  prevented  the  former  bad  effects : 
nevertheless  they  judged  it  proper  to  be  careful  of  it,  as  well  as  the  wood,  and  still  more 
80,  for  they  expected  to  reimbark  in  their  litUe  vessel  without  an^  covering,  where  they 
\vould  have  great  occasion  for  coal.  It  was  also  necessary  in  the  same  manner  to  dimi- 
Eiish  the  portions  of  biscuit,  as  well  on  account  of  the  quantity  already  consumed,  as 


VOL.  u 


v 

if* 

i 


I 


106 


(IIIKI)  VUYA(iii  OF  THE  UUTC'K 


because  the  casks  were  not  exactly  of  the  proper  weight.  Again,  the  capture  of 
foxes  was  not  so  abundant  as  formerly  ;  and  this  retreat  of  tlie  fox  was  still  more 
grievous,  as  it  was  an  indication  of  the  speedy  return  of  tlie  bears,  who  in  fact  appeared 
very  soon  after. 

The  twenty-fourth  of  January  was  a  clear  and  fine  day.  James  Heemskerk,  Gerard 
de  Veer,  and  another,  took  the  opportunity  of  walking  towards  the  southern  shore  of 
Novaya  Zcmlia.  De  Veer,  when  tney  least  thought  of  it,  perceived  a  side  of  the  sun's 
disk  ;  full  of  joy,  they  all  three  returned  quickly  to  carry  this  agreeable  news  to  Barentsz 
and  the  others.  Barentsz,  an  experienced  mariner,  would  not  believe  it,  because,  ac- 
cording to  all  the  computations,  it  would  be  fifteeen  days  before  the  sun  could  be  seen  in 
that  altitude.  The  others  maintained  that  they  had  seen  it ;  and  this  dispute  gave  rise 
to  wagers. 

The  twenty,  fifth  and  twenty-sixth  were  so  very  misty  that  they  could  not  see  one 
another,  so  that  those  who  had  wagered  that  the  sun  had  not  yet  appeared  imagined  they 
had  already  won  :  but  the  weather  cleiuing  up  on  the  wenty-seventh,  all  the  company 
together  beheld  the  full  disk  of  the  star  of  day  above  the  horizon ;  whence  it  was  easy 
to  conclude  that  a  part  had  been  seen  on  the  twenty- fourth. 

Nevertheless,  as  this  discovery  is  contrary  to  the  opinions  of  all  writers,  both  ancient 
and  modem,  and  that  some  may  pretend  that  it  is  agamst  the  course  of  nature,  and  that 
it  destroys  the  rotundity  asrribed  to  the  heavens  and  earth,  they  conceived  there  would 
be  persons  inclined  to  believe  they  were  mistaken ;  that  they  would  say  it  was  so  long 
since  they  had  beheld  the  day,  that  it  was  impossible  to  keep  an  exact  account  of  the 
number  of  the  days ;  that  probably  they  had  passed  some  days  in  bed  and  sleep,  uidiout 
being  conscious  of  it ;  and  that,  in  fine,  from  whatever  accident  it  might  arise,  tliey  must 
necessarily  have  made  some  error  in  tbsir  calculation. 

But  as  for  them,  who  did  not  doubt  of  what  they  had  seen,  and  who  were  unwilling 
to  ^ve  occasion  to  think  that  they  might  have  some  doubts,  as  they  might  have  done  if 
they  had  spoken  less  positively,  and  had  not  related  the  circumstances  and  the  reasons, 
they  have  minutely  written  all  these  things,  in  order  to  show  that  their  computation  was 
exact :  they  then  saw,  for  the  first  time,  the  sun  in  the  sign  of  Aquarius,  in  5**  25'; 
and  according  to  their  former  calculation,  he  should  have  been  in  16^  27',  before  he 
could  appear  in  the  latitude  of  76o,  where  they  found  themselves  to  be. 

These  circumstances,  so  contrary  to  one  another,  occasioned  much  astonishment,  the 
more  as  they  did  not  think  it  possible  to  be  mistaken  in  their  computation  of  the  time : 
they  had  marked  day  by  day,  without  omitting  any  one,  whatever  happened :  they  had 
continually  paid  attention  to  their  watches,  and  when  they  were  frozen,  they  had  recourse 
to  the  twelve-hour-glass. 

Their  occupation  at  that  time  was  to  make  different  reflections,  in  order  to  conciliate 
what  appeared  so  opposite,  and  to  discover  the  truth  with  respect  to  the  time.  They 
consulted  the  Ephemerides  of  Joseph  Scala,  printed  at  Venice,  which  reached  from  1589 
to  1600 ;  aid  they  thereby  found  that  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  January,  which  was  the 
same  day  the  sun  had  appeared  to  them,  the  Moon  and  Jupiter  were  m  conjunction,  at 
one  hour  after  midnight  with  respect  to  Venice. 

On  this  remark  they  were  attentive  to  observe  that  same  night  at  what  hour  those 
two  planets  should  be  in  conjunction,  with  regard  to  the  place  they  were  in,  and  they 
were  five  hours  later  than  at  Venice,  that  is  to  say,  about  six  in  the  morning.  During 
this  observation  they  saw  that  they  approached  each  other  at  times  till  six  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  they  were  exactiy  the  one  above  the  other,  both  in  the  sign  of  Taurus.  Their 
conjunction  took  place  by  the  compass  exactiy  at  N.  and  by  £.  and  the  south  of  the 


at 


TO  TlfE  NORTH  OF  EUUOPi;.  K)-^ 

compass,  or  of  the  needle,  was  S.  S.  W.  where  ^vas  the  true  south,  the  moon  iK'ing  eight 
days  old  ;  whence  it  appeared  tliat  the  moon  and  sun  were  at  the  distance  of  eight  runibs 
from  each  other. 

.*<  This  difference  therefore  lx:tween  the  place  where  they  were  and  Venice  was  five 
hours  in  longitude,  and  that  being  supposed,  we  may  compute  how  much  farther  they 
were  to  the  east  than  the  city  of  Venice,  that  is  to  say,  five  hours,  each  hour  being  of 
fifteen  degrees,  which  makes  seventy,  five  degrees ;  from  which  it  is  easy  to  conclude 
that  they  were  not  mistiikcn  in  their  computation,  but  that  by  the  means  of  these  two 
planets  they  had  found  the  true  longitude ;  for  the  city  of  Venice  is  in  longitude  37^ 
25',  and  the  declination  being  46°  5' :  it  follows  that  the  hut  which  was  in  Novaya  Zem- 
lia  was  in  longitude  112°  25',  and  latitude  76°.  All  which  circumstances  are  here  re- 
lated to  shew  that  there  was  no  error  in  their  computation  of  lime. 

As  to  what  regards  the  difference  of  time,  which  \v9a  about  fifteen  days,  that  they 
had  seen  the  sun  at  Novaya  Zemlia  sooner  than  it  should  have  appeared,  it  is  left  to  the 
learned  to  argue,  and  to  determine  as  well  as  they  can. 

On  the  same  day,  the  twenty-sixth  of  January,  the  sick  man  of  the  company  fell  into 
a  great  swoon,  and  continued  very  bad  till  past  midnight,  when  he  died.  On  the  twenty- 
seventh  they  dug  a  grave  in  the  snow  near,  the  hut  in  order  to  bury  him,  though  with 
no  small  difficulty  on  account  of  the  cold,  which  obliged  them  to  work  by  turns.  In  fine, 
the  pit  being  seven  feet  deep,  they  buried  the  dead  man.  The  thirty-first  was  a  very- 
fine  day,  and  they  were  able  to  enjoy  the  brightness  of  the  sun  with  pleasure. 

The  first  seven  days  of  February  were  bad  and  stormy,  which  nearly  occasioned  them 
to  despair  ;  for  in  the  hopes  of  finer  weather  they  had  not  taken  the  usual  precaution 
of  providing  themselves  with  wood.  The  hut  was  again  surrounded  with  high  ramparts 
of  snow :  the  fog  was  greater  than  it  had  been  in  the  midst  of  winter,  and  the  snow  fell 
as  thick  as  ever.  But  they  did  not  as  before  give  themselves  the  trouble  of  disengaging 
their  door  each  time ;  and  when  any  thing  occurred  which  obliged  them  to  go  out, 
they  passed  through  the  chimney,  and  these  who  were  not  ?.ble,  were  constrained  to  per- 
form their  necessities  within. 

On  the  eighth,  the  weather  became  finer :  they  saw  the  sun  rise  in  the  S.  S.  E.  and  set 
in  the  S.  S.  W.  diat  is  to  say,  with  respect  to  the  dial  of  lead  they  had  constructed  near 
their  hut,  and  fixed  exactly  south  of  that  place  ;  for  otherwise  there  was  a  difference  at 
least  of  two  rumbs  from  their  other  ordinary  compasses. 

On  the  thirteenth  they  cleaned  their  traps :  while  they  were  thus  occupied,  they  saw  a 
large  bear  coming  directly  towards  the  nut,  to  which  they  all  retired  in  great  haste. 
One  of  them  having  taken  aim,  the  ball  struck  the  bear  on  the  breast,  passed  quite 
through  the  body,  and  went  out  by  the  tail,  so  that  it  became  as  flat  as  a  halfpenny. 
The  bear  being  wounded,  made  a  great  leap,  and  retired  for  twenty  or  thirty  feet  from 
the  hut,  where  he  fell.  Those  who  pursued  him  found  him  sull  living,  and  he  rabed  his 
head,  as  if  to  see  who  had  wounded  him. 

As  they  had  already  too  fatally  experienced  the  strength  of  these  animals,  they  did 
not  stop  there,  but  fired  two  other  musket-shots  at  him  and  killed  him  :  they  ripped  up 
his  belly,  and  having  taken  away  more  than  a  hundred  pounds  of  fat  and  lard,  they 
melted  it ;  and  by  this  means  they  had  wheremthal  to  feed  their  lamp  every  night, 
which  they  had  not  done  for  some  time,  being  in  want  of  material  ;  but  now  they  had 
the  pleasure  of  havuig  each  a  lighted  lamp  by  his  bedside  when  they  chose.  The  skin 
of  the  bear  was  nine  feet  lung  and  seven  wide. 

On  the  twenty-first  they  had  no  more  wood  remaining  to  warm  themselves,  and  the 
weather  was  very  severe,  as  well  on  account  of  the  wind  and  snow  as  of  the  cold.    It  was 


I' 


ii 

I 


h 


If 


V 

«• 

n 


i! 


i08 


THIRD  VOYAGE  OF  THE  DUTCH 


ncQcssary  therefore  to  collect  togithcr  what  wood  they  could,  both  from  without  and 
within,  and  use  even  the  small  sticks  under  their  feet  The  weather  wa.s  finer  on  the 
twenty.second  :  they  prepared  a  sledge  tu  fetch  some  wood,  but  found  it  so  covered 
with  snow  that  it  was  impossible  to  discpgage  it ;  tlms  they  were  obliged  to  proceed 
much  farther,  whence,  nevertheless,  they  brought  but  little,  and  with  such  great  labour, 
that  returning  they  all  lost  their  spirits,  as  the  severity  of  the  cold  was  great,  the  labour 
of  dragging  the  wood  fatiguing,  and  the  strength  of  the  labourers  exhaMsted  by  their 
exertions,  and  the  inconveniences  they  then  experienced ;  but,  in  short,  it  was  however 
indispensable  cither  to  bring  wood  or  perish  with  cold. 

When  they  approached  tlx:  hut,  they  perceived  the  waters  open  in  different  places 
of  the  sea,  which  aflforded  them  some  consolation,  and  awakened  the  hopes  of  a  speedy 
departure. 

Ci  the  twenty-eighth  •  7  again  went,  to  the  number  often,  to  fetch  a  sledge  full  of 
wood,  the  eleventh  of  their  company  not  being  able  to  assist  them,  because  he  had  loat 
h'ls  great  toe  by  the  severity  of  Uie  cold  ;  and  thb  labour  was  not  less  punful  than  the 
other. 

On  the  eighth  of  March  they  saw  no  more  ice  on  the  N.  £.  side  in  the  sea,  iron) 
which  they  concluded  that  there  Wiis  a  great  sea  to  the  N.  E.  of  them. 

On  the  ninth  they  were  able  to  see  still  farther,  and  perceived  all  the  sea  to  the  N.  £. 
open ;  but  on  t!>c  side  of  Tartaiy  there  yet  remained  ice,  whence  they  concluded  that 
the  sea  was  of  no  great  breadth  on  that  side,  even  when  the  weather  was  perfecUy 
serene :  they  imagined  they  discovered  lands,  and  they  shewed  to  one  another,  to  the  S. 
and  S.  £.  of  their  hut,  a  land,  which  apix.*an>d  to  them  like  litde  mountains,  and  in  the 
same  manner  as  prospects  do  when  they  first  present  themselves. 

On  the  fourteenth  there  arose  a  wind  from  the  £.  N.  £.  so  violent  and  cold,  that  the 
sea  was  again  frozen  as  hard  as  ever.  Thb  severe  weather  occasioned  those  to  relapse, 
who,  having  been  ill,  and  growing  better,  had  been  a  litde  too  much  exposed  during  the 
milder  weather.  From  this  day  the  cold  continually  increased,  and  was  even  still  greater 
and  more  insupi)ortable  than  ever.  This  contrary  weaUier,  so  little  expected,  dispirited 
the  whole  crew  in  such  a  manner,  that  Uiey  could  scarcely  console  themselves  with  the 
hopes  of  a  speedy  thaw,  which  the  season  seemed  to  promise. 

During  the  night  of  the  sixth  of  April,  a  bear  approached  the  hut :  notwithstanding 
their  endeavours  to  kill  him  with  musket  and  firelock  shots,  they  were  not  able  to  take 
sum  on  account  of  the  fog ;  and  besides  the  powder  was  so  damp  that  it  would  not  take 
fire,  and  their  guns  almost  always  failed  to  fire.  Tlie  bear  descended  by  the  steps  in  ttie 
snow  to  the  door,  and  attempted  to  enter ;  but  the  master,  placing  himself  behind  it,  kept 
it  so  well  closed  that  the  bear  retired. 

Nevertheless  he  returned  two  hours  after,  and  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  hut,  where  he 
made  so  dreadful  a  roaring  that  they  were  all  alarmed :  he  advanced  towards  the  chimney, 
and  made  such  great  excrdons  to  overturn  it,  that  they  feared  he  would  accomplish  it : 
he  tore  the  sail  with  which  it  was  surrounded,  and  having  made  an  extraordinary  ravage, 
he  at  length  departed. 

On  the  eighth  and  ninth  the  wind  blew  from  the  S.  W.  and  the  ice  disappeared ;  but 
on  the  tenth  a  violent  wind  from  the  N.  £.  brought  it  back  again,  and  filled  the  sea, 
heaping  the  flakes  upon  one  another,  so  that  about  the  coast  there  were  yet  moce  and 
higher  heaps  than  before.  a  h  /«.  ♦ 

This  severe  weather  continued  till  the  fifteenth,  when  they  visited  their  vessel :  they 
found  it  in  the  same  condition  tliey  had  left  it.  Returning,  they  saw  a  bear  who  ap- 
proached them :  they  immediately  placed  themselves  in  a  state  of  defence,  and  the  bear 


y 


they 

ap. 

bear 


,i» 


•i 


TO  Tire  NOnTII  OP  F.UROPB. 


109 


as  if  conscious  of  his  danger  retired.  They  advanced  to  the  place  from  which  they  had 
seen  him  proceed,  in  onlcr  to  discover  if  he  had  .10  lurking  hole  :  they  found  a  large  ca- 
vity in  the  snow,  nearly  as  deep  as  the  height  of  a  man,  narrow  at  the  entranee,  anil  very 
wide  within :  they  thrust  their  pikes  into  it,  and  not  meeting  with  any  thing,  one  of  the 
company  even  entered  it. 

After  this  they  went  together  to  the  seashore,  from  which  they  viewed  the  mountains 
of  ice  which  covered  the  sea,  and  which  were  nearly  dispohed  like  the  houses  of  a  great 
city,  intersected  with  towers,  steeples,  bastions,  and  ramparts.  On  the  seventeenth  seven 
of  tlicm  returned  to  their  vessel :  they  there  perceiv«d  that  the  water  was  free,  which 
induced  them  to  mount  those  heaps  of  ice,  and  pass  as  well  iis  they  could  from  one  to 
the  other,  till  they  reached  the  water,  which  thev  had  n<jt  approached  for  six  or  seven 
months.  Arriving  there  they  beheld  a  litde  bird,  which  tnved  into  the  water  and  concealed 
itself;  and  this  induced  them  to  think  that  the  water  was  more  open  than  it  had  Ix-en  to 
that  time. 

On  the  eighteenth  they  observed  the  altitude,  and  found  themselves  \\.  latitude  75°  58'. 
On  the  first  of  May  they  cooked  the  remainder  of  their  meat,  which  was  u;5  good  as  ever, 
at  least  they  thought  so,  and  it  appeared  such  in  eating :  it  possessed  however  this  defect, 
that  being  dressed  it  would  no  longer  keep. 

On  the  second  of  May  there  arose  a  violent  wind  from  the  S.  W.  whi':h  cleared  the 
main  sea,  and  left  no  more  ice.  They  each  bcgtin  then  to  talk  of  embarking  and  return- 
ing to  Holland,  being  very  weary  at  the  stay  they  had  made  in  so  disagreeable  and  in- 
commodious a  place.  On  the  third  all  the  remainder  of  the  ice  was  carried  away,  except 
that  which  surrounded  the  vessel. 

Nevertheless,  the  best  provisions,  and  which  were  the  most  fit  to  give  them  strength, 
as  meat,  oatmeal,  and  others,  failed  them  at  a  time  when  they  had  occasion  to  strengthen 
themselves,  in  order  to  support  the  labour  they  had  to  perfordi.  With  this  view  the 
master  distributed  the  remainder  of  the  bacon,  and  he  found  enough  for  three  weeks,  at 
two  ounces  a  day  for  each  man. 

On  the  foiulh  five  of  them  went  to  the  vessel,  which  was  more  enclosed  in  the  ice  than 
ever,  since  in  the  middle  of  March  it  was  only  seventy-five  paces  from  the  open  water, 
and  at  that  time  five  hundred :  this  was  a  great  subject  of  affliction,  for  th<|v  were  not 
aware  that  thev  could  drag  the  schuyt  or  shallop  to  the  sea.  In  the  nij^ht  a  bear  having 
come  to  the  dkx>r  of  the  hut,  retired  when  he  heard  the  voices  and  noise,  as  one  of  the 
sailors  observed,  who  had  ascended  the  chimney  ;  so  that  it  seemed,  the  bears  began  to  be 
afraid,  and  d^rcd  not  attack  the  men  with  their  usual  boldness. 

On  the  fifth,  when  the  sun  was  at  the  lowest,  they  beheld  it  at  a  considerable  height 
above  the  horizon.  On  the  seventh  and  eighth  the  snow  again  fell  in  such  quantities, 
that  they  were  obliged  to  remain  in  their  hut,  w|jere  some  of  the  sailors  proposed  to 
speak  to  the  master,  and  represent  to  him  that  it  was  time  to  leave  that  fatal  place. 
Nevertheless  no  oue  dared  to  undertake  it,  because  he  had  signified  and  h<id  deferred  their 
departure  to  the  end  of  June,  when  they  might  hope  the  vessel  would  be  disengaged 
from  the  ice,  being  the  finest  weather  of  the  summer.  On  the  ninth  ail  the  crew,  still 
more  urged  with  desire  of  returning,  entreated  Barent',z  to  speak  to  the  master,  and  to 
persuade  him  to  embaric :  but  Barentsz  stopped  them  by  his  remonstrances,  and  made 
them  again  defer  their  purpose. 

Ox  the  fifteenth  Barentsz,  having  again  been  solicited,  spoke  to  the  master,  who  told 
turn  that  they  should  only  wait  till  the  end  of  the  present  month,  and  that  if  the  vessel  was 
not  disengaged  in  that  time,  (hey  should  prepare  to  fit  up  the  schuyt  and  shallop,  and  de- 
part. This  answer  revived  the  crew ;  but  the  period  appeared  very  remote,  because  it 
would  require  a  considerable  time  to  refit  these  httle  vessels  and  equip  them. 


-*♦ 


t 


i 


it 


110 


TIIIRII  VOVAOF,  OF  THF.  OUTCIf 


ICC 


On  the  twentieth  nnd  twenty-first  the  wind  blew  from  the  N.  E.  and  bronoflit  fwck  the 

: :  ncverthclcsw,  with  the  consent  of  the  muster,  each  Inrgun  to  prepare  his  clothes,  and 
what  he  imagined  he  should  narticularly  want  for  tlic  voyage.  On  the  twenty-fil\h  they 
obHcrved  the  altitude  in  the  atlemoon,  and  found  themselves  in  latitude  76",  as  they  had 
done  bcfoa*.  On  the  twenty-hixlh  and  twcnty.scvcnth  the  same  N.  K.  wind  blowing 
violently,  again  brought  more  ice.  The  crew  having  taken  occasion  from  this  to  urge 
the  m:(ster,  lie  permitted  them  to  commence  the  work  of  equipment ;  and  on  the  follow- 
ing day  seven  of  them  went  to  the  vessel,  and  brought  every  thing  that  was  necessary, 
among  others  the  old  foremast  sail,  to  make  sails,  some  running  rigging  from  the  packets 
of  ropes,  and  other  articles. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  ten  men  went  to  the  schuy  t,  to  draw  it  to  the  hut  and  refit  it.  It 
was  so  buried  in  the  snow  that  they  had  great  diiBculty  to  disengage  it ;  but  they  were  not 
able  to  draw  it  ai\er  them,  on  account  of  their  weak  state,  wnich  occasioned  the  most 
poignant  grief,  because  they  then  feared  they  should  end  their  days  there.  The  master 
exhorted  them  briskly  to  exert  all  their  efforts,  telling  them,  that  in  fUct,  unless  they  were 
willing  to  become  citizens  of  Novuyu  Zcmlia,  and  very  soon  to  prepare  their  graves  there, 
they  must  recover  the  schuyt,  and  that  the  hopes  of  return  depended  on  it;  the 
strongest  and  most  affecting  remonstrance  that  could  have  been  made. 

But  of  what  little  avail  are  words  and  reasons  against  a  physical  impossibility ! 
Weakf  lud  by  long  exertions,  and  already  fatigued  with  the  labour,  they  were  not  able  to 
proceed :  they  reposed  themselves,  and  having  dined,  they  returned  again  to  try  their 
strength.  The  snallop,  which  lay  with  the  keel  upwards,  was  again  overturned  near 
the  hut,  and  they  began  to  repair  it. 

While  they  were  labouring  with  ardour,  they  perceived  a  frightful  bear  coming  to- 
wards  them  :  they  immediate^  re-entered  the  hut,  where  they  waited  at  all  the  three 
doors  with  firelocks,  and  a  fourth  mounted  the  chimney  with  a  musket.  The  bear 
walked  towards  them  with  as  much  fierceness  as  any  before,  and  approached  to  the  de- 
clivity of  the  steps  of  one  of  the  doors,  where  he  was  notperceived  oy  the  man  on  guard 
there,  who  was  tnen  looking  towards  the  other  door.  Those  who  were  within,  seeing 
the  bear,  cried  out  for  him  to  take  care  of  himself :  he  turned  his  head,  and  notwithstand- 
ing the  fr^ht  he  was  in,  he  fired  his  gun,  which  having  wounded  the  bear  in  the  body,  he 
fied.  '  »  '  .....     ,.„  - 

This  spectacle  was  distressing  to  those  who  beheld  it,  for  Wheti  die  man  perceived  the 
bear,  that  ferocious  beast  was  close  to  him,  ready  to  tear  him  to  pieces ;  ana  if  the  prime 
of  the  gun  had  not  taken  fire,  as  sometimes  happens,  there  is  no  doubt  he  would  have 
been  devoured.  Perhaps  the  animal  would  even  have  entered  the  hut,  where  he  would 
have  made  a  dreadful  carnage. 

In  the  mean  time  the  wound  he  had  received  prevented  him  from  fleeing  very  far. 
When  they  perceived  him  stop,  they  ran  to  him  with  their  arms,  and  having  killed  him, 
they  ripped  up  his  belly,  where  they  found  pieces  of  sea  dogs  yet  entire,  with  the  skin 
and  hair,  which  indicated  that  they  had  on!y  just  been  devoured. 

On  the  thirtieth  all  those  who  were  in  a  condition  to  work  at  the  refitting  of  the  bark 
employed  themselves,  and  the  others  mended  the  sails,  or  made  in  the  hut  other  neces- 
sary things  for  their  departure.  Another  bear  came  again  to  present  himself  to  the  work- 
men without,  who  killed  him.  On  the  last  day  of  the  montn,  while  they  were  engaged 
in  their  most  laborious  work,  there  came  again  a  fresh  one,  who  walked  fiercely  towards 
them.  It  seemed  as  if  these  animals  perceived  that  their  prey  was  about  to  escape,  and 
which  they  wished  to  prevent,  by  returning  three  successive  ciays. 

It  was  therefore  necessary  to  quit  their  work,  and  retire  to  their  hut ;  the  bear  foUowed 


TO  TiiK  NORTH  o>'  »'.uuorr..  J  1 1 

them  :  he  was  rccrivcd  wiih  a  volley  of  three  firelock h,  which  all  took  effect,  the  one  from 
the  chiiniK'y,  uiid  iIk-  other  two  from  two  of  the  diMrs.  This  clciih  cost  tluin  '.Uar,  for 
having  cut  the  Iku&I  in  pieces,  unci  dicitKvd  the  livr,  and  eaten  it  with  pleasure,  they 
were  all  indisiMmcd  :  three  of  them  were  so  very  ill,  that  tluy  thought  they  would  die  ; 
neverthclchd  tney  recovered,  having  a  ni;w  skin  from  the  hiail  to  tlie  foot.  Their  n- 
cstubUbhmcnt  scarcely  grwc  less  pleasure  to  the  remaituler  of  the  com|);uiy  than  to  them. 
mIvcs;  for  the  loss  of  three  men  would  |K:rhaps  have  put  them  out  of  condition  to  work 
with  any  effect  for  their  return. 

On  the  third  of  June,  their  strength  having  returned,  the^  resumed  tl»e  refitting  of 
the  bark,  wliich  was  completed  after  six  days*  labour.  At  night  there  an)sc  so  violent 
a  wind  from  the  west,  that  the  water  again  became  free,  and  they  prepared  to  embark. 
On  the  fourtli  they  wrnt  to  the  immlKr  of  eleveii  to  the  scluiyt,  which  was  on  the  sea 
shore,  and  dragged  it  to  the  vessel ;  diis  labour  being  then  more  cosy  than  it  h:ul  been 
when  they  were  obliged  to  quit  it,  either  because  the  snow  was  not  so  hard,  and  tliat  the 
schuyt  glided  more  freely  over  it,  or  that  they  possessed  more  courage  by  seeing  the  water 
finee,  and  being  on  the  eve  of  embarking. 

They  lefttluce  men  there  to  refit  the  schuyt,  which  was  properly  a  little  herring.bark 
or  hemngbuss,  and  was  sharpened  behind.  Tliey  cut  off  a  part  from  the  poop,  made  a 
little  stem  frame,  and  added  some  planks  to  the  sides,  that  the  vessel  might  have  more 
depth,  and  be  better  able  to  stand  the  sea. 

The  other  part  of  the  crew,  which  was  in  the  hut,  did  not  work  with  less  ardour  for 
the  other  nreparationvof  the  voyage.  On  this  same  day  they  conveyed  two  sledges  laden 
with  provisions  and  other  articles  from  the  hut  to  the  vessel,  which  was  nearly  half  way 
between  the  hut  and  the  place  where  the  water  was  free,  that  they  might  not  have  so  long 
a  carriage  when  it  was  necessary  to  embark.  On  the  sixth  they  dragged  two  more 
sledges  laden  with  some  provisions  and  merchandise. 

After  this  there  happened  a  violent  storm  from  the  S.  W.  accompanied  with  snow  and 
hail,  and  particularly  rain,  which  they  had  not  beheld  for  a  long  time.  The  carpenters 
were  obliged  to  quit  their  work,  and  retire  with  the  others  into  the  hut,  where  nothing 
then  remained  dry  ;  for  the  planks  had  been  taken  away  to  refit  the  litUe  vessels,  and 
there  only  remained  the  sail,  which  was  not  fit  to  keep  out  the  rain.  The  rath  which 
was  covered  with  snow  began  also  to  thaw,  so  that  it  was  necessary  to  leave  off  the  shoes 
they  had  made  of  hats,  to  resume  their  leathern  shoes,  in  whatever  state  they  might  be, 
and  to  make  the  best  use  they  could  of  them. 

On  the  seventh  they  packed  up  the  best  merchandise,  and  that  which  they  chose  to 
carry  back,  and  wrapped  them  round  with  tariuiwling,  in  order  to  protect  them  from  the 
water,  which  could  not  fail  frequently  to  splash  in  a  little  vessel  withoi't  cover.  On  the 
eighth  they  dragged  tlteir  packages  to  the  vessel,  and  the  same  day  the  carpenters  com- 
pleted the  repaint  of  the  schuyt.  On  the  same  day  also  they  draped  the  shallop  to  the 
vessel ;  and  on  the  tenth  they  made  four  joumics  with  the  sledge  laden  each  time. 
They  put  what  little  remained  of  the  wine  in  small  vessels,  in  order  to  distribute  it  be- 
tween the  two  boats  ;  and  also  that  in  case  one  should  remain  enclosed  in  the  ice,  as  they 
well  foresaw  what  might  happen,  they  could  easily  remove  all  the  things  from  one  boat 
to  the  other,  or  unload  them  on  the  ice,  in  order  to  transport  them. 

On  the  eleventh  they  experienced  a  fresh  subject  of  apprehension.  A  great  tempest 
arose  from  the  N.  N.  W.  and  they  thought  it  might  break  the  remainder  of  the  ice  on 
the  sea  shore,  and  occasion  the  vessel  to  float,  or  perhaps  split  it,  in  which  was  then  every 
thing  of  the  best  they  possessed,  both  as  to  provisions  and  merchandise ;  a  misfortune 
which  would  have  far  exceeded  all  the  others  they  had  experienced,  and  against  which 


f 


112 


iiiniD  voYAor.  OF  Tiir  nirrcif 


» 


; 


they  would  not  have  been  at)lc  to  iK-ar.  Diit  Ciod  tli<l  not  permit  no  great  a  miiieiy  tu 
uvcrwhclm  thcni. 

On  the  twill\h  tijcy  iJI  proccttkd  U)nctlior,  with  hntchctn,  «|MultH,  unci  till  other  nccet* 
»ary  implcnu  nt!«,  to  hincxiih  a  |Mi!tf»i»n;c  by  which  they  ini^ht  clnifj  the  ImmUs  to  tlu-  sea. 
The  labour  wus  severe  :  it  was  lu  Cv  s.s«ry  to  break  the  ice,  difi;,  thixiw  it  aside,  tnmsmrt 
it,  and  uiulerf^oa  l'atia;iie  not  to  Ik-  t  xpresstd.  Yet  they  wouki  have  conHoled  thcniHelvet 
if  they  eould  have  done  it  in  peat  e  ;  but  they  were  interrupted  by  a  lar^e  un;ly  iK'ar, 
lean  and  scrags;}',  coming  irom  tlu  main  sea  on  a  piece  of  ice,  and  which  they  conjee- 
Uia'd  to  come  I'rom  Tartary,  because  they  had  already  met  with  it  formerly  ut  twenty  or 
thirty  leagues  at  tiea.  As  they  did  not  expect  nucIi  un  adventure,  only  the  Nurgron 
had  a  musket,  and  Dc  Veer  was  obligid  to  (piit  the  others  tuui  run  to  the  vessel,  to  fetch 
two  or  three  moio. 

The  bear  |K'rcciving  I)e  Veer  detached  IVotn  the  company  ran  after  him,  mul  would 
have  reachctl  him,  if  they  had  not  immediately  fired  to  prevent  it.  The  reptjrt  made 
the  bear  tuni  his  head  :  he  turned  round,  and  the  surgeon  Had  a  second  time,  which 
wounded  him  ;  he  immediately  fled  ;  but  being  im|xrded  in  his  flight  by  the  inequalities 
and  height  of  the  ice,  several  other  shots  struck  him,  which  knocked  out  his  teeth,  and 
he  expired. 

The  fourteenth  was  fine  weather.  The  master  and  the  carpenters  went  to  tlic  vessel, 
where  they  completed  the  e(|uipnu'nt  of  the  schuyt  and  shallop,  so  diut  it  only  nrquired 
to  launch  theni.  After  this,  iK-rceiving  the  waters  were  ojxrn,  and  that  it  blew  fresh 
from  the  S.  W.  the  master  told  Barentsz,  who  had  been  sick  for  a  considerable  time, 
that  he  was  of  opinion  they  should  emt>ark.  This  proposition  was  no  sooner  communi- 
cated to  the  crew  than  it  was  accepted,  and  they  prepared  to  launch  the  vessels. 

Harcntsz  then  wrote  a  memoir,  containing  the  circumstances  of  their  departure  from 
Holland,  their  voyage,  their  arrival  at  Novaya  Zeinlia,  the  stay  they  made  there,  and 
dieir  retreat,  and  put  it  in  a  musket  charge,  which  he  hung  in  the  chimney,  in  order  that 
if  any  one  sliould  land  in  the  same  place,  they  might  be  informed  of  what  had  hnp< 
pened  to  them,  so  as  to  profit  by  it,  and  to  know  by  what  adventure  they  found  the  remains 
of  a  little  house,  which  had  been  inhabited  for  ten  months. 

Besides  this,  as  the  \'oyage  they  were  about  to  undertake  with  two  small  vessels,  with- 
out any  cover,  must  expose  them  to  imminent  dangers,  the  master  thought  proper  to 
write  two  letters,  which  were  signed  by  the  whole  crew,  and  one  placed  in  each  of  the 
vessels.  In  these  was  contained  a  recitiil  of  all  they  had  suflfered  while  waiting  for  the 
opening  of  the  waters,  and  in  the  exix^ctat'ion  that  their  vessel  would  be  then  disengaged 
from  the  ice ;  that  having  been  deceived  in  this  hope,  and  the  ship  always  remaining  fixed, 
as  they  saw  the  season  would  soon  pass  away,  they  had  been  obliged  to  abandon  it,  and 
expose  themselves  to  the  dangers  of  a  voyage,  which  delivered  them  to  the  mercy  of  the 
winds  and  waves ;  that  they  had  judged  proper  to  make  a  double  memoir,  in  case  the  two 
vessels  should  be  separated,  either  by  a  storm,  or  any  other  fortune  of  the  sea,  or  if  one 
of  the  two  should  perish,  that  it  might  be  learned  from  the  other  how  the  circumstances 
had  come  to  ^xiss,  and  in  it  be  found  Uiat  testimony  for  the  confirmation  of  wlmt  should 
be  related  by  those  who  might  chance  to  n-main. 

Thus,  after  having  agreed  in  all  arrangements,  they  drew  to  the  sea  the  two  vessels, 
and  eleven  sledges  laden  with  provisions,  wine,  and  merchandise,  which  they  were 
careful  to  place  in  the  best*  manner  possible  for  their  preservation :  that  is  to  say,  six 
packets  of  fine  woollen  cloth  ;  a  chest  full  of  linen  clodi ;  two  packets  of  velvet ;  two 
small  boxes  full  of  money ;  two  casks  of  articles  necessary  for  refitting,  and  clothes  for 
the  ship's  company ;  thirteen  casks  of  bread ;  one  of  cheese ;  a  small  cask  of  bacon ;  two 


i 


•\ 


TO  Tiir,  woMTii  or  cimofc. 


11.1 


tnnces 
liould 

fssels, 
were 
f,  six 
two 
|cs  for 
two 


■'1 


of  oil,  lix  of  witie,  two  of  vinrKtir,  And  tlir  clothrii  o(  the  crt\vn.  Alt  thU  itpMlfld  90 
miirh  witcn  tukcii  out  of  the  vcnmI,  that  it  nu^ht  Imvi-  Ikcd  iiaid  to  be  iin|H>Mibte  tO  1^ 
coinnioctntc  it  iu  \i\c  little  itpAcc  of  two  mich  nmull  vcnikU. 

Wlicn  the  cmlmrkniciit  luul  taken  plucc,  tliry  also  curricrl  nn  Ixnint  two  iklck  men. 
Burt-DtHz  luul  another,  who  were  diMMMttl  in  the  two  venwh,  which  the  n^a^ter  cmivd  t«t 
be  moored  clotic  to  one  unotltcr.  At  this  time  uIm>  Iu:  liod  tlic  two  memoirs  signed,  ol 
which  mention  hus  In-en  nuidc. 

In  line,  on  the  fourteenth  of  June  1597,  ut  sir.  in  the  morninii;,  they  weighed  anchor, 
and  Nct  Hail  from  Novayii  Zemlia  with  a  westerly  wind :  they  arrived  that  day  at  th:- 
Cane  of  tttc  Isles,  where  tlicy  iitill  met  with  much  ice,  uikI  they  remained  there  encloned  ; 
which  afflicted  tlK.*m  in  no  small  degae,  inider  tlu*  a|)prehe:)sion  they  might  continue 
there  :  four  of  them  landed  to  reconnoitre  the  country,  and  they  kncK^ked  down  four 
birds  from  the  rrx:ka  with  stoiu:». 

On  the  fiflccnth,  the  ice  being  a  little  aeparuted,  tlicy  doubled  the  Cupc  Flessingen,  a.ul 
came  to  Cape  Desire.  On  the  sixteenth  they  were  ut  Orange  Isle,  where  diey  also 
landed,  and  having  made  a  fire  of  the  w(khI  they  found  there,  they  melted  the  snow 
and  put  the  water  into  snuill  casks  for  drink.  Three  of  them  passed  ort  the  ice  to 
anotlter  island,  where  they  took  three  birds  ;  but  returning,  the  muster,  who  was  one  oC 
the  three,  fell  into  a  hole  in  the  ice,  wlK*re  lie  was  in  danger  of  peiishing,  for  there  was 
at  tliat  part  a  very  rupid  current.     Th(7  dressed  tlie  birds  for  the  sick. 

After  they  had  again  set  sail,  and  were  arrived  at  Icy  Cu|)e,  the  two  vessels  joined,  und 
the  master,  who  was  not  in  the  same  with  Barcntsz,  usked  him  how  he  ibund  himself. 
Barentsz  replied  that  Ik:  was  better,  and  hoped  he  would  still  be  able  to  travel  before 
they  arrivea  at  their  inn.  He  asked  if  they  were  ut  Icy  Ca[)C,  and  De  Veer  having  an. 
•wered  him  in  the  afRrmativc,  he  wished  to  be  raised  up,  in  order  that  he  might  behold 
that  cape  once  more,  for  which  there  was  leisure  enough,  being  again  enclosed  in  the 
ice,  and  the  vessels  completely  surrounded. 

On  the  morning  of  the  seventeenth,  the  flukes  of  ice  struck  against  these  two  liltlc 
vessels  in  so  dreMUul  a  manner,  that  the  hair  of  the  crew  stood  on  end :  they  believed 
themselves  at  their  last  hour,  iK-ither  being  able  to  stop  the  course  of  these  floating 
maases,  nor  to  prevent  their  Ijeing  carried  to  Icewurd  :  they  even  found  themselves  all 
together  so  pressed  between  two  banks  of  ice,  that  they  took  their  last  farewell  of  each 
other. 

At  length,  resuming  courage,  they  endeavoured  to  come  nearer  to  the  firm  ice,  to 
fasten  a  coitl  and  tow  the  vessels  there,  that  they  might  be  less  exposed  to  the  floating 
flakes.  When  they  had  approached  a  little,  there  was  no  person  who  would  go  to 
moor  the  cord ;  the  danger  was  too  great ;  yet  a  virtue  must  be  made  of  necessity,  and 
the  strength  of  the  balance  prevail  over  the  weak  side.  In  this  dilemma  De  Veer,  who 
was  the  most  .amble  among  them,  undertook  to  cany  the  cord,  and  leaped  from  one 
flake  of  ice  to  the  other,  until,  with  the  assistance  of  God,  he  happily  arrived  on  the 
firm  ice,  and  fastened  the  cord  about  an  eminence  of  ice. 

All  the  others  then  also  left  the  vessels,  and  carried  the  sick  in  sheets  on  the  ice, 
where  they  placed  some  other  things  under  them,  in  order  that  they  might  rcpoc**. 
They  afterwards  disembarked  whatever  remained  on  IxK^rd,  and  dragging  die  vessels  on 
the  ice,  they  saw  themselves  delivered  from  the  fear  of  a  death  which  had  appeared  al- 
most inevitable. 

On  the  eighteenth  they  refitted  their  vessels,  which  had  been  damaged  from  what 
tJiey  had  suffered.  They  caulked  the  seams  and  covered  them  with  tar-pawling,  having 
happily  found  some  wood  to  make  pitch.    They  afterwards  landed  to  seek  for  eggs,  to 

VOL.    I.  Q 


s 


t 

t 


f 


I 


2 


'k 


114 


TIIIKU  VOYAtiE  OF  THE  DUTCH 


give  to  the  sick,  who  most  earnestly  asked  for  some  :  but  tlicy  w(rrc  not  able  to  find  my, 
and  only  brought  back  four  birds. 

On  the  nineteenth  they  were  more  enclosed  in  the  ice  than  before,  and  no  more  be- 
held any  part  open,  so  that  they  thought  they  had  only  prolonged  their  lives  for  some 
days,  unless  God  should  deliver  them  by  some  fiesh  miracle.  On  the  twentieth,  at  nine 
ill  the  morning,  the  mate  came  on  board  the  shallop,  and  said  that  one  of  the  crew,  called 
Nicolas  Andrisz,  appeared  to  be  drawing  near  to  his  end.  Barentsz  told  him  that  he 
firmly  believed  his  was  not  far  off.  The  crew  who  perceived  at  the  same  time  that  Barentsz 
was  looking  over  a  chart,  which  Dc  Veer  had  drawn  of  the  places  they  had  seen  during 
the  voyage,  had  not  the  least  idea  of  his  being  in  that  state.  They  remained  seated 
and  conversed  together  of  many  other  matters,  until  Barentsz,  putting  aside  the  chart, 
said  to  De  Veer,  give  me  some  drink.  When  he  had  drank,  h'i  found  himself  very  bad, 
his  eyes  rolled  in  h'ls  head,  and  he  expired  so  suddenly,  that  they  had  not  time  to  cull  the 
muster,  who  was  in  the  schuyt.  Nicolas  Andrisz  also  expired  immediately  after.  But 
the  death  of  Barentsz  extremely  afflicted  the  whole  crew,  for  they  possessed  great  con- 
fidence in  him,  and  he  was  very  experienced  in  the  art  of  pilotage  and  navigation. 

On  the  twenty-second,  the  wind  blowing  fresh  from  the  S.  E.  the  sea  began  to  open. 
Yet  it  was  necessary  to  drag  the  vessels  more  than  fifty  paces  on  the  ice,  and  after 
having  launched  them,  to  draw  them  again  on  other  ice,  and  to  drag  them  for  more 
than  thirty  paces  before  arriving  at  a  free  and  navigable  part.  Having  performed  this 
labour,  they  set  sail  between  four  and  five  in  the  morning,  and  at  noon  ^t  again  en- 
tangled in  the  ice  :  but  a  little  time  after  it  separated,  in  a  manner  that  it  had  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  oi)ening  of  a  sluice.  They  then  navigated  a  little  along  the  coast,  and 
afterwards  suddenly  found  themselves  again  completely  enclosed,  and  notwithstanding 
all  their  efforts  to  separate  the  ice,  they  could  not  accomplish  it.  At  length  the  waters 
having  again  opened  of  themselves,  they  continued  to  sail  along  tlie  coast. 

On  the  twenty-thiid,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  they  came  to  Cape  Troost,  from  which 
they  could  not  depart  on  account  of  the  fresh  ice  which  surrounded  them.  On  the 
same  day  they  observed  the  altitude,  and  found  themselves  in  latitude  76°  39'.  Here 
the  sun  shone  clear ;  but  it  was  not  of  sufficient  strength  to  melt  the  snow,  for  which 
they  would  have  had  great  occasion  in  order  to  have  water  to  drink,  all  of  them  suffer- 
ing a  great  thirst. 

On  the  twenty-fourth,  at  noon,  they  disengaged  themselves  from  the  ice  by  means  of 
their  oars,  and  having  gained  the  sea,  they  sailed  onward  well  till  they  came  to  Cape 
Nassau,  which  they  discovered,  and  from  which  they  were  according  to  their  computa- 
tion ai  the  distance  of  three  leagues.  Three  sailors  landed,  and  brought  a  little  wood, 
which  served  them  to  boil  some  meat,  in  order  to  have  some  warm  aliment  for  their 
stomachs,  of  which  they  stood  in  very  great  need. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  and  twenty-sixth  there  arose  a  heavy  tempest  from  the  south, 
during  which  the  part  of  the  ice  to  which  the  vessels  were  moored  broke  and  separated. 
The  vessels  being  unmoored,  drifted  out  to  sea,  v/ithout  their  being  able  to  row  towards 
the  firm  ice,  and  they  were  a  hundred  times  in  danger  of  perishing.  As  they  found 
they  could  not  regain  the  land  by  means  of  the  oars,  they  hoisted  up  the  foresail,  and 
stood  towards  the  coast.  But  the  foremast  of  the  schuyt  broke  twice  ;  so  that  they 
wei^  constrained,  notwithstanding  die  violence  of  the  wind,  to  make  use  of  the  main  sail. 
Scarcely  was  it  hoisted  up,  when  the  wind  took  it  in  such  a  manner,  that  if  it  had  not  been 
immediately  lowered,  the  vessel  would  have  been  sunk  ;  for  it  already  admitted  the  water 
everywhere  by  the  side,  and  this  accid??nt,  with  the  violence  of  the  tempest,  occa.*on- 
ed  those  exposed  to  them  to  regard  death  as  certain.  But  the  time  appointed  by  Heaven 


:i| 


TO  THE  NORTH  OP  EUROPE. 


115 


for  their  last  hour  was  not  yet  arrived.  There  suddenly  arose  a  N.  W.  wind,  which 
calmed  every  thing,  and  favoured  their  passiigc  to  the  firm  ice,  though  they  did  not 
reach  it  without  danger. 

When  they  had  arrived  there,  they  looked  about  to  endeavour  to  discover  the 
shallop,  and  not  seeing  any  thing  of  it,  they  navigated  about  a  league  along  the  ice  with- 
out the  least  sign  of  it:  so  that  they  began  to  ap^irehend  t'.c  vessel  w;is  lost.  In  the 
mean  time  there  happened  a  great  tog,  which  obliged  the  crew  of  D  Veer  to  fire  a 
musket,  in  order  that  they  might  answer,  if  they  heard  it.  In  fact,  the  others  answered, 
and  this  signal  enabled  them  to  rejoin. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  they  arrived  at  a  place  on  the  western  coast  of  Cape  Nassau, 
where,  while  they  sailed  along  the  land,  they  beheld  on  the  ice  more  sea-cows  than  they 
had  ever  seen,  or  rather  they  saw  an  innume:able  multitude.  They  also  observed  a  flock 
of  birds,  at  which  having  fired  two  muskets  together,  they  killed  twelve.  On  the 
twenty-eighth  they  disembarked  all  theii  cargo,  and  placed  it  on  the  firm  ice,  where  the}' 
also  dragged  their  vessels,  because  the  wind  which  ciune  from  the  sea  might  force  the 
ice  towaitls  them  with  too  much  violence. 

As  soon  as  they  had  descended  on  the  ice  they  made  tents  of  their  sails,  and  placed 
themselves  underneath,  in  order  to  take  some  repose,  leaving  one  man  as  centinel. 
About  midnight  there  came  three  bears  towards  the  vessels.  The  centinel  discovering 
them,  called  out  three  bears,  three  bears.  At  this  noise  they  all  awoke,  and  proceeded 
from  th  ^  tents  with  muskets  charged  only  with  small  shot  to  kill  birds.  Although 
these  shots  might  give  no  great  wounds  to  the  bears,  they  did  not  fail  to  turn  back,  and 
by  this  means  gave  an  opportunity  of  loading  the  muskets  again.  One  was  killed,  and 
the  other  two  fled. 

They  returned  on  the  following  day,  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  to  the  place  where 
tlie  dead  bear  was  lying,  and  one  of  them  having  taken  him  by  the  throat,  carried  him 
to  a  considerable  distance  on  the  most  rugged  ice,  where  both  began  to  eat  him.  The 
crew  seeing  this  fired  a  musket,  which  occasioned  them  to  quit  their  prey  and  flee. 
Four  men  going  to  the  plac2,  found  that  in  the  little  time  they  were  about  it  they  had 
already  devoured  half  of  the  body  of  their  comrade,  of  which  seeing  the  size,  they 
were  astonished  at  the  strength  of  the  bear  who  had  carried  him  away  by  so  diflicult  a 
path,  since  these  four  men  had  great  difiiculty  to  lift  the  remaining  half. 

On  the  thirtieth  the  westerly  wind  again  forced  the  ice  with  the  same  violence  to- 
wards the  east ;  they  beheld  afresh  two  bears  coming  on  a  bank  of  floating  ice ;  which 
they  believed  to  be  the  same  they  had  seen  the  preceding  day.  They  shewed  a  disposi- 
tion to  attack  the  crews,  but  took  another  route.  About  half  past  ten  in  the  morning 
another  presented  himself  on  the  firm  ice,  who  retired  as  soon  as  he  heard  a  noi.  e. 

On  the  first  of  July,  at  six  in  the  morning,  which  was  the  break  of  day,  there  came 
again  a  bear  on  the  flakes  of  ice  who  plunged  into  the  water  in  order  to  swim  to  the  firm 
ice  where  the  crews  were,  but  retired  at  the  sound  of  their  voices.  About  nine,  the 
banks  of  ice  coming  from  the  sea  struck  with  so  much  violence  against  the  firm  ice,  that 
it  split  into  several  pieces  that  to  which  the  crew  had  retired  with  their  little  vessels,  and 
occasioned  it  to  float.  This  was  a  dreadful  accident,  for  all  their  packages  were  on 
the  ice,  and  the  greater  part  fell  into  the  water. 

It  became  necessarj'  therefore  to  exert  fresh  strength  in  order  to  drag  the  shallop  on 
the  ice  near  the  shore,  where  they  hoped  to  be  less  incommoded  by  the  flakes  of  ice. 
But  having  dravm  the  vessel,  when  they  would  go  to  fetch  the  {jackets,  they  found 
themselves  in  as  great  danger  as  ever  they  had  been  ;  for  while  they  endeavoured  to 
lay  hold  of  a  packet,  the  ice  split  between  both,  or  under  another  packet,  and  carried  it 


'i 


y. 
r 

■t 


116 


THIRD  VOYAGE  OP  THF.  DUTCH 


away.     It  even  split  under  the  feet  of  the  people  while  they  were  walking ;  so  that  they 
were  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  act,  or  how  to  save  themselves. 

The  same  happened  when  they  endeavoured  to  move  the  schuyt,  the  ice  split  under 
their  feet,  and  the  schuyt  was  carried  away  with  the  crew.  It  Mras  even  broken  in  some 
parts,  especially  in  those  which  had  been  altered  or  repaired.  The  mast  was  broken ; 
the  cross-piece  of  the  mast,  and  almost  the  whole  schuyt,  was  split  to  pieces.  There  was 
also  a  sick  man  within,  who  was  not  taken  out  but  with  extreme  danger  to  the  persons 
employed  in  this  charitable  office ;  for  the  pieces  of  ice  on  which  they  were  obliged  to 

Kluce  themselves  floated,  and  stnick  against  other  ice,  and  the  least  blow  which  might 
avc  been  given  to  an  arm  or  a  leg  would  have  broken  it. 

At  length,  after  a  con^derable  time  of  hardships  and  labour,  the  ice  dispersed  a  little, 
and  the  violence  of  their  course  diminished.  They  then  returned  to  their  schuyt,  and 
drew  it  again  on  the  firm  ice  near  the  shallop,  where  it  was  in  a  little  more  security. 
This  fatigue  lasted  from  six  in  the  morning  till  six  in  the  evening,  so  that  all  the  crew 
Wure  quite  exhausted.  They  lost  that  day  two  casks  of  biscuit,  a  chest  full  of  linen 
cloth,  a  chest  full  of  clothes,  and  necessary  articles  fur  the  equipment  of  the  vessels,  the 
astronomical  circle,  a  packet  of  scarlet  cloth,  a  little  cask  of  oil,  one  of  wine,  and  some 
cheeses. 

On  the  second  of  July,  at  half  past  four  in  the  afternoon,  the  weather  was  finer,  and 
six  men  were  employed  at  the  refitting  of  the  schuyt,  while  mx  others  went  on  shore  to 
seek  for  wood.  They  also  brought  some  stones,  which  they  arranged  on  the  ice  to  serve 
as  a  hearth,  and  to  make  a  fire,  in  order  to  melt  some  pitch  to  caulk  the  schuyt 
They  looked  at  the  same  time  for  a  piece  of  wood  to  make  a  mast,  which  they  found. 
There  was  even  some  wood  cut  down,  and  tools  to  cleave  it,  which  they  carried  away,  and 
which  indicated  that  the  place  had  l^en  frequented  by  men.  The  schuyt  was  repaired 
at  two  in  the  morning,  and  the^'  afterwards  roasted  some  birds  which  they  had  killed, 
in  order  to  eat,  and  recruit  their  strength. 

On  the  third  two  men  wt.  j  sent  to  procure  some  water.  They  found  at  the  water- 
ing place,  two  of  their  oars,  the  tiller  of  the  rudder,  the  chest  of  linen  cloth,  and  a  hat 
out  of  the  chest  of  goods.  They  carried  away  their  load,  and  when  they  were  returned, 
they  sent  four  others,  who  drew  all  the  remainder  of  the  water,  and  placed  it  on  the  ice, 
whence  they  again  took  it  when  they  set  sail. 

On  the  fourth  the  weather  was  firer  than  they  had  experienced  «nce  their  stay  on 
th"  'Ovists  of  Novaya  Zemlia.  They  availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity  to  wash  in 
snr  /  water  the  pieces  of  velvet  which  had  been  wetted  by  the  saJt  water,  and  packed 
*'.em  up  afresh.  On  the  fifth,  John  Jansz  of  Haerlem,  a  relation  of  the  deceased  Nicolas 
Andrisz,  also  died.  On  the  same  day  the  ilakes  began  again  to  float  with  violence.  On 
the  seventh  they  killed  thirteen  birds,  on  which  they  feasted  the  following  day. 

On  the  ninth  the  ice  continued  to  float,  and  the  water  became  fiiee  towards  the  land. 
The  firm  ice,  on  which  were  the  vessels  and  crews,  also  began  to  separate  and  float, 
which  obliged  them  to  draw  their  vessels  to  the  water  miore  than  three  hundred  ^nd 
forty  paces,  a  prodigious  labour,  and  which  they  could  never  have  perfonreJ,  if  they 
had  not  been  actuated  to  preserve  their  lives.  They  set  sail  between  seven  and  eight  in 
the  morning ;  but  at  six  in  the  evening  were  obUged  to  return  to  land,  and  replace  uiem- 
selves  ontl^  firm  ice,  which  was  not  yet  separated  in  that  part. 

On  the  tenth  they  exerted  all  their  efforts  to  pass  through  the  ice,  and  Sailed  till  they 
found  themselves  between  two  large  surfaces  of  ice,  very  much  resembling  fields,  but 
which  joined  together  in  a  part  It  was  necessary  therefore  to  unload  the  vessels  again, 
transport  their  cargoes,    and  drag  themselves  on  the  ice  tiU  they  should  ag^n 


1 


w 


V--' 


TO  THL  NORTH  OF  BUllOrE  Hf 

meet  with  open  water,  which  they  did  not  for  more  than  a  hundred  paces.  Afterwards 
they  again  set  sail,  but  this  did  not  continue  long,  and  they  were  constrained  to  proceed 
more  gently,  in  order  to  pass  to  a  small  space  lying  between  two  other  fields  of  ice,  which 
however  were  only  two  prodigious  floating  flakes,  between  which  they  passed,  before  they 
were  completely  joined. 

When  they  were  without  this  strait,  the  wind  began  to  blow  fresh  from  the  west,  and 
took  them  by  the  prow  ;  so  that  they  sailed  with  all  their  efforts  tc  regain  the  firm  ice, 
which  with  fi;reat  difficulty  they  approached.  They  tliere  a^ain  dra^^ged  their  vessels, 
and  remained  half  dead  with  fatigue,  and  almost  in  despair  at  beholdmg  the  prodigious 
assemblage  of  difficulties. 

On  the  eleventh  a  lai^  and  very  fat  bear  advanced  towards  them  from  the  water.  He 
was  received  with  three  muskets,  which  were  aimed  at  him  together,  and  being  fired 
when  he  was  no  farther  off"  than  about  thirty  paces,  killed  him  at  once.  The  fat,  quite 
warm,  which  issued  from  his  wounds,  resembled  oil  on  the  water  where  it  flowed.  Some 
of  the  crew  placed  themselves  on  an  ice  bank,  which  they  directed  towards  the  body,  and 
having  fixed  a  cord  about  his  neck,  dra^^d  him  on  the  ice,  where  they  drew  his  teeth ; 
and  having  measured  the  body,  found  it  to  be  eight  feet  thick. 

After  this,  three  of  the  crew  went  to  an  island  lying  before  them,  from  which  they  dis- 
covered the  isle  of  Crosses  to  the  west.  They  advanced  by  that  side  and  entered  this 
latter  bland,  in  orde  *  to  see  if  there  were  no  signs  of  the  Russians  being  arrived  there ; 
but  they  saw  nothing  that  could  in  the  least  induce  them  to  imagine  that  any  one  had 
landed  there  since  their  departure.  They  took  nearly  seventy  eggs  of  mountain  mallards, 
and  returned  to  join  their  companions,  after  an  absence  of  twelve  hours,  which  had  ap. 
peared  to  the  remainder  of  the  crew,  who  waited  for  tliem,  a  great  time,  and  had  occa- 
sioned them  great  uneasiness. 

They  related,  that  in  order  to  i)ass  the  Isle  of  Crosses,  they  had  sometimes  been  up  to 
their  knees  in  the  water  on  tlie  ice  between  the  two  i^ands,  and  that  they  had  walked 
nearly  six  ka^es  going  and  coming.  The  others  *.vere  astonished  at  their  boldness,  and 
especi^  bemg  so  weak  as  they  all  were,  that  they  had  undertaken  so  fatiguing  a  jour- 
ney. The  eg^  they  brought  were  a  ven  n-jcessary  and  agreeable  mess  for  £em  all : 
and  though  amidst  so  many  difficulties,  they  aid  not  fail  to  make  a  very  delicious  repast. 
The^  also  then  distributed  the  remainder  of  the  wine,  of  which  each  had  three  minglesy 
or  six  French  pints.        ... 

On  the  uxteenth  a  bear  came  towards  them  from  the  land.  At  first  they  could  not 
discern  if  it  was  a  bear,  so  much  did  his  white  skin  glitter,  and  resemble  the  snow. 
When  he  had  approached  they  fired  at  him,  and  the  shot  taking  effect,  he  fled.  On  the 
fdlowing  day,  some  of  them  wishing  to  go  to  the  neighbouring  island,  to  observe  if  there 
were  any  opening  in  the  water,  met  about  half  way  with  the  wounded  bear,  lying  on  a 
tank  of  ice.  As  soon  as  he  heard  them  he  fled,  but  one  of  them  having  ^ven  him  a 
violent  blow  with  a  boat  hook,  the  hook  of  which  entered  his  skin,  he  fell  back  on  his 
two  hinder  paws.  The  man  would  have  followed  up  the  blow,  but  the  bear  broke  the 
hook  to  pieces,  so  that  he  who  had  given  the  blow  fell  backwards  in  his  turn.  The  others 
immediately  fibred  on  the  bear,  which  occasioning  him  to  flee,  the  sailor  who  had  fallen 
down,  rose  up,  ran  after  him  \i'itla  the  stump  of  his  boat  hook,  and  discharged  several 
heavy  blows  on  his  body.  The  bear  turned  back  each  time,  and  leaped  three  times 
against  the  man  who  struck  him.  In  the  mean  time  his  two  companions  having  ap- 
proached, they  fired  again  at  the  bear,  and  pierced  him  through  the  body,  so  that  he 
fell  back  ^ain,  and  could  no  Icmger  walk  but  with  difficulty.  In  fine,  they  fired  once 
mo:c,  and  having  killed  himi  they  drew  his  teeth,  .,     ,  .> 


W 


r 

u 


I 


i 


(: 


l^g  THIRD  VOYAGE  OF  THE  DUTCH 

On  the  eighteenth  they  unloaded  the  vessels,  and  having  drawn  them  on  the  ice,  they 
dragged  them  over  it  to  a  place  where  water  was  open.  Afterwards  they  carried  the 
cargo  there,  that  is  to  say,  for  more  than  a  thousand  paces ;  a  fatigue  under  which  they 
hud  nearly  sunk.  They  tlien  again  set  sail,  imd  navigated  uU  halfpast  four  in  the  after- 
noon, when  they  were  again  entangled  in  the  ice :  and  it  was  necessary  to  draw  their 
vessels  over,  as  they  had  already  so  many  times.  They  there  had  a  distmct  view  of  the 
Isle  of  Crosses,  from  which  they  computed  they  were  at  the  distance  of  a  league. 

On  the  nineteenth,  while  the  vessels  and  the  crew  were  on  the  ice,  seven  men  passed  at 
six  in  the  morning  into  the  Island  of  Crosses,  whence  they  beheld  a  considemblc  space  of 
water  open  to  the  west,  which  gave  them  great  joy,  and  occasioned  them  to  hasten  to  bear 
this  good  intelligence  to  their  companions.  Nevertheless  they  took  time  to  collect  a 
hundred  eggs,  which  were  cooked  as  soon  as  thev  arrived,  and  distributed. 

At  two  m  the  afternoon  they  laboured  to  put  the  vessels  into  the  water.  It  was  ne- 
cessary to  drag  them  for  more  than  two  hundred  and  seventy  paces,  but  this  was  per- 
formed with  a  cheeriulness  which  much  alleviated  the  pain,  in  the  hopes  that  it  would  be 
the  last  of  that  kind  of  fatigue  tliey  should  undergo.  As  soon  as  the  vessels  were  in  the 
water,  they  set  sail,  and  made  such  good  way,  that  at  six  in  the  evening  they  were  beyond 
the  Isle  of  Crosses,  and  immediately  afterwards  they  saw  no  more  ice,  or  at  least  the 
little  they  beheld  gave  them  no  uneasiness.  They  bore  to  the  W.  and  by  S.  with  a  good 
steady  wind  blowmg  from  the  E.  and  £.  N.  £.  so  that,  according  to  their  computation, 
ihey  sailed  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  leagues  in  twenty-four  hours :  which  inspired  them 
with  fresh  courage,  and  with  the  hopes,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  of  a  happy  return. 

On  the  twentieth,  at  nir.e  in  the  morning,  they  doubled  the  Black  Cape,  and  at  six  in 
the  evening  observed  Admiralty  Isle,  which  they  passed  at  midnight  Tney  there  beheld 
nearly  two  hundred  sea-cows  on  a  bank  of  ice,  about  wliich  they  were  feeding,  and  they 
attacked  them,  of  which  they  hud  occasion  to  repent;  for  this  species  of  marine  monsters 
possessing  an  extraordinary  strength,  they  all  swam  towards  the  vessels,  as  if  with  a  de- 
sign to  attack  them,  and  to  revenge  the  injury  they  had  sustained ;  and  they  made  all 
rour.a  a  dreadful  noise,  as  if  they  had  threatened  to  destroy  every  thing.  The  freshness 
of  the  wind,  which  forced  the  vessels  along,  relieved  them  from  a  peril  which  they  could 
well  have  avoided,  if  they  had  been  willing,  and  into  which  a  want  of  prudence  alone  had 
drawn  them. 

On  the  twenty.first  they  doubled  the  capes  of  Plancio  and  Laugenes.  On  the  twenty- 
second,  as  they  were  close  to  Cape  Cant,  the  crew  of  Gerard  De  Veer  landed  to  seek 
for  e^s  and  birds.  They  did  not  find  any ;  but  aftervt^ards,  about  noon,  seeing  a  rock 
covered  with  birds,  they  steered  towards  it,  and  throwing  stones,  they  knocked  down 
and  took  twenty-two  birds,  and  one  of  th^  crew  having  landed  on  the  rock,  brought 
away  twenty  three  e^s. 

Abuut  three  in  the  afternoon  they  came  to  another  cape,  where  they  took  nearly  a 
hundred  and  twenty-five  birds,  taking  the  greater  number  by  the  hand  in  their  nests : 
for  they  were  not  alarmed  at  the  sight  of  the  men,  and  no  doubt  were  only  afraid  of  the 
foxes  and  other  wild  beasts,  to  secure  themselves  from  which  they  built  their  nests  on 
those  high  and  steep  rocks,  where  they  could  not  ascend.  As  for  the  men,  if  the  sight 
;jOf  them  had  frightened  the  birds,  they  might  easily  have  escaped  from  ^heir 
hands,  for  they  could  not  go  to  take  them  in  tneir  own  nests,  where  they  seemed  to 
await  being  taken,  without  danger  of  breaking  their  legs  or  arms,  or  of  perishing,  and 
still  more  in  descending  than  in  mounting.  Be»des,  there  was  only  one  egg  in  each  nest; 
and  it  lay  on  the  bare  rock,  without  straw  or  feathers,  or  any  thing  which  could  give  it 


^ 


TO  rtiv.  NORTH  OK  fciniori'.. 


119 


warmth ;  so  that  there  was  room  for  wonder  how  these  eggs  could  be  brooded  and 
hatched,  on  account  of  the  great  cold  which  reigned  there. 

When  they  had  again  set  sail  in  order  to  depart  from  the  coast,  the  wind  became  per- 
fectly contrary.  Besides,  the  sea  was  so  covered  with  ice,  that  after  much  difficulty,  and 
making  different  tacks,  they  found  themselves  again  cnt^ingled.  The  master,  who  was 
in  the  schuyt,  farther  into  the  sea,  seeing  the  others  in  the  midst  of  the  ice,  and  that  they 
continually  advanced,  imagined  they  perceived  open  water  farther  off,  in  which  he  was 
not  deceived ;  and  that  they  were  willing  to  reach  it.  Under  this  idea  he  tacked  about, 
and  steered  in  the  same  direction,  and  both  together  bore  towards  the  coast,  where  they 
met  with  a  Rood  harbour,  sheltered  almost  from  every  wind.  They  landed  there  and 
brought  wocS,  in  order  to  cook  the  birds. 

On  the  twenty-third,  the  weather  being  cloudy  and  foggy,  and  the  wind  blowing  from 
the  north,  they  were  constrained  to  remam  in  that  creek.  In  the  mean  time  some  of  the 
crew  advancing  farther  into  the  island,  they  found  some  small  stones  of  good  gold.  On 
the  twenty-fourth  they  observed  the  altitude,  and  found  themselves  in  latitude  73°  10'. 
The  weather  continuing  unfavourable,  they  were  obliged  to  remain  longer  in  that  place, 
where  they  went  to  seek  for  small  golden  stones,  and  they  brought  away  handsomer  than 
they  had  observed  before. 

On  the  twenty-sixth,  at  noon,  they  again  set  sail,  and  as  the  creek  in  which  they  were 
Mras  of  great  extent,  it  was  already  full  midnight  by  the  time  they  were  without  On  the 
twenty-seventh  they  sailed  along  the  coast  through  the  broken  ice,  and  at  six  in  the 
evening  they  arrived  at  a  place  where  was  a  very  rapid  current,  which  induced  them  to 
think  they  were  near  Costmsarch :  for  they  saw  a  great  gulf,  as  they  imagined,  extending 
to  the  sea  of  Tartary.  About  midnight  they  doubled  the  Cape  of  the  Crosses,  and  en- 
tered the  channel  between  the  main  land  and  an  island. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  of  July  they  sailed  along  the  coast,  and  came  at  three  in  the 
afternoon  to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Laurence,  or  under  Biistion  Cape,  where  they  found  beyond 
the  point  two  Russian  barks,  which  were  at  ancho..  It  would  be  difficult  to  describe 
the  joy  of  the  whole  crew  at  having  arrived  at  a  place  where  they  had  the  sight  of  men. 
Nevertheless  this  joy  was  damped  by  the  reflection  that  these  men,  who  were  to  the  num- 
ber  of  thirty,  were  not  Hollanders,  but  perhaps  savages,  or  at  least  other  people,  with 
whom  they  were  unacquainted,  and  who  might  treat  them  as  enemies. 

In  the  mean  time  they  approached  the  snore  with  much  difficulty,  and  the  Russians 
perceiving  them,  quitted  their  work,  and  advanced  towards  them  unarmed.  Approach- 
ing one  another,  tlhey  made  salutations,  each  according  to  his  manner.  Some  of  the 
Russians  recollected  the  Hollanders,  and  beheld  them  with  compassion ;  and  some  of 
the  Hollanders  also  remembered  them  to  be  the  same  they  had  seen  in  the  preceding 
voyage,  when  they  had  passed  the  Wcigats,  and  who  had  entered  their  vessel.  It  was 
easy  to  observe  on  the  countenances  of  the  Russians  the  astonishment  they  were  in,  at 
beholding  the  others,  and  seeing  them  so  meagre  and  cast  down,  wandermg  in  small 
vessels  without  decks,  and  quite  exposed ;  while  before  they  had  seen  them  in  so  beauti> 
ful  a  ship,  and  so  well  equipped. 

Two  of  them  laid  their  hands  in  a  friendly  manner  on  the  shoulders  of  the  master 
and  De  Veer,  in  order  to  let  them  know  they  remembered  them  ;  for  of  all  the  Dutch 
crew  which  was  there,  only  these  two  had  been  in  the  preceding  voyage,  in  which  they 
had  seen  the  Russians.  They  asked,  as  well  as  could  be  comprehended,  where  their 
crahble  was,  that  is  to  say,  their  vessel.  As  they  had  ho  interpreter,  they  made  them 
understand  in  the  best  manner  they  could,  that  they  had  lost  it  m  the  ice ;  upon  which 


,< 


•;' 


ISO 


TIIIRU  VOVAf.K  OP  TUB  Dt  TCK 


they  replied,  Grabble  probal ;  the  Dutch,  conceiving  they  said  the  vessel  is  lost,  replied 
also  Crabble  propai,  tninking  to  say,  yes,  we  have  lost  it. 

Afterwards  the  Russians  made  them  understar  1  that  in  the  other  voyage  they  had 
drunk  wine  in  the  ship.  One  of  the  sailors  comprehending  that  they  spoke  of  drinking, 
went  to  draw  some  water,  and  having  presented  it  to  them,  they  shook  their  heads,  and 
said,  JVodobre,  by  which  they  thought  they  would  say,  that  is  not  good.  The  master 
having  approached  them,  and  having  opened  his  mouth,  and  shewn  the  inside,  in  order  to 
make  them  understand  that  he  was  tormented  with  the  scurvy,  and  to  ask  if  they  had  no 
remedies  for  this  disorder,  they  conceived  the  master  would  say  he  was  hungry,  and  hav- 
ing returned  to  their  lodia,  they  brought  a  loaf  of  rye  flour,  of  about  eight  pounds  weight, 
and  some  dried  birds.  The  master  tnanked  them,  and  also  made  them  a  present  of  half 
a  dozen  biscuits.  He  invited  two  of  the  principal  to  come  into  the  schuyt  \^-ith  him, 
where  they  presented  each  with  a  glass  of  wine  of  what  they  had  remaining.  The  other 
sailors  went  to  the  place  where  were  the  other  Russians,  and  there  boiled  some  biscuits 
in  water,  in  order  to  take  something  \vami.  In  fine,  it  was  a  great  consolation  to  have 
commerce  with  men,  after  being  deprived  of  that  pleasure  for  thirteen  months. 

On  the  twenty-third,  in  the  morning,  the  Russians  prepared  to  sail,  and  drew  from 
beneath  the  grass,  on  the  brink  of  the  sea,  some  tons  of  whale  oil,  which  they  had 
buried,  in  order  to  carry  on  board.  The  Dutch,  who  had  not  been  able  to  learn 
their  route,  perceived  they  took  that  of  the  Weigats.  They  steered  the  same  course, 
and  followed  them.  But  the  wciither  was  so  dark  and  misty,  that  they  lost  sight 
of  one  another. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Dutch  entered  a  channel  between  two  islands,  and  passed  them 
till  they  were  again  entangled  in  the  ice,  without  seeing  any  opening  by  which  they  might 
leave  it ;  which  made  them  presume  that  they  were  near  the  Weigats,  and  that  the  N. 
W.  wind  had  thus  forced  the  ice  into  the  gulf.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to  put  back, 
and  return  to  the  two  islands,  to  one  of  which  they  moored  their  vessels. 

On  the  thirty  .first  they  sailed  from  this  island  towards  another,  hi  >^ich  were  two 
crosses.  Perceiving  these,  they  persuaded  themselves  that  they  should  meet  with  some 
people  there  :  but  mey  saw  no  one.  Nevertheless  their  trouble  was  not  lost ;  if  they 
found  no  men,  they  found  some  cochlearia^  a  herb  of  which  they  were  nearly  all  in  want, 
because  they  were  attacked  with  the  scurvy,  and  so  affected,  that  the  greater  part  was 
ready  to  sink  under  it.  Thev  ate  the  cochlearia  in  great  quantities,  because  in  Holland 
they  had  heard  much  said  of  its  virtue,  and  they  experienced  it  to  be  yet  greater  than  they 
had  imagined.  It  had  so  great  and  sudden  an  effect,  that  they  were  surprised ;  so  that 
those  who  were  no  longer  able  to  eat  biscuit  began  to  eat  it  direcdy. 

On  the  third  of  August,  1597,  they  determined  to  cross  from  Novaya  Zemlia 
to  Russia.  With  this  intention  they  steered  to  the  S.  S.  W.  and  sailed  till  six  in  the 
morning,  when  they  again  got  entangled  in  the  ice.  This  new  misfortune  sensibly  affected 
them,  for  they  did  not  expect  to  be  any  more  exposed  to  it,  and  thought  they  had  been 
completely  clear  of  it« 

A  calm  coming  on  at  the  same  time,  they  endeavoured  to  extricate  themselves  by  their 
oars ;  and  in  fact,  by  three  in  the  afternoon  they  were  in  the  main  sea,  where  no  more  ice 
was  seen.  As  they  proceeded  at  a  good  rate,  they  imagined  they  should  soon  be  off  the 
coast  of  Russia ;  but  at  nine  at  night  they  saw  themselves  afresh  surrounded  with  ice ;  an 
accident  which  had  nearly  mined  them,  and  occasi(med  them  to  fear  they  should  nev£r  be 
out  of  these  dangerous  parts.  .  ■  ,  ..  * 


!»■■.'■■.: 


■■■m-' 


TO  TUB  NOIITII  OF  KLnOI»i;. 


191 


thfir 
Ire  ice 
)ffthe 
te;  an 

;erbe 

1." 


Not  being  able  therefore  to  sail  with  the  shallop,  nor  to  double  Icy  CajH-,  they 
were  obliged  to  man  through  the  ice  which  surrounded  them.  While  they  were  en- 
gaged  in  this,  tney  advanced  more  than  they  did  before,  and  at  length  ailer  gr(ut 
dimculty  found  themselves  again  in  free  water.  As  for  the  master,  he  was  in  the 
achuyt :  and  this  vessel,  which  was  a  better  sailer  than  the  other,  passed  Icy  Cape,  after 
which  they  rejoined. 

On  the  fourth,  at  noon,  they  saw  by  the  prow  the  coast  of  Russia,  and  having  ap- 
proached it,  they  sailed  close  to  the  shore,  and  remained  moored  there  till  three  in  the 
afternoon,  when  they  again  set  sail.  They  kept  constanUy  close  to  the  s'.tore,  and  pro« 
ceedcd  at  a  tolerable  rate  till  midnight,  when  they  discovered  a  Russian  vessel,  and  called 
out  Candnocsy  Candnoes ;  but  the  Russians  answered,  PitzorOy  Pitzora :  giving  the 
Dutch  to  understand  that  they  were  not  yet  near  to  Candnoes,  as  they  imagined,  but 
only  near  to  Pitzora.  This  error  arose  from  the  variation  of  the  needle  of  the  com- 
pass,  which  was  enclosed  in  a  box  cncomjjassed  with  circles  of  iron,  so  that  they  were 
mistaken  by  two  rumbs.  As  tlicy  had  observed  their  error,  they  judged  it  proper  to 
moor,  and  wait  for  day. 

On  the  fifth  a  sailor,  having  landed,  found  some  grass  and  small  trees.  He  called  the 
others  and  told  them  to  bring  firelocks,  because  there  was  game,  at  which  they  were 
extremely  rejoiced  :  for  the  provisions  were  nearly  exhausted,  only  some  mouldy  bis- 
cuit remaining.  Besides,  some  of  the  crew  w;;re  of  opinion  they  should  leave  the  vessels 
there,  and  proceed  by  land,  because  otherwise  it  wivs  probable  that  they  would  perish 
by  hunger. 

On  the  sixth  of  August,  the  wind  being  contrary,  they  encouraged  one  another  to 
row  strongly,  in  order  to  depart  from  the  gulf;  but  after  having  rowed  for  nearly 
three  leagues,  they  could  not  advance  farther,  as  much  on  account  of  the  contrary 
wind,  as  of  their  weak  rendition  ;  and  besides,  the  coast  stretched  farther  to  the  N.  E. 
than  they  had  imagined.  On  the  seventh  they  left  the  gulf,  and  reached  the  point  of 
land  where  they  had  been  before.  There  they  were  obliged  to  fix  themselves  again  with 
their  hawsers,  because  the  wind  always  remamed  contrary,  which  made  them  heavy  at 
heart,  seeing  there  was  no  end  to  their  hardships,  and  finding  disease  and  hunger  con- 
sume them. 

The  eighth  and  ninth  were  not  more  favourable  days.  Some  of  the  crew  having 
landed,  discovered  a  buoy  between  Candnoes  and  the  continent  of  Russia,  and  they 
concluded  that  this  was  the  channel  through  which  the  Russians  passed.  Returning, 
they  met  with  a  dead  sea-dog.  They  dragged  it  into  the  schuyt,  and  regarded  it  as  a 
good  piece  of  game,  so  greatly  were  thev  pressed  by  hunger.  But  the  others  pre- 
vented them  from  eating  it,  telling  them  that  it  would  certainly  occasion  their  deaths, 
and  that  it  would  be  better  to  suffer  still,  and  wait  what  it  should  please  God  to  do 
with  them  :  that  it  should  be  hoped  that  out  of  his  goodness  he  would  at  last  provide 
for  their  wants. 

On  the  eleventh  they  rowed  till  noon,  when  they  had  a  fresh  breeze  from  the  S.  and 
having  set  the  sails  they  proceeded  very  quickly.  In  the  evening,  the  wind  increasing 
very  much,  they  sailed  towards  the  coast,  and  landed,  in  order  to  water  the  vessel  if  they 
could  meet  with  any.  They  also  erected  tents  on  account  of  the  rain  which  fell  in 
heavy  showers,  and  which  at  midnight  was  accompanied  with  lightning  and  loud  claps  of 
thunder.  All  the^f^  new  misfortunes,  following  those  with  which  they  \vere  already 
overwhelmed,  reduced  them  almost  to  despair,  and  occasioned  some  to  wish  for  death. 

On  the  twelfth,  at  six  in  the  morning,  they  resumed  a  little  courage  at  seeing  a  Russian 
bark  coming  towards  them  at  full  sail.    They  hastened  as  much  as  they  could  to  stand 

VOL.    I.  ft 


Sx 


f  1 


122  THIKI)  VOYAfJB  OF  THR  DUTCH 

out  to  sea  nnd  meet  it.  The  master  went  on  board  the  bark,  and  asked  at  what  distance 
they  were  yet  from  Candiux^s ;  but  he  could  not  learn  uny  thin^r,  beinfii^  unacquainted 
with  the  language.  They  extended  five  fuigcrs,  and  the  Dutch  miagined  this  signified 
that  there  were  five  crosses  on  the  coast.  They  also  drew  out  their  steering  compass, 
nnd  shewed  that  the  lands  lay  to  the  N.  W.  of  them,  and  the  Dutch  found  the  same  by 
their  compass. 

As  the  master  perceived  he  could  derive  no  intelligence  from  them,  he  entered 
farther  into  the  bark,  and  pointing  to  a  cask  of  fish,  asked  if  they  would  sell  it,  and 

S>resented  them  a  piece  of  forty  sols.  They  comprehended  his  intention,  and  gave 
lim  a  hundred  nnd  two  fish,  with  little  cakes,  which  they  had  cooked  in  the  water  in 
which  they  had  boiled  their  fish.  About  noon  >hey  parted,  the  Dutch  crew  remaining 
very  much  satisfied  at  having  obtained  a  little  provision,  because  fnr  a  length  of  time 
they  had  only  had  each  four  ounces  jier  day,  with  water,  and  nothing  more.  They 
divided  the  fish  equally  between  them,  without  the  least  distinctioi;. 

On  the  thirteenth  two  sailors  landed,  in  order  to  discover  if  the  point  of  Candnoes 
stretched  far  into  the  sea.  At  their  return,  they  said  there  was  every  ap|iearance  that  it 
was  the  same  point  they  had  conceived,  and  on  this  the  spirits  of  all  the  crew  being 
revived,  they  rowed  with  ^reat  exertion  along  the  coast.  At  three  in  the  afternoon  they 
observed  that  the  cape  which  they  had  seen  appeared  at  some  distance  to  the  S.  and  no 
longer  doubted  then  that  this  was  the  Cajie  or  Candnoes,  whence  they  hoped  to  enter 
the  mouth  of  the  White  Sea.  "With  this  intention  the  vessels  approached  each  other 
side  to  side,  nnd  stood  out  to  sea,  in  order  to  pass  the  White  Sea,  and  go  to  Russia, 
according  to  their  idea.  They  sailed  with  tolerable  success  till  midnight,  when  there 
arose  a  violent  tempest  from  the  N.  which  separated  the  two  vessels  from  one 
another. 

On  the  fourteenth  the  weather  clearing  up.  the  crew  of  the  schuyt  discovered  the  others 
just  within  the  reach  m  the  eye,  and  used  every  exertion  to  rejoin  them,  but  in  vain,  on 
account  of  a  great  mist  which  arose.  On  tlie  fifteenth  they  had  a  fine  breeze,  and 
about  noon  discovered  land.  They  then  imagined  that  they  were  to  the  west  of  the 
White  Sea,  beyond  Candsioes. 

When  they  ^^  ere  near  to  land,  they  saw  six  barks  of  Russians  lying  at  anchor.  They 
saluted  them,  and  asked  them  at  what  distance  they  were  from  Kilduin,  or  Kildun. 
The  Russians  gave  them  to  understand  that  they  were  still  very  far  from  it,  and  that 
they  were  only  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Candnoes.  They  stretched  out  their  arms,  to 
signify  that  it  was  necessary  to  pass  the  White  Sea,  and  that  it  would  be  very  perilous 
to  undertake  this  voyage  with  such  small  vessels.  The  Dutch  having  requested  some 
provisions,  they  gave  them  a  loaf,  which  they  ate  with  great  appetite,  notwithstanding 
its  dryness.  Nevertheless,  though  they  sufficiently  comprehended,  the  crew  of  the 
schuyt  could  not  persuade  themselves  that  they  were  at  the  place  which  was  signified  to 
them  :  they  were  willing,  at  any  rate,  to  believe  that  they  had  passed  the  White  Sea. 

On  the  sixteenth  De  Veer  steered  towards  a  bark,  which  he  saw  to  starboard,  and  to 
which  he  came  up  with  great  difficulty.  They  asked  the  Russian  crew  if  they  were 
near  Zemlia  of  Cool,  or  otherwise  Kilduin.  The  Russians  shook  their  head,  and  gave 
them  to  understand  they  were  only  at  Zemlia  of  Candnoes.  The  Dutch  were  still 
unwilling  to  believe  them.  They  entreated  them  to  give  them  some  provisions.  The 
Russians  gave  them  some  plaice,  and  the  master  having  paid  a  piece  of  silver  for  them, 
tacked  about,  in  order  to  enter  a  channel  before  which  they  then  were,  and  through 
which  they  would  pass  into  the  sea. 


one 


TO  THK  NORTH  OF  F.l'ROPK  12.1 

The  RuMians  observing  their  tacking,  and  that  they  took  a  wronp;  course,  hc!>i(Iis 
that  the  tide  was  almost  jwshed,  sent  two  men  to  tlitni  in  a  little  yawl,  with  a  large  loaK 
ThcHC  men  gave  them  to  understand  that  they  would  do  well  to  return  to  the  bark, 
where  thev  would  endeavour  to  give  them  more  instruction.  The  master  i^rcbenttd 
another  piece  of  silver,  with  some  eloth,  to  these  messengers,  who  continued  without 
wishing  to  part.  Those  who  were  in  the  large  biu-k  raised  in  the  air  a  piece  ol'  bacon 
and  some  butter,  to  induce  the  Dutch  to  return.  They  therefore  returned,  and  having 
shewed  their  chart  to  the  Russians,  these  latter  made  them  comprehend  that  they  were 
still  to  the  east  of  the  White  Sea  and  Candnoes. 

The  Dutch  were  not  less  surprised  than  afflicted  with  this  intellii^ncc,  whi^  \  they 
could  not  believe  till  then,  and  to  find  themselves  so  distant,  especially  on  acc<  <nt  of 
their  companions  in  the  shallop.  The  master  purchased  of  the  Russians  three  sacks  of 
flour,  a  side  of  bacon,  and  half  another,  with  a  little  cask  of  honey,  as  much  for  his  crew, 
as  for  that  of  die  shallop,  if  they  should  rejoin. 

In  the  mean  time  tne  tide  having  passed,  at  the  commencement  of  the  ebb  they 
crossed  the  channel,  at  the  mouth  of  which  they  were  when  Uie  little  yawl  came  to  re- 
call them,  and  stood  out  to  sea,  sailing  until  they  had  discovered  a  largir  ca|x>  stretching 
very  far,  which  they  believed  to  Ik  Candnoi^s.  At  night  they  anchored  under  the 
cape,  and  boiled  a  pot  full  of  flour  with  water ;  a  mess  which  they  found  excellent, 
the  more  so  as  they  had  mixed  a  little  honey.  They  were  vet  extremely  uneasy  on 
account  of  the  shallop,  which  they  saw  no  more,  and  of  the  fate  of  which  they  were 
ignorant. 

On  the  seventeenth,  being  moored,  they  saw  a  bark  coming  from  the  White  Sea,  to 
which  they  sailed.  On  boarding,  thev  present^'d  them  a  lonf,  without  being  vet  asked 
for  one.  The  Russians  wislied  to  make  them  understand  in  the  Ixst  manner  they  could 
that  they  had  seen  their  companions  to  the  number  of  seven  in  their  shallop,  and  spoken 
to  them.  But  as  they  found  they  were  not  understood,  they  lifted  up  seven  fingers, 
and  pointed  to  the  schuyt,  giving  them  to  understand  that  it  was  as  small  a  vessel  with- 
out deck,  which  they  had  seen,  and  that  they  had  sold  them  bread,  meat,  fish,  and 
other  things.  The  crew  of  the  schuyt  be^nning  to  comprehend  what  they  said,  jk-t- 
fectly  understood  them,  by  seeing  in  their  hiinds  a  little  compass  which  they  had  seen  with 
the  boatswain's  mate.  They  asked  them  if  it  was  long  since  they  had  seen  their  com- 
panions,  and  where  they  then  were.  The  Russians  signified  to  them  that  it  was  the 
preceding  day,  and  caressed  the  Dutch  ver)'  much,  who  did  not  do  less  in  thanking 
them,  especially  on  account  of  the  good  intelligence  they  had  given  them  with  resix^ct 
to  the  shalloL*.  The  master  directed  them  to  row  with  exertion  towards  the  part  where 
the  shallop  should  be,  in  order  to  endeavour  to  rejoin  them ;  and  having  ranged  all 
day  along  the  coast,  about  midnight  they  met  with  a  spring  of  fresh  water,  where  they 
watered  the  ship,  and  at  the  same  place  they  also  found  some  cochlearia. 

On  the  eighteenth,  at  six  in  the  morning,  they  drew  up  the  large  stone  to  which  they 
were  moored,  instead  of  a  stream  anchor,  and  continued  to  range  the  coast,  sailing 
till  noon,  when  they  again  beheld  another  great  cape,  upon  which  there  appeared  in. 
distinctly  some  crosses. 

Towards  six  in  the  evening,  they  recognized  distincUy  by,  the  marks  that  it  was  the 
Cape  of  Candnoes,  which  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  White  Sea,  and  under  which  they 
had  wished  for  a  length  of  time  to  arrive.  This  cape  is  very  easily  known  again  by 
five  crosses  which  are  there,  and  it  can  easily  be  perceived  how  it  bears  oflf  on  each 
side,  on  one  side  to  the  S,  E.  and  on  the  other  to  the  S.  W, 


nj4  TIIIMT)  VOYACiR  OV  TlfF.  DUTCH 

While  thej'  were  preparinp;  to  cross  to  tlic  west  of  the  White  Sea,  towards  the  coast 
of  Luplaiul,  they  ixrccivcd  that  the  water  hud  nearly  all  run  out  of  uue  of  tlicir  liule 
QAskn.  They  had  more  than  forty  leagues  to  go  Ixfore  tliey  could  meet  with  fretih,  !io 
that  they  judged  it  pro|x:r  to  sail  towanls  land,  in  order  to  acck  tor  home  spring;  but  the 
•ca  dashed  no  violently  along  the  coaht  that  they  d^ux-d  not  approach. 

They  again  set  sail  between  ten  and  eleven  at  night,  and  biiiled  all  that  night  and  the 
following  day  with  a  goixl  wind,  by  which  the^  made  a  gnat  progress ;  so  that  on  the 
twentieth,  between  four  and  five  in  the  mornmg,  they  saw  the  land  to  the  west  of  the 
White  Sea,  having  before  jXTceived  bv  the  roaring  of  the  sea  that  they  were  not  far  oflF. 
It  was  to  them  a  great  occa-sion  to  give  thanks  to  Grxl,  that  in  thirty  hours  they  had 
happily  passed  the  White  Sea,  in  which  they  had  a  very  perilous  passage  of  forty  leagues. 

When  they  were  off  the  coast,  and  found  that  there  was  no  way  of  advancing  by 
sailing,  they  passed  between  some  rocks,  and  came  to  a  f^i^^Kl  road,  where  having  en. 
tercd,  they  saw  a  large  bark  at  anchor,  and  some  houses  on  the  coast :  they  rowed  to- 
wards the  bark,  and  having  moored  the  schuyt  there,  they  landed  and  proceeded  to  those 
houses.  The  inhabitants  received  them  with  kindness ;  they  led  them  to  a  stove,  where 
they  dried  their  clothes,  and  then  served  them  with  iish.  In  these  houses  were  thirteen 
men,  who  went  out  to  fish  every  morning,  and  two  of  which  commanded  the  others ; 
all  of  them  living  very  soberly,  and  almost  constantly  on  Iish. 

Besides  these  thirteen  Kiissians,  there  were  two  Laplanders,  with  three  women  and  a 
cliild,  who  lived  in  great  poverty,  only  eating  the  remnants  of  the  Russians,  who  left 
them  some  pieces  of  fish,  and  the  heads,  which  they  threw  to  them,  and  which  the  Lap> 
landers  picked  up,  with  great  humility  and  many  thanks.  The  Dutch  regarded  this 
manner  of  living  with  great  compassion,  who,  in  whatever  state  they  were  themselves, 
and  whatever  pity  they  must  excite,  could  not  forbear  being  moved  lor  others,  ai:d  con* 
cemed  at  the  misery  of  these  unfortunate  people. 

On  the  twenty-first,  the  master  had  some  fresh  fish  dressed,  of  which  the  crew  ate  as 
much  us  they  pleased,  which  had  not  happened  for  a  length  of  time,  and  they  made  a 
porridge  of  water  and  flour  to  supply  the  place  of  bread.  In  the  afternoon,  having  ad- 
vanced into  the  country  to  seek  for  some  cochlcaria,  they  perceived  two  men  on  a  little 
mountain,  and  siiid  one  to  anotlier  that  there  must  be  more  inhabiuints  in  the  place  than 
they  had  seen ;  and  afterwards,  without  making  any  other  reflection  thereon,  they  re- 
turned to  their  schuyt. 

These  two  men,  who  were  their  own  companions,  and  of  the  crew  of  the  shallop, 
descended  from  the  mountain,  and  went  to  the  bark,  to  endeavour  to  procure  some  pro- 
visions ;  but  having  come  there  without  any  design,  and  as  it  were  without  thinking  of 
it,  and  having  no  money,  they  had  resolved  to  give  two  pair  of  their  breeches,  because 
they  had  each  two  or  three  pair  one  over  anotlier.  When  they  approached  the  bark 
they  saw  the  schuyt,  which  was  close  to  it  at  anchor,  and  recognised  those  who  were 
within.  The  joy  was  reciprocal ;  they  messed  together,  and  drank  water  as  clear  as 
that  of  the  Rhine  at  Cologne. 

The  crew  of  the  shallop  had  suffered  still  more  hardships  than  that  of  the  schuyt,  and 
both  together  returned  thanks  to  God  from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts,  because  he  had 
permitted  them  to  meet  again.  On  the  twenty-second  their  companions  arrived  with 
their  vessel,  and  this  completed  their  joy.  They  entreated  the  cook  of  the  Russians  to 
wet  a  sack  of  flour  and  make  some  bread,  to  which  he  very  willingly  consented.  As 
the  fishermen  returned  at  that  time  fi-om  the  sea,  the  master  bought  of  them  four  stock- 
fish, which  he  had  dressed. 

While  the  Dutch  were  at  dinner,  the  man  who  commanded  the  Russians  came  to  sec 


TO  TriE  NORTH  or  EtHoi»r..  125 

thfm,  and  m  they  had  hut  little  brciul,  he  presented  thtin  with  some.  Tht  y  iiivital 
him  to  cut  with  thcin  ;  hut  he  would  not,  becautc  it  wm  u  faitdu)',  and  iluy  had  thrown 
a  little  fat  or  melted  butter  over  the  ti^h.  Tliey  could  not  even  nrevuil  on  him  nor  \m 
people  to  drink  a  single  draught,  iKrause  the  cup  ap|K-ared  a  liule  greasy,  and  they 
would  not  lend  their  cups,  for  tear  they  should  gretuie  them  ;  iio  MUtKTstitious  arc  Uiey  in 
the  ol)Hervution  of  their  fiusts. 

On  the  twenty-fhird,  the  muster  made  a  handsome  present  in  money  to  the  com 
innndiTof  the  Russians,  and  paid  the  c(Jok  for  his  trouble  in  making  bn'ud,  ibr  which 
they  both  returned  many  thunks.  At  six  in  the  evening  the  two  vessels  set  sail  during 
the  spring  tide.  On  the  twenty.fourth,  at  vix  in  the  morning,  they  arrived  at  the  Seven 
Isles,  where  they  met  with  many  fishermen,  of  whom  thty  asked  for  Kool,  or  Kilduil. 
The  fishermen  pointed  to  the  east;  and  tliis  was  also  the  opinion  of  the  Dutch  crew. 
The  fishermen  threw  them  a  stock-fish,  but  they  could  not  pay  them  for  it,  being  earned 
along  too  quickly  by  a  strong  wind :  they  only  tiuide  diHerent  signs  to  signify  that 
the\  thanked  them,  remaining  besides  surprised  at  the  obliging  iiuinners  of  those 
peoi)le. 

At  six  in  the  evening  they  met  with  other  fishermen,  who  sailed  towards  them,  and 
asked  wheie  was  their  crabble,  that  is  to  siiy,  their  ship  ?  They  gave  for  answer  the  two 
words  which  they  had  learned,  crahhle  pro/)al,  the  ship  is  lost :  upon  which  the  fishermen 
again  cried  out.  Cool  brabante  crabble,  by  which  they  conceived  they  would  say  that 
there  were  Dutch  vessels  at  Cool,  or  Cola. 

On  the  twenty.fifth,  at  noon,  they  were  in  sight  of  Kilduin,  and  between  one  and  two 
came  to  the  western  extremity  of  the  island.  The  master  immediately  landed,  where 
he  foimd  five  or  six  small  houses  inhabited  by  Laplanders,  of  whom  they  asked  if  that 
country  was  not  Kilduin  ?  They  answered  yes ;  and  that  there  were  three  Dutch  ves- 
sets  at  Cola,  two  of  which  were  to  leave  it  that  same  day. 

Upon  this  answer,  they  again  set  sail  between  four  and  five  in  the  afternoon,  with  an 
intention  to  reach  Wardhuis  ;  but  during  their  course  the  wind  increased  so  that  they 
could  not  keep  the  sea  during  the  night :  they  therefore  passed  behind  two  rocks  and 
bore  towards  the  land.  They  saw  a  little  hut  there,  to  which  they  repaired,  and  found 
three  men,  who  received  them  with  kindness.  They  asked  these  men  if  they  could  find 
a  vessel  to  go  to  Holland.  They  returned  the  same  answer  as  the  Laplanders,  that  there 
were  three,  two  of  which  were  on  the  eve  of  departure. 

They  asked  them  if  they  were  willing  to  go  to  Cool  with  one  of  the  crew  by  land, 
and  they  would  pay  them  well  for  their  trouble.  The  Liiplanders  excused  themselves, 
saying  they  could  not  leave  that  place.  Nevertheless,  they  conducted  the  master  with 
one  of  the  sailors  over  a  mountain,  where  they  met  with  other  Laplanders,  who  engaged 
to  conduct  the  sailor,  on  their  promising  two  reals  of  eight.  Thus  one  of  them  having 
taken  a  firelock,  and»the  sailor  holding  a  hook  in  his  hand,  they  both  dejiartcd  towards 
morning. 

On  the  twenty  sixth  they  towed  the  two  vessels  to  land,  and  drew  cut  what  they  had 
there  to  expose  it  to  the  air :  they  afterwards  went  to  visit  the  Russians,  with  whom 
tliey  warmed  themselves :  they  also  dressed  what  they  had  to  eat,  and  resumed  two  re- 
gular repasts  every  day,  as  having  no  doubt  that  henceforth  they  should  meet  with  men 
from  time  to  time,  and  the  most  part  of  those  things  for  which  they  should  have  occasion. 
They  drank  also  of  the  beverage  of  the  Russians,  which  they  call  quass,  made  of  every 
sort  of  old  and  mouldy  bread,  and  which  nevertheless  they  did  not  fail  to  find  good, 
after  having  for  such  a  length  of  time  drank  nothing  but  water.  Some  of  them  having 
advanced  farther  into  the  country  met  with  a  kind  of  little  fruit,  of  the  colour  of  the 


i 


126 


Tiiinn  voY,\«K  or  tinb  nirrrH,  ke. 


I 


slot*,  which  murh  rcncmhlcd  lilack  ^;()o^iK*rricH,  of  which  they  ate,  nnd  fotiiul  much  lie- 
luTit  from  thcni ;  for  tiny  |KTtxivctl  thut  these  gooiilK*rric!t  coinpkti-d  the  ciin:  of  th'r 
scurvy. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  they  siiw  on  u  mountain  the  Laplander  retuminu;  to  them,  Imt 
without  the  nailor  lu  had  conducted  to  Cola,  which  ^urprined  thi  ni,  an(l  caused  some 
alarm.  The  Laplander  Ik  inj^  arrived,  ^ave  a  letter  to  the  master,  who  having  lm»kc  it 
oiK-n  immediately,  found  that  the  writer  was  extremely  astonished  at  his  arrival  at  that 

Kluce  with  his  crew  ;  thut  he  l)clicved  tlK-m  all  lost  u  long  time  since  ;  that  their  return 
ad  given  him  the  greater  joy,  as  he  had  regarded  their  loss  an  certain  ;  that  he  w(»uUl 
come  very  boon  to  meet  them,  with  ull  kinds  of  refrc  shments.  This  letter  was  signed 
John  Cornelisz  Kiip. 

80  agreeable  a  piece  of  news  was  received  with  great  satisfaction.  They  jNiid  the 
Laplander,  and  Ixsidcs  made  him  a  presint  of  a  pair  of  l)reeches,  st(M:kings,  and  some 
otlicr  clothes,  w)  that  he  was  (piite  clothed  in  the  iJuteh  fashion.  This  man  walked  so 
quickly,  thut  it  was  perfectly  astonishing  :  they  had  constantly  travelled  for  twoditys  and 
two  nights,  in  order  to  arrive  speedily  at  Cola,  when  they  were  Iwth  together ;  and  at 
the  return  of  tiie  Laplander  alone,  Ik'  had  only  been  twenty-four  hours  on  his  journey. 
The  sailors  imagined  titere  was  a  little  witchcraft  in  the  busiuesii :  he  gave  them  a  |>ar* 
tridge  he  had  killed  on  his  return. 

On  the  thirtieth  they  rt  mained  all  day  in  anxious  suspense  to  know  who  this  John  Cor- 
nelisz was  who  had  written.  It  occurred  to  them  sometimes  that  it  might  probably  be 
the  same  John  Cornelisz  who  had  been  ii\  their  compiuiy  ;  but  they  afterwards  rejected 
this  idea,  because  they  could  not  Ixlieve  he  was  living,  in  the  same  manner  as  on  his  side 
he  could  not  believe  they  were  still  alive.  The  hardships  he  had  suffered,  and  would 
suffer,  appeared  to  them  still  greater  than  theirs,  and  they  consequently  coticluded  he 
could  not  have  supported  them,  and  that  he  wits  certainly  dead.  At  length  the  master 
looked  for  a  letter  that  this  John  Cornelisz,  who  had  sailed  with  him,  had  formerly 
^vritten,  and  fmding  it  to  'x:  die  same  hand-writing,  he  no  longer  doubted  he  wiis  still 
alive. 

In  the  mean  time  they  saw  a  yawl  sailing  tov/airds  the  coast,  and  when  it  approached, 
they  recognized  John  Cornelisz,  who  was  vnh  the  sailor  they  had  sent  to  C(xil.  This 
was  a  meeting  of  persons  who  had  believed  eu  ,h  other  lost,  and  who  beheld  one  another 
as  risen  from  the  dead.  John  Cornelisz  brought  with  him  a  cask  of  Rastcx:  beer,  wine, 
brandy,  bread,  meat,  pork,  salmon,  sugar,  aivd  several  other  refreshments.  On  the  last 
day  of  August  they  got  ready,  and  departed  to  proceed  to  Cola,  after  having  returned 
many  thanks  to  the  Russians,  and  having  paid  well  for  their  hxlging,  setting  sail  at  mid- 
night during  the  height  of  the  tide. 

On  the  first  of  September,  at  day-break,  which  was  about  six  in  the  morning,  they 
found  themselves  to  the  west  of  the  river  of  Cola,  on  which  they  proceeded,  both  row- 
ing and  sailing  at  the  same  time,  till  midnight.  On  the  second  they  continued  to  ascend 
the  ri'  -,  on  tl>e  banks  of  which  thev  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  trees,  and  they  imagined 
themselves  arrived  in  another  world ;  for  they  had  never  yet  met  with  trees  in  all  the 
otlier  places  where  they  had  landed.  Between  seven  and  eight  in  the  evening  they 
joined  the  vessel  of  John  Conielisz.  The  meeting  of  the  two  crews  was  a  new  occasion 
for  rejoicing,  the  more  so  as  that  of  John  Cornelisz  had  been  in  the  voyage  of  the  preceding 
year,  with  the  same  master. 

At  dusk  they  entered  Cola,  and  on  the  following  day  they  unloaded  their  vessels  and 
landed  to  refresh  themselves,  after  incredible  fatigues,  in  order  to  recruit  their  strength, 
and  be  in  condition  to  complete  the  voyage  to  Holland.      On  the  eleventh  they 


t>l«Sr,HTATIOV  or  JOHN  IHAAC;  PONTANm,  Ic. 


127 


obtained  permission  of  tlic  govtrnor,  who  wan  there  on  the  part  of  \\\v  f(itat  duke  of 
Moncovy,  to  have  thiir  vchskIh  coiuhictid  t<»  the  ixihan^i",  or  warihoiisc  ofihi-  nurchantt, 
and  to  Icavf  thcni  there  as  sacred,  in  ordt  r  to  nreservc  thi  nicniory  of  v)  long  and  i\m\- 
gtnxis  u  vovagf,  made  by  a  route  till  then  unknown,  and  in  small  vi  ^seh  without  any 
covering,  wliii  h  had  navigated  nearly  loin*  hundred  lea^tles  alon^j;  the  coastH,  and  in  the 
main  sea  to  Cola  ;  at  which  the  inhabitants  ol  that  city  were  in  un  nstoniuhment  which 
would  have  Ih  ( n  diOicult  to  eK|)resH. 

On  the  fiftetnth  nf  SeptemlKT  they  came  down  the  river  in  a  bark,  to  get  on  board 
the  vessel  rW  John  Con irlis7„  which  lay  lulf  a  league  from  the  town,  and  in  the  aftenuxMi 
the  ves?«cl  also  desccrided  half  w«y  rlinvn  tl»e  livcr,  and  beytMui  the  strait.  On  the  eigh- 
teenth they  left  the  river  and  stixxl  out  to  sea,  in  ortU  r  to  pnx-.eed  to  Holland.  On  tin- 
following  day,  at  six  in  the  evening,  they  came  Ixifore  Wardhuis,  where  they  anchored, 
because  Comelisz  had  yet  to  take  in  there  some  merchandise. 

On  the  sixth  of  October,  in  the  evening,  they  weighed  anchor  ai\d  left  Wardhuis, 
and  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  the  same  month  theyentered  tne  Meusc, sailing  with  an  K.N.K. 
wind.  'I'he  following  day  they  pnjceeded  by  land  to  Miuislandt-sluis,  Delft,  Haerleni, 
and  on  the  first  of  November  they  arrived  at  Amsterdam,  in  the  same  dress  they  had 
wonv  at  Novaya  Zemlia,  and  with  the  simie  furred  caps  of  foxes'  skins  :  thence  they 
proceeded  to  the  house  of  Peter  Hasselaar,  who  was  one  of  the  directors  for  the  city  of 
Amsterdam  at  the  time  of  the  equipment  of  the  two  vessels  at  that  niace :  that  is  to  say, 
the  one  of  John  Cornelisz,  and  that  of  the  master  who  had  been  to  Novaya  Zemliu,  and 
returned. 

The  return  of  tiiic  remainder  of  the  crew  of  the  lost  vessel  occasioned  much  surprise 
to  the  people,  who  had  thought  them  dead ;  and  as  the  re>port  quickly  spread  through 
the  city,  it  came  to  the  ears  of  the  chancellor  of  the  king  of  Denmark,  then  his  ambas. 
sador  to  Holland,  while  he  was  at  tabic,  and  dining  at  the  Prinshof.*  The  high  bailiff 
of  Amsterdam  went  himself  with  two  other  lords  of  the  city  to  fetch  them,  and  they 
made  a  recital  before  the  ambassador  and  the  burgomasters  of  Amsterdam  of  their  voyage 
and  adventures  ;  after  that  they  retired.  Those  who  had  dwellings  at  Amsterdam  went 
to  their  houses,  and  the  others  were  placed  at  an  inn,  and  their  expences  defrayed,  until 
they  had  drawn  up  their  accounts  and  had  been  paid.  They  ivere  in  all  to  the  number 
of  twelve. 

*  The  house  where  the  counsellors  of  the  admiralty  assemble. 


DISSEnXATION  OK  THE  LEARNED  JOHN  ISAAC  PONTANUS,  IN  WHICH  HE  AN- 
SWERS  THE  OBJECTIONS  OF  THOSE  WHO  CONSIDER  THE  SEARCH  OF  A  NOR- 
THERN  PASSAGE  AS  A  TASK  OF  TOO  GREAT  DIFFICULTY;  AND  IN  WHICH 
HE  PROPOSES  THE  MOST  PROBABLE  MEANS  OF  ACCOMPLISHING  THIS  DE- 
SIGN. 

(IBIO.  VOL.  I.  P.  354.) 

THERE  are  some  persons  who  might  object  that  what  has  been  attempted  is  abso- 
lutely impossible,  that  we  have  not  been  able  to  accomplish  it,  and  that  most  probably 
we  shali  never  succeed.  But  I  answer,  that  the  stime  was  formerly  said  of  the  navigation 
to  the  East  Indies,  which  at  present  is  so  happily  practised  by  the  Dutch  and  Portuguese, 


128 


DISSERTATION'  01  JOHN  ISAAC  POiSTANUS, 


as  we  shiili  mention  in  its  place.  It  wa ,  said  to  be  impossible  to  pass  twice  imdcr  the 
iiuc,  tiiat  the  hojx;  was  too  slender,  and  the  danger  too  great  and  certain.  These  ob- 
ject'oiiS  and  some  others  did  not  dissuade  Emanuel  king  of  Portugal  from  his  design  ; 
and  he  completed  the  discovery  of  that  course  through  the  ocean,  which  a  year  betore 
had  been  shewn  b)'  his  predecessor,  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

This  prince  having  given  the  command  of  the  fleet  which  he  sent  to  ihe  Indies  to 
Velasco  dc  Gama,  who  accepted  it,  this  commander  embarked  in  1497  at  Calismalis,  or 
Cadiz.  *  He  directed  his  course  to\vards  Arabia,  doubled  the  Cajie  of  Good  Hope, 
made  all  the  necessaiy  discoveries,  and  arrived  at  the  kingdom  of  Cidicut.  At  his  return 
he  related  in  presence  of  the  king  every  thing  he  had  performed.  F'T  besides  the  testi- 
monies J  the  ancients,  they  hi  d  entertained  fresh  hopes  of  succeeding  in  this  naviga- 
tion from  the  account  of  certain  iiersons  whom  the  kuig  had  sent  to  Alexandria,  with 
orders  to  pass  from  that  place  into  Mauritania,  which  is  above  Egypt,  whence  they  were 
to  proceed  towards  Italy,  in  order  to  learn  in  all  those  places  from  the  most  able  per- 
sons what  route  should  be  taken,  after  hav«ng  passed  wound  the  Cape  of  Grood  Hope, 
in  order  to  reach  the  Indies. 

With  resi)ect  to  the  ancients,  it  is  true  it  seems  probable  that  tlie  route  by  this  Cape 
may  have  been  unknown  to  Ptolemy ;  but  Pliiy  expressly  relates  several  circumstances, 
from  which  it  appears  that  the  inhabitants  of  Cadiz  formerly  much  frequented  the  parts 
on  this  side  of  the  Cape  :  for  he  says,  that  when  C.  C^sar,  son  of  Augustus,  waged  war 
on  the  Red  Sea,  wrecks  of  Spanish  vessels  were  observed ;  and  that  during  the  flour. 
ishing  days  of  Carthage,  when  its  power  was  dreaded,  Hanno,  having  sailed  from  Cadiz 
to  the  extremity  of  Arabia,  had  given  a  description  of  that  voyage.  Besides,  it  may  be 
inferred  from  Cornelius  Nepos,  that  this  same  route  was  also  known  to  the  Arabs ;  for 
he  relates  that  in  his  time,  one  Eudoxus,  who  fled  from  Lathyrus  king  of  Alexandria, 
having  returned  by  the  Red  Sea,  passed  to  Cadiz ;  which  is  also  precisely  mentioned 
by  Puny. 

But  we  must  finish  this  digression,  and  return  to  our  subject  If  therefore  the  Por- 
ji^'uese,  from  lending  faith  to  these  testimonies  of  the  ancients,  have  met  with  a  happy 
success,  why  shall  we  pay  no  regard  to  what  these  same  ancients  have  related  of  the 
'^'uvigation  by  the  north  ?  Their  testimonies  and  the  thing  itself  well  deserve  that  we 
should  make  every  imaginable  attempt. 

I  pass  in  silence  what  the  chronicles  of  France  and  Denmark  have  said  of  those  of 
Greenland ;  which  chronicles  of  Denmark,  Ansgarius,  and  after  him  Albert,  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  have  published  at  Hamburg,  though  at  present  their  name  is  scarcely 
known  ;  but  these  things  will  appear  in  a  new  light,  if  they  be  compared  with  what 
has  been  related  by  Pliny  already  cited.  This  author  tell  us,  on  the  faith  of  Cornelius 
Nepos,  that  fornicrly  there  was  a  famous  navigation  made  by  the  north,  and'  he  ad 
A^ances  this  proof :  that  when  Q.  Metellus  Celer  was  consul  with  C,  Afhinius,  being 
also  governor  of  the  Gauls,  the  king  of  the  Suabians  made  him  a  present  of  some 
Indians,  who,  being  at  sea  for  \ra£c,  had  been  forced  by  a  tempest  and  cast  on  Ger. 
jrnnv :  he  understands  that  pr/.t  of  Germany  wher«;  the  Weser  and  Elbe  discharge 
themselves  into  the  sea ;  for  we  have  demonstrated  cl^where  that  the  dominion  of  the 
ancient  Suabians  extended  to  that  place.  It  may  be  conjectured  that  these  Indians  had 
parted  from  Cape  Tabin,  which  is  in  the  north  of  Tartary,  and  is  called  Mount  Tihin 
by  Pliny  ;  and  that  they  were  of  Seres,  a  neighbouring  country,  and  where  at  pi^esent, 
are  the  frontiers  of  Cadiay,  on  the  .id^  of  the  Dead  Sea,  thus  named,  or  Sea  of  Mar. 


*  This  paper  is  onl^  ibserted  on  account  t  if  its  curiosity, 
geographer. 


PontanuB  must  have  been  a  miserable 


CONCERNING  THE  NOnXII-EAST  PASSAGE. 


129 


mora,  or  Maramarusat  by  the  Cimbri,  according  as  the  same  Pliny  relates  on  the  faith 
of  Philemon ;  and  that  the  tempest  had  carried  them  to  the  coasts  of  Germany. 

If  all  these  things  be  true,  it  will  be  found  that  the  relation  of  the  Samoiedes,  which 
ve  have  heretofore  seen,  is  to  be  credited,  and  that  it  is  of  great  importance,  since  it 
discloses  that  the  Russiuis  every  year,  taking  iheir  opportu  ity  to  sail  to  a  certain  cupc, 
which  they  call  Ugoli'«,  beyond  the  river  Obi,  arrive  there  in  five  days  by  that  same  sea 
before  it  freezes ;  so  Jiat  the  voyages  we  would  make  by  the  north  should  be  undertaken 
by  thb  same  route,  which  appears  the  most  expeditious  and  sure,  till  better  discoveries  be 
made.  We  should  follow  the  example  of  Emanuel  king  of  Portugal,  who,  before 
equipping  a  fleet  to  proceed  to  the  East,  dispatched  persons  to  reconnoitre  the  Red  Sea, 
and  the  routes  from  that  sea  to  the  Indies,  in  order  to  kv.^r' '  ,  nature,  and  the  gulfs 
which  might  be  there. 

In  the  same  manner,  if  we  wduld  wish  to  pass  the  Strait  of  Nassau,  or  of  Weigats, 
persons  should  be  sent  at  the  public  expence,  who,  taking  the  opportunity  of  the  voyage 
made  by  the  Russians  every  year,  should  join  them,  in  order  to  proceed  in  their  com- 
pany ;  by  tliis  means  we  should  ascertain  if  the  sea  beyond  the  Weigats  is  the  great  sea 
of  Tartary,  or  only  a  gulf,  beyond  which  we  cannot  pass :  we  should  know  if  Cape 
Tabin  be  ad  ways  frozen,  or  if  it  be  possible  to  sail  beyond  :  we  might,  I  say,  be  informed 
of  all  these  things  by  the  people  inhabiting  those  climates,  and  who  are  acquainted  with 
them. 

In  order  to  fiicilitate  this  enterprise,  there  should  be  dispatched  a  ship  of  war  of  the 
lowest  rate,  and  not  so  much  attention  paid  to  man  it  with  a  strong  crew,  as  to  compoge 
the  crew  of  officers  and  sailors  already  accustomed  to  sail  in  those  climates.  This  vessel 
should  be  stored  *  ^th  provisi«^ns  for  a  year,  or  even  a  longer  time,  and  when  arrived  at 
the  itrait,  the  plnce  should  be  chosen  which  might  be  judged  the  most  proper  to  winter 
b,  from  which  there  might  be  communication  with  the  Russians  and  Samoides,  and 
where  they  should  wait  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Moscovites.  It  would  be  well 
also  that  some  of  the  Dutch  who  trade  to  Japan  shiould  come  by  that  side  to  Cape  Tabin, 
or  at  least  to  the  places  which  are  the  most  neighbouring,  and  observe  the  route  and 
the  country.  These  are  the  most  certain,  and  without  doubt  tlie  only  means,  which 
can  be  put  in  practice  to  clear  up  this  great  mystery,  that  is,  whether  vessels  may  there 
meet  with  a  passage. 

I  am  aware  that  others  are  c^.  opinion  it  would  be  surer  to  direct  the  course  through 
the  main  sea,  and  to  sail  around  the  northern  coast  of  Novaya  Zemlia,  to  the  latitude  of 
82**  or  thereabouts,  because  the  days  and  the  summer  are  longer  there,  the  ice  not  so 
frequent,  nor  in  such  quantity,  along  the  coast ;  and  in  fine,  because  the  cold  there  is  less 
severe  than  in  latitude  76'',  and  b^low.  I  admit  that  all  these  things  are  thus  on  the  globe, 
which  isr  extremely  inclined  and  curved  in  this  latitude,  and  which  raises  the  sun  on  the 
horizon  for  nearly  six  months.  Nevertheless,  there  are  two  reasons  why  this  opinion 
should  not  be  received.  The  first,  that  we  have  no  knowledge  of  that  cmnate,  neither 
if  it  be  all  sea,  or  if  there  also  be  lands  and  islands.  In  the  second  place,  supposing  it 
possible  to  navigate  there,  the  difficulty  still  remains  the  same ;  that  is  to  say,  that  it  is 
necessary  to  descend  from  the  latitude  of  80°  to  the  latitude  of  70°,  and  below,  and  there 
to  f'fifkr  the  inconveniences  and  the  rigour  of  the  cold  and  mountains  of  ice,  in  the 
nudst  of  which  we  should  find  ourselves ;  to  remain  separated  from  all  communication 
with  men  in  unknown  countries ;  to  be  deprived  of  the  brighmess  of  the  sun ;  to  con- 
tend  with  yild  beasts ;  and  finally,  according  to  all  appearance^  miserably  to  perish. 

To  this  has  been  reduced  the  success  of  the  voyagts  which  have  been  undertaken  to 
the  present  time.    The  first  of  those  who  visited  the  northern  coast  of  America  was 

VOL.   I.  s 


ISO 


DISSERTATION  OF  JOHN  ISAAC  P0NTANU9,  8ic. 


Nicholas  Zenetus,*  who,  in  the  yea  *  1380,  after  having  been  driven  here  and  there,  lost 
the  hope  he  had  conceived.  In  15C0  Gaspard  Cortesius,  instead  of  the  strait  he  sought, 
met  with  a  rivtr,  and  having  been  obliged  to  return,  he  again  undertook  the  same  voyage 
the  following  year,  and  perished ;  and  his  death  was  soon  after  followed  by  that  of  h:s 
brother  Michael,  who  perished  in  the  same  research.  Sebastian  Cabot,  a  Venetian, 
having  been  sent,  in  1506,  by  Henr,r  VII,  kin^  of  England,  also  to  seek  a  northern 
passage,  was  impeded  by  the  ice,  and  returned  without  success.  John  Varascenus  hav- 
ing sailed  there  in  1524,  in  the  name  of  Francis  I,  king  of  France,  who  was  prepossessed 
widi  the  same  design,  landed  at  Cape  Britain,  where  he  and  his  crew  were  devoured 
by  the  savages.  Sebastian  Gomesius,  a  Spaniard,  took  this  same  route  in  1525,  and 
all  the  honour  he  acquired  was  to  b;ing  away  some  sava|;e8. 

After  ttiis,  the  English  having  formed  the  same  design.  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  in 
1553,  arrived  in  latituu?  72°,  where,  from  the  cold  and  ouier  inconveniences,  he  and  his 
whole  crew  perished.  Three  years  after,  Stephen  Burrough  took  the  same  routr  and 
discovered  the  isles  of  Galgpievia,  Novaya  Zemlia,  and  some  others ;  but  hav>r  >•  iv  *y 
experienced  the  severity  of  thecdd  of  this  climate,  and  foreseeing  die  consequ  .a  :&,  he 
departed  in  time,  and  returned.  Afterwards  Martin  Frobisher,  Arthur  Pet,  Charles 
Jackman,  and  John  Daf  is,  of  the  same  nation,  made  the  same  att<:mpt  without  success. 
Frobisher,  in  1576,  returned  on  account  of  the  ice :  Pet  and  JatJiman  experienced  the 
odme  fate  in  1580,  except  that  they  more  distinctly  observed  ^he  coasts  of  Novaya  Zem- 
lia. In  1585,  Davi»  disccvered  a  gulf,  but  to  the  present  time  the  extent  has  not  been 
sacertained.  Finally,  die  Dutch  in  our  days  having  rendered  themselves  famous  in  the 
art  df  navigation,  1^  their  voyages  and  discoveries,  were  also  willing  to  contribute  to 
this  last,  and  have  acquitted  themselves  with  honour,  though  they  hav«  failed ;  for  we 
have  seen  above  the  success  of  their  enterprise.  Thus  I  do  not  see  that  this  rout«  can 
be  completely  discovered,  unless  by  the  means  I  have  just  pointed  out. 


*  HoJipeUs  ofthftjibnlous  voyage  of  Nicholas  Ztae. 


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X31 


A  JOURNEY  THROUGH  FLANDERS,  HOLLAND,  8tc. 


■.'■!• 


i*  *  -J 


BY  M.  UEGNARD. 


f  Newljr  tranilated  from  the  Stereotype  edition  or  the  Works  of  this  celebrated  comic  Poet. 
'  Paris,  1801.    Tom.  v] 

•J  -  , 

WE  left  Paris  in  the  Brussells  diligence  on  the  twenty.sixth  day  of  April,  1681. 
I  intended  to  sleep  at  Senlis,  where  I  expected  to  find  M.  de  Fcrcourt,  who  had  set  out 
from  Paris  three  days  before.  All  our  fellow-passengers  were  young  men,  the  eldest 
of  whom  was  below  twenty-eight  years  of  age ;  five  of  them  were  Dutchmen,  one  of 
whom  was  M.  de  Wasenau,  captain  of  the  prince  of  Orange's  guards :  we  had  also  in 
our  conipany  a  little  Spanish  abbe,  who  was  going  to  take  possession  of  a  petty  canon- 
ship  at  Brussells.  This  litde  priest,  humph-backed  and  humph-breasted,  was  a  source 
of  entertainment  to  us  during  tne  v'hole  journey.  We  went  next  day  to  Pont,  where 
we  dined,  after  which  we  travelled  to  sleep  at  Goumai,  where  the  residence  of  the  presi- 
dent Amelot  is  situated :  the  chateau  L  surrounded  with  water,  and  the  garden  is  mter- 
sected  with  various  rivuU^,  which  add  considerably  to  its  beauty.  We  left  this  place 
early  in  the  morrang,  that  we  might  be  enabled  to  reach  and  sUxp  at  Peronne,  which  is 
called  La  Pucelle,  on  account  of  its  unshaken  fidelity  to  the  royal  cause  during  the  civil 
war.  It  is  a  small  town,  but  extremely  strong  on  the  side  by  which  it  is  entered,  on 
account  of  marshes,  which  render  any  approach  to  it  difficult,  and  whi'^h  form  a  number 
of  large  and  dee]i<  ditches,  occasioning  a  thousand  windings  before  the  city  can  be  ar. 
rived  at '  The  nver  Somme  laves  its  walls,  and  defends  it  on  the  same  side,  so  that  the 
place  is  almost  inaccessible.  These  ditches  produce  excellent  carp,  which  are  famous 
throughout  all  France,  as  well  as  numbers  of  ducks,  the  pies  made  of  which  are  equally 
esteemed.  The  dbtance  from  Peronne  to  Cambray  is  seven  leagues.  While  we  were 
on  the  road  we  were  attacked  with  such  a  violent  storm,  that  our  horses,  frightened,  and 
blinded  with  constant  flashes  of  Jightning,  which  created  day  in  the  midst  of  darkness, 
overturned  the  coach  ui  a  deep  ditch,  where,  in  consequence  of  the  violent  fall,  we 
were  in  duiger  of  ending  our  days ;  but  fortune  su  (Mxlcred  matters  that  not  one  of  us 
was  wounded ;  we  escaped  with  being  completely  drenched  in  water ;  and  after  we  had 
been  angled  and  drawn  like  fish  from  the  coach,  nearly  in  the  situation  of  tliose  who 
come  out  <^a  mine,  in  which  they  had  been  immersed  to  tlie  ears,  we  were  obliged  to 
travel  a  league  and  a  half  on  foot  to  Cambray,  which,  as  may  easily  be  conceiv^,  we 
entered  in  a  very  dirty  and  disagreeable  condition. 

This  city  by  no  means  deserves  the  renown  which  it  has  acquired  in  France  :  it  is 
only  formidable  by  the  mischief  which  its  garrisons  have  done  to  our  peasantry ;  and  I 
am  aatonbhed  at  uie  disturbance  which  it  excited  before  it  was  taken  by  the  greatest  of 
kings.  The  fact  is,  Cambray  of  itself  is  of  no  importance ;  it  is  "^he  castle  only  which 
is  capable  of  making  any  detence,  and  the  city  had  no  strength  but  what  it  derived  from 
its  protection ;  and  the  works  which  are  now  carrying  on  at  this  place  furnish  a  con> 
vincing  proof  that  there  is  no  intention  of  immediately  giving  it  back ;  and  that  the 
Spaniards,  viho  believed  it«o  strong,  that  they  said,  *'  If  the  king  of  France  wishes  to 
take  Cambray,  he  must  build  one,"  liave  now  taken  leave  of  it  for  ever.  This  fortress, 
so  famous  throughout  the  world,  was  begun  by  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  has  been  increased 
by  tnanj^  fortifications,  which  render  it  a  very  respectable  place :  its  walls  are  astonbh- 
ingly  high,  owing  to  the  great  depth  of  the  ditches ;  but  they  are  not  on  this  account 
the  stronger,  as  they  lure  almost  wholly  undermined.    We  were  conducted  everywhere 


132 


nECNAim's  jotthnry  to  lapland.  fcc. 


by  an  officer,  who  with  pleasure  showed  us  every  thing  worthy  of  observation,  and 
pointed  out  to  us  the  breach  by  which  the  Spaniards  escaped.  The  city  contains  nothing 
remarkable,  except  the  spire  of  the  cathedral,  which  has  Ijeen  lately  built  with  surprising 
delicacy  of  taste.  We  lodged  at  the  Raven,  and  were  very  ill  accommoda^'jd,  owing 
to  the  number  of  strangers  at  this  place. 

From  Cambray  to  Valenciennes  the  distance  is  not  greater  than  from  Peronne  to 
Cumbray.  Valenciennes  is  situated  upon  the  Esciiut,  and  they  are  fortifying  it  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  render  it  impregnable.  We  observed  carefully  the  place  bv  which  it 
had  been  taken,  and  the  gate  through  which  the  musketteers  entered.  This  gate  is 
constructed  like  a  gate  of  vaulted  iron,  and  had  communication  with  a  glacis ;  it  had  not 
been  open  for  twenty  yei  .  and  it  was  only  so  at  this  time  fur  the  purpose  of  carrying 
in  the  body  of  the  major,  'rnd  been  wounckd  during  an  attack  which  had  been 

made  on  this  side  :  the  muti  ers,  for  whom  it  assuredly  had  not  been  opened,  pur- 
sued the  enemy,  and,  finding  Uus  entrance,  continued  their  way ;  and  notwithstanding 
a  shower  of  bullets  pushed  on  to  another  gate,  the  portcullis  of  which,  not  having  been 
used  for  a  long  time,  it  was  found  impossible  to  shut,  and  they  made  themselves  masters 
of  the  cky.  We  entered  the  fortress,  and  as  we  had  a  kind  of  priest  with  us,  they  gave 
us  two  soldiers  as  c  nductors.  It  is  known  that  there  is  nothing  Spanish  in  this  coun- 
try  but  the  disposition  of  the  priests ;  and  they  are  carefully  and  cautiously  watched, 
to  prevent  them  from  engaging  in  any  improper  enterprise.  We  observed  that  all  the 
females  in  this  country  were  hmidsome.  In  travelling  from  Valenciennes  to  Mons,  it  is 
customary  to  dine  at  Reverain,  a  place  worthy  of  attention,  both  on  account  of  the  resi- 
dence of  our  armies,  and  of  its  being  the  spot  which  separates  the  tenitories  of  France 
and  Spain :  we  arrived  in  good  time  at  the  city,  and  had  sufficient  leisure  to  view  it  with 
attention. 

Mons  is  the  capitid  of  Hainault,  and  the  first  town  under  the  d  :ninion  of  Spain  on 
this  side  ;  but  it  remains  so  only  until  it  please  France  to  take  it  under  her  protection  : 
it  may  be  considered  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses  of  the  Low  Country,  on  account  of 
its  situation,  being  surrounded  with  marshes.  The  burghers  form  its  garrison,  and  we 
saw  them  mount  guard  in  the  great  square,  which  is  extremely  handsome.  The  prince 
of  Aremberg,  a  Spanish  nobleman,  whu  is  niso  duke  of  Arcot,  and  of  the  fint  family 
of  the  Low  Cbuntry,  is  governor.  That  which  gratified  me  much  in  Mons,  and  which 
is  singular  enough,  was  the  royal  college  of  Canonesses,  founded  by  a  '  — ,  who 
established  this  community  for  the  reception  of  ladies  of  quality,  who  remain  here  until 
they  leave  it  for  the  purpose  of  being  married.  These  ladies  perform  the  service  with 
peculiar  gracefulness :  they  have  one  dress  in  wliich  they  attend  church  in  the  morning, 
and  another  in  which  they  visit  the  city  in  the  evening,  when  they  attend  the  best  com- 
pany, and  are  perfectly  well  received,  on  account  of  the  gallantry  which  they  pfofess. 
We  ascended  the  great  tour,  from  whence  we  viewed  the  whole  city,  and  where  we  alio 
saw  an  excellent  chime  of  bells,  which  the  Dutch  and  Flemings  are  very  fond  of. 

After  leaving  Mons,  we  intended  to  sleep  at  Notre  Dame  de  HaUe.  This  place  of 
devotion  has  been,  in  common  with  others,  much  abused  by  the  armies  encamped  in 
its  neighbourhood,  which  have  had  no  regard  for  the  reverence  which  all  Flemings  fed 
for  this  church,  dedicated  to  the  Vii^n.  We  observed  on  leaving  Mons  the  spot  where 
the  famous  battle  of  St.  Denis  was  fought,  on  the  evening  previous  to  the  proclamation 
of  peace  in  the  army,  and  at  the  dme  when  the  prince  of  Orange  had  in  hb  possession 
the  articles  of  peace  actually  signed :  we  were  r>ocompanied  by  an  officer  who  was  pre- 
sent at  the  engagement,  and  who  shewed  us  the  posts  and  positions  which  die  two  armies 
occupied.  The  batde  is  also  denominated  that  of  Cassi»i,  whidi  is  the  appellation  of 
a  little  village  opposite  to  that  abbey,  whose  name  distinguishes  this  engagement. 


RRGNARiys  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  l«C. 


133 


We  at  length  arrived  at  Brussels,  the  second  city  of  Brabant :  it  is  extremely  agree- 
able, aixl  very  i)upulous,  as  it  is  the  ordinary  place  ol'  rehidence  of  the  governors  of  the 
Low  Country,  and  consequently  of  a  numl>er  of  men  of  quality  who  attend  the  court ; 
c  Uiis  account  it  is  called  The  Noble.  The  governor's  palace  is  the  finest  building  in 
the  city,  both  on  account  of  its  size,  and  of  the  line  park  which  surrounds  it,  serving  as 
an  agreeable  promenade  to  all  the  inhabitants,  and  delighting  the  sight  by  the  number 
of  fountains  which  it  contains.  The  prince  of  Parma  is  the  present  governor :  he  has 
placed  the  militia  on  an  excellent  footing,  re-establishing  it  by  great  levies  made  upon 
the  people,  who  have  not  been  extremely  well  pleased  with  the  measure.  The  town- 
house  is  a  curious  structure :  it  was  erected  by  an  Italian,  who  hanged  himself  with 
vexation,  as  his  epitaph  informs  us,  because  he  had  neglected  to  place  the  tower  in  the 
middle.  This  man  performed  that  office  for  himself  wliich  a  hangman  should  have 
done ;  for  he  deserved  no  better  than  a  cord,  for  having  lx:en  deficient  in  a  point 
which  men  the  most  ignorant  of  architecture  would  by  no  means  have  neglected.  The 
churches  of  Bnissels,  like  those  of  the  Low  Country,  are  very  handsome,  and  kept  in 
excellent  repair.  We  saw  in  the  collegiate  church,  called  St.  Gudule,  three  miraculous 
hosts,  on  which  we  were  told  that  some  spots  of  blood  could  be  discovered.  We  went  to 
sec  the  society  of  Beguins,  which  b  a  peculiar  order  in  this  country  :  they  are  clothed  in 
white  when  at  church  ;  but  they  walk  through  the  streets  in  a  long  black  cloak,  which 
covers  them  from  head  to  foot :  they  have  also  a  little  cap  on  their  heads,  which  forms 
a  ".  jry  handsome  dress ;  and  I  observed  girls  in  this  religious  habit,  whom  I  should 
have  loved  in  preference  to  many  others  shining  in  gold,  and  sparkling  with  diamonds. 
At  this  time  there  were  eight  hundred  at  Beguinagc.  The  court  of  fashionables 
here  is  the  same  with  the  court  among  us :  here  all  the  ladies  and  cavaliers  are  to  be 
met  with  ;  but  there  is  this  difference,  however,  that  all  the  ladies  are  here  on  one  side, 
and  the  gendemen  on  the  other.  We  passed  three  days  very  pleasantly  at  Brussells, 
and  after  having  seen  even*  thing  worthy  of  observation  in  the  city,  we  set  out  on  the 
sixteenth  day  of  May  by  the  canal  which  communicates  with  Antwerp ;  but  by  which 

we  only  went  to ,  where  we  lefl  the  boat,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  coaches  to 

Malines,  wUch  we  wished  to  see  before  our  arrival  at  Antwerp. 

Malines  is  termed  The  Beautiful,  and  not  without  reason  ;  for  it  appears  to  be  rather 
a  painted,  than  a  real  city,  the  buildings  being  regular,  and  the  streets  handsome,  and 
well  paved.  It  is  to  this  parliament,  the  first  of  the  Low  Country,  that  every  process 
which  b  appealed  is  referred ;  and  this  circumstance  renders  the  city  celebrated.  This 
province  is  dismembered  from  the  rest  of  the  Low  Country,  and  forms  a  marquisite  by 
Itself.  All  the  common  people  work,  as  b  the  custom  throughout  Flanders,  at  the 
manufacture  of  white  lace,  which  bears  thb  name ;  and  Beguinage,  which  is  the  latest 
and  most  valuable  of  them  all,  is  only  supported  by  the  labour  in  which  the  Beguins 
are  engased»  and  in  which  thev  excel.  The  Beguins  are  religious  ^ris  or  women,  who 
retire  to  thb  place  as  often  as  they  think  proper ;  they  have  each  a  little  house  to  them- 
selves, where  they  receive  the  visits  of  their  reladons ;  there  are  even  some  of  them 
who  take  boarders.  The  place  is  called  Beguinage,  and  the  gates  are  shut  early  in  the 
evening.  There  b  at  Maunes  a  tower  remarkable  for  its  height,  which  commands  a 
most  extensive  prospect.  From  Malines,  where  we  dined,  we  were  to  go  in  the  evening 
to  Antwerp  m  coaches,  which  travel  every  day  at  a  certain  hour,  and  by  the  most 
charming  and  beautiful  road  which  I  have  ever  seen. 

Antwerp,  the  capital,  and  the  moat  extensive  city  of  Brabant,  and  to  which  one  might 
mvt  tides  still  more  respectable,  surpasses  all  the  cities  I  have  seen,  Naples,  Rome,  and 
Yenioe  excepted,  not  only  by  the  magnificence  of  its  buildings,  the  pomp  of  its  churches, 


'•m 


■■I  I 


)i 


ytf 


134 


BRfiNARD'S  JOLTINRY  TO  LAPIAND,  fcc. 


and  the  size  of  its  spacious  streets,  but  also  by  the  manners  of  its  inhabitants,  the  itlost 
polite  of  whom  endeavour  to  imitate  the  French  manners  both  with  rcg-ard  to  dress  and 
language,  which  they  are  proud  of  possessing  in  perfection.  That  which  first  excited 
our  admir<ition  in  entering  the  city  was  the  beauty  of  its  superb  ramparts,  which,  co- 
vered \vith  trees,  form  the  most  delightful  walk  in  the  world :  they  are  wholly  covered 
with  freestone,  and  washed  by  a  ditch  of  running  water,  which  surrounds  the  city,  and 
which  equally  serves  to  embellish  and  defend  it.  The  cathedral  is  well  built,  and  the 
steeple,  of  English  workmanship,  is  suqinsingly  handsome;  but  it  may  one  day  prove 
the  source  of  vexation  to  the  city.  There  are  here  several  excellent  paintings,  and 
among  others  a  descent  from  the  cross,  by  Rubens,  which  is  reckoned  a  master-piece. 

The  church  of  the  Jesuits  is  not  inferior  in  magnificence  to  any  which  I  have  seen  in 
Italy,  and  is  as  superb ;  as  the  marble  with  which  it  is  built  has  been  conveyed  from  a 
considerable  distance,  and  at  a  great  exuence :  the  whole  roof  is  covered  with  pieces 
fmm  the  h;md  of  the  greatest  masters.  It  b  easy  to  judge  of  the  magnificence  of  this 
church,  when  it  is  stated  that  the  marble  rail  alone  which  guards  the  chief  altar  cost 
more  tlian  forty  Uiousand  livrcs :  and  I  do  not  believe  it  possible  to  behold  a  more 
finished  piece  of  sculpture ;  the  marble  is  so  delicately  rounded,  that  it  seems  to  have 
forgotten  its  native  hardness,  for  the  purpose  of  assuming  that  form  which  the  workman 
wished  to  give  it,  and  to  yield  like  wax  to  the  dictates  of  his  will.  The  fortress,  famed 
through  all  Europe  for  its  regularity,  has  five  bastions:  it  is  larger,  stronger,  and  in- 
com|}arably  better  built  than  that  of  Cambray.  Its  glacis  is  extensive  and  spacious 
throughout,  and  superior  in  this  respect  to  that  of  Cambray,  which  can  be  very  neariy 
approached  while  under  cover ;  which  circumstance  tended  not  a  little  to  facilitate  ira 
capture.  We  were  conducted  hither  by  M.  de  Verprost,  and  carried  everywhere  by  an 
omcer,  who  would  not  allow  us  to  walk  upon  the  bastions.  We  saw  the  place  where  the 
Dutch  attempted  to  take  the  city  by  surprise,  where  they  descended  by  night  in  the  river, 
and  attempted  to  pass  the  ditch  by  means  of  little  boats,  which  every  man  could  carry  upon 
his  shoulder ;  but  the  centinel  hearing  a  noise  gave  the  alarm,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  Dutch,  disapi)ointed  in  their  expectations,  retreated,  and  left  all  theu*  boats  and  ¥fi. 
stniments,  which  are  still  kept  in  the  citadel,  and  which  wereshewn  to  us^as  symptoms 
and  monuments  of  victory.  ^' 

We  embiu-ked  at  Antwerp  for  Rotterdam.  We  had  Zealand  on  the  left,  and  passed 
in  sight  of  Bcrgen-op-Zoom,  which  belongs  to  the  count  of  Auvergne.  We  were  three 
days  on  our  voyage,  and  passed  the  Brille :  this  place  excited  considerable  disturbance 
during  the  troubles  in  Holland,  which  happened  about  a  centuiy  ago. 

During  the  reign  of  PhHip  the  Second,  son  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  the  Seven  Provinces 

were  governed  by  — >t- ,  sister  of  Charles,  and  consequently  the  king's  aunt.  Philip, 

to  whom  they  belonged,  wished  to  levy  some  new  t?xes  from  the  people,  and  to  establish 
the  inquisition  among  them.  The  Dutch  placed  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  nevir 
declarations,  and  the  prince  of  Orange,  supported  by  count  Horn,  and  by  — — — ^,  at 
the  head  of  the  populace,  remonstrated  to  the  governess,  and  proposed  two  hundrad 
articles,  respecting  which  they  requested  satisfaction.  This  lady,  suipiised  at  the  tumult^ 
turned  round  to  one  of  the  chief  men  of  her  council,  who  told  her,  m  derision,  that  she 
ought  not  to  give  herself  any  uneasiness  about  a  set  oj"  Beggars.  This  saying  being  report- 
ed to  tlie  mutineers,  they  became  so  enraged  that  they  estaSlished  a  party,  which  has  since 
been  distinguished  by  the  name  of  The  Beggars.  The  governess,  however,  returned  to 
Spain,  being  conscious  of  the  factious  disposition  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Seven  Pro> 
vinces,  and  not  wishing  to  shew  them  that  she  could  not  consent  to  a  part  of  the  ardcljss 
which  they  proposed :  this  led  Philip  the  Second  to  send  the  duke  of  Ava,  who  after. 


.M'^AMatrA  - 


UB(;NAR0'8  JOUUNKY  to  LAI'LANU.  he. 


135 


t 


wards  shed  so  much  blood,  and  produced  the  complete  rebellion  of  the  Provinces :  it  is 
said  that  he  destroyed,  by  the  hands  of  the  executioner,  more  than  eighteen  thousand 
persons.  He  convoked  the  States  at  Brussels.  Count  Horn,  not  wishing  to  appear 
ringleader  of  the  mutiny,  went  thither;  but  the  prince  of  Orange,  fearing  the  Spaniards, 
whom  he  distrusted,  leA  the  States,  that  he  might  not  be  obliged  to  attend.  Count 
Horn  meeting  accidentally  the  prince  of  Orange,  who  absented  himself,  '*  Farewell^ 
(sa}s  he)  Prince  without  territories :"  to  which  the  prince  replied,  "  Farewell,  count 
without  a  head:"  which  was  rfterwards  found  to  be  true;  for  being  arrested  at  the 
meeting  of  the  States,  they  cut  off  the  count's  head,  together  with  those  of  an 
almost  countless  number  of  individuals,  who  were  supposed  to  belong  to  his  party, 
or  who  were  suspected  to  do  so,  it  being  treason  in  the  opinion  of  the  Spaniards  to  be 
an  object  of  suspicion  to  the  king.  The  prince  of  Orange,  being  sensible  by  the  death 
of  Count  Horn  and  his  adherents  that  he  had  acted  with  proper  prudence,  wished  still 
to  consult  his  safety,  and  stren^hening  the  party  of  the  factious,  he  put  himself  at  their 
head,  and  afler  many  battles,  in  which  he  was  continually  worsted,  he  at  length  took 
the  Brille,  from  which  the  duke  of  Ava,  endeavoured,  in  vain,  to  expel  him.  This 
gave  occasion  to  the  pictures  made  of  him,  in  wliich  he  is  ludicrously  represented  with 
spectacles  on  his  nose,  Brille  in  Dutch  signifyiiig  spectacles.  Hollanr  is  divided  into 
Seven  United  Provinces,  which  are  denominated  Guelderland,  Holland,  Zioland,  Utrecht, 
Friezland,  Overyssell,  and  Groningen. 

We  arrived  at  Rotterdam  at  midnight,  and  were  obliged  to  go  over  the  walls,  that 
we  might  enter  the  city,  as  the  gates  were  shut.  This  city  is  the  second  of  the  whole 
country ;  and  it  is  easy  to  judge  of  its  richness,  by  the  number  of  vessels  which  are  to 
be  seen  here  from  every  country,  and  which  Hll  the  canal  of  the  city,  though  it  is 
extremely  large.  This  city  b  remarkable  fur  the  extent  of  its  commerce,  as  well  as 
the  beauty  of  its  houses,  which  are  possessed  of  all  that  neatness  so  characteristic  of  all 
the  cities  of  Holland.  The  statue  of  Erasmus  is  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  great 
square :  he  was  bom  in  this  city,  and  certainly  deserved  from  the  republic,  a  statue  in 
bronze  upon  the  bridge  which  is  situated  in  the  middle  of  the  square.  We  left 
Rotterdam  at  two  o'clock  of  the  afternoon,  in  boats,  which  are  extremely  commo- 
dious in  all  i^arts  of  Holland :  they  set  out,  every  one  at  different  times,  and  half  an 
hour  after  each  other ;  in  consequence  of  which,  some  of  them  depart  every  half  hour 
both  of  the  day  and  the  night  tbi  a  hundred  different  places ;  and  so  punctual  are  they, 
that  the  horse  is  yoked  to  the  boat  as  soon  as  the  hour  is  ready  to  strike ;  and  before 
it  has  fully  struck  the  horse  sets  off.  We  travelled  to  Delft,  a  little  village  at  the 
distance  of  two  leagues  from  the  Hague,  where  we  saw  the  brother  of  one  of  our 
friends  whom  we  had  left  in  slavery  at  Algiers.  We  entered  the  principal  church  of 
the  city,  and  viewed  the  tomb  of  the  famous  admiral  Tromp.  In  the  evenhig  we 
arrived  at  the  Hague,  which  is  the  finest  village  in  the  world:  it  is  the  prince  of 
Qran^'s  ordinary  residence.  He  was  not  here  at  this  ume,  but  had  gone  to  a  great 
hunt  m  Geripany,  upon  the  lands  of ,  with  the . 

Th^  prince  of  Orange  is  denominated  William  the  Third  of  Nassau.  The  late  wars 
have  rendered  him  popular  in  Holland,  and  he  has,  consequently,  been  declared  Stadt- 
holder,  captain -general  of  the  armies  belon^g  to  the  United  Provinces  of  the  Low 
Country,  and  grand-admiral.  The  States  allow  him  the  sum  of  a  hundred  thousand  francs 
per  annum,  besides  defraying  the  expences  of  his  private  establishment.  Some  individuals 
wished  him,  and  tried  to  entice  him,  to  declare  himself  king  of  Holland,  while  he  was  ab- 
solute master  of  the  troops.  But  those  who  had  more  wisdom  pointed  out  to  him,  not  only 
thecUfficulty  attending  the  execution  of  this  project,  but  the  impossibility  of  maintiuning 


ran 


IQQ  RF.UNARD'S  JOURNKY  TO  LA.  LAND,  kt. 

the  sovercififntv,  even  were  he  fortunate  enough  to  acquire  it.  They  argued  that 
Holland  would  be  completely  and  sjxitdily  destroyed,  if  it  became  the  property  of  a 
master,  and  ceased  to  be  a  republic,  and  that  on  account  of  the  great  expencc  which 
would  be  constantly  required  for  the  preservation  of  the  coimtry  ;  that  a  prince  would 
be  obliged  to  raise  large  sums  upon  his  subjects,  which,  whilst  they  were  indulged  with 
the  title  of  freemen,  they  would  pay  with  pleasure,  as  all  they  gave  was  for  tlic 
general  good ;  it  is  on  this  account,  that  no  country  is  more  harrassed  by  taxes  and 
imposts  than  Holland ;  and  the  people  flatter  themselves,  that,  as  it  is  they  who  im- 
pose diem,  ihey  have  it  in  their  power  to  refuse  them  whenever  they  please.  This 
counsel,  the  most  prudent  and  politic,  was  followed  by  the  prince  of  Orange,  who 
found  his  account  in  it. 

The  States  of  Holland  hold  their  sittings  at  the  Hugiir,  which  is  the  chief  cause  of 
its  magnificence.  The  houses  of  some  individuds  are  very  beautiful,  but  the  palace  of 
the  prince  has  nothing  in  it  remarkable.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  surprising  to  see  him  so 
indifferently  lodged,  whilst  some  merchants  dwell  in  far  grander  mansions.     We  saw  the 

chambers  of  the  States,  one  of  which  is  handsome  enough,  and  which  M.  Del 

said  he  would  undertake  to  gild  for  two  thousand  crowns,  though,  according  to  the 
general  calculation,  it  cost  more  than  ten  thousand  crowns  of  gold  ;  but,  he  added,  he 
understood  that  they  had  furnished  it  for  him.  M.  Davaux  was  here  at  this  time, 
ambassador.  We  saw  him  in  mourning  on  account  of  the  recent  death  of  the  CheVa- 
lier  M.  Mesme,  his  brother-in-law,  whom  I  have  seen  at  Rome,  and  who  hud  been  lately 
killed  by  the  stroke  of  a  stone. 

On  leaving  the  palace,  we  viewed  a  gate  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  house  of  M. 

De ,   the  place  where  the  murder  of  Pensionary  De  Witt  hajppened,  who  was 

destroyed  by  the  populace,  at  the  commencement  of  the  war.  ThiSM^Vi  place  at  the 
instigation  of  the  prince  of  Orange,  who  was  displeased  with  him  for  publishing  an 
edict,  which  had  been  issued  a  short  time  before,  forbidding  the  people  to  recognise  the 
prince  as  their  sovereign,  which  it  was  their  wish  io  do. 

Prince  William  of  Nassau,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  patriots  when  they  threw  off 
the  Spanish  yoke,  behaved  so  generously  during  the  whole  of  the  war,  that  the  Dutch, 
afler  the  Spaniards  had  been  obliged  to  recognise  them  and  their  Republic  as  indepcu- 
dent  states,  were  forced  to  reward,  his  valour,  by  conferring  on  him  the  title  of  Protector 
of  the  States.  This  tide  is  enjoyed  by  his  successors.  But  the  council  of*  the  pro- 
vinces, and  especially  the  De  Witts,  who  composed  a  particular  fttction,  and  who  were 
encouraged  by  many  others,  published  that  perpetual  law,  by  which  it  was  declal^d 
illegal  ever  to  propose  the  prince  jaf  Orange  as  sovereign,  and  even  obliged  the  present 
prince,  while  young,  to  sign  it.  During  these  transactions,  war  with  France  com- 
menced ;  and  the  people,  dreading  the  French  yoke,  and  believing,  that,  if  they  had 
the  prince  of  Orange  at  Uieir  hdd,  they  would  perform  wonders,  proposed  him. 
But  being  prevented  by  this  perpetual  edict,  they  brake  out  against  De  Witt,  the 
general  of  the  forces,  and  caused  him  to  be  arrested,  acoHsing  him^  of  high  treason, 
and  of  wishing  to  overtura  the  government ;  but  finding  no  evidence  sufficient  to 
convict  him,  they  contented  themselves  with  banishing  hiiill,  for  the  pur{>ose  otsi^ihfy- 
ing  the  people  and  the  faction  of  the  prince  of^range.  His  brother,  pensionary,  at 
the  Hague  for  the  affairs-: of  the  province  of  Holland,  demandM  permission  to  visit 
him ;  but,,  in  endeavouring  to  enter  the  prison,  the  people  mutiraed,  suffering  with 
impatience  the  sight  of  a  man  who  opposed  their  schemes,  fell  upon  him,  and  oarba- 
rously  assassinated  him  on  the  spot.  They  drew  him  to  a  little  distance,  where  fhey  hung*^ 
him  by  the  neck.    £very  body  crowded  to  this  sdene,  and  so  en-^v  ;>ed  were  the  people, 


•  HKCiNAnn'S  JOl'RNEV  TO  L,\l'l.\Nn,  kc.  J3y 

Uiat  they  cut  the  body  in  pieces,  unci  took  uway  with  them  lumps  offlibh,  wliicli  they 
sold  some  day!>  ulk-rwurd!>,  Kt  u  high  price,  tu  those  who  hud  not  enjoyed  tlie  sati*.Uiei.i\)!i 
of  bcinfj; prcbent  at  this  mussacre.  'I'Ik-  |K;ople,  who  are  femciouii  hiiiles, deliy;liii..f^  ul. 
ways  in  extixnicii,  because  destitute  of  aahon,  and  either  loo  timid,  or  too  nish,  Imvc 
alre;>dy  relented  of  this  action.  They  are  sensible,  thiil  the  law  was  made  for  their 
interests ;    luid  the  Pcasionary's  death  was  the  first  check  whicli  the  republic  received. 

The  United  Provinces  are  indebted,  under  Heaven,  to  the  princes  of  Oran};;c  lor 
their  liberty,  who  forced  the  king  of  Spain  to  sign  the  treat}',  and  tr)  recognize  the 
Dutch  as  a  free  people,  inde|ien(lunt  of  every  other,  which  is  a  very  remai  kable  cir- 
cumstance. William  the  First  cemented  with  his  blood  the  foundation  of  the  re  pub' 
lie.  Maurice  and  Henry,  his  sons,  advanced  its  glory,  by  Ixing  conquerors  in  scvi  r.il 
tnigagcmcnts.  William  the  Second,  not  inferior  to  the  rest,  died  very  young,  and  left, 
as  the  successor  of  his  virtues,  William  tlie  Third  of  the  same  name,  the  piesent  prince 
of  Orange,  son  of  William  the  Second,  and  Mary  Stewart,  eldest  tlaughter  of  Charles 
the  First,  king  of  England,  who  was  beheaded.  In  the  thirty -sixth  or  thirty.seventh 
year  of  William  the  Second's  age,  William  the  Third  was  l)om,  who  has  since  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  York.  He  was  not  bom  till  after  his  father's  death, 
and  he  was,  when  eleven  years  of  age,  deprived  of  the  princess  royal,  his  mothe", 
who  died  at  London,  of  the  small-pox,  the  same  disease  which  had  carried  ofl'  her 
husband,  William  the  Second. 

It  b  known  to  all  the  world,  that  Holland  is  a  state  purely  republican ;  but  it  will  be 
proper  to  say  something  more  particular  resjieciing  its  government. 

Every  city  is  governed  by  a  magistrate,  burgo-masters,  and  councillors,  liesides  a 
bailiff,  in  criminal  causes,  who  discharges  his  office  at  the  will  of  the  council,  and  who 
determines  absolutely,  in  criminal  afiairs,  of  the  sentence  of  the  burgo-masters.  Alx)\-c 
a  ceitBio  sum,  an  appeal  m^  be  made  to  the  provincial  court,  to  which  every  city  sends 
a  councillor.  ^ 

Tlie  depudes  from  the  cities  con^pose  the  States  of  the  Province ;  and  the  deputies 
from  the  Provinces  form  the  States  General,  who  enter  into  alliances,  form  treaties,  im- 
pose taxis,  and  attend  to  the  general  interests  of  the  republic.  The  Provinces  have  nil 
equally  tlie  same  influence ;  but  tht  province  of  AmstenJam  generallv  swuyn  the  balance, 
and  infludllces  the  deoisioqs,  accordmg  to  its  wbh.  That  city  alone  is  considered  a 
provliice.  It  is  a  natural  conclusion  tpat  the  sovereignty  is  not  resklent4n  the  States 
Gentral,  who  consist  solely  of  envoys  from  the  cities,  for  the  purpose  of  proposing  in  the 
council  those  matters  which  they  wish  to  be  considered 

The  Hague  is  the  place  where  the  Dutch  nobility  reside,  and  it  Is,  perhaps,  the 
most  charming  residence  in  the  world.  A  large  forest  of  tall  trees,  botMidm^on  every 
side  by  magnificent  palaces,  and  surrounded  hf  dktensive  and  beautiful  meadows, 
renders  its  appearance  one  of  the  most  pleasant  in  Europe.  Before  the  Stadthouse, 
there  Is  a  pond  sulrounded  with  pieces  of  hewn  stone,  while  large  trees  on  its  boiders 
adorn  the  palace  of  the  prince.  One  can  travel  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  from  the 
ha^ne  tok,  the  sta»  by  a  charming  road.  In  going  thither,  we  saw  a  chariot  with  sails, 
which  fhe  prince  of  Orange  bad  causQ4  to  be  oonstructed,  and  we  went  into  a  place, 
where  they  ride  rou  -X  a  ringon  wooden  horses.  Wf  went  to  view  a  residence  of  the 
prince,  where  he  passes  part  of  the  year,  and  maintiuns  a  number  of  curious  beasts. 
We  tfso  saw  some  cows  from  Calicut,  of  a  peculiar  atnxture,  with  bunches  on  their 
•jjltcks,  besodes  a  number  of  stags.  We  left  tne  Hague,  and  dined  at  Leyden,  which  is 
called  Itugdunum  \tavorumt  ai|d  which  is  respectable  on  account  of  its  university,  its 
anatomioU  preparauoids,  aq(l  tJbp  pnwriety  of  iif  buildingB ;  it  is  in  my  opinion,  the  most 

VOL.   I.  -.  *  f 


I" 


136 


RPCiVAHn'S  JOIHN'KV  TO  I.M'I.ANO,  do. 


i: 

?1 


respectable  of  nil  the  Dutch  towns.  Wc  haw  here  a  i)umlx;r  of  curioHitit'«i,  and  among 
others,  a  hippopotanuis  ur  sea-cow,  which  had  been  brongkt  iVoni  Inili.i.  In  the  anato- 
mical mnscinn  they  show  a  rpi.tntity  of  preparations,  sonuincrous,  that  a  cutalogtic  of 
them  would  l)e  siillicient  to  fill  a  large  volume. 

Vrom  I A  vden  we  travelled  to  Amsterdam,  and  saw  Haarlem  on  the  road,  where  wc 
observeil  ii  Urgt.:  church  :  we  arrived  al  Am^ter(lam  in  the  evening.  'I'his  city  of  cities, 
r.o  ri  nowned  throughout  the  whole  universe,  may  well  be  considea-d  a  muster-piece. 
The  houses  are  magnificent,  the  streets  spacious,  and  the  canals  extremely  Urge,  with 
their  banks  hinged  with  trees,  which,  mixing  their  verdure  with  the  various  colours 
with  whi(h  the  houses  art  painted,  form  one  of  the  most  delightful  scenes  in  the  world. 
The  city  a|)pears  double.  One  can  see  it  in  the  water,  and  the  reflection  of  the 
palaces  in  the  canals  anders  this  place  a  charming  a-sidence.  The  town- house  is 
situated  on  the  dam;  this  structure  might  have  been  reckoned  one  of  the  Hnest  in  Eu- 
rope, if  the  architect  had  not  been  deficient  in  the  plan,  and  had  made  some  distinction 
betwixt  the  windows  and  the  entrance,  which  it  is  necessary  to  look  for  on  oil  sides,  and 
olien  to  in(|uire  for.  We  ascended  the  stairs  of  the  building,  when*  wc  saw  a  magazine 
of  arms,  and  a  very  fine  chime  of  bells.  From  tiie  spire,  we  observed  Utrecht,  which 
was  the  place  that  bounded  the  conquest  of  the  king.  The  house  of  correction  is  one  of 
the  most  useful  establishments  I  know,  it  contains  all  the  females  of  infamous  cliaraotcr, 
who  are  shut  up  in  it,  for  a  certain  time,  and  obliged  to  work.  Perhapa'there  is  no 
town  in  the  world,  Paris  excepted,  where  there  is  so  much  debauchery,  as  in  Amster- 
dam. However,  there  is  this  difference  between  them,  that  in  this  city  there  are  certain 
districts,  where  Jwiwds  reside,  and  maintain,  in  their  houses,  a  certain  number  of  girls. 
The  gentleman  is  shown  into  »  chamber,  which  has  a  communication  with  a  number  of 
small  ones,  of  which  he  pays  for  the  entrance.  The  portrait,  and  the  price  of  the  lady 
which  the  chamber  contains,  are  fixed  above  the  door ;  the  choice  is  left  to  the  gfentle- 
man ;  but  the  lady  will  not  venture  out  till  the  price  is  paid,  and  if  the  portrait  has  flat, 
tered,  so  much  the  worse  for  him. 

The  work-house  is  another  receptacle  for  vicious  penions,  and  childrsn  whose 
parents  have  been  unable  to  reclaim  them,  where  they  a*  >i  employed  to  gi4)id  cinna- 
mon. There  is  in  the  great  churQ^  of  Amsterdam'  a  cliaik<  of  iiVimense  value,  on  ac- 
count of  the  excellence  of  its  workmanship.  At  Amstcr<»*am,  and  diroU^hout  Hol- 
hind,  all  kinds  of  relijc^ons,  exce|h  the  jCatlv)lic,  are  tolerated;  this. exceptional  an 
examnle  o{  tlieir  good  policy,  as  they  are  convinced,  that  if  ever  the  Catholics  ac- 
quired power,  it  would  be  a  gtWAt  check  to  their  liberty;  and  might  prove  its  destruc- 
tion. One  sees  here,  Lutherans,  Calvinifits,  Armenians,  Nestonans,  Atrrabaptists, 
and  Jewi^wh*  are  more  powerful 'in  this  place  than  in  any- other  country  :  Their 
synagogue  here  is  infinitely  suffEriol*  to  that  of  Venice.  The  India  house,  which  is 
.^vithout  the  oity,  shows  ^i^arly  that  H  belongs  to  tijfi  richest  merchants  in  Europe. 
They  were  building  here  a  very. fine  ^i[^  which  Wastso  sail  for  India  in  a  mo|ith. 
Wc  went  to  see  their  ships  of  war,  which  had  no  very  respectable  appearance,  and  Id^L^ 
not  distinguish  one,  which  was  equak  in  beauty  to  our  own.  They  ^sapprove  of 
quarter-galleries,  which  are  frequent  with  us,  ijjjpid  suppo^  that  they  obstruct  the  ship's 
motion,  but  this  addition,  so  %(iron^  being  any  disadvantage,  b,  I  find,  extremely 
useful  to  the  officers,  and  omameotal  to  the  vessel.  At  Amsterdam,  we  lodged  at 
Chellier's,  at  the  Place  Reyile,  in  Kajyerstraat.  We  knew  M.  de  Reswic,'who  Is 
descended  of  one  ofthe  first  families  in'  Hfijlailfd,  and  who,  in  the  late  wars,  expendig^ 
large  sums  of  money.  He  shewed  Miss  Homia,  kj&  mistress,  heiress  to  a  very  fine 
ibrtuiiG,  and,  ii^e  him,  a  Cat)|plk.  ««^^e  saw  tliem  t(|j;et^er  a^  the  opera.^t  the  re- 


i 


lir.riNAiti)ii  JoritvEY  to  lai'LAnd.  Im. 


IJO 


prcscntntion  of  U»c  nipc  of  Hilin.  Wc  were  informed  at  tlic  < om<  dy  that  ihc  whole 
bum  rtccivcd  i!>  given  to  the  poor,  und  that  the  eity  \Myh  the  eomcdiuiis,  who  receive  n 
certain  calory. 

Wc  left  Amsterdam  on  the  tucnty-lifth  day  of  May,  IfiHl,  and  wirivcd  at  Liu  hiiysc 
ill  Uu.'  eveninf^,  whciv  we  only  staid  while  we  t<M)k  a  ivfri.shnKiit.  VVi  ol)»icr\nl,  that 
thiN  eity  has  three  heninjjs  ujxjn  its  arn>s,  on  accoinit  of  ihf  ^rcat  numlxr-i  whielj  the 
inhahituut^  cateh  of  this  lish.  \Vc  hired  a  bait  in  the  <.  veiling  to  Workmn,  where  \w 
arrived  next  mominfi;.  'Vim  piovinec  ih  called  North  Holland,  and  I  do  not  IxTicvi' 
thtri-  are  finer  women  aJiy  where,  ttum  what  art  here  to  be  met  n\  iih.  The  peasant 
girb  |)Oi»!iC!>s  charms  not  inferior  to  those  of  the  ancient  Homans,  and  they  are  siiiUciLnt 
to  inspire  love  at  first  sight. 

Wc  arrived  at  Lewiirdcn,  the  capital  of  Friesland,  a  very  handsome  town,  whi(  h 
chose  the  prince  of  Nassiiu  for  its  governor,  not  wishing  to  vote  for  the  prinrt-  of 
Orange.  This  prince  is  about  twenty. live  or  twenty -six  years  of  age.  He  lost  his 
father  about  eiglucx*n  years  ago,  at  the  seventh  year  of  his  age.  This  prince  died  in 
consequence  of  an  unlucky  accident :  a  pistol,  which  went  oft*  accidentallv,  at  once 
deprived  Europe  of  a  great  mail,  and  Frieslund  of  a  generous  governor,  fie  left  bc- 
liind  him  a  widow,  illustrious  for  her  birth  and  her  merit,  Albertine  of  Orange, 
daughter  of  prince .  Henry  and  Amdiu  dc  Solmcs.  The  prince  survi\ed  seven  or 
eight  day*  after  the  accident,  and  the  |x'ople  of  Fricsland,  out  of  gratitude  for  the 
good  condi'C  of  the  father,  ofl'ered  die  government  to  his  son,  who  was  at  that  timi' 
extremely  young,  and  appointed  him  no  other  governor  than  the  princess  his 
mother. 

We  left  Lewardcn,  and  having  travelled  the  whole  night,  wc  arrived  by  day -break 
at  GfXHiingen,  a  city  very  pleasiintly  situated,  and  which  became  famous  in  the  late  war, 
for  the  siege  which  it  sustained  against  the  bishop  of  Munster,  who  invested  it  at  the 
head  of  twenty -four  thousand  men.  But  the  exceUence  of  its  fortifications  and  the 
courage  of  its  mhabitants  forced  the  besit  gers  to  abandon  their  works  after  a  siege  of  six 
weeks  during  which  tliey  lost  a  great  luimber  of  men.  From  GroninRcn  we  travelled 
to  Oldenburg,  which  belongs,  at  present,  to  the  king  of  Denmark.  This  city  has  given 
its  name  to  the  whole  county.  {^Vo  years  ago  it  was  destroyed  by  lightning :  they 
are  begiwiing  to  rebuild  it,  and  the  king  of  Denmark  is  rearing  some  fortifications. 
Th^  have  here  a  horn  of  plenty,  which  nas  givfgn  rise  to  the  story  of  a  woman,  who, 
ri^a^^out  of  the  earth,  presented  herself  to  the  count  of  Oldenburg,  with  this  horn  in  her 
liand,  full  of  a  liquor  which  he  was  unacquainted  with.  The  prince  was  then  at  the 
chace,  ata  distance  fro.n  his  ocople,  and  muoh  exliaul^d.  But  being  ignorant  of  this 
.liquid,  and- seeing  an  ^xtraorainary  woman,  he  wpuld  npj  touch  it,  but  poured  it  upon 
the  buttocks  of  his  horse.  The  strength  of  this  liquor  carried  off  all  the  hair  from  the 
places  it  had  touched.    ,         ,.  . 

The  king  had  departed  from  Oldenburg,  for  Copenha^n  only  two  days  bcfprc  our 

.^vHval.     On  the  same  evening  we  arrived  at  BreJiien,  a  republic  whose  territories  arc 

^^rrounded  with  those  of  S^igdon  and  Denmark.     The  city  is  handsome,  but  of  such 

small  extent,  that  the  w;dli,^most  tpuch  the  territories  of  their  neighbours.     From 

Bremen  we  saw  nothing  remarkable^  till  we  arrived  at  Hamburg ;  and  ^ve  were  five 

days  and  five  nights  constantly  t|;^elling  in  their  poSt  waggons,  before  we  finished  the 

journey.     From  Hambui^  to  Amsterdam  the  distance  is  calculated  at  sixty  miles,  which. 

I^amount  to  a  hundred  and  thirty  French  Jeaghes. 

^  Hdmbui^  is  a  Hanseatic  town,  free  and  imperial,  which,  from  Its  cjccellent  militia  and 
fcgular  jbrtifioations,  has  n<|th)ng  to  fear  from  a  number  of  princes,  who  are  very 


I 

I 


I 


140 


Ny.flMARIl'S  JOI'NNKV   ro  L\Pt.ANI>,  ke. 


I; 


'1 


anxioiiM  to  pomcHH  this  rich  tnnHurc,  uikI,  jHtrticularlv,  tlic  kino;  of  Denmark,  for  whom 
it  Im  very  convniiontly  hitiiiitcd.  'V\m  pnticc  bkntkadi'd  it  uiirin^  the  late  warn  with 
five  Kiui  twenty  thon^aiKl  mui ;  but  M.x'iii^  the  ntitnlKt  of  auxiliary  i'orco  which  arrived 
from  ull  {jiiurtcr**,  he  could  do  rwthinK  more.  He  n'MiKiied,  a  short  time  after,  for  the 
Kum  of  t"  o  hundred  thousand  cniwnn,  all  his  prctcnHioiM  to  thin  city.  It  in  ^;overnecl 
by  four  bur^o-maHtcnt,  and  eighteen  councilloni.  The  ladies*  here  arc  very  hand- 
some, and  rover  their  faces,  accordiuf^  to  the  SpaniHh  faMhi(Ni.  The  Luthenm  religion 
is  profe-wcd  here,  where  they  have  a  Im)IIow  pine  a  hundred  ycam  old.  Their  operas 
ui£  pretty  well  represented,  and  I  found  that  of  Alcestc  excellently  pi*rformod. 

'rhc  whole  cotmtry  is  excellent,  and  very  fertile.  Tlieir  carriages  arc  extremely  con- 
venient, and  tiM:  horse:*  arc  excellent,  and  run  continually. 

JOUnVRV  TO  UP.NMARK. 

f 

FROM  Humburpf,  wc  set  out  for  Copenhagen,  which  Is  about  a  hundred  and  twenty 
leafj^iKS  distant  from  it.  At  Pinncnbcrg,  tliree  miles  from  the  city,  we  saw  the  queen 
mother  of  DenniiU'k,  who  was  going  to  the  waters  of  Pyrmont  with  prince  George  her 
son,  and  younger  brother  of  the  king.  From  Pinnenberg,  we  proceeded  t  Lm(x:, 
Rensburtj,  Flcr.sbur^,  Assen,  Niel)ury,  Castor,  Rochild.  Tlie  latter  was  for  v  the 
residence  of  the  Dainsh  kings.     Their  tombs  arc  still  to  be  seen  hxftt ;  that  0/  ilian 

the  First  is  tK'autiful.     We  saw  the  model  of  his  statue,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  I 
reached  up  to  iL 

Tlu:  queen  mother  is  of  the  house  of  Luneburg.  She  went  to  the  camp  to  see  the 
young  (jueen,  wkh  whom  she  is  by  no  means  on  a  friendly  footing ;  an'*  she  would  not 
receive  the  visits  of  the  ambassadors,  because  they  visited  tlic  young  queen  before 
her. 

All  tlie  above-mentioned  towns  are  handsome  :  the  women  carry  all  kinds  of  baskets, 
made  of  very  fine  twigs,  upon  their  heads.     At  Assen  I  lost  a  portmanteau.^ 

Frederic  the  Third  was  the  first  king  under  whonrf  the  kingdom  became'^hereditary. 
He  was  supported  by  the  merchants  of  Copenhagen,  who  could  not  bear  the  tyranny  of 
the  nobles.  They  encouraged  him  in  his  enterprise,  and  rewarded  turn  with  their 
services.  The  merchants  and  people  were  so  abiiscd  by  the  noble^.  that  they  could  kill 
any  one  of  them,  if  they  deposited  a  crown  under  the  body*  of  the  deceased. .  Froderic 
did  not  attempt  to  take  this  privile|;e  from  the  nobilitv ;  but  he  ordained,  that  if  a 
merchant  or  a  peasant  killed  a  noble,  b  that  case  thfey  snould  place  tw:o  crowns  below 

the  dead  body.  ^      '    '•t."  -^  '  *   \,    *  J«      .•*■  ' 

ITie  coffin  which  contains  the  body  of  Frederic  the  Third,  late  king  Qfuenmailc, 
and  father  of  the  present,  is  very  rich|  and  covered  with  various  |)ieces  of  workmanshqt 
in  silver. 

Copenhagen  is  very  aclyaatageously  situated  on  the  Baltic  sea.  It  is  a  frontier  town 
W  th*  side  of  the  province  of  SchQnen,-4nd  sustained  a  'skge  very  vigorously,  during 
two  years,  against  Gustavus  Adcdphus,  the  father  of  queen  Christina,  whom  we  bafw 
seen  at  Rome.     The  spires  of  Sainta  Maria  bear  the  marts  of  this  si^.    "'  .*"  '^■'^' 

The  Louvre  is  a  very  ordinary  building,  covered  with  "Brass,  which  was  formerly  the 
residence  of  bishops,  when  the  king's  court  was  held  at  Rochild.  The  stable  is  very 
handsome,  and  very  long,  and  contains  a  number  of  excellent  horses ;  and  the  riding* 
house,  which  is  near  it,  is  a  verji^Qurious  striMnure.  It  was  here  that  the  rejoicing  took 
place  when  the  queen  of  Sweden  left  Copenhagen. 

There  are  no  buildings  worth  looking  at  in  this  city,  ^  we  except'the  |j&Iace  of  the 
queen  mother,  the  garden  of  the  'king,  and  that  of  the  duke  of  Guldenlei^  which  is 


I 


RrfiNARH')!  JOURVKY  TO  I.An.AVn.  Ii«. 


141 


the  title  of  all  the  fint  luMtariLi  of  the  kii))(  of  Denmark,  and  incntin  lAon  (lore ;  and 
wIm-ii  the  kin^  upon  the  ihruiic  begetsi  a  CjiiUicitlcu,  that  of  the  late  kin)(  takcH  the  title 
of  high  miKhtiiie<is. 

\V r  were  four  <lay8  niul  four  nights  in  travcllinp^  one  hundred  and  twenty  leaf>;i;iicH  { 
and  we  arrived  at  Co|x;nha(]^>n  on  ThurMtay,  at  the  oiK.ning;  of  the  gate.  \Vc  Icxlged 
at  KrantH. 

Frederit;  the  Third  was  arclibishon  of  Bremen,  hut  was  elected  king,  on  the  death 
of  his  elder  brotlu  r.  He  had  six  children,  two  of  them  hoy<»,  aiul  four  girls.  The 
sons  were  king  Christian,  and  i)rincc  Ge<v-ge.  The  eldest  of  his  daughters,  Anne 
Sophia,  was  married  to  George  the  Third,  duke  of  Saxorty  ;  another  to  the  duke 
of  Holstein,  the  third,  Sophia  Amelia,  to  William  Palatine  of  the  Uhine,  and  brother 
to  Madame  d'  Orleans ;  and  the  fourth,  and  youngest,  Ulrica  Elcononi,  to  the  king 
of  Sweden. 

Christian  the  Fifth,  the  present  king,  has  five  children.  Three  of  them  arc  sons  j 
prince  Frederic  eleven  years  old,  prince  Christian  six,  and  prince  Cliarles  one.  Two 
are  daughters,  the  eldest  of  whom  is  culled  Sophia. 

The  tower  of  the  ob^  vatory,  which  a  carriage  might  ascend,  is  a  very  curious  build- 
ing. It  was  reared  by  i'rederic  the  Second.  From  the  top  of  the  tower  we  see  the  whole 
or  the  city,  which  is  not  very  extensive,  but  which  appears  almost  wholly  surrounded 
by  water.  There  is  a  celestial  globe  of  brass  here,  made  by  the  hands  of  Tycho  Brahc, 
a  famous  mathematician,  and  a  native  of  this  country. 

'I'hc  I:lxchunge  b  a  very  handsome  building,  placed  opposite  to  the  Louvre.  Its 
spire  is  very  curiously  constructed.  Four  lizards,  whose  tails  are  raised  up  in  the  air, 
form  the  circumference.  It  is  here  where  all  the  curiosities  arc  exposed  to  sale,  as  at 
thepahice. 

The  harbour  contains  the  king's  ships,  amounting  to  about  fifty  or  sixty,  the  admi> 
nil's  vessel  has  a  hundred  guns.  The  Icings  of  Denmark  never  sent  out  such  a  num* 
her  of  ships  before,  and  the  last  victory  which  they  gained  over  the  Swedes  acquired 
them  immortal  honour. 

The  arsenal  contains  a  number  of  fine  pieces  of  cannon.  There  are  even  some  of 
highly  polished  steef,  which  were  manufactured  iiL  Moscovy.  In  a  J[iall  above,  there 
are^.^inns  for  Mxty  thousand  men,  a  chariot  wlucfimoves  of  itself,  and  another,  in  the 
wheels  of  which  there  is'a  clock,  which  strikes  tke  hour  according  to  the  motion  of  the 
wiieels.  All  the  spoils  which  the  Danes  acquired  in  their  late  wars  with  the  Swedes 
are  here  placed,  with  the  equipage  of  seventeen  vessels,  which  were  taken  at  one  time. 

The  king's  cabinet  is  above  the  library.  There  are  several  chambers  filled  with 
curiosities;  among  others,  there  is  a  t^l  of  a  horse,  which  is  the  mark  pf  authority 
among  the  Turks,  and  which  the  bashaws  place  before  their  tents,  when  they  are  at 
the  army;  the  grand  seignior  has  three,  and  the  visier  two.  We  saw  a  beautiful 
^itimale  mandrake,  the  slippers  of  a  girl  who  w^s  dejioured  'without  being  consclc^is  of  it, 
M  nail  which  they  told  us  is  one  of  Nebuchadnezzar's,  and  one  of  the  children  of  that 
countess  of  Flanders,  who  brought  fordi,  at  one  birth,  ^s  many  as  there  are<days  in  a 
year. 

The  king  is  very  handsqpie,  and  takes  {Measure  in  various  exercises,  such  as  riding 
on  horseback,  and  the  chace.  He  is  foitr-aniii- thirty  years  of  age,  and  miuried  Charlotte 
Amelia,  daughier  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse.  ^^ 

There  is  no  language  so  well  adapted  for  beggars  as  tlie  Danish.  Whenth^y  speak, 
one  is  always  apt  to  think  that  they  are  crying.  .«r 


i 


142 


llEGNAUD'S  JOUHNKY  TO  LAJ'I.AMJ,  8cC. 


i 


1 


Tlie  kI:?fi^oms  of  Denmark  and  Norway  are  subject  to  the  siime  sovereign.  They 
are  bounded  by  Sweden  on  the  east,  England  on  the  west,  the  Frozen  Ocean  on  the 
north,  and  Gcrniupy  on  the  e  outh.  They  are  connected  with  the  latter  Ijy  means  of 
the  Duchy  uf  Holstein,  whicii  is  near  the  isthmus.  This  place,  at  present  denomi- 
ni  ted  Jutland,  and  Wiiich  is  situated  between  the  Ocean  and  the  Baltic  Sea,  was 
known  to  tlie  ^iicients  by  the  name  of  Cimbri",  Chersonesus. 

Denmark  v,  a  rich  and  fruitfu'  country,  r  jntaining  a  number  of  islands,  the  most 
respectable  of  which  arc,  Zealand,  Falster,  Langeland,  La!a»:d,  and  Funen,  the  latter  of 
which  's  famous  for  that  last  victory  which  savea  fhe  kingdom  froir;  total  destruction, 
when  the  Danes,  supported  by  the  Dutch,  put  all  the  jower  of  Gustavus  Charles  at 
defiance  in  this  island,  whi'i  he  had  besieged  Coiienhugen  two  jears  The  king  of 
Denmark  is  still  master  of  Iceland,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  Ultima  Thule  of  the 
ancients.  This  island,  although  it  is  covered  with  snow,  nevertheless  contains  burning 
mountains,  'vhencc  issue  fire  and  flames,  to  which  the  Iceland  poets  compare  the  breasts 
of  their  mr^trcsses.  It  also  contains  smolang  lakes,  which  turn  every  thing  thrown 
in  them  to  stone,  and  many  other  wonders,  which  render  this  island  famous.  Norway 
extends  along  the  sea  shore  the  whole  way  to  the  house  of  Wardhuis,  which  is  loeyond 
the  North  Cape,  in  approaching  from  the  side  of  the  White  Sea,  upon  which  Archangel, 
a  sea-port  of  Muscovy,  is  situated.  This  extent  of  territory  was  ceded  by  the  trer/tv  of 
peace  concluded  betwixt  Frederic  dn  Third  and  Gustavus  Charles,  late  kin^s  of  Swe- 
de ii  and  Denmark.  Greenland  beloi  gs  to  Denmark  also ;  but  it  is  only  habit:  bie  three 
r;ionths  in  the  year,  which  lu-e  employed  in  the  whale-fishery. 

Sweden  has  been  several  times  joined  to  these  two  kingdoms,  by  alliances  entered 
into  between  the  princes  or  princesses  of  the  two  countries.  But  Sweden  was  totally 
separated  from  them  by  Gustavus  the  First,  head  of  the  family  of  Vasa,  who  caused 
himself  to  be  crowned  king  of  that  kingdom  in  the  year  1528,  and  introduced  the 
Lutheran  religion  at  the  same  time  that  Christian  the  Third  established  it  in  DenuiArki 
The  latter  had  always  been  an  elective  monarchy,  as  well  as  Sweden;  but  Frederic 
the  Third,  after  having  been  engaged  in  several  wars  with  his  neighbours,  and  having 
saved  the  state  b)  his  vigilance  and  courage,  procured  the  government  to  be  declared 
successive  and  hereditary. 

Frederic,  tbird  of  the  name,  son  of  Christian  the  Fodrth,  who  reigned  more  than 
sixty  yeais,  and  of  Anne  Catharine,  sister  of  John  Sigismond,  elector  of  Brandenbtn^, 
was  father  of  the  present  king  Christi-ji  the  Fifth.  He  was  archbisHbp  of  Bremen, 
before  he  succeeded  to  the  kingdom,  ir.  consequence  of  the  death  <rf  his  father,  and  that 
of  his  elder  brother,  who  was  a  year  older ;  and  he  married,  in  the  year  1643,  Sophia 
Amelia,  daughter  of  George  duke  of  Brunswick  and  Luneburg,  and  Anne  Eleonora, 
daughter  of  Louis,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  chief  of  the  house  of  Darmstadt.  The  'ast  re- 
union of  these  kingdoms  happened  in  1397,  by  the  marriage  ai  Haqtiin,  son  of  Mag- 
nus the  Fifth,  king  of  Sweden  and  Inselbarg,  and  heir  to  Norway,  with  Margaret,  eldest 
daughter  of  Waldemar  the  Fourth,  king  of  Denmark.  .  • .«  ■,--,u    '  "  ' 

The  last  separation,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  took  place  in 'the  year  1528, ,  ifi 
consequence  of  the  tyrannical  conduct  of  Christian  the  Second  to  the  Swedes.  He 
obliged  the  inhabitants  of  Stockholm  to  give  him  hostages;  and  ?vpn  after  he  had 
received  them  coniinued  his  cruelties.  Gustavus  Vasa,  one  of  the  hostages,  escaped 
in  Sweden,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  oppressed  Swedes,  who  elected  him  khig,  and 
threw  oiF  the  Danish  yoke. 

We  learned  in  Denmark  the  nature  of  a  Virschat,  The  ambassador  took  the 
trouble  to  give  us   the  information   himself.    He   told  us,   thaf,   this   amusement 


# 


■ijs  '"Ljy'-'^'j^^it. 


*:wm!Sf<tSS^  VSwki«wM»«*^ 


HEt.VARD'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLANO,  &c. 


143 


was 


Rfnerally  happened  in  the   winter  season,  during  which  time  the  king,  wishing  to 
anuise  hin.acli;  orders  a  Virschat  throughout  the  whole  court,  and  forms  one  ot  the 

The  whole  court  appears  in  different  trades,  Nvith  dresses  appropriate  to  the  business 
which  they  profess,  and  which  has  fallen  to  their  lot.  The  king  of  Denmiirk  himself 
appc;"-d  at  the  last,  in  the  character  jf  a  coalman  ;  dnd  we  were  told  that  nothmg  can 
bf  more  -ntertaining  than  this  kind  of  masquerade.  It  is  not  practised  in  Denmark  only, 
but  is  also  prevalent  in  Sweden,  .nd  throughout  all  Germany.  ,  .     -^ 

It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  justice  iti  extremely  well  distributed  in  Denmark  ; 
and  that  every  year  a  chamber  is  held,  for  the  purpose  of  determining  appeals 
from  all  the  courts  of  the  kingdom,  which  continues  to  sit  till  all  the  business  is  ter- 
minated. ^    .    „  ,  ,  -  J   .      Ul 

The  king  of  Denmark's  guard  consists  of  infantry  and  cavalry,  dressed  in  blue 
turned  up  with  red,  and  a  large  cloak  of  the  same  colour.  He  has  always  forty 
thousand  men  in  arms,  who  are  paid  by  the  provinces,  both  in  peace  and  war ;  and 
those  which  are  the  most  wealthy  furnish  twq  re^ments,  one  of  infantry,  and  u.e  other 
of  cavalry. 

JOURNEY  TO  SWEDEN. 

GENEALOGY  OF  THE  KINGS  OF  SWEDKN,  FROM  THE  DAYS  OF  GUSTAVUS  THE  FIRST. 

?-  Gustavus  of  Vasa. 

—J* 


h 


John  HI,  who  married 
one  Ja^elion. 


Charles  IX. 


1 


Sigismqnd!    king     of 
S^yeden  and  Polled. 


Gustavus  Adolphus 


Christina,  who  abdicated 
the  kingdom  in  the 
year  1644 


Catharine  <f  Vasa,  who  was 
married  tv^  john  Oassimir, 
count  Palatine  of  the 
Rhine,  of  the  branch  of 
Deux  Ponts. 


.-A„ 


Charles  Gustavus  -he 
X,  who  marned 
Hedwige  Eleanora, 
daughter  (^  the 
duke  of  Uolstein. 


The  prince  Adolphus. 


4 


Margaret  Eleonora,  who 
was  married  to  Magnus- 
Gabriel  of  La  Gardie, 
Ristrosse. 


Cferies  XI,  the  present  monarch,  married  Ulrica  Eleonora,  sister  of  the  king  of 

Denmark,  by  whom  he  had  a  daughter,  his  first  child>  in  July,  1681. 

, J^  That  country  at  pre^nt  denominated  Sweden  was  anciendy  called  Scandia,  or  bcm- 

dinavw,  and  is  litUe  else,  if  we  may  say  so,  than  an  bland,  which  stretches  betwixt  the 

Ocean,  the  Baltic  Sea,  and  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia.  ...     •     ,r       ^ 

This  province  is  not  extremely  fertile  throughout.  Lapland  is  sterility  itselt ;  and 
this  people,  whom  I  have  had  the  curiosity  to  visit  at  the  end  of  the  world,  are  equally 
destitute  ofbodily  and  mental  food,  having  neither  corporeal  nor  spintual  nourishment 


•*■ 


I 


m  ' 


144 


REGNARD'S  JOUnNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  ke. 


P' 


i- 

i 

i 


» 


► 


But  Gothland  and  O^trogothiu  arc  so  fertile,  in  some  places,  that  they  may  be  com- 
pared to  France ;  and  the  soil  is  so  rich,  that  it  rears  in  the  space  of  three  months  the 
same  commodities,  which  it  takes  nine  months,  in  other  places,  to  produce.  There  arc 
other  places,  \vhere  nature  must  be  forced  in  order  to  produce  nourishment  sufficient  for 
the  inhabitants,  Schonen,  Schunmoland,  Angermania,  and  Finland ;  and  it  is  here, 
wnere  nature,  refusing  fertility  f  the  plains,  gi  ants  in  iis  stead  abundance  to  the  forests, 
which  in  winter  are  burnt  by  the  inhabitants,  for  the  purpose  of  sowing  in  their  ashes 
grain  in  spnng,  which  arrives  at  greater  perfectioii,  and  in  a  shorter  time,  than  any 
where  else. 

The  Swedes  arc  naturally  a  brave  people ;  and  without  mentioning  the  Goths  and 
Vandals,  who,  scaling  the  Alps  and  the  Pvrennees,  conquered  Italy  and  Spain,  let  us 
for  a  moment  attend  to  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  chief  of  conquerors,  who  was 
followed  by  very  few  Swedes,  and  who  victoriously  overran  the  whole  of  Germany, 
like  lightning,  making  every  prince  sensible  of  the  force  of  his  arms.  Let  us  consider 
a  Charles  Gustavus,  the  last  king  of  this  country,  who  reduced  the  Danes,  his  moat 
formidable  enemies,  to  such  a  degree,  that  they  were  obliged  to  retire  within  the  walls 
of  their  capital,  which  was  the  only  place  in  the  kingdom  remaining  in  their  possession, 
where  he  besieged  them  two  years,  and  who,  after  many  engagements,  died  of  a  fever 
at  Gottenburg,  aged  thirty-seven  years,  on  the  twelfth  day  of  February,  1660. 

This  prince,  \vno  was  constandy  periforming  wonders,  forced  Heaven  itself  to  aid  and 
assist  him,  and  to  perform  miracles  in  his  favour,  it  hardened  the  waters  <^  the  Belt, 
for  the  purpose  of  afibrding  him  an  opportunity  of  performing  a  heroic  action. 
Charles  the  Tenth  led  all  his  troops  over  a  frozen  sea  two  leagues  in  width,  with  all  his 
cannon,  and  encamped  there,  where  he  remained  several  days,  with  an  intrepidity  of 
resolution  which  surprised  every  body,  but  which  was  natural  to  Mm.  If  this  pnnce 
was  i^  great  warrior,  he  was  equally  an  excellent  politician ;  and  he  displayed  it  clearly 
during  the  reign  of  queen  Christina;  for,  while  she  amused  herself  with  consulting  men 
of  letters,  whom  she  invibed  from  all  quarters,  but  who  tau^t  her  not  the  airt  of  reigning, 
he  embraced  the  opportunity  of  gaining  the  affections  of  all  the  senators,  who  were  dis- 
gusted with  the  administration  of  the  queen,  and  v/ho  obliged  her  to  re^gn  the  govern- 
ment in  his  favour. 

Was  it  not  the  great  Gustavus  Adolphus  who  led  the  way  to  thb  worthy  successor  ? 
and  who,  after  having  led  a  life  wholly  warlike  and  heroic,  ended  his  days  in  the  field 
of  victory,  and  in  the  mklst  of  his  troops,  in  consequence  ci  a  musket  shot,  which 
deprived  Europe  of  its  greatest  conqueror.  Queen  Christina  was  a  worthy  descend- 
ant of  this  great  prince.  This  princess  had  a  ^oul  truly  royal,  and  exhausted  ail  thlj^ 
praises  of  ingenious  men.  She  might  have  reigned  longer,  if  she  had  been  taore 
mistress  of  herself;  and  the  jealousy  which  she  excited  amongst  the  senators,  who 
beheld  with  impatience  the  greatest  favours  lavished  on  Ritrosse,  by  whom  she  had 
children,  obliged  her  to  resdgn  the  crown.  She  changed  her  reli^on  at  the  instigation 
of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  who  promised  her,  that  if  she  became  a  Catholic,  she 
should  be  married  to  the  king  hb  master.  She  remained  at  Rome  almost  all  her  life, 
after  she  abdicated  the  throne,  and  subsisted  on  ten  thousand  crowns,  wluch  the  Pope 
gave  her  annually  as  a  pension,  till  the  king  of  France  put  her  in  possession  of  all  her 
propertv.  She  kept  in  her  own  hand  the  fertile  islands  of  Aland  and  Gothland,  situat- 
ed in  tne  Baltic  Sea^  but  slie  exchanged  them,  a  short  time  ago,  for  the  territory  of 
Norcopin  in  Ostrogothia. 

Charles  XI,  the  present  king,  is  son  of  Charles  Gustavus,  count  Palatine,  of  the 
house  of  Deux  Ponts,  and  of  Hedwige  Eleonora,  youngest  daughter  of  the  duke  of 


-•l^f^. 


■.J; 


RRONARD'8  JOUnNEY  TO  LAPl.ANO,  &c. 


145 


Holstein.  He  is  a  prince  who  does  not  disgrace  the  dignity  of  his  ancestors :  his  com- 
manding and  royal  demeanour  displays  that  he  is  descended  from  the  race  of  the  illus- 
trious Gustavi.  His  disposition  is  completely  warlike  ;  and  as  he  has  no  enemies  lo 
war  with,  his  chief  employment  consists  in  hunting  the  bear.  This  sport  is  rather  fol- 
lowed in  winter  tlian  summer ;  and  when  a  peasant  has  discovered  traces  of  the  bear, 
by  means  of  his  footsteps  in  the  snow,  he  informs  the  chief  huntsman,  who  conducts 
the  king  to  the  spot.  The  bear  is  an  intrepid  animal :  he  does  not  fly  at  the  sight  of 
man,  but  walks  on  witliout  swerving  from  his  path.  When  he  is  observed  to  be  suffi- 
ciently near,  it  is  necessary  for  the  hunter  to  alight  from  his  horse,  and  wait  till  he  come 
pretty  close  to  him ;  he  then  gives  the  animal  a  severe  stroke,  which  obliges  him  to  raise 
nimself  on  his  hinder  legs :  this  is  the  time  to  strike,  and  it  is  very  dangerous  not  to 
wound  him  mortally  ;  for  he  now  approaches  the  hunter  with  fury,  and  embracing  him 
with  his  fore  feet,  generally  stifles  him  ;  on  this  account  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  pistol, 
for  the  purpose  of  shooting  him,  and  if  this  fails,  a  short  spear  must  be  reserved  for  dis- 
patching  him.  We  saw  one  at  Stockholm,  which  the  king  had  killed  with  his  own  hand, 
in  rescuing  his  favourite  Vaqmester,  who  was  almost  destroyed  by  it.  This  animal  lies 
in  his  den  three  or  four  months  in  the  year,  and  during  all  this  time  takes  no  other 
nourishment  than  what  lie  procures  from  sucking  his  paw.  The  king  has  alwn\  s  in 
his  possession  three  or  four  little  bears,  whose  teeth  and  claws  are  ptu-ed  every  month. 

I  knew  at  Copenhagen  M.  de  Martangis,  the  ambassador,  who  conferred  on  pd^  a 
thousand  favours :  I  was  several  times  entertained  by  him.  He  conducted  me  lu  '  he 
house  of  Madame  countess  of  Rantzau,  whose  husband  was  ambassador  in  France  :  I 
supped  there  with  the  beautiful  ladies  Revinsdau  and  Grabe,  the  latter  of  whom  may 
justly  be  considered  a  pertect  beauty.  1  also  met  there  Madame  de  Ratelau  and  M.  du 
Boineau,  a  native  '^  Rochelle,  one  of  the  captains  of  the  royal  navy,  who  quitted  the 
service  on /iccount  ,.  lis  religion.  ♦ 

I  left  Copenhagen,  .md  set  oul  for  Stockholm  ^n  the  first  day  of  Jn!y.  We  saw 
Fredericksburg,  the  king's  pleasure-residencC;  whicli  may  be  denominated  the  Versailles 
of  Denmark.  The  chapel  is  very  magnified  %  the  pulpit  and  altar,  and  a  numbei  of 
other  figpres,  being  solid  silver ;  but  that  which  appeared  to  me  the  most  curious  was, 
an  organ  made  of  ivory,  the  sculpture  of  which  "  said  to  have  cost  eighty  Uiousand 
crowns.  The  oratory  of  the  king,  which  U  behind  the  chapel,  and  where  he  hears  the 
service,  is  a  place  in  which  nothing  has  b< '  n  spared  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  it  mag- 
nj^ent.  We  were  .conducted  through  all  the  apartments  of  the  palace,  in  Avhich  we 
observed  nothing  remarkable,  except  the  great  hall  above,  the  ceiling  of  which  was  beau- 
tjl^l ;  the  variety  of  colours  forms  a  chamiing  sr  ue,  the  sight  of  which  highly  gratifies 
the  beholder.  ^         ; 

After  leaving  Fredericksburg  we  arrived  at  Klsineur,  where  we  slept.  This  is  at  the 
strait  of  the  Sound,  wher^  the  vessels  pay  toll  to  the  king  of  Denmark.  Swedish  vessels 
pay  no  toll,  on  account  of  which  the  greater  number  of  ships  which  pass  here  take 
Swedish  cdours,  which  are  blue  with  a  yellow  cross.  The  passage  is  guarded  h  • 
strong  fortress ;  but  I  do  not  believe  that  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  pass  without  payin^^ 
any  thing.  *  We  sl^pt  at  the  house  of  the  agent  of  the  king  of  France,  who  is  an  Irish- 
mati.  We  crossed  next  day  to  Elsimburg  with  an  unfavourable  wind.  This  to'vn  de- 
fended itself  in  the  late  wars  for  a  considerable  time  against  the  Danes.  During  the 
siege  six  thousand  men  were  destroyed  in  eight  days  :  they  took  it  at  last ;  but  they  gave 
it  back,  with  all  the  oilier  places  which  they  had  taken,  to  the  crown  of  Sweden. 

Qn  our  passage  we  saw  Riga,  Engelholm,  Holm,  and  Halmstadt,  a  fortified  town, 
iaid  famous  for.  the  last  battle  -which  the  king  of  Sweden  fought  there.     This  was  the 


VOL.    I. 


:  II  ' 

•    ;i  -it 


11 


fit 

I't'i;.  :ii 


if' 


U6 


regnahd's  journey  to  LAPLAND,  &r. 


i 


\ 


first  engagement  in  which  he  was  enfr^ed,  and  the  first  victory  he  gained :  he  was  ac- 
companied by  M.  de  Fcuquieres,  a  .c^'^itcnant-gcncral  in  the  king's  service,  and  his 
ambassador  in  Sweden.  It  was  in  this  battle  that  the  young  ki:*.^,  sufiering  himself  to 
be  hurried  en  by  his  courage,  and  believing  himself  followed  by  his  req^imcnt  ofdrabans, 
who  are  his  guitfds,  and  with  whom  he  conceived  himself  invmcible,  a-  vanced  alone  to 
the  middle  ct  the  enemy's  army,  seeking  everywhere  the  king  of  Denmark,  and  calling 
for  him  wi^h  a  loud  voice  ;  but  not  finding  hin»,  he  put  himself  at  'he  head  of  one  of 
the  enemy's  regiments,  which  he  found  without  a  leader,  giving  orders  in  German, 
like  all  the  northern  nations,  and  conducted  it  into  the  middle  of  his  army,  where  it 
was  cut  in  pieces. 

From  Halmstad  we  travelled  to  Jenycoj)in,  whose  situation  on  the  borders  of  the 
Weser,  a  lake  eight  leagues  in  length,  is  delightful.  We  afterwards  passed  through 
Grenna,  Norcopin,  Lincopin,  Nycopin,  Vellit,  and  we  arrived  at  Stockholm  on  Monday, 
at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  after  having  travelled  six  days  and  six  nights  among  rocks 
and  forests  of  pine  and  fir,  which  form  the  finest  prospects  in  the  world.  We  travelled 
this  journey  in  a  carriage  which  we  purchased  for  four  cro^vns  at  Drase,  and  we  ob- 
served the  peasants'  houses,  which  are  constructed  in  the  Moscovite  manner,  with  trees 
interlaced.  The  people  have  something  savage  in  their  appearance ;  the  air  and  the 
situation  of  their  countiy  inspire  them  with  this  disposition. 

The  Swedish  mile  contains  66(X)  toises,  and  that  of  France  2600. 

Stockholm  is  a  city  which  the  peculiarity  of  its  situation  renders  delightful :  it  is 
situated  almost  in  the  middle  of  the  Baltic  Sea,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bothnian  Gulf. 
The  approach  is  exceedingly  dangerous,  in  consequence  of  the  number  of  rocks  which 
surround  it ;  but  from  the  moment  that  the  vessels  once  arrive  within  the  port,  they  are 
more  safe  tlian  in  any  odier  in  the  world  ;  they  remmn  there  without  any  anchor,  and 
approach  even  to  the  walls  of  the  houses.  Stockholm  has  more  trade  than  any  other 
port  in  the  Baltic  Sea ;  and  as  this  sea  is  only  navigable  during  six  mouths  in  the  year, 
nothing  has  a  grander  appearance  than  this  (X)rt,  which  is  crowded  with  vessels  from 
the  month  of  April  to  that  of  October. 

We  had  no  sooner  arrived  at  Stockholm  than  we  waited  on  M.  de  Feuquieres,  lieute- 
nant  general  in  the  king's  service,  who  has  lieen  ambassador  here  for  ten  years :  he 
received  us  with  all  possible  respect,  and  conducted  us  next  ds^y  to  kiss  the  king's  hand. 
This  prince,  twenty-five  years  of  age,  is  son  of  Charles,  prince  Palatine,  to  whom  Chris- 
tina, daughter  of  Adolphus,  last  king  of  the  house  of  Vasa,  r..;,igned  the  Swedish  crown, 
when  she  wished  to  retire  from  the  throne  and  change  her  religion. 

The  king's  taste  is  wholly  martial :  the  warlike  exercises  and  those  of  the  chace  are 
natural  to  him,  and  he  takes  no  greater  pleasure  than  in  the  pursuit  of  these  occupations. 
We  had  the  honour  of  conversing  with  him  almost  a  whole  hour,  and  the  pleasure  of  con- 
'  .mplating  him  at  our  ease  :  he  is  wll  proportioned,  his  gait  i»  majestic,  and  every  thing 

about  him  bespeaks  the  king :  he  married,  alDout  a  year  »r^, ,  daughter  of  Fre* 

deric  the  Third,  and  sister  of  the  present  king  of  Denmark.  These  two  royal  jx^rsonages 
have  always  had  an  extraordinary  similarity  and  sympathy,  which  it  is  not  difficult  to 
perceive  :  Nature  had  formed  them  in  every  respect  for  each  other. 

The  prince  never  met  with  any  one  who  coul''  '^ive  him  information  respecting  the 
princess,  without  asking  questions  of  a  particular  nature,  clearly  showing  tliat  there  was 
more  love  than  curiosity  in  his  disposition ;  and  the  princess  was  always  so  anxious  about 
the  prince,  that  it  was  remarked  she  was  less  anxious  about  intelligence  of  the  prince, 
than  about  the  prince  hinrself. 

During  our  stay  at  Stockholm  great  rejoicings  were  made  for  the  birth  of  a  princess : 


i 


URON'AUD'M  JOUIIM'.Y  TO  LAl'I.AND,  8tc. 


147 


we  were  present  at  the  ceremony  of  her  baptism.  There  was  on  the  occasion  an  open 
table,  and  the  prince,  to  display  his  satisfaction,  undertook  to  intoxicate  all  the  court; 
and,  in  a  more  merry  manner  than  ordinary,  nuide  himself  so.  He  even  incited  them 
by  exclaiming,  "  A  gentleman  has  no  courage  if  he  do  not  follow  his  king."  He  spoke 
the  little  French  which  he  is  possessed  of  to  every  body  ;  and  I  observed  tliat  he  wan 
the  only  one  at  court  who  spoke  it  so  imperfectly.  All  the  Swedish  gentlemen  have  a 
particular  pride  in  speaking  our  language  perfectly.  Count  Stem  bock,  grand  marshal 
of  die  kingdom,  the  Ristrosse  or  viceroy ;  count  de  la  Gardie,  the  grand  treasurer ; 
Steintc  Bielke,  the  count  Cunismar,  all  speak  French  as  elegantly  as  if  they  were 
Frenchmen  themselves.  The  English  envoy  perfonned  wonders  at  this  feast,  that  i.«»  to 
say,  he  was  first  dnmk.  The  envoy  of  Denmark,  who  had  held  the  princess  in  the 
name  of  the  king  his  master,  immediately  followed  him,  almost  without  reHeetion. 
After  him  the  whole  company  followed  in  the  same  state.  The  ladies  were  also  of  the 
party.  The  two  handsome  dL"!;,hters  of  the  Ristrosse  held  the  two  ends  of  the  pall 
which  covered  the  infant ;  they  distinguished  themselves  among  all  the  other  ladies  by 
their  beauty  and  politeness  of  manners.  We  went  some  days  alter  to  visit  count  de  la 
Gardie  at  Carsbery  :  his  palace  is  regular,  and  being  surrounded  vith  rocks,  and  situ- 
ated on  the  borders  of  the  lake,  is  one  of  the  handsomest  in  Swe«  len.  I'he  proprietor 
of  this  mansion,  who  is  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  lords  in  the  kingdom,  has  been 
four  months  ago  very  ill  treated  by  a  reduction,  as  well  as  a  great  number  of  others  : 
he  has  lost  more  than  eighty  thousand  crowns  by  this  re- union  of  property  to  the  royal 
'  domain. 

The  buildings  of  Stockholm  are  grand.  The  house  of  the  nobles,  the  palace  of  the 
Ristrosse,  that  of  the  grand  treasurerf  and  a  great  number  of  others,  arc  worthy  of 
observation.  I  should  have  spoken  of  the  Louvre  before  all  the  other  buildings  ;  but 
although  it  is  no  doubt  the  first  in  the  city,  in  consequence  of  the  personage  who  inha- 
.  bits  it,  we  may  safely  say  that  it  is  only  on  this  account,  and  in  consequence  of  the 
number  of  its  apartments,  that  it  deserves  to  be  taken  notice  of:  there  are  some  halls 
which  are  magnificently  enough  furnished,  but  they  are  not  calculated  to  make  a  palace  : 
and  it  is  impossible  to  determine  what  are  their  shapes. 

We  saw,  during  our  residence  here,  the  execution  of  two  servants,  who  had  been  pre- 
sent  at  the  assassination  of  a  gentleman,  which  their  masters  had  committed :  they  were 
not  the  most  guilty,  but  they  were  the  most  unfortunate.  We  admired  the  intrepidity 
and  fortitude  of  these  men  on  their  way  to  the  scaifold ;  they  did  not  seem  at  all  affected, 
and  spoke  carelessly  to  all  the  persons  whom  they  met :  one  of  them  was  married ;  his 
wife  supported  him  on  one  side,  and  a  clergyman  on  the  other. 

At  Stockuo'uTi  we  knew  M.  de  Feuquieres,  the  ambassador ;  M.  de  la  Piquetiere,  a 
learned  and  very  intelligent  man  ;  M.  le  Vasseur,  secretjry  to  the  embassy,  and  son  of 
an  advocate  in  the  rue  Quincampoix  ;  M.  de  la  Chenets,  and  father  Archange,  carme- 
•  lite  and  chaplain  of  M- .  We  also  saw  M.  Bart,  a  corsair,  who  remained  at  Stock- 
holm for  the  purpose  of  recovering  payment  for  some  prizes  which  he  had  taken  from 
the  Danes  and  Lubeckers,  and  sold  to  the  king,  and  which  had  been  declared  lawful. 

At  the  hotel  kept  by  Verschal,  a  Norman,  we  knew  M.  M.  de  Saint  Leu,  laNeuville, 
Grandmaison,  master  of  the  liorse  to  the  count  Charles  Oxstiern,  CoifFard,  suigcon, 
and . 

The  mine  called  Coperberytis  the  most  curious  in  Sweden,  and  is  the  source  of  the 
whole  wealth  of  the  country :  although  there  are  several  other  mines,  this  has  been 
always  held  in  the  highest  estimation  :  no  tradition  tells  the  date  of  its  being  opened :  it 
is  four  days'  journey  distant  from  Stockholm.    One  descries  this  mine  long  before  one 


s, 


t. 


■■  ]! 

•  ;' 

Mr  <> 

•:'  !  «J 


P 


I 


*' 


148 


RROVARD'S  JOURNKY  TO  LAPLAND,  k*. 


arrives  at  it,  by  the  smulvc  which  issues  from  all  quarters,  and  which  makes  it  Appear 
to  be  raihcr  the  shop  oi"  Vulcan  than  the  residence  of  men.  We  bcliold  on  all  sides 
nothing  but  furnaces,  files,  charcoal,  sulphur,  and  cyclops,  who  tend  to  complete  this 
infernal  picture.  But  let  us  descend  this  abyss,  the  !-A;tt"r  to  conceive  its  horrible  na- 
ture. We  were  first  conducted  into  a  chamf  er  where  we  changed  our  dress,  and  were 
"ach  fi'.njished  with  a  stick  shcxl  with  iron,  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  us  in  the  most 
dangerous  places.  From  hence  we  entered  the  mouth  of  the  mine,  which  is  dreadfully 
long  and  deep  :  we  were  unable  to  see  the  people  working  at  the  bottom,  some  of  whom 
were  raising  stones,  while  others  were  throwing  earth  ;  some  were  blowing  rocks,  by 
fires  prepared  for  the  purjwse ;  and,  in  fine,  every  one  had  his  employment  We 
descended  this  pit  by  a  number  of  steps  which  lead  to  it ;  and  we  now  began  to  be  sen- 
sible that  we  had  as  yet  done  nothing,  and  that  our  fatigue  was  only  the  beginning  of 
severer  toils.  In  fact,  our  guides  now  lighted  their  flambeaux  of  fir,  which  scarcely 
pierced  the  thick  darkness  of  these  subterraneous  regions,  and  which  only  furnished  us 
with  light  sufficient  to  distinguish  the  frightful  objects  which  presented  themselves  to  our 
view :  the  smell  of  the  sulphur  stifled  us  :  the  smoke  blinded,  and  the  heat  broiled  us : 
and  if  to  these  objects  we  join  the  noise  of  the  hammers,  which  resound  throughout 
these  caverns,  the  sight  of  those  spectres,  naked  as  the  hand,  and  black  as  devils,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  nothing  can  give  us  a  clearer  idea  of  hell  than  this  living  picture, 
painted  in  ti.e  gloomiest  and  blackest  colours  which  can  possibly  be  ima^ned. 

We  descended  more  than  two  leagues  in  the  earth,  by  frightful  roads,  sometimes  upon 
trembling  scales,  sometimes  on  light  planks,  and  always  in  continual  apprehension. 
We  perceived  in  our  descent  a  number  of  pumps,  and  curious  machines  for  raising  the 
water ;  but  we  were  unable  to  examine  them,  on  account  of  the  extreme  fatigue  which 
we  had  already  experienced ;  we  only  perceived  a  number  of  unfortunate  wretches  who 
wrought  the  pumps.  We  went  with  considerable  difticulty  to  the  very  bottom ;  but 
when  it  became  necessary  for  us  to  re-ascend,  superasque  evadere  ad  auras,  it  was  with 
inconceivable  difficulty  that  we  regained  our  former  height,  where  we  were  obliged  to 
throw  ourselves  uix)n  the  ground  in  order  to  recover  our  breath,  which  the  sulphur  had 
deprived  us  of.  We  at  length  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  mine,  by  the  assbtance  of 
some  persons  who  supported  us  under  the  arms.  Here  we  began  to  breathe  with  as 
much  joy  as  a  soul  escaped  from  purgatory :  and  we  were  beginning  to  re-acquire  our 
lost  vigour,  when  an  affecting  sight  presented  itself  to  our  view :  they  were  bringing  up 
from  the  mine  an  unfortunate  creature,  who  had  just  been  crushed  by  a  stone  which  had 
fallen  on  him.  These  accidents  happen  daily  ;  and  the  smallest  stones  falling  from  such 
a  dreadful  height  produce  the  same  effect  with  the  largest.  There  are  always  seven  or 
eight  hundred  men  who  work  in  this  abyss,  who  ^in  sixteen  sous  a  day ;  and  theit  is 
almost  an  equal  number  of  overseers,  with  an  axe  in  their  hands,  as  a  marie  of  authority. 
I  know  not  whether  one  ought  more  to  pity  the  lot  of  these  wretches,  or  the  blindness 
of  men,  who,  for  the  purpose  of  indulging  their  luxury  and  gratifying  their  avarice,  tear  " 
the  bowels  of  the  earth,  confound  the  elements,  and  subvert  the  laws  of  nature.  Boece 
was  perfectly  right,  when,  complaining  of  the  manners  of  his  age,  he  exclaimed, 


"  Heu  1  primus  quis  fuit  ille 
Auri  qui  pondera  tecti 
Gemmasque  latere  volentes^ 
Pretiose  pericula  fodit  f" 


•*■- 


■i^  'yr>iii- 


What  indeed  can  be  more  inhuman,  than  to  expose  so  many  individuals  to  such  immi. 
nent  danger  ?  Pliny  informs  us  chat  the  Romans,  who  had  more  need  of  men  than  gold, 


f  i' ■ 


1 


UbtiNA  Kit's  .fOinNFV    IM  I  \I'I,\N1),  kc. 


149 


would  not  suffer  the  mines  which  had  hicn  ilibf.ovLTtd  in  Italy  to  be  opmtd,  i'or  the 
purpose  of  preserving  the  lives  of  the  people  ;  aiul  tlu  y  thuiiglu  tliat  those  wretches  who 
had  forleited  tlicir  lives  could  not  be  more  cruelly  puniiud  than  iu  suffering  them  to  live, 
for  the  purpose  of  constantly  employing  them  t(j  (liij^  their  on  u  graves.  In  this  mine  arc 
found  native  sulphur,  blue  and  green  vitriol,  and  ottnedroiis,  which  arc  stones  naturally 
cut  in  u  pyramidal  form  on  all  sides. 

From  Copcrberyt  we  came  to  a  silver  mine  at  Sallxryt,  a  I'ttlc  village  two  days'  jour- 
ney  distant  from  Stockholm,  and  one  of  the  most  delightfully  situated  places  in  that 
country.  VVe  travelled  next  day  to  the  mine,  which  is  aboi.t  a  quarter  of  a  mile  dis- 
tant  from  the  village.  This  mine  has  three  large  mouths,  at  which  it  is  impossible  to 
see  the  bottom  :  the  half  of  a  tub,  supported  by  a  cable,  is  employed  instead  of  a  stair 
case,  for  the  purpose  of  descending  this  abyss :  it  rises  and  falls  by  means  of  a  very  cu- 
rious machine,  which  is  wrought  with  water.  The  extent  of  one's  danger  may  eiusily 
be  conceived,  when  one  must  descend  in  this  manner,  having  only  one  foot  in  this  ma- 
chine, and  one's  life  de|x:nding  on  the  strength  or  weakness  of  a  rope.  A  satellite, 
black  as  a  devil,  holdin)^^  in  his  hand  a  torch  of  pitch  and  rosin,  descended  with  us,  and 
screamed  out  an  air  so  melancholy,  that  it  seemed  to  have  been  made  on  purpose  for  this 
infernal  descent.  When  we  were  alx>ut  the  middle,  we  felt  great  cold,  which,  joined 
to  the  water  which  fell  on  us  in  torrents  from  all  (juarters,  roused  us  from  the  lethargy 
into  which  we  had  fallen  in  descending  to  these  subterraneous  regions.  We  at  lengtli 
arrived  at  the  bottom  of  this  gulf,  after  half  an  hour's  journey  ;  there  our  fears  began 
to  disappear ;  we  no  more  belield  any  thing  frightful :  on  the  contrary,  every  thing 
was  brilliant  in  these  nether  regions.  We  descended  still  farther  below  ground,  upon 
extremely  high  scales,  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  a  saloon  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  this 
cavern,  and  which  is  supported  by  a  number  of  columns  of  silver,  with  which  every 
thing  is  covered.  Four  spacious  galleries  disclose  themselves,  and  the  reflection  of  the 
lights,  which  shone  on  all  sides,  and  dazzled  on  the  vaults  of  silver,  and  a  clear  rivulet 
vvhi'^h  ran  at  their  foot,  did  not  tend  so  much  to  give  light  to  the  workmen,  as  to  render 
this  abode  more  magnificent  than  the  palace  of  Pluto,  which  the  ancients  placed  in  the 
centre  of  the  earth,  where  the  god  of  wealth  has  establish  d  all  his  treasures.  Men  of  all 
countries  are  to  be  seen  in  these  galleries,  seeking  with  care  that  object,  which  confers 
80  much  pleasure  on  mankind.  Some  draw  carriages,  others  roll  stones,  and  others 
are  tearing  the  rocks  asunder.  It  is  a  town  helovv  a  town,  and  contains  houses,  taverns, 
stables  and  horses ;  and  what  is  very  remarkable,  there  is  a  mill  in  the  bottom  of  this 
gulf,  which  raises  the  water  out  of  the  mine.  One  remounts  by  means  of  the  same 
machine,  for  the  purpose  of  viewing  the  different  operations  by  which  silver  is  made. 

The  first  stones  taken  out  of  the  mine  are  called  stuff,  which  are  dried  in  a  furnace, 
which  burns  slowly,  and  which  separates  the  antimony,  arsenic,  and  sulphur,  from  the 
stone,  the  lead,  and  the  silver,  which  remain  together.  This  first  operation  is  followed 
by  another,  in  which  the  dried  stones  are  thrown  into  troughs,  and  piled  upon  each 
other,  for  the  purpose  of  being  reduced  to  dust,  by  means  of  large  hammers  wrought 
by  water :  this  matter  is  kept  in  water,  which  runs  constantly  upon  a  large  cloth,  placed 
in  a  sloping  position,  and  by  which  all  the  thick  and  earthy  matter  is  earned  off,  while 
the  lead  and  the  silver  remain  at  the  bottom  :  it  is  afterwards  removed  from  hence,  and 
thrown  a  third  time  into  furnaces,  which  separate  the  silver  Irom  the  lead,  which  is  con- 
verted into  scum. 

The  Spaniards  of  Potosi  do  not  now  employ  so  many  different  methods  for  the  pur- 
pose of  purifying  silver,  and  rendering  it  malleable,  since  they  found  out  the  method 
of  mixing  it  with  quicksilver^  which  is  the  determined  enemy  of  all  the  other  metals, 


11 


Ai- 


• 


150 


RKCNAUD'S  .lOI'llXKV  TO  LAl'LWD,  ke. 


i 


^ 


Avhich  it  destroys,  except  p;()l(l  and  sil-er,  from  which  it  sepiiratcs  all  other  bodies,  Ibr 
the  pur|X)se  of  uniting  itself  to  them.  Mercury  is  found  in  this  mine  ;  and  this  nKtuI, 
althou^h  some  nfuse  it  such  a  name,  Uc.ui.se  It  is  not  malleahic,  is  perhaps  one  of  the 
most  curious  productions  in  nature ;  for  \x'w^  li(|uid,  and  tiowine  of  itself,  it  is  the 
heaviest  of  all  bodies,  and  changes  into  the  iijjflitest,  by  resolvin|ff  itself  mto  vapour,  which, 
meetiufjr  uith  a  hard  bod}',  or  a  cold  nf^ion,  imnvdiately  thickens,  and  resumes  its  an- 
cient form,  without  any  possibility  of  ever  beiuf^  destroyed. 

The  piison  whoeonductid  us  to  the  mine,  ami  who  was  overseer  of  it,  showed  us  a 
great  number  of  curious  stones  which  h  •  had  collected  from  all  parts  :  he  showed  us  u 
lar».ve  piece  of  that  cUictile  stone,  which,  so  far  from  being  consumed,  Ix-comes  white  in 
the  lire,  and  which  the  Romans  einployed  for  the  purpose  of  burning  the  bodies  of  their 
dead  :  he  assuied  us  that  he  had  foui\d  it  in  this  very  mine,  and  presented  each  of  us 
with  a  sm.ill  piece,  which,  as  a  particular  favour,  he  cut  ott*  from  it. 

We  departed  the  same  day  from  diis  little  city  to  go  to  Upsal,  where  we  arrived  early 
next  m(.<rning.  This  city  is  the  most  respectable  in  Sweden,  both  on  account  of  its 
university  and  its  situation.  Here  all  those  who  devote  themselves  to  the  church  are 
obliged  to  study  ;  but  it  is  the  policy  of  this  country  to  prevent  their  nobility  from 
taking  holy  orders,  lor  the  purpose  of  keeping  up  their  numbers  of  gentlemen,  who 
may  be  more  usefully  otherwise  employed. 

We  saw  the  library,  which  contains  nothing  extraordinar)',  if  we  except  the  Codex 
Argcuteus,  written  in  Gothic  letters  of  silver  by  a  bishop  of  the  Goths,  culled  Uphila, 
who  lived  in  Mesia.  This  book  was  found  in  the  sack  of  Prague,  and  carried  off  by 
count  Konigsmark,  who  made  a  present  of  it  to  queen  Christina. 

Tiie  remainder  of  my  observations  on  Upsalmay  be  seen  in  the  end  of  my  account  of 
my  journey  to  La|)land,  beeause  I  visited  it  upon  my  return. 

\Vc  also  saw  at  Stockholm  an  envoy  of  the  khan  of  the  Lower  Tartars,  or  Tartars 
of  Chrimea,  or  Precopites,  who  inhabit  the  ancient  Tauric  Chersonesus,  and  the  country 
which  is  situated  IxHwixt  the  Borysthenes  and  the  Tanais.  This  nrince  confers  favours 
which  cost  him  scarcely  any  thing ;  and  permission  to  become  his  ambassador  to  Christian 
jirinces  is  one  of  his  cnoicest  favours.  I  was  present  when  this  envoy  had  an  audience ; 
the  king  was  sitting  in  an  arm-chair  in  the  middle  of  his  court :  the  envoy  made  a  )X)or 
speech,  without  even  looking  upon  the  king :  he  then  presented  to  h'm  live  or  six  letters, 
folded  lengthways,  and  wrapped  up  in  taffetas  :  one  was  from  the  khan  :  another  from 
the  wife  of  one  of  his  brothers;  and  another  from  the  minister.  He  offered  some  Tar- 
tarian horses,  not  extremely  handsome,  but  remarkably  strong.  The  king  replied,  that 
he  would  accept  of  them  if  they  came  from  his  master ;  and  being  assured  that  they  did, 
he  kissed  the  king's  hand  and  put  it  upon  his  head.  Five  or  six  beggars  were  in  his 
train  ;  and  indeed  it  was  impossible  to  behold  any  thing  more  wretched. 


ODSKItVATIONS. 


iji. 


The  cities  of  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and  Lubeck,  which  are  imperial,  with  the  Dukes  of 
Mecklenburg,  Holstein-de-Sel,  Lunebourg,  Hanover,  and,  in  general,  the  whole  house 
of  Brunswick,  form  Lower  Saxony,  which  is  called  the  Circle  of  Lower  Saxony,  and 
has  a  vote  in  all  the  diets  of  the  empire. 

Luther  is  buried  at  Wittenberg. 

It  ought  to  be  observed,  that  the  chace  of  the  bear  is  also  conducted  in  Poland  in  v^. 
rious  manners.  ,As  there  is  nothing  so  delicate  as  the  paws  of  a  bear,  which  are  served 
up  at  the  tables  of  kings,  so  there  is  likewise  no  kind  of  chace  in  which  gentlemen  take 
greater  pleasure.     It  is  dangerous  to  miss  in  striking ;  for  the  animal,  wnen  struck,  re- 


f 


lor 


■■H,  V 


KKOKAHD'H  JOI'HISKV  TO  I.AI'I.AND,  kc. 


151 


tmiis,  as  Iiu8  lx.cn  already  mentioned,  iii)ontlit  lunitir,  a.KUnibracing  hln»  with  his  fore- 
paws,  stifles  him.  VVe  ucrc  told  by  the  j^ovemor  of  a  l*n.ssian  province,  that  oni  of  his 
relations  a  short  time  befbix-  had  at  the  heai-eluiee  his  arn»  i.voken  and  his  neck  twislid, 
uhich  were  the  causes  of  his  death.  The  pciisants  ehace  in  a  diflVient  manner  ;  they 
know  the  haimts  of  the  aninuil,  and  go  to  attack  liim  with  a  knii"  in  their  hands  :  when 
the  lx>ar  approaches,  they  oush  into  his  thrait  their  left  hand  wr^pjKd  up  in  linen,  and 
uith  the  right  stab  him  in  the  belly.  Another  mode  is  L>s  dangerous  :  the  bear  is  vi  ry 
fond  of  tlu-  honey  which  liecs  make  in  the  trimks  of  trees;  Ik-  ascends,  drawn  by  the 
odour  of  his  prey,  to  the  summits  of  the  highest  trees  ;  the  peasimts  put  cli^tiljeil  spirits 
into  the  honey,  and  the  bear,  fmding  die  taste  uf^rt  cable,  lakes  so  much,  that  the  strength 
of  the  spirit  intoxicates  him  and  makes  him  la!':  the  |)easai:t  then  finds  him  witliout 
strength,  in  a  recumlxiiit  posture,  and  easily  becomes  miisier  of  him. 

The  elector  of  Brandenburg  is  called :  he  has  a  son,  fifteen  years  of  age, 

who  is  denominated  Kurt-Prime:  he  professes  ilic  Calvinistic  religion.  Amber  is  found 
ui)on  his  lands  in  Ducal  Prussia;  for  Ii)yal  Prussia  lx;longs  to  the  king  of  Poland.  It 
protluces  to  him  more  than  twent  five  thousand  crowns  u  month :  he  farms  out  the 
amber-fishery  at  from  sixty  to  ei^u  y  thousimd  crowns  ;  and  there  is  a  horse-guanl  for 
the  purpose  of  watching  the  shore.  When  die  wind  is  high  it  is  found  in  greatest  abun- 
dance. Before  it  comes  out  of  tl  ic  sea  it  is  soft,  and  will  take  the  impixssion  of  a  seal. 
There  are  several  pieces  on  which  flics  are  found.  This  fishery  extends  from  Dantzic 
to  Memel. 

The  elk  is  an  animal  higher  than  a  horse,  and  of  a  whitish  colour  :  it  has  a  branch 
like  the  deer,  and  a  foot  of  the  same  shape,  very  long  ;  its  under-lip  hangs  down,  and 
it  has  a  bunch  upon  the  neck  like  a  camel.  It  defends  itself,  against  the  dogs  who  pur- 
sue it,  with  its  fore-feet,  with  which  it  strikes  Uiem  very  forciblj'. 

The  son  of  the  elector  of  Brandenburg  married  a  }'car  ago  the  daughter  of  prince 
Bogeslas  de  Ratzevil,  duke  of  Stuck,  and  of  Kopil  de  Bitze,  and  of  Dubniki,  of  the 
illustrious  family  of  the  Ratzevils,  descended  from  the  ancient  princes  of  Lithuania, 
and  for  more  Uian  three  centuries  princes  of  the  empire.  He  was  the  son  of  prince 
Jannalius,  of  the  black  branch,  whose  evil  destiny  led  him  to  declare  himself  chief  of 
that  party  which  oppos^.d  the  king,  but  who  was  soon  after  taken  into  I'avour,  and  of 
Elisabeth  Sophia,  daughter  of  John  George,  elector  of  Brandenburg,  afterwards  married 
to  Julius  Henry,  duke  of  Saxe-Lawembourg  :  he  was  governor  of  Ducal  Prussia. 

This  young  princess  was  wholly  educated  at  the  court  of  Brandenbuig.  The  — — 
p^d  his  addresses  to  her,  and  spent  a  large  sum  of  money  on  her  account ;  but  the 
elector  would  not  sufter  more  than  eight  hundred  thousand  livres  of  rent  to  be  sent  out 
of  the  country.  The  Poles  constantly  complain  of  his  conduct,  as  there  is  a  treaty 
which  stipulates  that  this  princess  should  marry  no  other  than  a  native  of  Poland.  He 
who  paid  his  addresses  to  her  lost  his  reason  in  consequence  of  vexation. 

The  father  of  the  grand  duke  of  Moscovy  was  called  Frederic  Alexander,  and  the 
present  duke,  Alexander  Michael,  or  Michael  Federowitz,  Michel  son  of  Peter. 

The  prince  of  Transylvania  is  called  Apaty,  pays  eighty  thousand  crowns  of  tribute 
to  the  Turk,  and  loves  nothing  but  drinking.  Reliqui  governs  the  state,  and  Telechi 
is  general  of  the  rebels.     The  capital  of  Transylvania  is  Cujuar,  or  Albcjule. 

M.  Acakias  has  been  resident  at  the  court  of  this  prince  for  die  purpose  of  treating 
with  the  faction  of  die  rebels. 


Iv'i"*-"*  •■)■((•■! 5, >«<'v<i 


•<'      REFLECTIONS. 


It  is  usual  with  travellers  when  they  make  a  voyage  to  conjure  up  storms,  and  ail  the 
weather  they  meet  wiUi,  which  is  not  perfectly  calm,  is,  according  to  them,  a  continual 


?( 


,  i 


\ 

i 
i 


III 


I" 
I*' 


i  ? 
■•'  it 


>'■'  ; 


■H 


ff 


153 


HRON.VUD'S  JUUHKEY  TO  LAI  LAND.  fco. 


I 


tcm|K-st,  ulucii  in  one  moment  drives  tlieir  veaisiclii  af^ainst  the  cloudii,  and  in  the  next 
precipitates  them  to  hell :  such  ait:  the  ikserintions  of  some.  For  my  part,  without  any 
exaggeration,  I  slialhnention  that  the  BaUic  Scu  is  famous  i'ur  the  number  of  ship  wrecks 
whicii  happen  in  it ;  and  that  it  can  seldom  be  crossed  in  the  autinna  without  lx:ing 
exposed  to  bad  weather,  for  in  winter  it  is  not  navigable.  VVc  were  oblifjped  in  our 
passage  to  take  in  sail  five  or  six  times;  and  although  it  is  generally  made  m  three  or 
lour  da}  s,  our  passage  was  still  longer. 

These  misfortunes  were  of  some  use  :  and  the  time  during  which  wc  remained  at 
anchor  was  not  the  portion  of  my  life  which  has  been  the  most  uselessly  b[n:\\t,  I  went 
every  day  to  the  perpendicular  rocks,  on  which  I  remained  some  hours,  where  the 
abruptness  of  the  precipices  and  the  view  of  the  sea  accorded  extremely  well  with  my 
reveries.  It  was  during  these  solitary  meditations  tluit  I  entered  wholly  into  myself, 
and  investigated  the  ip:nost  sentiments  of  my  heart,  to  place  truth  in  full  view,  without 
disguise,  such  as  it  really  existed.  I  cast  a  look  back  u\K)n  tlK  events  of  my  past  lii'e, 
reflected  upon  my  designs  which  had  never  been  executed,  my  resolutions  broken,  and 
my  unsuccessful  enterprises  :  I  considered  my  present  nuxle  of  life,  my  wandering  voy. 
ages,  my  changes  of  abode,  the  diversity  of  objects,  and  the  constant  motion  to  which 
I  was  exposed :  I  felt  myself  wholly  in  that  state,  where  inconstancy  is  the  prevalent 
inclination  ;  and  I  came  to  this  conclusion,  without  being  in  the  smallest  degree  misled 
by  the  suggestions  of  self-love:  I  judged  impartially  ol  every  thing:  I  reflected  that 
all  this  concfuct  was  in  direct  opposition  to  the  real  enjoy  :nt  of  life,  which  consists 
solely  in  repose  ;  and  that  this  desirable  trannuility  of  soul  .s  to  be  experienced  in  Uic 
pursuit  of  an  agreeable  profession,  which  retains  us  in  a  steady  position,  like  a  ship  held 
l}y  an  anchor  in  the  midst  of  a  tempest.  All  the  vague  designs,  investigations  of  the 
future,  chimeras,  expectations  of  fortune,  are  only  phantoms  that  mislead  us,  which  wc 
take  pleasure  in  forming,  and  widi  which  our  minds  entertain  themselves.  All  the  ob- 
stacles which  ambition  excites,  far  from  stopping  us,  ought  to  make  us  distrustful  of 
ourselves,  and  more  than  ever  apprehensive. 

You  know,  sir,  as  well  as  I  do,  that  the  choice  of  a  profession  is  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult attempts  of  a  man's  conduct ;  and  on  this  account  there  are  numbers  who  never 
embrace  any,  remaining  in  continual  indolence,  living  not  as  they  would  have  wished, 
but  as  they  have  begun,  whether  it  arise  from  the  lear  of  vexatious  occurrences,  the 
l(ne  of  idleness,  the  hatred  of  toil,  or  any  other  causes. 

There  are  other  men  who  are  not  retarded  in  their  career  by  obstacles,  and  who, 
giving  themselves  up  to  that  inconstancy  which  is  natural  to  tliem,  cannot  enjoy  repose, 
even  when  unemployed  :  they  are  continually  agitated  with  new  ideas  and  designs  :  they 
change,  solely  from  a  desire  of  change  and  a  natural  inconstancy  ;  and  that  which  they 
have  left  pleases  them  always  more  than  that  which  t^ey  enjoy.  The  whole  life  of  these 
men  is  a  continual  agitation ;  and  if  ihey  are  sometimes  observed  to  be  at  rest  in  their 
old  age,  it  is  not  the  hatred  of  change  which  influences  Uicm,  but  the  lassitude  of  age, 
rendering  them  less  capable  of  motion,  and  preventing  them  from  undfrtaking  any  enter- 
prise ;  like  those  restless  individuals  who  are  unable  to  sleep,  but  who,  li  om  fretjuently 
tfjssing,  find  at  length  that  repose  which  weariness  procures  ther.'« 

I  know  not  ^y'lich  of  these  situations  are  the  most  unhappy,  but  I  am  convinced  that 
I  hey  are  both  extremely  disagreeable  :  hence  arise  those  tempests  of  the  soul,  and  bois- 
terous passions,  which  make  one  wiJi  that  one  neither  could  nor  dared  to  undertake 
;iny  thing,  when  one  fears  every  thing,  ho})es  every  Uiing,  and  is  desirous  to  seek  some 
where  else  that  happiness  to  Avhich  one  is  a  stranger :  hence  also  arise  those  discontents, 
that  displeasure  with  ourselves,  that  im[)atiencc  at  our  idleness,  those  complaints  which 


'!•■ 


I' 


nrnv Ann's  jot-nvr-.Y  to  lvpi-and,  to. 


i5.] 


*ve  make  at  having  nothing  to  do  ;  every  thinp;  vexes  lis,  compimy  is  iron  I  )lc  some,  soli, 
tude  friphtful,  light  is  disagneablc,  darkness  distressing,  exercise  futigncs,  repose  pro 
duces  sleep,  the  whole  world  is  (xlious  to  us,  and  we  iKConie  at  length  insupportable  to 
outselveH.  There  is  nodiing  whieh  men  of  this  description  do  not  desin* ;  and  the  high 
opinion  which  they  entertain  of  thems*  ivrs  leads  them  to  attempt  every  thing  :  amhilion 
makes  them  supixwe  all  things  possible  ;  but  tluy  want  courage,  and  irreholution  stops 
them.  The  success  of  others,  which  is  always  in  their  view,  serves  at  one  time  to  fo- 
ment their  vague  designs,  and  to  excite  their  ambition  ;  and  at  other  times  it  exposes 
them  to  the  gnawings  of  jealousy  :  they  |X'rceivc  with  impatience  the  success  of  others ; 
they  wish  their  debasement,  Ixrause  they  cannot  rise  to  the  same  level ;  and  tlie  destruc 
tion  of  their  fortune,  Ixxausc  they  despitir  of  being  able  to  accjuire  one  e(|ually  good. 

These  men  constantly  cry  up  the  cruelty  of  their  fate,  and  cf)inplain  of  the  inscnsibilit) 
of  the  age,  and  the  depravation  of  human  nature :  they  undertake  distant  journies, 
tear  themselves  from  their  country,  and  seek  climates  warmed  l)y  another  sun  •  at  onr 
time,  they  exjxjsc  themselves  to  the  tempestuous  ocean  ;  at  another  time,  disgusted  either 
with  its  calms  or  its  storms,  they  return  once  more  to  land  :  to-day,  the  voluptuousness 
of  Italy  enchants  them ;  but  no  sooner  do  they  arrive  in  that  country,  than  they  sigh 
again  for  France,  with  all  its  delights.  •*  Let  us  leave  the  citj ,"  exclaims  a  man  of 
this  description,  "  where  virtue  is  oppressed,  «  heir  vice  and  luxury  reign,  and  of  which 
I  am  unable  to  suffer  the  noise."  Immediately  after  he  says,  "  I  "t  us  go  back  to  the 
city  ;  I  languish  in  solitude ;  man  was  not  made  to  live  with  bei.ats ;  and  it  is  a  long 
time  since  1  heard  the  pleasing  bustle  which  the  confusion  of  a  city  excites."  A  jour- 
ney is  no  sooner  finished,  than  he  undertakes  another.  In  this  manner,  though  always 
flying  from  himself,  he  cannot  avoid  himself:  he  carries  his  inconstancy  always  about 
wiUi  him  ;  luid  the  source  of  his  uneasiness  is  in  himself,  without  lx:ing  conscious  of  it. 

JOURNEY  TO  LAPI.AND. 

Travelling  has  its  toils  as  well  as  its  jilcasures  ;  but  the  fatigue  which  we  exiKii- 
cnce,  far  from  disgusting  us,  generally  increases  our  desire  of  tmvelling.  This  passion, 
irritated  by  obstacles,  engages  us  insensibly  to  go  farther  than  we  intended  ;  and  whon 
we  sometimes  set  out  for  the  puqx)se  of  visiting  Holland,  we  find  ourselves,  we  know  not 
how,  at  the  end  of  the  world.     This  circumstance,  sir,  has  actually  happened  to  me. 

I  understood  at  Amsterdam  that  the  court  of  Denmark  was  at  Oldenburg,  which  is 
only  three  days'  journey  distant  from  tlut  place ;  and  if  I  had  not  gone  thither  to  see  it, 
I  should  either  have  displayed  very  little  curiosity,  or  considerable  contempt  for  that 
court  I  therefore  sat  out  for  Oldenburg ;  but  fortune,  who  wished  to  take  me  still 
farther,  so  ordained,  that  the  king  had  departed  two  days  before  my  arrival.  I  was 
told  that  I  should  find  him  at  Altona,  whici  is  only  at  the  distance  of  a  musket-shot  from 
Hamburg.  I  believed  myself  bound  in  honour  to  follow  my  design,  and  to  travel  two 
or  three  days*  journey  farther,  in  order  to  enjoy  the  sight  which  I  wished.  Besides, 
Hamburg  is  a  Hanseatic  town,  famous  for  its  commerce  with  the  whole  world,  and  re- 
spectable on  account  of  its  fortifications  and  its  government.  I  should  have  found  at 
Altona  the  Danish  court ;  but  I  only  found  a  part  of  what  I  wished  to  see  :  I  only  saw 
the  queen-mother  and  prince  George,  her  son,  who  wea-  going  to  the  waters  of  Pyr- 
mont.  I  visited  Hamburg,  which  pleased  me  highly  ;  and  after  having  gone  so  fur  to 
see  the  king,  I  thought  that  I  was  bound  to  visit  him  in  his  capital  city,  where  I  was  sure 
to  find  him.    I  sat  out  for  Copenhagen :  the  ambassador  presented  me  to  the  king, 

▼  OL.    I.  X 


I 

.1' 


1  • 


n 


ill 


(1 


154 


nr.ovAnui  .101  iixrv  ro  i.aim.wd,  »u. 


and  I  Imd  the  linnniir  to  Wisn  \m  liaiid,  and  lo  convcrHc  with  him  some  tiiiio.  My  rcM 
(Uncr  in  C()|x nha^i  11  was  cxtamcly  u^^rirahlc ;  and  I  loniid  the  ladies  in  it  m)  witt) 
and  MO  haiidsoir.i-,  tliat  1  Hhowld  Hcurccly  have  been  able  to  leave  them,  if  I  had  not  lieeii 
ftSMired  that  thoMe  of  Suiden  were  efjually  a}(reeal)le.  The  anxious  desire  which  I  had 
of  nceinj^the  kinjif  of  Sweden  aKo  induced  nie  to  visit  Stoikholm.  We  had  the  honour 
of  »aUitin(^  die  kiii)^,  and  of  conversing  with  him  for  a  whole  hour.  As  he  knew  wc 
Mere  travelling  from  motive:*  of  curiositv,  he  informed  us  that  Lapland  deserved  to  [)e 
Ncen  by  the  curious,  both  on  accoimt  of^its  situation  and  its  inhabitants,  whose  mule  of 
iivinf^  IS  (juite  difl'crent  from  that  of  all  Kurope  :  and  he  !a;ave  orders  to  count  Steinbielk, 
urancl  treasurer,  to  ^ive  us  every  necessary  recommendation,  if  we  wisheil  to  undertake 
tlie  journey.  And  pray,  sir,  who  could  resist  the  advice  of  a  kinjj;,  and  a  j.i;real  kiiiff 
too,  like  that  of  Sweden?  Mi^ht  not  one,  with  his  advice,  undertake  any  tiling; ?  And 
could  wc  be  unsuccessful  in  an  attempt  which  he  himself  had  recommended,  and  to 
which  he  wished  success  ?  'I'he  advices  of  kings  arc  commands  ;  and  it  was  on  this  ac 
count,  that,  after  putting];  all  our  alVaini  in  order,  we  set  sail  for  Tot  no  on  Wednesday, 
die  twenty.thir('  d.iy  of  July,  1681,  at  midday,  after  havin^r  naid  our  resjKcts  to 
M.  Steinbielk,  ^and  treasua-r,  who,  olx;ying  the  orders  whicn  lie  had  received  from 
the  king,  his  master,  gave  his  recommendiitions  to  the  governors  of  the  provinces 
through  ^^ hich  wc  were  to  travel. 

Wq  were  carried  by  a  south-west  wind  as  far  as  Vacsol,  where  the  ships  arc  visited. 
On  our  passage  thiUier,  wc  were  struck  with  the  ridiculous  position  of  Stockholm.  It 
is  almost  incredible  that  a  situation,  such  as  that  of  this  city,  should  have  been  chosen 
Ibr  the  purpose  of  containing  the  capital  of  such  an  extensive  kingdom  as  that  of  Sweden. 
It  is  said  that  the  founders  of  this  city,  seeking  a  spot  on  which  to  build  it,  threw  a  stick 
into  the  sea,  with  the  detennination  to  build  the  city  wherever  the  r.tick  stopped :  Uic 
stick  consequently  stopiied  in  the  place  where  the  city  now  stands,  which  has  nothing 
frightful  about  it  but  its  situation  ;  for  the  buildings  arc  handsome,  and  the  inhabitants 
polite. 

We  saw  the  island  of  Aland,  forty  miles  distant  from  Stockholm  :  it  is  very  fertile, 
and  becomes  the  retreat  of  the  elks,  who  go  diither  from  Livonia  and  Carelia,  when 
the  winter  allows  them  to  pass  over  on  the  ice.  This  animal,  though  in  some  respects 
like  the  deer,  suqiasses  it  in  swiftness  and  strength,  which  it  employs  against  the  wolves, 
with  whom  it  frequently  engiigcs.  The  skin  of  this  animal  belongs  to  the  king ;  and 
the  peasants  arc  obliged,  under  pain  of  death,  to  carry  it  to  the  governor. 

After  leaving  this  island  we  lost  sight  of  land,  and  did  not  again  descry  it  till  Friday 
morning,  in  the  neighlDOurhood  of  Hernen,  or  Hernesantc,  which  is  a  hundred  miles 
distant  from  Stockholm,  ecpial  to  three  hundred  French  leagues ;  and  the  wind  conti- 
nuing extremely  strong,  we  soon  descried  the  islands  of  Ulfen,  Schagen,  and  Goben  ; 
~        '      wc  loi    '    ' 


so  that  on  Saturday  wc  Ibund  that  we  had  left  Angcrmania,  and  were  now  as  far  as 


from  Stockholm  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  which  amount  to  about  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  French  leagues. 

We  saw  the  islands  of  Quercken  c  .1  Saturday,  and  the  wind  continuing  always  south- 
west, enabled  us  to  perceive  at  mid-day  the  litde  island  of  Ratan ;  and  at  four  o'clock  of 
the  evening  we  found  ourselves  as  fiu*  as  Cape  Burockluben. 

After  passing  this  little  cape  we  lost  sight  of  land,  and  on  Sunday  morning,  the  wind 
having  continued  southerly  during  the  whol^  iiight,  we  found  ourselves  as  far  as  Mai- 


J. 


Br.CN.vnn'fl  jornvrv  to  lvplwo,  Ik;. 


Ii5 


hum,  n  lift!  •  isluiul  c'i\i;\\t  milts  from  Tomo.  Some  fislicrmcn  Ixlon^inii;  to  it  came  ofl 
to  IIS  ill  u  little  hark,  the  thiniR-st  1  have  ever  Hcen,  the  iMmrtN  of  w  hirli  were  sewed 
to^etlier  in  the  RuHsiutt  manner.  They  brought  us  some  .T/r<///ir//>i,  and  we  garc  them 
ill  exehunge  hii.'uiit  and  .snirit.s,  with  which  they  nturned  ci.rrpletely  satisfied. 

T\v:  wind  cuuriiming  still  extremely  favourable,  wc  jirrivedwitl.Mi  ti  Icuguc  of  Torrio. 
whenr  we  east  anchor. 

It  is  almost  iiieredible  that  wc  could  hav  imvelled  so  f;ir  in  four  days.  I'he  distnncr 
from  Stockholm  to  Torno  is  computed  to  Ik*  two  hundred  Swedish  miles  by  water, 
which  arc  ecjual  to  six  hundred  French  leagues;  and  we  made  this  voyage  with  ii 
south  aiKl  south-south-west  wind,  so  favourable  and  so  strong,  that  having  left  Stockholm 
on  W'ednesilay,  at  mid-day,  we  arrived  here  at  the  same  lunir  on  the  Sund.ty  lullou  ing, 
without  having  Ixen  obliged  to  shill  our  sails  (iuring  the  whole  v(»yagc. 

Torno  is  situated  at  the  extremity  of  the  (julf  of  Bothnia,  in  42"  27' of  longitude,  and 
in  67"  of  latitude.  This  is  the  last  town  in  the  world  towards  the  north  ;  the  rest,  as 
far  as  the  cape,  being  only  inhabited  by  Laplanders,  savages,  who  have  no  fixed  resi- 
dence. 

Here  the  northern  nations  hold  their  fairs  in  winter,  when  the  sea  is  snftleiently  frozen 
to  allow  them  to  travel  in  sledges.  At  this  tin\e  all  the  people  of  the  north,  Kussians,, 
Moscovites,  Finlanders,  and  Laplanders  from  all  the  tliree  kingdoms,  come  hither 
on  snow  and  ice,  which  is  so  convenient,  that  l)y  means  of  sledges  one  can  travel  in  one 
day  from  Finland  to  Lapland,  and  cross  the  Bothnian  Ciulf  on  ice,  although  it  is  in  the 
narrowest  places  thirty  or  forty  Swedish  miles  in  breadth.  The  trade  of  this  town 
consists  in  fish,  which  are  sent  to  u  great  distance  ;  and  the  river  Torno  abounds  S') 
much  in  pike  and  salmon,  that  it  could  furnish  a  sullicient  quantity  to  supply  all  tlu 
inhabitiuus  of  the  Baltic  Sea:  they  salt  some  for  exportation,  and  smoke  others  in 
shallow  veiisels,  which  are  constructed  like  baths.  Although  this  to\vn  is,  strictly  s\kA - 
ing,  nodiing  but  a  confused  mass  of  wooden  huts,  it  pays  annually  two  thousand  pieces 
of  brass,  which  amount  to  alx)uta  thousand  livres  of  our  money. 

We  lodged  with  the  agent  for  the  hark  which  conveyed  us  from  Stockholm ;  his 
wife  was  not  at  home ;  she  had  gone  to  attend  a  fair  to  the  distance  of  ten  or  tw  el\  r 
leagues,  for  the  puqx)se  of  bartering  s.ilt  and  meal  for  the  skins  of  rein-deer,  minevers, 
and  other  animals:  for  the  whole  trade  of  this  country  is  generally  carried  on  in  barter, 
and  the  Russians  and  Laplanders  scarcely  ever  do  business  in  any  other  manner. 

We  went  next  day,  Monday,  to  see  Johannes  Tornajus,  a  learned  man,  who  had 
translated  into  the  Lapland  language  the  Psalms  of  David,  and  had  written  an  history  ol 
the  country  :  he  was  a  countrj'  priest,  and  had  died  three  days  before  :  we  found  hin\ 
stretched  out  in  his  coffin,  with  the  drcss  of  his  profession,  which  had  been  made  on 
purpose  for  him.  He  was  much  regretted  here,  and  had  travelled  through  a  consider- 
able part  of  Europe. 

His  wife  was  in  another  part  of  the  room,  lying  on  her  bed  :  she  testified  the  regret 
which  she  felt  at  losing  such  a  husbaud;  and  a  number  of  other  women,  her  friends, 
surrounded  the  bed,  and  reechoed  by  their  groans  to  the  grief  of  the  widow. 

But  that  which  consoled  them  a  little,  in  such  great  affliction  and  general  siidness,  was 
a  great  number  of  large  pots  of  silver,  made  in  the  antitjue  manner,  and  filled,  some 
with  French,  some  with  Spanish  wines,  and  some  with  spirituous  rujuors,  which  they 
took  good  care  never  to  leave  long  empty.  We  tasted  of  them  all ;  and  the  wdow 
often  inten'ipted  her  lamentations  to  press  us  to  drink  :  she  even  ordered  tobacco  to  be 
brought  us,  but  we  declined  taking  any.  We  were  afterwards  conducted  to  the  churcli 
of  wmch  the  deceased  was  pastor,  where  we  saw  nothing  worthy  of  observation ;  and 


'  I, 

'    .1 


I 


156 


RERNASD'S  JOURWEY  TO  LAfLAND.  ke. 


when  taking  kave  of  the  widow,  we  were  again  obliged  to  drink  to  the  memory  of 
the  dead,  and  to  do  that  which  is  called  libare  manibus. 

We  afterwards  went  to  the  dwelling  of  a  person  who  was  in  our  company  ;  his 
mother  itcclvcd  us  with  all  possible  kindness ;  and  these  people,  who  had  never  before 
seen  Frenchmen,  did  not  know  how  to  testify  the  joy  which  they  felt  at  seeing  us  in 
their  country. 

On  Tuesday  they  brought  us  a  quantity  of  furs,  to  sell ;  and  of  large  coverings 
furred  with  skins  of  white  h{»''es,  which  they  offered  to  dispose  of  for  a  crov/n.  They 
also  shewed  us  dresses  oi  the  Lapponians,  made  of  the  skms  of  young  rein-deer,  with 
their  whole  appurtenances,  boots,  gloves,  slippers,  sash,  and  bonnet.  We  went,  the 
same  day,  to  the  chace,  around  the  house ;  we  found  numbers  of  wild  woodcocks,  and 
other  animals  unknown  in  our  country  ;  and  we  were  astonished,  that  the  inhabitants 
whom  we  met  with  were  no  less  anxious  to  avoid  us  than  the  game. 

On  Wednesday  we  received  a  visit  from  the  magistrate  and  burgo-master,  who  offer- 
ed us  their  services  in  every  thing  which  was  in  their  power.  After  dinner  they  came 
to  conduct  us  to  their  barkb,  and  brought  us  to  the  priest  of  the  town,  who  is  son-in- 
law  of  the  deceased  Tomaeus. 

We  now  saw,  for  the  first  time,  a  Lapland  sledge,  and  admired  its  structure.  This 
machine,  which  they  call  Pulea,  is  made  like  a  small  ship-boat,  raised  in  front,  for  the 
purpose  of  more  easily  keeping  off  the  snow.  The  prow  consists  s'  ^ely  of  a  single 
plaiik,  and  the  hody  is  composed  of  several  pieces  of  wood,  sewed  togetaer  with  a  large 
thread  of  :<  rein-deer,  without  a  single  nail ;  this  wood  is  joined  to  another  piece  in 
front,  which  is  very  strong,  and  which  extends  over  the  whole  length  above,  and,  by 
going  beyond  the  rest  of  the  structure,  serves  the  same  purpose  with  the  keel  of  a  ship. 
It  is  upon  th!"  piece  of  wood  that  the  sledge  runs ;  and  as  it  is  only  about  four  fingers 
breadth  wide,  it  rolls  constantly  from  side  to  side  ;  the  traveller  places  himself  in  the 
inside,  as  in  a  coffin,  where  the  half  of  his  body  is  covered ;  there  he  is  tied,  and 
rendered  immoveable,  witn  the  exception  of  his  hands,  one  of  which  is  employed  in 
hold;  ,g  the  reins,  and  the  other  supports  him,  when  in  danger  of  falling.  He  is 
obliged  carefully  to  balance  himself;  on  which  account,  those  who  are  unaccustomed 
to  this  mode  of  travelli»»;  n.i-e  often  in  danger  of  thei?  lives,  and  chiefly  when  the 
sledge  descends  the  steepest  rocks,  over  which  it  flies  with  such  horrible  swiftness,  that 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  rapidity  of  the  motion,  without  having  experienced  it. 
We  supped  ihis  evening  in  public  with  the  burgo-master ;  and  the  whole  inhabitants 
came  in  crowdi  to  see  us  cat.  We  postponed  our  departure  till  the  next  day,  and 
we  took  an  interpreier. 

On  Thursday,  the  last  of  July,  we  1<  'i  Torno  in  a  littie  Finland  boat,  made  for  the 
purpose  of  performing  voyages  here ;  it  is  about  twelve  feet  long,  and  three  broad. 
It  is  impossible  to  see  any  thing  better  or  more  lightly  built  than  this  boat ;  and  to 
such  a  degree  is  this  carried,  that  two  or  three  men  can  easily  bear  it,  when  they  are 
obliged  to  pass  the  cataracts  of  the  river,  which  are  so  impeti^ous,  as  to  roll  down 
stomal  of  an  immense  si::.e.  We  were  obliged  to  walk  on  foot  almost  all  the  rest  of  the 
day,  on  account  of  the  torrents  which  fell  from  the  mountains,  and  of  a  boisterous  wind, 
which  forced  the  water  into  the  boat  in  such  quantides,  that  if  it  had  not  been  immediately 
bailed  out,  the  boat  would  soon  have  been  filled.  We  went  along  the  banks  of  the 
river,  constantly  hunting,  and  killed  some  game  ;  we  were  astonished  at  the  number  of 
ducks,  geese,  and  water-fowl,  and  several  other  birds,  which  we  met  with  at  every 
step.  We  did  not  to-day  go  so  fur  as  we  had  intended,  iu  ccmsequence  of  a  violent 
rain  which  took  place,  and  obliged  us  to  pass  the  night  at  a  peasant's  house,  at  the  distance 
of  a  league  and  a  half  from  Torno. 


REGXARD'S  JOURNBY  TO  LAPLAND.  &C. 


157 


in 


We  travelled  the  whole  of  Friday  without  stopping,  and  were  from  four  o'clock  of  the 
morning  till  night  in  going  three  miles ;  if,  indeed,  it  may  be  called  night,  where  the 
sun  is  always  in  sight,  and  where  no  distinction  can  be  made  betwixt  to-day  and  to- 
morrow. 

We  went  more  than  half  of  the  way  on  foot,  in  consequence  of  the  dreadful  tor- 
rents  which  it  was  necessiiry  to  pass.  We  were  even  obliged  to  carry  our  boat  in  some 
places ;  and  we  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing;  at  the  same  time,  two  litUe  boiits  descendinr 
m  the  midst  of  the  caUtracts.  The  swiftest  and  the  lightest  bird  could  not  fly  with  such 
impetuosity ;  the  sight  cannot  even  follow  the  course  of  these  boats,  which  hide 
themhielves  from  view,  and  at  one  time  dive  into  the  waves,  where  they  seem  buried,  and 
at  another  time  rise  to  an  astonishing  height.  During  this  rapid  course,  the  pilot  is 
standing,  and  employs  all  his  skill  to  avoid  stones  of  an  extraordinary  si^^c,  and  to 
pass  through  the  middle  of  rocks,  in  a  space  no  larger  than  the  breadth  of  the  boats, 
which  would  be  driven  into  a  thousand  pieces,  if  they  touched  them  in  the  slightest 
degiee. 

We  killed  to-day,  in  the  wood,  two  young  pheasants,  three  ducks,  and  two  teal, 
without  going  out  of  our  way,  during  which  we  were  very  much  incommoded  by 
gnats,  which  are  the  curse  of  this  country,  and  which  nearly  drove  us  to  despair. 
The  Laplanders  have  no  other  method  of  defending  themselves  against  these  cursed 
creatures,  than  by  filling  the  places  of  their  residence  with  smoke ;  and  we  observed, 
on  the  road,  that  to  preserve  their  cattle  from  these  troublesome  iusects  diey  light  a 
large  fire,  in  the  place  where  their  cows  (which  are  all  wholly  white)  graze,  amidst  the 
smoke  of  which  they  place  themselves,  and  thus  chase  away  the  gnats,  which  are  un- 
able to  remain. 

We  pursued  the  same  method,  and  smoked  ourselves,  as  soon  as  we  arrived  at  the 
house  of  a  German,  who  has  resided  thirty  years  in  the  country,  and  receives  the  tri- 
bute of  the  Laplanders  for  the  king  of  Sweden.  He  told  us,  that  this  people  were 
obliged  to  be  in  a  certain  place,  appointed  for  them  in  the  preceding  year,  to  bring  the 
necessary  tribute ;  and  that  they  generally  preferred  the  winter  season,  on  account  of  the 
convenience  which  it  afforded  them  in  travelling,  by  means  of  their  rein-deer,  upon 
the  ice.  The  sum  which  they  pay  is  very  small ;  and  it  is  the  policy  of  the  king  of 
Sweden,  as  he  is  desirous  that  they  should  remain  his  tributaries,  not  to  impose  on 
them  vexatii.us  burdens,  lest  this  people,  destitute  of  any  fixed  residence,  and  to  whom 
the  whole  of  Lapland  is  a  dwelling  place,  should  remove  to  the  territories  of  other 
princes,  on  account  of  the  troublesome  exactions  to  which  they  were  subjected. 

Some  of  these  people,  however,  pay  tribute  to  different  countries ;  and  some- 
times a  Laplander  will  be  tributary  to  the  king  of  Sweden,  that  of  Denmaiic,  and  the 
grand  duke  of  Moscovy  ;  they  will  pay  to  the  first,  on  account  of  residing  within  his 
territories;  to  the  second,  for  permission  to  fish  on  tlic  coast  of  Norway,  which  be- 
longs to  him ;  and  to  the  third,  that  they  may  be  allowed  to  hunt  upon  his  lands. 

Nothing  worthy  of  observation  befel  us  during  our  journey  on  Saturday ;  but  we 
had  no  sooner  arrived  at  the  residence  of  a  peasant,  than  we  were  astonished  with  find- 
ing every  body  bathing.  Their  baths  arc  made  of  wood,  like  all  their  houses.  One 
observes  in  the  middle  of  this  bath  a  great  mass  of  stones,  thrown  together  without 
order,  except  that  they  Ifeave  a  hole  in  the  middle,  in  which  the  fire  is  lighted.  These 
stones,  being  once  heated,  communicate  warmth  to  the  whole  place ;  but  this  heat 
augments  to  a  great  degree,  when  they  proceed  to  throw  water  upon  the  flint  stones, 
which,  emitting  a  stifling  smoke,  cause  the  air  which  is  breathttl  in  these  places  to  be 
w^m  as  fire.    But  what  surprised  us  most  in  entering  this  bath  was,  finding  boys  and 


158 


nEr.NARD'S  JOUnNEY  TO  LAPLANS   «ic. 


girls,  motlicrs  and  sons,  brethren  and  sisters,  all  promiscuously  together,  and  observing 
mat  the  naked  females  remained  (juite  unconcerned  at  being  exposed  to  the  view  of 
strangers.  But  we  were  still  more  surprised,  at  beholding  young  girls  with  a  switch 
striking  the  naked  men  and  boys.  I  at  first  supposed  that  nature,  being  exhausted  by 
great  sweat,  required  this  assistance,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  there  still  remained 
some  signs  of  life  in  the  bather ;  but  I  was  soon  undeceived,  and  learnt  that  this 
practice  was  followed,  in  order  that  the  frequent  strokes  should  open  the  pores,  and 
assist  in  producing  great  fierspiration.  I  :ifterwards  with  difficulty  conceived  how  these 
people,  issuing  naked  from  their  fiery  baths,  could  run  and  throw  themselves  into  an 
extremely  cold  river,  which  was  within  a  few  paces  of  the  house ;  and  I  supposed  that 
they  must  have  very  strong  constitutions,  before  they  could  remain  unaffected  with 
those  consequences,  which  such  a  sudden  transition  from  heat  to  cold  was  naturally 
calculated  to  produce. 

You  would  never  have  believed,  sir,  that  tne  Bothnians,  an  extremely  savage 
people,  should  have  imitated  the  Romans  in  their  luxury  and  their  pleasures.  But  you 
will  be  still  more  astonished,  when  I  inform  you,  that  these  same  people  who  have  baths 
among  them,  like  emperors,  have  no  bread  to  eat.  They  live  upon  a  little  milk,  and 
nourish  themselves  with  the  tenderest  of  the  bark,  which  thev  find  on  the  tops  of  the 
pines.  Thev  gather  it  when  the  tree  gives  out  its  sap,  and  afte '  exposing  it  some  time 
to  the  sun,  tney  bury  it  in  large  baskets  unCcr  ground,  over  which  they  kindle  a  fiie, 
which  gives  it  a  very  agreeable  colour  and  flavour.  Such,  sir,  throughout  the  whole 
year,  is  the  food  of  men,  w  ho  eagerly  indulge  themselves  in  the  luxury  of  a  bath,  and 
who  can  live  without  bread. 

We  were  extremely  fortunate  at  the  chace  on  Sunday,  and  brought  home  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  game  ;  but  we  saw  nothing  worthy  of  remark,  except  two  long 
wooden  planks  of  fir,  with  which  the  Laplanders  run  with  such  remarkable  swiftness, 
that  no  animal,  even  the  fleetest,  can  escape  tliem,  when  the  snow  is  hard  enough  to 
support  them. 

These  planks,  extremely  thick,  are  two  ells  long,  and  half  a  foot  broad ;  they  are 
made  ix)inted  before,  and  arc  pierced  through  at  tlie  thickest  part,  for  the  purpose  of 
passing  a  leathern  strap,  m  hich  keeps  the  feet  firm  and  immoveable.  I'he  Laplander 
who  stands  upon  it  holds  a  stick  in  his  hand,  to  one  end  of  which  a  round  piece  of 
wood  is  attached,  tc  prevent  it  from  entering  into  the  snow,  and  the  other  end  is  pointed 
with  a  piece  of  iron.  This  stick  is  employed  to  give  him  the  first  motion,  to  keep  him 
up  while  running,  and  to  stop  him  when  he  chooses ;  with  this  he  also  pierces  tlie  beast 
he  is  in  pursuit  of,  when  he  approaches  near  enough  for  that  purpose. 

It  is  difficult  enough  to  conceive  the  fleetness  of  these  hunters,  who  can,  by  the  aid 
of  these  instruments,  outrun  the  swiftest  animals ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  liave  an  ade- 
quate idea  of  their  method  of  descending  the  steepest  precipices,  and  how  they  can 
mount  the  most  craggy  mountains.  All  this,  however,  they  perform,  sir,  with  an 
address  which  surpasses  imagination,  and  which  is  so  natural  to  the  people  of  this 
country,  that  the  women  are  no  less  adroit  in  the  use  of  these  planks  than  the  men. 
They  go  to  visit  their  relations,  and  travel  in  this  manner  the  longest  and  most  difficult 
joumies. 

We  met  with  nothing  remarkable  on  Monday,  except  the  quantity  of  game  which 
we  saw  and  killed ;  we  made  use  of  no  less  than  twenty  pieces  this  day ;  it  is  true,  we 
had  purchased  five  or  six  ducks  from  some  peasants  who  had  taken  them.  These 
people  use  no  other  arms  in  hunting  than  the  bow  or  the  cross-bow.  They  employ 
the  bow  in  hunting  the  larger  beasts,  as  the  boar,  the  wolf,  and  the  wild  rein-deer ; 


X 


HEONAnn'S  JOUUKEY  TO  I.API.AKn,  ic 


159 


and  when  they  wish  to  take  the  less  cojisiderablc  animals,  they  make  use  of  the  cross-bow, 
which  differs  from  ours  only  in  its  superior  size.  So  skilful  arc  those  people  m  the 
use  of  these  arms,  that  th.,  never  fail  in  striking  the  object  at  the  greatest  distance  at 
wuich  they  can  behold  it.  The  smallest  bird  cannot  escape  them ;  there  are  even  some 
who  will  strike  a  pin  on  the  head.  The  arrows  which  they  use  are  of  various 
kinds;  some  are  pointed  with  iron,  or  the  bone  of  a  fish;  and  others  are  round, 
shaped  like  a  ball  cut  through  the  middle.  They  make  use  of  the  first  kind  with 
the  bow,  when  they  go  to  the  greater  hunts ;  and  of  the  latter  xyith  the  cross-bow, 
when  they  attack  animals  which  can  1)C  destroyed  without  giving  them  any  dangerous 
wounds.  Thev  employ  these  round  arrows  in  attacking  the  minevers,  martins, 
and  ermines,  that  they  may  preserve  the  skins  whole;  and  liecause  it  is  dithcult 
to  avoid  leaving  a  mark  on  the  skin,  where  the  stroke  has  been  given,  the  most 
ingenious  never  fail  to  hit  the  spot  that  they  wish,  and  generally  strike  the  head,  which 

is  the  least  valuable  part  of  the  skin.  „r  j      j      r    *u 

We  arrived  on  Tuesday  at  Kones,  and  stopped  there  on  Wednesday,  for  the  purpose 
of  resting  ourselves,  and  of  seeing  the  iron  and  copper- works,  which  are  at  this  place. 
We  admired  the  method  which  they  follow  in  working  these  metals,  and  of  preparing 
the  copper  before  it  is  made  into  Pelottes,  which  form  the  money  of  the  country,  alter 
it  has  been  stamped  with  the  image  of  the  prince.  But  that  vvhichastomshcd  us  most 
of  all  was,  the  conduct  of  one  of  the  founders,  who  approached  the  furnace,  and  took 
into  his  hand  a  quantity  of  copper,  which  the  violence  of  the  heat  had  rendered  iquid 
as  water,  where  he  continued  to  hold  it  some  time.  Nothing  can  be  more  frightful  than 
these  abodes.  The  torrents  which  fall  from  the  mountains,  the  rocks  and  the  woods 
which  surround  them,  the  blackness  and  the  savage  air  of  these  founders,  all  contribute 
to  form  a  horrible  residence.  These  frightful  solitudes,  however,  are  sometimes  agree- 
able,  and  please  one,  at  times,  as  much  as  the  most  magnificent  abodes  ;  and  it  was  in 
the  midst  of  these  rocks  that  I  composed  the  following  verses,  a  practice  to  which  I  had, 
for  some  time,  been  unaccustomed. 

Tranquilles  et  sombres  forfits, 
Ou  Ic  soleil  ne  luit  jamais 
Qu'au  travers  de  mille  feuUlaReB, 
Que  VOU9  avez  pour  rooi  d'atiraits  I 
Et  qu'il  est  doux,  sous  vos  ombragcS, 
De  pouvoir  respirer  en  paix ! 
Quc  j'aime  avoir  vos  chines  vei-ds, 
Presque  aussi  vieux  que  Tunivers, 
Qui,  malRre  la  nature  fcmue, 
Et  ses  plus  cruels  aquilons, 
Sont  aussi  sOrs  pr^s  de  la  nucj 
Que  lea  epis  dans  ies  sillons  ! 
Et  vous,  impfetueux  torrents, 
r*  ;        '  Qui,  sur  le  roches  murmurants, 

.   .1,  '  .    Roulez  vos  eaux  avec  conU'ainte, 

,.  ,„  Que  le  bruit  que  vous  excitez 
Cause  de  respect  at  de  crainte 
A  toux  ceux  que  vous  arretet ! 

'    '  Quelquefoia  vos  rapides  eaux, 
-      Venant  arroser  Ies  roseaux, 
...;.  v<   A       '->»  Fomtent  des  etan(:spacifiques, 

';■        ,:Ji..r;.^  Oit  Ies  phngeons  et  ies  canards,  '' 

Ettous  Ies  oiseaux  aquatiques, 
Viennent  fondre  de  loutes  partis. 


I  :i 


iii 


^ 


150  REONAIllVS  JOUnXEY  TO  LAPLAND,  &c. 

D'un  c6t^  Ton  voit  dcs  poissons. 
Qui,  suns  cruindrc  Ics  hamc^onS) 
Quitient  Icurs  dcmeurcs  profondes  ; 
El  pour  prendre  un  plaiser  noveau, 
Las  (Ic  fol^irer  dans  les  ondes, 
S'  ilancent  et  sauU-nt  s'-^lTeau. 

Tous  CCS  fidiflces  d^truits, 

£t  ces  respectables  debris, 
j  Qu'on  voit  sur,cette  roche  obscure, 

1  >>      Sonl  plus  beauique  les  b&timens 

0\[  Tor,  I'azur,  ct  la  peinture, 

Forment  les  moindres  orncmcnts.        * 

Le|  temps  y  laisse  quelqucs  troua, 
Pour  la  demeure  des  biboux  ; 
£t  Iqb  betes  d'un  cri  funestCi 
Lt-b  oiseaux  sacr^s  d  la  nuit, 
Dans  I'horreur  de  celte  rctruite, 
Trouvent  toujours  un  sCir  reduit. 

We  left  these  foi^es  on  Thursday,  to  go  to  others  wHich  are  distant  from  them  about 
eighteen  Swedish  miles,  which  are  equal  to  nearly  fifty  French  leagues.  We  kept  al- 
ways in  the  same  road,  there  being  no  other  in  ;he  country,  and  pursued  our  journey 
to  the  northward,  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  We  learnt  that  it  had  here  another 
name,  and  that  it  was  called,  by  the  inhabitants,  TVilnama  Suanda.  We  passed  the 
whole  night  upon  the  water,  and  we  arrived  next  day,  being  Friday,  at  the  poor  hut 
of  a  peasant,  which,  however,  we  found  to  be  empty.  The  whole  family,  consisung 
of  five  or  six  persons,  were  gone  out ;  some  were  m  the  woods,  and  others  had  gone 
to  fioh  the  pike.  This  fish,  which  they  dry,  serves  them  for  nourishment  during  the 
whole  year.  They  do  not  take  it  by  means  of  nets,  as  others  do  ;  but  by  lighung  a 
fire  on  the  prow  of  their  litde  bark,  they  draw  the  fish  to  the  light  of  this  flame,  and 
harpoon  them  with  a  long  stick,  pointed  with  iron,  in  the  shape  of  a  trident.  They 
catch  great  numbers  of  tnis  fish,  of  an  extraordinary  size ;  so  that  nature,  like  a 
bountiful  mother,  denying  them  fertility  of  soil,  furnishes  them  with  the  abundance  of 
the  waters. 

The  farther  one  advances  in  this  country,  the  misery  is  the  greater ;  the  inhabitants 
are  ignorant  of  the  use  of  corn ;  fish-bones,  ^ound  with  the  bark  of  trees,  are  used 
instead  of  bread,  and  notwithstanding  this  horrid  diet  these  people  live  in  perfect  health. 
As  they  are  destitute  of  physicians,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  should  be  also  igno- 
rant of  diseases,  and  should  live  to  such  an  advanced  age,  that  they  generally  survive 
till  they  are  a  hundred  years  old,  and  some  of  them  a  hundred  and  f  fty. 

We  made  little  progress  on  Saturday,  as  we  stopt  the  whole  day  in  a  small  house, 
which  is  the  last  that  one  meets  with  in  this  country.  We  had  various  amusements  while 
residing  in  this  cabin.  The  first  was  to  employ  ourselves,  everj'  one  at  different 
exercises,  as  soon  as  we  arrived.  One  cut  a  dry  tree  in  the  neighbouring  wood,  and 
drew  it  with  difficulty  to  the  place  of  its  destination ;  another,  after  having  struck  a  light 
with  a  flint,  blew  with  all  his  strength  to  lighten  a  fire  ;  some  were  engaged  in  prepai  ing 
a  lamb,  which  they  were  going  to  kill ;  and  others,  possessing  more  foresight,  left  these 
petty  employments,  and  went  to  procure  firom  a  neighbouring  pond,  which  was  full 
of  fish,  something  for  to-morrow.  This  pleasure  was  followed  by  another;  for  no 
sooner  were  we  seated  at  table,  than  we  agreed,  on  account  of  our  pressing  necessities, 
to  order  a  general  hunt.  Every  body  made  preparations  for  tliis  purpose  ;  and  having 
taken  two  htUe  barks  and  two  peasants  with  us,  we  abandoned  ourselves  on  the  river  ta 


UBCNARU'S  JOUKNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  kc. 


101 


our  good  fortune.  We  hunted  in  the  strangest  and  most  delightful  manner  iniaginji'jic. 
No  one  has  ever  heard  tliat  people  went  a  hunting  with  sticks  in  France ;  l)ut  .^uch 
is  the  practice  here,  for  so  abundant  is  the  game,  that  they  make  use  of  rods,  and  even 
sticks,  to  kill  them.  The  birds  which  we  caught  in  greatest  numbers  were  divers  ; 
and  we  admired  the  address  with  which  they  were  taken.  The  peasants  followed  them 
wherever  they  went ;  and  when  they  perceived  them  swimming  below  water,  they 
ti^rew  their  stick,  and  struck  them  in  the  head  at  the  bottom  of  the  water  with  such 
address,  that  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  promptitude  with  which  they  performed  this 
action.  For  our  parts,  who  were  not  made  for  this  mode  of  hunting,  and  whose  eyes 
were  not  fine  enough  for  piercing  to  the  bottom  of  the  river,  we  struck  at  random  in 
the  same  places  wlvere  we  saw  they  struck,  without  any  other  weapons  than  sticks  ; 
and  so  much  execution  did  we  make,  that  in  less  than  two  hours  we  procured  more 
than  twenty  or  twenty-five  pieces  of  game.  We  returned  to  our  little  dwelling,  mucii 
pleased  with  having  seen  this  hunt,  and  still  more  with  bringing  something  along  witii 
us  for  our  support  Good  fortune,  like  bad,  seldom  comes  alone ;  and  some  peasants, 
having  heard  of  our  arrival,  which  had  been  rumoured  over  the  country  to  a  great  dis- 
tance, partly  from  curiosity  to  see  us,  and  partly  to  receive  some  of  our  money,  brought 
us  a  sheep,  which  we  purchased  for  five  or  six  sous ;  and  which  increased  our  stock  of 
provisions  to  such  a  degree,  that  we  believed  ourselves  well  enough  furnished  to  un- 
dertake a  journey  of  three  days  length,  during  which  time  we  should  be  wiable  to  meet 
with  any  other  house.  We  set  out  early  on  Sunday  morning,  that  is,  at  ten  o^clock ;  for 
the  necessity  which  we  were  under  of  taking  rest  prevented  us  from  being  ever  on  the 
road  before  this  hour. 

We  were  surprised  at  meeting  with  so  many  swallows  in  this  northern  latitude,  and 
having  asked  the  country  people  who  conducted  us,  what  became  of  them  in  winter, 
jUTid  whether  they  migrated  to  warm  regions,  they  assured  us,  that  they  for  d  platoons, 
and  buried  themselves  in  the  slime  wmch  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  lakes ;  and  that  they 
await  in  this  place  the  return  of  the  sun  to  his  former  vigour,  when  he  pierces  to  the  bot. 
torn  of  these  marshes,  and  gives  them  again  that  life,  which  the  cold  had  deprived  them 
of.  I  was  told  the  same  tmng  by  the  ambassador  at  Copenhagen,  and  by  several  per. 
sons  at  Stockholm ;  but  I  could  never  believe  that  these  animals  could  live  more  than 
nx  months  buried  in  the  earth,  without  any  sustenance.  However,  such  is  the  fact ; 
and  the  truth  of  it  has  been  confirmed  to  me  by  so  many  people,  that  I  can  no  longer 
have  any  doubt  on  the  subject. 

We  Ldged  Uvday  at  Coctuanda,  where  Lapland  commences ;  and  next  day,  being 
Monday,  we  travelled  four  nules,  and  encamped  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  where  we 
were  obiiged  to  sleep  in  the  open  air,  and  where  we  made  smoking  fires,  to  preserve 
us  fit>m  me  importunity  of  the  gnats.  We  made  a  large  round  intrenchment,  formed 
of  a  number  of  tall  dry  trees,  and  of  smaller  ones  for  the  purpose  of  lighting  them ; 
we  placed  ourselves  in  the  middle,  and  made  the  best  fire  that  I  have  ever  seen.  The 
wood  which  we  burned  would  certainly  have  been  sufficient  to  load  one  of  those  large 
boats  which  come  to  Parb  with  wood ;  and  a  small  quandty  mwe  would  have  been 
soficient  to>  set  the  whole  forest  on  fire.  We  remained  in  the  midst  of  these  fires  the 
ynbdc  ni^it,  and  we  set  out  next  morning,  being  Tuesday,  for  the  purpose  of  visiting 
the  cjpper.mines,  which  were  only  two  leagues  distant.  We  travelled  to^vards  the  west, 
on  the  border  of  a  little  river,  called  Loi^^iochi,  which  formed  here  and  there  the 
most  bMcautiful  fiums  that  I  have  ever  seen:  and  after  having  been  often  obliged  to 
cany  our  boat,  for  waitt  ^f  water,  we  arrived  at  Swapavara,  or  Suppawahara,  where 

vol.  I.  y 


162 


KRONAHD'S  JOIJHNKY  TO  t.AI'LANI),  «ie. 


the  copper-mines  are  situated.  This  place  is  about  a  league  distant  from  the  river,  and 
we  were  obliged  to  travel  the  whole  way  on  foot. 

We  were  extremely  glad  to  hear,  upon  our  arrival,  that  there  was  a  Frenchman  here. 
You  see,  sir,  that  there  is  no  place,  however  retired,  wlv^re  Frenchmen  are  not  to  be 
found.     He  has  wrought  in  these  mines  nearly  thirty  years,  and  he  had  really  more 
I  the  appearance  of  a  savage  than  a  man ;  but  he  was  of  considerable  service  to  us, 

•'^(i^  although  he  had  almost  wholly  forgot  his  mother  tongue.  He  assured  us,  that  since  he 
had  first  residec'  ;re,  far  from  having  seen  any  Frenchmen,  no  stranger  had  arrived, 
who  was  lx)m  nearci  France  than  an  Italian,  who  }xissed  by  this  place  fourteen  years 
ago,  and  of  whom  he  had  never  afterwards  heard.  We  were  much  pleased  with  this 
man's  recovering  in  some  measure  his  native  language,  and  we  learned  from  him  many 
things,  which  we  could  with  difficulty  have  been  informed  of  by  any  other  than  a 
Frenchman. 

These  mines  of  Swapavara  are  thirty  miles  distant  from  Tomo,  and  fifteen  from 
Konges  (a  Swedish  mile  is  always  equal  to  three  French  leagues.)    They  were  opened 

about  seven-and-twenty  years  ago  by  a  Laplander,  called ,  to  whom  a  small 

rent  of  four  crowns  and  two  barrels  of  meal  is  paid :  he  is  exempt  from  every  taxt 
These  mines  were  formerly  better  wrought  than  they  are  now  ;  formerly  they  had  con- 
stantly a  hundred  men  vcrhing  here,  but  at  present  one  only  sees  ten  or  twelve.  The 
co^  j)er  found  here  is,  however,  the  best  in  Sweden ;  but  so  deserted  and  so  frightful  is 
the  country,  that  there  are  very  few  persons  who  can  remain  in  it.  Nobody  but  the 
Laplanders  can  remain  here,  and  they  reside  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  mines  only 
during  the  winter,  as  in  summer  they  are  obliged  to  leave  the  country,  on  account 
of  the  heat  and  the  gnats,  which  the  Swedes  call  alcaneras,  and  which  are  worse,  a 
thousand  times,  than  all  the  plagues  of  Egypt.  They  retire  to  the  mountains  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  western  sea,  for  the  purpose  of  fishing  more  conveniently,  and 
finding  more  easily  nourishment  for  vtheir  rein-deer,  who  live  upon  a  little  white  and 
tender  moss,  which  grows  in  summer  on  the  Sellicean  mountsuns,  which  separate  Nor. 
way  from  Lapland,  in  the  most  northern  regions. 

We  went  next  day,  Wednesday,  to  view  the^mines,  which  were  full  half  a  league 
distant  .rom  our  cabin.  We  admired  the  works,  and  the  excavated  abyss,  which  penetrat- 
ed even  to  the  centre  of  the  earth,  for  the  purpose  of  seeking,  almost  in  hell  itself, 
materials  for  the  gratification  of  luxury  and  vanity.  The  greatest  number  of  these 
pits  were  full  of  ice,  and  some  of  them  were  clothed  from  head  to  foot  with  a  coat  of 
ice  so  thick,  that  even  the  largest  stones  which  we  amused  ourselves  with  throwing  at 
them,  far  from  making  any  breach,  did  not  leave  the  smallest  mark  of  the  place  were 
they  had  been  struck  ;  and  when  they  fell  to  the  bottom,  we  saw  them  roll  and  rebound, 
without  making  the  slightest  impression  on  the  ice.  And  we  were  at  this  period  in  the 
liottest  of  the  dog-days ;  but  what  is  here  called  a  violent  summer  would  be  reckoned 
in  France  a  very  ^ever^'winter.  * 

The  rock  does  not  furnish  the  metajin  every  part,  but  it  is  found  in  veins ;  and 
when  once  one  is  discovered,  it  is  followed  with  as  much  care  as  it  was  formerly  sought 
after.  For  this  purpose,  fire  is  either  employed  to  soften  the  rock,  or  powder  to  blow 
it  to  pieces ;  the  latter  mode  is  by  far  the  most  troublesome,  but  it  is  beyond  measure 
more  useful.  We  took  stones  of  all  colours,  ydlow,  blue,  green,  and  violet ;  but  the 
last  appeared  to  us  by  far  the  best,  and  the  fullest  of  metaL 
*!  u  We  made  a  trial  of  several  pieces  of  loadstone  which  we  found  upon  the  rock ;  but 
>;  nlby  had  lost  almost  all  their  power,  by  the  fires  whichi  had  been  made  above  or  below, 


HECNAnD'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  fcC 


l()v 


which  prevented  us  from  taking  any  avvay  with  us,  as  wc  thought  it  better  to  wait  till 
our  return,  when  we  would  procure  it  from  the  iron- mine.  After  having  investigated 
all  the  machines  and  pumps  employed  for  raising  the  water,  we  contemplated  at  our 
leisure  all  the  mountains  covered  with  snow  that  surrounded  us.  It  is  upon  these  rocks 
that  the  Laplanders  live  during  winter ;  and  this  country  has  been  in  their  possession 
since  the  division  of  Lapland,  which  took  place  in  the  reign  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  father 
of  queen  Christina.  These  lands  and  mountains  belong  to  diem  exclusively ;  and  to 
mark  their  property,  they  have  their  names  written  u[ion  some  stones,  or  cut  out  in  some 
parts  of  the  niuuutain  which  they  have  had  in  their  |X)ssession,  or  which  they  have  in- 
nabited.  Such  are  the  rocks  of  Lumwara,  Kercjuerol,  Kilavara,  Lung,  Dondere,  or 
rock  of  Thunder,  which  have  furnished  names  to  the  families  of  Laplanders  which 
dwell  upon  them,  and  which  are  only  distinguished  in  this  country  by  the  surnames  that 
^ese  rocks  furnish  them  with.  These  mountains  are  sometimes  seven  or  eight  leagues 
In  length ;  and  although  they  remain  always  upon  the  same  rock,  they  do  not  hesitate  often 
to  shift  their  places,  when  necessity  leads  them  to  do  so,  and  when  their  rein-deer  have 
consumed  all  the  moss  which  was  near  their  habitations.  Although  some  Laplanders 
have,  during  the  winter,  certain  fixed  places  of  residence,  there  are  many  more  who  con- 
standy  wander,  and  whose  habitations  cannot  be  discovered ;  they  are  sometimes  in  the 
woods,  sometimes  on  the  lakes,  just  as  they  have  need  of  hunting  or  fishing,  and  they 
are  never  to  be  seen,  except  when  they  attend  the  fairs  in  winter,  for  the  purpose  of  bar. 
tering  skins  for  some  other  article  which  they  stand  in  need  of,  and  for  carrying  the  tri. 
bute  which  they  pay  to  the  king  of  Sweden,  but  from  which  they  might  easily  exempt 
themselves,  if  they  did  not  wish  to  attend  these  fairs.  But  the  need  which  they  have  of 
iron,  jsteel,  corda^,  and  knives,  and  other  articles  of  thb  nature,  oblige  them  to  attend 
these  fairs,  at  which  they  receive  the  commodities  they  are  in  want  of.  The  tribute 
which  they  pay  is  also  extremely  small.  The  richest  among  them,  when  they  have  a 
thousand  or  twelve  hundred  rein-deer,  which  is  the  case  with  some,  pay  generally  only 
two  or  three  crowns  at  the  most. 

•  After  being  amply  informed  on  all  these  topics,  we  began  to  return  to  our  hut,  and 
saw  on  the  road  those  forges  where  the  copper  is  first  founded.  Here  the  grossest 
alloy  is  separated,  and  when  it  lias  been  long  enough  in  the  foundery  to  have  all  its 
impurities  thrown  out,  before  taking  out  the  copper  at  the  bottom,  they  lift  up  several 
sheets,  which  they  call  rosettes,  in  which  there  is  only  one  half  of  copper,  and  which  are 
afterwards  placed  in  the  furnace,  to  remove  the  quantity  of  dross  which  still  remains. 
This  is  the  first  shape  which  is  given  to  it  here  ;  but  at  Konges  it  is  passed  three  times 
through  the  fire,  that  it  may  be  thoroughly  purified,  and  rendered  fit  to  take  that  form 
under  the  hammer  which  is  wished  to  be  given  to  it. 

On  Thursday  a  priest  of  the  Laplanders  arrived,  with  four  of  that  people,  for  the 
purpose  of  attending  next  day  one  of  the  days  of  religious  exercise  established  through- 
out all  Sweden,  to  thank  God  for  the  victories  gained  by  them  on  that  day. 

These  were  the  first  Laplanders  we  had  seen,  and  the  sight  of  them  gave  us  much 
satisfaction.  They  came  to  barter  fish  for  tobacco.  We  regarded  them  attentively 
from  head  to  foot ;  they  are  made  quite  differently  from  other  men.  The  tallest  of  them 
is  not  more  than  three  cubits  high ;  and  I  know  not  any  figure  more  truly  laughable. 
They  have  large  heads,  broad  and  flat  faces,  level  noses,  small  eyes,  large  mouths,  and 
thick  beards,  descending  to  their  stomach.  All  their  limbs  are  pro|X)rtioned  to  thek 
UtUeness  of  body ;  their  legs  are  thin,  their  arms  long,  and  the  whole  of  this  litol;, 
machine  seems  to  move  on  springs.  Their  winter  dress  consists  of  the  skin  of  a  lein- 
de^l ,  made  like  a  sack,  descending  to  the  knees,  and  tfed  round  the  thighs  with  a  sash 


*^ 


/ 


It)  I 


HIXSAUD'S  JOimXFV  TO  LAPL.VSn,  IM. 


of  Icallur,  adorned  with  small  plates  of  silver ;  the  shoes,  gloves,  and  boots  of  the 
«aine  stuff:  atul  this  has  led  several  historians  to  relate,  tluit  there  were  men  in  the 
northern  regions  habited  like  beasts,  and  who  wore  no  other  covering  than  that 
which  nature  had  given  them.  They  have  always  u  nurse  made  of  the  entrails  of  the 
rein-deer,  which  hangs  uix)n  their  baast,  and  in  which  they  keep  u  8p(X)n.  They 
change  this  dass  in  summer,  and  Uike  u  lighter,  which  is  generally  formed  of  thiie 
skins  of  birds,  whom  they  Hay  for  the  purpose  of  defending  themselves  against  the 
gnats.  They  have  always  above  this  a  sack  of  coarse  or  whitish  gray  cloth,  with 
which  they  cover  themselves  ;  for  they  are  (luite  ignorant  of  the  use  of  linen. 

They  cover  the  head  with  a  cap,  which  is  generally  mode  of  the  skin  of  a  bird, 
large  as  a  dui;k,  which  they  call  loom^  signifying  in  their  language  lame^  because  this 
bird  cannot  walk  ;  they  place  it  on  their  lieads  in  such  a  manner,  that  the  bird's  head 
falls  over  their  brow,  and  its  wings  cover  their  ears. 

Such,  sir,  is  the  description  ot  this  little  animal,  called  a  Laplander ;  and  it  may  be 
said,  that,  after  the  monkey,  he  approaches  the  neiirest  to  man.  We  interrogated 
them  on  several  subjects  on  which  we  wished  for  information,  and,  in  particular,  we 
asked  them  \vherc  we  could  find  their  comrades.  These  people  gave  us  every  informa- 
tion. They  told  us  that  the  Laplanders  began  to  descend  from  the  mountains  situated 
near  the  Frozen  Ocean,  from  whence  th«i  heat  and  the  flies  hod  driven  them,  and 
spread  themselves  towards  the  lake  Tomotracs,  where  the  river  Tomo  takes  ifs  rise, 
for  the  purpose  of  fishing  a  short  time,  till  about  Saint  Bartholomew's  day,  by  which 
time  they  arrive  at  the  mountains  of  Swapavara,  Kilavan,  and  others,  where  the  cold 
begins  to  be  felt,  and  where  they  intend  to  pass  the  winter.  They  assured  us,  that  we 
should  be  certain  of  meeting  with  some  of  the  richest  of  the  Laplanders  tlMsre,  and 
that,  during  the  seven  or  eight  days  which  it  would  take  us  to  travel  thither^  they 
would  arrive  in  those  places.  They  added,  that,  for  tlieir  parts,  they  had  remained 
the  whole  summer  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  mine  and  the  lakes  around  it,  having 
found  sufficient  nourishment  for  fifteen  or  twenty  rein-deer,  which  eveiy  one  was  in 
possession  of,  and  being  too  poor  to  undertake  a  journey  of  fifteen  days,  for  which  pro- 
visions  must  be  procured,  which  they  had  not  in  their  power  to  do,  in  consequence  of 
their  having  been  unable  to  live  away  from  the  ponds,  which  furmshed  them  daily  with 
their  subsistence. 

On  Friday,  the  fifteenth  day  of  August,  it  was  extremely  cold,  and  snow  fell  on  the 
neighbouring  mountains.  We  had  a  long  convenuuion  wiUi  the  priest,  when  he  had 
finished  the  two  sermons  which  he  delivered  this  day,  the  one  of  which  was  in  the 
Finnish,  the  other  in  the  Lapponian  language.  He,  fortunately  for  us,  spoke  pretty- 
good  Latin,  and  we  interrogated  him  on  every  subject  which  he  could  be  best  ac- 
(juainted  with,  such  as  baptism,  marriage,  and  funerals.  He  told  us,  that,  with  respect 
to  the  first,  the  Laplanders  were  Christians,  and  baptised ;  but  the  majority  wert;  so 
only  in  form,  and  they  retained  so  much  of  their  old  superstition,  that  it  might  be 
said  of  them,  they  liad  only  the  name  of  Christians,  and  they  were  still  Pagans  in 
their  hearts. 

The  Laplanders  carry  their  children  to  the  priest,  for  baptism,  a  short  time  after  they 
are  born;  if  in  winter,  they  carry  them  in  their  sledges,  and  if  in  summer,  they  place 
them  upon  the  rein-deer,  in  their  cradles,  filled  with  moss,  which  are  made  of  the  bark 
of  the  birch-tree,  and  in  a  very  peculiar  manner.  On  this  occasion  they  generally 
make  <a  present  to  the  priest,  a  pair  of  gloves  bordered  in  certain  places  with  feathers 
of  the  loom,  which  are  violet  streaked  with  white,  and  of  a  very  beautiful  colour. 
As  soon  as  the  child  is  baptised,  the  father  makes  it  a  present  of  a  female  rein-deer, 


4 


UF.OVAUD'S  JOUnNF.V  TO  I.AI'LAM),  be. 


if.r> 


■:> 


ami  whatever  tliis  rciii-decr,  which  thcv  call  Pantiihris,  procUun's,  in  milk,  cheese,  or  any 
thing  else,  IxlongN  to  the  infant,  if  a  daughter,  ami  forms  her  portion  wIkh  she  is  niar- 
rietl.  There  are  some  also  who  make  a  presiiil  to  their  children  of  a  deer  when  they 
(jcrceivc  Uie  lirst  tooth ,  and  all  the  deer  which  are  produced  fr-om  this  one  are  distin- 

truished  by  u  jwrticular  mark.     They  change  the  name  which  Uic  child  has  received  in 
)aptism  when  they  are  unhappy  ;  and  on  the  first  day  of  their  marriage  they  lie  together 
in  the  same  hut,  and  caress  their  wives  in  tlie  presence  of  every  one. 

Respecting  marriage,  he  told  us  that  the  Laplanders  married  their  daughters  late, 
though  Uiey  nad  several  offers,  when  it  was  known  in  the  country  that  tlKy  had  a  nam* 
ber  of  deer,  which  luid  Ijcen  prixluced  from  tlwse  which  their  father  had  given  them  when 
they  were  baptised,  and  when  they  had  their  first  teeth  ;  for  here  this  is  all  that  tk-y 
carry  with  them  :  and  the  son-in-law,  far  from  receiving  any  thing  from  his  father-in- 
law,  is  obliged  to  purchase  the  daughter  by  presents.  They  generally  iKgin,  like  the 
birds,  to  make  love  in  April. 

WlKn  tin;  lover  has  seen  some  daughter  whom  he  wishes  to  marry,  he  must  taKe 
care  to  be  furnished  with  a  quantity  of  spirituous  li(iuor  when  he  visits  the  father,  or  the 
nearest  relation,  to  make  his  request :  this  is  the  only  \vay  of  making  love  in  this  coun- 
try;  and  a  marriage  is  never  concluded,  until  several  bottles  of  spirits  have  been  drank, 
and  a  considerable  quantity  of  tobacco  smoked.  The  more  amorous  a  lover  is,  the 
greater  quantity  of  spirits  does  he  carry  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  take  a  moix:  effectual 
method  of  displaying  the  strength  of  his  passion.  They  give  a  particular  name  to  the 
spirituous  liquor  which  the  lover  carries  to  the  agreement,  and  cai!  it  the  hi'ippy  arrival 
of  wine,  or  soubbouvin^  the  lover'' s  wine.  It  is  a  custom  among  the  Laplatiders  to  afii- 
aiice  their  children  long  before  they  are  married ;  they  do  so  with  the  intention  of 
making  the  lover  contuiue  his  presents ;  and  if  he  wishes  to  succeed  in  his  enterprise, 
he  must  not  fail  to  continue  sprinkling  his  love  with  such  a  delightful  beverage.  At 
length,  after  having  a  year  or  two  performed  all  the  necessary  ceremonies,  the  marriage 
is  sometimes  concluded. 

Formerly  the  Laplanders  had  a  mode  of  marriage  quite  peculiar,  whilst  they  continu- 
ed buried  in  the  darkness  of  paganism,  which  is  still  observed  by  some  of  them,  'i'hcy 
did  not  carry  the  parties  before  the  priest,  but  the  parents  married  them  at  liome,  with- 
out  any  other  ceremony  than  that  of  striking  some  sparks  of  fire  by  means  of  a  flint : 
they  believed  that  there  was  no  figure  more  mysterious  and  better  fitted  than  this  to 
represent  the  nature  of  marriage ;  for  as  the  stone  contains  within  itself  the  sparks  of 
fire,  which  do  not  appear,  except  when  it  approaches  iron,  so,  say  they,  there  remains  a 
principle  of  life  imseen  in  both  sexes,  which  only  ca'*  le  perceived  when  they  are 
united. 

I  believe,  sir,  that  you  will  not  think  this  vt.y  bad  reasoning  in  Laplanders;  and 
there  are  many  men,  acute  enough,  who  would  feel  consideraole  difficulty  in  giving  so 
apposite  a  comparison.  But  I  know  not  whether  you  will  consider  the  following  rea- 
soning to  be  equally  excellent. 

I  have  already  mentioned,  that  when  a  daughter  is  known  in  the  country  to  have  a 
number  of  rein-deer,  she  does  not  wimt  suitors ;  but  I  did  not  tell  you,  sir,  that  this 
property  is  all  that  they  expect  in  a  wife,  without  giving  tliemselves  any  trouble  whether 
she  is  hands(Hne  or  not ;  whether  she  has  wit,  or  is  destitute  of  it ;  or  even  whether  she 
be  a  maid,  or  whether  another  has  previously  received  any  marks  of  her  love.  But 
what  you  will  admire  still  more,  and  what  at  first  surprised  me,  is,  that  these  people,  far 
from  making  a  monster  of  this  virginity,  believe  those  girls  who  have  lost  it  ought  to  be 
the  more  anxiously  sought  after ;  and  that  poor  as  they  are,  which  often  hapjiens,  they 


IM 


RF.OMARD'S  JOmVKY  TO  LAPLAND.  Itc 


rn>(]ucntly  prefer  them  to  the  rich,  who  urc  still  maids,  or  at  least  who  would  be  con* 
aidcTcd  sucn.  But  it  is  (iccesHury  to  mukc  this  distinctM)n,  sir,  that  thcbc  ^irls,  ufwhom 
I  am  speaking,  must  hav<'  (ff'^^tcd  their  favours  to  those  strangers  who  arrive  hen-  in 
winter,  for  the  piiqM)sc  of  trade,  and  not  to  Laplanders.  From  hence  tluy  infer,  that 
because  a  man,  whom  they  believe  to  be  richer  and  possessed  of  a  better  taste  than  them* 
selves,  has  been  anxious  to  give  marks  of  his  love  tor  a  girl  of  their  countr)',  she  must 
therefore  Ix*  possessed  of  some  secret  merit,  of  which,  though  they  are  at  present  igno- 
rant, they  will  in  time  l)ecome  sensible.  So  keen  are  they  for  these  kinds  of  morsels, 
that  when  they  come  sometimes  during  the  winter  to  the  city  of  Tonio,  and  find  a  girl 
with  child,  not  only  do  they  forget  their  interests,  in  being  willing  to  take  her  without 
property,  but,  even  after  she  has  laid  in,  they  pay  for  her  to  her  parentu  us  much  as  Uiey 
can  afl'ord. 

I  know  maiw  persons,  sir,  who  would  be  charitable  enough  to  make  the  fonunes  in 
this  manner  of  a  number  of  poor  girls,  and  who  would  not  ask  any  thing  better  than 
to  procure  them,  without  beiiig  put  to  much  trouble,  advanuigeous  oners.  If  this 
fashion  were  to  be  adopted  in  France,  one  would  not  ^'  so  many  girls  remain  so  long 
unmarried  :  the  fathers,  whose  purses  are  tied  with  a  Ic  knot,  would  not  be  so  much 
tormented,  and  the  girls  themselves  would  always  ha\c  in  their  power  a  method,  by 
which  thoy  could  escape  from  the  captivity  in  which  they  are  held.  But  I  do  not  be- 
lieve, sir,  that  ikhovigh  the  fathers  would  do  all  in  their  power,  it  would  be  very  easy  to 
introduce  it. 

As.thc  Laplanders  are  naturally  ignorant  of  almost  all  kinds  of  diseases,  they  have 
not  Seen  desirous  of  making  some  to  themselves,  like  us.  Jealousy  and  the  fear  of 
cuckoldom  give  them  no  uneasiness  :  these  evils,  which  torment  so  many  among  us,  lu^ 
to  them  unknown  ;  and  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  word  in  their  language  to  express 
the  idea  of  a  cuckold  :  and  one  may  say  jocularly  with  the  Spaniard,  hi  speaking  ^jpast 
ages  and  the  present,  .  .  jiJI^W    ■'! 

Pas«6  lo  de  oro,  ,•!*  '•}'.■ 

PassA  lo  6ii  plata,  ■'   •il^V'^  -  '** 

Pa8s6  lo  de  liierro.  .iVt^.*^.',. 

V  Vive  lo  de  cuemo.  A  \       ■ 

And  while  these  people  are  bringing  back  the  golden,  we  are  makinff^^.  to  ourselves 
of  horn.  In  fact,  sir,  you  are  now  to  behold  among  them  that  wmcpn  believe  took 
place  in  the  days  of  Saturn,  namely,  a  community  of  possessions  wlueh  will  astonish  you. 
You  have  seen  that  the  Laplanders  are  what  are  called  cuckolds  before  marriage,  and  you 
are  now  to  be  convinced  that  they  are  no  less  so  after  it. 

When  the  marriage  is  consummated,  the  husband  does  not  carry  away  his  wife,  but 
remains  one  year  with  his  father-in-law,  at  the  end  of  which  period  he  goes  to  settle 
himself  where  he  pleases,  and  carries  with  him  all  that  belongs  to  his  wife.  The  pre- 
sents even  which  he  made  to  his  father-in-law  during  the  courtship  are  givep  back,  and 
the  parents  repay  those  which  have  been  made  them  by  some  rein-deer,  according  to 
their  ability.  ^^ 

I  have  shown  you,  sir,  that  strangers  "Kave* a  gieat  priv^ege  in  this  countrji,  which  is 
that  of  honouring  the  daughtws  on  their  approach:  they  have  another,  which  is  not  less 
considerable,  that  of  partaking  With  the  Laplanders  a  shiut:  of  thcii"  beds  and  their  wives. 
When  a  stranger  arrives  in^tJieir  huts,  they  receive  him  in  the  best  manner  they  are 
able,  and  think  they  treat  him  most  kindly  if  they  have  a  glass  of  spirits  lb  give  him  ; 
but  after  the  refreshment,  when  the  stranger  they  receivers  respectable,  and  they  wish 
to  be  kind  to  him,  they  make  their  wives  and  their  daughters  approach,  and  they  think 


'* 


HMBi 


>««^«' 


IlKONARH'W  JOtnSK.Y  TO  I.An,V>rO,  kc. 


167 


the mstlvts  highly  honoured,  if  the  str«n|^r  Ixhavc  to  them  in  the  snme  maniuT  thi y 
do  tliimstlvcs;  and  as  tor  the  wives  and  daughters,  they  make  no  Hcruptc  of  giving 
the  visitor  all  that  he  desires  ;  and  they  Ik  lieve  that  he  d(Ks  them  aa  much  lionour  u» 
their  hiisbaiKU  and  fatlu tn. 

As  this  mode  oi'  Ix  haviour  surprised  me  mueh,  and  ax  I  had  never  an  opportunity 
of  ex|)trieneinpf  it,  I  procured  the  most  exact  inrormatii)n  in  my  power,  and  learnt  se- 
veral facts  of  this  nature.     I  will  d»eu  tell  you  what  I  have  In  en  assured  is  irally  true. 

The  Frenchman  whom  we  frtund  at  the  mines  of  Swampavara,  who  was  a  simpU' 
man,  and  I  believe  incapable  of  contriving  a  story,  assured  us,  that  to  pleasia  numlK.rof 
Laplanders  he  had  assisted  them  in  their  conjugal  duty  ;  and  to  show  us  how  thesit  people 
had  Used  means  to  induce  him  to  take  this  trouble,  he  told  n  ,  that  one  day,  after  havini^ 
drunk  some  glasses  of  spirits  with  a  Laplander,  lu"  wassoliciird  by  this  man  to  lie  with 
his  wife,  who  was  then  present,  svith  ail  the  family  ,  and  that  uix)n  refusing,  ^vhi<•h  he 
did  in  the  \xrnt  manner  he  could,  the  Laplander,  not  thiding  his  excuses  satisfacU)ry, 
took  his  wife  and  the  Frenchman,  and  having  thrown  them  both  upon  a  bed,  he  went 
out  of  the  room  and  locked  the  door,  begging  of  the  Frenchman,  by  every  argume  U 
he  could  think  of,  to  do  in  his  place  that  which  he  was  accustomed  to  do  himself. 

The  story  wliich  happeixid  to  Joannes  Tornrcus,  priest  of  the  Laplanders,  of  whom  I 
have  already  spoken,  is  no  less  remarkable.  It  was  related  to  us  by  the  same  priest  who 
had  been  his  curate  in  Lapland,  and  who  hud  lived  under  him  more  than  fifteen  ycar^. 
A  Laplander,  he  told  us,  one  of  the  richest  and  most  considerable  in  the  Lapland  of 
Torno,  wished  that  his  bed  was  ho:  nired  by  his  pastor;  he  knew  no  better  method  of 
multiplying  his  cattle,  and  of  drasing  down  the  blessing  of  Heaven  upon  all  his  family  : 
he  begged  of  him  several  times  to  do  him  that  honour ;  but  die  pastor,  from  conscience, 
or  some  other  motive,  wished  to  avoid  it,  and  always  represented  to  him,  that  this  was 
not  the  most  certain  method  of  rendering  the  Deity  propitious.  The  Laplander  by  no 
means  coincided  with  this  mode  of  reasoning ;  and  one  day,  when  he  found  the  pastor 
alone,  he  conjured  him,  on  his  knees,  and  by  all  that  he  held  sacred  among  the  god:* 
whom  he  worshipped,  not  to  refuse  him  the  favour  that  he  requested  ;  and  adding  pro- 
mises  to  his  intreaties,  he  presented  him  with  six  crowns,  which  he  was  willing  to  give 
him,  if  he  would  debase  himself  so  far  as  to  lie  with  his  wife.  The  good  priest  doubted 
some  time  whether  he  could  do  it  conscientiously,  and,  not  wishing  to  refuse  the  poor 
man,  he  determined  that  it  was  better  to  make  him  a  cuckold,  and  gain  his  money,  than 
to  drive  him  to  despair. 

If  this  adventure  had  not  been  related  to  us  by  the  same  priest,  who  was  at  that  time 
his  pupil,  and  who  was  present,  I  could  never  have  believed  it ;  but  he  assured  us  of  the 
trutn  of  it  in  so  earnest  a  manner,  that,  independent  of  any  consideration  of  the  manners 
of  the  country,  I  could  not  doubt  it. 

This  kindness  which  thi-  Laplanders  display  to  their  women  does  not  limit  itself  to  their 
pastors ;  but,  agreeable  to  what  has  been  already  mentioned,  and  what  shall  afterwards 
be  shown,  extends  also  to  strangers  of  every  description. 

I  will  not  take  any  notice,  sir,  of  a  girl,  whom  a  magistrate  of  Lapland,  who  receives 
the  tribute  for  the  king,  had  a  child  by.  A  Laplander  purchased  her  of  him  who  had 
dishonoured  her,  for  no  other  reason  than  because  she  had  been  able  to  gain  the  affection 
of  a  stranger.  Events  of  this  nature  are  so  common  h.  thiif  country,  that,  even  during 
a  short  residence  aihong  the  Laplanders,  a  person  can  scarcely  faU  to  be  convinced  of 
their  reality  by  his  o^vn  experience.  ^' 

They  wash  their  children  in  a  tub  three  times  a  day  until  they  are  a  year  old,  and 
afterwsur^s  three  times  a  week :  they  have  few  children,  and  it  scarcely  ever  happens 


f 


1  «: 


KiB 


Rf.nxARiv*  jornvr.v  to  i.apland,  he. 


thut  nix  nrc  found  in  «  faniily.  Ah  soon  as  ihty  arc  Ijorn  they  arc  wasttett  in  snow,  till 
they  aix'  deprived  of  I inatii,  and  then  tluy  ininterse  them  in  u  buth  of  hot  water  :  I  he. 
lieve  they  do  thin  for  the  |iiujn)»(.'  orhardetun^  them  to  the  cold.  As  noon  uh  the  mother 
is  delivered,  she  drinks  a  lur^e  drau^ht  of  oil  from  the  uhule,  and  she  believes  that  it  in 
of  great  use  to  her.  It  is  easy  to  knon-  when  in  the  eradie  of  what  sex  u  ehild  is  :  if  it 
is  a  Ijoy,  they  hang  over  its  head  a  bou  and  arrows,  or  a  lance,  to  teach  them,  even  in 
the  cradle,  what  ought  to  be  their  employment  during  their  livctt,  und  to  inform  ihent 
that  it  is  their  duty  to  render  themselves  exi)crt  in  their  exercise.  Over  the  cradle  of 
girls  they  hang  the  wings  of  the  joixis,  which  they  cull  rinpa,  with  the  feet  and  the  bill, 
to  insinuate  to  them  from  their  inlancy  the  advantages  ol  neaUiess  and  agility.  When 
the  wonu  n  arc  pregnant,  these  jKoplc  strike  the  tabor,  for  the  puq)ose  of  knowing  what 
sex  the  ehild  will  Ik  of:  they  priCiT  girU,  beeuuMC  they  receive  prettents  in  marrying 
them,  and  they  are  obliged  to  pnrchase  their  wives. 

Diseases,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  arc  almost  unknown  among  die  Laplandeni, 
and  when  they  arc  afTected  with  any,  nature  is  strong  enough  to  cure  tiiem  hersrlf;  ancl 
without  the  assistance  of  physicians  tlicy  soon  recover  their  ncalth  :  however,  they  employ 
some  remedies,  such  as  tne  root  of  the  moss,  which  they  call  jcest,  or  that  which  is  deno- 
minated stony  angelica.  The  sap  which  oozes  from  their  fir-trees  serves  them  for  plais- 
ters,  and  the  cheese  of  the  rein-deer  is  their  divine  ointment.  They  apply  thest;  remedies 
in  various  manners.  They  have  the  gall  of  the  wolf,  w  hich  they  mix  with  guniwwder, 
in  spirits.  When  the  cold  has  frozen  some  part  of  their  bodies,  they  spread  the  cheese 
cut  in  slices  over  the  part  affected,  and  they  arc  cured  by  it.  The  second  method  of 
employing  the  cheese,  both  for  evtornal  and  internal  remedies,  is  by  inserting  a  red-hot 
iron  into  the  cheese,  which  by  its  heat  draws  out  a  kind  of  oil,  v/ith  which  they  rub 
themselves  on  the  part  affected ;  and  this  remedy  is  always  followed  with  a  certain  and 
marvellous  success  :  it  strengthens  the  breast,  removes  the  cough,  and  is  good  for  all 
contusions  ;  but  the  usual  remedy  for  the  most  dangerous  diseases  is  firc  :  they  apply  a 
piece  of  charcoal  perfectly  red  to  the  woimd,  and  suffer  it  to  remain  as  long  as  they  ore 
able,  that  every  thing  impure  in  the  sore  may  be  eaten  out.  This  is  a  custom  among 
the  Turks ;  they  have  no  remedy  which  they  conceive  more  sovereign. 

Those  who  are  fortunate  enough  in  France,  and  other  countries,  to  arrive  at  an  ex- 
treme old  age,  are  obliged  to  suffer  a  great  deal  of  inconvenience  which  it  brings 
along  with  it ;  but  the  Laplanders  are  totally  exempted  from  them,  and  they  feel  no 
infirmity  in  this  state,  except  a  small  diminuuon  of  their  ordinary  vigour :  it  is  even 
impossible  to  distinguish  the  old  men  from  the  young ;  and  white  heads  arc  very  rarely 
to  be  seen  in  this  country  :  they  always  retain  their  own  hair,  which  is  generally  red. 
But  what  is  still  more  remarkable,  one  meets  with  very  few  old  men  who  are  not  blind  : 
their  sight,  naturally  weak,  is  unable  any  longer  to  support  either  the  glare  of  the  snow, 
with  which  the  earth  is  almost  constantly  covered,  or  the  continual  smoke  issuing  from 
the  fire,  which  is  always  burning  in  the  middle  of  their  huts ;  they  consequently  become 
blind  in  their  old  age. 

When  a  person  is  sick,  they  have  a  custom  of  playing  on  a  tabor,  of  which  I  shall 
treat  afterwards,  for  the  purpose  of  cUscovering  wnether  the  disease  will  terminate  fa- 
tally ;  and  when  they  sup|K)se  themselves  certain  of  unhappy  consequences,  and  that 
the  sick  person  is  drawing  near  to  his  end,  they  gather  themselves  round  his  \xd ;  and 
that  they  may  assist  the  soul  of  the  dying  in  its  passage  to  the  next  world,  they  bring  to 
him  as  much  spirits  as  they  can,  and  dnnk  as  long  as  it  lasts,  to  console  themselves  for 
the  loss  of  their  friend,  and  to  excite  them  to  weep.  No  sooner  is  he  dead,  than  they 
abandon  the  house,  and  eyen  demolish  it,  kst  that  which  remains  of  the  soul  ^  the  de. 


RKn>rARiya  journry  to  lah.ani>,  &«. 


I(i9 


I,  which  the  ancicnUi  ciJIctl  manc-i,  should  do  them  any  injury.  The  coffin  consifttsi 
of  a  trcT  hollowed  out,  or  even  v)metimcs  of  their  Hlednc,  into  which  they  put  all  that 
the  dead  person  had  most  valuahic,  us  his  how,  his  arrows,  and  his  lance,  with  the  intcn 
tion,  that  should  he  one  day  return  to  life  he  may  l>e  ahic  to  exercise  his  former  omfcsi- 
sion.  Some  of  them  arc  evt  n  such  (jr;illant  christians,  as  to  confomid  Christianity  wifli  thcii' 
ancient  sufjcrstitions ;  for,  liaving  heard  their  priests  tell  that  we  should  one  day  ariv 
again  from  the  dead,  they  put  into  the  coffin  of  the  dead  person  his  hatchet,  a  flint,  and 
u  niece  of  iron,  to  sfikc  a  lire  (Laplat\der»  never  travel  without  these  necessaries)  that 
wlien  he  arises  he  may  Ik'  able  tocutdowi\  trees,  level  rocks,  and  bum  all  the  ol)stacles 
that  he  may  meet  with  in  his  road  to  Heaven.  You  see,  sir,  that,  nf)twithstanding  all 
their  errors,  these  jjcojile  move  thithcrwiird  as  much  as  possible ;  they  wish  to  sirrive  at 
it,  either  peaceubly  or  uy  force,  so  that  it  may  be  said,  /m  /jcr/'rrrum  it  iffncs arl ca'/ot 
fftassari  con.<ititutt4m,iind  that  they  expect  by  uon  and  lire  toentt  r  the  kinf^dom  of  Heaven. 

They  do  not  always  inter  their  dead  in  cemeteries,  but  very  often  in  forests  and  ca- 
verns :  they  sprinkle  the  place  with  spirits  ;  all  the  mourners  drink  of  them  ;  and  three 
days  after  the  linieral  they  kill  the  rein.deer,  whicli  had  borne  the  dead  to  the  biirjinj^. 
place,  and  a  feast  is  made  of  it  to  all  the  companj-  present :  the  bones  are  not  tluowii 
away,  but  gathered  carefully,  for  the  purpse  of  burying  at  the  side  of  the  deceaseil.  It 
In  at  this  repast  that  they  drink  the  paligavir,  that  is,  fortunate  lifiuor,  Ixicausc  they 
drink  in  honour  of  a  person  whom  they  believe  to  be  happy. 

Successions  are  settled  nearly  in  the  same  manner  as  in  Sweden  :  the  widow  takes  the 
half;  and  if  the  deceased  has  left  any  property,  die  boy  takes  two-thirds  of  it,  and  leaves 
the  rest  to  his  sister. 

We  were  very  eamcsUy  engaged  iu  this  conversation,  when  wc  were  informed  that 
some  Laplanders  with  their  rein-deer  were  observed  approaching  on  the  lops  of  the  moun. 
tains  :  we  sidlied  out  to  meet  them,  that  we  might  have  the  plca.sure  of  seeing  their  equi- 
page and  their  nKircli ;  but  we  fell  in  with  three  or  four  persons  only,  who  carried  on 
their  deer  some  dried  fish  for  sale  at  Swapavara.  1  have  long  s|X)ken  to  you,  sir,  about 
the  rein-deer,  without  having  given  you  a  description  of  that  animal,  which  I  have  already 
so  often  alluded  to.  It  is  but  reasonable,  therefore,  that  I  should  now  proceed  to  gratify 
your  curiosity,  as  I  have  at  present  gratified  my  own. 

Rheen  is  a  Swedish  word,  by  which  they  have  been  distinguished,  either  on  account  of  its 
neatness  or  its  swiftness ;  for  rhen  signifies  neat,  and  renna  means  to  run,  in  that  language. 
The  Romans  were  totally  ignorant  of  this  animal,  and  the  modern  Latins  call  it  rangifer. 
1  cannot  give  you  any  other  reason  for  this,  than  that  the  Swedes  formerly  called  this 
animal  rangi,  to  which  word  fera  was  added,  as  if  they  had  said,  the  animal  called  rangi. 
Although  I  do  not  wish  to  say  Uiat  the  horns  of  this  animal,  which  shoot  out  in  the  form 
of  large  branches,  have  led  them  to  give  it  this  apjx.'llation ;  for  in  that  case  they  would 
rather  have  called  it  ramifer  than  rangifer.  Whatever  may  be  in  this,  sir,  one  thing  is 
certain,  that  although  this  animal  is  almost  like  u  stag,  it  nevertheless  differs  from  it  iu 
some  respects.  The  rein-deer  is  larger,  but  the  horns  are  totally  different ;  they  rise 
to  a  great  height,  and  become  crooked  in  the  middle,  forming  a  kind  of  circle  round 
the  head,  whicn  is  covered  with  hair  from  top  to  bottom,  of  the  colour  of  the  skin,  and 
is  full  of  blood  throughout,  so  that,  if  it  is  hard  pressed  by  the  hand,  the  animal  shows 
by  its  conduct  that  it  feels  pain  in  that  part.  But  that  which  this  animal  has  in  parti- 
cular to  distinguish  it  from  all  others,  is  the  great  quantity  of  bonis  with  which  nature 
has  provided  them,  for  their  defence  against  wild  beasts.  The  stag  has  only  two  horns, 
from  which  sprout  a  number  of  sharp  points ;  but  the  rein-deer  has  another,  in  the 
centre  of  the  forehead^  which  produces  the  same  appearance  witli  that  wliich  lias  been 


t 


VOL.    I. 


170 


RKGNARD'S  JOURNRY  TO  LAPLAND,  ke. 


paintfcl  on  the  heaclo.  .nc  unicorn,  bcjjiclesi.vo  others,  \vhii:h  branch  over  the  eyes  and 
full  upon  the  mouth.  Bm  all  these  brunches  spring  from  one  root,  .iiiljough  they  lake 
diftlrent  roads,  n'ld  assume  diftt-tnt  figuies;  which  circ.msf.itice  gives  ;hem  so  much 
uneasiness,  that  th.-y  can  with  difliculty  giaze,  which  induces  them  rather  to  leedupon 
the  buds  of  trees,  which  thev  are  able  to  seize  with  less  difficulty. 

The  colour  of  their  hair  is  blacker  tlian  that  of  the  st.ig,  particularly  when  they  are 
young;  and  at  that  time  they  are  almost  as  black  as  the  w'ld  reiu-dcer.  w/nich  are  al- 
^vays  larger,  stronger,  and  blacker,  than  those  which  ar^  tamed. 

Although  their  limbs  are  not  so  slender  as  those  of  the  stag,  they  nevertheless  surpass 
it  in  swiftness  :  t'.ieir  f:et  are  much  seirated,  and  almost  round ;  but  that  which  is  most 
remarkable  in  th.s  animal  is,  that  all  its  bones,  and  particularly  the  joints  of  the  foot, 
crack,  as  if  one  was  breaking  nuts,  and  they  make  a  noise  so  loud,  that  one  can  hear 
this  animal  at  almost  as  great  a  distance  as  one  can  see  i^.  It  is  also  observable  in  the 
rein-  leer,  that  althov  t^h  'hey  havj  the  cloven  foot,  they  do  not  chew  the  cud ;  and  that 
they  nave  no  gall,  but  only  a  smxll  black  mark  in  the  liver,  without  any  bitterness. 

And  although  these  animals  are  naturally  savage,  the  Lapl.inders  have  so  completely 
found  means  to  tame  thcni  and  domesticate  them,  that  there  is  not  an  individual  in  the 
country  who  is  not  possessed  of  troops  of  them,  like  those  of  sheep  :  they  nevertheless 
leave  great  i:umberK  wild  in  the  woods,  and  it  is  these  whom  the  Laplanders  cruelly 
hunt,  both  for  their  skin,  which  is  much  mor.  esteemed  than  that  of  the  domestic  deer, 
and  for  their  flesh,  which  is  much  more  savoury.  There  are  even  some  of  these  animals 
half- wild  and  half-tamed ;  and  the  Laplanders  allow  their  female  deer  in  rutting-time  to 
go  into  the  woods,  and  those  which  are  produced  by  this  connection  are  called  by  a  par- 
ticular name  :  they  denominate  them  kattiaginry  and  they  grow  much  larger  and  stronger 
than  the  others,  and  are  consequently  titter  for  the  sledge. 

Lapland  nourishes  no  other  domestic  animal  than  the  rein-deer ;  but  in  this  cieature 
alone  as  many  useful  qi;alities  art  found,  as  are  to  be  met  with  in  all  those  which  we 
|)ossess.  They  throw  away  no  part  of  the  animal ;  but  make  use  of  the  hair,  the  skin, 
the  flesh,  the  bones,  the  marrr  v , ,  the  blood,  and  the  nerves. 

The  skin  serves  to  pn/c  ot  them  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  and  in  winter 
they  wear  it  covered  with  i.  .uiir,  while  in  summer  they  put  on  another  from  which  it 
has  been  removed.  T.'k  H  'sh  of  fhis  animal  is  full  of  sJip,  fat,  and  extremely  nourish- 
ing ;  and  the  Laplanders  ncv<  r  eat  any  other  flesh  dian  that  of  the  rein-deer :  its  bones 
are  of  astonishing  use  to  then  ,  for  making  their  crops-bows  and  bows,  for  arming  their 
arrows,  for  makiiig  their  spocns,  and  for  adorning  every  thing  that  they  make.  Its  tongue 
and  the  miirrow  of  its  bones  are  their  greatest  delicacies ;  and  lovers  carry  these  parts 
to  their  mistresses  as  the  most  valuable  presents  which  are  usually  accompanied  with 
the  ilcnh  of  the  bear  and  the  castor.  They  frequently  di'ink  its  blood,  but  they  gene- 
raliy  preserve  it  in  its  bladder,  which  they  expose  to  the  cold,  and  allow  to  become  dense 
and  assume  a  regular  form  in  this  state  •  and  when  they  wish  to  make  soup,  they  cut 
out  from  it  as  much  as  they  desire,  and  boil  it  along  with  fish.  They  have  no  other 
thread  than  that  which  they  draxv  from  the  nerves  of  this  animal,  and  which  they  ex- 
tract  from  its  cheeks  :  they  employ  the  finest  to  sew  their  clothes  with,  and  the  coarsest 
to  join  the  planks  of  their  barks.  But  not  only  does  this  animal  furnish  the  Laplanders 
with  food  and  clothing,  it  also  affords  them  drink :  the  milk  of  the  rein-deer 's  the  only 
beverage  that  they  possess  ;  and  l;)ecause  it  is  extremely  fat  and  quite  thick,  they  are 
obliged  to  mix  it  with  nearly  an  t^qual  quantity  of  water  :  they  only  draw  a  gallon  of  milk 
daily  from  the  best  rein-deer,  wiirh  give  no  milk,  except  when  they  have  a  young  one : 
they  make  very  nutritious  cheeses  from  it ;  and  the  poor  inhabitants,  who  cannot  afford 


HRGNAtU>'»  JOURNBY  TO  LAHI-ANU,  &r. 


171 


to  kill  a  deer  for  its  flesh,  live  on  nothing  else  than  its  cheese  :  these  cheeses  are  fat, 
and  have  a  very  strong  smell;  but  being  made  and  eaten  without  salt,  they  are  quite 
tasteless. 

The  greatest  advantage  derived  from  the  rein-deer  is,  their  usefulness  in  travelling, 
and  in  carrying  burdens.  We  had  so  often  heard  with  astonishment  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  Laplanders  employ  these  animals  in  travelling,  that  we  wished  to  gratify  our 
curiosity  upon  the  spot,  and  to  see  in  what  manner  the  deer  ate  fixed  to  the  sledge  :  we 
immediately  ordered  them  to  bring  us  one  of  these  machines,  which  the  Laplanders  call 
pulaha,  and  which  we  denominate  a  sledge,  and  which  I  lately  described :  we  made  them 
fix  the  rein-deer  b<;fore,  at  the  same  distance  which  our  horses  genonilly  are,  to  that 
piece  of  wood  of  w!»«'A  I  have  already  spoken,  and  which  they  call  jocolaps :  it  has  no 
other  collar  than  a  jMcce  of  skin  covered  with  hair,  from  which  a  piece  descends  towards 
the  breast,  and  passes  under  the  belly  between  the  legs,  and  is  attached  to  a  hold  ^vhieh 
is  in  the  fore  part  of  the  sledge.  The  Laplander  has  no  other  guide  than  a  cord  llxed 
to  the  root  of  the  animal's  horns,  which  he  throws  on  the  back  of  the  animal,  sometimes 
on  one  side,  sometimes  on  the  other,  and  directs  it  in  the  road,  by  drawing  to  that  side 
on  which  he  wishes  it  to  turn. 

We  travelled  to-day,  for  the  first  time,  in  these  sledges,  with  inconceivable  pleasure  ; 
and  it  is  in  this  carriage  that  they  jjerform  a  long  journey  in  a  short  time :  they  advance 
more  or  less  quickly,  according  to  the  strength  and  vigour  of  the  animal.  The  Lap- 
landers rear  them  intentionally  from  a  cross  breed,  which  is  produced  from  a  wild  male 
and  a  tame  female,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  and  they  are  far  more  swift  than  the 
others,  and  more  fit  for  travelling.  Zieglerus  says  that  a  rein-deer  can  in  one  day  three 
1  imes  change  the  horizon,  that  is,  can  three  times  arrive  at  the  most  distant  mark  which 
can  be  perceived.  This  length  of  road,  though  very  considerable,  and  not  ill  expressed, 
does  not  furnish  us  with  a  sufficient  idea  of  the  swiftness  of  the  rein-deer :  the  Laplanders 
express  it  more  exactly,  when  they  say  that  it  can  travel  twenty  Swedish  miles  in  a  day, 
or  fifty  leagues,  in  only  calculating  two  leagues  and  a  half  of  French  measure  to  one  mile 
of  Swedish.  The  Swedish  mile  is  six  thousand  six  hundred  toises  long,  and  the  French 
league  is  two  thousand  six  hundred ;  however,  the  Swedish  mile  is  generally  calculated 
as  equal  to  three  French  leagues.  This  computation  is  more  satisfactory  than  the  other ; 
for  as  in  this  country  the  day  may  be  extended  to  any  length,  and  as  the  Laplanders  in  their 
calculations  do  not  make  any  distinction  betwixt  the  natural  day  of  twenty-four  hours,  and 
the  day  in  which  a  traveller  is  on  his  journey,  it  will  be  more  correct,  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  a  clear  idea  of  the  distance  which  a  deer  can  run  in  an  hour,  to  state,  both  from  the 

Eieceding  computation  and  my  own  experience,  that  those  which  are  to  be  met  with  in 
.apland,  kimi  /upmarc/i,  and  which  are  celebrated  for  being  the  swiftest  and  stro.ngest, 
can  make,  when  pushed,  six  French  leagues  in  an  hour ;  but  for  this  purpo.^^  the  sno'v 
must  be  hard  and  frozen.  It  is  true  the  animal  cannot  continue  to  travel  long  at  this 
rate,  and  that  it  requires  rest  after  seven  or  eight  hours  of  toil  Those  who  wish  to  go 
farther  do  not  travel  so  fast,  but  continue  longer  on  their  way  :  the  animals  in  this  case  sup- 
port the  fatigue  during  twelve  or  thirteen  hours,  at  the  cikI  of  wWch  it  becomes  necessary 
to  allow  them  rest  Tor  a  day  or  two,  unless  the  traveller  wish  them  to  die  in  the  sledge. 
This  distance  you  see,  sir,  is  very  considerable  ;  and  if  there  were  posts  of  the  rein- 
deer established  in  France,  it  would  not  be  very  difficult  to  travel  from  Paris  to  Lyons 
in  less  than  twenty-six  hours :  the  diligence  would  be  delightful ;  but  although  it  ap- 
pears that  this  mode  of  travelling  would  be  very  convenient,  yei  it  would  undoubtedly 
be  extremely  fatiguing :  the  leaps  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  take ;  the  ditches 
over  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  skip ;  the  stones  which  must  be  passed  over ;  and 


£<'  .1 


172 


HROVARD'S  JOUnVEY  TO  LAPLAND,  &C. 


the  constant  toil  which  the  traveller  would  be  exposed  to  in  preventing  himself  from 
falling,  and  of  raising  himself  up  when  overturned,  would  make  one  desirous  of  travel- 
ling more  smoothly,  and  of  running  less  risk. 

Although  these  animals  suffer  themselves  to  be  conducted  with  great  docility,  there 
arc  nevertheless  many  of  them  restive  and  almost  untameable  :  so  that  when  you  push 
them  too  hard,  or  wish  them  to  travel  farther  than  they  themselves  incline,  they  imme> 
diately  turn  round,  and,  erecting  themselves  on  their  hinder  feet,  they  attack  with  such 
fury  the  driver  in  the  sledge,  who  can  neither  defend  himself,  nor  escajie  from  it,  on  ac- 
count of  his  being  tied,  that  they  often  break  his  head,  and  sometimes  destroy  him,  with 
their  fore-feet,  in  which  they  have  so  much  strength  that  they  have  no  other  means  of 
defence  against  the  wolves.  The  Laplanders,  to  ward  off  the  blows  of  these  animals, 
have  no  other  remedy  than  to  turn  themselves  towards  the  ground,  and  to  cover  them- 
selves with  their  sledges,  until  the  anger  of  the  rein-deer  has  been  somewhat  appeased. 

They  have  also  another  kind  of  sledge,  much  finer,  and  made  in  a  different  manner, 
which  they  call  racdakeris:  they  make  use  of  it  to  seek  after  their  wood,  and  to  remove 
their  property,  when  they  change  their  places  of  abode. 

Such,  sir,  is  the  manner  in  which  the  Laplanders  travel  in  winter,  when  the  snow 
completely  covers  the  ground,  and  when  the  cold  has  covered  it  with  a  slippery  crust 
In  summer  they  are  obliged  to  travel  on  foot,  for  the  deer  are  not  strong  enough  to 
carry  them ;  and  they  never  yoke  them  in  chariots,  which  is  a  practice  they  are  totally 
ignorant  of,  on  account  of  the  badness  of  their  roads :  they  however  still  carry  burdens, 
and  the  Laplanders  take  a  strong  bark  of  the  birch-tree,  which  they  bend  into  the  form 
of  a  bow,  and  place  upon  its  broadest  part  that  which  they  are  to  carry,  which  does 
not  exceed  on  every  side  forty  pounds  weight.  In  this  niannei  do  they  carry  children 
in  summer  to  be  baptised,  and  they  themselves  follow  behind. 

The  most  ordinary  food  of  the  rein-deer  consists  of  a  little  white  moss,  extremely  fine, 
which  grows  in  abundance  throughout  all  Lapland  ;  and  when  the  earth  is  wholly 
covered  with  snow,  nature  has  imparted  to  these  animals  an  instinct,  which  enables 
them  to  know  the  place  >vhere  it  is  to  be  found  under  the  snow ;  and  whenever  they 
disco""er  it,  they  make  a  large  opening  in  the  snow  with  their  fore-feet,  which  they  do 
with  a  surprising  swiftness  ;  but  when  the  cold  has  so  hardened  the  snow  that  it  becomes 
ice  itself,  the  deer  then  eat  a  certain  moss,  like  a  spider's  web,  which  hangs  from  the 
pine-tree,  and  which  the  Laplanders  call  Itiat. 

I  believe  I  have  already  said  that  the  rein-deer  have  no  milk,  except  when  they  have  a 
young  one,  which  sucks  three  months ;  and  soon  as  the  young  one  dies,  they  have  no 
more  milk.  When  they  wish  them  to  eat,  they  place  before  them  the  pods  of  the  pine- 
tree  ;  and  when  they  tease  and  irritate  the  mother,  she  strikes  them  with  her  horns. 

It  is  said  of  these  animals,  that  they  speak  in  their  ears  if  they  wish  them  to  ^c  en  one  side 
or  the  other :  this  is  completely  false.  They  travel  almost  constantly  with  a  vunductor, 
who  leads  six  of  them  ;  and  when  any  one  wishes  to  travel  to  any  place,  if  he  can  find 
a  rein-deer  on  its  return  to  that  place  to  which  he  wishes  to  go,  he  will  not  require  any 
guide,  as  the  deer  will  take  him  to  the  place  of  destination  without  any  guide,  and  that 
too  although  there  be  no  regular  road,  and  the  distance  be  more  than  forty  leagues. 

On  Saturday  we  set  out  to  go  on  foot  to  the  priest's  house,  which  was  alx)ut  five 
miles  distant,  and  from  whence  we  afterwards  determined  to  travel  north-west,  and  go 
to  Tornotresch,  where  we  were  to  find  the  Laplanders  whom  we  were  in  search  of. 
We  were  no  sooner  out  of  Swapavara  than  we  had  supper  prepared  for  us  :  we  killed 
three  or  four  birds,  which  are  called  in  this  country  siairipa,  or  birds  of  the  mountain^ 
and  which  the  Greeks  denominated  lagopos,  or  hairy -foot  ed :  itisof  tiie  size  of  a  hen. 


HKGNARD'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAFLAND,  kc. 


173 


and  during  summer  has  the  phimage  of  a  pheasant,  but  more  of  a  brovvn  colour,  and  is 
distiiiguislu'd  in  certain  places  by  whitish  spots  ;  in  winter  it  is  quite  black.  The  male 
imitates,  while  flying,  the  noise  of  a  man  who  laughs  extremely  loud  :  it  sleeps  rarely 
among  trees ;  and  uirther,  I  know  no  game  of  such  an  agreeable  taste  ;  it  has  at  the 
same  time  the  delicacy  of  the  pheasant  and  the  tenderness  of  the  partridge.  It  is  found 
in  great  plenty  on  the  mountams  of  this  country. 

Two  miles  distant  from  Swapavara  we  met  with  the  barque  of  the  Laplanders  to 
whom  we  had  spoken  the  day  before,  and  who  were  to  conduct  us  to  Tornotresch  : 
they  had  been  fishing  the  whole  night,  and  brought  us  very  excellent  salmon-trout, 
which  are  called  in  this  country  cerlax.  From  thence,  continuing  our  journey  by  water, 
we  encamped  on  a  little  height.  We  passed  the  night  in  the  middle  of  the  wood,  which 
we  found  very  agreeable ;  for  the  cold  being  extremely  violent,  we  were  obliged  to 
make  such  a  large  fire  to  protect  us  from  wild  beasts,  and  especially  the  liears,  that  we 
this  day  set  fire  to  the  forest.  We  forgot  to  extinguish  it  on  our  departure,  and  it  ex- 
tended with  such  rapidity,  by  means  of  a  tempest,  that  on  our  return,  fifteen  days  after, 
we  found  it  still  burning  in  certain  parts  of  the  forest,  where  it  had  burned  with  suffi- 
cient success  :  but  this  did  harm  to  nobody  ;  and  incendiaries  meet  with  no  punishment 
in  this  country. 

We  travelled  only  half  a  mile  on  Sunday,  in  consequence  of  torrents  and  an  impe- 
tuous wind,  which  constantly  hindered  us ;  and  during  the  time  which  we  took  to  travel 
this  length  we  could  not  advance  four  steps,  without  seeing  or  hearing  extremely  large 
pines  fall,  which  in  falling  made  a  dreadful  noise,  which  resounded  throughout  the  whole 
forest.  This  tempest,  which  lasted  the  whole  of  both  day  and  night,  obliged  us  to  stop, 
and  to  pass  this  night  as  we  had  done  the  last,  with  equally  large  fires,  v^hich,  however, 
we  made  with  more  precaution,  that  every  thing  might  not  be  burned  on  our  route : 
this  led  our  boatmen  to  say,  that  four  Frenchmen  would  be  sufficient  to  burn  the  whole 
country  in  eight  days. 

Next  day,  Monday,  unwilling  to  be  exposed  to  the  north  wind  without  advancing, 
we  failed  not,  notwithstanding  the  continuance  of  the  tempest,  to  proceed  on  our  jour- 
ney, upon  a  lake  which  liad  the  ap[)earance  of  an  agitated  sea,  so  high  were  the  waves ; 
and  after  five  or  six  hours  of  exertion  we  arrived,  after  travelling  three-quarters  of  a 
mile,  at  the  church  of  the  Laplanders,  where  the  priest  lived. 

This  church  is  called  Chucasdes,  and  it  is  the  place  where  the  fair  of  the  Laplanders 
during  winter  is  held,  to  which  they  come,  for  the  purpose  of  bartering  the  skins  of  the 
rein-deer,  of  ermines,  martins,  and  minevers,  for  spirits,  tobacco,  and  valmar,  which  is 
a  kind  of  coarse  cloth,  with  which  they  cover  themselves,  and  surround  their  huts.  The 
merchants  of  Torno  and  the  neiglibouring  country  do  not  fail  to  attend  on  this  occa- 
sion, which  continues  from  the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul  in  January  to  the  second  day  of 
Februarj'.  The  magistrate  and  the  judge  of  the  Laplanders  attend  in  person;  the  one, 
to  receive  the  tribute  which  they  pay  to  the  king  of  Sweden  ;  and  the  other,  to  terminate 
any  differences  which  may  arise  among  them,  and  to  punish  all  vicious  ;md  abandoned 
persons,  although  it  seldom  happens  tha'  any  of  this  description  can  be  found ;  for  they 
live  with  each  other  in  great  confidence,  without  ever  having  heard  of  thieves,  who  ne- 
vertheless would  find  no  difficuhy  in  prosecuting  their  projects,  as  the  huts,  lull  of 
various  articles,  remain  quite  open  during  the  ^^'hole  summer,  while  they  travel  to 
Norway,  where  they  rei^iain  three  or  four  months.  They  leave  in  the  middle  of  the 
woods,  on  the  top  of  a  tree  which  they  have  cut,  all  the  necessiu-y  ammunition,  and 
their  being  stolen  is  ver}"^  rarely  heard  of. 

The  priest,  as  you  may  well  believe,  sir.,  is  not  absent  on  thb  occasion  ;  and  it  js  at 


i¥. 


174 


UKGyAIltrS  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  fcc. 


this  time  that  he  receives  the  tenths  of  the  skiiis  of  rein-deer,  of  cheese,  of  gloves,  of 
shoes,  and  otlicr  articles,  according  to  the  ability  of  those  who  make  them  presents. 

The  Laplanders,  who  have  the  most  Christianity,  do  not  confine  themselves  to  making 
presents  to  their  pastors,  but  they  also  make  offerings  to  the  church.  We  have  seen  a 
number  of  skins  of  minevers,  which  hung  before  ihc  altar,  and  when  they  wish  to  ward 
off  some  disease  which  afltcts  their  flocks,  or  to. pray  to  G<xl  for  prosperity,  they  carry 
skins  of  the  rein-deer  to  church,  and  extend  them  on  the  path- way  which  leads  to  the 
altar,  and  over  which  the  priest  must  necessarily  pass ;  and  in  this  manner  they  believe 
that  thev  have  drawn  down  the  benediction  of  Heaven.  The  priests  have  a  great  deal  to 
do  at  this  time ;  for  as  the  greater  part  come  only  at  this  period,  once  during  the  whole 
year,  it  becomes  necessary  lo  perform  as  much  religious  business  in  eight  or  fifteen  days, 
as  is  done  in  other  places  througliout  the  whole  year.  It  is  during  this  time  that  the 
majority  have  their  daughters  baptised,  and  that  they  bury  the  bodies  of  those  who  have 
died  during  summer :  for  when  any  one  dies  whilst  they  are  at  the  western  sea,  or  in 
some  other  part  of  Lapland,  as  they  arc  unable  to  carry  the  body,  on  account  of 
the  badnec3  of  the  roads,  and  as  they  have  no  opportunity  of  removing  them,  they 
inter  them  near  the  spot  where  they  expired,  either  in  some  cavern,  or  below  some 
stones,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  them  up  again  in  winter,  when  the  snow  allows  them 
an  opportunity  of  conveying  them  to  the  church.  Others,  to  prevent  the  body  from 
putrefying,  place  them  in  their  coffins  under  water,  which  consist,  as  I  have  already 
mentioned,  of  a  tree  hollowed  out,  or  of  their  sledges,  and  never  draw  them  out  again 
till  they  intend  to  carry  them  to  tlie  burying-ground.  They  also  marry  at  the  fair ;  for 
as  all  their  friends  are  present  on  this  occasion,  they  generally  put  off  the  marriage  ce- 
remony till  this  time,  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  it  more  solemn,  and  for  procuring 
more  amusement. 

The  goods  which  the  Laplanders  bring  to  these  fairs  are  rein-deer  and  their  skins : 
they  also  sell  at  this  time  the  skins  of  black,  red,  and  white  foxes,  and  otters,  gulonum,  of 
martins,  of  castors,  of  ermines,  of  wolves,  of  minevers,  and  bears;  besides  the  dresses 
of  the  Laplanders,  with  boots,  gloves,  shoes,  and  all  sorts  of  dried  fish,  and  cheese  from 
the  rein-deer. 

They  give  these  articles  in  exchange  for  spirits,  coarse  cloths,  silver,  copper,  iron, 
sulphur,  needles,  knives,  and  hides,  which  are  brought  to  them  from  Muscovy.  Their 
goods  bear  always  the  same  price  :  a  rein-deer,  of  middling  value,  is  sold  for  two  crowns ; 
four  skins  are  equal  to  one  deer :  a  limber  of  minevers,  which  consists  of  forty  skins,  is 
valued  at  a  crown ;  the  skin  of  a  martin  the  same  sum  ;  that  of  the  bear  costs  as  much  ; 
and  three  white  fox  skins  cost  no  more.  The  price  of  goods  is  in  the  same  manner 
limited  :  half  an  ell  of  cloth  is  valued  at  a  crown  ;  a  pint  of  spliit'i  as  mui  h ;  u  |)ound  of 
tobacco  the  same  price ;  and  when  they  wish  tt)  puivhase  articles  ^f  smaller  value,  the 
iale  is  concluded  by  means  of  one,  two,  or  tliree  skins  of  minevers,  according  to  the  value 
of  the  commodity. 

All  these  affairs  are  not  concluded  with  the  same  frankness  as  formerly  ;  and  as  the 
Laplanders,  who  conducted  themselves  with  fidelity,  saw  themselves  clicaied,  the  fear  of 
being  still  deceived  puts  them  so  much  on  their  guard,  tliat  they  rather  cheat  them- 
selves, than  expose  tnemselves  to  be  cheated. 

Nothing  is  a  better  evidence  of  the  little  Christianity  which  the  majority  of  the  Lap- 
landers possess,  than  the  reluctance  which  tlicy  display  1()\»  aixis  an  attendance  at  churcn, 
to  hear  the  priest,  and  to  assist  in  the  service.  It  is  necessary  for  die  magistrate  to  force 
them  to  attend,  which  he  does  by  sending  men  to  their  huts,  for  the  purpose  of  observing 
whether  thty  :xre  there.    Some  of  them,  to  be  allowed  to  absent  themselves,  pay  money  ; 


■■1 : 


tl 


KEGNARIfS  JOUUNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  «tc, 


175 


some  think  that  they  can  avoid  attendance  on  sermon,  by  stating  that  they  were  there 
last  year ;  and  others  suppose  they  ha^'c  a  lec^tiniate  excuse  in  absenting  themselves, 
when  they  say  that  they  belong  to  another  church,  which  they  have  already  att"ndcd. 
This  clearly  shows  that  .I;ev  are  only  Christians  by  means  of  force,  and  that  they 
never  give  any  evidences  oi  iheir  religion,  excepv  when  forced  to  do  so. 

We  were  employed  during  the  remainder  of  this  day,  and  all  the  morning  of 
Tuesday,  in  cutting  on  a  stone  lasting  memorials,  which  should  inform  posterity, 
that  three  Frenchmen  had  continued  to  travel  till  they  could  go  no  farther ;  and  that 
notwithstanding  the  difficulties  which  they  had  encountered,  and  which  had  frightened 
many  others ;  and  that  they  had  come  to  erect  a  trophy  at  the  end  of  the  world , 
materiiils  huving  been  rather  wanting  for  their  further  toil,  than  courage  to  endure  it . 
The  inscription  was  the  following : 


Gallia  nos  genuit ;  vulit  nos  Africa ;  (iangem 
HausimLs,  Iflui'opumciuc  ocuIIh  luairavimus  omiiem  ; 
Casibiis  et  vuriis  acti  terr&que  m.iriqiit.s 
Hie  tandem  stetimiis,  nobis  ul)i  deruit  orbis. 

I)r  Fercourt,  De  Corberon,  Regnard, 


18  Aug  I  tat  if  1681 . 


"  Gaul  begot  us ;    Africa  has  beheld  us ;    we  have  explored  the  Ganges,  and 
travelled  over  all  Europe  ;    having  bet  n  exposed  to  various  accidents,  both  by  sea  and 
land,^  here  at  length  have  we  arrived,  at  the  farthest  boundary  of  the  world." 
4' '  •  De  Fercourt,  De  Corberon,  Regnard.  l^th  day  oj' August,  1681. 


U 


We  cut  out  these  wrses  upon  stone  and  upon  wood ;  and  though  the  spot  on  which 
we  were  was  not  the  best  place  to  put  them,  we  left  those  which  we  had  engraven  on 
the  wood,  and  they  were  placed  in  the  church  above  the  altar.  We  carried  the  others 
vnth  us,  to  place  them  at  the  end  of  the  lake  of  Tornotresch,  from  whence  the  Frozen 
Ocean  can  be  seen,  and  where  the  world  terminates. 

Wlien  the  L.  planders  who  were  employed  in  conducting  us,  and  in  showing  us  the 
road,  had  returned  from  where  they  had  been  sent,  to  purchase  some  little  provisions, 
consisting  of  seven  or  eight  cheeses  of  the  rein-deer,  and  some  dried  fish,  we  left  the 
priests  at  five  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  stopt,  tor  the  purpose  of  sleeping,  at  an 
onpetuous  torrent,  which  they  call  Vaccho,  where  wc  arrived  an  hour  after  midnight. 
We  had  the  pleasure,  during  the  whole  road,  to  behold  the  rising  and  the  setting  of 
sun  at  the  same  time.  The  sun  set  to-day  at  eleven  o  'lock,  and  rose  at  two,  whilst  it 
remained,  during  the  whole,  as  clear  as  at  noon-day.  But  when  the  days  are  longest, 
that  U,  three  weeks  before  Saint  John,  and  three  weeks  after,  the  sun  is  constantly  in 
sight  during  this  period,  without  touching,  in  the  lowest  parts  of  his  course,  the  tops  of 
the  higluHt  mountains.  He  iis  also,  during  the  shortest  days  in  winter,  two  entire 
months  wlUiout  being  visible;  and  at  Candlemas  the  people  ascend  to  the  tops  of 
the  highest  mountains,  for  tht;  purpose  of  observifjg  him  to  peep  forth  for  an  instant. 
Night,  however,  does  not  constantly  endure,  as  at  mid-day  a  little  glimmering  light 
breaks  forth,  which  coiitinnes  about  two  hours.  The  Laplanders,  by  the  assistance  of 
this  light,  and  the  reflection  of  the  snow,  with  which  the  whole  cartn  is  covered,  take 
this  tin\c  to  go  to  the  cha^  e,  and  to  fish,  which  they  never  leave  off,  although  the  rivers 
and  the  lakes  are  completely  frosen,  and  in  some  places  as  thick  as  the  length  of  a 


mt^M.  jfmmmmfi 


176 


IlEGNAUD'S  JOUKNUY  TO  LAPLWO.  Sc. 


pike  :  but  they  make  large  apertures  in  the  iec,  ut  stated  dislanccs,  and  push,  by  meani» 
of  a  pole  which  goes  below  the  ice,  their  nets  from  aperture  to  aperture,  and  draw 
ihem  out  in  the  same  manner.  Bui  what  is  still  more  surprising  is,  that  they  often 
catch  swallows  in  their  nets,  which  hold,  by  means  of  their  claws,  themselves  attached 
to  some  small  pieces  of  wood.  They  ap|)ear  dead,  wiren  they  come  out  of  the  water, 
having  no  symptoms  of  life  ;  but  when  they  are  placed  near  to  the  lire,  and  begin  to 
feel  the  heat,  they  recover  a  little,  then  clap  their  wings,  and  begin  to  fly,  as  they  do 
in  summer.  This  strange  fact  has  been  confirmed  to  me  by  all  those  whom  I  talked 
with  on  the  subject. 

We  set  out  on  our  journey  on  Wednesday  morning,  and  after  having  crossed  to  the 
other  side  of  the  torrent,  we  walked  a  short  league  on  foot.  We  observed  on  the  road 
a  Lapland-hut,  composed  of  leaves  and  turf.  All  the  property  was  behind  the  bouse, 
placed  on  some  planks :  it  consisted  of  some  skins  of  the  rein-deer,  some  utensils  for 
working  with,  and  several  nets,  which  hung  upon  a  rod.  After  having  examined  the 
whole,  we  pursued  our  course  to  the  east,  in  the  woods,  without  any  raid.  IVe  found 
in  the  middle  a  J  apland-magazine,  constructed  upon  four  trees,  which  rrrarb  i  quure 
space.  The  v/Iioie  of  this  edifice,  covered  with  planks,  was  supported  upon  four 
pieces  of  wood,  which  are  generally  fir,  and  from  which  the  Laplanders  remove  the 
bark,  for  the  puipose  of  preventing  particularly  the  wolves  and  the  bears  from  climbing 
up  these  trees,  which  they  rub  over  with  grease  and  train-oil.  It  is  in  this  maga-sine 
that  the  Laplanders  lay  up  their  whole  wealth,  which  consists  of  dried  fish  or  Hesh  of 
the  rein-deer.  These  fortified  habitations  arc  in  the  middle  of  the  woods,  at  the 
distance  of  two  or  three  leagues  from  the  Laplander's  hut:  the  stuiie  individual  will 
sometimes  have  two  or  three  in  different  places.  It  is  in  thb  manner,  that,  as  they  are 
continually  exposed  to  the  fury  of  the  wild  leasts,  they  employ  their  whole  address  to 
render  their  attempts  unsuccessful;  but  it  frequently  happens,  notwithstanding  all 
their  exertions,  that  the  bears  destroy  all  the  toil  of  a  Laplander,  and  cat  in  one  day 
all  that  he  has  collected  during  a  whole  year,  which  actually  hapijened  to  one  whom 
we  met  on  the  lake  of  Tomotresch,  and  whom  we  again  found  on  our  return,  ex- 
tremely disconsolate  at  the  destruction  of  his  magazine  by  the  bears,  who  had  devoured 
all  that  it  contained. 

They  have  also  another  kind  of  reser^'oir,  which  they  call  nallaf  like  the  rest  also 
in  the  middle  of  the  wood,  but  which  is  only  placed  on  a  single  pivot.  They  cut  down  a 
tree  six  or  seven  feet  high,  and  place  upon  the  trunk  of  it  two  pieces  of  wood,  across 
each  other,  upon  which  they  erect  this  little  edifice,  which  has  the  same  appearance 
with  a  pigeon- house,  and  is  covered  with  planks.  They  have  no  other  ladder,  with 
which  they  amount  to  this  reservoir,  than  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  in  which  they  cut  a  kind 
of  steps.  After  having  still  marched  about  half  an-hotir,  we  arrived  at  the  borders  of 
the  lake,  where  we  found  a  little  Laplander,  extremely  old,  with  his  son,  who  was 
going  to  fish.  We  asked  questions  on  several  subjects,  particularly  with  respect  to  his 
age,  which  he  was  ignorant  of  i  this  want  of  knowledge  is  general  among  the  Lap- 
landers, who,  almost  every  one,  not  only  are  ignorant  of  the  year  in  which  they 
live,  but  who  only  know  time  by  the  transition  from  mnter  to  summer.  We  gave 
him  some  spirits  and  tobacco,  and  hq  told  us,  that  haying  seen  us  from  his  hut,  he 
retreated  into  the  wood,  from  whence,  however,-  he  beheld  us,  and  having  observed 
that  we  had  done  him  no  injury,  and  had  carried  nothing  off,  he  had  ventured  to  sally 
out  from  his  hiding-place,  uiat  he  might  attend  to  his  usual  occupation.  The  good  treat- 
ment which  we  displa}  ed  to  this  poor  fellow,  in  givine^  him  tobacco  and  spirits,  which 
are  the  most  acceptable  presents  which  could  be  made  to  a  Laplander,  mduced  him 


muLmm^'  rr- 


UKGNARD'S  JOUHNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  &C. 


177 


to  promise,  that  on  our  return  he  should  take  us  to  his  place  of  residence,  and  sho\v  us 
his  rein-dcer,  to  the  number  of  seventy  or  eighty,  besides  all  his  little  property. 

We  passed  oi.  and  travelled  till  we  arrived  at  the  hut  of  a  Laplander,  which  was  on 
the  side  where  the  lake  begins  to  form  the  river.  I  have  talked  a  long  while,  sir,  of  the 
houses  of  the  Lapla: iders,  without  telling  you  what  they  were :  I  sihould  now,  there- 
fore, endeavour  to  rratify  your  curiosity. 

The  Laplanders  have  no  fixed  abode,  but  they  go  from  one  place  to  another^  carry- 
ing widi  them  their  whole  property.  This  change  of  abode  takes  place,  eithei*  for  the 
convenience  of  fishing,  by  which  they  subsist,  or  for  the  nourishment  of  their  n:in-deer, 
which  they  seek  somewhere  else,  when  it  is  finished  in  the  place  where  they  lived. 
They  usudly  establish  themselves  in  summer  on  the  borders  of  the  lakes,  i<,i  die  place 
where  the  torrents  are  ;  and  in  winter  they  remove  to  the  thickest  places  of  fhe  wood, 
where  they  expect  to  find  a  sufficient  quantity  of  animals  in  hunting.  They  have  no 
difficulty  in  packing  up  quickly;  for  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  they  have  taken  down 
their  whole  house,  mid  tied  all  their  utensils  upon  rein-deer,  who  are  of  wonderful  use 
to  them.  They  employ,  on  this  occasion,  five  or  six,  on  which  they  place  their  whole 
'^^ggT'tg^)  ^  ^^^  ^  uixin  horses,  besides  their  children  who  are  unable  to  travel. 
The  deer  go  one  after  the  other ;  the  second  is  attached,  by  means  of  a  long  strap,  to  the 
neck  of  the  first,  and  the  third  is  tied  to  that  of  the  second,  and  so  on.  The  father  of 
the  family  marches  behind  these  deer,  and  precedes  all  the  rest  of  his  flock,  which 
follow  him,  as  the  sheep  follow  the  herdsman.  When  they  arrive  at  a  spot  proper  for  a 
residence,  they  unload  their  animals,  and  begin  to  build  their  house.  They  raise 
four  pieces  ot  wood,  which  are  the  supporters  of  their  v^hole  building ;  these  planks  are 
pierced  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  and  are  joined  together  by  means  of  another, 
upon  which  are  placed  a  nuunber  of  other  plai.'ks,  which  form  the  whole  building,  and 
produce  a  figure  shaped  like  a  bell.  All  these  phmks  are  employed  to  support  a  large 
cloth,  which  they  call  Woaldmar,  and  which  forms,  at  die  same  time,  the  walls  and  the 
strength  of  the  house.  Those  who  are  rich  employ  a  double  covering  of  cloth,  the 
better  to  preserve  them  from  the  rain  and  the  wind,  whilst  the  poor  employ  turf. 
The  fire  is  in  the  middle  of  the  hut,  and  the  smoke  goes  out  at  a  hole,  which  is  left  for 
that  purpose  at  the  top.  This  fire  is  continually  burning,  during  winter,  and  during 
summer ;  on  which  account  the  greater  part  of  the  Laplanders  lose  their  sight,  when 
they  become  old.  The  pot- hanger  descends  from  the  roof  above  the  fire ;  some  of  them 
are  made  of  iron,  but  the  greater  part  are  formed  of  a  branch  of  the  birch-tree,  at  the 
end  of  which  a  hook  is  fixed.  They  have  always  a  pot  hanging  over  the  fire,  and 
particularly  in  winter,  when  they  melt  the  snow ;  and  when  any  one  wishes  to  drink, 
he  fills  a  large  spoon  with  snow  and  sprinkles  boiling  water  upon  it,  till  it  is  com> 
pletely  melted.  The  floor  of  the  hut  is  made  of  branches  of  the  birch-tree,  or  the  pine, 
which  they  throw  down  in  a  heap,  when  they  em^oy  them  to  make  their  beds  of. 
Such,  sir,  are  the  habitations  of  the  Laplanders.  There,  the  old  and  the  young,  the 
male  and  the  female,  the  fathers  and  the  children,  five  together :  they  all  sleep  promis- 
cuoudy,  and  quite  naked,  upon  the  skins  of  rein-deer,  wmch  frcquendy  produces  very 
serious  disorders.  The  door  of  the  hut  is  very  straight,  and  so  low,  that  it  is  necessary  to 
enter  it  on  the  knees ;  they  generally  place  it  tovrards  the  south,  in  order  that  they  may 
be  less  exposed  to  the  north  wind. 

There  is  also  among  these  people  another  hut,  which  is  fixed,  and  of  a  hexagonal 
form,  with  pines,  which  they  fix  the  one  above  the  other,  and  of  which  the  apertures 
are  lined  with  moss.  These  huts  belong  to  the  richer  individuals,  who  do  not  fail  to 
change  their  places  of  residence  like  the  rest,  but  who  return  always  after  some  time 


I 


ir 


il 


vol..  J, 


A  a 


178 


KF.OXARD'S  JUCRNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  kc. 


to  th?  same  place,  which  is  fjcncrally  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  a  cataract, 
which  aft'ordh  them  a  great  lueility  in  procuring  tibh. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  hutH  that  we  passed  the  night :  it  Wiis  covered  only  with 
branches  interwoven,  which  were  filled  with  moss.  We  met  here  two  Laplanders, 
whoi  \luted,  by  giving  tlu-m  our  hand,  and  saying  Fourht,  which  is  the  Luppunian 

saluti  (I  means   If^elcome.     Thetie  poor  people  saluted  us  in  the  same  manner, 

and  rci  our  salute  by  the  words  Pourtst  only  you  are  also  welcome.    They  accom< 

paniid  tliese  words  with  their  ordinary  bow,  which  they  performed  in  the  manner  of 
the  Muscovites,  by  bending  their  knees.  We  did  not  fail  to  give  them  live  or  six 
kinds  of  spirits,  for  the  purpose  of  becoming  ac(|uaintcd  with  them,  which  they  took 
so  heartily  that  they  became  intoxicated,  and  their  brain  beginning  to  turn,  one  of  them 
wished  to  act  the  sorcerer,  and  took  his  tabor.  As  this  instrument  is  the  most  essen- 
tial point  of  their  superstition,  you  no  doubt  wish,  sir,  that  I  should  speak  to  you  of  their 
religion.  .       L 

AH  the  world  knows,  that  the  people  who  lived  nearest  to  the  north  have  always 
been  addicted  to  idolatry  and  to  magic :  the  Finlanders,  in  this  rcsix;ct,  surpassed  all 
others ;  and  we  may  say,  that  they  were  as  well  versed  in  that  diabolical  art,  as  if  they 
had  had  for  their  teachers,  Zoroaster  or  Circe.  The  ancients  knew  them  to  be  so ; 
and  a  Danish  author,  in  speaking  of  the  Finlanders,  from  whom  the  Laplanders  are  de- 
scended, says.  Tunc  Biarmenses  arma  artibus pennutantes,  carminibus  in  nimbos  solvere 
coelutn,  latamque  aerisfaciem  tristi  imbrium  aspergine  conjuderunt.  "  The  Biarmenses, 
having  recourse  to  arts  instead  of  arms,  change,  by  means  of  their  incantations,  serene 
weather  into  dreadful  tempests,  and  cover  the  cheerful  face  of  Heaven  with  gloomy 
clouds."  This  writer  informs  us  that  the  Biarmenses,  who  were  the  ancestors  of  tne  pre- 
sent  Finlanders,  were  as  bad  soldiers  as  they  were  good  magicians.  He  speaks  of  them 
in  another  passage  in  these  terms.  Sunt  Finni  ultimi  septentrionis  populi ;  vix  quidem 
habitabilem  orbis  terrarum  partem  culturd  complent :  acer  iisdem  telorum  est  usus ; 
non  alia  gens  promptiore  jaculandi  peritia  fruitur,  grandibus  et.  latis  sagittis  dimicant, 
tncantattontim  studiis  incumbunt,  &c.  "  The  Finlanders,"  says  he,  "  are  the  people  who 
dwell  farthest  towards  the  north;  they  live  in  the  most  uninhabitable  part  of  the 
world,  and  make  use  of  arrows  so  skilfully,  that  there  is  no  other  people  so  adroit 
in  drawing  the  bow ;  they  fight  with  large  and  broad  arrows,  and  give  themselves  up 
to  the  study  of  enchantments."  If  the  Finlanders  were  so  much  addicted  to  magic  for- 
merly, their  descendants,  the  Laplanders,  are  not  less  so  at  the  present  day.  They  are 
only  Christians  from  jjolicy,  and  by  constraint.  Idolatry,  which  is  much  more  palpa- 
ble, and  which  aftects  the  senses  more  than  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  cannot  be 
rooted  out  of  their  aftections.  The  errors  of  the  Laplanders  maj  be  classed  under  two 
heads ;  those  which  arise  from  their  superstition  and  paganism,  and  those  which  are 
owing  to  their  enchantments  and  their  magic.  Their  first  superstition  is  generally  to 
observe  their  unlucky  days,  during  which  they  are  unwilling  to  go  to  the  chace,  and 
believe  that  their  bOws  would  break  on  these  days,  which  are  the  days  of  Saint  Catha- 
rine, Saint  Mark,  and  others.  They  will  scarcely  venture  out  on  Christmas-day, 
which  they  belive  to  be  unlucky.  The  origin  of  tliis  superstition  is,  that  they  have 
misimderstood  what  happened  on  this  day,  when  the  angels  descended  from  Heaven, 
and  astonished  the  shepherds  ;  and  they  believe  that  on  this  day  evil  spirits  are  abroad 
in  die  atmosphere,  and  might  destroy  them.  They  arc  also  superstitious  enough  to 
believe,  that  after  death  there  remains  something  called  manes,  of  which  they  are 
much  afraid ;  and  when  any  one  is  killed  in  a  dispute  with  another,  it  is  necessary  for  a 
third  person  to  go  to  the  place  where  he  is  buried,  that  he  may  be  enabled  to  pro- 


'•(*;-■; 


.1111  IffJP 


WWWP**"^*-. 


RP.r;NAni)'8  .iouuney  to  i.Ari.AM).  fcc. 


17V 


mote  a  puciRcntion  between  the  iktsoii  who  ih  dead  und  him  who  is  nlive.  This  is, 
strietly  siKakin^,  the  error  of  the  ancient  Pa^^uns,  who  called  Manes  t/uasi  qui  mnumnt 
post  ohitum.  All  this  is  only  sii|)er!>tition :  but  you  shall  now  see  how  much  they  have 
of  impiety,  pagiUiisin,  and  mafi^ic. 

In  the  first  place  they  mix  Jesus  Christ  indiflferently  with  their  false  gotls,  and  they 
make  only  one  iK'ingof  G(xl  and  the  devil,  whom  they  Ix-lieve  they  may  worship  in  the 
manner  most  agreeably,  to  their  taste.  This  mixture  is  particularly  to  be  remarked  on 
their  tabors,  where  they  place  Storiunchar  and  his  family  above  Jesus  Christ  and  l;is 
apostles.  They  have  three  principal  gods ;  the  first  is  called  Thor,  or  the  god  of  thun- 
rter ;  the  second  Storiunchar ;  and  the  third  Parjtttte,  which  means  the  sun. 

These  three  gcKls  arc  worshipped  only  b\  the  Laplanders  of  Liila  and  Pitha ;  for 
those  of  Kimiet  and  of  Torno,  among  wh<  a  I  have  lived,  know  of  one  only,  whom 
they  call  Seyta,  and  who  is  the  same  among  them,  as  Storiunchar  among  the  others. 
These  gods  are  made  of  a  long  stone,  destitute  ot  any  other  figure  than  that  which 
nature  has  given  it,  and  such  as  they  find  it  on  the  borders  of  the  lakes.  So  that  every 
stone  made  m  a  peculiar  manner,  rough,  or  full  of  holes  and  concavities,  is  with  them 
a  g(xl ;  and  the  more  remarkable  its  structure  is,  the  greater  is  their  veneration 
for  it. 

Thor  is  the  chief  of  the  gods,  and  he  is,  they  believe,  ruler  of  the  thunder,  and 
they  arm  him  with  a  hammer.  Storiunchar  is  the  second,  whom  they  suppose  to  be 
vicar  of  the  former,  as  if  one  should  say,  Thoriunchar,  lieutenant  of  Thor.  He  pre- 
sides over  all  animals  and  birds,  as  well  as  fish  ;  and  as  it  is  him  of  whom  hey  have 
most  need,  it  is  to  him  also  that  they  chiefly  make  sa(  rifices,  to  render  him  pi  opitious. 
They  place  him  generally  on  the  borders  of  lake*,  and  in  the  forests,  over  wnLii  lie 
extends  his  jurisdiction,  and  (llHoliiyn  his  pow(  r.  The  third  g(xl,  whom  they  have  in 
common  with  several  other  PagunSi  Is  tin  ^mn,  for  whom  they  have  much  v(  nrru'ion, 
on  account  of  the  benefits  which  they  rectivi  from  him.  This  is  the  oiH  of  all  fhc 
three  that  they  adore,  whom,  in  my  opinion,  they  have  the  greatest  reason  to  worship. 
t\\  the  first  place,  he  e.hases  imvhVi  \\\  f|}s  aoproach,  that  cold,  which  has  tormented 
them  during  more  than  nine  [\nu<\\^^  )  h^  wulhvtiH  the  earth,  and  affords  nourishment 
to  the  rein-detr  J  he  hm^a  a  i\i\v  wl/|  M  several  months,  and  dissipates  the  dark- 
ness in  which  they  hati  i/j  long  iMtn  \\\\iu  «| ;  on  which  account  they  have,  during  his 
absence,  a  gnat  respect  for  tlie  \\it ,  m\\\\<  iji'j'  hfljfve  to  be  a  living  representation 
of  the  sun,  and  whicli  prfKllires  on  ewtji  ''  "  ■  ^^  '  ;  vvhich  the  other  does  in  the 
heavens. 

Although  each  family  has  its  ow/j  |)artj»  ,J  ii  gcjds,  the  Laplanders  nevertheless  have 
public  places,  which  mlong  to  the  crtMiminiitv  I  will  talk  to  you  afterwards  of 
one  of  these  places  which  I  vbjteti;  '  iheir  altars  :  and  it  is  there  that  Uiey  generally 

make  their  sjicrificcs,  in  the  following   u  mijcr : 

When  the  (iaplaiiriers  have  kno'vn  li}  tlie  noise  of  the  tabor,  that  their  god  is  desir- 
ous  of  blofxl,  and  that  he  d(  inands  ;in  om  ring,  they  conduct  the  victim,  which  is  a  male 
rein-deer,  to  the  altar  of  the  god  to  whom  they  wish  to  sacrifice,  and  Uiey  permit  no 
wifi'  or  daughter,  who  are  also  foi  bidden  to  sacrifice,  to  approach  the  altar.  'I'hey  slay 
the  victim  at  the  foot  af  the  altar,  in  piercing  his  heart  with  a  knife,  plunged  into  his 
side ;  then  approaching  the  altar  with  reverence,  they  take  the  fat  of  the  animal,  and  the 
blood  nearest  to  the  heart,  with  vvhich  they  sprinkle  their  god,  with  fear,  in  making 
crosses  to  him  with  the  snme  blood.  They  place  behind  the  idol  the  horn  of  the  feet, 
the  bones,  and  thr  hor  ;  thej  hang  upon  the  one  side  a  red  thread,  adorned  with 
carded  wool ;  and  upon  the  other  those  parts,  by  means  of  which  the  animal  augments 


180 


RRGNAUD'S  .lOUUNKY  TO  LAI'LANU,  fce. 


I 


ita  species.  The  sacrificer  carries  uwuy  with  him  every  part  which  can  l)c  Ciiten,  and 
leavcM  only  the  honis  to  hi.s  god.  Uiit  wlicn  it  hapi)cnM  that  the  ultiir  of  that  g(xl,  to 
whom  they  intend  to  Hacrifice,  is  Hituated  on  the;  summit  of  inaccessible  mountains, 
where  they  believe  him  to  reside,  in  tlut  case,  as  they  are  unalile  to  sprinkle  tlieir  gfxl 
with  the  l)luod  of  the  victim,  they  take  a  small  stone,  which  they  steep  in  it,  and  tlirow 
it  towards  the  spot  which  they  art:  unable  to  reach. 

They  do  not  oflfer  up  sacrifices  to  their  gods  only,  but  they  also  make  them  to  the 
manes  of  their  piirents,  or  their  friends,  to  prevent  them  from  doing  them  any  injury. 
Tiie  diiferencc  which  takes  place  with  respect  to  the  sacrifice  to  the  manes  is,  that  the 
Uireud,  which  is  red  in  the  other  case,  is  black  in  this,  and  that  they  bury  the  remains  of 
the  animal,  as  the  bones  and  the  horns,  and  do  not  leave  them  uncovered,  as  they  do 
upon  the  altars. 

Thus  much,  sir,  have  they  in  common  with  the  Pagans  :  let  us  now  consider  wliat 
they  possess  in  particular,  with  respect  to  their  magical  art.  Although  the  kings  of 
Sweden  have  been  able  to  do  something  by  their  threatening  edicts,  and  the  punishment 
of  some  sorcerers,  yet  they  have  found  it  impossible  entirely  to  abolish  the  intercourse 
of  the  Laplanders  with  the  devil ;  they  have  only  lessened  their  number,  and  prevented 
tlie  practiscrs  of  the  art  from  professnig  it  openly. 

Among  other  enchantments  which  they  are  capable  of  producing,  they  say,  that  they 
can  stop  a  vessel  in  the  middle  of  its  course,  and  that  the  only  remedy  against  the  power 
of  this  charm  is  the  sprinkling  of  female  purgations,  the  odour  of  which  is  insupporta- 
ble to  evil  spirits.  They  can  also  change  the  face  of  the  sky,  or  cover  it  with  clouds  ; 
and  that  which  they  perform  with  the  greatest  facility  is,  tlieir  sale  of  the  wind  to  those 
who  have  need  of  it ;  and  they  have  for  tliis  purpose  a  handkerchief,  which  they  tie  in 
tlm:e  different  places,  and  which  they  give  to  him  who  has  need  of  it.  If  he  i  'tie  the 
first,  he  procures  a  gentle  and  agreeable  wind,  if  he  require  a  stronger  he  unties  the  :3ci:ond, 
but  if  he  loosen  the  third,  he  is  certain  to  excite  a  dreadful  tempest.  They  say,  tliat  this 
mode  of  selling  the  wind  is  very  common  in  this  country,  and  that  the  very  lowest 
sorcerers  have  this  power,  provided,  that  the  wind  which  is  wanted  has  already  com* 
menced,  and  requires  only  to  be  excited.  As  I  have  never  seen  any  thing  of  all  this,  I 
shall  give  no  opinion  respecting  it  j  but  with  respect  to  the  tabor,  I  can  tell  you  some- 
thing with  a  greater  degree  of  certainty. 

This  instrument,  with  which  they  perform  all  their  charms,  and  which  they  call 
Kannus,  is  made  of  the  trunk  of  a  pine  and  a  birch -tree,  and  the  veins  of  which  ought  to 
proceed  from  cubt  to  west.  This  kannus  is  made  of  a  single  piece  of  wood,  hollowed  in  its 
thickest  part  in  an  oval  form,  the  under  part  of  which  is  convex,  in  which  they  make  two 
apertures,  lon^nough  to  suffer  the  fingers  to  pass  throv  gh,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  it 
more  firmly.  The  upper  part  is  covered  with  the  skin  of  a  rein-deer,  on  which  they  paint, 
in  red,  a  number  of  figures,  and  from  whence  several  brass  rings  are  seen  hanging,  and 
some  pieces  of  the  bone  of  the  rein- deer.  They  usually  paint  the  following  figures ; 
they  draw  first,  towards  the  middle  of  the  tabor,  a  transverse  line,  above  which  they 
place  the  gods  whom  they  hold  in  the  greatest  veneration,  as  Thor,  with  his  underlings, 
and  Seyta,  and  they  draw  another  line  a  little  below  the  former,  but  which  extends 
only  half  across  the  tabor ;  there  Jesus  Christ,  with  two  or  three  aposUes,  are  to  be 
seen :  above  these  lines  are  represented  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  and  the  birds ; 
but  the  situation  of  the  sun  is  under  these  very  lines  on  which  they  place  the  animals, 
the  bears,  and  the  serpents.  They  also  sometimes  draw  upon  them  the  figures  of  lakes 
and  rivers.  Such,  sir,  is  the  figure  of  a  tabor ;  but  they  do  not  place  upon  every  one 
the  same  thing,  for  there  are  some  on  which  troops  of  rein  deer  are  drawn,  for  the 


.^n,;,,j,...i. 


"••r- 


KP.tiNAUU'fl  JOl'llNrV  TO  LA»*LAXn,  lie. 


181 


purposf-  of  knowing  where  thoy  may  l)e  found,  \\\\rn  nny  of  thrm  irc  lost.  Tlurc 
arc  some  fitfuns  which  tell  the  |m'j>tr  nlaccs  for  hmilinjif,  and  other!*  for  lishinj;;  M)mc 
for  diHCOVcrnipf  whether  the  d'mc  thCM  with  wliich  tln-y  are  nftceted  will  he  tnortul ;  and 
in  this  manner,  of  several  oth:r  matters  of  which  they  are  in  donht. 

Two  cireumstances  arc  e.sM.*ntial  to  the  making  use  of  this  tal)or  ;  the  index,  for  the 

InirpoMC  of  murkiiiK  the  thing  which  they  dei^ire,  and  the  hammer  to  strike  the  tabor, 
or  the  purpose  of  moving  the  index,  till  it  stop  at  some  figure.  This  index  usually 
consists  of  a  piece  of  brass  made  in  the  form  of  studs,  which  arc  fixed  in  the  bridles  of 
horses,  from  whenf'c  several  other  little  rings  of  the  same  metal  arc  |K'ndant.  The 
hammer  is  made  out  of  one  hone  of  the  re  in -deer,  and  is  of  the  form  of  u  large  T. 
borne  are  made  in  a  diilercnt  form,  but  this  is  the  most  usual.  In  such  veneration  do 
they  hold  this  instrument,  that  they  keep  it  always  wrapped  up  in  the  skin  of  a  rein- 
deer,  or  in  something  else  ;  they  never  carry  it  imto  the  house  by  the  same  door 
through  which  the  women  pass ;  but  they  introduce  it,  eidier  through  the  cloth  which 
surrounds  Uieir  hut,  or  by  the  aperture  through  which  the  smoke  issues.  They  gene, 
rally  make  uae  of  the  tabor  for  three  principal  purjioscs  :  for  hunting  and  fishing, 
for  sacrifices,  and  for  knowing  the  iiuimueiiuns  which  arc  taking  place  in  the  most 
distant  countries  :  and  when  they  wish  to  know  something  on  this  subject,  they  take 
care,  first,  to  bend  the  skin  of  the  tabor,  in  taking  it  near  to  the  fire  ;  then  a  Laplan* 
der,  falling  ou  his  knees,  together  with  all  those  who  arc  present,  he  bcs^ins  to  strike  his 
tabor  all  round,  and  redoubling  tlie  strokes  with  the  words  which  he  pronounces, 
as  if  he  were  possessed,  his  countenance  becomes  blue,  his  hair  stands  erect,  and  he, 
atleiii^h,  tolls  'uotionless  on  his  face.  He  remains  in  this  state  as  long  as  he  is  possess- 
ed by  the  devii,  and  as  it  is  necessary  for  his  genius  to  bring  him  a  sign,  to  prove  that 
he  h;'  been  at  the  place  wheix  he  was  sent ;  then,  recovering  his  senses,  he  tells  that 
which    ^  devil  i<  *  ealed  to  him,  and  shows  die  mark  which  has  iK'en  brought  to  hini. 

The  sn  cond  manrier,  which  is  Irss  important,  and  less  violent,  is,  how  to  discover  the 
event  of  <t  discjise,  which  they  Ica.-n,  by  means  of  the  fixture  of  the  index  upon  the 
fortunate  or  the  uiiIuckv  figures. 

The  third,  which  is  fhe  least  considerable  of  all,  shews  them  in  what  direction  they 
ought  to  move,  when  they  wish  for  a  good  chace  ;  and  when  the  index,  agitated  several 
times,  stops  at  the  east  or  the  vest,  the  south  or  the  north,  they  infer  from  hence,  that 
in  following  the  quarter  which  is  pointed  out  to  them  they  will  not  be  unsuccessful. 

They  have  alsr>  a  fourth  u>»e,  to  whi'h  they  apply  the  index,  viz.  lor  the  purpoiie  of 
discovering  whether  their  gods  desire  sacrifices,  and  of  what  kind  they  ^vish  them  to  ix*. 
If  the  index  stop  at  the  figure  which  represents  Thor,  or  Se)'ta,  they  sacrifice  to  him, 
and  learn  at  thr  same  time  what  victim  gives  him  the  greatest  satisfaction. 

Behold,  sir,  the  usefulness  of  this  wonderful  Lapponian  tabor,  of  which  we  in 
France  are  totally  ignorant.  For  my  part,  I  who  bel.  ve  ^vith  difficulty  respecting 
sorcerers,  I  shall  cheerfully  oppose  the  general  opinion  of  t  whole  world,  as  well  as  of 
many  intelligent  men,  who  have  assured  me  that  nothing  w  v,  more  true,  than  the  Lap- 
landers could  know  distant  events.  John  Tomajiis,  whom  '  have  already  mentioned, 
priest  of  the  province  of  Tomo,  an  extremely  learned  man,  whose  veracity  I  would 
readily  believe,  asserted,  that  this  had  happened  to  him  so  fretjiently,  and  that  certain 
Laplanders  had  told  him  so  often  every  thing  that  had  occurred  u:  his  journey,  even  to 
the  smallest  particulars,  that  he  had  no  difficulty  in  believing  all  ti  t  had  been  related 
concerning  it.  The  archives  of  Bergen  testify  a  fact  which  happened  to  the  servant  of  a 
merchant,  who,  wishing  to  know  what  his  master  was  doing  in  German  ,  went  to  visit 
a  very  famous  Laplander,  and  havhig  written  the  information  of  the  sorcerer  in  the 


i 


1^^ 


m 


183 


nr.iiWRD'A  JOIRXKV  TO  l.\l'l.  \M),  \e. 


archives  of  the  ritv,  the  fad  fiiriud  out  to  Ik*  as  uas  nlatttl,  the  mrrchnilt  Imvinf; 
aAcrwardM  coiiR^sid,  that,  aj^oiably  to  the  sorcererS  iDformatioii,  he  had,  on  Mich  u 
day,  hiept  with  a  ^irl.  Ah  the  Laplander  had  mentioned  a  thoti^and  other  factH  of  thii 
nature,  whiih  hail  Ikto  related  to  me  in  the  (;ountrv  by  ho  many  men  worthy  of 
credit,  I  eonfesn  to  you,  sir,  that  I  could  not  help  lK-lievin|>(  them. 

VVIk tlur  these  thinj^n  which  I  Iwve  mentioned  to  you  be  true  or  false,  this  is  certain, 
that  th(  I^a|>landers  have  an  implicit  faith  in  the  emcts  of  the  tabor,  in  which  they  are 
Hlniifi^tlu  ned every  day  by  the  stranjje  success  which  they  observe  to  attend  it.  If  they 
had  no  other  instrument  but  this  to  cxeix:ise  their  diabolic  al  art,  it  would  do  harm  to 
none  but  themselves  ;  but  they  hiivc,  b<sides  this,  another  methfxl  of  inflicting  danp^'r, 
Hfricf,  disease,  and  even  (Uath  itself,  on  those  whom  they  wish  to  injure.  For  this  pur- 
pose, they  employ  a  little  ball  of  the  size  of  a  [li^con's  egjij,  which  they  send  forth  to 
evi  ry  part  of  the  world,  within  a  certain  distance,  according  to  the  extent  of  their 
pcm XT ;  and  when  it  haijpens  that  this  animated  Iwll  meets  with  any  one  on  its  road, 
whether  man  or  Uast,  it  j^jes  no  farther,  but  prcxluces  the  same  eflect  upon  the  |)er- 
son  whf)m  it  has  struck,  as  it  would  have  done  on  those  for  whom  it  was  intended. 
The  Frenchman  who  was  our  intcipieier  duiiMK  our  journey  in  Lapland,  and  who  had 
resid((l  thirty  years  at  Swapavara,  assured  us,  that  he  had  several  times  seen  these  balls 
pass  close  by  him.  He  told  us,  that  it  was  impossible  to  know  the  form  which  they 
might  assume  ;  he  could  only  assure  us,  that  tlicy  flew  with  remarkable  swiAness,  and 
left  Ixhind  them  a  little  blue  track,  which  it  was  easy  to  distinji^uish.  He  told  us 
also,  that  one  day,  while  crossing  over  a  mountain,  his  dog,  who  closely  followed  him, 
was  struck  by  one  of  these  gants  (for  so  these  balls  are  called)  in  conse(|uence  of 
which  he  expired  on  the  snot,  although  he  was  in  good  health  the  moment  before. 
He  tried  to  discover  the  place  where  nis  dog  had  been  wounded,  and  observed  a  hole 
under  his  throat,  without  l^ing  able  to  find  in  his  body  that  which  had  struck  him. 
They  preserve  these  gonts  in  leather  bags,  and  those  among  them,  who  are  malicious, 
scarcely  suflfer  aday  to  pass  without  thmwing  some  of  these  gants,  and  when  they  hiive 
no  person  whom  they  wish  to  injure,  they  throw  them  at  random  into  the  air ;  and  when 
it  happens  that  a  Laplander,  engaged  in  this  profession,  has  any  resentment  against 
another  of  the  same  fraternity,  and  wishes  to  injure  him,  his  gant  will  have  no  power, 
should  the  other  be  more  expert  than  him  at  the  business,  and  a  greater  devil.  All  the 
inhabitants  of  this  country  dread  very  much  these  emissaries,  and  those  who  arc  known 
to  have  the  power  of  throwing  them  are  highly  respected,  and  no  one  dares  to  molest 
them.  Such,  sir,  is  the  whole  information  which  I  have  been  able  to  ae(]nire  (resj)ect- 
iiig  their  magical  arts)  by  my  own  experience,  as  well  as  by  the  intelligence  which  I 
have  received  from  all  the  people  of  the  country,  whom  I  believed  extremely  worthy 
of  belief,  and  particularly  from  the  priests,  whom  I  have  consulted  on  all  these 
subjects. 

As  soon  as  our  Laplander  became  intoxicated  with  spirits,  he  wished  to  counterfeit 
the  sorcerer ;  he  took  his  tabor,  and  Im  ginning  to  strike  it  with  the  agitations  and  con- 
lorsions  of  a  person  possessed,  we  asked  him,  whether  our  fathers  and  mothers  were  yet 
alive.  It  was  very  difficult  to  speak  with  certainty  on  this  subject ;  we  were  three  in 
number;  the  father  of  one,  and  the  mother  of  another,  were  alive,  while  the  third  had 
neither  father  nor  mother.  Our  sorcerer  told  us  all  this :  and  extricated  himself  very 
well  from  the  difficult}'.  Although  those  with  whom  we  were  consisted  of  Finlanders 
and  Swtdes,  and  could  not  have  any  knowledge  of  this  matter,  which  they  might  have 
comrnunicated  to  the  L.iplander,  yet,  as  they  hud  to  do  with  those  who  were  not  easily 
satisfied,  and  who  wished  to  have  something  more  palpable,  and  more  precise,  than  a 


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Photographic 

Sciences 
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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  NY.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


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UEliXAUU'S  JUUUNEV  TO  l.ArLAM),  Sec. 


183 


simple  efiect  of  chance,  we  told  liim  tliatwc  should  l)clitvc  him  to  be  a  real  sorcerer,  if 
he  could  send  his  demon  to  the  lodging  of  any  of  us,  and  bring  back  a  sign,  to  convince 
us  that  he  had  been  there.  I  abktd  him  for  the  kej  s  of  my  mother's  cabinet,  \yhich  I 
well  knew  he  could  only  lind  upon  her,  or  under  her  bolster,  and  I  promised  him  fifty 
ducats,  if  he  could  tiring  them  to  me.  As  tl/i  journey  was  pretty  long,  it  was  necessary 
for  him  to  take  three  or  four  good  draughts  of  spirits,  tl.at  he  might  travel  the  more 
giily,  p.nd  be  enabled  to  employ  the  strongest  and  the  most  powerful  charms  to  call  his 
familiar  spirit,  and  to  persuade  him  to  undertake  the  journey,  and  to  return  si)eedily. 
Our  sorcerer  used  his  utmost  exertions;  his  eyes  rolled  round,  his  face  changed  colour, 
and  his  beard  bristled  violently  ;  he  almost  broke  his  tabor,  so  violently  did  he  strike  it, 
and  he  fell  at  length  upon  his  face,  as  stiff  as  a  rod.  All  the  Laplanders  who  were  [ire- 
sent  carefully  hindered  any  person  from  approaching  him  while  in  this  state,  and  kept 
oft"  even  the  Hies,  not  suffering  them  even  to  remain  upon  him.  I  assure  you  that,  when 
I  saw  this  ceremony,  I  believed  that  I  was  going  to  see  fall  in  at  the  hole  in  the  roof  of 
the  hut  the  keys  which  I  had  asked  for ;  and  I  waited  till  the  charm  would  be  finished, 
that  I  might  make  another  request,  and  beg  of  him  to  procurc  me  a  quarter  of  aii  hour's 
conversation  with  the  devil,  from  which  I  expected  to  learn  many  things.   I  should  have 

kno^vn  whether  Miss  is  still  a  virgin,  and  the  nature  of  the  intercourse  betwixt 

Monsieur  and  Madame .     I  would  have  asked  him  if  Monsieur had 

I [ his  wife  during  three  years  that  he  has  lived  with  her ;  whether  the  last  child  of 

Madame is  her  husband's  or  not :  in  line,  I  should  have  known  a  great  r  jmber 

of  things,  which  none  but  the  devil  knows. 

Our  Laplander  remained  as  if  he  had  been  dead  during  a  good  quarter  of  an  hour , 
when,  beginning  to  recover  a  little,  he  began  to  look  upon  us,  one  after  another,  with 
haggard  eyes ;  and  after  having  examined  us  all  very  attentively,  he  addressed  himself  to 
me,"  and  told  me  that  his  spirit  was  not  able  to  act  agreeably  to  his  inclination,  because  I 
was  a  greater  sorcerer  than  he,  and  my  genius  was  more  powerful ;  and  that  if  I  would 
give  orders  to  my  devil  to  intermeddle  nothing  with  his,  he  would  give  me  satisfactior . 

I  confess  to  you,  sir,  that  I  was  exceedingly  suqirised  at  having  been  so  long  a  sor- 
cerer,  without  being  sensible  of  it.  I  did  every  tiling  in  my  power  to  put  our  Laplander 
on  the  road  ;  I  commanded  my  familiar  demon  to  give  no  disturbance  to  his ;  but  after 
all  these  efforts  we  could  gain  no  intelligence  from  our  sorcerer,  who  extricated  himself 
very  aukwanlly  from  so  difficult  an  affair,  and  who  sallied  out  in  great  wrath  from  the 
hut,  to  go,  I  believe,  to  destroy  all  his  gods  and  devils,  who  had  deserted  him  in  the 
time  of  need,  and  we  never  saw  him  more. 

On  Thursday  morning  we  continued  our  journey  to  the  lake  of  Tornotresch ;  and  at  the 
place  where  it  begins  to  form  a  river  one  can  observe  a  little  island  on  the  left,  which  is  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  with  dreadful  cataracts,  which  descend  with  an  awful  precipitation 
among  the  rocks,  where  they  excite  a  terrible  noise.  A  famous  altar,  dedicated  to  Seyta, 
has  been  establbhed  there  since  the  earliest  times,  to  which  the  Laplanders  of  the  province 
of  Tomo  resort,  for  the  purpose  of  offering  up  sacrifices  on  the  most  ur^nt  occasions. 
John  Tomaeus,  of  whom  1  have  already  spoken  several  times,  mentioning  this  place,  speaks 
of  it  in  the  following  manner  :  Eo  loco  tibi  Tornotresch  ex  se  cfftidit  Jiuvium  in  insula 
quddam,  in  medio  cataract  a  Dara  dicta,  reperiuntur  Seyta  lapides,  specie  hiimand  collo- 
cati  ordine.  Primus  altitudine  viriproceri,  post,  qmtuor  alii  patdo  hreviorcs,  jtixta  col- 
locati :  omnes  quasi  pileis  qiiibtisdam  in  capitibus  suis  ornati:  et  quoniam  res  est  dtffi- 
cillima  periculique  pfenissima,  propter  vim  cataracta  indictam  navigium  appellere,  idea 
Lapponi  pridem  desierunt  invisere  locum  istum,  ut  nunc  explorarni  equeant,  utrum  quo- 
modove  ulli  fuerint  in  istam  insulam,     "  In  the  place,"  says  he,  "  where  the  lake  of 


184 


RF.GXAUD'S  JOURNEY  TO  L  VPI.ANl).  8tO. 


Tornotrcsch  begins  to  form  a  river,  on  a  ccrtiiin  island  in  the  middle  of  the  cataract 
called  Dara,  Scytan  stones  aie  fonnd,  placed  in  regular  order,  and  liearing  the  human 
form.  The  first  is  of  the  size  of  a  lall  man,  and  four  others,  somewhat  less,  placed  at 
its  side  :  every  one  of  them  has  on  its  head  a  kind  of  little  hat ;  and  because  it  is  very 
difficult,  and  even  dangerous,  to  approach  tliis  island  in  a  boat,  the  Laplanders  have 
for  a  long  time  past  ceased  to  visit  tliiis  altar ;  and  they  cannot  understand  how  it  has 
been  ix)ssible  to  adore  these  gods,  and  in  what  manner  these  stones  have  been  conveyed 
thither."  We  approached  this  altar,  and  perceived  rather  a  large  heap  of  rein-deer's 
horns,  than  the  gods,  who  were  behind.  The  first  wjis  the  thickest  and  the  largest :  it 
was  not  at  all  shaped  in  the  human  form,  and  I  cannot  well  say  what  it  resembl^ ;  but 
this  I  can  say,  that  it  was  very  greasy  and  very  dirty,  in  consequence  of  the  blood  and 
fat  with  which  it  was  covered.  This  one  was  called  Seyta ;  his  wife,  his  children,  and 
servant  were  ranged  on  his  right  side,  in  regular  order ;  but  all  diese  stones  had  no 
other  shape  than  what  they  received  from  nature,  when  exposed  to  a  fall  of  water ; 
they  were  as  thick  as  the  first,  but  much  shorter.  All  these  stones,  and  particularly 
that  which  represented  Seyta,  were  placed  upon  branches  of  the  birch-tree,  which  had 
been  lately  cut ;  and  there  was  to  be  seen  on  one  side  a  mass  of  carved  pieces  of  wood, 
upon  which  some  characters  were  engraved.  VVe  observed  one  in  the  middle,  which 
was  much  thicker  and  taller  than  the  rest ;  and  this  was,  as  our  Laplanders  informed 
us,  the  staff  which  Seyta  employs  when  on  a  journey.  A  little  behind  all  these  gods 
there  were  two  otliers,  thick,  greasy,  and  covered  with  blood,  under  whom  there  was, 
as  well  as  the  rest,  a  number  of  branches  :  th:se  were  nearer  the  river  than  the  others ; 
and  our  Laplanders  told  us  that  these  gods  had  been  thrown  several  times  into  the  water, 
and  that  they  had  always  been  found  again  in  their  places.  Some  time  after  I  saw  a 
circumstance  contradictory  of  the  information  of  Tomeeus.  He  says,  in  the  first  place, 
tliat  this  spot  is  no  more  frequented  by  Laplanders,  in  consequence  of  the  difficulty  of 
approaching  it ;  and  it  is  on  this  account  that  it  is  held  in  such  great  veneration  by  them, 
because,  according  to  them,  the  Seytan  gods  take  delight  in  places  difficult  of  access,  or 
even  inaccessible,  as  is  evinced  by  the  saciifices  which  they  make  at  the  bottom  of  the 
mountains,  where  they  imbue  the  stone  with  the  blood  of  the  victim,  and  throw  it  to 
those  places  which  thev  are  unable  to  reach.  But,  according  to  the  assurances  of  our 
Laplanders,  this  place  is  at  present  as  much  frequented  as  formerly ;  and  this  we  were 
induced  to  believe,  by  the  green  leaves  which  still  remained  on  the  branches  which 
supported  these  stones,  and  by  the  fresh  blood  with  which  they  were  still  sprinkled. 
With  respect  to  the  hats  which  Tomseus  mentions  the  gods  had  upon  their  heads,  they 
consist  merely  of  a  flat  figure,  which  is  at  the  top  of  the  stone,  and  juts  out  ^  litde  from 
it :  but  only  the  two  first,  which  represent  Seyta  and  his  wife,  have  this  appearance ;  the 
rest  being  merely  stones  of  a  long  shape,  full  of  protuberances  and  holes,  and  ending 
in  a  point ;  they  represent  die  children  of  Seyta,  and  all  the  rest  of  his  household.  In 
fine,  the  altar  is  composed  solely  of  a  single  rock,  which  is  covered  with  grass  and  moss, 
like  the  rest  of  the  island,  with  this  difrcrence,  that  the  blood  spilt,  and  the  quantity  of 
wood  and  bones  of  the  rein-deer,  render  the  place  more  frequented. 

Notwithstanding  all  that  our  Laplanders  could  say,  to  prevent  us  from  carrying  off 
these  gods,  we  failed  not  to  diminish  the  number  of  Seyta's  family,  and  to  take  each  of 
us  one  of  his  children  ;  while  they  failed  not  to  threaten  us,  and  to  call  down  impreci^. 
tions  on  our  head,  by  assuring  us  that  our  journey  sliould  be  unsuccessful,  if  we  excited 
the  wrath  of  their  gods.  If  Seyta  had  been  Uiinner  and  less  heavy,  I  should  have  car« 
ried  him  off  with  his  children ;  but  having  taken  him  in  my  hand,  it  was  with  gresft 
difficulty  that  I  could  move  him  from  tlie  ground.    The  Laplanders,  observing  this,  con> 


RECNAUD'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAI'LAND,  &c. 


185 


sidcrcd  me  a  man  already  doomed  to  destruction,  who  could  not  go  many  steps  without 
being  at  least  thunder-struck  ;  for  the  most  certain  mark,  in  their  opinion,  of  a  god  in- 
censed, is  the  weight  discovered  in  the  idol ;  as,  on  the  other  hand,  when  the  g(xl  is 
propitious,  and  ready  to  go  where  he  is  desired,  the  idol  can  be  lifted  with  great  ease  : 
It  is  by  this  means  also  that  they  learn  whether  he  is  desirous  of  a  sacrifice. 

We  had  no  sooner  left  this  island  than  we  entered  the  lake  of  Tomotresch.  From 
this  lake  the  river  Torno  takes  its  rise  :  it  is  in  length  about  forty  leagues  from  Ciist  to 
west,  but  in  breadth  it  is  very  inconsiderable  :  it  is  frozen  from  September  to  St.  John's 
day,  and  furnishes  an  almost  inconceivable  quantity  of  iish  to  the  Laplanders.  The  tops 
of  the  mountains  by  which  it  is  surrounded  are  so  high,  that  they  conceal  it ;  and  the 
snows  with  which  they  are  constantly  covered  prevent  one  almost  from  distinguishing 
them  from  the  clouds.  These  mountains  are  totally  bare,  and  have  no  wood  growing 
on  them  :  there  are  nevertheless  a  number  of  beasts  and  birds  upon  them,  and  chiefly 
sieiripor,  which  prefer  these  situations  to  any  other.  It  is  around  this  lake  that  the 
Laplanders  sprecid  themselves  when  they  return  from  Norway,  whence  they  have  been 
banished  for  a  season  by  the  heat  and  the  gnats ;  and  it  is  here,  and  in  the  neighbour, 
hood,  where  the  greater  nr.mber  of  them  deposit  their  riches :  they  have  no  other  strong 
box  to  hold  their  money  and  their  most  valuable  articles.  They  take  a  pot  of  copper 
and  fill  it  with  their  most  precious  goods,  after  which  they  carry  it  to  the  most  secret 
and  retired  spot  which  they  can  think  of;  there  they  bury  it  in  a  deep  hole  dug  for  the 
purpose,  and  cover  the  place  with  grass  and  moss,  to  prevent  any  one  from  discovering 
it.  All  this  is  done  by  the  Laplander,  without  giving  any  information  respecting  it  to 
his  wife  or  children ;  and  it  often  hapjiens  that  the  children  lose  a  treasure,  in  conse- 
quence of  its  being  too  well  hid,  when  the  father  happens  to  die  an  unexpected  death, 
which  prevents  him  from  discovering  where  his  riches  are  concealed.  All  the  Lap- 
landers  hide  likewise  their  property  :  and  quantities  of  rix-doUars,  and  vessels  of  silver, 
rings,  and  other  trinkets  and  ornaments,  which  have  no  other  owner  but  him  who  finds 
them,  and  who  does  not  ^ve  himself  very  much  trouble  in  seeking  after  the  true  owner, 
are  often  discovered.  We  advanced  pleasandy  about  seven  or  eight  leagues  upon  the 
lake,  near  to  a  mountain  which  surpassed  all  the  rest  in  height;  it  was  here  that  we 
ended  our  journey,  and  erected  our  memorial.  We  were  full  four  hours  in  ascending 
to  the  top,  by  a  path  which  had  never  before  been  trod  by  a  human  being :  when  we 
had  at  length  arrived  at  the  summit,  we  saw  the  whole  extent  of  Lapland,  and  the  northern 
ocean,  as  far  as  the  North  Cape  on  the  western  side.  It  was  here  that  we  planted  the 
following  inscription,  which  was  its  proper  place,  but  which  will  never  be  read,  I  believe, 
except  by  the  bears : 

•V  •  • '  "  Gallia  nos  genuit ;  vidit  noB  Africa ;  Gangem 

•>-  V  .V  f  ,  Hausimus,  Europamque  oculis  lustravimus  omnem ; 

...,    •,     .  ,.     v.^.r-  Casibus  et  variU  acti  teiT^que  mariquc, 

\    «     .  „  ,    ,  Hie  tandem  stetiinus,  nobis  ubi  defuit  orbis. 

De  Fercourtj  De  Corberotii  Regnard.    jtnno  1681,  die  22  ^ugtuti,*'* 

This  rock  will  be  at  present  known  in  the  world  by  the  name  of  Metavara,  which  w? 
gave  it.  This  word  is  compounded  of  the  Latin  word  meta,  and  another  Finland  word 
vara,  which  means  rock  /  as  if  vire  had  said,  the  rock  of  boundary.  In  fact,  sir,  it  was 
here  that  we  stopped,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  we  will  ever  go  farther. 

While  we  were  mounting  and  descending  from  this  mountain,  our  Laplanders  went 


.1 


»,' 


1 


'1 

I 


H 


^i*' 


./•;^f^JV  = 


VOL.    I. 


*  For  the  translation,  see  page  175. 
B  b 


_ 


ibo 


RECNAnD'S  JOURNEV  TO  LAPLAND,  &c. 


to  find  out  the  habitatiuns  of  their  comrades :  they  did  not  return  till  an  hour  alter 
midnight ;  and  they  told  us,  that  after  having  travelled  a  great  way  they  had  not  been 
able  to  fmd  any  body.  This  intelligence  vexed,  but  did  not  depress:  us,  for  we  had 
only  come  this  length  for  the  purtiose  of  seeing  the  most  distant  spots,  and  we  had  left 
a  nimiber  of  objects  behind  us,  which  we  had  deferred  visiting  till  our  return.  We  hiid 
been  desirous  ofemnloying  our  first  ardour  in  visiting  the  most  difficult  objects,  lest,  this 
fire  of  curiosity  being  lessened,  we  should  have  been  contented  with  observing  the 
nearest  objects. 

We  resolved  therefore  now  to  retrace  our  steps ;  and  the  wind  being  westerly,  we  set 
sail  early  in  the  morning,  and  returned  in  owe  day  to  find  that  little  old  Laplander  whom 
1  have  already  spoken  of,  and  ^vho  promised  to  entertain  us  on  our  return  :  we  met  him 
oil  the  river  fishing,  and  we  induced  hiifl,  by  our  present  of  tobacco  and  spirits,  to  take 
us  to  his  hut,  although  he  endeavoured  to  avoid  it,  iind  seemed  to  forget  the  promise 
which  he  had  made  us.  He  informed  one  of  our  Lapland  conductors,  who  was  his 
son-in-law,  of  the  place  of  his  residence ;  and  having  set  out  through  the  woods  with 
one  of  our  interpreters,  whom  we  expressly  prohibited  from  quitting  liim,  we  continued 
our  route  by  water.  Having  arrived  in  two  hours  opposite  to  the  place  where  the  hut 
was  situated,  we  went  ashore,  and  finding  that  it  was  sull  at  a  considerable  disUmce,  we 
took,  with  us  a  quantity  of  tobacco  ^.nd  a  bottle  of  spirits,  and  followed  our  Laplander, 
who  conducted  us  during  the  whole  night  through  the  wood.  This  man,  who  was  not 
intimately  acquainted  with  his  father's  residence,  which  had  been  lately  changed,  was 
as  much  embarrassed  as  ourselves :  sometimes  he  nut  his  ear  to  the  Ciuth,  in  order  to 
hear  some  noise ;  sometimes  he  examined  the  f(X)tsteps  of  the  animals  which  we  met 
with,  in  order  to  discover  whether  the  rein-deer  which  had  passed  were  savage  or  tame; 
sometimes  he  climbed  like  a  cat  to  the  tops  of  pine-trees,  to  discover  the  smoke,  and 
always  roared  with  his  whole  force,  with  a  dreadful  voice,  which  resounded  through  all 
the  wood.  At  length,  after  having  wandered  a  long  time,  we  heard  a  dog  bark ;  never 
did  a  voice  appear  to  us  so  charming  as  that  of  this  dog,  which  came  to  console  us  in  the 
desert.  We  turned  to  that  side  from  whence  the  noise  proceeded ;  and  after  having 
still  travelled  some  time  we  fell  in  with  a  large  troop  of  rein-deer,  and  a  short  time  after- 
wards we  arrived  at  the  hut  of  our  Laplander,  who  had  only  just  arrived,  like  ourselves. 

This  hut  was  in  the  middle  of  the  wood,  constructed  like  all  the  rest,  and  covered 
with  its  valdmar  \  it  was  surrounded  with  moss,  for  the  purpose  of  feeding  about  eighty 
rein-deer  which  the  Laplander  possessed.  These  rein-deer  form  the  whole  wealth  of 
this  people :  there  are  even  some  who  have  a  thousand  and  twelve  hundred.  It  is  the 
employment  of  the  women  to  take  care  of  them,  and  they  tie  and  milk  them  at  certain 
hours :  they  count  them  twice  every  day  ;  and  when  one  strays,  the  Laplander  searches 
for  it  in  the  woods  till  he  finds  it.  They  sometimes  run  a  very  long  time  after  these 
animals,  and  follow  their  tracks  in  the  snow  for  three  whole  weeks.  The  women,  as  I 
have  already  said,  have  a  particular  care  over  the  rein-deer  and  their  young ;  they  watch 
them  constantly,  and  guard  them  day  and  night  against  the  wolves  and  other  savage 
beasts.  The  best  method  of  guarding  them  against  the  wolves  is  diat  of  tying  them  to 
some  tree ;  and  the  wolf,  who  is  very  suspicious,  and  fearful  of  being  taken,  b  afraid  that 
this  is  only  a  feint,  and  that  there  is  near  the  animal  some  snare,  in  which  he  may  be 
caught.  'The  wolves  are  in  this  country  extremely  strong,  and  quite  gray ;  they  are 
almost  quite  white  during  the  winter,  and  are  the  most  deadly  enemies  of  the  rein-deer, 
who  defend  themselves  against  them  with  the  fore-feet,  when  they  cannot  escape  by 
flight.  There  is  also  an  animal  of  a  grayish  brswn  colour,  about  the  height  of  a  dog, 
wliich  the  Swedes  call  jar*,  and  the  Latins  gulOf  which  also  carries  on  a  bloody  warfare 


nF.GNAUU'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  &C. 


187 


P 


wiih  the  rcin-decr.  This  Ijcast  will  ascend  to  the  to\)s  of  the  liighcst  trees,  tor  the  pur- 
pose of  seeing  and  surprising  its  enemy,  while  it  remains  concealed.  When  tlwjwrt 
discovers  a  rein-deer,  whether  tame  or  wild,  passing  under  the  tree  on  \»hich  he  is 
seated,  he  throws  himself  on  its  back,  and  placing  its  hind-feet  on  its  neck,  and  his  fore- 
feet towards  its  tail,  he  stretches  out  and  stiffens  himself  with  such  violence,  that  he  slits 
ojien  the  rein-deer's  back,  and  inserting  his  snout,  which  is  extremely  sharp,  into  the 
animal,  he  in  this  manner  drinks  its  blood.  The  skin  of  lln^Jocrt  is  very  handsome  and 
very  beautiful ;  it  is  even  compared  to  that  of  the  sable. 

There  are  also  some  birds  which  carry  on  a  destructive  warfare  with  the  rein-deer  ; 
and  among  the  re  u  the  eagle  is  extremely  fond  of  the  flesh  of  this  animal.  In  this 
country  great  numbers  of  eagles  are  to  be  found,  of  such  an  astonishing  size,  that  they 
often  seize  upon  with  their  claws  the  young  rein-deer  of  three  or  four  months  old,  and 
lift  them  up  in  this  manner  to  dieir  nests,  at  the  tops  of  the  highest  trees.  This  parti- 
cular  immediately  appeared  to  me,  what  I  suppose  it  will  also  do  to  you,  very  doubtful ; 
but  so  true  is  it,  that  the  guard  employed  to  watch  the  young  rein-deer  is  only  used  for 
this  very  purpose.  All  the  Laplanders  have  given  me  the  same  information  ;  and  the 
Frenchman  who  was  our  interpreter  assured  me  that  he  had  seen  many  examples  of  it ; 
and  that  having  one  day  followed  an  eagle,  which  carried  a  young  rein-deer  from  its 
mother's  side  to  its  own  nest,  he  cut  the  tree  at  the  foot,  and  found  that  the  half  of  the 
animal  had  already  been  eaten  by  the  young  ones.  He  seized  the  young  eagles,  and 
made  the  same  use  of  them  which  tliey  had  made  of  his  young  deer,  namely,  he  ate 
them.     The  flesh  is  pretty  good,  but  black,  and  somewhat  insipid. 

The  rein-deer  remain  pregnant  nine  months.  When  the  Laplanders  wish  to  wean 
the  young  ones,  they  put  upon  their  heads  a  circle  of  pine,  the  branches  of  which  are 
made  sharp,  and  prick  very  much,  so  that  when  the  young  one  approaches  its  mother,  in 
order  to  take  its  usual  nourishment,  she,  finding  herself  pricked,  pushes  away  the  young 
one  with  her  horns,  and  obliges  it  to  seek  for  nourishment  elsewhere.  This  is  not  the  only 
employment  of  the  women  ;  they  make  the  clothes,  the  shoes,  and  the  boots  of  the  Lap- 
landers ;  they  draw  the  carded  wool  to  cover  thread :  this  they  do  with  their  teeth,  while 
they  hold  the  bone  of  a  rein-deer,  through  which  there  have  been  several  holes  made 
of  various  sizes,  and  they  first  pass  their  wool  through  the  largest,  then  through  the 
next,  and  so  on,  till  it  be  brought  to  the  state  they  desire,  and  fit  to  cover  the  thread  of 
the  rein-deer,  with  which  they  cnament  their  dress  and  every  thing  they  make.  This 
thread,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  is  composed  of  sinews  extracted  from  the  rein- 
deer, which  *^'>ey  draw  by  fibres,  and  entwine  them  afterwards  on  the  cheek,  while  they 
continue  constantly  to  twist  Uiem,  and  fi'om  Ume  to  time  to  moisten  them  :  this  is  the  only 
method  they  make  use  of  to  make  thread.  All  the  harness  of  the  rein-deer  is  likewise 
made  by  the  women  :  this  harness  is  composed  of  the  skin  of  the  deer ;  the  breast- 
leather  is  ornamented  with  a  number  of  figures,  made  of  woollen  thread,  from  which 
several  little  bits  of  serge  of  all  colours  hang,  which  form  a  kind  of  fringe :  the  litdc 
bell  is  in  the  middle ;  and  there  is  nothing  which  gives  vigour  to  this  animal,  or  which 
gladdens  it  more,  than  the  noise  which  it  makes  with  his  bell  whilst  travelling. 

As  I  have  begun  with  speaking  to  you  of  the  occupations  of  the  females  of  this  coun- 
try, I  am  naturally  led  to  talk  of  the  employments  of  the  men.  I  shall  now  state,  in 
general,  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  are  naturally  sluggish  and  lazy,  and  that 
nothing  but  hunger  and  necessity  can  chace  them  from  their  huts,  and  oblige  them  to 
labour.  I  should  have  concluded  that  this  general  vice  arose  from  the  climate,  which  is 
so  cold  that  no  one  can  easily  expose  himself  to  the  air,  had  I  not  found  that  they  arc 
equally  lazy  in  summer  as  in  winter ;  but,  in  fact,  as  they  are  almost  constantly  neces- 


188 


REOVARD'S  JOtrnVEY  TO  LAPLAKD,  he. 


sitatcd  to  use  exertions  for  their  subsistence,  they  are  nearly  always  engaged  in  hunting 
and  fishing :  they  hunt  during  winter,  and  fish  during  the  summer ;  and  make  with 
their  own  hands  all  the  instruments  necessary  for  each  of  these  employments.  Their  bosits 
are  made  of  fir,  and  are  joined  together  by  the  thread  of  the  rein-deer,  which  makes  them 
so  light,  that  one  person  can  easily  carry  one  of  them  upon  his  shoulder.  They  require 
a  cjuantity  of  these  boats,  in  consequence  of  the  number  of  cataracts  which  they  fre- 
quently meet  with  ;  and  as  they  are  unable  to  ascend  these,  they  have  in  many  places  a 
boat  on  each  side  of  them  :  they  leave  them  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  after  having  drawn 
them  to  land,  and  put  two  or  three  stones  into  them,  to  prevent  the  wind  from  carry- 
ing them  away.  Some  employ  thread  and  cord  to  fasten  them  ;  the  thread  is  made  of 
hemp,  which  they  purchase  from  the  merchants :  they  often  rub  it  with  a  kind  of  red 
glue,  which  they  make  of  the  scales  of  fish  dried  in  the  air,  for  the  purpose  of  strength- 
ening and  rendering  them  le&s  disposed  to  putrefaction.  They  make  their  cords  of  the 
bark  of  the  birch-tree,  or  the  root  of  the  fir ;  they  are  extremely  strong  when  immersed 
in  water.  The  men  are  continually  employed  in  making  sledges  of  all  kinds  ;  some  of 
them  for  the  puqjose  of  conveying  their  persons,  which  are  called  pomes;  and  others 
for  carrying  the  baggage,  which  arc  called  racdakeresy  and  are  shut  like  coffers  :  they 
also  make  their  bows  and  arrows.  The  bows  are  composed  of  two  pieces  of  wood 
placed  one  above  the  other ;  the  lower  one  consist  of  burnt  fir,  and  the  other  of  birch ; 
these  pieces  are  glued  together,  and  covered  throughout  their  whole  length  with  a 
ver}'  thin  piece  of  bark  of  the  birch-tree,  which  prevents  one  from  perceiving  that  which 
it  contains.  Their  arrows  are  of  various  kinds ;  some  are  composed  solely  of  wood, 
and  are  employed  to  kill,  or  rather  to  stun,  the  minevers,  the  ermines,  and  the  martins, 
and  other  animals,  whose  skins  they  are  desirous  of  preserving ;  there  are  others  cc 
vercd  with  the  bone  of  the  rein-deer,  made  in  the  shape  of  a  harpoon,  and  long- pointed ; 
this  arrrow  is  thick  and  heavy  :  the  latter  is  employed  against  birds,  and  never  comes 
out  of  the  wound  when  it  has  once  entered  the  body ;  it  also  by  its  weight  prevents  the 
bird  from  flying,  and  carrying  away  with  it  the  arrow  and  the  hopes  of  the  huntsman. 
A  third  kind  is  covered  with  iron,  in  the  form  of  a  lancet,  and  is  employed  against  the 
large  animals,  such  as  the  bears  and  the  wild  rein-deer ;  and  every  arrow  of  this  sort  is 
placed  in  a  little  quiver,  made  of  the  bark  of  the  birch-tree,  which  the  huntsman  carries 
m  his  girdle.  In  fact,  the  Laplanders  are  extremely  expert  at  the  use  of  the  bow,  and 
they  oblige  their  children  to  engage  in  those  practices,  which  several  warlike  nations  in 
former  times  wished  that  they  had  done ;  for  they  give  them  nothing  to  eat,  till  thejr 
have  previously  hit  an  object  prepared  for  them,  or  have  knocked  down  some  mark, 
which  has  been  placed  for  the  purpose  on  the  top  of  some  high  pine. 

All  the  household  utensils  are  made  by  the  men  :  their  spoons  are  cut  out  from  the 
bones  of  the  rein-deer,  and  they  adorn  them  with  figures,  in  which  they  put  a  certain 
black  composition.  They  make  lids  to  their  sacks  also  from  the  bone  of  the  deer,  and 
little  baskets  of  bark  and  rushes,  and  likewise  those  planks  which  they  employ  in  running 
upon  the  snow,  and  with  which  they  pursue  and  catch  the  swiftest  animals.  The  de- 
scription of  these  planks  has  been  formerly  given. 

But  that  which  is  truly  remarkable  is,  that  the  men  always  perform  the  business  of 
the  kitchen,  and  that  they  prepare  all  the  food  they  procure,  whether  in  hunting  or  fish- 
ing ;  the  women  never  intermeddle  with  this  part  of  their  duty,  except  during  the  ab- 
sence  of  their  husbands. 

We  observed  this  immediately  on  our  arrival,  and  the  Laplander  dressed  some  fresh 
sic/is  which  he  had  taken  that  day.  This  fish  is  somewhat  larger  than  a  herring,  but 
incomparably  better ;  and  indeed  I  never  tasted  fish  more  delicious  than  this.    As  soon 


HKONARD'S  JOI'UNKV  TO  I.xn.ANI),  L(. 


189 


as  it  was  dressed  they  prc|;prcd  the  tabic,  made  of  pieces  of  the  Iwrk  of  the  l/irch-trcc 
sewed  together,  and  spread  it  iHK)n  tlie  ground.  Tlie  whole  fiituily  phicid  ihiiusclvcs 
around  it,  with  their  legs  crossed  in  the  nianricrof  the  Turki,  '.iiid  every  one  l(K)k  his 
share  from  the  pot,  which  he  placed  either  in  his  cap,  or  in  a  corner  of  his  dress.  Tlu  ir 
drink  is  placed  in  a  large  wooden  dish  at  their  side,  if  in  summer,  and  in  v\  inter  it  is  in 
a  pot  on  the  fire.  Kvery  one  tiikes  accordinj^  to  his  inclination  his  share  of  ihi-  food,  by 
means  of  a  large  wooden  sp(X>n,  luid  drinks  m  the  same  manner  according  to  his  thirst. 
When  the  meal  is  finished,  they  strike  their  hands  in  token  of  friendship.  The  most 
ordinary  ftxxl  of  the  poor  consists  of  fish ;  and  they  throw  some  bruised  bark  of  the 
pine  in  the  water,  which  serves  to  dress  them  in  the  same  manner  as  boiled  meat.  The 
richer  individuals  eat  the  flesh  of  the  rein-deer  which  they  have  killed  at  Michaelmas, 
when  thty  arc  fat.  They  sutler  no  part  of  this  animal  to  be  lost :  they  even  preserve 
the  blood  of  it  in  its  bladder  ;  and  when  it  has  thickened  and  become  hard,  they  cut  it, 
and  place  it  in  the  water  which  remains  from  the  dressing  of  the  fish.  The  marrow  of 
the  bones  of  the  deer  is  considered  with  d)em  a  delicious  morsel ;  the  tongue  Is  no  less 
so ;  and  the  limb  of  a  male  rein-dccr  is  one  of  their  greatest  delicacies.  But  although 
the  flesh  of  the  rein-deer  be  much  esteemed  among  them,  Uiat  of  the  bear  is  incompa- 
rably  more  so :  they  make  presents  of  it  to  their  mistresses,  which  they  accompany  with 
that  of  the  castor.  They  liave  during  the  summer  a  ragout,  which  1  tasted,  and  u'hich  I 
thought  would  have  killed  me.  1  hey  make  use  of  certain  little  black  fruit  whicii 
grows  in  the  woods,  about  the  size  of  a  gooseberry,  which  they  call  crokberfftt  and  which 
means  raven's  gooseberry.  They  put  these  along  with  the  spawns  of  fish  ii\  a  dish,  and 
mix  the  whole  together,  to  the  great  torment  of  the  stomachs  of  all  those  who  see  them, 
and  who  are  not  accustomed  to  such  kinds  of  rrz^ot^^;,  which  however  are  considered  by 
them  as  the  most  exquisite  luxuries.  When  the  meal  is  finished,  the  richer  individuals 
take,  by  way  of  desert,  a  small  piece  of  tobacco,  which  they  draw  from  behind  their  ear  ; 
thb  is  the  place  where  they  dry  it,  and  they  have  no  other  box  in  which  to  preserve  it : 
they  then  chew  it,  and  when  they  have  drawn  all  the  juice  from  it,  they  place  it  again 
behind  the  car,  where  it  acquires  a  new  taste  ;  they  still  chew  it  once  more,  and  replace 
it  again  in  the  same  manner,  and  when  it  has  lost  all  its  strength,  they  smoke  it.  It  is 
astonishing  to  see  with  what  facility  these  people  live  without  bread,  and  how  aiixious 
they  are  at  the  same  time  about  a  paltry  herb,  which  grows  at  such  a  distance  from  them. 

We  interrogated  our  Laplander  upon  many  subjects.  We  asked  him  what  he  had 
given  his  wife  at  their  marriage  :  he  told  us  that  she  had  been  very  exiiensive  to  him 
during  his  courtship,  having  cost  him  two  pounds  weight  of  tobacco,  and  four  or  five 
pints  of  brandy  ;  that  he  had  made  a  present  of  the  skin  of  a  rein-deer  to  his  father-in- 
law  ;  and  that  his  wife  had  brought  with  her  five  or  six  rein-deer,  who  had  multiplied 
exceedingly  during  the  forty  years  in  which  they  had  been  married.  Our  conversation 
was  enlivened  with  brandy,  which  we  poured  from  time  to  time,  by  means  of  our  entrea- 
ties, down  the  throats  of  this  good  man  and  his  wife ;  and  the  return  of  this  pleasing 
practice  became  so  frequent,  that  both  began  to  feel  the  effects  of  it.  They  now  ca- 
ressed each  other,  in  the  Lapland  manner,  as  ardenUy  as  you  can  well  imagine ;  and 
their  tenderness  went  so  far  that  they  began  both  of  them  to  weep,  as  if  they  had  lost 
all  their  rein-deer.  The  night  passed  away  in  the  midst  of  these  mutual  endearments ; 
and  we  observed  on  this  occasion,  what  I  believe  I  have  already  told  you,  that  the  whole 
family  sleeps  on  the  same  skin.  This  confusion  is  always  prevalent  among  the  Lap- 
landers ;  and  a  husband  not  only  lies  with  his  wife  on  the  first  night  of  his  marriage, 
but  with  all  the  family  together. 

Next  morning  we  each  of  us  caused  a  deer  to  be  killed,  which  cost  us  two  crowns 


' 


iy(j 


Itr.riNAHD'S  JOl'HNKV  TO  LAIM.ANO,  Ue. 


ill  order  to  have  its  skin  to  carry  to  France.  If  I  had  returned  by  u  direct  road,  I  sliould 
Jiavc  endeavoured  to  e;irry  some  live  reiu'dcer  alon((  with  mc.  Several  individuals  have 
in  vain  endeavoured  to  do  so ;  and  last  year  three  or  four  were  conducted  to  Dantzic, 
where  they  died,  not  being  able  to  live  in  such  a  climate,  it  being  too  hot  for  them. 
VVe  dela\ed  killing  them  till  wc  should  visit  the  priest,  when  we  could  do  it  more  con- 
veitientl)  ;  and  after  having  taken  two  or  three  of  those  little  collars  which  are  employ- 
ed to  guide  these  animals,  and  some  others  for  the  purjwse  of  securing  them,  we 
set  out  on  our  return,  and  made  our  rein-deer  pass  the  river ;  we  arrived  the  same  day, 
Saturday,  at  the  residence  of  the  priest  of  the  Laplanders,  where  we  hadstont  inpiissing. 
No  sooner  had  we  arrived  than  we  were  anxious  to  kill  our  uninials.  The  L<aplan- 
ders  lor  this  purpose  employ  a  bow,  iu»d  an  arrow  of  the  same  kind  with  that  which  they 
make  use  of  in  killing  large  Ixiists.  We  had  the  pleasure  of  jx'rceiving  the  address 
with  which  they  prepared  their  stroke,  and  we  were  astonished  that  a  t)east  so  ItU-gc  as  a 
rein-deer  shoidcl  die  so  quickly  of  so  very  inconsiderable  a  wound.  It  is  true,  the  arrow 
pierced  as  far  as  the  half  of  its  shaft ;  but  I  should  have  believed  that  a  more  dangerous 
\voimd  would  have  been  necessary  to  kill  it  so  soon. 


-Ilxi'ct  latere  Ictliulis  ui-uiido. 


We  had  our  animnls  skinned  in  the  lx:st  Avay  we  were  able  :  the  Laplanders  took 

{)Ossession  of  the  blood,  and  we  gave  them  the  half  of  one.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive 
low  two  men  alone  could  cat  the  half  of  a  large  deer,  without  bread,  without  salt,  and 
without  drink  :  it  is  however  very  true  ;  and  we  saw  it,  in  this  instance,  take  place  in 
our  Laplanders,  with  great  astonishment. 

We  observed  that  me  rein-deer  have  no  gall,  but  only  a  little  black  spot  on  the  liver. 
The  flesh  of  this  animal  is  very  good,  and  has  a  considerable  resemblance  in  taste  to  that 
of  the  stag,  but  it  is  stronger;  the  tongue  is  a  delicious  morsel,  and  the  Laplanders  arc 
fond  of  the  marrow.  At  Saint  Michael's  day  it  becomes  fat  as  a  pig ;  and  it  is  at  that 
time  that  the  rich  Laplanders  kill  it,  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  themselves  with  pro- 
\  isions  during  the  rest  of  the  year.  They  make  the  cold  dry  the  flesh,  which  produces 
the  same  efiect  as  when  it  is  dried  b^  fire,  and  which  dries  it  up,  so  that  it  can  be  easily 
preserved.  Their  salting-tub  consists  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree  hollowed  out  by  the  hands 
of  nature,  which  they  cover  in  the  best  manner  they  are  able,  to  prevent  the  beiu-s  from 
stealing  it. 

We  remained  some  days  with  the  priest,  waiting  for  a  Laplander  who  was  considered 
a  great  sorcerer,  and  \\  horn  we  had  sent  our  Laplanders  to  bring  from  a  distance  of  se- 
veral leagues.  They  returned  at  the  end  of  some  days,  and  made  such  exertions,  in 
order  to  procure  the  money  \vhich  we  had  promised  them  if  they  brought  him,  that  in 
three  da}s  we  saw  them  return  with  the  sorcerer,  whom  they  had  discovered  in  the  heart 
of  a  wood.  Wc  were  now  as  happy  as  if  we  had  held  the  devil  by  the  tail,  if  I  may 
use  the  expression ;  and  what  gave  us  pleasure  was  the  promise  that  our  enchanter  made 
us,  ot  telling  us  many  things  which  would  surprise  us.  We  now  set  out,  therefore,  on 
our  journey  through  woods,  over  rocks,  and  through  marshes.  Where  will  not  one  go 
to  see  the  devil  in  this  world  ?  We  travelled  more  than  five  leagues,  during  which  we 
met  with  a  number  of  birds  and  beasts,  with  the  names  of  which  we  were  unacquainted, 
and  particularly  of  minevers.  These  minevers  are  what  we  call  in  France  squirrels, 
which  change  their  red  colour  when  the  winter  and  the  snows  makes  them  turn  gray  : 
the  farther  north  they  are,  they  become  the  more  gray.  The  Laplanders  carry  on  a 
constant  war  with  them  during  winter ;  and  so  well  trained  are  their  dogs  to  this  chace. 


riEONAnn's  joimvRv  to  i,\i'i,a\i).  tc. 


191 


that  they  never  passed  any  without  observing  them,  even  uikhi  the  highest  inss,  and 

iniorniiiig,  l)y  their  Imrking,  the  Laplanders  who  were  with  us.     \\\   killed  some 

with  our  fire-arms  ;  for  the  Laplanders  had  not  on  this  oeeasion  theii   round  arrows, 

with  which  they  kncK'ked  them  on  the  head ;  and  we  had  the  pkiisure  of  seeing  tlu  ni 

skin  them  with  surprising  (juickness  and  propriety.      I'hey  l)egin  to  hunt  the  minevers 

on  Michaelmas-day,  and  every  Laplander  is  usually  enga)|^d  in  this  employnunt,   by 

which  means  tliey  have  a  great  market  for  them,  and  tl^cy  sell  a  timhre  for  a  erown  ; 

this  timbre  consists  of  forty  skins.     But  there  is  no  kind  of  merchandise  in  which  .hero 

is  more  deceit  than  in  that  of  selling  minevers,  and  ermines'  skins,  as  they  are  bought 

without  iK-'ing  seen,  and  the  skin  is  Uirned,  so  that  the  fur  is  on  the  inside.    There  is 

also  no  distinction  made ;  all  are  at  the  same  price,  and  it  is  necessary  to  take  the 

gtKxl  with  the  bad,  which  cost  no  mon*,  the  one  than  the  other.     We  lenrned  from 

oiu"  Laplanders  a  surprising  pecidiarity  respecting  the  minevers,  which  was  afterwards 

confirmed  to  us  by  our  own  ex[)erience.      These  animals  are  not  always  to  be  found  in 

the  same  number  ;  they  frequently  change  their  country  ;  and  they  will  not  be  able  to 

^nd  one  during  a  whole  winter,  where  the  year  before  thous;inds  were  to  Ix;  met  with. 

These  animals  change  their  place  of  residence.     When  they  wish  to  remove  to  some 

other  spot,  and  find  it  necessary  to  pass  some  lake  or  some  river,  which  they  meet  with 

at  every  step  in  Lapland,  these  little  animals  take  the  biu-k  of  a  pine  or  birch-tree, 

which  they  draw  to  the  edge  of  the  water,  upon  which  they  place  themselves,  and  in 

this  manner,  abandoning  themselves  to  the  mercy  of  the  wind,  they  lift  their  tails  in 

the  form  of  sails,  and  in  this  manner,  when  the  wind  becomes  a  little  strong,  and  the 

water  grows  rough,  the  vessel  and  the  pilot  arc  in  the  same  instiuit  overwhelmed.  This 

shipwreck,  which  frequently  amounts  to  more  than  three  or  four  thousand  sail,  generally 

ennches  those  Laplanders  who  find  those  wrecks  upon  the  bank,  and  employ  them  to 

their  ordinary  use,  provided  these  little  animals  have  not  re>mained  too  long  on  the  sand. 

There  are  many  who  make  a  prosperous  voyage,  and  who  arrive  safely  in  ix)rt,  provided 

the  wind  has  tieen  favourable,  and  has  excited  no  storm  upon  the  water,  ^vhich  indeed 

would  not  require  to  be  very  violent,  for  the  purpose  of  swallowing  up  these  little 

structures.     1  his  particularity  might  pass  for  a  fable,  had  I  not  been  convinced  of  it 

from  my  own  experience. 

After  having  travelled  a  long  time,  we  arrived  at  the  hut  of  our  Laplander,  which 
was  surrounded  by  a  number  of  others  belonging  to  his  comrades.     Here  it  was,  that 
we  learned  the  nature  and  condition  of  the  Laplanders  and  Lapland.    We  resided  three 
days  among  them,  for  the  pur|X)se  of  observing  all  their  manners,  and  of  being  informed 
respecting  a  number  of  particulars,  wh'ch  we  could  only  learn  from  themselves.     First, 
our  sorcerer  intended  to  fulfil  his  promise,  we  began  to  entertain  some  expectation  of 
learning  some  of  those  things  which  we  wished  to  know,  when  \ve  observed  that  he 
had  brought  with  him  his  tiibor,  his  hammer,  and  his  index,  which  he  drew  from  his 
breast,  which  served  him  instead  of  a  pocket.     He  put  himself  in  a  condition  to  call 
the  devil  by  his  conjurations.    Never  did  a  person  possessed  place  himself  in  so  many 
different  postures  as  our  magician.     He  stnick  his  breast  so  rudely  and  so  unmerci- 
fully, that  the  black  wounds,  with  wl.xh  it  was  covered,  showed  clearly  that  he  was 
really  in  earnest.     To  these  blow^  he  added  others,  which  were  no  less  harsh,  and 
which  he  gave  himself  with  his  hammer  upon  the  face,  so  that  the  blood  flowed  from 
every  part.    His  hair  stood  erect,  his  eyes  turned,  his  whole  countenance  became  blue, 
he  suffered  himself  to  fall  several  times  in  the  fire,  yet  he  was  never  able  to  tell  those 
things  which  we  demand  ed.     It  is  true,  that  even  a  perfect  sorcerer  would  have  found 
it  difficult  enough  to  give  the  satisfactory  evidences  which  we  inquired  after.     I  wished 


ill 


4  ' 


i-i; 


102 


liKC;N\RI)'»  JOLTRNRV  TO  LAPLAND,  kc. 


to  have  Honu'  ccrtuin  proof  IVoin  France,  in  proof  of  the  miiuiion  of  his  demon ;  and 
thin  wnii  the  Htunihliiif^lilock  of  all  the  sorcerers  whom  we  had  yet  consulted.     This 
person,  who  was  cohHideied  very   expert  ut  iiis  prolession,  assured  us,  that  he  had 
formerly  Ixrn  ai)k'  to  do  what  we  desired  ;   hut  that   his  f^et^ius  had  never  been  farther 
than  Stockholm,  and  that  there  were  very  few  who  could  ^o  farther ;  and  that  the 
devil  hejijan  to  leave  him  as  he  grew  old,  and  lost  his  tec  th.     This  |K*culiarity  astonished 
me.     I  intpiired  resjKctinn  it  nuire  particularly,  and  1  iniderstood  that  it  was  very  true, 
and  that  the  power  of  the  most  intelligent  sorcerers  decreased  as  they  lost  their  teeth  j 
;"id  I  concluded,  that,  in  order  to  be  a  j^ood  sorcea-r,  it  wiw  necessary  to  hold  the  devil 
by  the  teeth,  and  that  he  could  only  Ih:  well  f.iHtened  in  this  manner.     This  man,  ob- 
serving that  wc  drove  him,  by  means  of  our  questions,  to  extremities,  promised  that, 
with  the  aid  of  spirituous  li(|Uors,  he  would  tell  us  something;  hurpri:,ing.     He  took, 
ai\d  looked  upon  it  several  times,  after  having  made  n  miniber  of  invocations  and 
grimaces  ;  but  he  only  told  us  very  ordinary  things,  which  one  could  very  easily  under- 
siiind  without  lx;ing  a  great  s(jrcercr.     All  these  circumstances  led  me  to  draw  a  con- 
clusion, which  was  a  very  just  one,  that  all  these  people  are  more  suiK-rstitious  than 
s  )rcerers ;  that  they  easily  believe  the  fables  which  are  related  to  them  respecting  their 
ancestors,  who,  it  is  asserted,  had  a  great  intercourse  with  the  devil.     It  may  be  true, 
sir,  that  there  were,  in  rtalitv,  some  sorcerers  among  them  in  former  times,  when  the 
Lsiplanders  were  buried  in  ihc  errors  of  paganism  ;  but  at  present  I  believe  it  would 
be  extremely  diHicult  to  find  one,  who  well  understood  his  profession.     When  we  saw 
that  we  could  procure  no  information  from  o«ir  Laplander,  we  amused  ourselves  with 
making  him  drunk  ;  and  thi^  deprivation  of  reason,  which  continued  three  or  four 
days,  gave  us  an  op|K)rtunity  of  stealing  from  him  all  his  magical  instruments  :  we  took 
his  tabor,  his  hamnur,  and  his  index,  which  was  composed  of  a  numlx;r  of  rings,  and 
several  pieces  of  brass,  which  represented  several  infernal  figures,  or  aome  cluiractcrs 
tied  together  by  a  chain  of  the  same  metal ;  and  when,  two  or  three  days  after,  we 
were  on  the  point  of  setting  out.  he  came  to  us  to  demand  all  his  articles,   and  in- 
quired particularly  at  every  one,  if  he  had  not  seen  them.     The  answer  we  gave  him 
was,  that  he  could  easily  know,  and  that,  if  he  was  a  sorcerer,  he  would  find  no  difficulty 
in  discovering  who  had  them. 

Wc  left  these  people,  in  order  to  visit  others,  that  we  might  see  and  learn  some- 
thing further  of  their  manners.     We  entered  first  into  a  hut,  where  we  found  three  or 
four  women,  one  of  whom  was  completely  naked,  and  was  giving  suck  to  a  little  child, 
which  was  also  in  the  same  condition.     'I'hc  cradle  was  at  the  end  of  the  hut,  hanging  in 
the  air  ;  it  was  made  out  of  a  hollow  tree,  and  full  of  a  fine  moss,  which  supplied  the 
place  of  linen,  mattrass,  and  coverlid ;  two  small  circular  pieces  of  osier  covered  the 
upi^or  part  of  the  cradle,  over  which  was  placed  a  wretched  piece  of  cloth.     This  naked 
woman,  after  having  washed  her  child  in  a  pot  filled  with  hot  water,  placed  it  again  in 
the  (,radle ;  and  the  dog,  who  was  instructed  how  to  rock  the  child,  placed  his  two 
forefeet  upon  the    radle,  and  gave  it  the  same  motion  which  a  woman  does.     The 
divss  of  the  woman  differs  very  little  from  that  of  the  male  sex ;  it  is  of  the  same 
valdmar,  and  the  sash  is  lai^r;  it  is  adorned    with  pieces  of  tin,  which   cover 
its  whole  breadth,  and  differs  from  that  of  the  men  in  this  respect,  that  the  latter 
is  only  marked  with  pieces  of  the  same  metal,  placed  one  after  the  other.     At  this  sash 
a  sheath,  filled  with  a  knife,  hangs;  the  sheath  is  adorned  with  filaments  o'.  o  ^^ter; 
there  is  also  a  purse,  adorned  in  the  same  manner,  in  which  they  place  a  slct  ,  to  strike 
fire  with,  and  all  their  most  precious  articles;  this  is  also  the  place  wh  re  ♦hvv  hang 
their  needles,  attached  to  a  piece  of  leather,  and  covered  with  a  piece  of  br?s:<.  vrhich 


ttr.«NAPn'9  joirnNRv  to  laplano.  to. 


IIS 


i;  and 

he  hud 
farther 
liut  the 
jniithcd 
ry  true, 

teeth ; 
ic  devil 
lun,  ub' 
d  thatf 
e  tuok, 
ma  uikI 

under- 
'  u  con- 
us  than 
iig  their 
be  true, 
/hen  the 
it  would 

we  .saw 
es  with 
or  lour 
we  took 
igs,  and 
uiractcrs 
ftcr,  we 

and  in- 
'ave  him 
iiificulty 

n  some- 
three  or 
:le  child, 


in 


?'"& 


in 
piled  the 
ered  the 
lis  naked 

again  in 

his  two 
PS.  The 
he  same 
:h  cover 
he  latter 
this  sash 

ooATter; 

ro  strike 
ivv   hang 
which 


they  push  ovtr  it.  All  these  urticlcs  are  adorned  on  the  lower  side  alv)  with  a  lumilier 
ofbniss  rings  of  various  sizes,  the  nolte  and  sound  of  which  umiisc  them  ixtrcmdy: 
and  they  believe  that  the^*  omumeiits  teml  essentially  to  set  oH"  their  natural  Ixiiuty. 
But  ncrnans,  sir,  whilst  I  am  speaking  of  Ixuiuty,  yoM  will  have  tin;  curiosity  tr)  iii(|uirc 
whether  tliere  are  any  haiidsonie  Laplanders.  'I'n  this  (juestioii  1  will  answr,  th.tt 
nature,  which  has  Ik'cii  pleased  to  create  mines  of  silver  una  other  metals  in  the  nortlurn 
regions,  the  most  distant  from  thr  sun,  sports  hcr.<lf  sonutimcH  with  fonuing  iK-autii-s 
which  arc  sup|)ortable  in  these  very  countries.  It  is  always  howevi  r  tnst ,  that  tno.se  iiidi- 
viduals,  who  surpass  the  rest  by  their  beauty,  are  still  but  Lapponian  Ixautics,  and  could 
only  l)c  considered  such  in  this  country.  Hut,  generally  s)x;akiiig,  it  is  certain  that  all 
the  Laplanders,  male  and  feniul-  ,  are  horribly  ugly  ;  and  very  imidi  resemble  monkeys  : 
1  do  not  know  a  comparison  by  .vhich  they  can  Ik;  more  properly  designated.  Their 
face  is  square ;  their  cheeks  s  re  much  elevated  ;  tlie  rcst  of  their  countenance  is  nar- 
row ;  and  the  mouth  extends  fnm  ear  to  cur.  Such,  in  a  few  words,  is  a  description 
of  all  the  Laplanders. 

Their  dress,  us  I  have  already  mentioned,  consists  of  the  valdmar.  The  cap  of  the 
man  is  generally  made  of  the  skin  of  the  iooin,  as  I  ^•**";  already  described,  or  even  oi 
some  other  bird  which  has  Ixcri  flayed.  The  heao-ciress  of  the  women  is  comjxised  of 
a  piece  of  cloth ;  and  the  richest  amoii;'  them  cover  their  heads  with  a  skin  of  a  fox,  u 
martin,  or  sortie  other  beast.  They  tlo  not  make  use  of  a  stocking,  but  they  have 
solely,  during  the  winter,  a  pair  of  l)oots  of  the  leather  of  the  rein-deer,  and  put  over 
them  shoes  like  those  of  the  men,  that  is,  a  piece  of  leudier  which  svirrounds  the  foot^ 
and  which  is  elevated  on  the  fore-|)art :  a  holt  is  left  for  the  [)urpose  of  putting  the  foot 
in,  and  they  tic  then  above  the  uncle  with  a  long  woollen  cord,  which  goes  round  fivo 
or  six  times ;  and  that  these  coverings  for  their  legs  and  feet  may  give  them  no  un* 
easiness,  and  allow  them  to  walk  with  ease,  they  fill  tlieir  shoes  with  hay,  which  they 
have  boiled  for  that  puqx)ve,  and  which  grows  in  abundance  throughout  all  LaplancI, 
Their  gloves  are  made  of  the  skin  of  the  rein-deer,  which  they  divide  into  several  com- 
portments with  another  kind  of  leather,  which  b  whiter,  sewed  and  fixed  u|X)n  the 
glove.  They  are  made  like  mitttns,  without  any  fingers,  and  the  handsomest  are  lined 
on  the  lower  side  with  the  skin  of  the  Zoom.  The  women  have  an  ornament,  which  is 
peculiar  to  them,  and  which  they  call  kraca,  made  of  u  piece  of  red  cloth,  or  some 
other  colour,  which  encircles  the  neck,  like  the  collar  of  a  Jesuit,  and  descends  upon 
the  stomach,  where  it  finishes  in  a  point.  This  cloth  is  ornamented  with  their  most 
valuable  articles  :  the  neck  is  covered  with  various  plates  of  pewter,  but  that  part 
which  fronts  the  breast  is  adorned  with  their  rarest  commodities.  The  rich  place  here 
buttons  and  plates  of  silver,  the  most  beautiful  that  they  can  procure,  and  the  poor  con- 
tent themselves  with  putting  on  the  same  place  pieces  of  pewter  and  copper,  according 
to  their  abilities. 

We  also  made  inquiry  among  these  people  respesting  all  those  matters  which  we  had 
been  mformed  of  by  others,  and  they  confirmed  the  truth  of  them  in  every  |x)int ; 
and  what  {)articular  information  they  gave  us,  I  have  given  in  the  place  where  I  spoke 
on  that  subject.  But  we  wished  to  gain  some  knowledge  of  all  the  quadruj^eds  that  ar^ 
to  be  found  in  this  country,  and  they  related  to  u«>  »he  following  particulars. 

They  assured  us  in  the  first  place,  that  in  this  country  they  were  frequently  exposed 
to  winds,  so  impetuous,  that  they  carried  away  every  object  that  they  encountered. 
The  stmngest  houses  are  unable  to  withstand  them ;  and  they  carry  to  such  a  distance 
eveii  whole  troops  of  beasts,  when  they  are  on  the  suir.mits  of  the  mountains,  that  it 
frequently  is  unknown  what  has  become  of  them.  The  hurricanes  bring  with  them  such 


Hi 


? 


r, 


vol..  I. 


c  c 


194 


RR(iNARD'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLAm,  Sec. 


n  quantity  of  sand  in  sumnicr,  from  the  coasts  of  Norway,  that  they  lessen  the  view  to 
such  ..  ''cgree  as  to  render  it  mpossiblc  to  see  two  steps  distant ;  and  in  winter  they 
drive  such  a  quantity  of  snow,  that  they  bury  the  huts,  and  whole  flocks.  Wlien  the 
Laplanders  are  suddenly  surprised  on  the  road  with  one  of  these  storms,  they  have  no 
other  means  of  defence  than  that  of  overturning  their  sledge  over  them,  and  remaining  in 
this  ix)sture  as  long  as  the  storm  continues  :  others  retire  into  the  cavities  of  mountams, 
with  all  that  they  can  take  along  with  them,  and  remain  in  these  caves  till  the  tempest, 
which  continues  sometimes--  eight  or  fifteen  days,  shall  have  wholly  subsided. 

Of  all  the  animals  of  Lapland,  there  are  none  so  common  as  the  rein-deer,  whom  I 
have  already  so  particularly  described.    Nature,  like  a  kind  mother,  hiu>  provided  for 
countries  cold  as  those  of  the  north,  in  giving  them  a  number  of  animals  fit  for  pro- 
viding them  wiih  furs,  which  ilefend  them  against  the  excessive  rigours  of  winter,  and 
which  last  for  ages.     Among  those  whose  skins  arc  most  esteemed  for  their  warmth, 
those  of  the  bear  ^nd  the  wolf  hold  the  first  rank.     The  former  animal  is  very  common 
in  the  north ;    the  Laplanders  call  him  king  of  the  forest.      Although  the  bear  is 
generally  of  a  red  colour,  yet  some  are  nevertheless  observed  to  be  white ;  and  there  is 
no  animal  against  which  the  Laplander  wages  such  a  cruel  warfare  as  this,  in  order 
that  he  may  procure  his  skin  and  his  flesh,  which  he  reckons  the  most  delicate  of  all 
food.    I  have  sometimes  eaten  of  it,  but  it  appeared  to  my  taste  extremely  insipid. 
The  chace  of  the  bear  is  the  most  solemn  action  of  the  Laplander  ;  nothing  is  more 
glorious  among  this  people  than  to  kill  a  bear,  and  they  carry  evidences  of  their  having 
done  so  about  with  them :  co  that  it  is  easy  to  see  how  many  bears  a  Laplander  has 
killed,  by  the  hair  of  them  which  he  carries  in  various  places  of  his  bonnet.     He  who 
has  made  the  discovery  of  some  bear  goes  to  inform  his  companions ;  and  he  whom  they 
believe  to  be  the  greatest  sorcerer  plays  upon  the  tabor,  to  learn  whether  the  chace  will 
be  prosperous,  and  on  what  side  the  animal  ought  to  be  attacked.   When  this  ceremony 
is  over,  they  march  against  the  animal ;  he  who  knows  the  spot  marches  first,  and  leads 
the  rest,  until  they  arrive  at  the  den  of  the  bear.    There  they  surprise  him  in  the  speediest 
manner  they  can  ;  and  with  arrows,  lances,  sticks,  and  firelocks,  they  kill  I^'m.     Whilst 
they  iire  attacking  the  animal,  they  all  sing  a  song  in  these  words  :  Kihelis  pourra^  Kihelis 
iiscada  soubijcellajeitti.  They  beg  earnestly  of  the  bear  that  he  will  do  them  no  mischief, 
and  that  he  will'not  break  the  lances  and  other  arms  which  they  employ  to  destroy  him. 
When  they  have  killed  him,  they  put  the  body  into  a  sledge,  to  carry  it  to  the  hut ;  and 
the  rein-deer  who  has  been  employvd  to  remove  it  is  exempted  during  the  whole  year 
from  labour  in  this  sledge  ;  and  means  are  also  taken  to  prevent  him  from  approaching 
any  female.     They  construct  a  hut  for  the  express  purpose  of  dressing  the  bear,  which 
is  employed  in  no  other  manner,  and  in  which  tlie  huntsmen  attend,  with  their  wives, 
and  begin  again  their  songs  of  joy  and  of  thanks  to  the  animal,  that  they  have  been 
;illowed  to  return  in  safety.     After  the  meat  has  been  dressed,  it  is  divided  between  the 
men  and  the  women.     The  latter  are  unable  to  eat  any  of  the  hind  parts,  hut  always 
partake  of  the  fore  part.  The  whole  day  is  passed  in  rejoicing ;  but  it  deserves  to  be  re- 
marked, that  all  those  who  have  assisted  in  taking  the  bear  must  not  approach  their  wives 
for  three  days,  at  the  end  of  which  they  must  bathe  themselves,  in  order  to  be  purified. 
I  had-  forgotten  to  observe,  that  when  they  have  arrived  with  the  bear  near  to  the 
hut,  they  do  not  carry   it  in  at  the  door,  but  cut  it  in  pieces,  and  throw  them 
in  at  the  hole  through  which  the  smoke  issues,  in  order  that  it  may  appear  to  have 
been  sent  and  descended  from  Heaven.     They  do  the  same,  when  they  return  from 
the  chace  of  other  animals.     There  is  nothing  more  estimable,  in  the  opinion  of  a 
Laplander,  'than  to  assist  at  the  death  of  a  bear,  and  he  glories  in  k  all  his  life-time. 
The  skin  of  a  bear  generally  costs  — ^. 


REGNARD'S  JOURVF.Y  TO  LAPLAND,  fcc. 


1.95 


The  wolves  are  almost  all  of  a  witish  gray  colour ;  there  arc  some  of  them  white ;  and 
the  rein-deer  has  no  enemy  more  determined  than  the  wolf.  It  avoids  the  wolf  by 
flight ;  but  when  it  is  surprised  by  its  adversary,  it  defendu  itself  with  its  fore  feet,  in 
which  consists  its  chief  strength,  and  with  its  horns,  when  they  are  strong  enough  to 
sustain  the  shock ;  for  the  rein-deer  cast  tlieir  horns  every  year,  and  when  they  art- 
new,  they  cannot  be  made  use  of.  To  prevent  the  wolves  from  attacking  the  rein-deer, 
the  Laplanders  tie  them  to  some  tree,  and  it  seldom  happens  that  they  are  attacked  in 
that  situation  ;  for  the  wolf,  being  a  suspicious  animal,  is  afraid  lest  there  should  be  some 
snare  laid  for  him,  and  ihiU  this  is  employed  as  a  bait  to  draw  him  thither.     The  skin 

of  a  wolf  may  be  worth ,  and  there  are  few  persons,  even   the  greatest 

nobles  of  Sweden,  who  do  not  wear  dresses  of  its  ftu' ;  and  there  is  no  better  tlefence 
against  the  cold. 

Foxes  arc  abundant  in  every  part  of  Lapland ;  they  arc  almost  all  white,  although 
some  are  found  of  the  ordinary  colour.  Those  of  a  white  colour  are  in  little  estima- 
tion; but  sometimes  those  of  a  black  colour  are  met  with,  and  these  are  the  rarest,  and 
the  most  costly  :  their  skins  are  sometimes  sold  for  forty  or  fift}'  crowns ;  and  the  hair 
is  so  fine  and  so  long,  that  it  hangs  from  any  sid<^ ;  so  that,  in  taking  the  skin  by  the 
tail,  the  hair  falls  by  the  side  of  the  ears,  and  lies  towards  the  head.  All  the  princes 
of  Muscovy  and  the  noblci  of  this  country  seek  with  anxiety  the  fius  of  these  skins  : 
and,  after  those  of  the  sable,  they  are  the  most  esteemed.  But  as  I  have  mentioned 
the  sable,  it  is  but  proper  that  I  should  mention  to  you  all  that  I  know  of  it.  That 
which  we  denominate  sable,  was  formerly  called  Zahfil.  This  animal  is  the  same  size 
with  a  pole-cat,  and  differs  from  the  martin,  in  being  of  a  less  size,  and  in  having 
much  longer  and  finer  hair.  The  true  sables  are  damasked  with  black,  and  are  caught 
in  Tartary  and  Muscovy ;  very  few  of  them  are  found  in  Lapland.  The  blacker  the 
hair  is,  the  morc  is  it  sought  after,  and  is  sometimes  worth  sixty  crowns,  although  its 
skin  be  no  more  than  four  fingers  in  breadth.  Some  of  a  white  or  gray  colour  have 
been  met  with ;  and  the  grand  duke  of  Muscovy  has  made  presents  of  them  to  the 
king  of  Sweden  by  his  ambassadors,  as  being  skins  exceedingly  valuable. 
.,  The  martins  approach  nearer  to  the  sable  than  any  other  animal,  they  imitate  them 
pretty  exactly  in  the  fineness  and  length  of  their  hair;  but  they  are  much  larger.  I 
have  met  with  some  as  large  as  a  cat,  and  there  are  few  countries,  in  which  they  are 
more  abundant  than  in  Lapland.  The  skin  is  worth  a  rix-doUar,  and  those  of  them 
whose  skin  is  of  an  ash-colour  above  the  throat  are  in  higher  estimation  than  those  who 
have  it  white  in  the  same  place.  This  animal  makes  a  great  havoc  among  the  minevers 
of  whom  it  is  extremely  fond,  and  seizes  them  in  the  chace,  without  great  difficulty  :  it 
does  not  live  solely  on  squirrels,  but  it  hunts  also  after  birds  ;  and  mounting  to  the  tops 
of  trees,  it  waits  till  they  are  asleep,  and  then  jumps  upon  them,  and  devours  them. 
If  they  are  nevertheless  strong  enough  to  fly,  they  abandon  themselves  to  the  air  with 
the  martin,  whose  claws  are  as  strong  and  as  sliarp  as  those  of  any  other  animal,  and 
which  maintains  itself  on  the  back  of  the  bird,  and  bites  it  in  its  flight,  till  ac  length 
the  biixl  falls  down  dead.  This  fall  is  ofu  u  equally  fiital  to  the  martm  with  the  bird ; 
and  when  it  has  risen  to  a  great  height  in  the  air,  the  mtu'tin  frequently  falls  among 
rocks,  where  it  b  destroyed,  and  has  no  better  fate  than  the  other. 

I  have  spoken  in  another  place  of  the  joerts  in  Swedish,  and  gulones  in  Latin,  when 
speaking  of  the  rein-deer,  whom  they  cut  In  two.  This  animal  is  alx)ut  the  size  of  a 
dog ;  its  colour  is  dark  brown,  and  its  skin  is  compared  to  those  of  the  sables ;  it  is 
damasked,  and  very  precious.       -i,        ,?:,:,     -jr.!  >         •    >■■  v    - 


!«i«4.W- 


■i-.f    filJ-    f. 


Jft 


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196 


IIKG\A«1)'S  JOlUNBr  TO  LAI'LAND.  fcc. 


The  quantity  of  ilsh  is  tlic  reason  why  one  meets  with  so  many  castors  in  Lapland 
(the  Swedes  call  them  haver)  and  they  take  great  delight  in  those  places,  where  no 
noise  of  the  traveller  disturbs  tlieir  repose.  But  the  best  place  to  find  them  is  in  the 
province  of  Kimi  and  in  Russia.  The  kidney  of  this  animal  is  employed  in  the  cure  of 
many  diseases.  Every  body  asserts  that  there  is  no  greater  specific  against  the  plague ; 
and  that,  if  it  is  taken  every  morning,  it  dispels  the  bad  air  :  it  is  also  said  to  t^  an 
ingredient  in  the  most  efficacious  compositions.  Olaus,  chief  priest  of  the  province  of 
Pitha,  presented  me  with  the  half  of  one  at  Torno,  ;ind  assured  me  that  he  made  use  of 
nothing  else  for  his  best  remedies  ;  he  was  well  acquainted  with  pharmacy.  He  further 
assured  me  that  he  extracted  an  oil  from  the  tail  of  the  same  animal,  and  that  there  wasi 
no  remedy  of  more  efficacy  in  the  world. 

There  are  also  in  Lapland  a  very  great  number  of  ermines,  which  the  Swedes  de- 
nominate lekat.  This  animal  is  about  the  thickness  of  a  lar^  rat,  but  twice  as  lon^. 
It  does  not  always  retain  the  same  colour,  for  in  summer  it  is  somewhat  red,  and  m 
winter  it  changes  its  hair,  and  becomes  as  white  as  we  see  it :  its  tail  is  equally  long 
with  its  body,  and  it  terminates  in  a  little  point  black  as  ink,  so  much  so,  that  it  is  diffi. 
cult  to  see  an  animal  which  is  at  the  same  time  either  blacker  or  whiter.  The  skin  of 
an  ermine  costs  four  or  five  pence.  The  flesh  of  this  animal  smells  disagreeably,  and  it 
lives  upon  minevers  and  mountain-rats.  This  last  little  animal,  wholly  unknown  every 
where  else,  and  very  singular,  as  you  shall  see,  is  sometimes  found  in  such  abundance, 
that  the  earth  is  wholly  covered  with  them.  The  Laplanders  call  it  lemucat  /  it  is  of 
the  size  of  a  rat,  but  the  colour  is  redder,  marked  with  black ;  and  it  seems  as  if  it  feU 
from  Heaven,  for  it  is  never  seen,  except  after  great  rain.  These  beasts  do  not  flee  I'rom 
the  approaching  traveller ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  run  to  him  with  a  great  noise ;  and 
when  any  one  attacks  them  with  a  stick,  or  an^  other  weapon,  the^  turn  upon  him,  and 
bite  the  stick,  to  which  they  continue  hanging  by  the  teeth,  like  litUe  angry  dogs. 
They  fight  with  the  dogs,  whom  they  are  not  afraid  of,  and  leap  upon  their  backs,  and 
bite  them  so  severely,  mat  the  dogs  are  obliged  to  roll  themselves  on  the  earth,  to  get 
rid  of  this  little  animal.  It  is  even  said  that  these  animals  are  so  warlike,  that  they 
sometimes  declare  war  against  each  other,  and  that  when  the  two  armies  arrive  near  to 
the  place  which  they  have  chosen  for  the  field  of  battle,  they  fight  bitterly.  The  Lap- 
landers,  who  observe  the  quarrels  of  such  small  animaJs,  conclude,  that  the  battles  of 
other  individuals  must  be  much  more  bloody ;  and  they  think  that  Sweden  has  a  good 
right  to  go  to  war  with  Denmark  or  Muscovy,  who  are  her  most  mortal  enemies. 
As  these  animals  are  warlike,  they  have  also  many  enemies,  who  make  considerable 
havoc  among  them.  The  rein-deer  eat  all  those  they  can  meet  with.  They  are  tlie 
most  delicate  food  of  the  dogs  ;  but  they  never  eat  their  hind  parts.  The  foxes  fill 
their  dens  with  them,  and  lay  up  tnagazines  of  them  for  times  of  scarcity ;  this  vexes 
the  Laplanders,  who  know  when  they  have  procured  this  food,  ibr  this  prevents  them 
from  seeking  food  elsewhere,  and  from  falling  into  the  snares  which  have  been  laid  for 
them.  £ven  the  ermines  fatten  themselves  on  these  animals.  But  that  which  is  re- 
markable in  this  creature  is,  its  sensibility  of  its  approaching  destruction.  Foreseeing 
that  it  cannot  live  during  winter,  it  retires  to  tlie  top  of  a  tree,  between  two  forked 
branches,  where  great  numbera  are  caught ;  others  of  them,  not  relishing  this  kind  of 
death,  jump  into  lakes,  where  they  are  often  in  the  body  of  the  pike,  newly  swal- 
lowed ;  and  those  of  them,  who  do  not  wish  to  be  the  authors  of  their  own  destruction, 
and  who  patiently  await theirdestination,  perish  in  the  earth,  when  the  rains  which,  brought 
ihem  into  existence  likewise  deprive  them  of  it.    They  chace  a  great  number  of  hares. 


■•^-n 


'F     '  .Vl'     !i.<I' 


HF.ONARD'8  JOUttNEt  TO  LAPLAND,  te.. 


197 


who  are  generally  auite  white,  and  do  not  take  their  red  colour,  except  during  the  two 
hottest  months  of  tne  year. 

There  are  almost  as  many  birds  as  quadrupeds  in  Lapland.  The  eagle,  the  king  of 
birds,  is  found  in  great  abundance  ;  and  so  prodigiously  large  arc  some  of  them,  that, 
they  are  able,  as  I  nave  already  said,  to  carry  off  the  young  rein-deer,  atid  take  them  to 
their  nests,  which  arc  at  the  tops  of  the  highest  trees ;  on  which  account  it  is  necessary 
to  have  them  always  watched. 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  country  in  the  world,  which  abounds  more  with 
ducks,  teal,  divers,  swans,  wild-geese,  and  other  aquatic  birds,  than  this  ;  so  perfectly 
covered  are  the  rivers  with  them,  that  one  can  easily  kill  them  with  a  stick.  I  do  not 
know  how  we  should  have  lived  during  our  journey,  had  it  not  been  for  these  animals, 
vihich  were  our  usual  food  ;  we  sometimes  killed  thirty  or  forty  in  a  day,  without 
stopping  a  moment,  and  we  employed  ourselves  in  this  business  only  on  the  road. 
All  these  animab  migrate,  and  leave  this  country  in  winter,  for  the  purpose  of  visiting 
warmer  regions,  where  they  can  find  some  rivers  which  are  not  frozen  up ;  but  they 
return  in  the  month  of  May,  when  they  deposit  their  eggs  in  such  abundance,  that  the 
whole  country  is  covered  with  them.  T^.  Laplanders  take  them  in  their  nets,  and 
the  skin  which  has  been  flayed  from  the  swan  is  m.'^.de  use  of  as  a  bonnet ;  the  others 
are  used  for  food.  There  is  a  bird  very  plenty  in  this  countrv*  which  they  call  loom, 
which  furnishes  the  inhabitants  with  their  finest  ornaments  for  the  head.  The  plumage 
of  this  animal  is  of  a  videt  and  white  colour,  and  is  curled  in  a  peculiar  manner ;  it  is 
the  size  of  the  goose,  and  is  sometimes  taken  in  the  nets  wliich  the  fishermen  employ  to 
take  fish,  when  the  keenness  for  then:  prey  carries  them  too  tar,  and  they  pursue  some 
fish  under  the  water.  They  also  adorn  ^vith  its  skin  the  extremities  of  the  finest  gloves. 
The  heath-cock  and  wood-hen  are  al^  found  here  in  great  abundance.  But  there  is 
in  this  country  a  particular  kind  of  bird,  which  I  have  not  seen  elsewhere,  which  is  de< 
nominated  snueruiport,  and  the  Greeks  called  lagoposy  about  the  size  of  a  hen  ;  the  plu- 
mage of  this  bird  m  summer  is  gray,  of  the  same  colour  with  a  pheasant,  and  in  winter 
it  is  quite  white,  like  all  the  animals  that  live  in  this  country ;  and  beneficent  nature 
gives  them  the  same  colour  with  the  snow,  that  they  may  not  ue  recognised  by  the 
hunter,  who  could  easily  perceive  them,  if  they  were  of  any  other  colour  than  the 
snow,  with  which  the  earth  is  totally  covered.  I  have  already  described  thb  animal : 
its  taste  is  more  savoury  than  that  of  a  partridge,  and  it  gives,  by  its  cry,  a  certain  mai^ 
that  it  will  soon  fall  among  the  snow,  as  may  be  easily  understood  by  its  name,  which 
signifies  bird  of  the  snow.  The  Laplanders  place  their  nets  upon  the  snow,  and  form  a 
little  hollow,  in  the  midst  of  which  they  ieave  an  empty  space,  where  the  snares  are 
placed,  and  through  which  the  birds  must  pass. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  quantity  of  fish  in  Lapland.  It  is  everywhere  inter- 
sected by  rivers,  lakes,  and  rivulets,  and  so  full  of  fish  are  those  rivers,  lakes, 
and  rivulets,  that  a  man  can  take  as  many  with  a  single  line  in  half  an  hour, 
as  he  is  able  to  carry.  This  is  also  the  sole  nourishment  of  the  Laplanders ; 
tiiey  have  no  other  bread ;  and  they  do  not  catch  them  solely  for  their  own  use ;  they 
form  the  only  article  of  their  commerce,  and  purchase  those  commodities  they  stand  in 
need  of  with  fish  or  sLins ;  for  which  reason,  fishing  is  all  their  occupation ;  for  whe- 
ther they  wish  to  eat,  or  to  indulge  themselves  in  luxury,  which  b  not  suffered  to  reign 
in  this  country,  they  have  no  omer  means  of  doing  so.  It  is  true,  that  the  rich  never 
fish ;  the  poor  fish  for  them ;  and  they  give  them  tobacco,  or  spirits,  or  iron,  oc  some 
article  of  that  nature,  in  exchange.  Without  stopping  to  take  notice  of  all  the  fish  in  this 
country,  I  will  mention,  that  there  is  no  place  where  salmon  are  found  in  greater  abun- 
dance.    They  be^  to  arrive  in  the  month  of  May,  and  they  are  at  that  time  much 


I 

\ 

'li 


f 


198 


RBONARD'S  JOUHNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  JcC. 


fatter  and  more  delicious  than  in  the  month  of  September,  when  they  return.  There 
are  some  years  when,  in  the  river  of  Torno  alone,  ihcy  fish  to  the  amount  of  three  thou- 
sand tons,  which  are  sent  to  Slockhohn,  and  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Baltic  Sea, 
imd  the  Bothnian  Gulf.  The  pike  is  equally  abundant  with  the  salmon  ;  they  dry  them, 
Oiid  carry  immense  quantities  of  tiiem.  I  have  already  described  the  method  they  em- 
ploy to  nsh  at  night  by  the  light  of  a  large  lire,  which  they  kindle  on  the  prow  of  their 
boats.  The  trout  is  very  frequently  met  with  ;  but  there  is  a  kind  of  fish  which  I  never 
saw  before,  and  which  they  call  siel ;  it  is  of  the  size  of  a  herring,  and  extremely  deli- 
cate. 

After  having  remained  some  days  with  these  Laplanders,  and  learned  from  them  all 
the  information  ^^'c  wished,  we  returned  by  that  road  which  led  us  to  the  priest ;  and  on 
the  same  day,  Wednesday,  the  twenty-seventh  of  August,  we  left  him,  and  slept  iitCok- 
luanda,  which  is  the  boundary  between  Bothnia  and  Lapland.  But,  sir,  I  know  not 
w'hethcr  you  consider  it  strange  that  I  should  have  talked  to  you  so  much  of  the  Lap- 
landers, while  I  have  said  nothing  of  Lapland.  I  do  not  know  how  it  has  happened, 
but  1  am  going  to  end  where  I  should  have  begun  :  but  it  is  better  to  speak  of  it  late, 
than  not  at  all ;  and  before  I  leave  the  subject,  I  will  tell  you  all  1  know  respecting  it. 

I  cannot  tell  you  w  hat  name  this  province  Avas  known  by  among  the  ancient  geogra- 
phers, because  it  was  unknown  to  them ;  and  Tacitus  and  Ptolemy  know  no  province 
more  distant  than  Scrifinia,  which  we  noAv  call  Bothnia,  or  Biarmia,  and  which  stretches 
along  the  Bothnian  Gulf.  All  tliat  we  know  of  Lapland  to-day  b,  that  it  is  divided 
into  east  and  west :  on  the  west  it  faces  Iceland,  nr;d  is  under  the  dominion  of 
the  king  of  Denmark  ;  on  the  eastern  side  it  is  bounded  by  the  White  Sea,  in  which 
the  port  of  Archangel  is  situated,  which  belongs  to  the  grand  duke  of  Muscovy.  It 
is  proper  to  add  a  third  division,  which  is  in  the  middle  of  these  two,  and  which  is  much 
larger  than  both  the  others,  and  this  is  under  the  government  of  Sweden,  and  is  divided 
into  five  different  provinces,  which  have  all  the  general  name  of  Lapland ;  and  are 
called  Uma  Lapmarch,  Pitha  Lapmarch,  Lula  Lapmarch,  Torna  Lapmarch,  and  Kimi 
Lapmarch.  They  take  their  names  from  the  rivers  which  water  them ;  and  these  same 
rivers  give  all  their  names  to  the  cities  they  pass,  if  this  appellation  may  be  given  to  a 
parcel  of  huts  made  of  trees. 

The  province  of  Torna  Lapmarch,  which  is  exactly  situated  at  the  bottom  of  the 
Gulf  of  Bithynia,  is  the  furthest  in  the  world  on  the  side  of  the  arctic  pole,  and  extends 
as  ftu-  as  the  North  Cape.  Charles  the  Ninth,  king  of  Sweden,  being  anxious  to  know 
the  situation  and  extent  of  his  dominions,  sent  to  this  place,  at  various  times  in  the  year 
1600,  two  illustrious  mathematicians,  the  one  called  Aaron  Forsius,  a  Swede,  and  the 
other  Jerome  Bircholto,  a  German.  These  individuals  performed  the  journey,  with 
all  the  necessary  provisions  and  instruments,  very  successfully ;  and  they  reported,  on 
their  return,  that  they  found  no  continent  on  the  north  beyond  the  seventy-third  degree 
of  latitude,  but  an  immense  frozen  ocean ;  and  the  last  promontory  which  bordered  on 
the  sea  was  Nuchus,  or  Norkap,  not  far  from  casUe  Waixihuis,  which  belongs  to  the 
Danes.  It  was  in  this  part  of  Lapland  that  we  travelled ;  and  we  have  re-ascended  the 
river  which  waters  it  to  the  source. 

We  arrived  next  day  at  Jacomus  Mastung,  which  was  only  distant  two  leagues  from 
the  place  where  we  had  slept :  we  made  three  or  four  on  foot,  in  order  to  arrive  at  it, 
and  we  did  not  lose  our  labour.  There  is  at  this  place  a  very  goocl  iron  mine,  but  it  is 
almost  abandoned,  on  account  of  its  great  dbtance.  We  went  thither  to  see  the  iron- 
Avork;  but  although  we  were  disappointed  in  this  expectation,  we  were  more  fortunate, 
than  we  expected :  we  went  into  tlie  mine,  frpm  whence  we  procured  very  beautiful^ 


-  —  •  .rr  ••  ».  mt^v  * 


REGNATID'S  JOURVKY  TO  LAPLAND,  &c. 


lUU 


Stones  of  adamant.  We  observed  with  much  pleasure  the  surprising  eftects  of  this  stone, 
♦vhen  it  is  still  in  its  native  state  :  it  required  a  great  deal  of  force  to  separate  stones 
so  large  as  those  we  wished  to  procure ;  and  the  hammer  that  ^^'as  emjiloyed,  which 
was  as  thick  as  a  man's  thigh,  remained  so  fixed  when  it  fell  on  the  chissel  in  the  stone, 
that  the  man  who  struck  with  it  requiixd  some  assistance  before  he  could  withdraw  it. 
I  wished  to  try  this  myself  ;  and  having  taken  a  large  iron  bar,  similar  to  that  which  is 
employed  to  lift  the  heaviest  bodies,  and  which  I  could  scarcely  move,  I  struck  the 
chissel,  which  bounded  with  extreme  violence,  and  sustained  tlie  shock  with  inconceiv- 
able force  :  I  put  a  compass  which  I  had  in  the  middle  of  the  ajx-rture  of  the  mine,  and 
the  needle  turned  round  with  inconceivable  rapidity  :  wc  took  the  best  stones,  and  re- 
mained  no  longer  in  this  place.  We  went  to  fmd  our  boats,  and  travelled  to  sleep  at 
Tuna  Hianda,  at  the  house  of  one  of  our  boatmen,  who  showed  us  his  letters  of  exemp- 
tion from  taxes,  which  he  had  received  from  the  king,  for  discovering  this  iron-mine. 
This  peasant  called  himself  Lars  Larzon,  Laurentius  a  Laurentio. 

The  next  day,  Sunday,  we  travelled  a  considerable  way,  and  arrived  in  the  evening  at 
Koenges,  where  we  had  stopped  a  day  in  passing.  We  purchased  in  this  place  sledges, 
and  all  the  harness  which  is  necessary  to  yoke  the  rein-deer ;  they  cost  us  a  ducat  each. 
We  did  not  depart  till  Monday  at  mid-day,  as  we  were  obliged  to  wait  for  the  boats, 
which  were  at  a  great  dist'\nce,  and  which  it  was  necessary  to  carry  a  great  way,  to  avoid 
the  cataracts,  which  are  extremely  violent  in  this  place.  We  slept  this  night  at  Pello, 
where  we  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  on  our  arrival  that  method  of  fishing  the  pike,  of 
which  I  have  already  spoken  to  you,  and  which  appeared  to  me  so  astonishing.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  should  adopt  every  possible  method  of 
catching  fish  :  they  have  nothing  else  to  subsist  on  ;  and  nature,  which  often  gives  the 
remedy  along  with  the  disease,  when  refusing  grain  to  this  people,  gives  tliem  fish  in 
greater  abundance  than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  \Ve  came  next  day,  being 
the  first  of  September,  to  sleep  at  the  house  of  the  magistrate  of  Lapland,  a  Germin,  of 
whom  I  have  already  spoken ;  and  on  the  next  day  we  arrived  at  Tomo,  after  having 
passed'  more  than  fifty  cataracts.  These  cataracts  are  very  impetuous  falls  of  water, 
which  make  a  dreadful  noise  in  falling :  there  are  some  which  continue  during  the  lengtli 
of  two  or  three  leagues ;  and  it  is  the  greatest  pleasure  in  the  world  to  see  these  tor- 
rents descending  with  an  inconceivable  swiftness,  and  making  three  or  four  Swedish  miles 
in  an  hour,  which  are  equal  to  twelve  French  leagues.  The  more  strong  the  cataract 
is,  it  is  necessarj'  to  ply  the  oar  with  the  greater  vigour,  in  order  to  defend  the  boat 
against  the  waves ;  by  which  means,  being  at  the  same  time  hurried  on  by  the  torrent, 
and  assisted  by  the  oar,  you  make  an  astonishing  distance  in  d  little  time. 

We  arrived  at  Tomo  on  Tuesday,  and  we  came  in  good  time  to  see  the  ceremony  of 
the  funeral  of  John  Tomajus,  whom  I  formerly  mentioned,  and  who  had  been  dead 
two  months.  It  is  the  custom  in  Sweden  to  keep  the  bodies  of  their  dead  a  very  lung 
time ;  this  length  of  time  depends  on  the  quality  of  the  deceased ;  and  the  higher  ^le 
rank  of  the  person,  the  longer  is  the  funeral  deferred.  This  time  is  afforded,  that  every 
thing  may  be  prepared  for  this  event,  which  is  the  most  solemn  that  takes  place  in  this 
country  ;  and  if  it  be  said  that  the  Turks  lay  out  their  property  on  marriages,  the  Jews 
on  circumcisions,  and  the  christians  on  law -suits,  we  may  add,  the  Swedes  on  their  fu- 
nerals. In  fact,  I  was  astonished  at  the  great  expence  laid  out  upon  the  funeral  of  a  man 
who  was  not  by  any  means  of  rank,  and  that  too  in  a  country  so  barbarous,  and  at  such 
a  distance  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  They  had  no  sooner  heard  of  our  arrival,  than 
the  son-in-law  of  the  defunct  immediately  began  to  study  a  Latin  oration,  which  he  in- 
tended to  deliver  the  next  day  in  our  presence,  inviting  us  to  attend  his  father's  funeral : 


$ 


eoo 


BF.CNARU'S  JOURNRY  TO  LAPLAKD,  8m. 


he  was  dreaming  tioout  it  the  whole  night ;  and  when  he  came  l}rfore  us  next  duy,  he 
had  ibi-gotton  the  whole  of  his  di.seounie.  If  low  bows  hay  any  thing,  and  Ik  the  niui  ks 
ol' eloquence,  I  can  assure  you  that  our  hiirangiier  was  tlie  prince  of  orators  ;  but  I  be- 
lieve the  bending  of  his  body  was  employed  rather  to  hide  the  confusion  which  apix.-nred 
upon  his  counteiumce,  than  to  adorn  his  discourse.  As  we  were  acquainted  with  the 
object  of  his  visit,  we  unilerstood  tliat  he  came  to  re(|uest  our  assistance  at  the  cerenn>ny, 
for  we  could  understand  nothing  from  his  discourse  ;  and  a  short  time  after  the  burgo* 
master  of  the  city,  with  an  oflicer  who  was  there  in  giirrison,  came  to  take  us  in  their 
boat  across  the  water  to  the  housi;  of  the  deceased.  On  our  arrival  wc  found  the  whole 
liouse  filled  with  priests,  habited  in  long  elaiks,  and  hats,  which  appeared  by  their  height 
to  be  columns  employed  to  support  soine  licam  of  a  house.  The  body  of  the  deceased 
was  deposited  in  a  colHn,  covered  with  cloth,  and  placed  in  the  middle  of  them.  They 
watered  him  with  their  tears,  which  trickled  down  their  moistened  beards,  the  separated 
hairs  of  vvhicli  formed  various  channels,  and  distilled  this  sorrowful  humour,  which  was 
employed  instead  of  holy-water.  All  these  priests  had  led  their  parishes,  and  had  come 
from  a  great  distance :  some  of  them  had  travelled  more  than  a  hundred  leagues ;  and 
we  werc  assured  that  such  is  their  regard  for  this  ceremony,  if  it  Md  happened  in  winter, 
when  the  roads  are  in  the  best  situation  for  travelling,  there  was  no  priest  within  two 
hundred  leagues  distance  who  would  not  have  attended.  The  oldest  delivered  a  funeral 
oration  to  all  his  assistants ;  and  he  must  surely  have  said  something  very  affecting,  since 
his  mournful  air  had  almost  dntwn  forth  even  our  tears,  who  knew  not  a  word  he  spoke. 
The  women  were  in  a  little  chambe/,  separated  from  the  men,  and  they  groaned  in  a 
dreadful  manner  ;  among  others,  tlie  widow  of  the  deceased  interrupted  by  her  sighs  the 
discourse  of  the  preacher.  While  this  sermon  was  delivered  here,  another  was  preached 
in  the:  Finland  tongue  at  the  church  ;  and  when  the  two  discourses  were  ended,  they 
set  out  to  conduct  the  body  to  the  church.  Seven  or  eight  respectable  inhabitants  car- 
ried him  on  their  shoulders,  and  every  one  was  anxious  to  lend  their  aid.  This  brought 
to  my  recollection  what  Vii^il  says  of  the  entrance  of  the  horse  into  Troy,  when  he 
mentions  that  both  young  and  old  were  anxious  to  lend  their  aid  to  draw  that  machine 
mto  their  city  :  Funemque  manu  coutingere  gaudent.  We  followed  the  corpse  like  the 
chief  mourners ;  and  the  widow  was  afterwards  conducted  under  the  arms  of  two 
of  her  daughters,  the  one  of  whom  grieved  much,  while  the  other  seemed  not  at 
all  affected.  The  body  was  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  church,  while  some  psalms 
were  sung;  and  the  women,  m  passing  by  the  deceased,  threw  themselves  upon  the 
coffin,  and  embraced  him  for  the  last  time.  Now  commenced  the  grand  and  principal 
funeral  oration,  delivered  by  John  IMantinus,  priest  of  Uma,  who  received  a  dish  made 
of  silver  for  his  trouble.  I  cannot  say  whether  he  merited  it ;  but  I  know  that  he  cried 
much  :  and  that  to  render  every  object  more  sad,  he  made  himself  hideous,  in  leaving 
his  hair  in  disorder,  and  full  of  pieces  of  straw,  which  he  had  not  had  time  to  take  out  of 
it.^  This  man  related  every  occurrence  in  the  life  of  the  deceased,  from  his  birth  to  his 
last  sigh  :  he  mentioned  the  places,  and  the  masters  whom  he  had  served,  the  provinces 
which  he  had  seen,  and  did  not  omit  the  minutest  circumstance  of  his  life.  It  is  the 
custom  in  this  country  to  deliver  a  funeral  oration  over  lacqueys  and  servants,  provided 
the  relations  are  able  to  pay  a  crown  to  the  orator. 

I  attended  through  curiosity  the  funeral  of  a  servant  at  Stockholm.  The  priest  who 
delivered  her  funeral  oration,  after  mentioning  the  place  of  her  birth,  and  her  relations, 
expatiated  on  the  good  qualities  of  the  deceased,  and  exapj^rated  highly  her  knowledge 
of  kitchen-work,  distributing  his  discourse  into  various  divisions,  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  ragouts  Avhich  she  knew  how  to  prepare ;  and  formed  a  part  of  his  oration,  1^ 


I' 


'I 


HF/lNAIin'S  JOURNKY  10  LAPLAND,  «tc. 


SOI 


telling  them  that  she  had  only  one  fault,  that  of  making  every  thinj^  too  salt,  and  that  she 
shewed  by  this  conduct  the  regard  slie  had  lor  prudence,  of  which  salt  is  the  s)  nibol, 
and  her  little  regard  for  the  things  of  this  world,  which  she  threw  away  in  profusion. 
You  may  see  by  this,  sir,  that  there  arc  few  people,  who  may  not  give  occasion  to  ii 
funeral  speech,  and  furnish  an  orator  with  a  wide  field  for  the  display  of  his  elo<iuence. 
But  our  present  subject  had  a  morc  noble  caixer.     John  Tornaeuj  was  a  learned  man  : 
he  had  travelled,  and  had  even  visited  Friuice,  as  tutor  to  Count  Charles  Oxenstiern. 
When  the  funenU  oration  was  ended,  they  came  up  to  us,  and  paid  us  a  compliment  in 
Latin,  desiring  us  to  stay  to  the  banquet.     Although  we  understood  no  more  of  this 
compliment  tlian  we  had  done  of  the  nrst,  we  had  no  difliculty  in  guessing  what  they 
wished  to  say :  our  stomachs  informed  us  very  intelligibly  what  it  was ;  and  they  com- 
plained so  loudly  that  it  was  near  three  o'clock,  and  that  they  had  not  yet  eaten,  that 
It  was  no  more  diflicult  for  these  people  to  understand  our  language,  than  for  us  to  un- 
derstiind  theirs.     They  conducted  us  into  a  large  hall,  in  which  were  three  long  tables ; 
and  this  was  the  most  honourable  place.     There  were  beisdes  these  live  or  six  other 
tables,  still  better  covered,  for  the  entertainment  of  all  the  people  who  were  present. 
The  preludes  to  the  repast  were  spirituous  liquors,  beer,  and  another  liquor,  wliich  they 
call  calchaty  composed  of  beer,  wine  and  sugar,  two  of  the  most  execrable  liquids  which 
could  enter  the  human  body.     I'he  tables  were  at  length  served,  and  they  placed  us 
at  the  upper  end  of  the  first  table,  with  the  priests  of  the  highest  nuik,  such  as  the  chief 
preacher  and  others.     They  commenced  their  meal  in  silence,  as  is  the  general  custom, 
and  as  the  season  demanded  ;  which  led  Plantin  to  remark,  who  was  at  my   side, 
that  they  called  the  guests  Nelli.     JV  signifies  Neque  vox,  nee  sermo  egreditur  ex  ore 
eorum  ;  loquebantur  variis  Unguis ;  in  omnem  terram  exivit  somis  corum.    All  these 
words  are  taken  from  scripture,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  possible  to  apply  them  bet> 
terthan  on  this  occasion  ;  for  one  can  scarcely  figure  a  more  exact  representation  of  the 
marriage  at  Cana,  than  the  picture  in  which  it  was  now  represented  to  us,  more  beautiful 
and  more  natural  than  that  of  Paul  Veronese.  The  tables  were  covered  with  strange,  and, 
if  I  may  use  the  expression,  antique  dishes  ;  for  it  had  been  at  least  eight  days  since  they 
were  dressed.     Large  pots,  of  different  kinds,  made  for  the  most  part  like  those  v    '  h 
were  used  at  the  sacrifices  of  the  ancients,  covered  this  table,  and  produced  by  tlieir 
number  a  confusion  similar  to  that  which  took  place  at  the  banquets  of  the  ancients. 
But  what  gave  the  finishing  stroke  to  this  picture  was,  the  venerable  ^r  of  all  the  priests, 
clothed  in  their  beards,  and  the  Finland  dress  of  all  the  guests,  which  are  as  becoming 
as  can  well  be  imagined.     There  was  among  others  a  little  old  man,  with  short  hair,  a 
thick  beard,  and  a  bald  forehead ;  I  do  not  believe  that  a  more  exact  representation  of 
the  figure  of  Saint  Peter  could  possibly  be  produced  by  the  imagination  of  :my  painter, 
Thb  man  wore  a  green  robe,  turned  up  with  yellow,  without  any  shape,  and  producing 
the  effect  of  a  drapery  tied  with  a  sash.     I  could  not  cease  contemplating  this  man,  who 
was  the  brother  of  the  deceased.     Whilst  I  was  engaged  in  looking  at  this  man,  the 
rest  were  employed  in  more  im|)ortant  occupations,  and  were  drinking  to  the  honour 
of  the  defunct,  and  the  prosperity  of  his  family,  ih  an  astonishing  manner.     The  priests, 
like  the  best  friends,  drank  the  most  copiously ;  and  after  having  toasted  several  healths, 
they  came  at  length  to  kings  and  great  men.     They  began  (irst  by  drinking  to  the  health 
of  handsome  girls,  which  is  the  custom  throughout  all  Sweden,  and  from  thence  they 
rose  to  kings.     These  healths  are  drank  out  of  vessels,  the  size  of  which  is  proportioned 
to  the  rank  of  these  royal  personages ;  and  to  induce  me  to  dnnk,  they  proposed  the 
health  of  the  king  of  France,  in  a  vessel  as  much  larger  than  the  rest,  as  this  monarch 
surpasses  the  other  kings  in  power.    It  would  have  been  a  crime  to  refuse  this  toast ;  I 

VOL.    I.  D  d 


303 


RKONAnn's  jornvEV  to  l\im.and.  itc. 


i 


i 


{ 


dratik  it,  and  emptied  the  pot  very  cour.igeoiisly.  It  wits  not  likely  that,  as  we  were  in 
Sweden,  we  should  drink  the  king  oil  lanee's  luitlth,  and  forget  that  of  the  king  of 
Sweden  ;  it  was  tlurtlbre  drank  out  of  a  vessel  which  was  scarcely  inferior  in  size  to 
that  of  the  other;  and  after  having  drank  several  healths  out  of  it,  every  one  was  silent, 
to  say  prayers,  it  hap|K'ned,  unluckily,  th  it  ut  this  lime  one  of  uur  party  said  something 
witty,  and  obliged  us  to  burst  out  into  loud  laughter,  which  continued  so  long,  that  the 
whole  assembly,  whose  eyes  were  turned  towards  hin^  were  extremely  displeased:  and 
what  was  still  more  vexing  Wiis,  that  ;is  every  one  was  uncovead  duritig  the  repast,  on 
account  of  our  iK-ing  present,  our  hats  had  Ixen  carried  away  ;  so  that  we  had  no  means 
of  hiding  the  laugh,  which  we  were  unal)Ie  to  resist,  and  the  more  we  endeavoured  to 
stifle  it,  the  more  it  burst  out :  on  which  account  the  priests,  supposing  that  we  made  a 
jest  oftheir  religion,  left  the  assembly,  and  were  unwilling  to  return.  VV^*  were  informed 
jy  a  little  priest,  who  was  more  our  friend  than  the  rest,  that  they  had  determined  to 
attack  us  on  the  subject  of  relig?  i :  however,  we  avoided  talking  with  them  on  this  sub- 
ject, antl  we  went  to  find  them  in  another  place,  to  which  the  con»|xiny  had  retired,  for 
the  purpose  of  smoking,  whilst  the  servants  cleared  the  tables :  they  brought,  as  a  desert, 

fipes  and  tobacco,  and  all  the  priests  drank  and  smoked  till  they  fell  under  the  table, 
n  this  manner  it  was  that  they  watered  the  grave  of  John  Tornaeus ;  and  thus  the  feast 
ended.  Olaus  Oraan,  son-in-law  of  the  deceased,  endeavoured,  as  well  as  he  was  able, 
to  conduct  us  to  our  lK)at,  with  his  pit  in  his  hand,  but  his  legs  failed  him ;  he  was 
very  near  fulling  into  the  river;  and  he  was  obliged  tol)e  carried  home  by  two  men. 

We  believed  that  the  whole  ceremony  was  finished,  when  next  morning  Olaus  Graan 
again  made  his  appearance,  followed  by  some  other  priests,  who  came  to  retjuest  our 
attendance  on  the  morrow.  I  assure  you,  sir,  that  this  surprised  me :  I  had  never  heard 
of  a  second  day's  feast,  except  at  a  maniage,  and  I  did  not  suppose  that  it  was  the  siunc 
with  reganl  to  funerals.  We  were  tiecessitated  to  resolve  on  a  second  attendance,  and 
we  had  a  conference  widi  Olaus  Graan,  during  the  i;appy  interval  he  enjoyed  between 
past  and  futurc  drunkenness. 

This  Olaus  Graan,  son-in  law  of  the  deceased,  is  priest  of  the  province  of  Pitha,  a 
learned  man.  or  at  least  calling  himself  such,  a  geographer,  chemist,  surgeon,  mathema- 
tician, and  above  all  pluming  himself  on  his  knowledge  of  the  French  language,  which 
he  s|M)ke  in  a  manner  you  may  have  some  idea  of  from  the  following  compliment  he  paid 
us ;  "  La  grand  ciel,"  he  rejieated  several  times,  "  conserve  vous  et  votre  applicabilite, 
tout  le  temps  que  vous  verrez  vos  gris  cheveux."  '  The  great  Heaven  preserve  you, 
and  your  applicability,  every  time  that  you  look  upon  your  gray  hairs.'  He  shewed 
us  two  medals,  the  one  of  queen  Christina,  and  the  other  a  shekel  of  the  Jews,  which 
on  one  side  represented  the  rod  of  Moses,  and  on  the  other  a  cup,  from  whence  a  kind 
of  incense  issued.  Besides  all  his  other  qualifications,  he  pretended  to  possess  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  pharmacy  ;  and  to  convince  us,  he  drew  from  several  pockets  a  quantity 
of  ix)xes  of  all  sizes,  and  of  cordials  sufficient  to  fill  an  apotl^ecary's  shop.  He  gave 
me  a  piece  of  the  testicle  of  a  castor,  and  assured  me  that  he  extracted  an  excellent  oil 
from  the  tail  of  this  animal,  which  was  u-^eful  in  all  kinds  of  diseases.  When  our  con- 
versation was  finished,  wc  were  conducted  to  the  place  where  we  had  been  the  day  be- 
fore, where  every  one,  to  pay  honour  to  the  defunct,  drank  plentifully,  and  those  who 
were  able  returned  home. 

We  remained  at  Torno,  on  our  return  from  Lapland,  eight  days.  Wednesday  and 
Thursday  were  spent  at  the  funeral ;  Friday,  Saturday  and  Sunday  were  only  distin< 
guishcd  by  the  frequent  visits  we  received,  when  it  was  nece8s:iry  to  make  every  one 
drink.   On  Monday  the  burgo-master  gave  us  a  dinner ;  and  on  Tuesday,  at  day-break, 


^^ 


RF.r.KAim'S  JOIRNRY  TO  LAPLANI),  kc 


203 


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the  wind  bcinpf  westerly,  we  set  sail.  The  wind  continued  very  go<xl  the  whole  day,  at 
ni|irlu  it  l)teame  liss  violent,  and  next  day,  VVcdnisday,  we  were  iKcalnud.  On 
Thursday  the  weather  was  equally  unfavourable,  and  we  remained  motionless  like 
towers.  We  heaved  the  lead  several  tin»es  to  make  soundin^^,  but  not  being  able  to 
find  any,  we  continued  our  course,  in  continual  apprehensions  of  running  aground  some- 
where. On  Fridav,  the  mist  having  disiK-rsed,  we  maile  a  little  way  by  means  of  an  east 
and  north-east  wind,  and  we  passed  the  little  inlands  of  Querken ;  but  the  wind  being 
contrary  next  day,  we  were  obliged  to  turn  back,  and  to  rest  ourselves  in  a  |X)rt  called 
Ritan.  VVe  spent  part  of  this  day  in  n  neigiibouring  island  at  the  chace  ;  and  in  the 
evening  we  went  to  church,  at  alwut  half  a  league's  distanee.  The  priest  gave  us  u 
supper ;  but  fearing  that  we  had  fresh  young  men  returning  from  L  ipmark,  who  would 
be  anxious  to  make  some  att;tck  upon  his  honour,  he  anxiously  endeavoured,  lest  we 
should  have  spent  the  night  with  him,  to  convince  us  that  the  »vind  was  fair,  althougli 
it  was  completely  contrary.  We  returned  to  our  boat  to  pass  the  night,  after  having 
purchased  a  hare  at  his  house  ;  and  on  Sunday  morning  the  major  of  the  regiment  of 
this  province  sent  two  soldiers  to  the  boat,  to  inquire  after  us :  we  waited  on  ;iim,  and 
found  all  his  officers  present,  besides  a  good  dinner  prepared  for  us.  We  were  obliged 
to  drink  in  the  Swedish  manner,  that  is  to  say,  to  empty  the  bowls  at  one  draught ;  and 
when  we  came  to  the  health  of  the  king,  they  brought  upon  a  dish  three  glasses  full  of 
linuor,  which  were  completely  emptied.  I  confes!'.  that  I  had  ntver  before  exi)erienced 
this  triplicity  of  glasses  full,  and  that  I  was  as  much  astonished  at  observing  that  it  did 
not  suince  to  drink  the  toast  out  of  one.  It  is  also  a  part  of  the  ceremony  here  to  turn 
the  glass  upside  down  on  the  dish,  to  show  that  the  licjuor  has  Ixxu  faithfully  drank. 
We  returned  to  our  vessel ;  and  next  day,  at  six  o'clock  of  the  morning,  we  went  to  see 
how  the  wind  blew :  it  was  easterly  ;  and  such  was  the  ignorance  of  our  captain  and 
our  pilot,  that  they  believed  we  could  not  go  out  of  the  port  with  this  wind.  1  asserted 
the  contrary,  and  I  induced  them  to  venture  on  departing  from  the  i.arlxiur:  we  did 
so  without  any  accident ;  and  at  mid-day  the  wind  became  so  strong  at  north-efist,  that, 
after  continuing  so  the  whole  night,  and  on  Thursday  till  midday,  we  made  during 
twenty-four  hours  more  than  a  hundred  leagues  i  but  the  wind  having  fallen  all  at 
once,  we  remained  at  a  distance  of  eight  leagues  from  Aglxin,  a  place  where  it  was  ne- 
cessary  for  us  to  laud,  in  order  to  travel  by  land  to  Co|x:rbcryt.  We  were  unable  to 
do  so  till  next  day ;  and  having  fortunately  found  on  the  shore  some  little  boats 
which  were  returning  from  the  fair  of  Hernesautes,  we  slept  at  Withseval,  a  little  town 
on  the  border  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  and  the  next  day  we  took  post-horses,  and  made 
a  very  disagreeable  journey,  partly  on  account  of  the  roughness  of  the  roads,  and  partly 
on  account  of  our  being  so  little  accustomed  of  late  to  travel  post,  for  which  reason  we 
felt  more  acutely  the  fatigues  of  it.  We  lost  our  way  during  tlie  night  in  the  woorls ; 
and  if  it  be  at  any  time  vexatious  to  wander  in  darkness,  it  is  much  more  so  in  S  veden, 
in  a  country  full  of  eternal  precipices  and  forests,  where  we  were  totally  ignorant  of 
every  word  of  the  language,  and  where  it  was  impossible  to  find  one  to  iirform  us  of  the 
road  when  we  required  it  Nevertheless,  after  advancing  a  considerable  way  on  our 
road,  during  a  dreadful  rain,  with  the  assistance  of  a  little  candle,  a  thousand  times  more 
agreeable  in  this  dark  night  than  the  most  beautiful  sun  in  onr.  of  the  finest  days  in  sUiH- 
mer,  wc  arrived  at  die  post-house ;  and  next  Friday,  being  much  fatigued  with  our 
preceding  day's  journey,  we  only  travelled  three  leagues,  and  slept  at  Alta.  We  set  out 
at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  that  we  might  be  able  to  make  four  Swedish  miles,  which 
are  equal  to  twelve  French  leagues ;  and  after  having  travelled  till  two  o'clock  of  the 
afternoon,  we  arrived  at  a  wretched  hut,  which  we  could  not  believe  was  the  place 
where  we  were  to  change  horses,  which  however  was  the  case  ;  but  finding  no  person 


! 


204 


RF,ON.\nn'«  .lOT'RVr.Y  to  I.AI'I.AND,  Ii«. 


toNiicuk  to,  w«.'  continued  our  joiiniey  by  rouils  which  no  one  can  conceive  the  diffioulty 
of,  except  those  who  h  ivc  passed  them.  We  helicvrd  ihut  we  were  very  near  the  |M).st- 
houae,  and  we  travelled  till  four  o'clock,  without  Ht'einj;  a  single  individual  to  direct  U8, 
on  our  nwd,  or  any  hk)!'  to  cover  our  heads.  To  add  to  our  mistbrtunc,  the  rain  fell 
in  such  quantity,  that  it  made  up  this  night  lor  the  diree  preceding  n\onths,  during 
which  not  a  single  drop  of  ^vater  fell.  The  ho|X'  witJi  which  we  Mattered  ourselves,  that 
we  would  meet  with  some  peasant's  hut,  enabled  us,  notwithstanding  the  dreadful  dX' 
tiguc  with  which  we  were  ufl'ected,  to  continue  on  our  journey  ;  but  at  length  the  rain 
fell  so  plentifully,  and  the  night  became  so  dark,  that  our  horses,  disheartened,  not  huv> 
ing  eaten  any  food,  like  ourselves,  during  the  whole  day,  stopped  on  u  sudden,  and  wc 
found  it  imjiossible  to  make  them  advance  one  step. 

Behold  us  then  sorrowfully  remaining  in  the  middle  of  tlic  wood,  without  having  any 
thing  in  the  world  to  cover  us,  except  the  bellies  of  our  horses  ;  and  one  might  do  so 
without  danger,  for  the  poor  animals  were  so  fatigued,  that  they  passed  the  night  without 
stirring,  and  without  eating,  as  well  us  their  masters.  Our  only  consolation  was  a  good 
fire  that  we  made,  which  warmed  us  a  little;  but  nothing  could  l)C  mori-  amusing  than 
to  see  us  in  this  plight,  all  extremely  sad  and  overcome,  like  men  who  had  not  eutcn  for 
tvventy.four  hours,  and  who  languidly  bowed  dieir  heads,  to  receive  the  rain  which  it 
pleased  Heaven  to  pour  down  plentifully  upon  us.  And  what  tended  to  make  our  ad- 
venture still  more  curious  was,  that  next  morning,  by  the  break  of  day,  we  were  no 
sooner  on  horseback,  than  we  discovered,  at  a  distance  of  about  two  gun-shots  a  little 
house,  which  we  had  so  anxiously  inquired  after,  and  to  which  wc  repaired  to  drink 
some  milk.  Misfortune  is  good  for  something,  they  say  ;  for  this  wandering  enabled  us 
to  reach  Cojx.rberyt  the  next  day,  which  was  Sunday,  where  we  should  not  otherwise 
have  arrived  till  the  day  after :  wc  discovered  that  town  by  means  of  the  smoke  which 
issued  from  it,  and  which  resembled  more  the  shop  of  Vulcan  than  any  thing  else  :  no- 
thing was  to  Ix;  seen  on  every  side  but  furnaces,  fires,  coals,  and  frightful  cyclops.  It 
is  necessary  to  descend  to  the  town  through  holes.*  To  give  you  an  idea  of  the  frightful- 
ness  of  it,  thc}^  conducted  us  first  into  a  chamber  to  change  our  clothes,  where  we  took 
a  stick  shod  with  iron,  to  support  us  in  the  iiiosi  dangerous  places  :  we  at  length  descend- 
ed to  the  mine,  which  is  astonishingly  wide  and  deep.  We  scarcely  jjerceived  the  work, 
men,  some  of  whom  were  raising  stones,  others  throwing  earth,  and  others  making  fires, 
to  loosen  the  mine,  and  every  one,  in  fact,  at  his  separate  employment.  We  descended 
this  pit  by  a  number  of  roads  which  led  to  it ;  and  we  now  began  to  find  that  we  had 
as  yet  done  nothing,  and  that  this  was  only  a  beginning  to  more  serious  labours.  Our 
guides  lighted  their  flambeaux,  which  were  scarcely  sufficient  to  dispel  the  thick  dark- 
ness which  reigned  in  these  subterraneous  regions.  One  sees  noihmg  on  every  side, 
and  that  too  by  endangering  the  sight,  but  subjects  of  horror,  by  the  aid  of  some  glim- 
mering lights,  which  are  only  sufficient  to  enable  one  to  distinguish  them ;  the  smoke 
blinds,  and  the  sulphur  choaks  one  :  add  to  this  the  noise  of  the  hammers,  and  the 
view  of  these  shades,  these  wretches,  who  are  stark-naked,  and  black  like  devils,  and 
you  will  Ix:  of  my  opinion,  that  nothing  can  be  a  b^'tter  representation  of  hell  than  this 
living  picture,  painted  with  the  blackest  and  most  sonbre  pictures  that  can  possibly  be 
imagmed.  We  descended  more  than  two  leagues  into  the  earth  by  frightful  roads, 
sometimes  on  trembling  ladders,  sometimes  on  thin  planks,  and  always  in  continual  ap- 
prehensions. We  observed  on  the  road  a  number  of  pumps  to  raise  the  water,  and  very 
curious  machines,  which  we  had  not  leisure  to  examine  ;  we  only  saw  numbers  of  those 
'»vretclies  who  wrought  at  the  pumps.  We  penetrated  to  the  very  bottom  with  great  diffi- 

*  This  description  is  preserved,  though  nearly  a  repetition. 


Hr.r.NARIt'N  JOURNRY  TO  LAI'I.VNIJ.  kt. 


i205 


ii 


ctilty  :  but  when  wc  lx'fi;aii  to  rc-iuicciKl,  tin-  sdlpliiir  clioakcd  lis  tu  such  u  digrc i\  that  it 
wait  aiUr  incoiiccivuhlc  pain  that  wc-  regained  thi*  liritdcNCcnt :  vvc  wen-  ul)lig(.d  several 
tlnu-H  to  throw  oiintc-lveit  upon  tlic  etu-th,  and  our  knecH  iKMiig  unahic  to  support  us,  wc 
were  ohhgt-d  to  walk  by  the  ii ssi .stance  ut'  our  hundtt.  We  at  length  arrived,  after  diead< 
ful  exertions,  at  the  mouMi  of  the  mine  :  here  it  Wiui  Uiat  we  hcgim  to  hreuthe,  in  the 
same  manner  as  a  »oul  drawn  out  of  purgatory.  A  |)itiiil)lc  object  now  prchcnted  itself 
to  our  sight :  they  were  currying  away  one  of  tiiose  miserable  wretches,  who  had  Ixeii 
crushed  by  u  little  stone,  which  Uie  fall  from  a  gnat  height  hid  rendered  dangerouH. 
These  |KK)r  people  cx|)0(»c  their  lives  very  lighUv  :  they  receivi-  sixj)ence  a  day  ;  and 
there  are  six  or  seven  hundred  men  constanti}  employed  in  this  place.  I  know  not 
whether  wc  have  more  reason  to  pity  the  loi  of  these  wn-tches,  who  work  in  this  infeniul 
place,  or  to  cursjc  the  avarice  of  those  men,  who,  for  the  pur|X)S(-  of  gratifying  their  liix> 
ury,  tear  out  the  bowels  of  ihc  earth,  confound  the  elements,  and  reverse  the  order  of 
nature.     JBoethius  hud  a  good  reason  U)  say,  siK-aking  of  his  own  age, 

'*  lieu  !  primus  quit  fult  illc 
Auri,  ((ui  pondcru  iccti, 
GeiiiniUHque  latere  vulcntcH, 
PreUosa  peiicuU  fudit  i" 

And  Pliny  tells  us  that  the  Romans,  who  hud  more  need  of  men  thun  gold,  would  not 
suffer  those  mines  to  lie  opened  which  had  been  discovered  in  Italy.  The  Spani;uxls  go 
to  Guinea  for  wretches,  whom  they  destine  to  labour  at  their  rock  of  Potosi ;  and  there 
are  some  countries  which  send  those  thither  whose  crimes  have  merited  death,  and  who 
continue  to  dig  their  graves  their  whole  lives. 

In  this  mine  of  Co|x,'rberyture  found  native  sulphur,  blue  and  green  vitriol,  and  octa« 
drons ;  the  latter  are  curious  stones,  naturally  cut  mto  an  octagon  shape.  We  departed 
from  this  place  the  same  day,  to  visit  the  silver  mine  at  Salsberyt :  we  arrived  there  next 
day,  which  was  Tuesday  :  its  real  name  is  Sula ;  and  its  situation  is  one  of  the  most 

Jkleasant  in  Sweden.  Next  day  we  went  to  the  mine,  which  is  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant 
irom  it :  this  mine  has  three  large  mouths,  like  pits,  of  which  it  is  im|X)ssible  to  sec  the 
bottom  ;  the  half  of  a  tub,  supported  by  a  rope,  is  the  only  stair  which  leads  to  this  abyss  : 
the  water  makes  this  machine  move  in  a  curious  manner ;  it  wheels  about,  and  turns 
on  both  sides,  for  the  purpose  of  ascending  and  descending.  The  imminence  of  the 
hazard  can  easily  be  conceived ;  you  are  lialf  in  a  tub,  in  which  you  have  only  one  leg ; 
a  satellite,  black  as  a  devil,  with  a  flambeau  in  his  hand,  descends  along  with  you, 
chaunting  a  mournful  song,  made  on  pur{X)sc  for  this  descent.  The  mode  of  travelling 
is  pleasant  enough ;  but  one  can  scarcely  he  quite  at  ease  here,  when  one  sees  one's  self 
at  the  end  of  a  rope,  and  remembers  that  one's  life  depends  entirely  on  its  strength,  or 
its  weakness.  When  we  had  reached  the  middle,  we  began  to  experience  great  cold, 
which,  joined  to  the  torrents  which  fell  from  all  quarters,  roused  us  from  our  Ictluirgy. 
We  arrived  at  length,  after  half  an  hour's  journey,  at  the  bottom  of  the  abyss :  here 
our  fears  began  to  disperse  ;  we  no  more  beheld  any  frightful  objects :  on  the  contrary, 
every  object  sparkled  in  these  subterraneous  regions  ;  and  after  having  descended  stiii 
fartlier,  supported  by  extremely  high  ladders,  we  arrived  at  a  saloon,  which  is  at  the 
bottom  of  tne  mine,  supported  by  columns  of  this  precious  metal :  four  spacious  galle- 
ries next  appeared ;  ancl  the  light  of  the  fires  which  bunied  on  all  sides,  and  whicli 
sparkled  on  the  vaults  of  silver,  and  a  clear  rivulet  which  flowed  by  their  side,  tended 
less  to  afford  light  to  the  workmen,  than  to  render  this  the  most  magnificent  abode 
which  can  well  be  imagined,  and  somewhat  like  the  enchanted  palaces  of  Pluto,  which 


fe 


•■'   'i 


I* 

% 


'^ 


»! 


ARDt  jntiNVrV  TO  I.APl.ANI),  li«. 


200 

the  jMJctii  have  placed  in  \\\v  ciiitir  of  ihr  earth,  where  she  prcBcrvrs  her  treaviirit. 
Ill  ilR-Ne  )(allerie«i  men  of  all  ( ountries  are  eonsiaiitly  to  Ih  IouikI,  who  lalMiiir  hard  to 
fiiKl  that  whieli  ^ives  so  imich  (ieii((ht  to  the  rent  oiinankind.  Some  draw  eurriii^eiit 
some  mil  moikh;  home  arc  dividing  rockn ;  and  every  oik-  lui<t  hit  dillerent  employ, 
mciit.  It  itt  a  town  Ix-low  another  town  :  here  arc  taveriiH,  hoiiseH,  Htuhlcn,  und  hornet ; 
and  wh;it  ismoN:  .^Htonishin)];  of  all  is  a  wind-mill,  whieh  i^cx-s  continnally  in  thin  cavern, 
und  which  is  emp'oyed  in  raising  the  water.  VVe  re  ascended  hy  (he  same  muchine  in 
which  we  desceivlcd,  in  order  to  sec  ihe  various  o|H*rationH  necesoiiry  to  make  Hilvcr. 
The  first  stones  which  are  drawn  from  the  mine  are  « ailed  stiitt',  and  are  placed  in  a  fur- 
nace  to  dry,  which  Inirns  slowly,  and  separates  the  anlimony.  arxiiic,  and  sulphur,  from 
the  stone,  the  lead,  and  the  silver,  which  remain  tofi^ether.  This  first  operation  is  fol* 
lowed  by  u  second,  wher  these  dried  stones  are  thrown  into  troughs,  where  they  arc 
piled  up,  and  ivdnced  to  |)owder  hy  mi  ans  of  lar^e  hammers  wrought  hy  water.  This 
|M)wder  is  de|M>sited  in  water,  which  runs  constantly  upon  a  plunk  placed  in  a  slopitifj^ 
direction,  aiul  which,  carr) in(r  oH  the  grosser  |)articli s,  le.ives  the  silver  and  the  lead  tx** 
hind  at  the  bottom  on  a  cloth.  The  third  operation  separates  the  silver  from  the  lead, 
which  falls  to  the  lM)ttont  in  dross;  and  the  tourih  serves  at  length  to  bring  it  to  |kt- 
fection,  and  to  put  it  in  a  com'ition  tit  for  the  hamim  r.  One  would  not  bU|)posc  tluit  so 
many  o|H:rutions  were  neccssiiry  to  pnxluce  a  metal,  which  is  only  an  excrement  of  the 
earth.  The  S|)aniards  at  Potosi  do  not  give  themselves  the  trouble  of  |KTforming  all 
these  operations,  in  order  to  purify  their  silver,  as  tlu-'v  have  discoveretl  the  method  of 
cleaning  it  with  c|uicksilver,  which  Ixringan  enemy  oi^  all  the  other  metals,  which  it  dc< 
stroys,  except  silver  and  gold,  it  separates  them  of  all  their  grosser  and  earthy  mutter,  in 
order  to  unite  itself  entirely  to  them.  Mercury  is  found  in  this  mitie  ;  and  this  metal, 
though  some  refuse  it  the  appellation  because  it  is  not  malleable,  is  perhaps  oiie  of  the 
rarest  productions  of  nature  ;  for  Ixiing  liquid,  und  flowing  of  itself,  it  is  the  heaviest 
body  in  the  world ;  und  it  changes  to  the  lightest,  und  is  resolved  into  va|X)ur,  which, 
encountering  u  solid  substance,  or  a  cold  atmosphere,  immediately  becomes  thick,  and 
re-assumes  its  former  f(»nn,  without  ony  |X)SNibility  of  ever  being  destroyed.  'I'he  (x'rsoii 
who  conducted  us  in  the  mines  afterwards  shewed  us,  in  her  posse^ssion,  a  numlx:r  of 
curious  stones,  which  she  collected  from  all  quarters ;  among  others  a  large  piece  of 
thatsoR  stone,  which,  instead  of  Ixing  consumed  by  the  fire,  assumes  u  white  colour, 
and  which  the  Romans  employ  ed  to  burn  the  bodies  of  their  dead.  She  had  fouiKl  it 
in  this  mine,  and  prescnttd  each  of  us  with  a  smull  piece  of  it.  We  left  this  little  town 
the  same  dny,  to  go  to  Upsal,  where  wc  arrived  early  next  morning. 

This  is  the  most  considerable  town  of  all  Sweden,  both  on  account  of  its  university 
und  its  situation  ;  it  is  to  this  place  that  all  those  who  intend  entering  into  holy  orders 
are  sent,  from  which  profession  ull  the  Swedish  nobility  are  excluded ;  for  it  is  the 
policy  of  this  country,  lest  the  number  of  nobles  should  l)e  diminished,  to  employ  them 
more  usefully  otherwise.  We  saw  the  library,  which  contains  nothing  worthy  of  notice, 
except  the  codex  argenteus  manuscript,  written  in  Gothic  letters  of  silver,  by  a  bishop 
called  Ulphila,  in  Mesia,  about  the  year  370,  found  at  the  destruction  of  the  city  of 
Prague,  and  brought  away  by  count  Ko'iingsmurk,  who  made  a  present  of  it  to  queen 
Christina.  We  went  afterwards  to  the  church,  where  we  saw  the  tomb  of  Saint  Eric, 
king  of  Sweden,  who  was  beheaded.  They  gave  us  his  head  and  his  bones  to  touch, 
which  are  wholly  preserved  in  a  box  of  silver.  We  saw  in  a  large  chajxl,  Ixhind  the 
quire,  the  tomb  of  Gusiavus  the  First,  and  his  two  wives,  one  of  wnom  had  in  her  hand 
a  whip,  on  account  of  her  cruelty.  They  shewed  us  in  the  vestry  an  ancient  idol, 
called  Thor,  which  the  Swedes  adored,  and  a  very  beautiful  communion-cup,  which 


nr.r.sAUD'it  joiunky  to  i.api.ani).  M- 


flU7 


4J 


was  ■  prcMrnt  fmrn  ruucit  Chrintiiia.  Thcrv  nn*  Hvvcrui  kariKd  imii  lurn',  niui, 
atnon^  oilu-ri,  Kii(llHkiiis,  a  |ili\>i(:i.ui,  ulio  hat  uritUii  u  very  (iirintit  hook,  which 
he  shtvvtd  tit  h'.iiiMir.  'V\\\s  man  nhcUN,  I))  all  that  is  coiitaitud  in  authors,  hik  h  .ih 
lit-nxtutus,  I'lato,  l)i(Kt<>riiN  ui  Sicil),  anil  othcri,  that  tin*  ^(mU  caiiu'  fn)in  Ium 
ctNintry  ;  lie  ((ivcN  very  htroii^  ruisoiin  lor  it :  he  {xrMia(U<i  iih,  iVoin  tlic  ( oiiiu ciioii 
which  MiUHiHiH  tx'twixt  hi*i  l.in^iiaKc  and  all  the  nanus  of  ttii-  gixls.  IlcrciiUs  is  (lc< 
rived  troll)  //rr  and  rn/z/f,  which  Hi^nifus  Captain  ;  and  Di.tua  conicM  i'rom  the  (iotliic 
word  (/in,  which  hi^^niliis  nunc.  IK-  slavved  iih  that  the  llesiM-riait  a|)i)li's  had  Ixrii  in 
tliiit  place,  which  ivndcrcd  thoiic  immortal  who  tasttd  them.  lU-  pointed  out  tu  Ui, 
thut  tluH  immortality  an)NC  from  knowledge,  wliiili  makis  men  live  for  ever.  Mc 
ineiuioned  a  pas^uige  in  Plato,  while,  adiliestin^  himself  to  the  Uoniatis,  he  tells  them, 
thut  they  had  reccirid  tkir  goils  from  the  (irciks,  und  that  the  Gii*ekH  had  taken 
them  from  tlw-  HarharianH.  He  anxiously  endeavoured  to  jtirsiiade  us,  that  the  piilant 
of  Heiculeh  were  siiiiatid  in  hit  country,  und  u  iiunilxr  uf  uthtr  malter»,  whicii  you 
may  Inlieve  if  you  cluM)^e. 

\Ve  Miw  in  his  cabinet  many  pit  cch  of  mechanism  ;  one  of  the  Hunic  stii  ks  to 
learn  the  course  of  the  sun,  which  the  Swedes,  accoidin;!;  to  his  account,  knew  Ixforc 
the  I'.^'yp'ians  and  the  Chaldeans;  all  the  Kiinic  letters  arc  made  in  the  form  of  a  dm- 
fi;on,  uliich,  he  said,  is  the  same  with  that  which  {ruardcd  the^irden  of  the  HesperidcM  ; 
tile  Hunic  lettirs  which  the  Swedes  made  ll•^e  of  were  only  sixteen  in  numlKT,  Ovcnius 
is  still  a  celebrated  phyvician.  Hedi Tins  und  Loxenius  arc  celebrated,  the  first  for  an. 
ti<|uities,  and  the  other  for  jurisprudence  ;  Columbus  for  history;  und  ShelTer,  who  hus 
written  reh|xctin(ir  the  Laplunders,  is  much  esteemed  for  lo^ic.  In  the  old  town  of 
Upsul  u  numlHT  of  anti(|uities  are  to  be  seen,  such  as  the  tombs  of  the  kings  of  Sweden, 
and  the  four-fronted  temple  of  Janus,  which  is  one  of  the  subjects  on  which  Uud- 
bekius  has  written.  \Vc  went  on  Ixjurd  u  little  Ixxit,  which  was  bound  for  Stockholm, 
for  ccrtuin  reasons ;  but  the  wind,  which  was  favourable,  having  chan(,T;ed,  being  still 
within  view  of  Upsal,  we  travelled  two  large  Swedish  miles,  whicli  arc  equal  to  five  or 
six  French  leagues,  und  arrived  at  the  ixist-house,  w  hert  we  took  horses,  and  they  con- 
ducted us  in  the  night  time  to  St(x:knolm,  which  we  entered  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  Saturday,  the  twenty. seventh  of  December.  Here  at  length  terminated  our 
hazardous  journey,  of  which  I  would  not  have  Ikch  deprived  for  a  great  deal  of 
money,  and  which  I  would  not  begin  again  for  much  more. 

A  JOUHVEY  TO  POLAVn. 

We  left  Stockholm  on  the  third  day  of  October,  1683,  to  go  to  Dalles,  for  the 
purpose  of  6nding  our  vessel,  which  had  departed  two  days  before  us.  We  were 
escorted  by  all  our  good  friends  a  league  beyond  the  city  ;  when  we  took  leave  of  them, 
and  travelled  the  whole  night ;  we  arrived  next  day  at  Dalles.  This  is  the  place  where 
the  duties  upon  all  the  goods  which  enter,  or  arc  exjx>rted,  arc  paid  to  the  king  of 
Sweden :  it  is  here  where  the  rocks  which  surround  Stockholm  are  first  observed,  and 
among  which  it  is  difficult  to  travel.  Our  boat  was  not  yet  there,  but  it  arrived  on  the 
morrow  at  mid-day  ;  it  came  from  Stettin,  in  Pomerania,  which  belongs  to  the  king  of 
Sweden,  and  vhich  gave  so  much  employnu  nt,  (hiring  the  late  wars,  to  the  tro<jps  of 
the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  who  ivmained  nine  inontlis  Ixforc  its  walls,  which  were 
only  defended  by  a  few  rcsixctablc  inhabitants.  It  has  been  since  given  up  to  the  king 
of  SwcUen,  as  well  as  all  the  other  places  he  had  lost,  w  hich  the  king  of  Frun':e  obliged 


tl  .i 


I' 


208 


nF.ONARiyS  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  &c. 


them  to  return  to  him.  We  set  out  next  day,  being  Sunday,  at  day.break,  with  a 
favourable  wind,  which  changed  immediately  after,  and  obliged  us  to  go  for  safety  to 
Landsor,  near  to  the  place  from  which  we  had  set  sail.  We  had  considerable  difficulty 
in  retiring  between  two  rocks,  which  served  us  as  a  shelter  from  the  tempest,  which  was 
extremely  violent,  and  we  exixicted  a  hundred  times  to  be  driven  among  the  stones,  with 
which  this  sea  is  crowded.  1  he  fourth  day  of  October  is  celebrated  for  being  unfavoura- 
ble to  us :  it  is  just  three  years  since,  on  this  day,  dedicated  to  Saint  Francis,  my 
patron,  we  were  taken  prisoners  by  the  Turks,  in  the  Mediterranean,  within  sight  of 
Nice.  It  is  ditlicult  to  forget  these  days,  when  they  are  drawn  in  our  memory  with  such 
strong  and  vivid  colours.  We  remained  three  days  in  this  place ;  and  the  wind  be- 
coming a  little  more  favourable,  we  set  sail,  and  came  within  sight  of  Wisby,  the  capit^d 
of  the  island  of  Gothland.  This  island,  which  is  the  most  fertile  in  all  Sweden,  was  given 
as  an  appendage  to  nueen  Christina,  who  has  exchanged  it  and  that  of  Oeland  for  the 

city  and  lordship  of  Norkopin,  in .     There  is  a  book  of  the  laws  of  Wisby, 

which  is  made  use  of  to  compile  the  regulations  of  naval  commerce. 

Fortune,  which  appeared  only  to  be  favourable  to  us  that  we  might  feel  more  acutely 
our  disappointments,  was  not  long  in  making  us  cxjierience  her  usual  caprice  :  there 
arose  during  the  night  such  a  dreadful  tempest,  that,  after  remaining  a  long  time  in  con- 
tinual terror,  we  were  obliged,  as  soon  as  day-light  appeared,  to  set  sail  with  all  our 
canvas,  to  stop  for  safety  once  more  in  Sweden,  at  Westerwick,  in  the  province  of 
Smaland.  In  this  place  we  saw  two  objects  deser\'ing  of  pity  ;  the  first  was,  the  genei.J 
destruction  of  the  city,  which  the  Danes  had  burned  in  the  late  wars,  and  which  was 
still  full  of  desolation :  they  were  now  beginning  to  rebuild  it :  The  other  was  more 
recent,  and  made  us  reflect  still  more  upon  the  dan^jer  we  had  been  exposed  to ;  we 
saw  the  sad  remains  of  an  English  vessel,  loaded  with  salt,  which  had  been  wrecked, 
and  the  crew  of  which  had  been  with  considerable  difficulty  saved. 

We  remained  in  this  wretched  place  six  days,  during  which  the  wind  prevented  us 
from  leaving  it :  I  went  every  day,  for  some  hours,  to  the  steep  rocks,  where  the  height 
of  the  precipices  and  the  view  of  the  sea  accorded  very  well  with  my  reveries.  I 
have  written  some  of  them  in  my  journey  to  Sweden.  At  length  we  sailed ;  but  our 
favourable  weather  continued  no  longer  than  was  necessary  to  carry  us  out  to  the 
open  sea,  and  to  put  it  out  of  our  power  to  go  to  any  place  for  shelter.  The  tempest 
became  now  so  violent,  that  our  captain,  one  of  the  most  ignorant  that  was  ever  at  sea, 
had  fifty  times  a  desire  to  suffer  himself  to  be  \vrecked  up(in  some  bank  of  sand. 

Wc  remained  in  continual  apprehensions  during  more  than  eight  days,  that  a  thick 
mist  prevented  us  from  distinguishing  day  from  night;  at  length  we  arrived  within 
sight  of  the  light-house  at  Danztic,  where  our  captain  came  foolishly  to  anchor, 
and  which  he  approached  so  near,  that  two  hours  afterwards,  a  dreadful  north-west 
wind  having  arisen,  he  gave  us  one  of  the  most  serious  alarms  that  we  ever  had  in  our 
lives.  He  entered  the  cabin,  in  which  we  were  asleep,  weeping  and  crying,  like  one  in 
despair,  and  assuring  us  of  our  approaching  destruction,  and  that  nothing  but  God 
could  deliver  us  from  the  imminent  danger  in  which  we  were  placed.  It  is  vexatious 
to  waken  those  who  sleep  soundly  to  give  them  information  of  this  kind ;  but  it  was 
to  us  still  more  horrible,  when,  having  run  upon  deck,  kve  beheld  the  sea  in  fury,  the 
noise  of  which,  toother  with  that  of  the  wind,  foreboded  to  us  nothing  but  danger ;  but 
we  were  at  the  height  of  misery,  when,  our  cable  breaking,  we  felt  the  vessel  in  a 
dreadfully  dark  night,  strike  on  a  bank^f  sand.  No  words  can  paint  the  wretchedness 
of  a  man  who  finds  himself  in  this  horrible  situation ;  for  my  part,  sir,  I  remember 
nothing  else,  except,  that  during  the  whole  renxaining  part  of  the  night  I  began  more 
than  five  hundred  JPater  JVosters,  and  was  never  able  to  finish  one. 


IIEGNAUD'S  JOUKNEY  TO  LAPLAXU,  Inc. 


ioy 


At  length  morning  returned,  the  most  delightful  I  ever  saw ;  and  having  hung  out 
our  flag,  to  shew  the  danger  we  \verc  in,  they  came  from  on  shore  in  wherries  to  find 
us,  and  we  were  conducted  into  the  city. 

Dantzic  is  situated  on  the  Baltic  Sea,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Vistula.  The  largest  ves- 
sels come  into  the  streets,  which  arc  cut  into  canals ;  the  entrance  to  the  harbour  is 
defended  by  a*,  excellent  citadel,  which  they  call  Mund.  This  city  is  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  king  of  Poland  ;  but  however  ostentatiously  these  gentlemen  may  talk  of 
theii  liberty,  they  have  only  the  name  of  it,  and  their  protector  may,  vith  justice,  be 
considered  their  master.  They  lost,  four  years  ago,  a  number  of  their  privilege;  on 
account  of  the  conduct  of  one  Doctor  Stoff,  who  was  the  author  of  a  kind  of  a  sedition. 
The  king  visited  them-,  and,  that  he  might  chastise  the  rebels,  he  fined  them  in  large 
sums  of  money.  The  burgomasters  gave  him  a  Starostie,  called  Poschi,  which  was 
engaged  for  twent}'  thousand  ducats.  The  king  also  ordered,  that  all  law  suits  respccting 
sums  above  one  thousand  livres  might  be  appealed  to  tl^c  court  of  Warsaw. 

Dantzic  is  called  Gedanum  in  Latin  ;  and  the  German  word  is  derived  from  the  verb 
dantzen,  which  signifies,  to  dance.  The  ui  igin  cl  this  etymology  is  the  following ;  a 
number  of  peasants  generally  assembled  on  the  spot  where  it  is  built,  and  intending  to 
build  a  town,  they  applied  to  the  bishop,  whose  property  the  ground  was,  for  leave  to 
build  houses  upon  it,  who  gave  them  as  much  ground  as  they  could  encircle  whilst 
holding  each  other  by  the  hand,  and  making  a  round  in  the  form  of  a  dance. 

Dantzic  pays  about  sixty  thousand  crowns  to  the  king  of  Poland.  There  are  com- 
missaries appointed  at  the  gates,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  the  customs.  The  govern- 
ment of  the  city  k  divided  into  three  parts.  The  first  division  consists  of  four  burgo* 
masters,  who  are  taken  from  the  patrician  families,  and  of  thirteen  councillors.  The 
burgomasters  preside  one  year  each,  after  one  another,  and  are,  as  well  as  the  council- 
lors,  appointed  for  life ;  the  second  division  consists  of  twenty-four  inferior  magistrates ; 
and  the  third  of  a  hundred  men. 

'the  principal  trade  of  this  city  is  in  com,  which  comr.s  down  the  Vistula,  from  Poland, 
an^in  wax,  steel,  and  dmber,  which  is  collected  on  the  sea- shore  from  this  place  to 
Metnel,  It  is  t'-ue,  that  th|s  fishery  belongs  to  the  marquis  of  Brandenburg,  who 
farms  it  out  for  more  than  sixty  thousand  crowns.  When  the  wind  is  high,  then  is 
the}  fishery  most  productive ;  and  at  this  time,  also,  the  guards  and  the  farmers  discourse 
tofjether,  and  ramble  on  the  shore  with  more  exactness;  and  they  are  strictly  prohi- 
bited, under  pain  of  death,  from  purloining  the  smallest  quantity.  It  is  soft  before  it  has 
b(^n exposed  to  the  atmosphere,  and  will  take  the  impression  of  a  seal ;  there  are  many 
pieces  found  with  flies  in  them.  I  was  astonished,  when  I  wa.i  told  what  a  great  traflic 
IS  carried  on  in  this  single  article;  and  as  I  make  little  use  of  it  myself,  I  believed  that 
oti^ers  consumed  no  more  than  me ;  but  I  learnt  at  the  same  time,  that  the  chief  trade  of 
the  Dutch  to  India  consists  of  amber,  where  they  consume  it  greedily.  A  great  Indian 
lord  will  sometimes  burn,  at  one  grand  feast,  more  than  twenty  thousand  crowns  worth 
oi ;  mber;  and  the  odour  of  it  is  not  only  agreeable  to  the  smell,  but  is  also  very  medi- 
cinal, ?nA  useful  in  curing  pains  of  the  head. 

Their  traffic  also  consists  of  ashes,  honey,  and  litharge. 

The  fortifications  of  the  city  are  ver}'  well  kept  in  repair,  and  equally  serve  to  adorn 
and  defend  it.  The  gate  called  Haedor  is  a  piece  of  excellent  architecture ;  and  I  have 
never  seen  any  thing  better  proportioned.  We  observed  in  the  city  very  spacious  streets, 
which  are,  however,  disfigured  by  the  large  balconies  '.vuich  occupy  the  half  of  them. 
There  is  in  the  middle  of  the  great  square  a  fountain,  which  represents  Neptune,  in 
bronze.    The  houses  are  very  handsome,  and  well  furnished. 


i 


,J 


iMi 


V»L.  I. 


B  B 


lii' 


14 


'n 


210 


REGNAUD'S  JOL'ttXEY  TO  LAPLAND,  6ic. 


The  iirscnal  is  very  large,  and  adorned  with  several  beautiful  pieces  of  cannon,  but  the 
great  church  is  a  structure  equally  beautiful  on  account  of  the  height  of  the  roof,  and  the 
eleg-ancc  of  the  carijenter's  work.  There  is  in  this  church  a  certain  hole,  into  which 
the  Lutherans  threw  all  the  saints  and  all  the  ornaments  that  they  found  in  the  Catholic 
church;  and,  on  this  account,  they  call  the  place  hell. 

The  Catholics  have  three  or  four  churches,  the  services  of  which  arc  performed  by 
Jesuits,  Jacobins,  Carmelites,  and  decayed  Carmelites ;  and  I  was  never*more  surprised 
than  when  I  first  attended  mass  :  when  the  priest  ^vas  on  the  point  of  raising  the  host,  I 
was  rather  informed  of  the  action  which  he  intended  to  perform  by  the  noise  of  the  strokes 
which  his  assistants  gave  themselves,  than  from  the  noise  of  the  little  bell,  which  it  was 
impossible  to  hear.  Few  men  are  so  religious,  in  appcarartcc,  as  the  Poles;  they  are  very 
strict  observers  of  the  fasts  ordained  by  the  church.  They  eat  no  butter  on  meager  days, 
but  only  linseed  oil.  They  can  take  no  Besh  on  Fridays;  and  there  would  be  danger  of 
eating  it  in  Mussovia;  and  a  Pole  would  believe  he  performed  a  meritorious  action,  if  he 
killed  a  man  :n  that  state. 

What  !s  also  remarkable  at  Dantzic  is,  the  mill  with  thirty  wheels,  which  produces  a 
ducat  to  the  city  every  hour.  There  is  in  the  great  church  a  remarkable  picture  of  a 
Flemish  painter,  who,  on  h'ls  way  to  Rome,  was  taken  by  Corsair  Turks,  and  afterwards 
retaken  by  the  Christians;  his  name  was  John  of  Chene,  from  Antwerp.  He  has  so  Avell 
represented  the  last  judgment,  that  nothing  more  excellent  can  be  conceived.  I  have 
never  seen  such  a  finished  performance;  although  it  is  certain  that  justice  of  design  is  not 
to  be  found  throughout  every  part;  it  is  said  that  an  elector  of  Brandenburg  offered  filly 
tliousand  cro^vns  for  it.  We  ascended  to  the  top  of  a  spire,  from  whence  we  commaQded 
a  view  of  the  whole  city,  and  of  the  sea,  which  is  half  a  league  distant  from  it.  It  is  nearly 
of  the  same  size  with  Orleans;  but  there  the  houses  are  more  crowded  together, >And 
tliere  are  also  a  much  greater  number  of  inhabitants. 

As  for  the  ladies  it  is  necessary  to  give  them  their  due.  I  have  never  seen  in  ^y 
country  a  greater  number  of  beauties;  they  are  all  very  fair,  and  are  extremely  agreeable. 
The  wives  of  Messrs.  Mathias  are  "^tremely  handsome,  and  especially  the  youngest,  who 
might  pass  for  a  perfect  beauty.  1 

Wet)bserved  the  Polish  dance,  which  is  peculiar.  The  servants  march  before,  i|id 
the  masters  follow;  thev  do  scarcely  any  thing  else  but  march. 

There  are  oxen  in  this  country  of  a  prodigious  size ;  they  are  brought  fix)m  Podo] 
which  belongs  to  the  Turks,  or  from  the  Ukraine,  tlie  best  part  of  which  belongs  to  thi 
also.  This  :^  rovince  of  the  Ukraine  is  inhabited  by  the  Cossacks.  The  soil  is  so  good,  tl 
it  is  suffict"  t  to  sow  seed  in  it  once  in  three  or  four  years;  that  which  falls  from  the  sic' 
in  cuttin'  ^s  suiBcient  to  sow  the  crop;  and  those  wlio  wish  to  sow  tliem  a  second  ti 
gather  .i  the  same  manner.    There  are  few  finer  countries. 

W  J  understood  at  Dantzic  that  M.  de  Betliunc  was  verj-^  much  esteemed  by  the  Polei 
am'  extremely  generous.    At  the  election  of  the  present  king  of  Poland,  not  one  gener 
of  Lithuania  op^iosed  his  coronation;  but  the  rest  wbhed  for  the  prince  of  Lorraine, 
that  of  Neuboui^.   The  prince  of  Lorraine  married  a  princess  Mary,  dowager  queen 
Poland;  but  he  was  not  supported  by  France. 

The  king,  Michael  Coribut  W*isnowischy,  was  chosen  king  as  if  it  had  proceeded  fi«c;n| 
the  vexation  of  those,  who  could  not  agree  before  the  election.  He  received  a  pensioni 
of  five  thousand  livres  from  the  queen  for  his  subsistence.  He  died  very  opportunely ;  for! 
the  Poles  were  deliberating  about  his  deposition.  His  funeral  obsequies  were  jjerformed 
at  the  same  time  with  those  of  king  Casimir,  who  died  at  Paris. 


HKiiNiUtU'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAI'LANU.  kf. 


•211 


of 
he 


:;tt| 


The  prince  of  Conde  has  several  times  in  the  diets  been  proposed  as  king;  Ijiit  th( 
Poles  arc  too  much  afraid  of  him:  they  are  extremely  apprehensive  that  he  would  Ix- 
desirous  of  encroaching  on  the  liberties  of  Poland,  of  which  they  are  extremely  jealous. 
Count  St.  Paul  died  two  diiys  too  soon,  and  was  deprived  of  the  pleasure  of  seeing  himself 
king.  He  had  been  chosen  by  common  consent ;  but  Heaven  ordained  otherwise.  The 
Poles  made  some  scruples  about  crowning  the  queen,  because  the  dowager  was  still  alive, 
and  wi^d  to  relieve  the  state,  which  was  unable  to  support  two  queens ;  but  the  king 
had  taken  his  measures  with  such  prudence,  that  she  was  crowned  a  short  time  after 
him. 

The  starosties  are  the  governments  of  a  province ;  the  king  gives  them  to  the  gentlc- 
bien,  and  cannot  deprive  them  of  them. 

The  cities  send  deputies  to  the  diets,  which  the  king  assembles  when  he  pleases;  and 
the  most  insignificant  of  these  gentlemen,  or  of  these  envoys,  can  put  an  end  to  a  diet ; 
for  there  is  a  law  in  Poland,  by  which  it  is  enacted,  that  their  afHiirs  must  be  decided, 
non  pluralitate  votorum,  sed  nemine  contradicente,  *  not  by  a  plurality  of  voices,  but  b)- 
unanimous  consent.* 

The  wayvodes,  or  palatinates,  are  larger  than  the  starosties ;  they  are  subdivided  into 
starosties. 

The  palatinate  of  M.  Vaubrenic,  called  Boncosci,  was  injured  by  a  Polish  gentleman» 
who  abandoned  it,  and  was  received  and  brought  to  France  by  him.  Madame,  the 
marchioness  of  Bressoi,  his  aunt,  was  expelled  frqm  the  court,  and  obliged  to  leave  the 
city  by  the  intrigues  of  the  qr  een,  who  dreaded  the  king's  engagements,  and  felt  some 
pangs  of  jealousy.  The  story  adds,  that  it  was  Seinkamer,  called  the  Wolget. 

We  saw,  on  the  dav  of  our  departure,  the  great  Hevelius,  professor  of  astronomy,  one 
of  the  learned  men  of  the  age,  ^vho  received  pensions  from  a  number  of  princes,  and, 
particularly,  from  his  most  christian  majesty.  This  man  shewed  us  all  the  works  which 
the  fire  had  spared.  He  related  to  us,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  the  loss  he  had  sustained  by  a 
dreadfiil  fire  which  had  happened  two  years  ago,  had  consumed  more  than  forty  houses, 
and  which  unfortunately  had  begun  with  his. 

This  great  man  has  continued  to  labour,  night  and  day,  for  nearly  fifty  years.  At 
night  he  is  employed  in  observing  the  stars  from  the  top  of  his  house,  with  glasses  more 
than  a  hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  length;  and  during  t^e  Jay  he  reduces  to  writing  what 
he  had  observed  the  preceding  night.  Among  several  other  learned  subjects  on  which 
he  entertained  us,  we  learnt  that  he  was  of  the  same  opinion  with  Copernicus;  and 
he  told  us  that  it  was  perfecdy  absurd  to  believe  that  the  heavens  turned  round  the 
earth,  and  he  supported  his  assertion  by  several  demonstrations,  by  which  we  were  con- 
vinced ;  he  shewed  us,  on  this  subject,  a  terrestrial  and  celestial  globe,  which  proved 
In  a  surprising  manner  that  which  he  told  us ;  he  mentioned,  as  one  of  his  strongest 
reasons,  that  he  always  remarked  at  one  time  the  same  distance  betwixt  the  earth  and 
the  fixed  st»^,  which  are  attached,  as  well  as  the  sun,  to  the  firmament ;  and  that  at 
another  he  found  that  it  was  much  more  distant  from  them;  which  convinced  him 
that  the  motion  was  in  the  earth,  and  not  in  the  heavens ;  and  on  this  subject,  we 
having  told  him  that  this  opiiuon  was  condemned  among  us  as  heretical,  he  told  us 
that  Father  ,  confessor  of  his  holiness,  had  written  to  him  on  this  subject,  and 

pointed  out  to  him  that  the  church  condemned  this  opinion,  till  it  was  proved ;  but, 
so  soon  as  any  one  hud  demonstrated  it  to  be  true  beyond  a  doubt,  he  would  then  find  no 
difficulty  in  adopting  the  more  probable  opinion.  In  the  observation  which  he  made  at 
first  upon  this  motion  of  the  earth,  and  upon  thb  nearness  and  distance  from  the  stars, 
he  thought  he  had  been  mistaken,  as  he  told  us,  in  hb  calculation;  but  h»ving,  durini^ 

£  E  2 


fe 


l;'2li)K 


V 


212 


REONARIVS  JOURNEY  TO  LAI'LAND,  &.O. 


a  lapse  of  fifly  successive  years,  made  the  same  observation,  he  had  now  no  doubt  of  the 
truth  of  his  opinion. 

He  also  told  us  that  he  had  dbcovcred  the  libration  of  the  moon,  which  no  person 
before  him  had  been  acquainted  with,  and  the  knowlcdgje  of  whi^^h  had  been  of  great  use 
to  him  in  all  his  works,  tnc  number  of  which  exceeds  all  belief.  He  has  dedicated  them 
to  almost  every  prince  in  the  world,  and  the  volumes  are  full  of  plates  made  with  his  own 
hand :  he  shewed  us  them  all,  besides  fifteen  large  volumes,  as  thick  as  the  lives  of  the 
saints,  full  of  letters,  which  the  most  learned  men  of  the  whole  world  had  written  to  him 
on  various  subjects. 

The  moon  is  a  round  body,  full  of  depressions  and  elevations.  He  has  drawn  a  chart 
of  it  several  times,  and  has  given  particular  names  to  the  mountains  and  remarkable 
places  which  he  has  observed ;  not  that  there  is  any  water  in  the  moon,  but  a  certain 
kind  of  matter,  which  has  the  same  apjpearance  with  water.  He  is  at  present  constructing 
a  glol)c  of  a  spherical  form,  in  which  he  intends  to  shew  all  the  scientific  discoveries 
which  have  been  made  during  more  than  fifty  years :  he  is  assisted  by  the  king,  to  whom 
he  intends  to  dedicate  his  perfonnance.  He  shewed  us  the  most  beautiful  geometrical 
instruments  that  I  have  ever  seen,  and  a  piece  of  amber,  on  which,  as  soon  as  it  was 
drawn  from  the  sea,  he  imprinted  himself  the  impression  of  a  seal,  whilst  it  was  stili 
sufficiently  soft  to  receive  it ;  for  the  moment  it  has  been  exposed  to  the  air  it  becomes 
hard,  as  we  observe  it. 

The  marquis  of  Brandenburg  has  made  a  present  to  the  emperor  of  a  chair  of  am- 
ber, which  is  said  to  be  the  greatest  curiosity  in  the  world ;  and  to  the  dauphin,  a  mirror 
of  it,  which  is  considered  a  master-piece.  This  prince  is  certainly  the  most  powerfdl  of 
all  Germ<iny ;  his  territory  is  more  than  two  hundred  miles  in  extent ;  and  the  province  of 
Prussia  alone,  of  which  he  has  onlv  a  part,  produces  of  revenue  to  him  more  than  twenty- 
six  thousand  crowns  a  month.  He  gave  a  feast  this  last  summer,  when  he  was  at  Pyr. 
mont,  in  which  he  expended,  according  to  report,  fifly  thousand  crowns :  there  were 
present  forty  royal  persons,  that  is  to  say,  descended  of  royal  families,  or  of  sovereigns. 
The  two  queens  of  Denmark  and  prince  George  were  present.  H'ls  court  is  more  splendid 
than  any  other  in  Germany,  and  it  he  be  destitute  of  the  rank  of  a  king,  he  is  not  destitute 
of  the  heart,  ihe  court,  and  the  revenues  of  one. 

The  elector  of  Brandenburg  is  called  Frederic  William,  great  chamberiain  of  the 
empire,  and  has  married  Louisa  Henrietta,  daughter  of  Frederic  Henry,  prince  of  Orange. 
He  has  a  son  about  fifteen  years  old,  called  the  Court  Prince ;  he  is  of  the  Calvinistic 
religion.  We  lodged  at  Dantzic,  with  Payen,  in  the  Schyher  Gulden  Haus.  We  knew 
there  M.  Mac6,  watchmaker,  who  had  resided  long  in  Constantinople,  and  who  purchased 
his  wife  there,  who  is  from  Dantzic ;  the  story  is  very  interesting.     This  Pole  b  called 

,  and  his  brother  is  now  agent  at  the  Constantinopolitan  court,  where  he  himself 

had  been  with  his  father,  who  was  ambassador. 

We  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the  Transylvanian  Michael  Apafiei,  whom  France 
bribed  largely  to  grant  a  passage  through  his  territories  to  sixty  thousand  Frenchmen, 
and  an  equal  number  of  Tartars,  whom  he  kept  in  pay  during  the  last  >vars,  and  who 
necessarily  diverted  the  attention  of  the  emperor.  The  duke  of  Transylvania  is  chosen 
by  the  states  of  the  country,  and  is  confirmed  by  the  grand  Turk,  to  whom  he  pays 
tribute.  He  swears,  on  his  arrival  at  supreme  power,  to  maintain  in  the  country  the 
free  exercise  of  five  religions,  which  are,  the  Roman-catholic,  the  Greek,  the  Lutheran, 
the  Calvinistic,  and  the  Anabaptist.  He  receives  tribute  from  the  princes  of  Moldavia 
and  Wallachia.  ... 


^  V    tA    • 


RKOVARD'S  JOtUNKY  TO  I,Al•LA^n),  he. 


213 


The  late  prince  of  Transylvania  was  called  Ragotski,  of  the  klncdom  of  Hungary  ; 
and  his  predecessor  was  BeUiltm  Cabor,  who  married  Catherine  of  Brandenburgh. 

We  set  out  from  Dantzic  for  Warsaw  on  Wednesday  the  twenty-ninth  of  October,  in 
a  little  covered  chariot,  which  we  hired  for  four-and-twcnty  crowns,  current  money  of 
the  country,  which  amount  to  about  twenty  French  livres.  On  our  departure  \\c 
passed  through  a  very  large  suburb,  a  German  mile  in  length,  which  is  called  Schotland. 
The  road  is  very  fine,  the  country  very  good,  and  the  inns  very  wretched ;  but  one 
does  not  observe  this  wretchedness,  because  it  is  the  custom  in  Poland  for  travellers  to 
carry  every  necessary  iilong  widi  them,  even  their  beds ;  for  in  the  inns  nothing  is  to  be 
found  but  what  one  carries.  This  custom  has  its  advantages  and  its  disadvantages ;  one 
disadvantage  is,  that  it  becomes  necessary  for  one  to  carry  a  great  equipage  ;  but  it  has 
this  advantage,  that  one  always  has  something  good  to  eat,  and  that  one  always  sleeps 
in  one's  own  bed ;  which  is  undoubtedly  a  great  convenience  for  a  traveller,  who  is 
very  happy  at  enjoying  repose  at  night,  after  the  fatigues  of  the  day  :  this  consideration 
alone  is  sufficient  to  make  one  support  the  toil  of  a  journey. 

The  reason  why  nothing  is  to  be  met  with  in  Poland  is,  that  the  gentlemen  take 
every  thing  from  the  peasant,  and  pay  him  most  frequently  with  stripes.  All  the  pea- 
sants are  bom  slaves  ;  and  so  great  is  the  power  of  the  lords  of  the  soil,  that  it  extends 
even  to  the  jurisdiction  over  life  and  death ;  and  when  a  gentleman  has  killed  one  of 

his  peasants,  he  is  acquitted  by  paying ,  which  amounts  to  about  seven  francs 

of  our  money ;  and  this  sum  is  employed  to  bury  him. 

•  The  lands  are  not  sold  according  to  their  value,  but  the  number  of  peasants  which 
are  upon  them :  they  are  obliged  to  work  five  days  in  the  week  for  their  master,  and 
the  sixth  for  themselves  and  their  families,  who  are  more  wretched  than  it  is  possible  to 
express.  It  frequently  happens  that  the  lords,  having  need  of  money,  sell  to  their  slaves 
their  liberty  for  a  certain  sum  of  money;  but  without  this  they  are  not  permitted  to 
remove  their  habitations :  and  a  peasant  who  should  be  found  in  flight  would  undoubt- 
edly be  massacred  by  his  master.  This  dominion  extends  over  the  women,  as  well  as  the 
men,  and  even  somewhat  further;  and  if  the  peasant  has  a  handsome  daughter,  the  gentle- 
man does  not  fail  to  take  the  privilege  of  the  lord  of  the  soil. 

We  passed  through  Graudentz,  a  city  situated  on  the  Vistula,  which  is  a  magazine  of 
the  grain  which  is  carried  down  this  river  to  Dantzic  and  Culm,  where  we  attended  mass, 
in  a  very  fine  church,  on  Toussmnt's  day ;  and  we  arrived  at  Thorn,  a  city  finely  situated, 
which  for  this  reason  is  called  Die  Schenste,  the  handsomest. 

Thorn  is  a  free  city,  under  the  protection  of  the  king  of  Poland,  like  Dantzic,  and  it 
is  the  capital  of  Prussia-royal ;  it  is  almost  in  the  middle  of  the  distance  betwixt  Dantzic 
and  Warsaw.  The  government  is  almost  like  that  of  Dantzic,  except  that  the  four 
burgomasters  are  changed  every  year,  fifteen  days  before  Easter,  on  the  Sunday  of 
Judica.  These  four  burgomasters  are  elected ;  but  the  burgrave,  who  is  the  chief,  is 
appointed  by  the  king  of  Poland.  We  went  to  see  the  town-house,  which  is  very  mag- 
nificent ;  and  in  the  magistrates'  hall  are  portraits  of  the  kings  of  Poland,  from  Casimir 
the  Fourth,  who  reigned  forty-five  years.  To  him  succeeded  John  Albertus,  who  sat 
on  the  throne  eight  years ;  and  was  followed  by  Alexander,  who  reigned  five  years ; 
and  after  him  Sigismond  the  First  remained  on  the  throne  forty-one  years :  Sigismond 
Augustus  was  next  elected,  who  remained  king  four  and  twenty  years ;  but  his  successor, 
Henry  the  Third,  who  was  afterwards  king  of  France,  reigned  only  three  months. 
Thb  prince  received  two  crowns,  and  had  for  his  motto,  Manet  ultima  coelo;  but  others 
changed  coelo  to  claustro.  Afler  him  came  Stephen,  who  reigned  six  years ;  and  Sigis- 
mond the  Third,  king  of  Sweden  and  Poland,  succeeded  him.    The  former  kingdom 


-m 


214 


iiRONAun's  joruNKv  ro  i,\i>i.ANn,  do. 


was  snutchcil  IVom  him  by  Cliarks  the  Ninth,  his  uncle,  whilst  he  was  in  Poland.  This 
prince  was  chosen  kin^  ol"  Sweden,  and  engajjcd  at  his  election  to  live  every  fifth  year 
at  Stockholm ;  hut  being  unable  to  keep  his  i)romisc,  on  account  of  the  continual  wars 
in  which  he  was  engaged  with  Uie  Turks,  the  Tartars,  and  the  Muscovites,  he  deter* 
mined  to  send  them  a  senate,  composed  of  forty  Jesuits,  A\o  should  rc|>rcsent  his  court  : 
this  senate  was  received  at  Dantzic  widi  great  magnificence,  and  emlxtrked  for  Stock> 
holm ;  but  intelligence  of  their  departure  being  received  at  Stockholm,  the  council 
assembled,  in  which  Charles,  the  king's  uncle,  presided,  who  dissuaded  the  Swedes  from 
receiving  a  government  of  priests ;  and  the  vessel  containing  them  having  arrived  in 
the  road,  he  went  in  a  twenty-gun  vessel,  imder  pretence  of  receiving  them ;  and  having 
given  a  siilute  rather  too  rough  to  the  vessel  containing  the  hol;^  brotlierhood,  he  drove 
It  td  the  bottom,  without  attempting  to  save  any  Jesuit,  whom  he  jeered,  in  crying  to  them. 
Perform  now  your  miracles,  as  in  Japan,  when  you  walked  on  the  water. 

Sigismond  in  Uiis  manner  lost  his  crown  of  Sweden,  which  his  uncle  acquired ;  who, 
knowing  well  that  there  was  no  better  means  of  exciting  a  war  than  under  the  pretext 
of  religion,  explled  all  the  Roman-catholic  priests,  aiul  established  the  Lutherans  in 
their  stead.  He  was  engaged  in  a  war  with  his  nephew  in  1604,  which  continued  two 
years ;  but  the  king  of  Poland  was  unable  to  undertake  any  attempt  of  consequence, 
from  the  attention  which  it  became  necessary  to  pay  to  tlie  Tartars,  who  pressed  him 
strongly  on  the  other  side. 

This  did  not  prevent  the  kings  of  Poland,  after  Sigismond  the  Third,  from  taking  the 
title  of  kings  of  Sweden,  until  the  time  of  John  Casimir,  at  the  last  pacification,  w^ieh 
took  place  at  Oliva,  near  Dantzic ;  where  it  was  ordained  that  John  Casimir,  being  the 
last  of  his  family,  should  condescend  to  enjoy  this  title  only  during  his  life-time,  in  his 
intercourse  with  all  the  princes  of  the  world  who  sliould  ^ve  him  this  title,  except  the 
Swedes. 

Sigismond  had  two  sons,  both  of  whom  succeeded  to  the  throne :  the  eldest  was 
Uladislas  the  Fourth,  who  reigned  fifteen  years.  It  was  during  this  reign  that  the  cele- 
brated entry  of  the  Poles  into  Parb,  to  demand  the  princess  Mary  for  their  queen,  took 
place.  Uladislas  being  dead,  his  brother  Casimir  was  chosen  in  his  stead,  who  married 
his  brother's  widow,  and  reigned  sixteen  years,  at  the  end  of  which  he  resigned  the 
crown,  and  retired  to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  France,  where  he  died.  To  him 
succeeded  Michael  Coribet  Wesnowischy :  this  prince  was  too  good ;  and  his  nobles 
despised  him  to  such  a  degree,  that  they  put  it  into  his  head  to  retire  into  a  convent, 
wluch  he  would  have  done,  if  death  had  not  prevented  him.  The  queen  agreed  to  it, 
because  she  was  to  have  been  married  to  count  St.  Paul,  whom  the  majority  wished  to 
raise  to  the  throne.  It  was  under  him  that  Sobieski,  who  at  that  time  was  only  grand 
marshal,  gained  the  famous  batde  of  Cochin,  in  the  Ukraine,  between  the  Niester  and 
the  Pruth.  The  Turks  were  encamped  and  well  entrenched  under  a  fortress;  and  the 
Poles,  being  about  eighty  thousand  men  strong,  having  passed  the  Niester  on  Sunday, 
encamped  the  following  days  almost  within  sight  of  the  Turks.  ThursdM^  and  Friday 
verc  s{)ent  in  making  some  skirmishes,  and  on  the  evening  of  this  day  the  roles  charged 
the  enemy.  This  attack  continued  the  whole  night,  and  on  Saturday  morning  the  de- 
feat commenced,  and  continued  only  two  hours,  during  which  more  than  eight-and- 
tliirty  thousand  Turks  were  killed,  vnthcut  giving  quarter  to  a  single  individual.  Hus- 
sahi  Pacha,  who  commanded  the  Turkish  army,  wim  great  difficulty  saved  himself,  with 
two  thousand  men,  who  alone  remained  of  the  whole  army,  which  amounted  to  more 
timn  forty  thousand  men,  and  which  by  flight  avoided  the  fate  of  their  companions. 
The  booty  was  great,  and  it  was  wholly  given  up  to  the  soldiers,  except  the  tent  of 


UK(*.N\RI)'S  .lOl.'UNRY   lO  LAPLAND,  &c. 


ai5 


Hussain,  which  was  catx:fully  preserved,  and  sent  as  a  present  to  the  king.  Nothing  could 
be  more  superb  than  this  tent :  it  had  more  the  appearance  of  a  city  than  a  pavilion  of 
war,  and  all  the  officers  were  lodged  in  it.  Hussain  Pacha  repassed  the  river  with  near 
six  thousand  men ;  but  the  bridge  fell  when  the  whole  army  was  upon  it,  and  more  than 
four  tiiousand  men  were  drowned,  without  any  relief  to  those  who  experienced  the  cruelty 
of  the  waves,  excqit  that  of  lx;ing  cut  to  pieces  by  their  enemies. 

The  king  Michael  received  this  intelligence  with  great  joy,  and  Uiis  caused  his  death, 
which  hapjiened  eight  days  after.  There  were  great  tactions  after  his  death,  as  always 
happens  in  Poland  on  similar  occasions.  Sobicski  was  then  grand  marshal,  and  genenil 
in  chief,  and  he  made  the  whole  army  swear  before  he  left  them,  that  they  would  give  their 
votes  for  the  prince,  although  at  that  time  he  was  not  beloved  Ijy  the  lesser  nobles.  M.  de 
Beauvais  was  sent  fixim  France ;  and  whether  it  was  not  the  interest  of  France  that  the 
prince  should  liecome  king,  or  that  he  found  too  many  obstacles  among  the  nobilit}-,  he 
made  before  die  assembled  senate  one  of  the  finest  speeches  ever  delivered,  telling  the 
republic  Uiat  both  in  gratitude  for  past  services,  and  in  the  hope  of  those  which  might  in 
future  be  received,  no  flection  could  be  so  favourable  to  the  public  good  as  that  of  Sobi. 
cski,  who  in  consequence  was  chosen  king,  and  afterwards  crowned  at  Crackow,  under 
tlie  name  of  John  the  Third. 

The  dowager  of  king  Michael  has  since  been  married  to  the  prince  of  Lorraine,  who 
has  more  influence  than  any  other  at  the  court  of  Poland,  if  the  intrigues  of  France  had 
been  less  powerful,  and  if  it  had  not  been  wholly  her  interest  to  prevent  this  prince  from 
arriving  at  the  throne,  since  by  this  new  acquisition  of  |X)wer  he  might  have  been  enabled 
to  undertake  some  enterprise  against  France,  for  the  recovery  of  his  duchy. 

Although  Poland  be  united  to  France  by  friendship,  without  having  much  intercourse 
\wth  her,  it  is  more  her  interest  to  remain  on  good  terms  with  the  emperor,  whose 
growing  strength  in  Hungary  is  alarming.  It  was  made  apparent  two  years  ago  that 
tlie  Poles  were  not  ignorant  of  this  maxim,  when  M.  de  Bethune  was  at  that  court,  for 
the  purpose  of  fomenting  the  rebellion  of  the  Cossacks,  both  by  means  of  men  and  money. 
The  queen  ordered  the  recruits  which  M.  de  Bethune  was  sending  off  to  the  rebels  to  be 
arrested,  near  the  Hungarian  mountains,  by  tlie  Palatine  of  Russia,  bv  which  she 
evinced  that  Poland  had  no  concern  with  what  passed  in  that  quarter,  and  that  the  whole 
proceeding  originated  with  the  court  of  France,  which,  for  want  of  money,  allowed  the 
troops  commanded  by  M.  de  Guenegaut  to  be  disbanded.  These  troops  were  com- 
posed of  some  Frenchmen,  Tartars,  but  the  greatest  part  were  rebels,  who,  finding  that 
It  had  been  more  than  two  years  since  they  had  received  any  pa^,  they  mutinied  against 
their  generals,  whom  they  attacked  and  arrested  prisoners  in  a  village,  where  they  wished 
to  massacre  them. 

This  conduct  of  the  palatine  of  Russia,  ordered  by  the  queen,  produced  a  great  alte- 
ration  in  the  mind  of  M.  de  Bethune,  who  was  a  considerable  time  without  attending  the 
court,  which  was  also  the  case  with  madame  the  marchioness,  who  could  not  remain  on 
good  terms  with  the  queen.  M.  de  Bethune  did  not  wish  well  the  more  Fjr  this  action  to 
die  palatine  of  Russia,  under-genen\l  of  the  crown,  and  in  some  degree  put  him  at  defiance, 
by  telling  him,  if  they  were  each  of  them  at  the  head  of  five  hundred  horse,  it  would  be 
seen  who  was  superior :  however,  they  afterwards  became  friends,  and  the  palatine  after- 
wards made  a  present  of  a  fine  Turkish  horse  to  M.  de  Bethune. 

M.  de  Bethune  was  extremely  popular  in  Poland :  no  man  ever  sustained  his  cha- 
racter better  in  that  country  than  him ;  he  always  kept  open  table,  and  had  more  than 
a  hundred  persons  in  his  house:  he  lodged  at  the  Cassimerian  palace,  built  by  the  prin- 
ce^ Mary.  >,  ,  .;     :    ,    ,,         . 


n 


216 


imCiNARU'S  JOUHNKY  TO  l-AI'LAND,  he. 


i 


Tht;  diets  arc  hcU  once  in  three  years;  two  are  held  in  Warsaw,  and  one  at  Cirodno, 
or  Wilna,  the  two  most  resiKctablc  cities  of  Lithuania.  This  province  has  the  siime 
officers  with  Poland,  and  ^-nenil  Spas  is  commander  in  chief  in  Lithiumia.  It  is  said 
in  the  country,  that  it  might  so  haj)pcn  that  the  Lithuanians  might  choose  a  king;  they 
sec  themselves  despised  by  the  Poles,  and  even  by  the  king,  who  has  not  the  same  regard 
for  them  as  for  his  other  subjects:  it  is  feared  that  they  may  put  themselves  under  tlie 
protection  of  Muscovy-.  They  cry  out  for  war  in  every  diet ;  but  they,  as  well  as  the 
Poles,  are  in  no  condition  to  carry  it  on. 

When  war  is  declared,  you  see  all  the  litde  gentry  on  horseback  attendii>g  the  army  : 
they  remain  as  long  as  their  provisions  last,  which  consist  of  a  great  number  of  little 
cheeses,  hard  as  wood,  a  kitt  ol  butter,  and  something  else  of  that  nature  ;  and  when  this 
is  consumed,  and  they  have  eaten  the  price  of  their  horses,  they  return  home,  and  are 
thus  in  a  very  poor  state  for  continuing  the  ^var. 

The  last  diet  was  held  last  year,  and  \vas  broken  up  by  a  little  gentleman,  who  was 
of  a  different  opinion  from  the  rest.  It  was  at  that  tjme  that  the  affair  res|)ecting  the 
ambassadors  took  place,  who  returning  from  the  castle  were  insulted  by  some  Poles,  who 
had  endeavoured  to  seize  the  sword  of  a  page :  he  drew  his  sword ;  but  some  gentlemen 
having  alighted  from  their  chariots,  among  others  the  marquis  of  Janson,  the  whole  was 
api)eased.  The  Poles  departed  for  assistance,  and  returned  with  nearly  three  hundred 
persons,  to  fall  once  more  u|xjn  the  attendants  of  the  ambassadors,  with  hazel  sticks  anJ 
cudgels,  crying,  Zal/i,  zabiy  fransleute ;  tue,  tue.  The  attendants  alighted  from  the 
chariot,  and  went  into  the  residence  of  the  palatine  of  Russia,  where  they  defended  them- 
selves as  well  as  they  were  able  against  this  multitude,  whom  the  presence  of  the  ambas- 
sadors was  unable  to  overawe,  and  which  could  not  prevent  several  gentlemen  from  being 
wounded,  and  some  remained  apparently  dead  on  the  spot. 

The  king  came  next  morning  incognito  to  the  ambassadors,  who  lodged  at  the  Holy 
Cross  with  the  fathers  of  the  mission,  to  settle  matters:  the  palatine  of  Russia  came  thither 
also,  and  offered  to  put  all  his  people  into  the  hands  of  the  ambassadors,  to  treat  them  as 
they  thought  proper.  Envoys  are  sent  from  all  parts  to  these  diets :  some  were  there  from 
Persia,  Turkey,  and  Muscovy.  The  Muscovite  was  conducted  in  the  chariot  of  the  grand 
marshal,  drawn  by  die  king's  horses.  The  Turk  was  there,  on  account  of  the  limits 
which  he  had  established  v/ith  near  thirty  thousand  men  seven  leases  from  Leopdd, 
according  to  his  inclin  '  lion,  for  they  were  m  no  condition  to  contest  with  him.  Thb  gave 
great  vexation  to  many  individuals  who  had  property  in  that  quarter,  who  however  re- 
ceived promises  of  being  otherwise  recompensed.  This  is  a  pretty  good  ^vay  of  establish- 
ingboundaries,  at  the  head  of  an  army. 

The  first  office  belonging  to  the  crown  is  that  of  general,  which  is  possessed  by  prince 
Nitre,  nephew  of  the  king,  although  older.  '  /  '  \n- 

The  second  is  that  of  grand  marshal,  possessed  by  Lubomirsky.  ^' 

The  palatine  of  Russia  is  under-general. 

The  chevalier  Lubomirsky  is  grand  ensign,  and  M.  de  Morstain  is  great  treasurer  of  the 
kingdom,  without  being  obliged  to  give  any  account :  he  is  immensely  rich,  although  it 
is  not  yet  eight  years  since  his  circumstances  were  very  straitened. 

All  these  offices  are  sold  by  the  possessors  of  them;  but  if  they  happen  to  become 
vacant  by  death,  the  king  disposes  of  them. 

The  archbishop  of  Gnesne,  who  is  at  present  ■,  is  primate,  and  first  prince  of 

the  kingdom,  bom  a  legate,  and  governs  the  whole  country  during  the  interregnum,  which 
continues  a  year.     The  money  is  marked  with  his  image. 

There  is  almost  no  other  kingdom  in  Europe,  except  Poland,  which  is  elective.    The 


^  i 

i 

ft 


Kkir.NARU'g  JUl'KVKY  TO  I.A)'LANU.  &e. 


317 


The 


Icings  proposed  at  the  last  diet  that  they  should  recognise  his  Hon  as  his  Huccessor ;  but  the 
Poles  suid  that  they  could  only  rccogiiise  him  ns  son  of  the  grnnd  nuirsluil,  his  iathir 
filling  that  office  when  he  was  tx)rn.  The  troops  are  raised  and  paid  at  the  cxpence  of 
the  republic,  wliich  supports  only  five  or  six  thous:md  men,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting 
the  fmntiers  from  the  mcursions  of  the  Tartars.  They  have  some  regiments  of  hussars, 
who  arc  men  armed  in  a  vcr}'  particular  manner.  To  equip  one  of  these  hussars  costs 
more  than  two  thousand  livres :  they  have  large  horses,  and  carry  a  tiger's  skin  upon 
their  shoulders,  a  quiver  and  arrows  liehind  their  ImcIc,  a  coat  of  mail  upon  their  head, 
a  sabre,  pistols,  and  a  cutlass.  The  servants  of  these  men  precede  the  sipiadron  on 
horseback,  with  a  lance  in  their  hand;  and  it  is  very  singular  that  these  i)eoplc  have 
wings  fixed  to  their  backs :  they  rush  occasionally  into  the  midst  of  their  enemies,  and 
frighten  their  horses,  who  arc  accustomed  to  these  visions,  and  make  wa)-  for  their 
masters,  who  closely  follow  them.  The  republic  has  also  some  Tartars  whom  it  sup- 
ports in  time  of  peace,  who  arc,  like  the  Swiss,  willing  to  hire  themselves  out  to  those 
who  will  pay  them  :  these'  are  in  other  res|iccts  the  worst  troops  in  the  world  :  the  y 
shewed  clearly  that  their  horses  were  better  than  themselves,  when,  observing  the  Swedes 
passing  the  Vistula,  they  chose  rather  to  avoid  than  to  await  them,  and  left  king  Casimir, 
who  had  only  leisure  to  help  the  queen  into  her  chariot,  and  who  saw  from  his  resi- 
dence the  Swedes  pass  the  nver,  and  enter  into  Warsaw  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  ob- 
served  the  Poles  and  the  Tartars  flying  swifter  than  the  wind.  They  ravaged  the  whole 
city,  conducted  by  Gustavus  Charles,  father  of  the  present  king,  who  gave  a  wished-for 
permission  to  his  soldiers  to  carry  away  the  beautiful  column  at  the  entrance  of  the  giUe 
of  Warsaw,  provided  they  removed  it  without  breaking  it. 

In  the  last  diet  it  was  resolved  that  no  candles  should  be  lighted  there,  to  prevent 
those  who  slept  from  being  seen ;  for  it  often  happens  that  as  the  Poles  go  to  the  diet  at 
three  or  four  o'clock,  after  dinner,  when  they  have  drank  too  freely,  others  took  the 
opportunity  of  passung  some  resolutions,  while  they  knew  those  who  were  of  an  opposite 
opmion  were  asleep,  and  which  consequently  passed  unanimously  :  it  is  on  this  account 
that  they  have  been  anxious  to  banish  light  from  their  assembly,  that  the  confusion  in  it 
may  be  increased,  if  indeed  it  could  be  greater,  and  that  those  who  slept  might  not  be 
observed. 

Warsaw  is  in  Mazovia,  the  capital  of  U[)per  Poland,  and  is  the  place  where  the  diets 
are  held  every  three  years.  This  city  is  situated  upon  the  Vistula,  which  comes  from 
Cracow,  and  on  which  a  great  quanti^f  of  commodities  are  conveyed  from  Hungary, 
and  chiefly  wine,  the  most  excellent  which  can  possibly  be  drunk.  It  contains  nothing 
worthy  of  observation,  except  the  statue  of  Sigismond  the  Third,  erected  by  his  son 
Uladislas,  which  is  placed  at  the  entrance  of  the  gate,  on  a  pillar  of  jasper,  at  which  the 
Swedes  fired  several  cannon :  the  gilding  of  the  figure  ''■,.  deeper  than  tne  thickness  of  a 
ducat.  The  city  is  very  dirty  and  very  small,  and,  properly  speaking,  consists  solely  of 
the  great  square,  in  the  middle  of  which  the  town-house  is  situated,  and  around  it  there 
;ire  numbers  of  shops  kept  by  Armenians,  very  richly  furnished  with  stuffs  and  merchan- 
dise, in  the  Turkish  manner,  such  as  bows,  arrows,  quivers,  sabres,  carpets,  knives,  and 
others  :  here  they  have  a  great  number  of  churches  and  convents.  We  saw  the  Cassi. 
merian  palace,  built  by  the  late  queen,  which  is  at  present  so  much  neglected,  that  every 
part  of  It  is  falling  to  decay  :  we  saw  there  several  of  those  chairs,  by  means  of  which 
they  ascend  and  descend  from  one  chamber  to  another.  It  was  from  this  palace  that 
the  queen  beh**'''  the  Swedes  pass  over  the  river,  which  washes  the  feet  of  the  walls ; 
and  It  was  !.ere  where  M.  Bethune  dwelt. 

We  went  to  pay  a  vbit  to  M.  Lubomirsky,  grand  marshal,  who  is  one  of  the  richest 

VOL.    I.  F    F 


1 1 

y 


111 


:218 


RRC.NAHD'ft  .fOtnSF.V  T«)  I.AIM.AND,  lie. 


princes  of  Poland.  His  futhtr  wan  generalissimo,  and  entertained  great  jealousy  of 
rotosky,  another  genenil :  however  they  (xxamc  friends  in  ct.n!iemience  of  the  marriage 
which  Lubomirsky  hrouj^ht  alxjut  iKtwixthis  son  and  Potosky's  daughter  :  she  is  dead, 
and  this  prince  has  since  married  the  daughter  of  the  great  chamberiani.  Luijomiriky, 
his  father,  took  up  armsag/mst  his  king,  and  defeated  his  troops  several  times  :  he  was 
accused  of  favounng  Austria  in  the  approaching  election,  and  of  assiutirig  the  great  party 
of  the  confederation. 

This  nobleman  shewed  us  his  whole  house  with  great  condescension;  he  purchtuicd 
it  tivc  or  six  years  ago,  and  had  an  excellent  bargain  of  it ;  it  is  called  Jcsdoua,  and  is 
only  about  a  cannon-shot  distant  from  the  city.  This  prince  is  constantly  building  in 
his  garden  hermitages  and  baths,  which  arc  very  Ixautitul.  His  palace  is  full  of  a  great 
number  of  very  beautiful  originals,  which  he  has  collected  ut  a  great  cxpcnce.  His 
gallery  is  very  curious:  he  she\ved  us  a  large  piece  of  mechanism,  which  he  nad  received 
from  the  neighbourhood  of  Augsburg,  which  contained  a  f  )o  k,  a  chime  of  bells,  a  per- 
petual motion,  and  a  number  of  other  things ;  the  whole  was  made  in  the  form  of  a 
large  cabinet  of  silver. 

He  shewed  us  the  spot  on  which  his  grandfather  had  gained  the  battle  over  the  Turks 
at  Choczim,  where  Osman  was  present,  and  where  sevend  thousand  of  the  enemy  were 
left  on  the  field  of  battle.  This  place  is  favourable  to  the  Poles ;  they  have  gained  two 
signal  victories  on  it,  and  especially  the  last,  which  tended  not  a  little  to  the  peace  which 
succeeded. 

VVe  went  to  the  castle,  which  contains  nothing  beautiful,  except  the  chambers  of  the 
senate,  and  that  of  marble,  where  the  taking  of  Smolensko  by  the  Poles  from  the  Mus- 
covites is  painted,  and  where  they  killed  great  numbers,  and  took  two  sons  of  the 
grand  duke  prisoners,  whom  they  brought  to  Warsaw,  where  they  died;  and  a  nhapel 
was  built  for  them,  which  is  still  called  the  Chapel  of  the  Muscovites,  and  is  situated  ^le- 
fore  the  place  where  we  lodged.  There  is  in  the  castle  some  very  fine  tapestry,  wrought 
with  gold,  which  was  brougnt  from  France  by  king  Henry  ;  a  part  of  it  was  pledged  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Dantzic  by  Casimir,  to  induce  them  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  the  state. 

The  palace  of  M.  Morstain,  grand-treastirer  of  the  kingdom,  is  the  most  magnificent 
of  all,  both  with  regard  to  the  fine  effect  of  the  structure,  and  the  richness  of  the  fur- 
niture  wi»h  which  it  is  adorned.  This  nobleman  received  us  with  all  possible  affability  ; 
he  shewed  us  all  the  apartments  of  his  palace,  and  a  number  of  pictures  in  his  gallery. 
\Vc  saluted  die  treasurer's  lady,  who  is  a  native  of  Scotland,  wnom  we  met  with  at 
general  Beam's,  who  served  in  the  French  army  in  Hungary.  M.  Morstain  has  pur- 
chased from  the  Marquis  de  Vitri  the  territory  of  Montrogue,  in  France.  He  pretends 
that  his  son,  who  is  called  M.  de  Chateau- Villain,  and  whom  the  queen  in  derision  de- 
nominates Litde- Villain,  will  rtt^iain  in  France,  and  possess  all  his  property  there ;  and 
what  remains  in  Poland  is  to  be  the  property  of  his  grand-daughter,  who  is  now  mar- 
riageable. ^  He  requested  us  to  take  a  repast  with  him. 

The  house  of  the  palatine  of  Lublin  is  also  to  be  seen. 

General  Spas  is  cliief  general  of  Lithuania :  he  made  a  strenuous  opposition  to  the 
election  of  Sobieski ;  but  it  was  carried  by  means  of  money. 

It  is  prohibited  under  severe  penalties  to  draw  a  sword  during  the  diets,  and  to  fight 
any  where  in  Poland  within  three  leagues  of  the  king  and  the  grand  marshal. 

M.  de  Beauvais  only  proposed  in  his  harangue  the  prince  of  Noubourg  to  be  elected, 
and  did  not  give  himself  much  concern  who  w.i3  king,  provided  it  was  not  the  prince 
of  Lorraine.  The  election  of  the  king  takes  place  in  the  country,  where  they  erect  a 
wooden  structure.     A  circumstance  took  place  at  the  coronation  of  the  present  king. 


HKGMAKII^it  JOCKNr.Y  TO  LAI'I.ANU.  Ac 


Ji«* 


mar- 


which  never  liai>|K'i)cd  iKforc,  aiul  which  will  prolialilv  iitvt-r  hapiKii  a^aiii,  which  was, 
that  ihi-  kiiiKtbllowcd  tlic  Ixxtics  oi'  two  othiTH,  k\\\\^  NlichacI  uiui  king  Cuhiinir,  tu  thf 
grave.     TIk-  coronation  takes  plate  at  Cnu ow. 

King  Michael  had  a  little  soul ;  he  took  pkaNure  only  in  procuring  iinngenand  watches; 
and  tx.'(|uesting  iVom  the  oueenone  duy  u  watch,  he  told  her  he  wished  to  make  hutton^i 
uf  it  to  his  waiitteoat.  When  he  vvus  elected,  the  queen  settled  a  |K.n!iion  on  him  of  tivc 
Uionsand  livres ;  M.  Seryeant  lent  him  a  third  part  of  it. 

TIk-  1*oIch  are  extremely  proud,  and  plume  themselves  highly  up<»"  their  noliility,  the 
greater  part  of  whom  are  obliged  to  till  the  ground,  so  wretched  is  their  condition.  A 
petty  nobleman  wears  his  sabre  w  hile  proceeding  to  cidlivate  the  ground,  and  lays  it 
down  beside  some  tree ;  and  if  atu  one  passing  would  refuse  him  the  ajipellation  ol 
Mouchc-Panier,  and  itimply  call  hnn  Panier,  which  is  e(|uivalent  to  Mr.  he  would  be 
treated  very  roughly. 

In  other  respects  they  arc  very  civil,  and  are  always  the  first  to  put  their  hands  to 
their  hat:  they  aa*  great  observers  of  fasts,  and  practise  more  abstinence  than  is  demanded 
of  them.  Some  Poles  eat  no  flesh  on  Monday  and  Wednesday  ;  on  Friday  almost  no- 
body eats  butter;  and  on  Saturday  they  eat  nothing  boiled,  but  take  Uiat  which  haslK-en 
roasted.  This  devotion  extends  towards  all  the  animals ;  and  our  valet  having  one  Satur- 
day given  some  fat  to  a  dog,  our  hostess  wished  to  pimi^h  him,  thinking  she  wa^i  perform. 
ing  a  meritorious  action. 

The  Poles  lay  out  considerable  sums  on  their  interments,  and  delay  them  a  long 
while,  from  motives  of  magnificence.  There  are  great  lords,  who  are  not  interred  for 
five  or  six  years  after  their  death,  and  who  are  deposited  in  heated  chapels,  which  cost 
hirge  sums.  On  the  day  of  interment  they  cause  armed  men  to  enter,  like  the  ancient 
chevaliers,  who  come,  as  if  on  horseback,  into  the  church,  and  run  to  break  their  lance 
at  the  foot  of  the  cofHn. 

The  house  of  the  fathers  of  the  mission,  where  the  ambassiidors  lodge,  is  veiy  large. 
They  built  a  church,  called  Holy  Cross ;  but  it  remains  there  till  some  gofxl  man  finish 
with  his  |K*nce  that  which  the  fathers  have  begun.  They  were  established  with  the  re- 
ligious of  St.  Mar^  by  the  late  queen ;  they  are  very  rich,  and  the  bishop  of  Cracow 
is  at  present  e«tabhshing  them  in  nis  diocese  :  the  superior  was  not  there,  but  we  saw 
father  Mumasan. 

The  rebels  of  Hungary  have  revolted,  on  account  of  religion,  against  the  emperor, 
who  wished  to  deprive  them  of  liberty  of  conscience. 

Michael  Apaflei  is  prince  of  Transylvania :  he  swears,  at  his  accession  to  power,  to 
maintain  four  religions  in  his  states.  The  greatest  pleasure  of  this  prince  consists  in 
drinking,  and  whoever  is  able  to  do  so,  is  sure  to  make  his  fortune  in  his  service.  The 
capital  of  Transylvania  is  Cuisvar. 

The  )roung  prince,  six  or  seven  years  old,  is  educated  in  the  disposition  of  his  father, 
and  carries  always  a  bottle  at  his  side,  in  the  form  of  a  bandoleer.  M.  Acakias  was  a 
long  time  the  resident  in  this  country  ;  at  present  it  is  M.  du  Verdet.  The  chevalier 
de  Bourges,  who  lefl  it  with  M,  Acakiaii,  but  who,  being  sick,  stopt  at  Leopold,  assured 
us  that  he  had,  in  a  feast  which  he  gave  to  the  resident,  taken  the  hair  of  a  slave,  and  having 
passed  a  stick  across,  he  took  pleasure,  for  the  purpose  of  diverting  the  company,  to 
make  him  swing  during  the  whole  repast :  he  afterwards  oblijged  him  to  run  quite  naked 
eighteen  leagues,  at  the  side  of  the  chariot  of  the  princess  Telechi ;  this  is  the  wife  of 
the  minister  of  state,  through  whose  hands  every  tiling  passes.  The  prince  does  not 
open  even  a  single  letter,  and  thinks  of  notliing  but  drinking.  This  Telechi  is  the 
most  barbarous  man  in  tlie  world ;  there  are  more  irons  in  lus  house  than  in  Marseilles, 

F  F  2 


1 


390 


RP.t.KARtyi  JODRNf.V  TO  LAPi.AND,  IM. 


Tclcchi  i*  the  chief  of  the  army,  nrul  aupnoru  tl»c  itIkU.  This  prince  of  Trunsylvuni.! 
piiv.t eighty  thoiiHiuul  crownt  oftrilmtc  to tlK-(>r:ind StiKuior:  tliiitycar  tu-  hxt  paid  duiiblc 
trimitc,  hccausc  v>nu  'I'm  kn  had  been  killed  on  the  territory  of  Truiinylvania. 

ikthliMU  OatM)r  wuh  the  first  who  liccunie  tributary  to  the  i*ortc  ;  lie  paid  ten  falcons. 
Hin  ftiicccNVir  Michael  HaMonH  waH  obliged  to  (kiv  ten  thoiittand  crown»;  and  liagotaki 
paid  twenty  ;  and  the  present  prince  pays  eidity  thousand. 

We  travelled  from  iavarow  to  Javarouf  ni  ;iix  duyH;  it  is  a  distance  of  about  forty 
lca)(uos,  Javarouf  iH  the  moHt  abominable  place,  not  only  of  Poland,  but  of  llic  whole 
world.  The  court  remained  here  this  winter,  on  aceount  of  the  pref^nancy  of  the  (|ueen, 
who  intended  to  lie  in  at  this  place.  The  court  stopn  but  a  short  time  in  one  place  :  it 
truveU  constantly,  ami  in  tlu*  most  a^reeablc  manner  imaginable  ;  for  the  whole  of  Poland 
iHthc  fntest  country  for  hunting  I  have  ever  seen,  and  this  journey  18  u  continued  cliace. 
We  had  the  honour  to  salute  the  king,  and  to  kiss  the  hand  of  the  ouecn.  This  prince 
received  us  with  all  that  gocKlness  which  he  shews  to  every  one,  nnu  especially  to  stran- 
gers :  he  t(M)k  great  pleasure  in  making  us  relate  the  particulars  of  our  voyage  to  Lapland, 
and  he  never  ceased  to  intcrn)gute  us  resi)ectin(r  it.  The  queen  lud  equal  curiosity,  and 
wished  to  be  informed  of  every  particular.  PIuh  princess  is  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished in  Kurope;  :ihc  is  about  thirty -eight  years  old,  and  nature  lias  Ixren  pleased  tci  im> 
part  to  her  u  portion  of  all  her  gifts:  she  is  the  finest  person  at  court,  the  handsomest,  and 
the  most  witty  :  it  is  only  to  see  her,  that  she  may  Ix:  known  ;  but  one  is  Uie  Ix'ttcr  |)er« 
suaded  of  her  excellencies,  when  one  lias  had  the  lionour  of  conversing  with  Ikt.  It  wan 
she  who  placed  the  crowti  on  the  king's  head;  and  ambition,  whidi  is  tlic  noble  failing 
of  great  souls,  was  enjoyed  by  this  princess  in  the  highest  degree.  It  was  she  who 
incited  the  king  to  endeavour  to  ascend  the  throne  ;  and  for  this  purpose  she  spared 
neither  money  nor  promises,  and  exerted  herself  so  much,  that  she  was  at  length  s'jccess- 
ful,  notvvithstanding  the  great  intrigues  of  the  prince  of  Lorraine.  It  is  true  that  the 
arrival  of  M.  dc  Bcthune  was  of  noUttle  use  ;  he  arrived  the  night  before  the  diet  was  to 
have  iKcn  finished,  when  it  was  intended  to  proclaim  llic  prince  of  Lorraine  king  the 
day  after ;  he  made  such  use  o**  the  litUe  time  he  had,  and  he  nuuiaged  the  members  of 
the  diet  so  successfully,  that  they  prolonged  it  for  some  days,  during  which  time  he  had 
leisure  to  act  with  that  success  which  he  met  with. 

The  royal  family  is  the  most  accomplished  which  can  be  any  where  met  with.  The 
eldest  prince  is  called  Louis  Henry  Jacob ;  the  kin(;  of  France,  the  queen  of  England, 
and  his  grandfather,  were  his  g(xl-fathcrs  and  god-mother.  This  prince  is  m  his 
fourteenth  jeiur,  and  promises  every  thing  that  can  be  expected  from  a  great  prince ; 
he  is  handsome,  dances  well,  and  speaks  four  languages  as  well  as  hb  own,  the  German, 
Latin,  French,  and  Polish :  to  gratify  the  king,  who  knows  these  languages  perfectly, 
he  says,  that  he  wishes  to  learn  all  the  languages  of  Europe.  The  princess,  about  six 
or  seven  yairs  of  age,  is  very  handsome,  and  was  crowned  before  she  was  bom.  The 
prince  Alexander,  six  yearo  old,  is  the  most  amiable  prince  that  am  be  seen :  there  is 
also  the  prince  Amour,  three  or  four  years  old.  The  queen,  who  is  at  present  preg. 
nant,  has  hi*'^  fourteen  childn-n,  and  is  still  as  fresh,  and  in  as  good  health,  as  a  woman 
of  twenty  years  of  age.  I  had  the  honour  of  holding  the  game  of  the  king  at  ombre, 
of  playing  with  him,  and,  to  crown  me  with  honour,  of  eating  with  him  at  his  table,  tiie 
ambassador  being  placed  on  his  right,  and  I  on  his  left     The  master  of  the  horse  was 

there,  with  the  staroibt  of .    We  this  day  accompanied  the  king  to  the  chace. 

Poland  is  a  country  wholly  adapted  for  this  amusement :  this  is  expressed  by  tlie  word 
itself;  for  Po/n,  from  whence  the  word  is  derived,  signifies  level  country,  in  the  Sclavo> 
nian  language.    But  the  chace  is  not  conducted  here  as  in  {"'ranee :  they  make  an  en- 


KKONAnt)'»  JOirHNT.V  TO  LAI'I.AM),  M. 


221 


clowirc  of  nets,  near  whicli  llu^y  place  )»oldicr»,  who  drive  «miI  the  mime  at  an  o|Kiunn 
which  in  left  for  that  piiriKwc  :  thty  send  in  a  gaat  iuiiiiIk  r  of  dogs  at  ihiH  ojiciunji;,  accom- 
panied by  huntHmen  on  hoiseback,  to  asHi^t  them,  who  drive  out  all  the  animals  which  ii 
ton'uintj.  Kvcry  one  Uikcs  hi;*  |Mi>.t,  two  musket-siholH  distant  from  each  other,  and  when 
•ny  animal  ap(»ear»,  whcthtT  wolf,  fox,  roe  buck,  8tc.  ihcy  let  loose  hiich  a  numlxr  of 
greyhounds,  that  the  animal  must  U*  very  fleet,  if  it  can  escajH;.  We  were  extremely  sue- 
cejMiful  this  day  :  in  less  than  four  lK>ur»  we  took  more  than  ten  roe-bucks,  three  wolves, 
fiv»*  or  nix  foxes,  and  a  number  of  hares  ;  but  what  rendered  the  hunt  delightful  and 
blootly,  was  a  wild  boor,  of  the  size  of  a  horse,  who  was  killed,  after  u  long  contest  with 
the  dogs :  he  killed  some  of  them,  niaugled  others,  and  wounded  boUi  men  and  horses  ; 
but  at  length  he  was  killed  by  the  shot  of  a  blunder-buss  :  they  carried  him  on  a  little  cart 
to  the  king,  and  every  body  owned  that  tliey  hatl  never  seen  so  furious  an  animal.  It  was 
necessary  to  procure  a  chariot  lor  the  removal  of  the  mangled  dogs,  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  wounded  arc  removed  after  a  battle. 

We  saw  at  the  court  M.  de  Vitri,  ambassador  extra'jrdinary,  who  received  us  with 
particular  kindiK'ss.  During  all  the  time  we  were  at  court,  wc  had  no  other  house  and 
no  other  table  than  his.  We  saw  at  his  house  M.  de  Valal6,  his  equerry  ;  M.  Noblet, 
who  departed  for  France  the  day  after  we  arrived  ;  Mess.  IVtissier  and  Devilles,  secre- 
taries ;  the  marquis  ol  Arquien,  to  whom  tlie  queen  gives  twenty  thousand  livres  a  year ; 
this  is  the  rendezvous  of  all  the  French,  for  pleasure  and  for  play ;  the  count  of  Ma- 
tigny  his  son,  who  is  captain  of  dnigoons,  and  to  whom  the  (lueen  gives  two  thousand 
crowns.  Wc  saw  at  tne  liouse  of  the  marquis  of  Arquien  M.  D'Alcruc,  M.  de  Va- 
lal6,  8ic. 

The  queen  has  three  F.  .nch  gentlemen,  Mess.  Ryon,  Forges,  and  Villars,  who  was 
in  the  Swiss  regiment  of  Monsieur :  he  made  a  tour  through  France. 

Wc  knew  at  the  court  tlic  master  of  the  horse,  M.  Jalonsky,  vice  chancellor  of  (he 
queen,  who  is  a  man  of  genius ;  M.  Sarinski,  king's  secretar}' ;  M.  Dalanty,  an  Italian 
aecretar)'  of  the  king ;  and  M.  Dumont  de  I'Espine,  valet  dc  chambre. 

In  Poland  it  is  a  custom  to  make  presents  on  festival  days.  The  princess  Radzivil  is 
called  Catharine  ;  her  fete  took  place  while  we  were  at  the  court ;  tlie  queen  made  her  a 
present,  and  wished  that  there  should  be  a  dance  at  the  court. 

These  kind  of  dances  never  terminate ;  and  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  every  one 
dances  with  hb  own  partner  without  stopping. 

They  have  a  mode  of  dancing  in  the  Russian  m»nnci ,  which  b  very  pleasant :  M.  the 
chevalier  Lubomirski,  grand  ensign  of  the  kingdom,  dances  it  perfectly  well. 

They  never  dance  more  than  at  marriages,  where  the  king  is  at  all  the  ex  pence  during 
the  ^x  or  seven  days  in  which  the  wife  does  not  live  with  her  husband ;  and  the  d;iy  in 
which  she  is  put  into  his  ix)ssession,  he  treats  every  body. 

The  Poles  are  proud,  are  cxti-emely  vain  of  their  hi^h  rank,  and  lay  out  every  thing 
to  procure  a  fine  horse,  an  elegant  dress,  and  a  beautiful  sabre :  they  are  handsome ; 
but  in  this  the  women  do  not  resembk  them :  widi  difficulty  could  two  be  found  at  the 
court,  who  were  supportable.  They  gratify  themselves  \vlii\  a  number  of  attendants ; 
and  die  petty  nobles,  who  have  nothing  to  live  on,  attach  themselves  to  some  of  the 
richer. 

The  w(»nen  almost  never  go  abroad,  and  go  to  embrace  their  husband's  thigh  when 
they  return  home :  this  is  the  most  cu^omary  mode  of  salutation  in  Poland ;  and  the 
women  of  quality  are  saluted  in  no  other  manner  than  by  embracing  their  thigh.  There 
are  aome  whose  embi-aces  are  a  UtUe  too  rough,  and  who  are  very  willing  to  feel  that 
vdiich  they  embrace.     Their  dresses  are  very  rich,  and  are  wholly  covered  with  gold 


at 


fc'i 

h 
i 


I 


s 


I 


UEGNAUD'S  JOUHNEY  TO  LAPLAND.  Uc. 

aiid  silver.  Their  dress  consists  of  a  man's  waistcoat  unbuttoned,  and  a  petticoat ;  they 
wear  boots  like  men. 

There  is  no  country  in  the  world  more  flat  than  Poland  ;  we  have  travelled  through 
almost  the  whole  country  without  finding  a  single  mountain ;  whence,  the  countr}' 
bting  flat,  there  are  few  rivulets,  as  they  are  unable  to  flow,  on  which  account  the 
water  is  very  scarce  ;  but,  to  make  up  for  this  deprivation,  they  make  very  good  beer» 
particularly  at  Varca,  which  is  renowned  throughout  the  country  as  being  the  best. 
All  these  extensive  plains  are  sown  with  corn,  and  it  is  exported  to  various  parts  of 
Europe. 

There  is  no  fortified  place  in  Poland,  except  Leopold,  which  is  situated  on  the 
Turkish  frontier:  still,  however,  these  are  fortifications  m  the  Polish  manner,  which  the 
French  v/ould  willingly  destroy.  It  is  by  this  means,  they  think,  that  they  preser>'e 
their  liberty ;  and  having  no  place  where  they  can  intrench  themselves,  they  arc 
ob'iged  to  make  ramparts  of  their  bodies.  They  are  certain  to  beat  the  Turks,  when 
they  choose,  as  they  have  always  done ;  but,  nevertheless,  they  do  not  cease  to  lose 
their  'country  with  them.  The  Tart>irs  art  the  enemies  whom  they  fear  most :  these 
men  do  not  seek  after  glory ;  they  only  desire  booty,  on  which  they  live.  Their 
trcoi«:5  are  never  placed  in  regular  order  •,  they  fall  suddenly  on  the  enemy's  camp,  and 
take  every  thing  they  can  find ;  and  at  the  first  sound  of  the  drum,  which  the  captain 
has  fixed  to  the  bow  of  his  oaddle,  they  retire,  and  return  a  qvarter  of  an  hour  after- 
wards to  attack  some  other  place ;  so  that  they  are  constantly  on  the  alert ;  by  which 
means  they  confound  their  enemies,  and  continually  stop  !r"^  molest  them.  They  are, 
in  fighting,  particular  in  this  respect,  that  they  fight  when  flying,  and  shoot  arrows  from 
behind  their  heads,  which  are  discharged  upon  their  enemies.  They  make  frequent 
incursions  into  Poland,  when  ^!te  Poles  do  not  pay  them  the  ten  thousand  cousuques, 
which  they  are  obliged  to  furnish  them  with  every  year,  which  are  dresses  made  of 
sheeps'  skms.  The  Tartars,  when  making  their  incursions,  travel  thirty  or  forty  leagues 
in  one  night,  canying  with  them  a  little  sack  filled  with  straw,  attached  to  the  head  of 
their  horses,  v/hodo  not  stop,  that  they  may  eat  it,  and  a  piece  of  flesh,  which  becomes 
baked  und:r  the  saddle  ;  so  that  their  enemies,  unapprised  of  their  approach,  they  take 
all  that  tb4  y  can  find  in  the  country,  men,  women,  and  children,  whom  they  afterwards 
carry  by  thv^  Black  Sea,  to  sell  at  Constantinople.  But  they  have  this  peculiarity,  that 
they  i^ever  attack  fortified  places;  nor  will  forty  thousand  Tartars  attack  a  paltry 
village,  provided  it  be  only  shut  up  with  planks,  because  they  are  afraid  of  ambuscades, 
and  thej  do  not  wish  to  fight  regularly. 

The  Poles  are  anxious  to  procure  the  alliance  of  the  Tartars,  and  make  use  of  it, 
unless  when  at  war  with  the  Turks,  for  whom  they  always  declare  themselves,  as  being 
Maiiometans,  and  rendered  tributaries  to  the  grand  seignior,  in  consequence  of  which, 
if  the  Ottoman  race  became  extinct,  the  khan  of  the  Tartars  would  succeed  to  the 
empire. 

King  Casimir  had  more  than  twenty  thousand  of  them  when  the  Swedes  entered 
Poland,  but  they  did  not  await  the  enemy,  and  as  soon  as  they  knew  that  they  were 
only  two  leagues  distant  from  them,  they  flsd  as  if  they  had  been  at  their  heels> 

The  n°nublic  always  maintains  seven  or  eight  thousand  regaiar  troops  on  the  frontiers, 
to  prevent  the  incursions  of  the  Tartars.  The  king  does  pc:  mdntsun  these  troops; 
he  only  pays  the  Heydukes,  the  Semelles,  and  ths  Janivsaries.  The  first-mentioned  are 
dressed  in  blue,  with  large  buttons  and  plates  of  tin,  and  have  bonnets  made  of  felt  upon 
their  heads.  They  have  firelocks,  and  the  bardiche,  which  they  say  is  a  very  good 
weapon.    The  Semelles  are  otlier  sokliers.  all  armed  in  the  same  manner;  but  all  the 


ly^g-lv-  ■'^-:-^!i^::>-ii^0',1s''-  €^>'j^i^:^:^''-^'^^     m 


REr;NAnivs  jourxey  to  LAIM.AND,  «cc. 


223 


Janizaries  are  Turks,  dressed  like  those  whom  I  have  seen  in  Turkey.  A  very  curious 
circumstance  happened  during  the  sitting  of  the  hist  diet.  A  Turkish  company  of 
the  garrison  of  Kaminiek  deserted  completely,  v/ith  its  arms,  colours,  money-chest, 
and  officers,  and  came  to  offer  their  services  to  the  king  of  Poland.  The  king  behaved, 
on  this  occasion,  in  a  manne."  that  Ixjcame  a  great  prince,  and  with  his  usual  intrepidity  ; 
for,  notwithstanding  the  solicitations  of  the  queen,  and  of  all  his  council,  who  advised 
him  not  to  take  these  men  i'lto  his  service  in  the  present  conjuncture  of  affairs,  as  he 
had  at  that  time  a  Turkish  r.nibassador  at  the  court,  which  made  them  suppose,  wh;it 
was  not  unlikely,  that  thev  were  spies  (the  event  shewed,  however,  that  he  was  better 
infonned  than  them  all)  he  has  them  still,  and  gives  them  double  pay.  But  it  is  a 
ven^  extraordinarj'  thing  to  see  a  whole  company  desert,  with  its  officers. 

The  finest  militia  of  Poland  consbts  of  hussars,  Tavaches,  and  ^  nsars,  who  are 
all  nobles.  The  armour  of  the  hussars  is  somewhat  singular,  i  ne  king  has  still  a 
company  of  about  a  hundred  reitres,  who  accompany  him  on  all  occasions. 

We  saw  at  Veroni  M.  Acakias,  who  returned  from  Transylvajiia,  and  gave  us  infor- 
mation respecting  tliat  country ;  he  told  us  that  the  people  consisted  of  Transylvanians 
and  Saxons ;  that  the  former  were  masters,  and  the  latter  somewhat  like  slaves.  The 
Saxons  are  people  who  came  from  Saxony,  who  are  here  treated  like  Jews,  although 
they  are  more  men  of  property  than  the  others.  The  Transylvanians  travel  without  ex- 
pending  a  halfpenny,  as  they  live  upon,  and  lodge  with  the  Saxons.  When  the  Tran> 
sylvanian  noblemen  have  caught  some  game,  they  send  one  of  their  servants  to  sell  it, 
and  the  masters  demand  some  game  to  eat ;  the  poor  Saxon  is  obliged  to  go  and  pur- 
chase from  the  servants  of  tliese  masters  the  game,  and  to  pay  them  whatever  they 
demand  for  it.     Almost  every  person  speaks  Latin  in  this  country. 

The  Polish  language  «s  Selavonian,  like  that  of  Muscovy  and  Tartary  ;  and  there  b 
as  great  a  difference  between  these  languages,  though  they  are  derived  from  the  same 
source,  as  betwixt  the  Italian  and  Spanish,  which  are  derived  from  the  Latin.  The 
living  langua^s  which  are  spoken  in  Europe  may  be  classed  under  two  heads ;  for  I 
am  not  speakmg  of  the  dead  languages,  like  tlie  Greek,  the  Hebrew  and  the  Latin. 
The  Arabic  language  is  in  Asia  what  the  Latin  is  in  Europe ;  and  with  a  knowledge  of 
this  language,  one  may  pass  from  the  Bosphorus  to  the  most  distant  parts  of  India.  There 
are,  therefore,  only  two  mother-tongues,  which  have  their  dialects,  and  these  are  th.^ 
Teutonian  and  the  Selavonian.  The  Sclavoniaii  is  familiar  at  Constantinople,  and  its 
principal  dialects  are  the  Russian,  spok'^n  by  the  Muscovites,  the  Dalmatian  by  the  Tran- 
sylvanians and  the  Hungarians,  the  bohcmian  and  the  Polish,  and  some  others,  which 
are  spoken  among  the  Wallachians,  Moldavians,  and  Lesser  Tartars. 

The  Teutonic  has  three  principal  dialects,  the  German,  the  Saxon,  and  tJie  Danish ; 
and  from  these  proceed  other  idioms,  as  the  English,  the  Swedish,  the  Flemish,  &c. 
The  Greek  language  is  dead,  and  less  corrupted  than  the  Latin ;  but  it  is  still  spoken 
in  the  'islands  of  the  Archipelago,  in  Achda,  and  in  the  Morea.  There  are  also  several 
other  lesser  original  languages,  which  have  very  little  extent ;  as  the  Albanese,  in  Epirus 
and  Macedonia ;  the  Bulgarip*^  '  Servia,  Bosnia  and  Bulgaria ;  that  of  the  Cossacs,  or 
Lesser  Tartars,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tanais ;  that  of  the  Laplanders,  and  the  Fins ; 
that  of  the  Irish ;  and  the  Biscayan,  and  the  Breton. 

We  left  the  court,  after  having  taken  leave  of  th«r  majesties,  on  Friday,  and  were 
conducted  by  the  Sieur  de  Valal6.  We  passed  next  day  through  Jeroslans,  which  ^Ives 
its  name  to  a  duchy,  the  half  of  which  belongs  to  the  queen.  We  saw  some  little  vil- 
lages, which  contain  nothing  remarkable.  On  our  journey  we  were  attacked  by  three 
robbers ;  we  were  in  our  chariot,  which,  on  account  of  the  wind,  was  shut  up  on  all 


*  ;i 


^^^ 


224 


REONARD'S  JOimNEY  TO  LAPLAND,  kc. 


1 


sides :  they  cried  out  to  our  coachman  to  stop,  who  had  no  inclination  to  obey  them, 
and  made  a  signal  to  us  to  prepare  our  pistols,  which  we  immediately  did,  and  descend- 
ed from  the  chariot  ^vith  the  pistoU  m  our  hands,  accompanied  by  our  valet,  who, 
armed  with  a  firelock,  kept  them  in  check.  When  they  observed  this  arrangement, 
they  stopt  short,  and  regarded  us,  without  daring  to  approach.  We  continued  our 
journey  on  foot,  with  our  pistols  in  our  hands ;  and  as  it  was  late,  we  arrived  a  short 
time  after  at  tlie  inn,  where  they  sent  two  of  their  companions,  who  came,  like  passen- 
gers, to  obser/e  the  situation  of  our  countenances.  They  saw  that  we  had  our  arms 
ready,  and  that  we  were  on  foot  during  the  whole  night.  We  did  not  know  them  to  be 
what  they  really  were ;  and  as  it  was  already  late,  ^ve  had  been  unable  to  remark  them, 
on  account  of  the  obscurity.  They  set  out  two  hours  before  day-break,  and  we  were 
arranging  matters  to  set  out,  when  the  coachman  told  us  that  he  had  seen  them  join 
four  others  in  the  neighbcnirhood  of  the  house,  and  that  Aey  had  entered  the  wood, 
which  was  about  a  hundred  paces  distant.  We  did  not  think  it  prudent  to  depart  till 
the  return  of  day  ;  and  we  wf^e  waiting  till  it  should  be  lig^t,  when  we  heard  four 
carriages  passing,  containing  twt  oxen  each.  We  embraced  this  opportunity  of  passi./ 
through  the  wtwd ;  and  as  it  wa »  clear  moon-light,  we  obliged  all  the  drivers  to  ta!.. 
white  sticks  in  their  hands,  which  appeared,  by  the  light  of  the  moon,  as  if  they  had 
been  muskets.  In  this  manner  >ve  passed  on,  while  they  dared  not  attack  us,  although 
we  heard  them  rustling  on  everj'  side.  At  the  first  village  we  arrived  at,  the  people 
informed  ns  that  the  wood  was  full  of  them,  and  that  it  was  difficult  to  pass  ic  without 
being  rouoed. 

We  arrived  at  Cracow  on  Thursday  morning ;  we  had  some  difficulty  in  procuring 
lodgings,  for  there  was  no  tavern  in  the  place.  We  found  an  Italian,  who  conducted  us 
to  his  house.  This  man,  like  all  his  counUymen,  immediately  deafened  us  with  his 
loud  noise ;  he  talked  about  nothing  but  millions,  his  equipage,  his  horses,  and  his 
chariot.  We  were  not  long  in  discovering  that  the  fellow  was  one  of  the  greatest 
scoundrels  that  ever  lived.  We  were  no  sooner  seated  at  table,  than  he  went  to  borrow 
three  wooden  spoons  of  his  landlord,  t»*^  told  us  that  he  had  ^ven  out  his  own,  which 
\vere  silver,  to  be  cleaned.  We  talked  of  going  out  afler  dinner,  and  having  inquired 
whether  he  had  a  sword,  he  told  us  that  ne  had  unfortunately  fdlen  the  day  before, 
un'l  that  in  falling  he  had  broken  it,  and  had  consequently  given  it  to  an  armourer.  In 
looking  at  our  pistols,  he  told  us  that  he  had  a  pair,  which  he  had  purchased  at  Amster- 
dam, which  were  double-barrelled,  and  which  were  at  present  in  the  hands  of  the  ar- 
mourer, that  tliey  might  be  cleaned.  He  told  us  that  he  would  take  us  in  hb  chariot  to 
see  the  mines ;  but  when  the  time  came,  he  said  his  chariot  was  newly  painted,  and 
four  of  his  horses  were  lame.  But  what  was  most  entertaimng  was,  that  he  was 
always  protesting  that  he  would  take  nothing  for  our  lodging  with  him ;  and  when  it 
was  necessary  to  go  to  market,  he  came  to  ask  a  crown,  saying,  that  he  had  given  away 
nil  his  cash  for  letters  of  exchange  on  Mess.  Pessalouki,  of  Vienna.  He  said  he  had  a 
law-suit  respecting  two  houses  in  the  city  worth  ten  thousand  francs,  which  had  come  to 
his  possession  through  his  wife ;  and,  nevertheless,  he  wished  to  return  with  us  the  fol* 
lowing  day,  without  any  intention  of  ever  coming  back.  And  having  aiiked  the  reason 
why  he  would  leave  such  a  fine  property,  and  such  excellent  expectations  ?  "  O,"  said 
he,  "  that  gives  me  no  uneasiness ;  I  shall  settle  all  that  business  to-morrow ;  I  shall 
gain  my  law-suit ;  I  shall  sell  my  houses."  We  sawquite  well  his  rascally  inientions,'  '> 
but  we  wished  to  amuse  ourselves  with  him  to  the  end ;  and  to  push  the  raillery  a  little 
farther,  I  asked  him,  if  he  would  give  me  letters  of  exchange  on  Vienna,  for  money 
wluch  I  sliould  pay  him  ?    At  l}ib  proposition  joy  began  to  sparkle  cm  the  scoundrel's  -'* 


.,:*viy'-»7'^r^.- ■,;•• 


'J"M: 


REONARD'a  JOURVEY  TO  LAPLAKD,  lu 


225 


countenance ;  he  began  to  paparc  the  most  excellent  letters  of  exchange  that  were 
ever  made  by  tlie  most  celebrated  banker ;  but  unfortunately  neither  ink  nor  pajx;r  wen- 
found  in  the  house.  I  afterwards  asked  to  see  his  horses ;  tho  scoundrel  perceived  that 
he  was  laughed  at,  and  that  he  had  to  do  with  men  as  intelligent  as  himself.  I  never 
saw  a  man  more  confounded  in  my  life,  and  we  amused  ourselves  with  i^peating  his 
usual  phrase,  Italiani  non  sono  miga  criUoni ;  and  we  said  Francesi,  instead  of  Italiani. 
We  threw  in  his  teeth  an  infinite  number  of  his  deceptions,  lies,  and  contradictions ; 
and  we  had  the  pleasure  of  confounding  the  greriest  scoundrel  in  the  world. 

Cracow  is  the  chief  city  of  Upper  Poland,  and  is  infinitely  more  handsome,  larger, 
and  has  more  trade  than  Warsaw.  It  is  situated  on  the  Vistula,  which  takes  its  rise  at 
no  great  distance.  Its  academy  is  much  esteemed :  it  was  founded,  about  three 
hundred  years  age,  by  Casimir  the  First,  who  asked  for  professors  from  the  colleges  of 
th*  Sorbonne  at  Paris,  who  were  the  causes  of  that  great  reputation  which  it  accjuired. 
The  object  most  worthy  of  notice  in  Cracow  is  the  castle,  situated  on  a  little  hill ;  it  is  very 
extensive,  but  without  form,  or  any  regard  to  the  rules  of  architecture ;  the  chambers 
are  spacious,  and  the  ceilings  superbly  gilt ;  on  which  account  this  residence  might  be 
fit  for  a  king.  In  the  church  of  the  castle,  ^he  tombs  of  the  kings  are  to  be  seen ; 
and  they  never  inter  one  king,  till  another  has  Heen  elected.  King  Casimir  and  king 
Michael  were  interred  the  same  day  that  the  present  king  was  crowned ;  for  they 
all  come  to  be;  crowned  at  Cracow. 

The  body  of  Saint  Stanislas  is  in  a  shrine  of  silver,  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  church, 
and  covered  by  a  ranopy.  This  saint,  who  was  killed  by  one  of  the  kings  of  Poland, 
is  the  cause  why  the  Poles  go  mth  their  tieads  shaved,  and  eat  no  butter  on  Friday,  and 
some  of  them  on  Saturday ;  this  was  imposed  on  them  as  a  penance,  by  one  of  the 
popes,  during  a  hundred  years ;  and  this  custom  became  a  law  ■,  for  although  the  time 
of  the  penance  had  ex[Hred,  they  never  ceaae  to  observe  this  fast,  and  the  custom  of 
Slaving  the  head. 

There  are  few  cities,  I  do  not  say  in  Poland,  but  m  all  Europe,  where  there  are  more 
churches,  priests,  and  particulariy  monks,  than  in  Cracow.  They  are  as  rich  and  as 
much  req)ected  here  as  in  Italy ;  and  this  is  the  reasqn  why  they  are  so  numerous. 
With  respect  to  the  churches,  to  do  them  justice,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  Poles  are 
extremdy  anxious  about  tiie  beau^  and  the  service  of  their  churches ;  the  gold  shines 
in  them  on  all  ades ;  and  one  is  astonished  to  find  a  church  gilt  to  the  very  vault,  in  a 
wretched  village,  where  it  has  been  in^)os5ible  to  procure  a  morsel  of  bread.  The 
finest  churches  in  Cracow  are  the  Dome,  dedicated  to  Saint  Mary,  which  is  in  the  middle 
of  the  square,  the  Minims,  and  the  Bemardins;  the  Jesuits  have  a  very  beautiful  one,  lately 
built  in  the  Italian  manner.  The  great  square  f  s  very  spacious,  and  the  principal  stieets 
branch  out  from  it :  chiefly  the  grand  street,  which  leads  to  Casimir,  the  residence  of  the 
Jews,  who  have  in  that  place  their  republic,  their  syna^;ogue,  and  ttieir  court  of  justice. 
These  gentlemen  are  no  better  treated  in  Poland  than  m  Italy  and  Turkey,  where  they 
are  the  dregs  of  the  human  race,  and  the  sponge  vAach  is  pressed  from  time  to  time, 
and  chiefly  when  the  state  is  in  danger.  Although  they  were  not  disunguished  by  any 
particular  mark,  as  in  Italy  hy  a  yeUow  hat,  in  Germany  by  a  dress,  in  Turkey  by  a 
turban,  in  Poland  by  a  ruff,  it  would  be  impossible  not  to  know  them  by  their  exoom- 
municated  air  and  their  hag^gard  looks.  However  rich  they  may  be,  they  are  unable  to 
leave  off  that  villainous  dispositicm  in  whidi  they  were  b(Hii,  and  which  excites  honor  in 
those  who  have  seen  them*  chiefly  in  Poland,  in  the  inns  which  they  keep.  Throughout 
the  wlide  of  Black  Russia,  where  there  are  thirty  or  forty  of  them  in  a  little  chamber, 
the  chiMren  are  nd^ed  as  they  were  bom,  and  the  fiithers  and  mothers  are  only  half 

VOL.   I.  G    c 


ill! 
If 

if 


:  1.1 


Ml 


i!1 


m  9 


226 


REGNARD'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAPLAND.  &C. 


covered.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  nation  in  the  world  more  fruitful :  one  finds 
in  the  same  box  filled  with  straw,  and  the  same  cradle,  four  or  five  children  of  the 
same  mother,  who  arc  so  black  and  hideous,  that  they  appear  like  little  crows  in  a 
nest. 

The  tribute  which  the  Jews  of  Cracow  pay  to  the  republic  amounts  to  twenty  thou- 
sand crowns;  they  give,  besides  this,  tnrc«  hundred  ducats  annually  to  the  l.ing, 
two  hundred  to  the  queen,  a  hundred  to  the  prince,  and  a  number  of  other  'esscr 
cxpcnces,  to  which  they  are  daily  subject.  There  are  some  cities  in  Germany,  where 
they  are  not  permitted  to  reside ;  and  when  their  business  calls  them  to  these  places, 
they  give  one  ducat  for  the  first  night  they  sleep  in  the  city,  two  for  the  second,  and 
three  for  the  third. 

This  is  also  the  case  at  Warsaw^  where  they  are  not  permitted  to  reside,  except 
during  the  sitting  of  the  diets;  u*-  there  is  no  kind  of  rascality,  which  they  do  not 
practise;  and  when  any  one  is  kv>  '  another  time,  the  scholars  are  let  loose  upon 

them,  and  have  a  right  over  their  \a     ms  ;  so  that  it  is  easy  to  imagine  what  kind  of 
treatment  they  will  receive  from  these  gentlemen. 

We  went  to  pay  our  respects  to  the  palatine  of  Cracow,  the  first  of  the  kingdom, 
called  Vicliposky,  grand  chancellor  of  the  crown,  and  brother-in-law  of  the  king.  We 
had  letters  to  deliver  to  him  from  the  ambassador,  and  others  for  the  lady  of  the 
grand-chancellor,  from  the  queen,  and  from  the  marquis  of  Arquien,  hb  father. 
This  nobleman  requested  us  to  dine  with  him :  a  number  of  excellent  fish  were  on  the 
table,  but  the  greater  part  in  oil,  as  it  was  Saturday ;  and  here  it  may  be  observed, 
that  the  Poles  do  not  relish  oil,  unless  it  be  very  strong ;  and  they  say,  when  it  is  sweet, 
as  we  prefer  it,  it  has  no  smell.  The  equerry  is  at  the  end  of  the  table,  with  a  large 
spoon,  by  which  every  body  is  served ;  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  knife  and  fork  m 
one's  pocket,  else  one  may  very  probably  be  obliged  to  make  use  of  one's  fingers. 
The  grand-chancellor  has  a  very  handsome  daughter,  about  thirteen  or  "^urteen  years 
of  age,  and  two  bovs  somewhat  younger. 

This  nolMeman  had  the  goodness  to  send  us  a  chariot,  to  go  to  the  salt  mines  of 
Vicliska,  which  are  a  good  league  distant  from  Cracow.  It  was  to  this  place  we  went, 
to  admire  the  effects  of  nature  in  her  different  productions.  In  the  middle  of  the 
square  of  the  city  one  sees  a  shed,  under  which  one  no  sooner  enters  than  a  large 
wheel  is  observed,  which  horses  are  turning,  and  which  is  employed  to  raise  the  stones 
which  are  drawn  from  the  mine.  Near  this  wheel  there  is  a  hole  dug,  as  wide  as  a  very 
large  pit,  and  covered  wholly  over  with  large  pieces  of  wood,  fixed  the  one  to  the  other. 
It  was  by  this  aperture  that  we  descended  to  that  abyss ;  but  before  3etting  out  on  this 
journey,  they  clothed  us  with  a  kind  of  surplice.  They  moved  a  great  number  of  ropes 
and  girths,  which  were  fixed  to  the  great  cable,  the  one  after  tte  other.  Five  or  six 
men  made  preparations  to  go  down  with  us,  and  lighted  a  number  of  lamps,  while 
others  surrouncfed  the  mouth  of  the  hole,  and  began  to  ^ingthat  passage  of  the  Passion 
where  these  words  are,  Expiravit  Jesus,  and  still  continual,  in  the  most  frightful  tone, 
the  De  profundis.  I  confess  that,  at  this  time,  my  whole  blood  freezed ;  all  the  prepa- 
rations for  this  living  interment  appeared  to  me  so  horrible,  that  I  wished  to  be  a  great 
way  off  from  the  place  where  I  was ;  but  matters  had  gone  too  far ;  I  was  obliged  to 
bury  myself  alive  in  this  grave.  One  of  our  guides  placed  himself  at  the  end  of  the 
cable,  with  a  lamp  in  his  hand ;  I  then  placed  myself  on  my  girth  above  his  head ;  one 
of  the  miners  placed  himself  above  me ;  my  comrade  was  above  him,  and  another  was 
over  his  head,  with  a  lamp  in  his  hand,  and  another  rbove  him ;  so  that  there  were 
more  than  a  dozen  of  us,  one  above  luiother,  fixed  to  the  cable,  like  strings  of  beads, 


REONARD'S  JOURNEY  TO  LAI'LANU,  «M5. 


227 


in  a  posture  not  the  most  agreeable  in  the  world ;  for  not  only  did  we  run  the  risk  of  tlie 
cable  breaking,  but  we  were  also  afraid  lest  the  cords  that  supported  us  should  give 
way>  and  lest  those  of  others,  which  would  fall  upon  us,  should  break. 

We  descended  a  hundred  long  toises  in  this  manner ;  and  we  at  length  found  our- 
selves in  a  "^lace,  very  spacious  and  very  deep,  in  the  middle  of  which  we  found  a  chapel, 
where  mass»  was  fiequently  said ;  from  whence  we  were  conducted  by  roads  without 
end,  where  they  had  removed  the  salt,  which  they  break  off  in  large  pieces,  which  three 
horses  can  with  difficulty  draw.  This  stone  is  of  an  ash  colour,  and  sparkles  like  dia- 
monds ;  it  is  not  hard,  and  the  small  pieces  which  fall  off  in  cutting  it  are  put  into  barrels, 
and  are  sold  in  that  state.  This  stone  is  infinitely  Salter  than  our  excise  salt,  and  becomes 
white  when  it  is  piled  up ;  but  they  make  a  salt  of  the  water  which  they  draw  from  the 
deepest  places  of  the  mine,  which,  after  it  hardens,  becomes  the  whitest  and  the  finest 
that  can  possibly  be  seen.  From  this  quarry  we  descended  to  another,  for  there  are  seven 
of  them,  the  one  above  the  other,  and  when  we  were  near  the  last  we  found  a  rivulet  of 
fresh  water,  the  best  I  ever  drank.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest  curiosities  I  ever  beheld 
in  my  life,  to  see  a  water  issuing  from  and  running  over  stones  of  salt,  without  taking 
the  taste  of  it.  There  are  also  other  rivulets  found  here,  but  their  waters  are  perfectly 
salt.  Afler  having  descended  for  two  hours,  we  arrived  at  length  at  the  last  quarry,  where 
the  men  were  working :  they  cut  for  us  a  stone,  which  fifty  horses  would  have  been 
unable  to  draw ;  and  a  single  man  severed  this  stone  from  the  rock  with  great  ease. 
When  this  piece  has  fallen,  they  cut  it  into  round  pieces,  the  shape  of  a  barrel,  that  they 
may  be  able  ( >  roll  it  into  the  carriage.  We  found  in  this  pit  a  number  of  men  and 
horses,  who  wrought  at  wheels  made  for  the  purpose  of  raising  the  water. 

In  this  mine  salt  is  found  of  various  prices  and  veins,  some  of  which  are  better  than 
others.  The  smallest  is  called  Ziclona,  the  next  Zibicoa,  and  the  best  of  all  Ockavata. 
The  first  kind  is  sold  for  twelve  guldens  the  ton,  which  weighs  six  hundred  pounds,  the 
second  thirteen,  and  the  third  sixteen.  This  last  is  like  crystal,  and  equally  transparent, 
and  is  divided  into  little  squares,  like  ice. 

We  travelled  near  four  hours  in  this  mine ;  and  we  were  assured  that,  so  great  is  its 
extent,  a  person  would  be  unable  to  go  through  every  part  of  it  in  fifteen  days.  Along 
the  whole  length  of  the  vaults  of  this  quarry,  salt  water,  petrified,  may  be  observed,  hanging 
like  icicles  at  a  rain  spout ;  and  when  it  has  become  hard  enough  to  be  wrought,  the 
workmen  make  chaplets  of  it,  and  little  utensils  of  that  kind. 

We  ascended  by  the  same  ladder  by  which  we  descended,  and  I  was  still  more  un- 
comfortable  in  going  up  than  in  coming  down ;  for  the  rope  that  supported  me,  not  being 
sufficiently  fixed  to  the  cable,  slid  off  from  time  to  time,  and  caused  me  great  uneasiness ; 
and,  without  deceiving,  I  confess  that  I  felt  exU«mely  disagreeable,  and  I  promised  that 
I  should  never  revisit  these  subterraneous  regions.  To  travel  this  journey  once  in  one's 
life  is  perfectly  sufficient. 

We  remained  three  or  four  days,  afler  which  we  set  out  for  Vienna,  We  passed 
through  Zator.Ozvienzin,  and  other  places  belonging  to  Polandt 


A  JOURNEY  TO  GERMANY. 


The  first  city  in  Germany  which  one  meets  with  in  Silesia  is 


-,  and  which  is 


dependant  on  a  particular  prince,  who  is  called  count  Balthasar.  We  travelled  from 
thence  to  Ohnutz,  the  seat  of  the  bishopric.  The  palace  of  the  bishop,  who  is  both 
spiritual  and  temporal  prince,  b  as  fine  a  one  as  can  l>e  seen  in  Germany.    We  observed 


i\-   'J:: 


Vliv        "'       '* 


G  G  2 


I 


228 


REUNAEiyS  JOUUNKY  TO  LAPLAND,  tic. 


that  the  principal  occupation  of  the  scholars  is,  to  go  at  night,  from  street  to  street, 
and  sing,  wlieii  they  beg  for  alms :  this  is  a  oommoii  practice  of  all  the  students  oi' 
Germany. 

We  arrived  at  Vienna  on  the  twentieth  day  of  September.  One  |xut  of  the  court  was 
absent,  and  thtre  was  only  here  that  of  the  empress  dowager,  who  is  of  the  house  of 
TjTol.  The  emperor  was  at  Oldenburg,  where  he  held  a  diet,  which  all  the  palatines 
and  great  lords  of  Hungary  attended,  both  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  rebels,  which  have 
(Kxupied  attention  for  more  than  fifteen  years,  and  to  assist  in  the  coronation  of  the  em- 
press, queen  of  Hungary.  The  emperor  arrived  two  days  after  at  Vienna,  and  we  returned 
with  him  from  J^ungary.  He  intended  to  pass  the  whole  winter  at  Vienna,  and  after- 
wards to  go  to  the  diet  at  Ratisbon. 

The  Hungarians  are  proud,  and  magnificent  in  diamonds.  The  palatine  of  Hungary, 
or  vice-king,  is  the  richest :  he  had  lately  received  the  order  of  the  Fleece  from  the  Icing 
of  Spain,  vacant  by  the  death  of  the  president,  who  had  married  the  princess  of  Holstein, 
where  I  was  present,  and  where  all  the  people  have  their  rendezvous ;  he  had  long  ad- 
ministered the  affliirs  of  the  empire,  and  has  since  been  blamed,  and  turned  out  of  the 
ministry.    Abeley  has  taken  his  place  in  the  government. 

The  Hungarians  are  not  tall,  bat  their  dr^s  tends  to  give  them  a  good  air ;  together 
with  the  cock  feathers  which  they  wear  upon  their  heads,  they  carry  as  many  feathers 
as  they  have  beheaded  Turks  in  battle.  Their  country  is  the  most  productive  in  the 
world  in  com,  wine,  and  pasturage,  but  they  are  at  present  ruined;  their  wine  of 
Tokay  is  esteemed  the  best. 

Vienna  is  the  capital  of  Austria,  and  the  seat  of  the  empire ;  it  was  attacked  in  — ~.  by 
the  great  Soliman,  with  an  army  of  an  hundred  thousand  men ;  but  he  was  obliged  to 
raise  the  siege.  The  Turkish  arms,  which  are  above  the  tower  of  Saint  Stephen,  are 
witnesses  of  a  good  resistance ;  they  have  been  left  there,  either  as  a  mark  of  this  action, 
or  firom  the  articles  of  the  capitulation  concluded  in  this  manner.  The  city  of  Vienna  is 
not  large,  but  it  is  populous,  notwithstanding  the  horrid  ravages  of  the  plague  two 
years  ago,  which  destroyed  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  men.  The  streets  are 
handsome,  and  especially  those  of  the  quarter  of  the  nobles.  The  churches  are  .magni> 
ficent  here,  and  above  all  those  of  the  Jesuits,  who  have  three  convents  here,  and  are 
the  masters  at  Vienna.  They  gather  a  very  considerable  tax  upon  those  who  enter  the 
city  after  eight  o'clock  in  summer,  and  six  'n  winter ;  one  must  pay  four  pence,  and 
this  is  a  dreadful  monopoly.  Ail  tlie  fashionables  assemble  in  the  church  of  Samt  Michael 
and  Sainte-Croix ;  the  ladies  are  placed  on  one  side,  and  the  genUemen  on  the  other. 

We  saw  there  the  sister  of  MontecucuU,  the  countess  of  Arach and  for  cavalier 

Nostiche  Bouquin  — — — . 

The  gala  days  with  the  emperor  are  certain  days  of  rejoicing,  when  every  body  is 
superbly  dressed.  The  precious  stones  are  to  be  met  with  in  abundance ;  and  I  do  not 
believe  there  is  any  place  in  the  world  where  they  are  more  plenty  :  the  rejoicings  take 
place  on  the  emperor's  birth-day,  on  those  of  the  empress,  &c. 

The  emperor  is  a  younger  son  of  Ferdinand  the  Third.  His  elder  brother  died  arch> 
duke  at  eighteen  or  twenty  years  of  age ;  he  was  a  very  handsome  prince.  The  emperor 
was  taken  from  among  the  Jdsuits,  to  be  put  in  his  place ;  but  he  was  rather  bom  for  the 
convent  than  the  throne. 

Ferdinand  the  Third  had  three  wives,  the  first  was  called  Mary,  the  daughter  of  Philip 
the  Third,  king  of  Spain,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons.  The  first,  as  I  have  said,  died 
king  of  the  Romans,  tne  second  is  at  present  emperor,  and  the  third  died  bishop  of  Passau 
and  of  Breslaw. 


HECiNARU'M  JOUKNRY  TO  LAPLAND,  br. 


229 


The  second  wife  of  Ferdinand  was  of  the  house  of  Inspruck,  who  died  in  child-bed 
vcnr  youngr :  her  tomb  is  to  be  seen  at  the  church  of  tlie  Dominicans. 

The  third,  who  is  still  living,  is  called  empress  Leonora,  dowager ;  she  is  of  the 
house  of  Mantua,  aunt  of  Uie  dutchess  of  York.  She  has  two  daup^hters ;  the  eldest 
married  Michael  Coribut  Wienowieski,  king  of  Poland,  iind  has  since  been  married 
to  tlie  duke  of  Lorraine ;  the  second  was  married  about  two  years  ago  to  the  duke  oi 
Neubourg,  brother-in-law  of  the  emperor. 

The  emperor  is  called  Leopold  Ignatius,  son  of  Ferdinand  the  Third  and  of  Mar)', 
daughter  of  Philip  the  Third,  kin^  of  Spain.  He  was  bom  the  ninth  dav  of  June  1640, 
and  was  raised  to  the  imperial  dignity  in  ihe  year  ).659.  He  has  had  three  wives,  like 
his  father.  The  first  was  the  infanta  of  Spain,  daughter  of  Philip  the  Fourth,  only 
sister  of  the  present  king,  Charles  the  Second,  and  sister  of  the  father  of  the  present 
queen  of  France.  She  has  a  daughter  called  the  arch-duchess,  about  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  of  age,  who  is  lame. 

The  second  was  of  the  house  of  Inspruck. 

The  third  is  of  the  house  of  Neubourg.  He  married  this  princess  about  four  or  five 
years  ago ;  and  he  has  a  son  by  her,  about  four  years  old,  who  is  called  the  arch-duke. 

The  arch-duchess  had  great  expectations  of  being  married  to  the  king  of  Spain ;  it 
is  even  said  that  they  saluted  her  as  queen  for  some  time  at  the  court.  There  n<is  been 
always  much  jealousy  between  this  young  arch-duchess  and  the  other  daughtCi  of  the 
empress  dowager,  who  has  been  married  to  the  duke  of  Neubourg,  as  having  b^th  of 
them  the  same  pretensions,  and  both  hoping  to  be  queen  of  Spain.  And  the  old  empress 
was  much  surprised  when  she  learned  the  marriage  of  the  king  of  Spain  with  Mademoi- 
selle, because  they  had  flattered  her,  that,  if  she  made  the  emperor  declare  war  against 
France,  her  daughter  would  be  queen  of  Spain ;  in  which  she  was  successful,  for  she 
is  very  ingenious. 

This  princess,  seeing  her  hopes  disappointed  in  one  quarter,  sought  after  a  crown 
elsewhere,  and  endeavoured  to  negotiate  her  marriage  with  the  king  of  Sweden ;  but 
the  princess  of  Denmark  had  previously  made  too  deep  an  impression  on  his  heart,  to  be 
supplanted :  thus,  seeing  no  more  crowned  heads,  she  was  obliged  to  marry  the  duke 
of  Neubourg ;  but  she  treated  him  with  inconceivable  haughtiness. 

The  present  arch-duchess  is  niece  of  that  princess,  and  they  have  often  been  rivals. 
No  other  match  can  be  observed  for  her  but  the  duke  of  Florence,  the  princess  of  Saxony 
being  at  present  married  to  the  elector  of  Bavaria. 

Tne  emperor  is  arch-duke  of  Austria,  and  king  of  Hungry  and  Bohemia;  he  has 
the  only  arch-duchy  in  the  world,  and  his  children  bear  the  title  of  it.  They  bend  the 
knees  before  him  :  and  the  emperor  himself,  when  bowing  at  the  altar,  bends  liis  two 
knees,  without,  however,  putting  them  to  the  ground. 

The  council  of  conscience  of  the  emperor  is  composed  of  a  capuchin,  called  Father 
Emeric,  bishop  of  Vienna,  and  of  Father  Richard,  a  Jesuit,  fi-o;i||i  I,4utalne,    .',     . 

The  emperor  is  very  devout ;  he  goes  almost  every  day  to^diiie^  \y^h,  the  ^nonks  or 
the  religious.  When  he  travels,  it  is  without  noise,  for  he  has  neither  drums  nor 
trumpets.  His  guards,  called  drabans,  in  number  a  hundred  or  two  hundred,  with  ^ 
partizan  in  their  hands,  clothed  in  black,  all  in  a  cloak  laced  with  yellow,  form  a  hedgje, 
m  che  middle  of  which  the  emperor  passes  in  his  chariot,  which  is  liker  a  chest  than 
any  thing  else.  There  b  never  any  person  at  his  side,  and  the  empress  seats,  berself  at 
the  other  end. 


rOitiA 


.•A,i 


''iU. 


a. 


230 


ItKONAItD'S  JOUKNF.V  TO  I,AI>1.AM),  lie. 


The  horses  arc  hamessctl  with  ropes,  and  the  coiichmaii  is  on  horseliuck,  since  one 
of  thcni  heard  upon  his  scat  a  secret  that  he  revealed.  All  the  attendants  travel  on 
liorseback. 

Before  the  emixror  can  be  elevated  to  the  imju'rial  dignity,  he  must  have  been  elected 
king  of  the  Konians,  and  he  cannot  enioy  this  title  till  he  is  fourteen  years  of  age.  The 
emperors  are  elected  and  crowned  at  trankiort,  but  the  crown  is  at  Aix-la-Ciupclle. 

The  emperor  is  very  fond  of  hunting ;  1  was  at  a  hunt  which  he  made  on  his  return 
from  Oldenburg,  where  they  killed  eighty  or  ninety  wild  boars  with  the  sword.  Those 
^vho  arc  near  the  emperor  kill  them  from  a  lodge,  which  is  preiiared  for  him.  They 
treat  the  emperor  witli  the  respect  due  to  his  sacred  majesty.  He  carries  the  order  of 
the  Fleece ;  but  he  does  not  give  it,  and  it  Ix'longs  solely  to  the  king  of  Spain. 

We  never  have  ambassadors  at  Vienna,  because  Spain  wishes  to  have  the  precedence, 
as  being  of  the  same  house.  The  marquis  of  Selcvillc  was,  at  this  time,  envoy  extra- 
ordinary. We  lived  with  the  marquis,  and  I  had  a  private  conversation  with  the  mar- 
chioness ;  she  is  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  virtuous  ladies  I  have  ever  known.  Wc 
knew  there  M.  de  Saint  Laurent,  cousin  of  madamc  the  marchioness  Pigore.  We  dined 
several  times  with  the  coinit  dc  Stirum. 

The  count  of  StarcmlK'rg  is  governor  of  the  city ;  he  wished  to  have  a  dispute  with 
Messrs.  de  Marsillac  and  d'Alincourt,  because  they  had  not  told  their  names  at  the  court. 

V^ienna  takes  its  name  from  a  little  river,  which  passes  between  tlie  suburb  of  Islaw 
and  the  city,  which,  when  it  oversows  its  banks,  makes  dreadful  ravages.    The  Danube 

passes  here  also.  It  is  the  largest  river  in  Europe  ;  it  takes  its  rise  in ,  and,  after 

flowinf;  seven  or  eight  hundred  leagues,  it  falls  into  the  Black  Sea,  by  seven  mouths. 
Its  course  is  contrary  to  that  of  all  the  other  rivers  of  the  world ;  it  flows  from  west  to 
east,  and  there  is  no  other,  except  the  Po,  that  resembles  it. 

The  Louvre  is  a  large  square  structure,  which  contains  nothing  remarkable.  Its 
court  is  used  as  a  riding-house.  The  gentlemen  have  steps  of  wood,  to  assist  them  in 
mounting  their  horses. 


AUG  13  lg90 


•  -^"^   ^'J|«|  dV^i  tt"-nt»_  ,    j>' 


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231 


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I  in 


MEMOIR  READ  BEFORE  THE  ROYAL  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES,  i  IIIRTEENTil 
Ol  NOVEMBER,  ir37,  ON  THE  MEASURE  OF  A  DEGREE  OF  THE  MERIDIAN 
AT  THE  POLAR  CIRCLE. 

[BY  M.  MAUPBarUI*.    NEWLY  TRANSLATBO.] 

ililGHTEEN  months  ago  I  submitted  to  this  assembly  the  object  and  plan  of  a 
voyage  to  the  polar  circle  :  I  have  now  to  render  them  an  nccoimt  of  its  success ;  in 
doing  which  it  may  first  be  necessary  to  advert  to  the  ideas  which  were  the  cause  of  its 
being  undertaken. 

M.  Richer  having  noticed  at  Cayenne,  in  1672,  that  gravity  in  that  island  near  the 
equator  was  less  than  in  France,  the  learned  turned  tlieir  eyes  towards  the  consequences 
that  might  result  from  this  famous  discovery.  One  of  the  most  illustrious  members  of 
the  aciidemy  maintained,  that  it  proved  as  well  the  revolution  of  the  earth  un  its  axis 
(which  did  not  require  to  be  proved)  as  the  flatness  of  it  towards  the  poles,  which  was 
a  paradox.  M.  Huygens,  applying  the  theory  of  centrifugal  force,  of  which  he  was  the 
author,  to  the  jparts  which  constitute  the  earth,  demonstrated,  that  taking  these  parts  as 
gravitadng  unirormly  towards  a  centre,  and  making  their  revolution  round  an  axis,  it 
must  necessarily  follow,  to  support  an  equilibrium,  that  they  form  a  spheroid  flattened 
towards  the  poles.  M.  Huygens  even  determined  the  proportion  of  flatness,  and  this 
by  the  ordinary  principle  of  gravity. 

Newton  was  the  partisan  of  a  different  theory,  of  the  attraction  of  the  particles  of 
matter  one  towards  the  other ;  ar<d  came  to  the  same  conclusion,  that  tiie  earth  was 
flattened,  although,  by  his  computation,  in  a  different  proportion.  In  fact,  when  by  the 
laws  of  statics  we  examine  the  figure  of  the  earth,  every  theory  leans  to  its  being  flat : 
and  one  cannot  imagine  a  lengthened  spheroid,  unless  by  very  forced  hypotheses  on 
gravity. 

From  the  first  establishment  of  the  academy,  one  of  its  principal  objects  had  i^een 
the  measurement  of  a  degree  of  the  meridian  of  the  earth :  M.  Picard  had  deter- 
mined this  degree  towards  Paris  with  such  exactness,  as  left  nothing  further  to  wish  for 
in  apix'arance.  But  this  measure  could  be  general  only  in  case  the  earth  were  spherical ; 
if  the  earth  were  flattened,  it  would  be  too  long  for  the  degrees  towards  the  equator, 
and  too  short  for  those  towards  the  poles. 

When  the  measurement  of  the  meridian  which  traverses  France  was  finished,  we  were 
surprised  to  learn  that  the  degrees  towards  the  north  were  shorter  than  those  towards 
the  south;  this  was  diametrically  opposite  to  the  efiects  which  ought  to  follow,  if  the 
earth  were  flat  towards  the  poles.  According  to  these  measurements,  it  should  be 
lengthened  towards  the  poles ;  other  experiments,  made  on  the  parallel  which  tra- 
verses France,  confirmed  this  extension,  and  these  measurenjents  had  grt^at  weight. 

Thus  the  academy  was  divided ;  the  information  it  possessed  caused  it  to  doubt ;  when 
the  king  chose  to  have  this  great  question  decided,  a  question,  not  like  those  vain 
speculations  with  which  the  idle  amuse  themselves,  not  a  useless  subtlety  of  philosophy, 
but  a  matter  of  real  influenc   on  astronomy  and  navigation. 

In  order  to  determine  properly  the  figure  of  the  earth,  it  was  necessary  to  compare 
two  degree.*  of  the  meridian,  as  different  in  latitude  as  possible ;  because,  whether  the 
de^ees  increase  or  diminish  in  length  towards  the  pole,  the  slight  difference  between 
adjoining  ones  might  be  k  in  the  errors  of  observations  ;  inacead  of  which,  if  the  two 
degrees  compared  were  at  great  distance  one  frcni  tlie  other,  the  diflference  Ix^ing  re- 


id3 


M.VUI'KliTUiriH  MKMOIIt  i)>t  TIIK  MKASURR  OF 


:t 


li 


pcatcd,  UH  often  an  tlua*  urc  intermediate  degives,  would  make  togctlicr  n  sum  too  con* 
siderable  to es(,a|H'  the  observers*. 

M.  Le  Cojnpte  de  Muiiripan,  who  is  nttucliedlo  die  st^icnces,  and  who  i^  de^iions  o( 
rendering  them  servieeable  to  the  state,  found  united  in  this  undertaking,  un  advunt.ige 
to  navigation,  and  to  the  academy,  and  the  proh|xrct  of  its  being  of  utility  toUic  pubhc 
insured  the  attention  of  the  Cardinal  de  Flcury,  in  the  midst  of  war.  The  sciences 
found  in  him  that  protection  and  assistance,  which  cotild  scarcely  be  exjKXtcd  in  time  of 
the  most  profound  peace.  M.  Le  Compte  de  Mauripas  (|uickly  after  sent  to  the 
academy  the  orders  of  his  majest)',  to  have  the  (|ue:stion  decided  resix-'cting  the  licua- 
of  the  earth ;  the  academy  received  them  with  joy,  and  hiisteiicd  by  several  of  its 
mcmlxrs  to  put  them  in  executioji ;  some  were  destined  to  the  equator,  to  measurt  the 
first  degree  of  the  meridian,  and  set  off  a  year  Jjefore  us;  the  others  for  the  norili,  to 
measure  a  degree  as  near  to  the  pole  us  possible.  The  same  zeal  actuated  those  vt  lio 
went  to  expose  themselves  to  the  sun  under  the  torrid  zone,  as  them  who  were  to  ex|K.*- 
ricnce  the  norrors  of  winter  in  the  frozen  regions ;  cither  had  but  one  aim,  that  of  ren- 
dering themselves  useful  to  their  country. 

The  {mrty  designed  lor  the  north  was  composed  of  four  academicians,  Messrs. 
Clairaut,  Camus,  Le  Monnicr,  and  myself,  and  of  Mr.  L'  Abbe  Outhier,  accom> 
ixinied  by  M.  Celsius,  the  celebrated  professor  of  astronomy  at  Upsal,  who  assisted  us 
u\  all  our  labours,  and  whose  information  and  advice  were  very  useful  to  us.  Were  it 
}x:rmitted  mc  to  speak  of  my  other  companions,  of  their  finnness,  and  their  talents,  it 
would  be  visible,  that,  however  difficult  the  work  we  undertook,  with  their  concurrence  it 
must  have  been  easy. 

A  long  time  has  elapsed  since  we  heard  last  from  those  gone  to  the  equator :  little 
more  of  that  expedition  is  known,  beside  the  trouble  it  has  met  with,  and  our  experience 
has  taught  us  to  feel  for  those  engaged  in  it ;  we  have  been  more  fortunate,  and  are 
returned,  to  bring  to  the  academy  the  fruits  of  our  toil. 

The  vessel  that  bore  us  having  arrived  at  Stockholm,  we  hastened  to  set  out  towards 
the  bottom  of  the  gulph  of  Bothnia,  where  we  could  choose,  better  r.han  by  trusting  to 
charts,  which  of  the  two  coasts  of  the  gulph  would  be  moat  suitable  to  our  operations. 
The  perils  with  which  they  threatened  us  at  Stockholm  did  not  dete;  us ;  nor  the  kind- 
ness of  his  majesty,  who,  in  spite  of  the  orders  that  he  issued  for  u:  ceased  not  from 
testifying  his  concern  at  seeing  us  depart  on  so  dangerous  an  adventure. 

We  arrived  at  Tomeo  in  time  to  see  the  sun  shine  without  setting  for  several  days,  as 
is  usual  in  those  climates  about  the  summer  solstice ;  an  admirable  sight  to  an  inhabitant 
of  the  temperate  zones,  notwithstanding  his  knowledge  of  such  being  the  case  at  the 
polar  circle. 

It  perhaps  will  not  be  useless  here  to  give  an  idea  of  the  work  we  had  laid  down,  and 
the  means  we  had  to  take  in  measuring  a  degree  of  the  meridian. 

Nobody  is  ignorant,  that  as  one  advances  towards  the  north  the  stare  placed  towards 
the  equator  appear  to  sink ;  and  on  the  contrary,  those  situated  towards  the  pole  to  rise : 
it  is  very  prooable  that  the  observance  of  thb  phenomenon  afforded  the  first  proof  of 
the  roundness  of  the  eartho  This  difference  in  the  meridian  height  of  u  star,  which  we 
perceive  in  tracing  an  arc  of  the  meridian,  I  call  the  amplitude  of  that  arc ;  it  is  this  which 
is  the  measurement  of  its  curve,  or,  in  other  words,  it  is  the  number  of  minutes  and  se- 
conds which  it  contains.  >V  y*f  ■ 

Were  the  earth  entirely  spherical,  this  diffetence  of  the  height  of  a  star  (this  ampli- 
tude)  would  always  be  in  proportion  to  the  arc  of  the  meridian  passed  over.  If,  in 
order  to  see  a  star  change  its  elevation  one  degree,  it  might  be  necessary  at  Paris  to  pass 


lit 


JOltlNKY  OP  MAirPP.RTVM. 


i3.t 


over  u  H|)ace  of  fil^y -seven  thoiisiiiul  Umvs,  the  sitinc  distaiuc  sIkuiUI  Ik:  ({cmo  ovir  ni 
'I'ornco,  to  (iiid  the  HHme  chiin^;t.-  in  thv  iK-i^ht  of  the  Htar. 

ir,  on  the  coi\tiary,  the  surfaec  of  the  lartli  wen  miilornily  even,  howi  ver  great  \\\v  di^ 
tanrc  passed  over  towards  the  north,  the  Htar  would  a|)i)c-ar  neither  more  nor  less  elevated. 

If  then  the  buri'ace  of  the  earth  Ik:  unequally  eurved  in  different  n  gifinN,  to  find  tiM 
san»e  diff'erenee  of  die  elevation  of  a  star,  it  will  be  neeevsarj ,  in  those  different  rcnions, 
to  pass  over  une(|ual  arelies  of  tfie  meridian  of  the  eardi :  and  those  arches,  whose  am- 
plitude is  a  deffix'e,  will  fjc  lonf^T  where  tlit  earth  is  more  fliitenetl.  So  tliat  if  die 
carti)  he  flattened  towards  tlie  poles,  a  degree  of  tlie  terrestrial  meridian  will  \k.  longer 
towards  the  poles  than  at  the  ecjuator ;  and  liencc  the  figme  of  the  earth  niay  he  ascer- 
Uiiiud,  by  comparing  the  diffennt  degrees  one  with  the  other. 

By  this  will  Ik;  seen,  that  to  have  the  measure  of  a  degree  of  the  meridiiiu  of  tite 
cnrtfi,  a  distance  on  tluH  meridian  must  be  measured,  and  the  eluinge  of  the  ek  va'ion  of 
a  star  at  the  two  extremities  be  known,  in  order  to  be  able  to  eonipari  the  length  of  iIk 
arch  with  its  amplitude. 

The  first  part  of  our  work  consisted  then  in  measuring  a  considi  rable  space  ii|K)n  the 
meridian,  and  for  this  purposv  a  succession  of  triangles  was  necessary,  which  might  com- 
municate with  some  base,  whose  length  miglit  be  measured  l)y  tlie  ihjIc. 

We  had  always  entertained  the  liope  of  fx'ing  able  to  make  our  obscr\'ations  upon 
the  shores  of  the  Gulph  of  Bothnia.  The  facility  of  crossing  by  sea  to  tlie  diffeivnl 
stations,  of  trans|X)rting  the  instruments  in  boats,  the  ad>>  ant;igc  uf  observations,  that 
the  islands  of  the  gulf  markcxl  in  such  number  upon  the  cliarts  seemed  to  hold  out  to 
U8 :  all  these  had  pre-determined  us  in  favour  of  the  coast  and  isles.  We  proceeded 
with  impatience  to  reconnoitre,  but  all  our  voyages  for  that  purpose  served  only  to 
shew  UR  the  necestiity  of  giving  up  our  first  intention.  These  islands,  which  lay  off  the 
shores  of  the  gulph,  and  the  coast  of  the  gulf  itself,  which  we  had  repascnted  to  our 
fancy  as  promontories,  visible  at  a  great  distance,  and  from  which  we  might  distinguish 
others  equally  distant,  all  these  islands  were  level  with  tlic  water,  and  conse(|uently 
quickly  hid  by  the  roundness  of  the  earth.  TIK7  even  concealed  each  other  to\\'ards 
the  borders  of  the  gulf,  when  they  were  too  near;  and  wheiv  ranged  along  the 
coasts,  they  did  not  adviince  far  enough  into  the  sea,  to  aftbrd  us  the  direction  we 
required.  After  repeated  fruitless  endeavours  to  obtain  in  these  islands  what  they 
could  not  afford,  we  were  obliged  to  give  up  all  hope,  and  abandon  them. 

I  travelled  from  Stockholm  to  Torneo  in  a  coach  with  the  rest  of  the  company ;  but 
chance  having  thrown  in  our  way,  in  the  course  of  this  long  journey,  the  vessel  which 
bore  our  instruments  and  serv  ants,  I  went  on  board,  and  arrived  at  Torneo  several 
days  before  the  others.  On  landing  I  met  with  the  govemoi*  of  the  province,  who 
was  going  to  visit  Northern  Lapland  (part  of  his  government.)  I  joined  him,  in  order 
to  gather  some  idea  of  the  country  in  the  absence  of  my  companions,  and  penetrated 
fifteen  leagues  towards  the  north.  On  the  night  of  the  solstice  I  ascended  one  of  the 
highest  mountains  of  this  country,  called  Avasaxa  ;  and  returned  in  sufficient  time  to  be 
at  Torneo  on  their  arrival.  In  this  journey,  which  lasted  but  three  days,  I  remarked 
that  the  river  Torneo  ran  pretty  closely  in  the  direction  of  the  meridian,  as  far  as  I  had 

gone ;  and  noticed  on  all  sides  high  mountains,  diat  afibrded  stations  perceptible  at  great 
istances. 
We  thought  then  of  beginning  our  operations  to  tlie  north  of  Torneo,  upon  the  sum- 
mits of  these  mountains,  but  this  apjxared  to  us  scarcely  (wssible. 

We  had,  in  the  deserts  of  a  country  hardl}'  inhabitable,  in  the  immense  forest  which 
extends  from  Torneo  to  the  North  Cape,  to  effect  operations,  difficult  even  in  the  most 


VOL.    I. 


H    H 


r^i 


934 


jouRNr.Y  or  M.vtpi'.nTtiii. 


f 


I 


cf  iDHUxlioiis  (TMintricH.  Th(  re  w^rv  fnit  two  mo<1t's  ofpjcuing  forward  it)  ihcv  doHfrts, 
lo  l)oll»  ol"  whifh  wc  wen  ohli^al  to  huvr  ricour  »f  ;  the  om-  by  iiaviK.itiiifif  it  rivxr  full 
of  ( ataractit,  the  otlu r  It)  pi'ocrcdinp;  on  toot  throii^li  thick  forcittN,  or  dcip  nuin)hc<i ; 
aiul  allowing;  \\v  should  ^i t  through  the  ( ouiitiy  after  the  luost  tedious  iiiarciicH,  wc 
had  to  Hc.ile  iii{i;^v(l  iiKtuiitaius,  cKar  the  Muninits  of  iIkm:  mouittuins  of  du-  treen  which 
there  ini|H(led  the  si^ht^i,  live  in  these  deserts  ii|xn»  the  coarvst  food,  and  ex- 
posed to  Hit  s  !>o  f'MHu  ntin^,  that  they  ohlij^e  the  I^aolaiiders  and  tlieir  rciii-decr  to 
abandon  the  coiinliy  durinp;  this  season,  to  seok,  on  the  filioren  of  the  sea,  u  more  tolcruhle 
residence. 

To  huni  tip  all,  the  work  was  to  be  uiulertakcn  without  knowing,  or  Ivcing  able  to 
learn,  win  the  r  it  was  practicable;  without  knowinj^  whether,  alter  so  much  pains,  the 
want  of  one  mountain  mi)j;ht  not  ubsolutdy  sto[)  the  course  of  our  triangles  ;  und  without 
knowin^r  whedur  we  should  be  al.>le  to  find  upon  the  river  a  base,  that  could  ix:  united 
with  our  triangles.  Should  all  these  succeed,  we  had  afterwards  to  construct  ol>scrvtt- 
tot  ies  on  the  most  northern  of  our  mountains  ;  a  train  of  instruments,  more  complete 
than  are  to  lic  found  in  many  of  the  obnervatories  of  Europe,  were  to  be  transported 
there;  and  astronomical  observations  to  be  made,  the  most  minutely  exact. 

If  on  one  hand  these  different  obstacles  were  sufficient  to  alarm  us;  on  tlic  othet 
ihc  work  had  many  attractions.  Besides  the  difficulties  wc  had  to  overcome,  wc  had 
to  measure  a  degae,  in  all  probability  as  far  towards  the  north  as  is  |Krmitted  man  t 
measure,  the  degree  which  cuts  the  jwlar  circle,  and  of  which  one  part  is  in  the  froze 
zone.  After  all,  gVvinjj*  up  tfie  hope  of  being  able  to  make  use  of  the  islands  of  the 
gulf,  this  was  our  last  resource  ;  for  we  could  not  satisfy  ourselves,  by  descending  to 
tnc  more  soiiihern  provinces  of  Sweden. 

We  left  Torneo  on  Friday  July  sixth,  with  a  company  of  Finnish  soldiers,  and  a 
great  number  of  boats,  laden  with  instruments,  and  the  most  indis|)cnsible  necessiirics  of 
life  ;  and  began  to  astiend  the  great  river,  which,  proceeding  from  the  extremity  of  Lap- 
land, empties  itself  into  die  Bothnick  Sea,  after  dividing  into  two  branches,  which 
form  the  little  island  Swintztitr,  on  which  the  t^)wn  is  built,  in  latitude  65  degrees  51 
minutes.  From  that  day  we  lived  in  the  deserts  and  on  the  tops  of  mountains,  which  wc 
were  desirous  of  uniting  by  triangles.  After  having  ascended  the  river  from  nine  o^clock 
in  the  morning  until  nine  at  night,  wc  arrived  at  Korpikyla,  a  hamlet  on  its  banks,  in- 
habited by  Fins;  we  landed  there,  and  after  marching  a  long  time  across  the  forest,  we 
arrived  at  the  foot  of  Nirva,  a  sharp  mountain,  whose  summit  is  composed  of  rock 
alone,  which  we  ascended,  and  upon  which  we  established  ourselves.  On  the  river  we 
had  been  grievously  incommoded  by  large  flics  with  green  heads,  which  drew  blood 
wherever  they  stung  ;  on  Nirva  we  were  plagued  with  several  other  kinds,  still  more 
tormenting. 

Two  young  Lapland  girls  were  keeping  a  little  herd  of  rein-deer  upon  the  summit  of 
this  mountain,  and  from  them  we  learned  an  antidote  against  the  flies  of  the  country  : 
diese  poor  wenches  were  so  much  hid  by  the  smoke  of  a  great  fire  which  they  had 
kindled,  that  \ve  could  scarcely  see  them ;  and  very  soon  we  were  surrounded  by  a 
smoke  as  thick  as  theirs. 

While  our  party  was  encamped  on  Nirva,  I  left  it  at  eight  in  the  morning  witli 
Mr.  Camus,  to  reconnoitre  the  mountains  towards  the  north ;  we  ascended  the  river 
again  as  far  as  to  the  foot  of  Avasaxa,  a  high  mountain,  whose  summit  we  stripped  of 
its  trees,  and  erected  a  signal  upon  it.  Our  signals  were  hollow  cones,  made  by  a 
number  of  great  trees,  which,  being  deprived  of  their  bark,  were  so  white  as  to  be 
easily  distinguished  at  the  distance  of  ten  or  twelve  leagues ;  their  centre,  in  case  of 


,!l 


JUIUNKV  Ul'  MALt'KUILM. 


JJ.5 


of 


of 

a 

be 

of 


■eokknt,  \va»  cunily  to  be  foiiiul  a^tiii,  by  inarkrt  wtiicli  ui  luaiU-  oit  tlic  lutk^,  iwul 
Mtakt-H  which  were  driven  dctp  info  the  earth,  and  covered  aj^aiu  by  ijreut  htont  ^ ;  in 
nhort,  thtse  si^naN  were  snthcii-ntly  comm'Khons  ibr  ob*iervution»,  and  uh  Hulittantially 
constructed  as  most  of  the  buildings  <>t'  the  country. 

As  soon  as  the  signal  was  finished  we  descetukd  llic  uunintain,  and  having  embarked 
on  the  little  river  Tenglio,  which,  passing  die  llxit  of  Avasaxa,  empties  itself  into  the  great 
river,  we  went  .p  it  us  far  as  to  that  part  which  seemed  to  us  nearest  to  a  nioimtaiii 
apiwrcntljr  caiculnted  for  our  work  ;  there  we  landed,  anti,  after  a  nurch  of  three  hoursi 
across  a  marsh,  arrived  at  the  foot  of  Horrilaken).  Although  greatly  fniigued,  wv 
ascended  it,  and  paMsed  the  niglu  in  cutting  down  what  trees  we  fomul.  A  gre.it  part 
of  the  mountain  is  of  red  stone,  interspersed  with  a  sort  of  white  crystals,  long,  and 
tolerably  parallel  to  one  another.  The  smoke  wuh  not  heiv  a  preventative  against  the 
flies,  more  vexatious  upon  tliis  moimtain  than  on  Nirva.  We  were  obliged,  notwith- 
standing the  excessive  heat,  to  cover  our  heads  with  our  Lapnuides  (a  dress  njiiile  ol"  the 
skins  of  rein-deer)  and  to  cause  ourselves  to  be  surrounded  by  a  thick  rampart  of 
branches  of  fir,  and  even  by  whole  trees,,  which  almoiii.  overw helmed  us,  but  which  pre- 
sv'rvcd  us  only  for  a  short  time. 

After  having  felled  all  the  trtxs  on  the  ton  of  Hoirilakero,  and  constructed  a  signal 
there,  wc  left  it,  and  retraced  our  roiid,  to  find  the  l)oats  which  we  hud  drawn  into  the 
wood  ;  it  is  thus  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  manage,  for  want  of  cordage,  which  is 
very  scarce  with  them.  A  few  verv  thin  planks  of  deal  compose  their  skift's,  so  light,  and 
so  flexible,  that  notwithstanding  ihey  continually  strike  uguinst  the  stones,  with  which 
the  rivers  are  full,  borne  by  the  whole  violence  of  the  torrent,  they  bear  the  shock 
without  injury.  It  nflbrds  a  sight,  terrible  for  those  unaccustomed  to  it,  and  astonishing 
to  all,  to  behold  this  frail  machine  in  the  midst  of  u  cataract,  the  noise  of  which  is  deafen- 
ing, carried  away  by  a  torrent  of  waves,  froth  and  stones ;  sometimes  borne  up  aloft, 
and  at  others  lost  amid  the  waves ;  one  dauntless  Fin  steering  it  with  an  our,  while  two 
others  row  with  all  their  might,  to  escape  the  following  waves,  that  threaten  to  over- 
whelm  them ;  at  such  times  the  keel  is  often  above  the  water,  and  only  supix)rted  by  one 
extremity  pressing  on  a  wave,  which  sinks  at  every  instant.  Although  these  Fins  be 
particularly  bold  and  skilful  amid  cataracts,  they  are  everywhere  else  in^nious  in  steer- 
ing  small  vessels,  in  which  most  frequently  they  have  nothing  but  a  tree,  with  its  branches, 
to  serve  for  a  mast  and  sails. 

We  re-embarked  on  the  'I'englio,  and  having  entered  the  Torneo,  we  sailed  down  it, 
to  return  to  Korpikyla.  Four  leagues  from  Avii&axa  we  left  our  boats,  and,  after 
walking  nearly  an  hour  in  the  forest,  we  found  ourselves  at  the  foot  of  Cuitapari,  a 
very  rugged  mountain,  whose  top  was  a  rock  covered  with  moss,  commanding  a  pros- 
(lect  all  around  for  a  considerable  distimce ;  from  it  on  the  south  wc  could  distinguish 
the  sea  of  Bothnia :  we  raised  a  signal  here,  from  which  we  saw  Horrilakero,  Aviisiixa, 
Torneo,  Nirva,  and  Kukama.  We  continued  then  to  fall  down  the  river,  which,  between 
Cuitaperi  and  Korpikyla,  contains  dreadful  cataracts  that  it  is  not  usual  to  puss  in  boats. 
The  Fins  did  not  fail  to  land  in  the  neighbourhood  of  these,  although  excess  of  fatigue 
made  it  more  supportable  for  us  to  pass  them  in  boats  than  to  walk  a  hui-dred  paces. 
At  length,  the  eleventh  of  July  at  niglit,  we  came  to  Nirva,  where  the  remainder  of  our 
company  was  established ;  they  had  seen  our  signals,  but  the  sky  had  been  so  much 
charged  with  vapour,  they  had  been  unable  to  make  any  observation.  I  know  not 
whether  it  was  owing  to  the  continual  presence  of  the  sun  above  the  horizon,  whicli 
raised  vapours  that  there  was  no  night  to  condense,  but  during  the  two  months  that  we 
passed  upon  these  mountains  the  heavens  were  always  overcast,  until  the  north  wind 

H  H  2 


,t  >■ 


iil-i"' 


ii 


236  JOURNEY  OF  MALPKkrnS. 

came  to  dissipate  the  mist.  This  disposition  of  the  atmosphere  often  detained  us  eight 
or  ten  days  on  u  m'liwitaiii,  in  waiting  for  the  favourable  opportunity  of  s;;eing  distinctly 
the  objects  we  \\  ished  to  observe.  It  was  not  until  the  day  after  our  return  to  Nirva,  that 
some  angles  were  taken ;  and  the  following,  under  favour  of  a  very  bleak  north  wind,  we 
completed  our  observations. 

July  tb'j  fourteenth  we  left  Nirva,  and  while  Messrs.  Camus,  Le  Monnier  and  Celsius 
went  to  Kr,kama,  Messrs.  Clai.aut,  Cuthier  and  myself  passed  on  to  Cuitaperi,  whence 
on  the  sixteenth  M.  L  Abbe  Cuthier  departed,  to  place  a  signal  on  Pullingi.  The 
?ighteenth  we  took  ol>servfitions,  which,  notw'thstanding  the  interruption  of  thunder 
and  rain,  we  completed  by  night,  and  the  twentieth  we  set  ofF,  anj  arrived  at  midnight 
at  Avisaxa. 

This  mountain  is  fifteen  leagues  from  Torneo,  on  the  bank  of  'he  river ;  the  access 
to  it  is  difficult ;  to  ascend  it,  we  had  to  pass  through  a  fores',  that  continues  for  half  its 
height ;  it  is  there  divided  by  great  heaps  of  shiu-p  and  slippery  stones  from  its  re- 
mainder, which  extended  to  the  summit ;  I  say  extended,  because  we  caused  all  the 
trees  that  covered  th'.  top  to  l)e  cut  down.  The  north-east  side  is  a  frightful  precipice 
of  rocks,  in  whici i  some  falcons  had  made  their  nests  ;  at  the  foot  of  it  the  Tenglio  runs, 
'vh'ich  turns  round  Avasaxa  before  it  throws  itself  into  the  Torneo.  From  this  moun- 
tain the  prospect  is  beautiful ;  nothing  interrupts  the  sight  towards  the  south,  and  the 
course  of  the  river  is  discernible  for  a  vast  extent ;  towards  the  east  the  Tenglio  is  traced 
through  several  lakes  that  it  passes ;  on  the  north  the  view  extends  twelve  or  fifteen 
leagues,  where  it  is  interrupted  by  a  multlt  ide  of  mou'icains,  heaped  one  upon  the 
other,  resc'nbling  chaoc  imong  which  it  wai  not  easy  to  find  that  which  we  had  see^n 
from  Avasaxa. 

We  j-5assed  ten  days  on  this  mountain,  during  which  curiosity  often  procured  us  visits 
frcm  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighbouring  country  ;  they  brought  us  fish,  sheep,  and  such 
wrjtched  fruits  as  grow  in  their  forests. 

Between  this  mountain  and  Cuitapari  the  river  is  exceeding  broad,  and  forms  a  kind 
of  lake,  v.Iiich,  as  well  as  that  it  w^as  extensive,  was  very  advant^eously  situated  for 
our  base ;  Messrs.  Clairaut  and  Camus  took  upon  themselves  the  care  of  ascertaining  its 
direction,  and  for  that  purpose  remained  at  Oswer  Torneo  after  our  observations  upon 
Avasaxa  were  completed ;  while  1  went  to  Pullin-ji  with  Messrs.  Le  Monnier,  Cutluer 
and  Celsius.  On  the  same  day  that  we  left  Avasaxa  we  passed  the  polar  circle,  and 
airived  the  next  day  f.T'..ly  thirty- first)  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  Turtula,  a  kind 
of  hamlet  for  the  reapers  of  the  little  barley  and  grass  that  ^w  in  those  parts.  After 
walking  some  time  in  the  forest,  we  embarked  or  a  lake,  which  carried  us  to  the  foot  of 
Pullingi. 

It  is  the  highest  of  the  nwuntains,  and  extremely  difficult  of  access,  from  the  sudden- 
ness with  which  it  arises,  and  from  the  height  of  the  inos»,  in  which  we  could  scarcely 
walk.  We  got  to  the  summit  however  at  ax  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  the  stay  we 
made,  from  July  thirty-first  to  August  sixth,  was  as  painful  as  our  ascent.  It  was  ne- 
cessary  we  should  cut  down  a  forest  of  the  largest  trees ;  and  tlie  flies  were  so  trouble- 
some, that  our  soUliers  of  the  regiment  of  Westro-Bothnia,  a  regiment  distinguidied 
even  in  Sweden,  where  there  are  so  n«any  brave  men,  these  men,  inund  to  the  greatest 
hare* '^  hips,  were  obliged  to  envelope  their  faces,  and  cover  them  with  pitcii  -,  these  insects 
infected  every  thing  we  were  about  to  eat ;  as  soon  as  exposed,  our  meat  was  biuck  over 
with  them.  The  birds  of  prey  were  iwt  less  famished ;  they  flew  round  us  continually,  to 
seize  on  some  joints  of  mutton  wMch  were  cooldng  for  us. 


^^U£ 


JOl'RNKY  OK  MVl.l'F.UTLIh 


23' 


The  day  after  our  arrival  at  Piillingi,  M.  L' Abbe  Ciuhicr  left  us,  accompatjjcd  by  an 
officer  of  the  same  regiment  wliich  had  rendered  us  so  much  service,  to  erect  a  signal 
towards  Plllo.  On  the  fourth  we  ixjrceived  one  on  Niemi,  that  the  same  officer  had 
raised :  having  taken  the  angles  between  these  signals,  wc  left  Pullingi  the  sixth  of 
Atigust  (having  suffered  severely)  to  go  to  Pillo ;  passing  four  cataracts,  we  arrived 
there  the  same  day. 

Pillo  is  a  village  inhabited  by  a  few  Fins,  nes^r  to  which  Kittis,  the  lowest  of  the  moun. 
tains,  is  situateu  ,  upon  this  our  signal  vvas  placed.  In  ascending  towards  it,  we  found 
a  spring  of  the  purest  water,  issuing  from  a  very  fine  sand,  and  which  in  the  severest 
frosts  of  winter  preserves  its  liquid  state ;  when  we  returned  to  Pillo,  at  the  end  of  winter, 
while  the  sea  at  the  bottom  of  the  gulf  and  all  the  rivers  uere  liecome  hard  as  marble, 
this  water  still  ran  as  in  the  middle  of  summer. 

We  were  so  fortunate  on  our  arrival  as  to  complete  our  observations,  and  staid  at  Kittis 
only  till  the  following  day ;  leaving  it  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  arriving  the 
same  evening  at  Turtula. 

Already  a  month  had  passed  that  we  had  lived  in  the  deserts,  or  rather  on  the  tops  ol 
mountains,  having  no  other  bed  than  the  ground,  or  a  stone,  spread  over  with  deer  skins, 
nor  any  other  nourishment  than  a  few  fish  which  the  Fins  brought  us,  or  which  we  our- 
selves caught,  and  iome  species  of  berries,  or  wild  fruits,  which  the  forests  i'JForded. 
The  health  of  M.  Monnier,  which  was  not  proof  against  this  kind  of  life,  and  which 
was  considerably  hurt  at  PuUingi,  diminished  visibly,  and  entirely  failing  him  here,  I  lelt 
him  at  Turtula,  to  descend  the  river,  and  go  for  its  re-establishmcnt  to  the  house  of  the 
rector  of  Oswer  Tomeo,  which  was  the  best  and  almost  the  only  asylum  the  country 
possessed. 

At  the  same  time  I  left  Turtula  in  company  with  Messrs.  Cuthier  and  Celsius,  to  tra- 
verse the  fore.t  in  search  of  the  sgnul  that  the  officer  had  erected  at  Niemi ;  this  was  a 
terrible  jr  !rnev ,  we  proceeded  as  far  as  to  a  littlr  rivulet  on  leaving  Turtula,  when  we 
got  on  board  tnrce  small  boats,  but  they  passed  with  so  much  trouble  among  the  rocks, 
Wat  we  were  tvery  now  ind  then  obliged  to  get  out,  and  leap  from  one  to  .:T.other. 
This  rivulet  led  us  to  a  lake,  so  full  of  little  yellow  grains  of  the  size  of  millet,  that  its 
water  was  entirely  coloured  by  it ;  I  took  them  to  be  the  chrysals  of  some  insect,  and 
conjectured  that  they  were  those  of  the  flies  which  had  so  much  tormented  us,  since 
I  saw  no  others  whose  numbers  could  answer  the  quantity  of  grains  requisite  to  fill  a 
lake  of  tdcrable  size.  At  the  end  of  this  lake  we  had  to  walk  to  another  of  the  finest 
water,  on  which  we  found  a  boat ;  we  put  our  quadrant  in  it,  and  followed  it  along  the 
shore.  On  these  shoi\:s  the  forec^  was  so  thick,  that  we  were  obliged  to  cut  our  way 
through,  every  moment  inconveiienced  by  the  height  of  the  moss,  and  by  the  fir  trees 
which  wc  met  with  lying  on  the  ground.  In  all  these  forests  there  are  nearly  as  rm\y 
of  these  trees  llillen  as  standing ;  the  soil  which  nourishes  them  to  a  certain  point  is  inca- 
pable of  afifoiw^i;  them  nutriment  beyond,  and  not  deep  enough  to  allow  them  to  establish 
themselves  firmly ;  one  half  perishes,  or  is  blown  down  by  the  least  wind.  All  :hc;se 
forests  are  full  of  firs  and  birch  trees,  thus  rooted  up.  Time  has  reduced  the  lattei  to 
dust,  without  occasioning  the  smc'lest  change  in  the  bark :  we  were  surprised  to  find  that 
with  the  least  stroke  wc  could  crush  and  break  them,  although  of  some  size.  It  is  this, 
most  likely,  which  gave  origin  to  the  use  that  the  Swedes  make  of  the  bark  of  birch ; 
they  cover  houses  witli  it,  and  in  fact  nothing  can  be  better  adapted  fw  the  purpose. 

In  some  provinces  this  bark  is  covered  with  earth,  upwi  ^^ich  gardens  are  form- 
ed upon  tne  roofs,   as  on  many  of  the  houses  at  Upsal.     In  Westro-Bothnia  the 


u 


m 


M^m... 


238 


JOl'UNKV  OF  MAUPEini'IS 


bark-  '3  fiistencd  by  cylinders  of  fir,  fixed  to  the  ridge,  declining  on  both  sides  the  roof, 
rhese  woods  seemed  only  the  ruins  of  forests,  of  which  the  greater  part  of  the  tret,  s  had 
perished;  it  was  one  of  this  description,  and  the  most  hideous  of  them,  that  we  had  to 
pass  through  on  foot,  followed  by  IwcIaA  soldiers,  wiio  carried  our  baggage.  We  camL-  at 
length  to  the  border  of  a  lake  of  great  size,  and  of  the  finest  water  in  the  world ;  we  found 
two  boats  on  it,  into  which  having  put  our  instruments  and  lug^jage,  ^ve  waited  their  re- 
turn at  the  side.  A  heavy  gale,  and  the  bad  state  of  the  boats,  made  their  voyiige  tedious  ; 
they  came  back  at  length,  we  went  on  board,  traversed  the  lake,  and  got  to  the  foot  of 
Niemi  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

This  mountain,  which  the  surrounding  lakes,  and  the  difficulties  we  liau  to  surmount 
in  reaching  it,  made  appear  like  the  enchanted  grounds  of  fairy  tales,  would  be  delightful 
in  any  other  part  but  Lapland :  on  one  side  a  clear  wood,  the  walks  of  which  were  as  even 
as  the  alleys  of  a  garden ;  in  it  the  trees  formed  no  impedime\it  to  our  >vay,  nor  prevented 
the  view  of  a  charming  lake  that  washed  the  foot  of  the  mountain  ;  on  the  other  side 
were  parlours  and  closets,  seemingly  cut  out  of  the  rock,  and  to  which  nothing  but  the 
roof  was  wanting :  these  rocks  were  so  perpendicular,  so  lofty,  and  so  even,  that  they 
looked  more  like  walls  begun  for  some  palace,  than  a  work  of  nature.  Frequently  while 
there  we  saw  those  vapcirs  rise  out  of  the  lake,  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  call 
Haltios,  and  which  they  conceive  to  be  the  spirits  to  whom  the  guardianship  of  the  moun- 
tains is  committed :  this  particular  mountam  was  formidable,  by  its  being  the  residence 
of  bears ;  however,  we  saw  none,  and  it  had  more  the  appearance  of  the  habitation  of 
genii  and  fairies,  than  the  dwelling  for  bears. 

The  day  following  that  of  our  arrival  a  fog  prevented  our  observations ;  on  the  tenth 
they  were  interrupted  by  thunder  and  rain ;  the  eleventh  wc  completed  them,  and  leaving 
Niemi,  after  rejiassing  three  lakes,  wc  arrived  at  Turtnla,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing ;  whenccon  the  twelfth  we  again  set  out  for  the  house  of  the  rector  of  Oswer  Torneo, 
which  we  reached  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  where  we  met  with  opr  compa- 
nions :  leaving  M.  Le  Monnier,  and  M.  L'Abb^  Cuthier,  on  the  thirteenth,  I  proceeded 
with  Messrs.  C'airaut,  Camus,  and  Celsius,  for  Horrilakero,  with  four  boats.  We  entered 
the  Tenglio,  which  has  its  cataracts,  but  is  more  inconvenient  from  its  shallowness,  and 
the  great  number  of  stones  in  it,  than  from  the  rapidity  of  its  waters.  I  was  surprised 
to  find  on  its  banks,  so  near  to  the  frozen  zone,  roses  of  as  lively  crimson  as  those  which 
grow  with  us.  At  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  arrived  at  Horrilakero.  We  did  not 
complete  our  observations  here  until  the  seventeenth,  and  leaving  it  the  nest  day,  we  got 
to  Oswer  Torneo  by  night,  meeting  with  all  our  company. 

The  most  suitable  spot  for  establishing  the  base  had  been  fixed  upon ;  and  Messrs. 
Clairaut  and  Camus,  after  having  visited  the  banks  of  the  river,  had  determined  its  direc- 
tion, and  fixed  the  length  of  it  by  signals,  which  they  had  caused  to  be  erected  at  its  two 
extremities.  ;   i  , 

Having  ascended  Avasaxa  in  the  evening,  to  observe  the  angles  wlu<^  wereto  unite 
this  base  to  our  triangles,  we  saw  Horrilakero  all  on  fire.  This  is  an  accident  frequent 
in  these  forests,  where  there  is  no  subsisung  during  summer  except  in  the  midst  of  smoke, 
and  where  the  moss  and  the  firs  are  so  combustible,  that  oftendmes  the  fire  that  is 
lighted  occasions  the  conflagradon  of  thousands  of  acres.  The  smoke  of  these  fires  has 
irequently  hindered  us  in  our  work  as  much  as  the  thickness  of  the  air.  Seeing  that  it 
was  highly  probable  that  the  fire  of  Horrilakero  arose  from  the  embers  of  that  we  had 
kindled,  and  which  had  been  badly  extinguished,  we  sent  thirty  men  to  cut  away  its 
communication  w^*h  the  neighbouring  woods.  Our  observations  on  Avasaxa  were  not 
completed  before  the  twenty-first.    Horrilakero  still  continued  burning ;  we  saw  it  co- 


*^i 


JOVRXEV  OF  MAlTKIlTflS. 


239 


vcied  with  smoke,  and  the  fire,  whicli  had  reached  the  forest  below,  at  intervals  brolce 
out  with  violence. 

Some  of  the  people  sent  to  Horrilakero  reporting  that  the  signal  had  been  damaged 
by  the  fire,  we  sent  to  re-construct  it,  u  work  of  no  difficulty,  from  the  precautions  be- 
fore noticed. 

The  twenty-second  we  went  to  Poiky  Tomeo,  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  where  the 
northern  signal  of  the  base  was  stationed,  to  make  the  observations  necessary  to  unite  it 
to  the  summit  of  the  mountains ;  and  on  the  twenty-third  we  left  it  for  the  other  extre- 
mity of  the  base,  where,  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  at  a  place  called  Niemisby,  the  southern 
signal  was  placed.  That  night  we  slept  in  a  pretty  pleasant  meadow,  from  which  M. 
Camus  the  next  day  went  on  to  Pello,  to  prepare  huts  for  us,  and  construct  an  observa- 
tory on  Kittis,  where  we  were  to  make  astronomical  observations,  for  ascertaining  the 
amplitude  of  our  arch.  After  taking  our  observation  from  the  southern  signal,  we  again 
ascended  Cuitaperi  at  night,  where  the  last  observation,  which  was  to  unite  the  base  with 
the  triangles,  was  completed  on  the  twenty -sixth. 

We  had  just  learned  that  the  sextant  which  we  expected  from  England  had  ar- 
rived at  Tomeo,  and  we  hastened  to  that  place  to  get  it  ready,  with  the  other  instru- 
ments that  we  had,  to  carry  to  Kittis,  where  the  severity  of  winter  was  more  to  be 
dreaded  than  at  Tomeo,  and  where  for  which  reason  we  were  desirous  of  beginning 
our  observations  for  determining  the  amplitude  of  the  arch,  before  the  frosts  set  in. 
While  all  was  preparing  for  the  journey  to  Pello,  we  went  up  the  steeple  of  the  church 
built  on  the  Isle  of  Swintztar,  which  1  notice,  in  order  that  it  may  not  be  confounded 
with  the  Finnish  church  built  in  the  Isle  of  Bierckhohn,  to  the  south  of  Swintztar ;  and 
having  observed  from  this  steeple  the  angles  which  it  made  with  our  mountains,  we 
again  left  Tomeo  the  third  of  Septemlxr  with  fifteen  boats,  the  largest  fleet  which  had 
ever  lieen  seen  on  the  river,  and  arrived  to  sleep  at  Kuckula. 

The  succeeding  day  we  rt  '  d  Korpikyla,  and  while  part  of  our  company  continued 
their  route  towards  Pello,  I  setoti"  on  foot  with  Messrs.  Celsius  and  Cuthierfor  the  Ka- 
kama,  where  we  arrived  at  nine  in  the  ev* ning,  through  a  he  avy  rain. 

The  whole  summit  of  Kakama  consiai;:*  of  foliated  white  stone,  its  leaves  having  a  ver- 
tical direction,  almost  perpendicular  to  the  meridian.  1  j  lese  stones  held  the  rain,  which 
for  some  time  back  had  fallen  in  such  manner,  that  every  part  which  '^.id  not  consist  of 
rock>vas  covered  with  water;  and  it  continuing  to  rain  through  the  night,  our  observa- 
tions could  not  be  completed  till  the  next  day ;  we  ere  consequently  obliged  to  pass  a 
second  night  as  damp  and  as  cold  as  the  preceding  .  on  the  sixth  our  observations  were 
finished. 

After  the  uncomfortable  stay  that  we  made  at  Kakama  w  left  it,  and,  urged  by  a  con- 
tinual rain  through  a  forest  where  we  had  difficulty  to  keep  our  feet,  we  exerted  our- 
selves greatly  to  get  forward,  and  after  five  hours  \  .uh.ing  arrived  at  Korpikyla :  we 
slept  there  that  night,  and  continuing  our  journey  the  next  day,  we  reached  Pello  the 
ninth  of  September,  where  we  met  all  together. 

Our  different  expeditions,  and  a  r^aidence  of  sixty-three  days  in  the  deserts,  had  ^ven 
us  the  best  succession  of  triangles  possible :  a  work,  the  practicability  of  which  was  un- 
certain, and  in  which  we  ran  great  hazard  of  not  succeeding,  had  turned  out  as  fortu- 
nately as  it  could  have  done,  had  we  possessed  the  power  of  disposing  the  site  of  the 
mountains  at  our  pleasure. 

Our  mountains  collectively  wth  the  church  of  Tomeo  formed  a  close  figure,  in  the 
midst  of  which  was  Horrilakero,  a  focus  serving  to  unite  all  the  triangles  of  which  our 
figure  was  composed :  it  was  a  long  heptagon,  m  the  direction  of  the  meridian.    This 


\i'>t 


Hi:. 


240 


.lOUKNEY  OF  MAOJ'RRTLiH 


figure  was  susceptible  of  a  proof  rather  singular  in  these  operations,  depending  on  the 
natural  qualities  of  polygons.  The  sum  of  the  angles  of  an  heptagon  on  u  level  is  900 
degrees :  the  sum  of  our  heptagon  on  a  curvetf  surface  ought  to  exceed  this  a  little,  and 
we  found  it  900  deerees  }  minute  37  seconds,  ccording  to  our  observations  of  sixteen 
angles.  Towards  the  middle  of  the  figure  Wv,  firmed  a  base,  the  largest  perhaps  that 
ever  was  measured,  and  the  most  even ;  since  it  was  on  the  surface  of  the  river  that  it 
was  to  be  measured,  when  it  should  be  frozen.  The  extent  of  this  base  secured  o  us  an 
exactitude  in  measuring  the  heptagon,  and  its  position  left  no  room  to  apprehend  that 
there  could  be  any  errors  of  moment,  from  the  small  numlier  of  triangles,  in  the  midst  of 
which  it  was  placed. 

Indeed,  the  length  ^f  the  arc  of  the  meridian  which  we  were  measuring  was  very  con- 
venient  for  the  certainty  of  our  work.  If  there  be  an  advantage  in  measuring  largo 
arcs,  inasmuch  that  the  errors  ^vhich  may  arise  in  computing  the  amplitude  are  not 
greater  for  large  than  small  arches,  and  that  diffused  amid  small  ones,  they  make  a  more 
considerable  total  of  error  than  amid  larger  ones :  on  the  other  hand,  the  mistakes 
which  may  be  made  in  the  triangles  may  have  consequences  dangerous  in  proportion  to 
the  distance  to  be  measured,  and  the  numIxT  of  tlie  triangles.  If  the  number  be  great, 
and  the  conveniency  of  a  base  for  IVequent  proofs  be  wanting,  these  last  errors  may 
form  a  very  diverging  seiies,  and  more  than  coimterbalance  the  advantages  derivable 
from  large  arcs.  I  had  read  to  the  academy  before  my  departure  a  memoir  on  this 
subject,  in  which  I  determined  the  most  advantageous  length  to  be  measured  for  a  cer. 
tainty  of  exactitude ;  this  length  depends  on  the  precision  with  which  the  horizontal 
?ngles  are  obscn-ved,  compared  with  that  which  the  instrument  may  give,  with  which  ^hc 
disumce  of  the  stars  from  the  zenith  is  taken ;  i>nd  applying  the  reflections  which  I  made 
to  our  work,  it  will  be  found  that  a  longer  or  shorter  arc  than  ours  would  not  have 
afforded  so  much  certainty  of  its  measure.  •  *;    ■        v. 

For  observing  the  angles  between  our  signals  we  used  a  quadrant  of  two  feet  radius, 
with  a  micrometer  attacned,  which,  being  verified  round  the  horizon,  always  gave  the 
sum  of  the  angles  very  nigh  by  four  proofs  :  its  centre  was  always  phced  in  the  centre 
of  the  !,jgnals;  every  one  took  and  wrote  his  observations  separately ;  and  afterwards  we 
adopted  the  mean  of  all  the  observations,  which  differed  very  little  one  from  another. 

On  every  mountain  we  took  especial  care  to  observe  the  elevation  or  depression  of  the 
objects  chosen  for  taking  the  angles,  and  the  reduction  of  the  singles  to  the  level  of  the 
horizon  we  established  on  these  heights. 

This  first  part  of  our  work,  which  might  have  been  impossible,  being  thus  happily 
terminated,  wt  gathered  fresh  spirits  to  go  through  the  rest,  which  simply  required  labour. 

In  a  succession  of  triangles  joined  one  to  another  by  common  sides-,  the  angles  of 
which  are  known,  one  side  being  ascert^ned,  it  is  easy  to  find  the  remainder ;  we  were 
sure  of  possessing  the  exact  distance  from  the  steeple  of  the  church  of  Tomeo,  which 
terminated  our  heptagon  towards  the  south,  to  the  signal  of  Kittis,  which  was  its  northern 
extremity,  as  soon  as  the  length  of  our  base  should  be  known ;  and  the  measurement  of 
this  we  postr  jned  till  winter,  when  we  should  -ot  want  either  for  time  or  ice. 

We  then  turned  to  another  part  of  our  work,  to  determine  the  aittpPtudeof  the  arc 
of  the  meridian  comprehended  between  Kittis  and  Tomeo,  the  measurement  of  which 
we  looked  upon  as  complete.  I  have  already  stated  what  this  was  \\  liich  we  had  to  de» 
termine.  It  was  necessary  to  observe  how  much  higher  or  Iovt  the  same  star  when  on 
the  meridian  appeared  at  Tomeo  than  at  Kittis,  or,  what  is  the  tsamc,  how  much  this  star 
on  crossing  the  meridian  was  more  near  or  distant  from  the  zenith  of  Tomeo  than  of 
Kittis.    This  difference  between  thet  wo  elevations,  or  the  two  distances  from  the  zenith, 


./OURNKV  OP  MAUPKRTUIS. 


241 


was  the  amplitude  of  the  arc  of  the  terrestrial  meridian  between  Kittis  and  Tornco. 
This  i»  a  simple  operation  ;  it  does  not  even  require  tliat  one  should  have  the  positive 
distances  of  the  star  from  the  zenith  of  each  place  ;  it  is  sulHcient  to  take  the  ditterencc 
between  tlie  distances  ;  but  this  operation  exacts  the  greatest  rucety  and  the  utmost  pre- 
caution. We  had  for  the  purpose  a  sextant  of  about  nine  feel  radius,  similar  to  that 
which  Mr.  Bradley  uses,  and  with  which  he  made  his  curious  discovery  of  the  aberration 
of  the  lixed  stars.  The  instrument  was  made  at  London,  under  the  inspection  of  Mr. 
Graham,  of  the  Hnynl  Society  of  England.  This  able  mechanic  had  studied  to  unite 
in  it  every  advantage  and  convenience  that  we  could  desire,  and  himself  graduated  the 
limb. 

There  are  too  many  things  to  notice  in  this  instrument  for  my  giving  now  a  complete 
description  of  it.  Although  what  properly  constitutes  the  instrument  Ije  very  simple,  its 
size,  the  number  of  pieces  serving  to  render  it  commodious  to  the  observer,  tne  weight  of 
a  large  pyramid  nearly  twelve  feet  high,  which  forms  its  pedestal,  made  its  getting  up  to 
the  summit  of  the  mountains  of  Lapland  almost  un  impracticable  matter. 

On  Kittis  two  observatories  had  been  buii'  :  in  one  was  the  time-piece  of  Mr.  Gra- 
ham, a  quadrant  of  two  feet,  and  an  instrument  consisting  of  a  telcscojie  fixed  perjien- 
dicularly,  and  moveable  about  an  horizontal  axis,  for  which  as  well  we  were  indebted 
to  the  care  of  Mr.  Graham  ;  this  instrument  was  placed  exactly  in  the  centr'  of  the 
signal,  which  served  as  a  point  to  our  last  triangle;  it  was  used  for  determinirg  the  di- 
rection of  the  triangles  with  the  meridian.  The  other  observatory,  much  lai^r,  was 
adjoining,  and  so  nigh,  that  one  could  distinctly  hear  the  ticking  of  the  time-pieces  from 
one  to  tne  other ;  the  sextant  almost  filled  it.  I  shall  say  nothing  of  the  diBiculty  of 
transporting  so  many  instruments  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  :  it  was  effected,  the  limb  of 
the  sextant  was  placed  exactiy  on  the  level  of  the  meridian  we  had  traced,  and  we  satisfied 
ourselves  of  its  exactness  by  the  time  of  the  passing  of  a  star,  of  which  we  had  taken  the 
elevation.  To  sum  up,  every  thing  on  the  thirtieth  of  September  was  ready  to  begin 
observing,  and  the  succeeding  days  the  observations  of  the  star  )  of  the  Dragon  were 
made,  in  which  the  greatest  diiference  that  occurred  did  not  exceed  3  seconds. 

While  observing  this  star  with  the  sextant,  the  other  observations  were  not  neglected ; 
the  time-piece  was  regulated  every  day  with  care  by  corresponding  elevations  of  the  sun ; 
and  with  the  instrument  which  I  before  mentioned  we  observed  the  jiassagc  of  the  sun, 
and  the  time  of  passing  the  verticals  of  Niemi  and  PuUingi.  By  these  means  the 
situation  of  our  heptagon  in  respect  to  the  meridian  was  ascertained,  and  eight  of  these 
observations,  the  difference  between  the  widest  of  which  did  not  amount  to  a  minute, 
gave  for  a  mean  of  the  angle  forajed  with  the  meridian  of  Kittis,  by  a  line  drawn  from 
the  signal  of  Kittis  to  the  signal  of  Pullingi,  28  degrees  51  minutes  52  seconds. 

All  these  observations  were  very  happily  completed,  but  rains  and  fogs  had  so  much 
retarded  them,  that  we  had  reached  a  period,  at  which  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  under- 
take a  return  to  Torneo ;  nevertheless,  other  corresjwnding  observations  upon  the  same 
star  remained  to  be  made  there,  and  we  were  desirous  that  the  smallest  possible  interval 
should  occur  between  the  observations,  in  order  to  obviate  the  errors  which  might  arise 
from  any  motion  of  the  star  (in  case  it  should  have  any  of  which  we  were  ignorant.) 

It  is  sufficiently  distinguishable  that  the  whole  of  this  operation,  being  founded  upon 
the  difference  of  the  meridional  height  of  a  certain  star  observed  at  Kittis  and  at  Torneo,  it 
is  necessary  that  the  star  should  maintain  the  same  position ;  or  at  least,  if  it  should  be  lia. 
ble  to  any  change  of  elevation,  that  it  should  be  known,  in  order  not  to  confound  such  mo- 
tion  with  the  curve  of  ibe  arc  desired. 

Astronomers  for  many  ages  have  noticed  a  revolution  ol  the  stars  round  the  poles  of 

vol.   I,  II 


'i  f 


'\^ 


i 


' 


242 


JOURNEY  OP  MAUPKRTtlS. 


the  ecliptic,  which  causes  the  preccsssion  of  the  equinox,  and  a  change  of  declension  in 
the  stars,  which  wc  can  compute  upon  in  the  matter  of  which  we  speak. 

But  there  is  in  th;-  stars  another  change  of  declension,  on  which,  although  more  rc- 
ccntlv  observed,  I  In  lieve  we  may  reckon  as  securely  as  upon  the  other.  Although 
Mr.  i3radlcy  be  the  fust  who  discovered  the  rules  of  the  change,  the  exactness  of  his 
observations,  and  the  excellence  of  the  instrument  with  which  they  were  made,  arc 
equivalent  to  many  ages  of  ordinary  obsevvations.  He  found  that  every  star  observed 
during  the  course  of  tne  year  seemed  to  describe  in  the  heavens  a  small  ellipsis,  of  which 
the  ;^eat  axis  is  about  40  seconds.  As  there  appeared  at  first  to  be  a  great  variety  in  this 
motion  of  the  stars,  it  Wiis  not  till  after  a  long  succession  of  observations  that  Mr. 
Bradley  discovered  the  theory  upon  which  this  niotion,  or  rather  this  appearance,  de. 
pcnds.  If  to  discover  so  small  a  motion  required  his  nicety  of  observation,  his  intelli- 
gence as  well  was  necessary  to  find  out  the  principle  which  produced  it.  We  will  not 
attempt  to  explain  the  system  of  that  celebrated  astronomer,  which  may  be  much  better 
seen  by  consulting  No.  406.  of  the  Philosophical  Transactbns ;  all  that  we  shall  observe 
on  the  subject  of  this  difference  in  the  place  of  the  stars,  observed  from  the  earth,  is, 
that  it  arises  from  the  motion  of  the  light  radiated  by  the  star,  and  the  motion  of  the 
earth  in  its  or^it,  combined  together.  Were  the  earth  motionless,  it  would  require  a 
certain  inclination  of  the  telescope,  through  which  a  star  is  observed,  to  permit  the  ray 
emitted  by  the  star  to  traverse  its  centre  in  coming  to  the  eye.  But  if  the  earth,  ii^ich 
bears  the  telescope,  move  with  a  velocity  comparable  to  the  velocity  of  the  ray  of  light, 
it  is  no  longer  the  same  inclination  which  is  necessary  to  ^ve  to  the  telescope  ;  its  position 
must  be  changed,  to  allow  the  ray  of  light  penetraung  Us  centre  to  reach  the  eye ;  and 
the  different  |X)sitions  of  the  telescope  will  depend  on  the  different  directions  in  which 
the  earth  moves,  at  the  various  seasons  of  the  year.  The  calculation  being  made  on  this 
principle,  according  to  the  velocity  of  the  earth  in  its  orbit,  and  according  to  the  velo- 
city of  light,  known  by  different  experiments,  the  change  of  declension  in  the  stars  is 
found  to  be  as  stated  by  Mr.  Bradlc} ,  from  observation ;  and  one  is  enabled  to  subtract 
from  the  declension  of  every  star  the  quantity  necessary  for  considering  it  as  fixed,  dur- 
ing  the  time  that  must  elapse  between  the  observations  that  are  compared  with  each  other 
for  determining  an  arc  of  the  meridian. 

Although  the  motion  of  every  star  in  the  course  of  the  year  follows  very  exactly  the 
law  which  depends  upon  this  theory,  Mr.  Bradley  has  discovered  yet  an  additional  mo- 
tion of  the  stars,  much  smaller  than  the  two  wliich  we  have  mentioned,  and  which  is  not 
sensible  until  after  the  lapse  of  several  years.  To  perfect  nicety  this  third  motion  should 
be  reckoned ;  but  for  our  work,  in  which  the  time  that  passed  between  the  observations 
was  very  short,  its  effect  is  insensible,  or  raf.her  much  smaller  than  one  can  reasonably 
hoi>e  to  determine  in  these  kind  of  operadons.  In  fact,  I  consulted  Mr.  Bradley,  to 
know  if  he  had  any  observations  upon  the  two  stars  that  we  used  for  ascertaining  the 
amplitude  of  our  arc.  Although  he  had  not  observed  our  stars,  because  they  pass  too 
far  from  his  zenith  to  be  observed  with  his  instrument,  he  has  been  so  good  as  to  com- 
municate to  me  his  last  discoveries  on  the  aberration  and  the  third  motion  of  the  stars, 
and  the  corrected  copy  which  he  has  sent  for  our  amplitude,  in  which  attention  is  paid 
to  the  precession  of  the  equinox,  the  aberration  of  the  stars,  and  this  new  motion,  does 
not  sensibly  differ  from  the  amended  scheme  which  we  had  made  for  the  precession  and 
aberration  alone,  as  in  the  detail  of  our  operations  will  be  seen. 

Notwithstanding  we  might  safely  rely  upon  the  amendment  for  the  aberration  of  light, 
we  were  willing  to  make  this  amendment  as  little  as  possible,  in  order  to  satisfy  those 
(if  any  there  should  be)  who  might  be  unwilling  to  admit  of  Mr.  Bradley's  theory,  or 


th 


JOURNEY  OP  MAUPERTr;i3. 


243 


who  should  imagine  that  there  were  other  motions  of  the  stars  ;  for  this  piir[)ose  it  was 
fit  that  the  interval  between  the  observationsi  at  Kittis  and  at  Torneo  should  be  as  short 
as  jKissible. 

We  had  perceived  ice  as  early  as  the  nineteenth  of  September,  and  snow  on  the  twentj . 
first.  Several  parts  of  the  river  were  already  frozen,  and  these  first  frosts,  which  were  im« 
ptrkct,  prevented  navigation  for  some  time  on  it,  yet  left  it  impassiible  with  sledges. 

Ill  case  of  waiting  at  Pello,  we  ran  the  chance  of  not  arriving  at  Torneo  until  a  |)eriod, 
which  would  occasion  too  long  an  interval  between  the  obscrvatioi's  alaady  made  and 
those  we  had  to  make  there ;  we  even  risked  losing  the  star,  by  the  >un,  which  was  ap- 
proaching it,  merging  it  in  its  rays.  It  would  then  be  necessary  to  return  in  the  midst  of 
winter,  to  take  fresh  observations  of  some  other  star  upon  Kittis ;  but  it  was  apparently 
neither  practicable  nor  possible  to  pass  whole  nights  taking  observations  during  the  winter 
on  that  mountain. 

By  settin?  off,  we  ran  the  risk  of  being  surprised  by  the  ice  in  the  river,  and  detained 
with  all  the  instruments ;  thfte  was  no  computing  wnere,  nor  how  long :  ve  risked  as 
well  the  rendering  fruitless  o«ir  observations  at  Kittis,  and  we  readily  perceived  how 
difficult  it  would  be  to  repair  such  a  loss,  in  a  country  where  observations  can  so  seldom 
be  made,  where  throughout  the  summer  we  could  not  hope  to  see  any  of  the  stars  which 
our  sextant  could  embrace,  from  their  smallness,  and  from  the  continual  day,  which  ren- 
ders t**  ;m  invisible,  and  where  the  winter  made  the  observatory  of  Kittis  uninhabitable : 
we  weighed  all  these  difficulties,  r.nd  resolved  to  risk  the  voyage.  Messrs.  Camus  and 
Celsius  departed  the  twenty-third  with  the  sextant ;  the  following  day  Messrs.  Clairaut 
and  Le  Monnier ;  and  on  the  twenty-sixth  M.  L'AbbS  Outhier  and  myself :  we  were 
fortunate  enough  to  arrive  by  wa>er  at  Torneo  the  twenty-eighth  of  October,  and  were 
assured  that  the  river  had  scarcely  ever  been  navigable  so  late  in  the  season. 

The  observatory  which  we  had  caused  to  be  prepared  at  Torneo  was  ready  to  receive 
the  sextant,  and  it  was  placed  there  on  a  level  with  the  meridian.  The  first  of  November 
it  began  to  freeze  hard,  and  the  succeeding  day  the  river  was  frozen  over :  the  ice  no 
longer  melted,  but  was  quickly  white  with  snow ;  and  this  vast  river,  which  a  few  days 
before  was  covered  with  swans  and  various  other  water-fowl,  was  now  no  more  than  an 
immense  plain  of  ice  and  snow. 

On  the  first  of  November  we  began  to  observe  the  star  we  had  before  observed  at 
Kittis,  and  with  the  same  care :  the  widest  of  these  observations  did  not  differ  one  second. 

These  observations,  as  well  as  the  former  at  Kittis,  were  made  by  day,  without  tWrow- 
ing  light  on  the  threads  of  the  telescope :  then  taking  a  mean,  reducing  the  parts  of  the 
micrometer  into  seconds,  and  having  due  regard  to  the  change  of  the  declension  of  the 
star,  during  the  time  elapsed  between  the  observations,  as  well  for  the  precession  of  the 
equinox  as  for  the  other  motions  of  it,  we  found  the  amplitude  of  our  arc  57  minutes  27 
seconds. 

Our  work  now,  as  far  as  it  could  be,  was  complete ;  it  was  stopped,  without  our  being 
able  to  tell  if  we  should  find  the  earth  lengthened  or  flattened,  because  we  were  unac- 
qudnted  with  the  length  of  our  base.  What  remained  to  do  was  not  an  operation  diffi- 
cult in  itself,  it  was  only  to  measure  with  a  rod  the  distance  between  the  two  signals  that 
were  raised  the  summer  before  ;  but  this  measurement  was  to  be  made  upon  the  ice  of 
a  Lapland  river,  in  a  country  where  the  cold  became  daily  more  and  more  intolerable, 
and  the  distance  to  be  measured  was  more  than  three  leagues. 

We  were  advised  to  delay  the  measurement  until  the  spring,  because  then,  in  addition 
to  the  length  of  the  days,  the  first  thaws  which  happened  on  the  surface  of  the  snow, 
which  are  quickly  succeeded  by  a  new  frost,  form  a  sort  of  crust  capable  of  bearing 
men ;  instead  of  which,  during  the  coldest  part  of  winter,  the  snow  of  these  countries  is 

I  I  2 


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t 


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:!:i! 


inf 


1  % 


\\ 


244 


jnirnvKY  or  MvrPF.nTtnH. 


nothing  but  a  fine  and  dry  powder,  generally  lour  or  five  feet  high,  in  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  walk,  when  once  that  height  \h  attained. 

In  spite  ot  what  was  every  day  before  our  eyes,  we  were  fearful  of  being  surprised  by 
u  thaw.  We  were  ignorant  of  its  being  suHiciently  in  time,  in  the  month  of  May,  to 
measure  the  base,  tmd  all  the  advantages  we  sought  in  spring  disiipjKared  before  the  un- 
grounded fear  of  missing  our  measurement. 

In  till'  mean  time  we  did  not  know  whether  the  height  of  the  snow  would  allow  of 
our  walking  on  the  river  between  the  signals  of  ihe  base  ;  and  Mi.'.ssrs.  Clairaut,  Outhicr 
and  Celsius  set  off  the  tenth  of  Decemlxr  to  try.  The  snows  were  found  alread)  very 
high  ;  but  as  they  did  not  leave  us  without  hope  of  being  able  to  measure,  we  nil  dc- 
|)aried  together  for  Oswer  'I'orneo. 

M.  Camus,  assisted  bv  L'Abbe  Outhier,  employed  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  ol" 
December  in  adjusting  eight  rods,  of  thirty  feet  each,  by  an  iron  toise  which  we  had 
brought  with  us  from  France,  and  whiirh,  during  the  adjustment,  we  took  care  to  kee|)  in 
a  place  where  the  thermometer  of  M.  Reaumur  was  at  15  degrees  above  0,  and  that  of  M. 
Prius  at  62  degrees,  which  is  the  temperature  of  the  months  of  April  and  May  at  Paris. 
Our  rods  once  adjusted,  the  change  which  cold  could  effect  in  their  length  was  not  to  be 
api)rchended,  since  we  had  observed  that  heat  and  cold  caused  upon  our  deal  measures 
much  less  sensible  changes  than  upon  the  length  of  iron.  Every  experiment  that  we  tried 
gave  us  variations  of  length  almost  imperceptible.  Some  trials  which  we  made  give  me 
reason  to  suspect  diat  cold  possesses  the  quality  of  lengthening,  rather  than  diminishing, 
the  length  of  wootl,  contrary  to  its  known  effect  on  metals.  Possibly  a  remnant  of  sap, 
which  was  contained  in  the  measures  we  used,  froze,  on  being  exposed  to  the  cold,  and 
caused  it  to  participate  the  property  of  liquids,  whose  volume  augments  upon  freezing. 
M.  Camus  took  such  pains  in  adjusting  the;  :>  rods,  that  in  spite  of  their  extreme  length, 
when  they  were  placed  between  two  gauges  of  iron,  they  fitted  so  exactly,  that  the  thick- 
ness of  a  leaf  of  paper  of  the  thinnest  kind,  additional  or  less,  made  the  putting  them  be- 
tween  them  impossible,  or  left  room. 

On  Friday,  the  twenty-first  of  December,  the  wintry  equinoctial  day,  a  remarkable 
one  lor  such  a  work,  we  began  the  measurement  of  our  base  towards  Avasaxa.  The  sun 
at  that  time  sciircely  rose  by  noon;  but  the  long  twilights,  the  whiteness  of  the  snow, 
and  the  fires  with  which  the  heavens  in  this  country  are  illuminated,  afforded,  us  every 
day  sufficient  light  to  work  during  four  or  five  hours.  We  left  the  house  of  r'le  rector 
of  Oswcr  Torneo,  where  we  lodged  during  this  work,  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  got  on  the  river,  when  we  were  to  begin  the  measurement,  with  such  a  number  of 
sledges,  and  so  numerous  an  equipage,  that  the  Laplanders  descended  from  their  moun- 
tains to  enjoy  the  novelty  of  the  sight.  We  divided  ourselves  into  two  companies,  each 
of  which  carried  four  of  the  measures  we  have  spoken  of.  I  shall  say  nothing  of  the 
fatigue,  nor  of  the  dangers  of  this  operation :  conceive  what  it  must  be,  to  walk  in  t\vo 
feet  depth  of  snow,  loaded  with  heavy  rods,  that  we  had  to  place  continually  upon  the 
snow  and  take  up  again,  and  this  during  so  intense  a  frost,  that  our  tongues  and  lips 
froze  to  the  gl^ss  on  drinking  brandy,  which  was  the  only  liquor  which  could  be  kept 
sufficiently  liquid  to  drink,  and  could  not  be  got  away  without  taking  off*  the  skin ;  a  frost 
which  nipoed  the  fingtrs  of  some  of  us,  and  which  continually  threatened  us  with  greater 
accidents.  While  our  extremities  were  frozen,  our  labour  made  us  sweat.  Brandy  did 
not  slake  out  thirsts ;  we  were  obliged  to  dig  deep  pits  in  tlie  ice,  which  were  almost  as 
quickly  closed,  and  from  which  the  water  could  scarcely  be  brought  in  a  liquid  state  to 
the  mouth ;  and  we  were  obliged  to  run  the  risk  of  the  dangerpus  consequences  which 
5vere  to  be  apprehended  from  tiiking  this  iced  water  at  a  time  our  bodies  were  so  warm. 


r" 


'  »^t  «■!»"»•«<   ■X>»<W     < 


JOI'RXKV  itV  MAUPF.UTl  l> 


245 


However,  the  work  ndvaiK'ed  :  six  days  lal)our  had  l)rouf;ht  il  «>  luar  to  an  end,  that 
no  more  than  five  hundred  toises,  which  could  not  iyc  marked  with  ^U'l^es  sutlieiently  soon, 
reniiiined  to  Ix*  measun-d.  The  continuation  of  thi:  measnrt  iiicnt  ihon  wiii  interrupted, 
the  twenty-seventh,  and  while  Messrs.  Clairant,  Camus  and  Le  Moni/er  busied  them- 
selves in  fixing  the  stakes,  incomiKiny  witli  M.  L'Abbc  Uuthier,  1  employed  the  day  in 
an  enterprise  rather  singular. 

An  observation  of  the  slightest  moment,  and  which  in  the  most  commodious  coutitrics 
might  l>c  overlooked,  had  Ixen  neglected  the  summer  iiefo.  e ;  the  heiglu  of  an  object  used 
on  Avasaxa,  in  taking  the  angle  formed  by  Cuita|)cri  and  Hoirihikero,  [lad  not  beett  ob- 
served. The  desire  which  actuated  us,  that  nothing  shor.ld  l)c  wanting  in  our  work, 
ini|)elled  us  to  be  scrupulously  exact.  I  undertook  to  asc'Jiid  Avasaxa  with  a  quadrant. 
Figure  to  yourself  a  very  lofty  mountain,  full  of  rocks,  hid  l;y  u  prodi«;ious  ({uantity  of 
snow,  and  the  cavities  made  by  which,  alike  concealed,  tb-.aten  the  adventurer  who 
should  attempt  to  ascend  it  with  destruction ;  it  will  be  deemed  impracticable ;  nevertheless, 
there  are  two  modes  of  effecting  it ;  the  one,  by  walking  or  rather  sliding  on  two  narrow 
planks  of  eight  feet  long,  us  the  Kins  and  Laplanders  do,  in  order  toprcvent  their  sinking 
into  the  snow,  a  custom  that  requires  a  long  icticc ;  the  other,  by  trusting  to  the  rein- 
deer, who  are  able  to  make  such  a  journey. 

These  animals  are  not  able  to  draw  any  otner  thsin  a  very  small  boat,  into  which  the 
half  of  the  body  of  a  man  can  with  difficulty  enter:  this  boat,  designed  for  travelling 
through  the  snow,  in  order  to  find  the  least  resistance  from  it,  in  cutting  it  with  its  prow, 
and  sliding  over,  is  fashioned  the  same  as  Ixxits  used  at  sea,  that  is  to  aay,  with  a  pointed 
prow  and  a  sharp  keel  below,  which  causes  it  to  roll  and  overturn  continually,  unless  he 
who  is  within  be  careful  in  preserving  a  balance.  The  boat  is  fastened  by  a  thong  of 
leather  to  the  breast  of  the  rein-deer,  who,  if  upon  a  beaten  and  firm  track,  runs  with 
fur}'.  However  desirous  of  stopping  him,  you  pull  in  vain  at  a  kind  of  bridle  fastened 
to  his  horns ;  intractable  as  he  is,  it  causes  him  only  to  change  his  road,  sometimes  even 
he  comes  back,  to  be  revenged  by  kicking  you.  On  such  occasions  the  Laplanders  turn 
the  boat  over  them,  making  it  serve  as  a  shield  against  the  rage  of  the  animal.    For  our 

Kart,  little  able  to  employ  such  a  remedy,  we  should  have  been  killed  before  we  could 
uve  shielded  ourselves.  Our  only  defence  was  a  little  stick  that  was  put  in  our  hand, 
with  wliich  we  had  to  steer  as  with  a  rudder,  and  shun  the  trunks  of  trees.  Thus  trusting 
to  the  rein-deer  it  was  that  I  ascended  Avasaxa,  in  company  with  M.  L'AbbS  Outhier, 
two  Laplanders,  one  Lapland  v/oman,  and  Mr.  Brunnius,  their  rector. 

The  first  part  of  the  voyage  was  completed  in  an  instant,  there  was  a  hard  beaten  road 
leading  from  the  house  of  the  rector  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  which  we  passed  over 
^vith  a  swiftness  comparable  only  to  the  flight  of  a  bird.  Although  the  mountain,  on  which 
there  was  no  road,  delayed  the  progress  of  the  rein-deer,  they  drew  us  to  the  top,  and  we 
completed  immediately  the  observation,  the  object  of  our  journey.  In  the  interval,  our 
rein-deer  had  dug  deep  holes  in  the  snow,  where  they  grazed  ihe  moss  with  which  the 
rocks  of  this  mountain  are  covered ;  and  our  Laplanders  having  kindled  a  great  fire,  we 
approached  it  to  warm  ourselves.  The  cold  was  so  severe,  that  the  heat  had  no  power  to 
extend  itself  the  shortest  distance ;  if  in  such  places  as  the  fire  immediately  touched  the 
snow  it  melted,  it  froze  again  all  around  it,  and  formed  a  hedge  of  ice. 

If  our  troubles  were  great  in  ascending  Avasaxa,  our  fear  of  returning  too  quick  over 
a  craggy  mountain  was  not  less ;  exposed  in  carriages  which  always  slided,  even  while 
sunk  into  the  snow,  and  drawn  by  animals  which  excited  our  apprehensions  even  on 
the  plains,  and  which,  notwithstanding  ihey  sunk  to  their  bellies,  extricated  themselves 


246 


jovntiry  or  MAUPERTrw. 


I' 


1 1 


bv  the  velocity  of  thrir  course.  Wc  were  shortly  Ht  the  foot  of  /ivasaxa ;  and  in  a  minute 
ahcrvvimls  we  had  pas-scd  the  frrcat  river,  and  were  housed. 

The  following  duy  we  finisned  the  measure  of  our  base,  and  had  no  ripjht,  when  wc 
saw  the  precision  that  our  level  had  afforded  us,  to  regret  the  trouble  which  our  mea- 
surement on  a  frozen  river  had  caused.  The  difference  foiuid  Ix'twecn  the  measurenicnt 
of  our  two  parties  amounted  to  no  more  than  four  inches  on  a  distance  of  seven  thousand 
four  hundred  and  six  toiscs  five  feet ;  a  precision  which  wc  could  not  exp'  f'',  and  winch 
one  should  almost  fear  to  tell.  Neither  can  it  be  considered  as  the  result  of  chance,  or 
compensations  for  more  considerable  former  differences ;  for  th'is  smiill  one  ahnost  wholly 
arose  during  the  last  day.  Our  two  parties  measured  daily  by  the  same  nunil)cr  of  toiaes, 
and  on  none  did  the  difference  of  the  two  measurements  exceed  an  inch,  which  sometimes 
one  exceeded  the  other,  and  at  other  times  the  reverse.  This  nicety,  although  due  to 
the  ice,  and  the  extreme  care  wc  employed,  shewed  at  the  same  time  the  exactness  of 
the  lengths  of  our  rods ;  for  the  st*;<iitest  ineouality  between  the  rods  must  on  so  consider- 
able a  distance  have  made  a  very  sensible  difference. 

We  had  ascertained  the  amplitude  of  our  arc,  and  our  figure  being  completed,  waited 
for  nothing  but  the  length  of  the  base  to  be  fixed  to  the  sciile.  We  then  found  that  the 
length  of  the  arc  of  the  meridian  intercepted  bct^veen  the  two  parallels  thai  cut  our  two 
observatories  of  Tomeo  and  Kittis  was  fifty-five  thousand  twenty-thrce  and  a  half 
toises;  that  this  length,  having  for  its  amplitude  57  minutes  27  seconds,  the  degree  of 
the  meridian  imder  the  polar  circle  was  greater  bv  nearly  one  thousand  toises  than  what  it 
should  be,  according  to  the  computations  of  the  book  on  The  Size  "  1  Figure  of  the 
Garth.  After  this  operation  we  hastened  to  return  to  Tomeo,  to  cnc  :avour  to  secure 
ourselves  from  the  latter  rigour  of  winter. 

The  town  of  Tomeo,  when  we  arrived  there,  the  thirtieth  of  December,  offered  a 
dreadful  spectacle ;  its  low  houses  were  sunk  in  snow  to  the  roof,  which  would  have  ex- 
cluded all  light,  if  there  had  been  any  ;  but  snow  continually  falling,  or  threatening  to 
full,  scarcely  ever  allowed  the  sun,  the  few  minutes  it  was  above  the  horizon  about  noon, 
to  shew  itself.  The  frost  was  so  sharp  in  the  month  of  January,  that  our  thermometers 
of  mercury,  constructed  by  M.  Reaumur,  those  thermometers  that  we  were  surprised 
to  see  sink  to  14  degrees  below  the  freezing  point  at  Paris  in  the  great  frosts  of  1709, 
sunk  to  37  degrees,  while  those  of  spirits  of  wine  froze.  On  o))ening  the  door  of  a  warm 
room,  the  external  air  immediately  converted  into  snow  the  vapour  which  was  form- 
ed, making  white  whirlwinds :  on  going  out,  the  air  seemed  to  tear  the  breast.  We 
were  continually  warned  of  and  threatened  with  an  increase  of  cold,  by  the  noise  of  the 
splitting  of  the  wood,  of  which  all  the  houses  are  built.  To  behold  the  solitude  which 
reigned  in  the  streets,  one  would  conceive  that  all  the  inhabitants  were  dead.  We  fre- 
quently saw  people  who  had  been  frost  bitten,  and  the  inhabitants  of  so  rude  a  climate 
frequently  lose  a  leg,  or  an  arm.  Cold,  always  rigid  in  this  country,  b  sometimes  sud- 
denly so  sharply  increased,  as  to  destroy  infallibly  those  who  may  have  the  bad  fortime 
to  l)e  exposed  to  it.  Sometimes  storms  of  snow  arise  even  more  dangerous ;  woe  to 
him  who  in  the  country  is  surprised  by  such ;  in  vain  would  he  strive,  by  his  recollec- 
tion of  places,  by  trees  he  had  marked,  to  find  his  way  ;  he  b  blinded  by  the  snow ;  if 
he  makes  a  stop,  he  is  swallowed  up. 

If  the  aspect  of  the  earth  be  horrible  in  these  climates,  the  sky  affords  the  most 
beautiful  si)ectacle.  As  soon  as  the  nights  grow  dark,  fires  of  a  thousand  colours,  and 
a  thousand  various  shapes,  lighten  the  sky,  seemingly  to  indemnify  this  country,  used  to 
enjoy  continual  day,  for  the  absence  of  the  sun  which  leaves  it.  These  fires  in  this 
country  have  no  constant  position,  as  in  southern  parts ;  for  although  an  arch  of  fixed 
light  be  frequently  seen  towards  the  north,  they  seem  more  commonly  to  occupy  indif- 


JOIHNFA   OF  MAl'I'Kltlt  H 


247 


fcrcntly  even'  part  of  the  j»ky.  Somctimcti  tlu  y  Ikr'hi  l>y  formiiipf  a  larjfc  scnrf  of  clear 
uikI  movini^  iight,  whose  extamitics  irach  to  the  lioiizon,  and  which  ra|)i(lly  traverses  the 
heavens  with  u  motion  re^embHng  the  cast  of  a  tt<ihernian*!i  net,  preserving  in  this  motion 
very  prcccptibly  a  direction  |)erpeiidiciihir  to  the  meridiati.  Most  frequently,  after 
these  prchidcs,  all  the  lights  unite  towanis  th'*  zenith,  wlwre  they  form  the  head  of  a  kind 
of  crown.  UlUntimes  arcs,  similar  to  those  we  sec  in  France  towards  the  north,  aa-  s<en 
towards  the  south,  at  timeii  in  the  north  and  south  at  once,  their  tops  appn)aching  while 
their  extremities  retire  sinking  towards  the  horizon.  1  have  seen  some  of  these  oii 
positen,  whose  summits  nearly  touched  each  other  at  the  zenith ;  both  one  and  the 
other  have  frequently  beyond  them  several  concentric  arcs.  They  have  all  of  them 
their  tops  towards  the  south,  with  however  a  trifling  variation  westward,  which  did  not 
appear  to  me  to  be  constiuitly  the  same,  and  which  at  times  is  imperceptible.  Some  of 
these  arcs,  after  appearing  broadest  upon  the  horizon,  become  narrower  as  they  an- 
proach  each  other,  and  represent  above  more  than  lialf  a  great  ellipsis  :  to  descrilx:  all  the 
nguas  which  these  lights  assume,  and  all  the  motions  they  make,  would  be  an  endless 
task.  Their  most  ordinary  motion  is  one  which  makes  them  resemble  curtains  flying 
in  the  air ;  and  by  the  shades  of  colours  which  they  assume,  one  would  take  them  to  be 
of  those  taffeties  which  are  called  flame  coloured ;  sometimes  they  carpet  part  of  the 
heavens  widi  scarlet.  At  Oswer  Tomeo  (one  day)  it  was  the  eighteenth  of  Oecem. 
bcr,  a  sight  of  this  description,  in  spite  of  my  being  accustomed  to  them,  excited  my 
astonishment.  Towards  the  south  a  wide  region  of  the  sky  was  tinted  with  *  lively  a  red, 
it  seemed  as  though  the  whole  constellation  of  Orion  wiis  tinged  with  blood ;  at  first  fixcrl, 
the  light  soon  began  to  move,  and  after  assuming  other  colours,  such  as  violet  and  blue, 
it  formed  a  dome,  whose  summit  was  very  litUe  distant  from  Uie  z(  nith  towards  the  south- 
west ;  the  brightest  moon  then  shining  took  away  nothing  from  the  spectacle.  I  saw  no 
more  than  two  of  these  red  lights,  which  are  rare  in  these  countries  ;  and  where  they  arc 
dreaded  as  portents  of  some  great  misfortune.  Indeed,  surveying  these  phenomena, 
one  caimot  be  surprised  that  those  looking  on  them  difl'erently  than  with  the  eye  of 
philosophy,  should  fancy  them  chariots  of  fire,  fighting  armies,  or  any  other  prodigious 
things. 

We  remained  at  Tomeo,  shut  up  in  our  rooms  in  a  state  of  inaction,  until  the  month 
of  March,  when  we  began  new  undertakings. 

The  length  of  the  arc  we  had  measured,  which  differed  so  much  from  the  computa- 
tion of  the  book  on  the  size  and  figure  of  the  earth,  astonished  us  ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
incontestability  of  our  ojieration,  we  resolved  to  verify  our  work  by  the  most  rigorous 
proofs. 

As  to  our  triangles,  all  their  angles  had  been  so  many  times  observed,  and  by  so 
great  a  number  of  persons,  who  all  agreed,  that  no  room  was  left  to  doubt  of  the  truth 
of  that  part  of  our  work.  It  had  even  an  advantage  above  any  other  former  work  of 
this  nature :  hitherto,  two  angles  onlj  having  been  used,  and  the  third  computed, 
whereas  all  our  angles  had  been  observed,  notwithstanding  the  inconvenience  it  occasion- 
ed,  by  causing  us  to  make  several  very  disiigreeable  proc  rastinations  of  our  residence 
on  the  tops  of  mountains. 

Moreover,  although  only  eight  triangles  were  necessary  to  determine  the  distance 
between  Tomeo  and  Kittis,  we  observed  several  supernumerary  angles,  and  our  hepta- 
gon thereby  afforded  combinations  or  successions  of  triangles  without  number. 

Our  work,  at  least  this  part  of  it,  had  been  done,  we  may  say,  a  great  many  times 
over ;  all  that  was  necessary  thcrefoix;  was  to  compare  by  calculation  the  lengths  given 
by  all  these  different  successions  of  triangles.    We  carried  our  patience  so  far  as  to 


hW 


1 


•i 


'i4R 


J0I7RNP.Y  OP  MAfn'.RTl  IS. 


compute  twelve  of  these,  nnd  inHpite  of  some  triangles  improper  for  hucU  coniputationH, 
from  the  small  andcn  tluv  contained,  we  foimtl  the  gaattst  diflireiice  (riven  in  the 
distances  Ixtween  Kittisand  Torneodid  not  exceed  (irty-four  toisesin  tin'  widest  of  these 
combinations,  and  we  fixed  on  two,  whirh  we  deemed  preferable  to  the  rest,  the  diflir- 
cncc  l)etween  which  was  four  and  a  half  toises,  the  mean  of  which  we  tixjk  to  determine 
the  lenj^th  of  our  arc. 

'I'he  small  dificrence  between  nny  of  these  results  would  have  surprised  us,  if  we  had 
not  known  how  much  time  and  care  had  tx'cn  taken  in  ol)servin|j;  our  angles.  Kight  or 
nine  triangles  had  cost  us  sixty-three  days,  and  every  angle  had  Ihxmi  so  often  taken,  and 
by  so  many  diHlrent  observers,  that  the  mean  of  all  these  observations  could  not  fail  to 
Ijc  very  near  the  truth. 

The  small  number  of  our  triangles  enabled  us  to  make  a  singular  calculation,  and 
which  would  shew  the  fullest  extent  of  all  the  errors  which  the  greatest  auk  wardness  and 
most  complete  misfortune,  joined  together,  could  jwssibly  nroduce.  We  placed  as 
a  |x)sition,  that  in  all  the  triangles  from  the  Inisc  we  had  made  an  error  of  20  seconds 
in  each  ol"  the  two  angles,  and  40  seconds  in  the  third,  and  that  all  these  errors  were  on 
the  same  side,  and  tended  to  cl'n'.inish  the  length  of  our  arc.  And  the  result,  allowing  so 
strange  u  position,  was,  thnt  fifly-four  and  u  half  tuises  of  error  was  the  whole  that  it 
could  occasion. 

The  caa*  with  which  wc  had  measured  the  l)ase  left  no  apprehension  on  tliat  score. 
The  agrcenicnt  of  a  great  number  of  intelligent  jjcrsons,  who  separately  wrote  the  num. 
ber  of  r(xls  ;  and  the  reixaling  of  this  measurement,  with  only  four  inches  of  variance, 
made  a  certainly  of  correctness  even  more  than  sufficient. 

The  rest  of  our  examination  was  therefore  turned  to  die  amplitude  of  our  arc,  and  the 
little  difterencc  which  we  found  in  our  observations,  either  at  Kittis  or  Torneo,  left  us 
nothing  to  wish  for  of  greater  nicety. 

There  seemed,  on  noticing  the  solidity  and  the  mode  of  construction  of  our  sextant, 
and  the  precaution  we  used  in  transporting  it,  no  room  to  fear  that  we  had  any  ways 
deranged  it.  The  limb,  the  telescope,  and  the  centre  of  this  instalment,  were  of  one 
piece,  the  threads  in  the  focus  of  the  object  glass  were  of  silver,  fixed  by  Mr.  Graham  in 
such  manner  that  no  change  of  their  position  could  happen,  so  that,  in  spite  of  the  effects 
of  heat  and  cold,  they  remained  equally  extended.  So  that  the  instrument  could  no  other- 
\vay  s  be  out  of  order  than  by  its  figure  lx;ing  altered,  and  the  telescope  bent ;  but  if  a  com- 
putation be  made  of  theeftects  of  such  a  change,  it  will  be  seen,  that  in  order  to  cause  an 
error  of  a  second  in  the  amplitude  of  our  arc,  it  must  be  so  much  bent  as  to  be  easily  per- 
ceived. This  instrument  was  transported  from  Kittis  to  Torneo  by  water,  in  a  very  solid 
box  :  alwa}'s  some  of  us  were  with  it,  and  on  passing  the  cataracts  it  was  curried  by  men. 

Moreover,  the  position  o^  the  star  which  wc  had  observed  secured  us  against  any 
flexion  which  one  might  apprehend  could  happen,  either  to  the  radius  on  the  tele- 
scojx;  of  these  large  instruments,  when  the  star  to  be  observed  should  be  distant  from  the 
zenith,  and  the  instrument  should  be  inclined  to  direct  it  to  the  star.  Their  weight 
alone  might  make  them  Ix'iid,  and  the  practice  of  observing  a  star  with  the  two  dif- 
fei^nt  sides  of  the  instrument,  which  may  remedy  other  accidents,  would  be  of  no  avail  in 
this  instance  :  for  if  any  flexion  should  take  place  in  the  instrument  while  observing 
with  its  fiice  towards  the  east,  on  turning  it  towards  the  west  there  will  be  a  new  flexion, 
in  the  opposite  direction,  and  nearly  equal ;  so  that  the  line  which  answered  with  the 
zenith,  when  the  front  of  the  instrument  was  turned  towards  the  east,  will  very  possibly 
answer  the  same,  when  turned  towards  the  west ;  and  jet  the  arc  which  measures  the 
distance  from  the  zenith  be  wrong.    The  distance  of  our  star  from  the  zenith  of  Kittis 


.lonisr.v  or  MMPr.iiivA 


240 


wan  not  n\orc  than  half  atlcjip'ec  ;  conscfiucntly,  llu'rr  was  noroont  lor  apprthcncfinK  that 
our  itU«m»|K',  \'M\  (KiMition  so  nearly  vertical,  nhoiild  have  swerved  in  the  smallcjil  di^ree. 

AltlMui^n  lor  all  these  reasons  wc  eoiilrt  not  dfiubl  f)!' our  amplitude  Uinf*  corn-cti 
we  were  dihirous  of  provinj^  it  s<»  by  exjKrinieni ;  and  lor  this  j)UI|H; ;"  we  employed  n 
proof  of  tlic  nuisl  l.ibori).;*  description,  but  IksI  calculated  to  satisfy  us,  as  i*  would  shew 
us  at  the  Hamc  time  the  exactness  of  our  instrument,  and  the  precision  which  wc  might 
reckon  upon  in  the  arc  wc  had  taken. 

This  proof  consisted  in  ascertaininf^  anew  the  amplitude  of  the  same  arc  by  another 
star.  \ve  waited  then  for  an  opportunity  to  make  succeedinj;  obscrvalions  of  a  star, 
which  in  this  country  is  difficult,  since  it  seldom  hapuens  that  three  or  four  fine  nij^hts 
follow  each  other :  and  be((innin^;  on  the  seventeenth  March,  1737,  to  observe  the  star /i  of 
the  dnigon  from  the  same  spot  us  before  at  'I'orneo,  after  lakinp;  three  nice  observations 
of  the  same  star,  wc  departed,  to  take  corresponding  ones  at  Kittis.  On  this  occasion 
our  sextant  was  conveyed  on  sledges,  at  a  foot  pace,  over  the  snow,  the  most  easy  nuKlc 
of  conveyance  that  can  be  imagined.  Our  second  star  passed  even  nearer  to  the  /.cnith 
than  die  first,  since  it  was  no  more  thanaepiarterof  a  degree  from  the  zenith  of  Tornco, 

The  meridian  already  traced  in  our  ohservatory  at  Kittis  enabled  us  to  fix  our  sextant 
in  very  little  time,  and  on  the  fourth  of  April  wc  then  iKgan  our  obscrvalions  on  a. 
We  took  three  oljscrvations  at  Kittis  as  well,  which,  comparing  with  those  of  Torneo, 

Save  for  our  amplitude  57  minutes  30  J  seconds,  which  made  no  greater  dittcrence  between 
lis  and  our  observation  on  8  than  3  ^  secondn,  after  inakir^g  allowance  for  the  observa- 
(inti  of  light. 

And  not  admitting  the  theory  of  the  aberration  of  light,  the  amplitude  by  tlic  Inst 
observed  star  did  not  diflfcr  a  second  from  that  found  by  the  first. 

The  agreement  of  the  two  amplitudes,  with  so  ver)'  slight  a  difference,  a  difference  which 
will  even  l)C  shewn  to  be  less  than  it  now  appears  ;  this  agreement  afforded  the  most  solid 
proof  of  the  exactness  of  our  instrument,  and  of  the  iK'rfect  precision  of  our  observations. 

Hav.ng  thus  repeated  our  work,  we  found  that,  by  a  mean  of  the  two  amplitudes,  the 
amplitude  of  the  arc  of  the  meridian  Ixjtween  Torneo  and  Kittis  was  57  minutes  28| 
seconds,  which,  compared  with  the  length  of  that  arc,  fifty-five  thousand  and  twenty, 
three  and  a  half  toises,  gives,  for  the  degree  which  cuts  die  polar  circle,  fifty-sevcn  thou- 
sand four  hundred  and  tnirtv-seven  toises,  a  greater  length  by  three  luindad  and  seventy- 
seven  toises  than  that  which  was  ascertained  by  M.  Picard  between  Paris  and  Amiens, 
which  he  made  to  be  fifty -seven  thousand  and  sixty  toises.  \*  is  however  necessary  to  re- 
mark, that,  as  the  aberration  of  the  stars  was  not  known  in  the  time  of  M.  Picard,  he 
could  make  no  allowance  for  it :  if  this  be  done  for  him,  and  the  additional  ones  for  the 
precession  of  the  equinox,  and  for  refraction,  which  M.  Picard  omitted,  be  added  thereto, 
the  amplitude  of  his  arc  being  1  degree  23  minutes  6|  seconds,  and  the  length  seventy- 
eight  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  toises,  it  will  give  for  the  degree  fifty-six  thousand 
nine  hundred  twenty-five  toises,  and  make  it  less  than  ours  by  five  hundred  twelve  toises. 

And  were  aberration  not  admitted,  the  amplitude  of  our  arc  would  be  57  minutes  25 
seconds,  which,  compared  with  its  length,  would  make  the  degree  fifty-sevcn  thousand 
four  hundred  and  ninety-seven  toises ;  longer  than  the  degree  measured  by  M.  Picard  by 
four  hundred  and  thirty. seven  toises. 

To  conclude ;  our  degree,  allowing  for  aberration,  varied  nine  hundred  and  fifty  toises 
fi:t)m  what  it  should  have  been  according  to  the  computation  of  M.  Cassini,  in  his  book  of  the 
Size  and  Figure  of  the  Earth,  and  differs  one  thousand  from  it,  if  aberration  be  not  allowed. 
From  which  it  is  apparent,  that  the  earth  is  considerably  flat  towards  the  poles. 

During  our  stay  in  the  frozen  zone,  the  frost  remained  yet  so  severe,  that  on  the 
seventh  of  April,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  thermometer  sunk  to  20  degrees  bc- 

VOL.   I.  K   K 


I 


250 


JOURNEK  OP  MAUPERTUIS. 


low  the  freezing  point,  although  every  day  at  noon  it  nsc  to  from  2  seconds  to  3  degrees 
above  it,  thu^  clianging  as  much  between  morning  a.id  evening,  as  it  does  in  common 
between  the  greatest  heat  and  cold  that  arc  experienced  at  Pans;  bringing  into  twelve 
hours  an  pquality  of  vicissitudes  with  what  arc  felt  by  the  inhabitants  of  '.he  temperate 
zones  in  the  space  of  a  year. 

We  chose  t'^  '•jruple  the  meridional  direction  of  our  heptagon.  This,  as  has  been 
noticed  before,  had  been  determined  upon  Kittis,  by  a  number  of  observations  on  the 
passage  of  the  sun  over  the  verticals  of  Niemi  and  PuUingi ;  and  it  was  not  to  be  ap- 
prehended that  our  figure  should  have  received  any  alteration  in  its  direction,  seeing  the 
small  number  of  triangles  of  which  it  consisted,  and  the  closeness  with  which  the  sum  of 
the  angles  of  our  heptagon  approached  to  900  degrees.  Nevertheless,  we  were  inclined 
to  make  the  trial  of  the  direction  at  "^Oi luo. 

For  this  purpose  a  different  method  to  that  which  had  been  used  at  Kittis  was  adopted ; 
this  consisted  in  observing  the  angle  between  the  sun  when  on  the  horizon,  and  some 
one  of  the  f-ignals,  with  the  hour  at  which  the  angle  was  taken.  The  three  observations 
that  we  made  gave,  for  a  mean  of  the  direction  by  this  process,  witliin  34  seconds  of  what 
we  had  determined  by  the  observations  fron'*.  Kittis. 

Eveiy  part  of  our  work  having  thus  been  repeated,  nothing  remained  but  to  examine 
ihe  primitive  construction  and  divisions  of  our  sextant.  Although  we  had  no  ground  to 
doubt  its  correctness,  we  undertook  to  try  it  in  the  interval,  between  the  time  at  which  the 
weather  would  allow  of  our  departure,  and  this  trial,  from  its  singuhirity,  from  its  demon- 
strating how  much  our  instrument  was  to  be  relied  upon,  as  well  as  to  shew  the  means  to  be 
used  for  discovering  its  being  out  of  order,  if  it  should  be  desirous  that  I  should  mentl  m  it. 

On  the  fourth  of  May,  upon  the  ice  of  the  river,  we  mei.sured  a  distance  of  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty  to'ises  one  foot  three  inches,  which  was  to  serve  as  a  radius.  And  upon 
measuring  this  twice  ver,  we  found  no  variation.  Two  firm  stakes,  with  two  sights,  ia 
a  line  drawn  perpendicularly  at  the  extremity  of  this  distance,  were  fixed ;  and  having 
measured  the  distance  between  the  centres  of  the  two  sights,  this  distance  was  thirty- six 
toises  six  inches  six  lines  two-thirds,  which  was  to  serve  as  a  tangent. 

The  sextant  waa  placed  horizontally  in  a  room  upon  two  firm  stocks,  supported  by  an 
arch,  in  such  manner  that  its  centre  .vas  exaedy  at  the  extremity  of  the  radius  of  three 
hundred  and  eighty  toises  one  foot  tnree  inches ;  and  five  different  observers  having 
taken  the  angle  between  the  two  sights,  among  whom  the  greatest  difference  was  not 
two  seconds,  the  mean  of  which  beinf>  taken,  die  angle  between  the  two  sights  was  5  de- 
grees 29  mindtes  48  ateconds  95.  By  calculation  the  angle  should  have  been  5  degrees 
29  minutes  50  seconds,  that  is  to  say,  it  differed  from  the  angle  observed  by  1-rs  second. 

It  will  no  djubt  be  thought  surprising,  that  a  sextant  of  5  degrees  i'9  minutes  SG-J. 
seconds,  in  a  climate  so  temperate  as  that  of  I^ondon,  and  divided  in  a  chamber  which 
certrunly  vas  not  cold,  should  be  found  precisely  of  th:  same  angle  at  Tomeo,  when  we 
tried  it.  The  parts  of  die  sextant  were  certainly  conti acted  by  the  cold  in  this  last  expe- 
riment} but  one's  surprise  will  vanish,  on  consideration  that  the  instrument  being  made 
wholly  of  die  same  matter,  its  parts  would  contract  proportionally,  and  consequently  its 
figure  remain  the  same,  which  was  the  case. 

Having  thus  found  such  a  wonderful  exactness  in  the  whole  arc  of  our  se^jtant,  we 
wished  to  know  if  the  two  degrees  of  its  limb  which  we  used,  the  one  for  /,  the  other 
for  a,  were  perfectly  equal.  M.  Camus,  whose  ingenuity  had  already  been  so  useful  to 
us  on  several  occasions,  procured  us  the  means  of  making  this  comparison  with  all  possi- 
ble exactitude ;  and  having  compared  together  our  two  degrees,  the  mean  of  the  obser- 
vations, taken  by  five  observers,  gave  1  second  more  for  the  degree  of  the  limb  used  in 
taking  /,  than  that  used  for  «, 


1 


JOURVEY  OF  MAUPERTUIS. 


251 


We  were  surprised,  when  we  saw  that  this  inequality  between  the  two  degrees  tended 
to  diminish  the  very  trifling  difference  found  between  our  two  amplitudes,  reducing  it 
from  3i  seconds  to  2|  seconds;  and  it  will  be  seen  in  the  detail  of  the  operations,  that 
this  difference  between  the  two  degrees  of  the  limb,  however  small,  may  be  accounted 
for  by  the  means  used  to  discover  it. 

Thus  wc  verified,  not  only  the  total  amplitude  of  our  sextant,  but  olso  different  arcs, 
which  we  compared  together ;  and  this  proof  from  arc  to  arc,  joined  to  that  of  the  total 
which  we  had  made,  satisfied  us  that  notliing  had  been  left  to  wish  for  beyond  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  instrument,  and  that  so  great  a  precision  could  not  have  been  expected. 

We  did  not  know  what  else  to  imagine  as  necessary  for  the  measurement  of  the  degrer 
of  the  meridian ;  for  I  shall  not  say  any  thing  here  of  our  experiments  on  gravity,  a 
matter  equally  important,  and  which  we  treated  with  equal  care.  It  will  be  sufficient 
now  to  say,  that  if  disposed  to  follow  the  example  of  Messrs.  Newton,  Huygcns,  and 
some  others,  among  whom  I  scarcely  dare  to  name  myself,  one  might  be  disposed  to 
compute  the  figure  of  the  earth  by  gravity.  Every  experiment  wc  made  in  the  frozen 
zone  will  shew  the  earth  to  be  flattened ;  which  is  confirmed  also  by  what  we  learn  of  the 
experiments  made  by  Messrs.  Godin,  Bouguer,  and  La  Condamine,  on  the  torrid  zone. 

In  die  mean  time  the  sun  drew  nearer  to  us,  or  rather  no  longer  left  the  horizon :  it 
was  a  singular  sight  to  behold  it  so  long  illuminate  a  frozen  horizon,  to  see  the  summer 
in  the  heavens,  while  rigid  Avinter  grasped  the  earth  :  we  were  then  in  the  morning  of 
that  long  day  which  lasts  for  several  months  :  in  the  mean  time  it  did  not  seem  that  the 
continued  sun  caused  any  change  in  either  ice  or  snow. 

On  the  sixth  of  May  it  began  to  rain,  and  some  water  was  perceptible  on  the  frozen 
river.  Every  day  at  noon  the  snow  melted,  and  every  night  winter  resumed  its  sway- 
At  length,  on  the  tenth  of  May,  the  earth  was  visible,  unseen  for  such  a  length  of  time : 
some  elevated  points,  exposed  to  the  sun,  began  to  appear,  like  the  summits  of  the  moun- 
tains after  the  Hood,  and  soon  after  the  birds,  natui^  to  the  country,  were  seen  again. 
Towards  the  beginning  of  June  the  ice  gave  up  both  land  and  sea :  we  immediately 
turned  our  thoughts  to  our  return  to  Stockholm,  and  departed  the  ninth  of  June,  some 
by  land,  and  some  by  sea ;  but  the  rest  of  our  adventures,  or  our  shipwreck  in  the  Gulf 
of  Bothnia,  do  not  belong  to  this  subject. 


►  ,| 


>de- 


:din 


ACCOUNT  OF  A  JOURNEY  TO  THE  EXTREMITY  OF  LAPLAND,  FOR  THE 
PURPOSE  OF  FINDING  AN  ANCIENT  MONUMENT. 

[BY  M.  MAUPERTUIS.] 

WHILST  we  were  at  Pello,  where  the  arc  of  the  meridian  which  we  had  measured 
terminated,  the  Fins  and  Laplanders  frequently  spoke  to  us  of  a  monument,  which  they 
looked  upon  as  the  wonder  of  their  country,  and  in  wliich  they  conceived  was  contained 
the  knowledge  of  every  thing  of  which  they  were  ignorant.  ,  This  monument  was  re- 
ported to  be  situated  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  leagues  towards  the  north,  in  the  middle 
of  a  vast  forest,  which  separates  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  from  the  ocean. 

To  arrive  there  one  is  obliged  to  be  drawn  over  the  snow  by  rein-deer,  in  those  danger- 
ous  sort  of  carriages  called  pulkas,  of  which  I  already  have  given  a  description  in  the 
account  of  our  observations.  Although  it  was  the  month  of  April,  there  was  yet  a  risk 
of  being  frozen  in  the  deserts,  where  there  was  no  hope  of  finding  an  asylum  ;  and  this 
risk  was  to  be  undertaken  upon  the  assertions  of  Laplanders. 

I  am  almost  ashamed  to  tell  that  I  undertook  it.    The  want  of  occupation,  during  a, 

K  K  2 


252 


JOURNEY  OP  IMAUPERTUia. 


Stay  which  we  were  obliged  to  prolong  in  these  countries  till  the  season  for  our  depar- 
ture ;  a  disposition  from  curiosity  of  penetrating  to  the  centre  of  Lapland ;  the  most 
slender  hope  of  seeing  the  only  monument  of  this  description  perlraps  extant  in  the 
world,  with  the  habitude  which  we  had  of  encountering  hardships  and  danger ;  these 
perhaps  may  excuse  me.  I  resolved  then  on  going,  imd  had  the  good  fortune  of  being 
accompanied  by  M.  Celsius,  who,  to  a  most  profound  acquaintance  with  astronomy, 
joined  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  northern  languages,  and  who  had  made  a  parti- 
cular study  of  Runic  inscriptions,  to  which  we  thought  thb  which  was  spoken  of  to  us 
might  have  some  relation. 

It  perhaps  may  be  pleasing  to  know  the  method  used  in  travelling  in  Lapland.  In 
the  beginning  of  winter  the  roads  conducting  to  frequented  places  are  marked  vviili 
branches  of  fir :  scarcely  have  the  sledges  and  pulkas  beaten  the  first  snow  which  covers 
the  road,  and  begun  to  hollow  it,  before  a  succeeding  fall,  driven  by  the  wind,  fills  it, 
and  brings  it  to  a  level  w-th  the  surface  of  the  country,  lake,  or  river.  The  next  car- 
riages  that  pass  beat  again  the  way,  which  other  falls  of  snow  cover  anew,  and  these  roads, 
alternately  hollowed  by  carriages,  and  filled  by  the  wind,  ihat  reduces  everywhere  the 
snow  to  a  level,  although  not  more  raised  thiui  the  circumjacent  parts,  forn.,  neverthe- 
less, causeways  or  bridges  of  compressed  snow,  from  which,  by  varying  to  the  right  or 
left,  one  is  engulfed  by  the  snow.  Great  care  is  taken  not  to  swerve  from  these  roads, 
and  mostly  towards  the  middle  they  are  hollowed  by  a  kind  of  furro^v ,  made  by  the 
pulkas  travelling  over  them ;  but  in  the  midst  of  forests  and  unfrequented  places  no  such 
roads  exist.  The  Fins  and  Laplanders  only  find  each  other  by  marks  cut  on  trees. 
Sometimes  the  rein-deer  plunges  up  to  the  horns  in  snow ;  and  in  diese  places,  if  over- 
taken by  one  of  those  storms,  during  which  the  snow  falls  in  such  quantity,  and  driven 
by  the  wind  on  every  side  in  such  manner,  that  it  is  impossible  to  see  two  steps  from  one, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  find  again  the  way  passed  over,  or  to  pursue  one's  course  ; 
destruction  must  infallibly  follow,  and  above  all,  if  not  provided  with  tents,  as  we  were, 
to  shelter  us  from  part  of  the  storm, 

While  on  our  journey,  our  Laplanders,  fruitful  in  wonderful  stories,  related  to  us  on 
this  subject  many  accounts  of  men,  who  had  been  taken  up  into  the  air  in  these  storms, 
with  their  pulkas  and  their  rein-deer,  and  precipitated  sometimes  on  rocks,  at  others 
into  the  middle  of  the  lakes. 

I  left  Pello  the  eleventh  of  April,  1737,  and  arrived  in  the  evening  at  Kingis,  which  is 
twelve  or  fifteen  French  leagues  distant.  I  did  not  stop  there,  being  desirous  of  getting 
to  the  place  where  rein -deer  were  to  be  provided  for  me  as  soon  as  possible ;  I  therefore 
proceeded  five  leagues  farther,  and  slept  at  Pellika ;  this  is  one  of  the  houses  which  forms 
the  village  of  Payala.  In  these  countries  villages  are  composed  of  no  more  than  two  or 
three  houses,  each  some  leagues  distant  from  the  other.  I  there  found  six  rein-deer, 
with  their  pulkas ;  but  as  we  could  yet  go  three  leagues  further  in  sledges,  I  reserved 
our  horses  for  the  next  day,  to  carry  us  to  Erckiheicki,  to  which  place  I  sent  forward  the 
rein-deer  to  wait  for  me. 

In  these  unfortunate  climates,  incessantly  burnt  during  the  summer  by  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  which  never  goes  down,  and  afterwards  during  the  winter  wrapt  in  profound  and 
continual  night,  one  could  not  expect  to  meet  with  such  an  agreeable  asylum  as  that  we 
found.  The  house  called  Pellika,  in  spite  of  its  remoteness  from  the  inhabited  world, 
was  one  of  the  best  I  had  met  with  in  the  country  ;  we  stretched  out  skins  of  bears  and 
rein-deer,  on  which  we  prepared  ourselves,  by  taking  a  little  rest,  for  the  fatigues  of  our 
next  day's  journey. 

Long  before  sun-rise  I  left  Pellika  on  the  twelfth  of  April,  and  soon  arrived  at  Ercki- 
heicki, where  I  stopped  no  longer  than  was  necessary  to  leave  our  sledges,  and  get  tied 


■■MM**! 


tWMMMbi 


JOl  nXEY  OF  MALPEUTUIS. 


o  rr  ■■> 


in  our  pulkas ;  a  precaution,  without  which,  when  the  icin-deer  is  at  its  speed,  one 
should  not  long  remain  in  the  carriapjc.  At  this  season,  however,  our  precautions 
against  the  rapidity  of  the  rein-deer  were  superfluous :  they  were  no  longer  those  ungo- 
vernable deer  which  drew  me  la  '  summer  with  such  swifniess  over  the  river,  and  almost 
flew  with  me  from  the  top  of  Avusaxa.  Their  former  smooth  horns  were  now  no  other 
than  white  and  dry  bones,  which  one  might  mistake  for  parched  ribs  of  dead  animals : 
their  bones  came  through  their  skin,  and  they  looked  as  though  incapable  of  dragginj^* 
tis  a  hundred  steps. 

The  difference  of  the  seasons  was  the  cause  of  this  change.  When  they  drew  me  to 
Avasaxa  they  came  from  Norway,  where,  during  the  summer,  they  had  nothing  else  to 
do  but  to  feed  and  get  fat :  at  that  period  I  would  advise  no  one  to  travel  in  pulkas ;  but 
at  the  present  season,  after  having  undergone  ail  the  toil  of  winter,  and  returned  from  the 
Lapland  fairs,  we  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the  rein-deer,  unless  it  were  to  be  left  belund. 
If  it  be  difficult  to  stop  this  animal  when  in  its  full  strength,  at  the  time  of  his  exhaustion 
it  is  not  less  difficult  to  make  him  proceed. 

We  travelled  thus  dragged  through  a  forest,  having  eight  or  nine  leagues  to  go :  tliere 
was  no  road  which  led  to  the  spot  we  were  going  to,  which  made  it  so  much  the  more 
laborious  for  the  rein-deer ;  at  every  short  interval  we  were  obliged  to  suffer  them  to  rest, 
and  give  them  moss,  which  we  had  brought  with  us :  this  moss  is  their  only  food.  The 
Laplanders  mixed  it  with  ice  and  snow,  and  form  very  hard  cakes  of  it,  which  serve  at  the 
same  time  as  food  and  beverage  for  the  animal,  who  gnaws  it  with  avidity.  In  spite  of 
this,  we  were  under  the  necessity  of  leaving  a  deer  on  the  road :  he  was  tied  to  a  tree,  and 
some  of  these  cakes  left  beside  him. 

We  ourselves  were  much  incommoded  by  the  uneasy  posture  which  we  were  obliged 
to  assume  in  these  pulkas :  the  only  amusement  afforded  us  during  this  tiresome  journey 
was  in  noticing  in  the  snow  the  footsteps  of  the  different  animals,  with  which  the  forests 
are  filled :  we  easily  distinguished  the  different  ones,  and  saw  with  surprise  the  number  of 
various  animals  which  had  passed  in  a  very  short  space  during  a  few  days. 

We  saw  on  the  road  many  snares  laid  for  ermines,  in  some  of  which  were  prisoners. 
The  Laplanders  tie  to  a  tree,  whose  top  is  cut  oft"  level  vwth  the  height  of  the  snow,  a  log 
of  wood,  covered  by  another  ready  to  fall,  beneath  which  a  small  passage  is  left  for  the 
ermine,  and  which,  upon  its  entering  to  eat  the  bait  that  is  set  for  him,  falls  on  and 
crushes  him. 

It  is  thus  that  ermines,  which  are  very  plentiful  in  Lapland,  are  snared :  these  animals 
are  cinnamon-coloured  in  summer,  having  only  the  belly  and  tip  of  the  ears  white  :  \vc 
frequently  met  with  such  on  the  banks  of  lakes  and  rivers,  where  I  ima^ne  they  watch 
for  fish,  of  wluch  they  are  particularly  fond ;  sometimes  even  we  have  found  them 
swimming  in  the  middle  of  the  water.  In  winter  they  become  entirely  white ;  which 
was  the  case  of  those  we  found  in  the  snares.  However,  upon  leaving  Tomeo,  a  tame 
ermine  that  I  had  in  the  house  had  already  lost  its  white  in  n  any  places ;  and  on  my 
return  some  days  afterwards  I  found  it  perfectly  gray.  It  is  true,  if  ii  be  the  cold,  which, 
by  any  cause  whatever,  whitens  them,  those  which  were  exposed  to  the  air  should  natu- 
rally remain  longer  white  than  those  shut  up  in  a  house :  perhaps  the  ermines  found  by 
us  had  been  caught  some  time ;  for,  as  may  be  conceived,  frozen  animals  are  preserved 
all  the  winter.  In  the  packages  of  ermines  sold  by  the  Laplanders,  when  the  skins  are 
turned  inside  out,  there  are  always  a  number  of  gray,  or  spotted  with  gray,  which  are 
not  used  for  trimmings. 

We  arrived  at  Keyma,  situated  at  the  foot  of  a  little  mountain  called  Winso,  at  one. 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon :  we  ascended  it ;  it  was  there  we  were  to  find  the  monument 
we  were  seeking,  but  it  was  covered  with  snow.    Our  Laplanders  sought  for  it  without 


ft-i 


254 


JOUnXEY  OF  MAUPRBTnS. 


being  able  to  find  it,  and  I  began  to  repent  me  of  having  undertaken  so  fatiguing  a  voyage 
upon  such  suspicious  information,  wlien,  after  a  long  search,  it  was  discovered  :  I  caused 
part  of  the  snow  to  be  removed,  and  lighted  a  great  fire,  for  the  purpose  of  melting  the 
remainder,  in  order  that  we  might  examine  this  pretended  wonder. 

It  is  a  stone,  of  which  a  part  of  irregular  form  advances  out  of  the  earth  to  the  height 
of  a  foot  and  a  half,  and  is  about  three  feet  broad :  one  of  its  faces  is  tolerably  even,  and 
forms  a  surface  not  altogether  vertical,  but  which  makes  an  acute  angle  with  the  horizon. 
On  this  face  are  two  very  straight  lines  of  characters,  rather  more  than  an  inch  long,  and 
which  !'-e  cut  tolerably  deep  into  the  stone,  like  notches  made  by  the  stroke  of  an  axe 
in  wood,  or  a  chisel,  being  broad  at  the  surface,  and  ending  at  the  bottom  with  an  acute 
angle. 

At  the  bottom,  and  out  of  the  two  lines,  arc  some  larger  characters ;  in  spite  of  all  the 
signs  which  these  characters  shew  of  having  been  engraved  with  iron,  I  dare  not  venture 
to  affirm  whether  they  be  the  work  of  man,  or  a  sport  of  nature. 

I  leave  to  those  who  have  made  a  longer  study  than  myself  of  ancient  monuments,  or 
who  may  be  more  bold  than  me,  to  decide  this  question.  If  the  resemblance  of  several 
of  these  characters,  and  even  of  many  which  succeed  each  other,  appear  to  discounte- 
nance their  bein^  letters,  I  should  not  therefore  conclude  that  such  characters  were 
without  signification.  If  we  mark  one,  eleven,  one  hundred  and  eleven,  &c.  in  Arabic 
figures,  it  will  readily  Ije  seen  what  different  meaning  may  be  made  by  the  addition  of  a 
similar  character. 

The  most  ancient  inscriptions  of  China  are  composed  of  no  more  than  two  characters, 
and  one  cannot  doubt  of  these  being  the  work  of  man,  or  of  their  containing  a  meaning, 
should  they  be  no  other,  as  some  with  much  apparent  reason  imagine,  than  arithmetical 
works.  If  the  tradition  of  the  country  be  consulted,  all  the  Laplanders  assure  us  that  they 
are  characters  of  ^eat  antiquity,  containing  valuable  secrets ;  but  what  can  one  believe 
in  regard  to  antiquity  from  those  people,  who  even  do  not  know  their  own  age,  and  who 
for  the  greater  part  are  ignorant  who  were  their  mothers. 

M.  Brunniers,  their  rector,  speaks  of  this  monument,  in  a  dissertation  that  he  has 
caused  to  be  printed  upon  the  town  of  Tomeo  and  the  neighbouring  country :  he  looks 
upon  it  to  be  a  Runic  inscription,  and  relates  that  there  were  formerly  three  crowns  on 
it,  effaced  now  by  time.  But  M.  Cebius,  very  well  acquainted  with  the  Runic,  could  not 
read  these  characters,  and  found  them  to  differ  from  all  the  inscriptions  subsisting  in 
Sweden ;  and  as  for  the  crowns,  if  there  ever  were  any,  time  has  effaced  them  in  such  a 
manner,  that  no  vestige  of  them  remains. 

The  stone  on  which  these  lines  are  engraved  is  composed  of  different  beds ;  the  charac- 
ters are  written  on  a  species  of  flint,  while  the  rest,  and  above  all  between  the  two  lines, 
seems  to  be  of  a  stone  more  soft  and  foliated. 

However  it  may  be,  M.  Celsius  and  myself  copied  separately,  and  with  care,  all  that 
we  could  discern. 


1 


—am 


JorUNKV  OF  MAt'PEKTUIS. 


25.'; 


Should  it  be  no  other  than  u  sport  of  nature,  the  reputation  which  the  stone  bears  iu 
this  country  deserves  that  we  should  have  given  the  description  of  it. 

This  stone  does  not  certainly  possess  the  beauty  of  the  monuments  of  Greece  or  Rome  : 
but  if  what  is  on  it  be  an  inscription,  it  very  possibly  has  the  advantage  of  being  the  oldest 
in  the  universe.  The  country  in  which  it  is  found  is  inhabited  only  by  a  race  of  men, 
who  live  like  beasts  in  the  forests  :  we  cannot  imagine  that  they  can  have  ever  had  any 
memorable  event  to  transmit  to  posterity,  nor,  if  ever  they  had  had,  that  they  could  ever 
have  invented  the  means.  Nor  can  it  be  conceived  that  this  country,  with  its  present 
asjx^ct,  ever  possessed  more  civilized  inhabitants.  The  rigour  of  the  climate,  and  the 
barrenness  of  the  land,  have  destined  it  for  the  reU-eat  of  a  few  miserable  wretches,  who 
know  no  other. 

It  seems  therefore  that  our  inscription  must  have  been  cut  at  a  period  when  this  country 
was  situated  in  a  different  climate,  and  before  some  one  of  those  great  revolutions,  which 
we  cannot  doubt  have  taken  place  in  our  globe.  The  position  that  its  axis  holds  at  present, 
with  respect  of  the  ecliptic,  occasions  Lapland  to  receive  the  sun's  rays  very  Dbliquely  ; 
it  is  thereby  condemned  to  a  winter  long,  and  fatal  to  man,  as  \vell  as  to  all  the  produc- 
tions of  nature ;  its  laud  is  barren  and  a  desert. 

No  great  movement  possibly  in  the  heavens  was  necessary  to  cause  all  its  misfortunes. 
These  regions  may  formerly  have  been  those  on  which  die  sun  shone  most  favourably : 
the  polar  circles  may  have  been  what  now  the  tropics  are,  and  the  torrid  zone  have 
filled  the  place  now  occupied  by  the  temperate.  But  how  could  the  situation  of  the 
axis  of  the  earth  be  changed  ?  If  attention  be  paid  to  the  motion  of  the  celestial  bodies, 
but  too  many  causes  may  be  seen,  capable  of  producing  this  and  even  greater  changes. 

If  the  knowledge  of  anatomy,  of  all  the  parts  and  all  the  springs  which  cause  the  mo- 
tion of  our  bodies,  occasions  those  acquainted  with  it  to  wonder  how  the  machine  can 
possibly  last  so  long,  the  same  may  be  said  of  astronomy.  The  knowledge  of  the  celes- 
tial '"^ivciTjents  discovers  to  us  many  causes,  which  could  effect,  not  only  upon  our  cnvth, 
but  on  the  general  system  of  the  universe,  material  changes. 

The  varition  in  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic,  which  several  astronomers  consider  as 
demonstrated  by  the  observations  of  the  ancients,  compared  with  our  own,  might  of 
itself,  after  a  long  lapse  of  ages,  have  produced  changes  similar  to  those  we  speak  of. 
The  obliquity  at  which  the  equator  of  the  earth  at  present  cuts  the  ecliptic,  which  at  pre- 
sent b  no  more  than  23  V  degrees,  may  possibly  be  the  remainder  of  a  much  greater 
obliquity,  during  which  the  poles  may  have  been  in  the  temperate  or  the  torrid  zone,  and 
have  had  the  sun  at  their  zenith. 

Whether  there  may  have  been  such  changes,  or  more  sudden  ones,  it  is  certain  there 
have  been  some.  The  print  of  fish,  and  fish  themselves  petrified,  which  are  found  in 
countries  most  remote  from  the  sea,  and  even  upon  the  summits  of  mountains,  are  in- 
contestible  proofs  of  these  places  having  been  formerly  low,  and  covered  with  water. 

Sacred  history  teaches  us  that  the  waters  formerly  covered  the  highest  mountains. 
Suca  an  inundation  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine,  without  the  transposition  of  the 
centre  of  gravity  of  the  earth,  and  of  its  climates. 

If  repugnant  to  the  allowance  of  such  changes,  the  inscription  at  Winso  may  be  con- 
ceived to  owe  its  ori^n  to  some  event  as  singular  as  our  voyage.  An  inscription,  which 
should  contain  the  history  of  the  operation  which  we  went  to  this  country  to  effect,  might 
in  some  future  day,  perhaps,  be  as  obscure  as  this  is  now ;  and  if  all  the  sciences  were  to 
be  lost,  who  could  then  discover,  who  could  imagine,  that  such  a  monument  had  been 
the  work  of  Frenchmen ;  and  that  what  was  cut  thereon  was  the  measurement  of  the 
degrees  of  the  earth,  and  the  soludon  of  its  figure. 


in 


.^> 


:ji  M 


f 


1 


J5G 


JOURNF.Y  OF  MArrr.nTns. 


I  leave  my  reflections  and  the  moiuimeiit  to  the  conjectures  which  may  be  entertained 
on  them,  and  take  up  the  thread  of  my  relation.  After  we  had  copied  what  wc  found 
ont  he  stone,  we  embarked  in  our  pulkas,  to  return  to  Erckiheicki.  This  journey  was 
still  more  f.ttiguinjir  than  it  had  Ixen  in  the  morning :  the  posture  in  the  pulkas  is  so 
very  incommodious,  that  it  gives  the  sensation  of  a  broken  back  after  a  few  hours ;  not- 
withstanding, wc  were  so  seated  continually  from  four  in  the  morning  luitil  one  in  the 
afternoon.  Our  return  was  still  longer ;  our  deer  stopped  every  minute,  and  the  moss 
wc  carried  with  us  being  all  consumed,  wc  were  obliged  to  seek  some.  When  the  snow 
is  in  powder,  which  is  the  Ciisc  till  spring,  although  it  cover  the  earth  entirely  ton  great 
depth,  a  rein-deer  difs  himself  a  stable  in  a  moment,  and  brushing  away  the  snow  on  all 
sides,  discovers  the  is'  which  is  hid  at  the  bottom.  It  is  pretended  that  the  animal  has 
a  particular  instinct  for  iiuding  the  moss  so  covered  with  snow,  and  that  he  is  never  de- 
ceived when  he  makes  his  hole ;  but  the  state  of  the  surface  of  snow  hindered  my  ascer- 
taining whether  this  account  be  true  or  false.  As  soon  as  this  surface  has  been  thawed 
by  the  power  of  the  sun,  the  frost  which  succeeds  freezes  it,  and  forms  a  crust  sufficiently 
hard  to  bear  men,  deer,  and  even  horses ;  but  when  so  hardened,  the  rein-deer  being 
unable  to  penetrate  it,  the  Laplanders  are  obliged  to  break  it ;  and  this  is  the  total  of 
the  returns  which  they  make  them  for  their  services. 

These  rein-deer  deserve  that  we  should  say  something  of  them ;  they  are  a  kind  of 
deer,  whose  spreading  horns  branch  out  before  the  forehead ;  they  seem  designed  by 
nature  to  satisfy  all  the  wants  of  the  Laplanders;  they  serve  them  instead  of  horses,  cows, 
and  sheep. 

The  rein-deer  is  fiistened  to  a  small  boat,  called  a  pulka,  pointed  before,  to  cut  through 
the  snoW;  uud  a  man,  in  a  posture  half-sitting  and  half-lying  in  this  carriage,  may  go 
with  great  s\)eed,  provided  he  does  not  fear  overturning,  or  being  ingulfed  in  the  snow. 
Tb*;  flesh  of  them  is  excellent  to  eat,  either  fresh  or  dried.  The  milk  of  the  doe  is 
rather  sharp,  but  as  thick  as  the  cream  from  cows'  milk  :  it  is  capable,  when  frozen,  of 
being  preserved  for  a  long  time,  and  the  Laplanders  make  cheeses  of  it,  which  however 
would  be  much  better  than  they  are,  if  more  care  and  cleanliness  were  used  in  making 
them. 

The  skin  of  the  deer  serves  for  all  sorts  of  clothing :  that  of  the  young  ones,  covered 
with  a  yellowish  hair,  a  little  curly,  forms  a  very  soft  lining  for  the  clothes  of  the  Fins : 
when  older,  the  hair  becomes  brown,  when  those  dresses  are  made  of  it,  so  well  known 
over  Europe  by  the  name  of  Lapmades ;  they  are  worn  with  the  hsur  outwards,  and  are 
a  very  light  and  warm  dress,  f  he  skin  of  the  old  deer  is  prepared  in  the  same  manner 
as  that  of  bucks  and  does,  and  makes  excellent  gloves,  the  finest  waistcoats,  and  most 
handsome  girdles.  The  Laplanders  make  the  nerves  and  guts,  by  twisting  them,  into 
thread,  which  is  the  only  kind  they  use.  To  conclude,  that  every  part  of  them  may  be 
serviceable,  they  offer  their  horns  m  sacrifice  to  their  deities. 

Being  returned  from  Pellika  after  having  experienced  much  fatigue,  cold,  and  tire- 
someness, we  left  it  again  on  the  thirteenth,  early  in  the  morning,  and  arrived  by  nine 
o'clock  at  Kingis. 

This  place,  although  a  wretched  one,  is  rather  more  known  than  the  others,  by  tlie  iron 
forges  in  it :  the  ore  is  brought  there  during  the  winter  by  rein-deer,  from  the  mines  of  Ju- 
nesvando  and  Swappawara.  These  forges  are  worked  only  for  a  short  part  of  the  winter, 
the  extreme  frost  not  allowing  the  wheels  to  act  upon  the  bellows  and  hammers.  Kingis 
is  situated  on  a  branch  of  the  river  Tomeo,  which  has  a  dreadful  cataract  before  it,  im- 
passable for  boats.  The  masses  of  ice  and  foam  precipitated  with  violence,  and  forming 
»  cascade,  the  edges  of  which  appeared  like  crystal,  formed  a  most  noble  spectacle.  After 


JOUnNEY  OF  ,>rAirrF,nTUIS. 


J I 


be 


dining  with  the  clergyman  rt  Kingis,  M.  Aiuilius,  wc  left  it,  and  arrived  in  the  i  vining 
at  Pcilo,  wiicrc  wc  slept  in  the  same  liousc  that  \\x  liad  resided  in  so  much,  and  uliich 
we  beheld  very  likely  the  last  time. 

Proceeding  from  Kt  ngis  we  met  upon  the  river  several  caravans  of  Laplanders,  ear. 
r}'ing  skins  and  fisii  to  Pcllo,  which  they  had  been  bartering  for  at  tiic  fairs  of  Upper 
Lapland  with  the  merchants  of  Toriico.  These  caravans  formed  long  files  of  pulkas  : 
the  first  rein-decr,  who  is  guided  by  a  Laplander  on  foot,  draws  the  first  piilka,  to  \\'hich 
the  second  rein-deer  is  fastened,  and  in  like  manner  the  remainder,  to  the  number  of 
thirty  or  forty,  who  every  one  follow  exactly  in  the  little  furrow  traced  in  die  sno^v  by 
the  first,  and  deepened  by  all  the  rest.  When  they  are  tired,  and  the  Laplanders  have 
pitched  on  a  spot  where  they  mean  to  encamp,  they  form,  with  the  deer  fastened  to  their 
pulkas,  a  large  circle  :  every  one  makes  his  bed  in  the  snow  on  the  middle  of  the  river, 
and  the  Laplanders  distribute  moss  among  them  :  they  themselves  are  little  more  difli- 
cult  in  their  accommodation ;  many  are  satisfied  with  lighting  a  fire,  and  lie  on  the  river, 
while  their  wives  and  children  fetch  from  their  pulkas  some  fish  for  their  supper;  others 
erect  a  kind  of  tent,  a  receptacle  worthy  of  a  Laplander,  l)eing  no  other  than  miserabli 
rags  of  a  coarse  woollen  cloth,  rendered  by  smoke  as  black  as  if  it  had  been  dyed  ;  it 
is  fastened  round  certain  stakes,  which  form  a  cone,  with  an  opening  at  the  top,  which 
serves  for  a  chimney.  There  the  most  voluptuous,  stretched  on  bear  and  rcin-dcer 
skins,  pass  their  time  in  smoking  tobacco,  and  looking  with  contempt  on  the  occupations 
of  the  rest  of  men. 

These  people  have  no  other  dwelling  than  tents ;  all  their  wealth  consists  in  their 
deer,  which  live  on  nothing  but  a  moss  that  is  not  everywhere  to  be  found.  When 
their  herd  has  stripped  the  summit  of  one  mountain,  they  are  obliged  to  conduct  them 
to  another,  thus  obliged  to  live  continually  wandering  in  the  deserts.  Their  forest, 
dreadful  in  winter,  is  even  less  fit  for  Uving  in  in  summer :  an  innumerous  swarm  of 
flies  of  every  description  infect  the  air;  they  follow  men  by  the  smell  from  a  great  dis- 
tance, and  form  around  every  one  who  stops  an  atmosphere  so  thick  as  to  exclude  the  light. 
To  avoid  them,  it  is  necessary  to  be  continually  moving  without  rest,  or  to  burn  green 
trees,  which  causes  a  thick  smoke,  and  drives  them  away  by  its  becoming  insupportable, 
as  it  is  almost  to  man  himself:  and  lastly,  they  are  sometimes  obliged  to  cover  their  skin 
with  the  pitch  that  exudes  from  the  firs.  These  flies  sting  shar[»ly,  or  rather  many  of 
them  frequemly  occasion  real  wounds,  from  which  the  blood  flows  abundantly. 

During  the  time  that  these  insects  are  most  violent,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  two  months 
which  we  passed  in  forming  our  triangles  in  the  forest,  the  Laplanders  fly  to  the  coists 
of  the  ocean  with  their  rein-deer,  to  get  free  from  them. 

I  have  not  yet  spoken  of  the  appearance  or  size  of  the  Laplanders,  of  which  so  many 
fables  have  been  related.  Their  dimiqutiveness  has  been  greatly  exaggerated  ;  it  is  im- 
possible to  exa^erate  on  their  ugliness.  The  rigour  and  length  of  a  winter,  agt-inst 
which  they  have  no  other  shelter  than  what  the  wretched  tents  afford  which  I  have  de- 
scribed, in  which  they  make  a  blazing  fire,  which  scorches  them  on  one  side,  while  they 
are  frozen  on  the  other :  a  short  summer,  but  during  which  they  are  incessantly  burnt 
by  the  rays  of  the  sun ;  the  barrenness  of  the  ground,  which  produces  neither  grain, 
nor  fruit,  nor  pulse,  seem  to  have  caused  a  degeneration  of  the  human  race  in  these 
climates.  As  to  their  size,  they  are  shorter  than  other  men,  although  not  so  much  so 
as  some  travellers  have  related,  who  make  pygmies  of  them.  Out  of  a  great  number 
of  men  and  women  that  1  saw,  I  measured  a  v/oman,  apparently  of  twenty-five  or  thirty 
yealrs  of  ^e,  and  who  suckled  an  infant,  which  she  carried  in  the  bark  of  a  birch-tree  : 

VOL.    I.  L    I. 


i>:' 


2:)  3 


.rOIUyKV  OF  MAriTHTIIS. 


she  seemed  to  Ix;  in  j^ood  licaltli,  and  well  proportioned,  according  to  the  idea  I  formed 
of  the  proportions  of  their  btature;  she  was  four  feel  two  inches  five  parts  high,  and 
certainly  she  was  one  of  the  smallest  I  met  with,  yet  without  apixiaring  from  her  dimi- 
luiliveness  either  deformed  or  cxtraordinjiry  in  that  country.  People  may  have  deceived 
themselves  as  to  the  stature,  or  large  heads  of  Laplanders,  who  have  not  made  die  ob- 
servations which  I  did,  in  spite  of  the  general  ignorance  of  their  ages  that  prevails  among 
them.  Children,  who  from  their  tenderest  youth  have  dicir  features  disfigured,  and 
frequently  the  appearance  of  litUe  old  men,  begin  very  early  to  conduct  their  pulkas, 
and  to  follow  the  sjime  labours  as  their  fathei-s.  I  suspect  the  greater  part  of  travellers 
have  formed  their  judgment  of  the  size  of  Laplanders,  and  of  the  largeness  of  dieir 
heads,  from  those  of  the  children ;  and  I  myself  have  frequently  been  nearly  deceived 
in  this  point.  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  Laplanders  are  shorter  than  other  men, 
for  the  greater  part;  but  that  I  esteem  their  shortness  to  have  been  stated  as  too  great  in 
the  relations  of  travellers,  owing  to  the  error  I  have  mentioned,  or  possibly  to  that  in- 
clinalion  toward  the  marvellous,  which  is  so  predominant.  To  me  there  seems  to  be  a 
head  difference  between  us  and  them,  which  is  a  great  deal. 

A  country  immediately  contiguous  to  Lapland  produced  a  real  wonder,  of  an  oppo- 
site description.  The  giant  exhibited  at  Paris,  in  1735,  was  born  in  a  village  but  little 
distant  from  Tomeo.  The  academy  of  sciences  having  caused  him  to  be  meiisured, 
found  him  to  be  six  feet  eight  inches  eight  lines  in  height.  This  Colossus  was  made  up 
of  matter  sufficient  to  have  formed  four  or  five  Laplanders. 


*  I 
ii 


JOURNAL  OF  A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NOUTH, 

IN  TIIK  YRAIIS  I7J6  AND  1737 

[By  M.  Outh'ter.    Newly  translated  from  the  original.    Paris,  17  U,  quailo.J 

Is  the  earth  lengthened  or  oblate  at  the  pies  ?  This  b  the  famous  question  so  lonf; 
agitated  among  the  learned,  which  neither  the  ingenious  systems  conceived  by  different 
persons,  nor  geometrical  and  astronomical  observations  up  to  1735,  have  been  sufficient 
to  decide. 

The  best  mode  of  terminating  the  dispute  was,  to  measure  imder  the  etiuator,  and  at  the 
polar  circle,  one  or  more  degrees  of  the  meridian,  by  trigonometrical  and  astronomical 
observations,  of  the  cxactest  nicety. 

M.  Le  Comte  de  Maurepas,  always  busted  in  contributing  to  the  advancement  of  the 
sciences,  and  the  welfare  of  commerce  and  the  state,  obtained  for  the  gentlemen  of  tlu; 
academy  of  sciences  all  the  assistance  necessary  from  his  majesty,  towards  making  obser- 
vations, the  result  of  which  was  im^iortant,  as  well  to  the  perfection  of  the  sciences,  as 
the  greater  security  of  navigation. 

Tne  academy  received  the  orders  of  his  majesty  ;  all  the  necessary  instruments  weix- 
constructed.  Although  at  that  time  France  had  to  stistain  a  war  of  magnittide,  no  ex- 
pence  was  spared ;  several  members  of  the  academy  set  off"  in  the  month  of  May  1735, 
for  Peru,  under  the  equator ;  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  offered  himself  for  th^  voyage  to  the 
polar  circle.  Its  length,  the  excessive  fatigue  incident  thereon,  the  risks  he  iiad  to  run, 
nothing  lessened  his  zeal :  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Le  Monnier,  and  Camus,  of  the  academy, 
were  associated  with  him ;  he  did  me  also  the  honour  to  ask  for  me  to  accompany  him. 

Although  before-hand  prejudiced  against  the  norUiern  climates,  I  left  immediately, 
and  witliout  hesitation,  the  agreeable  society  of  the  lord  bishop  of  Bayeux,  v/ith  whom 
I  was,  to  join  him.  We  were  not  to  leave  Paris  before  April  1736  ;  nevertheless,  I  went 
there  in  the  beginning  of  December  1735  :  M.  Celsius,  professor  of  astronomy  at  Upsal, 
was  to  join  us  on  the  road.  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  requested  as  well  of  M.  Le  Comte  de 
Maurepas,  to  have  M.  Sommereux  for  secretary,  and  M.  d'Herbelot  as  draughtsman. 

The  four  or  five  tnonths  preceding  our  departure  were  passed  in  overlooking  the  con- 
struction of  the  instruments  which  we  required,  and  in  providing  whatever  might  be 
useful  to  us  on  our  voyage  :  We  made  also  upon  the  simple  pendulum  many  observa- 
tions, the  corresponding  ones  to  which  we  were  to  make  at  the  polar  circle.  It  was  there 
that  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  had  resolved  to  go,  to  make  his  experiments  for  ascertaining 
the  figure  of  the  earth ;  but  for  a  long  while  he  was  un '  ♦^erml .  '  whether  it  should  be 
in  Iceland,  on  the  coasts  of  Norway,  or  towards  the  jttom  * .  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia. 
The  best  maps  have  a  great  number  of  islands  described  along  the  v  oasts  of  this  gulf, 
which  promised  to  be  advantageous  to  the  work  to  be  effected ;  in  consequence  M.  de 
Maupcrtuis  gave  it  the  preference,  and  requested  of  M.  Le  Comte  de  Maurepas  to  obtain 
the  orders  of  his  majesty,  the  necessary  recommendations,  and  to  cause  advice  to  be 
sent  to  Sweden. 

The  answer  was  no  sooner  received  than  we  immediately  prepared  for  our  departure. 
All  the  instruments  were  ready,  and  packed  with  care.  The  carrier  which  conveyed 
them  was  accompanied,  as  far  as  Dunkirk,  by  a  servant  which  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  took 
with  him ;  he  as  well  had  four  others,  one  of  whom  had  before  been  at  Stockholm, 
and  understood  the  Swedish  language.   As  soon  as  the  day  of  our  depiu"ture  was  settled, 

L  L  2 


260 


OUTIIIF,U'«  JOURNAt,  OK 


wc  took  all  the  places  of  the  St.  Omer's  i>ost  coach,  for  Friday,  twentieth  of  April, 
1730. 

We  set  ofl",  Messrs.  dc  Maupcrtuisj,  Clairaut,  and  Camus,  of  the  academy  of  sciences, 
Messieurs  Soinmcrcux,  lltrbclot,  and  myself,  by  the  post  coach,  on  Friday  the  twentieth 
of  April,  with  four  serviuits.  M.  Le  Monnicr,  who  had  been  dctiiincd  by  business, 
followed  ill  a  scpaiatc  ciirriapc,  and  overtook  us  before  wc  arrived  at  Louvre,  where  wc 
dined  with  Messrs.  Nicoli  and  Hellot,  of  tlie  atuuleiny  of  sciences,  who  uccompHnicd  us 
so  far ;  we  passed  by  Senlis,  and  arrived  to  sleep  ut  Pont  St.  Maxcnce.  On  Saturday 
the  twenty-iirst  we  dined  at  (ioumay,  where  there  is  a  fine  castle,  with  canals  and 
beautiful  iountnii^s  ;  and  slept  at  a  small  town,  called  Rove.  On  Sunday  the  twenty- 
second  we  dined  at  Myaucour,  and  slept  ut  Perenne.  It  is  a  pretty  town ;  the  ram- 
parts, mostly  of  tmf,  forni  afj^recuble  prominudes ;  the  town  is  surrounded  bv  a  great 
ileal  of  water,  and  marshy  lands.  \Ionday  the  twenty-third  we  dined  at  jfiapaume, 
and  slept  at  Arras  :  wc  .irrived  tiiere  early,  and  went  to  see  the  abbey  of  St.  Vaast,  its 
library,  and  treasury  ;  in  which  was  shewn  to  us  a  thorn  of  the  holy  crown,  and  a  bit 
of  the  sponge. 

Tuesdiiy  the  twenty-fourth  wc  dined  at  Souchet,  and  slept  nt  Bethune,  a  very  hand- 
some town,  with  good  fortifications.  Wednesday  the  twenty- i  wc  dined  at  Aire,  and 
slept  at  St.  Omer's  ;  both  these  towns  arc  handsome,  large,  and  have  very  clean  streets. 
^  t  St.  Omer's  we  saw  die  abbey  of  St.  Bertin  and  its  church  ;  in  it,  on  the  summit  of  a 
pillar,  are  the  toad  and  lizard,  the  history  of  which  is  known  to  every  one. 

Thursday  morning  the  twenty-sixth  we  embarked  on  tlic  canal  in  a  very  pretty  boat ; 
wc  dined  ut  Bourbourg,  and  continued  our  route  in  the  same  boat  to  Dunkirk.  Wc  made 
a  quick  passage,  with  sails  set  all  the  way,  and  a  favourable  wind.  Near  Dunkirk  we 
found,  on  the  banks  of  the  canal.  Dr.  Lythenius,  a  Swedish  physician,  who  came  to  France 
with  M.  Lc  Comtc  dc  Chronihelm,  a  Swedish  nobleman ;  M.  Le  Comtc  de  Muurepas 
had  Ciirected  that  they  should  both  accompany  us  to  Stockholm ;  he  also  ordered  M.  de 
la  Haye  d' Anigemont,  commissary  of  the  marine  at  Dunkirk,  to  get  ready  a  vessel  for 
us,  and  store  it  with  every  thing  needful. 

As  soon  as  we  arrived,  we  went  to  see  the  vessel  which  was  to  take  us  to  Stockholm ; 
it  was  small,  but  safe,  and  abundantly  provided  with  every  thing  necessary,  M. 
d'Anglemont  had  taken  a  lodging  for  us  at  Dunkirk.  Friday  the  twenty -seventh  we 
dined  at  his  house,  in  company  with  Messrs.  de  Jansac  and  d*  Alembon.  Sunday  evening 
the  twenty-ninth,  while  we  were  at  supper,  M.  Celsius  arrived  from  London ;  he  had  seen 
M.  de  Maupertuis  at  Paris,  and  had  taken  upon  himself  to  cause  some  instruments  to  be 
cojistnicted  in  England,  which  were  of  material  service  afterwards. 

On  Wednesday  the  second  of  May  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Clairaut,  Camus,  Le 
Monnier,  Celsius,  Sommereux,  Herbelot,  and  myself,  accompanied  by  M.  Le  Comte 
de  Chronihelm,  <indDr.  Lythenius,  embarked  at  Dunkirk,  on  board  the  Prudent,  com- 
manded by  captain  Francis  Bernard,  and  piloted  by  Adam  Guenstelik. 

The  whole  of  the  ship's  complement  was  four  men  and  a  boy.  We  had  five  servants 
brought  from  Paris,  and  a  cof)k,  which  M.  d'Anglemont  provided  us  with. 

We  weighed  anchor,  and  sailed  at  half  past  five  in  the  morning ;  M.  de  la  Haye  d'An. 
glemont  accompanied  us  for  the  space  of  half  a  league. 

Although  the  sea  was  not  much  agitated,  it  was  not  long  before  we  were  almost  all 
attacked  by  the  sea-sickness  ;  and  I  was  worse  than  any.  As  the  vessel  was  small,  our 
beds  were  between  decks,  which  was  only  three  feet  high ;  the  hatchway  served  both  for 
door  and  window. 


A  VOV\r.K  TO  TMK  SOttTII. 


261 


On  ThiirMtay  tlic  thiitl  wc  were  all  very  well.  M.  Celsius  liod  brought  ti  smult  (iiinclrai\t 
frum  Kiiglaixl,  of  a  new  construction,  for  takin|^  elevations  at  Kit;  we  tried  it,  and  on  the 
following  days  made  use  of  it.  We  studied  and  caleulaiod.  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  ainusal 
us  with  ius  livclincHs,  and  the  channs  of  hiH  converMition. 

On  Friday  the  fourth  we  ^w  a  litile  ^^recnlinch  anioni^  the  yards  ;  it  flew  sometimes 
to  the  edges  of  the  deck^  at  others  amid  the  rigging,  following  us  until  the  eighth  of  the 
month,  alter  which  wc  saw  il  i\o  longT. 

TiK'recamc  also  a  G;rcat  bird,  similar  to  a  buzzard,  uhicli  perclud  on  our  main-mast, 
to  rest  itself;  it  came  from  the  ea^t,  and  al>er  half  an  hour  Hew  aw  ay  towards  the  west. 

We  took  an  oljservation  with  the  English  instrument  at  noon,  a<\d  found  the  latitude 
54  degrees  ■14  minutes. 

The  captain  and  like  pilot,  with  the  forcstanT,  found  it  54  degrees  36  mii\utes. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  evening  we  saw  u  fine  aurora  b(»(  oalis.  The  pilot  remarked  that 
it  presaged  a  tempest. 

Saturday  the  tilth  the  weather  became  squally,  and  I  was  very  sick. 

We  observed  af^ain  the  height  of  the  sun  with  our  English  instrument,  and  found  our 
latitude  within  a  minute  of  our  computation  by  the  log. 

When  the  weather  was  ftne,  although  it  was  windy  (as  was  almost  always  the  case)  we 
dined  on  tlK*  deck ;  it  was  sometimes  so  much  inclined,  that  \m  were  frequently  neiu" 
oversetting,  dishes  and  all,  which  created  some  little  confusion  at  our  meals. 

All  day,  Sunday  the  sixth,  the  weather  has  been  rather  s(jually ;  I  have  been  continually 
sick,  and  unable  to  cat  any  thing. 

A  wave  broke,  and  nearly  covered  the  deck  :  the  captain  ordered  us  to  make  haste 
into  the  cabin. 

Monday  the  seventh,  which  was  Rogation  Monday,  the  sea  was  very  much  swelled. 

The  night  very  dark.  The  sea  entirely  covered  with  sparks  of  light.  We  hoisted  up 
water  in  a  pail,  and  agitating  it  with  the  hand,  we  distinguished  a  number  of  similar  sparks, 
wliich  followed  the  motion  of  the  water,  and  for  the  most  part  sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the 
bucket. 

A  Norwegian  ship,  large,  and  of  a  bad  appearance,  as  well  as  its  sailtvrs  on  the  deck, 
pursued  us  in  an  insolent  manner  astern,  and  going  faster  than  us,  would  have  run  us 
down,  had  we  not  steered  out  of  its  way. 

Ihursday  the  tenth  (Ascension-Day)  very  bad  weather,  we  went  ata  ^reat  rate,  all  on 
one  side,  from  Skayen,  very  nearly  to  the  Sound.  The  pilot  has  not  lost  sight  all  day  long 
of  a  vessel  which  went  before  us,  and  has  followed  its  track.  Kept  all  day  on  deck,  not 
bciuff  able  to  bear  shutting  up ;  was  obliged  to  hold  by  the  rigging  on  the  upper  part  of 
the  deck.  Were  so  much  inclined,  that  the  gunwale  was  frequently  under  water. 

At  night-fall  the  captain  and  pilot  much  embarrassed,  afraid  to  enter  the  strait,  and 
equally  fearful  of  keeping  out  at  sea,  lest  we  should  be  driven  by  the  ^vinds  on  the  coasts. 
We  reefed  all  sails,  and  passed  a  most  horrid  night,  rolling  dreadfully  and  continually. 
All  the  things  in  our  lockers  struck  and  rolled  against  each  other.  This  situation  appeared 
the  more  dreadful  to  us  from  its  being  new ;  M.  de  Maupertuis  kept  all  his  presence  of 
mind,  and  encouraged  us  by  his  serenity,  and  the  liveliness  of  his  wit. 

At  length,  on  the  eleventh,  by  two  in  the  morning  at  dawn  '"f  day,  we  set  sail,  entered 
the  strait,  and  anchored  before  Elsineur.  Messrs.  Le  Monnier  and  Celsius  disembarked, 
to  proceed  by  land  to  Stockholm  :  Messrs.  Chronihelm  and  Lythenius  went  on  shore, 
as  well  to  proceed  to  Gottenburg :  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis  and  Camus  accompanied 
the  captain  to  Elsineur,  to  make  their  declaration.     These  gentlenicn  learned  of  M. 


262 


OUTIIIF.n'H  JOURNAL  OF 


Alw,  the  French  consul,  th«t  ours  wiui  the  first  Frcncli  ship  which  had  passed  this  year. 
Messrs.  do  Muupcrtuis  and  Camus,  on  their  return  at  five  in  the  evening,  suid,  U\ut  when 
they  first  landixl,  it  was  with  ^reat  difficulty  they  could  keep  on  their  legs. 

Elsiueur  is  a  little  town,  almost  wholly  of  wood  ;  the  view  of  the  strait  from  it  is  very 
pleasing.  'I'hcrv  is  a  handsome  canile  with  guns,  under  which  one  is  obliged  to  pass  :  it 
Is  a  fine  coiist,  covered  with  verdure  and  trees.  The  Swedish  coast  on  the  north  \h 
more  dry  and  barren.  Helsinborg  is  seen  upon  it,  with  u  large  tower,  and  terruce  covered 
with  etymon. 

Saturday  morning  the  twelfth  \vc  passed  the  south-west  side  of  the  island  of  Huanc, 
formerly  the  residence  of  Tycho  Uiahe.  Where  his  observatory  was  bitUMted,  there  is 
no  longer  any  thing  remaining  but  a  small  house. 

The  coiists  of  Sweden  and  Denmark  were  entirely  covered  with  snow,  which  fell  in 
the  night. 

The  night  l)eing  very  dark,  wc  drew  water  in  a  bucket,  but  however  much  we  dis- 
turbed it.  It  yielded  no  sparks :  wc  discovered  as  well  that  the  water  of  the  Baltic  con- 
tained very  little  salt. 

On  Monday  the  fourteenth,  from  eleven  o'clock  till  noon,  a  halo  round  the  sun  was 
seen ;  its  radius,  from  the  centre  of  the  sun  to  its  interior  circumference,  was  21  degrees 
30  minutes,  and  to  its  exterior  circumference  22  dcgrces  30  minutes.  The  external  edge 
of  the  circle  was  confused,  but  the  internal  edge  was  distinctly  marked,  at  least  towards 
the  zenith  and  the  horizon. 

The  same  day  I  took  an  elevation  at  noon,  and  found  the  latitude  55  degrees  40  mi- 
nutes.    The  pilot  found  it  no  more  than  55  dej^rees  30  minutes. 

Tuesday  the  fifteenth  the  sea  was  rruch  swollen,  although  there  was  little  wind ; 
wc  were  obliged  to  steer  as  near  to  it  iis  possible  ;  the  vessel  pitched  dreadfully. 

The  seventeenth  a  Swedish  lx)at  requested  to  accompany  us ;  but  had  great  difficulty 
to  keep  up  with  us.  As  it  was  rather  distant  behind,  M.  de  Maupertuis  desired  our 
captain  to  l)aek  sails,  and  invite  the  master  to  dine  with  us.  Our  captain  made  a  tack ; 
this  manauivre  is  extremely  simple ;  by  moving  the  rudder  the  vessel  makes  a  small  half 
circle,  which  is  described  on  the  water ;  he  then  lowered  sails,  and  waited. 

The  master  of  the  Swedish  brigantine  thanked  us. 

Another  Swedish  vessel  which  wc  spoke  accompanied  us  to  Dalheron. 

At  eleven  o'clock  saw  an  aurora  borealis,  notwithstanding  a  clear  moon  light. 

On  the  nineteenth  saw  the  tower  of  Lungsoort,  situated  on  a  point  of  land  :  the  tower 
the  farthest  advanced  is  about  six  thousand  toises  more  towards  the  south,  tlian  the  place 
where  wc  took  an  elevation  at  noon  ;  found  the  latitude  59  degrees  15  minutes. 

Our  pssage  for  the  last  four  days  delightful ;  night  and  day  we  made  a  league  an 
hour,  without  feeling  the  least  motion. 

Dalheron  is  a  large  village,  divided  in  two ;  on  the  rocks  on  both  sides  the  passage ; 
its  houses,  extremely  small,  of  wood  painted  red,  with  their  white  chimnies,  and  their 
little  glazed  windows,  offered  a  very  pleasing  spectacle. 

Near  to  Dalheron  is  a  very  handsome  country  house  on  the  shore.  As  for  the  rest, 
the  country  on  both  sides  the  Lidt,  or  bed  of  the  river  (which  is  rather  an  arm  of  the 
sea)  is  frightful,  being  nothing  but  rocks  extremely  arid,  with  a  few  very  small  firs. 

Sunday  the  twentieth  (Whitsunday)  we  followed  the  Swedish  galliot,  and  another  small 
vessel.     I  said  mass,  imd  at  the  communion  the  pilot  thundered  out  Domine,  sahitm 
fac  re^em  nostrum  Ludovictim,  in  which  he  was  joined  by  all  the  assembly.  No  night ; 
at  micliiiglit,  I  read  in  a  book  of  very  small  letters. 


\  vovAfif,  T«  riiF.  Miirrn 


26.1 


We  piuiKcl  by  a  Mn.ill  NilLi^c  oallid  I.iiulal,  and  near  to  Ou.':yoiip,  uliiic  there  U  u 
cnstic  n  mile  farther  on.  \Vc  eiUenil  a  \ii}  narrow  ^traif,  the  current  in  which  was 
rapid}  the  sallorh  went  on  shore,  to  <h'aw  the  \<:sscl  through  with  ropt*».  We  niidc 
a  naif  circle  rotiud  a  rock,  and  Coiind  oursclvLJi  U  foa'  the  <  asilc  of  Wixholin,  where  M, 
de  Maupcrtiii%  went  to  shew  his  passports  to  tlw  governor,  who  s|xjke  I'Vench.  \\'e 
iNissed  between  the  castle  and  the  vilLige,  whirli  is  still  nioiv  charn\ini(  *^'"'  ^'"''^  ^^ 
balheron.  This  village  of  Vaxholm  is  placed  on  a  rock,  fonuinj^  a  promontory  oppo- 
site  the  castle  of  V^ixholm. 

At  night,  as  the  vessil  made  but  little  way,  M.  Camus  and  myself  got  into  the  yawl 
Ix-longing  to  the  Swedish  pilot,  and  rowed  out  of  curiosity  to  some  houses  on  ihv  baiiks , 
wc  had  some  ditticully  in  regaining  the  ship. 

Monday  die  twenty-first,  at  half  past  Uiree,  wc  cute  ad  the  (xirt  of  Stockhohn  :  wc 
s;iluted  with  three  pieces  of  cannon  ;  other  vessels  arriving  saluted,  as  well :  to  which  a 
fort,  or  neighbouring  castle,  answered  several  times. 

The  visiting  of  the  vessel  being  over,  wc  landed  at  nine  o'clock,  and  met  with  Messrs. 
Monnier  and  Celsius.  I  went  with  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis  and  Camus  to  M.  de  Casteja's, 
the  French  ambassiidor  :  I  said  the  mass  of  Whit- Monday  there.  Such  it  was  in  France ; 
but  here,  with  the  Catholics  as  well  as  Lutherans,  it  was  the  Monday  uficr  the  third 
Sunday  from  Easter,  they  having  kept  Easter  five  weeks  later  than  us. 

The  protcstants  ia  Sweden  have  not  received  the  new  calendar  of  Pope  Gregory 
the  Thirteenth.  Contrary  to  rule,  thev  not  only  keep  Easter  the  second  full  moon  after 
the  ecjuincKtial  dav,  but  on  the  second  Sunday  after  the  second  full  moon.  Notwith. 
standing,  the  Catholics  conform  themselves  to  the  custom  and  stile  of  die  country,  in 
order  to  prevent  confusion  in  the  commerce  of  civil  life.  The  almoner  of  his  excellency 
the  ambassador  informed  mc  that  they  were  authorised  so  to  do  by  a  bull  of  the  Pope. 

We  had  some  employment  while  wc  remained  in  this  city  ;  fu-st,  our  baggage  was  to 
be  examined  at  the  custom-house  :  we  had  reason  to  be  pleased  with  die  custom-house 
officers ;  they  for  the  most  part  accepted  as  enough  the  declaration  which  we  made ; 
satisfied  that  they  might  rely  upon  its  truth,  they  took  pains  in  forwarding  us  immedi- 
ately on  our  arrival. 

Every  one  of  us  did  what  he  could :  M.  de  Maupertuis  was  everywhere ;  he  settled 
with  bankers  for  our  receiving  what  money  might  be  necessary ;  he  looked  out  for  re- 
commendations for  the  country  to  which  we  were  goin^,  and  means  for  transporting 
thither  boUi  ourselves  and  luggage  :  in  a  word,  he  provided  like  a  father  of  a  family 
for  the  necessities  of  a  large  piirty  that  he  was  going  to  establish,  in  an  unknown  country, 
for  an  indeterminate  time. 

M.  Le  Comtede  Casteja,  ambassador  ofFrance  at  Stockholm,  was  exceedingly  oblig- 
ing towards  us,  and  obtained  for  us  every  corrfort  that  we  could  desire.  He  told  us,  if 
he  had  had  room  enough,  he  would  not  have  suffered  us  to  remain  in  an  inn ;  and  M. 
de  Maupertuis  in  particular  he  so  strongly  solicited  to  take  a  room  at  his  house,  that  he 
could  not  deny  him. 

Wednesday  the  twenty-third,  H.  E.  the  ambassador  presented  us  to  the  king  of 
Sweden ;  after  which  we  dined  with  H.  E.  and  in  the  afternoon  were  presented  to  the 
queen,  having  the  honour  again  of  paying  our  court  to  his  majesty  :  he  shewed  us  much 
kindness,  and  spoke  to  all  ofus  in  very  good  French  :  he  told  M.  de  Maupertuis  that 
we  were  about  to  undertake  a  dreadml  voyage ;  thnt  although  he  had  been  in  many 
bloody  battles,  he  would  prefer  the  most  desperate  of  them  to  undertaking  such  a  voyage 
as  we  were  about  to  do ;  that  it  was  however  a  game  country.  He  presented  M.  de 
Maupertuis  with  a  fowUng-piece,  which  he  said  he  had  used  himself  for  a  long  time. 


^-^ 


264 


OUTHTER'S  JOURVAL  OP 


•1 


Saturday  the  t\v;,i)ty -sixth,  after  dining  with  the  ambassador,  we  went  to  see  a  ship 
launched :  afterwards  the  ab'  Hcnnegan,  one  of  the  almoncra  of  the  embassy,  accom- 
f  ?'!i:ed  nie  to  see  the  churches  of  St.  Catherine  and  St.  Nicholas,  which  are  tolera- 
IMy  imndsome. 

Sunday  the  twenty-seventh,  he  conducted  me  and  M,  de  Mauj^rtuis  to  the  church 
of  St.  Claire,  to  see  the  '  utheran  office  performed.  The  officiator  had  a  chasuble,  at 
the  back  of  which  was  a  crucifix  embroidered  in  silver :  they  sang  in  the  Swedish  lan- 
guage the  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  Credo,  Sanctus,  and  the  Pater  Noster :  several  persons 
received  the  communion,  and  returned  very  devoutly,  apparently  witli  great  self-satis- 
factioi..  Their  singing,  accompanied  by  the  organ,  appeared  to  me  very  fine.  During 
the  sermon  a  beadle  carried  a  long  cane,  with  vv^hich  he  hit  the  heads  of  such  as  were 
asleep ;  it  is  his  office  as  ivell,  in  a  large  purse,  which  he  advances  into  the  crowd  at  the 
end  of  a  long  cane,  to  coi'ect  the  alms  for  the  church. 

Another  day  we  went  to  the  Greek  office  of  the  Muscovite  schismatics,  in  a  chapel 
^vhich  they  are  allowed  to  hold  at  Stockholm.  The  congregation  consisted  of  not  more 
'ihan  a  dozen  or  fifteen  persons,  among  which  was  a  young  man  who  spoke  French  very 
well ;  he  cai'sed  us  to  enter  me  sanctu'uy,  which  is  closed.  In  entering  the  chapel  they 
make  a  number  of  reverences  to  the  holy  images,  and  tlie  rest  of  the  congregation,  and 
after  every  bow  a  sign  of  the  cross.  There  is  always  a  good  fire  in  chafing-dishes ;  the 
officiating  priest  frequently  throws  in  incense  ;  he  makes  use  of  warm  water  to  mix  with 
the  wine  in  the  chaUce.  Their  tinging  is  very  dngular ;  they  repeat  with  quickness 
certain  words,  but  so  quickly  as  to  be  almost  out  of  breath,  as  if  we  were  to  repeat  over 
and  over  Deo  gratias,  Dec  gratias,  Deo  gratias.  Their  ceremonies  are  performed  in  a 
slcvenly  manner  :  the  priest  blows  his  nose  occasionally  through  his  fingers;  in  other 
rcsijiects  they  have  a  very  devout  apparance. 

The  twenty-ninth  I  went  with  the  abbot  Hennegan  to  see  the  king's  library.  M. 
Benksilius,  the  librarian,  shewed  us  whatever  there  was  curious  :  he  made  me  a  pi-esent 
of  a  Lapland  manual,  which  is  a  prayer-book  in  the  Lapland  tongue,  telling  me  I  should 
be  the  patriarch  of  the  Laplanders. 

The  thirty- first  we  went  to  the  office  for  geographical  maps.  There  are  several  per- 
sons who  are  employed  in  arranging  f^:  geography  of  that  country  :  during  the  winter 
they  measure  over  the  ice  ;  and  iji  th*.  auuimer  they  digest  their  measurements,  and  draw 
their  maps  with  much  order  and  exa  » ;sd.  The  king  of  Sweden  had  the  goodness  to 
order  them  in  the  office  to  give  j  >  araju  of  the  coasts  of  the  Gulf  of  Botmiia,  where 
we  relied  on  making  our  expcrirutit*,  In  consequence,  a  beautiful  draft  of  the 
western  side  v;as  presented  to  as^  \'hich  we  carried  with  us:  there  was  not  before 
our  departure  sufficient  time  to  complete  the  eastern  side,  but  it  was  sent  to  us  some 
days  after. 

We  went  the  same  day  to  see  the  king's  gardei);  where  we  saw  in  green-houses  orange- 
trees,  with  oranges  on -J  ein.  We  had  before  noticed  in  other  gardens  ivy,  such  a& 
creeps  on  our  walls,  rlautrd  in  pots,  and  which  appeared  to  be  Iiighly  esteemed 

We  then  went  to  C  /-lesberg,  a  royal  palace,  and,  to  Ulriksdale,  another,  where 
thqre  is  a  tolerably  large  park,  with  plenty  of  game. 


THE  CITY  OP  STOCKHOLMi 


Stockholm  is  a  fine  and  large  city ;  all  the  houses  of  the  city,  ai:d  part  of  those  of  the 
suburbs,  are  of  stone,  well  built,  and  four  or  five  stories  high :  the  other  part  of  the 
houses  in  the  suburbs  are  of  wood ;  they  are  built  with  square  beams  placed- horizontally, 
laid  one  upon  the  other,  their  exti-emities  Tossing  at  the  angles  of  every  apartment 


UUTHIBR'S  JOUBNAL  OF 


265 


which  they  make.  These  houses  are  painted  in  red,  not  only  for  neatness  sake,  but  also 
to  preserve  them :  above  the  timber- work  planks  are  nailed,  which  are  covered  with 
birch-lxirk  first,  and  aftenvards  with  turf  or  earth.  Many  of  tlie  stone  houses  are  co- 
vered with  iron  plates,  or  wrought  iron ;  some  are  covered  with  cojjper,  others  with 
ridge  tileb.  To  some  of  their  windows  they  have  Venetian  blinds,  which  move  on  a 
pivot,  so  as  to  increase  or  diminish  light  at  pleasure. 

Every  night,  after  ten  o'clock,  a  number  of  men  parade  the  streets,  crying  or  rather 
singing  the  hour,  and  afterwards  a  kind  of  prayer ;  they  watch  as  well  to  prevent  any 
noise  or  disorder  during  the  night ;  they  are  armed  with  a  staff,  at  the  end  of  which  is 
a  machine  with  springs ;  th^  use  of  it,  to  seize  by  the  neck  or  the  leg  those  whom  they 
are  desirous  of  stopping,  or  who  insult  them,  and  it  is  impossible  to  get  loose  from  it. 

While  we  were  at  S'/nJtholm  a  fine  palace  for  the  king  was  being  constructed.  There 
arc  in  the  town  many  I:  iCtiome  and  large  churches ;  that  of  St.  Catherine  is  perfectly 
new,  and  built  witli  a  dome,  the  great  altar  of  it  is  very  handsome  :  1  noticed  there  a 
painting  of  the  Purification  of  the  Virgin,  very  well  executed.  On  one  side  of  the  altar 
IS  Hope  holding  an  anchor  :  on  the  other.  Religion  holding  a  cross  and  a  chalice.  They 
have  in  almost  all  their  churches  a  very  handsome  pulpit,  with  an  hour-glass. 

In  the  great  church  of  St.  Nicholas,  close  to  the  king's  castle,  there  is  a  large  paint- 
ing of  the  Judgment,  thirty-three  feet  high  by  twenty-two  broad.  There  is  abo  another, 
which  represents  Christ  upon  the  Cross,  all  the  circumstances  of  his  passion  being  re- 
presented in  different  basso-relievos ;  and  a  handsome  statue  of  St.  George. 

The  church  of  St.  James  is  in  the  same  taste  as  tliat  of  St.  Catherine,  new,  and  nearly 
ofthe  same  shape. 

That  of  St.  Claire  is  built  similarly  to  ours ;  it  is  beautiful  and  lai^.  The  chapel 
ofthe  Russians,  or  Greek  scliismatics,  which  is  at  the  town-house,  is  of  no  consideration, 
and  very  badly  lighted ;  nevertheless  there  are  many  figures  of  saints  gilt,  and  some 
sculpture,  but  badly  proportioned,  and  somewhat  after  the  Chinese  taste :  the  sanctuary, 
where  the  altar  is,  is  kept  shut ;  the  priest  opens  and  shuts  it  several  times,  in  jierform- 
ing  the  office.  At  Stockholm  are  many  Roman-catholics,  who  exercise  their  religion 
freely,  in  the  chap'^ls  ofH.  E.  the  French  ambassador  and  the  envoy  of  the  emperor. 

In  the  mean  time  we  thought  of  our  work,  and  of  proceeding  in  as  little  time  as 
possible  to  the  most  northern  parts  of  the  states  of  Sweden.  We  amused  jurselves  m 
looking  about  the  city,  only  when  we  could  not  occupy  ourselves  in  accelerating  our 
voyage  :  every  thing  at  length  was  ready  ;  M.  de  Maupertuis  had  made  every  necessary 
arrangement.  At  Stockholm  he  met  with  M.  D'Hegreman,  son-in-law  of  the  burgo. 
master  of  Tomeo,  a  little  town  situated  at  the  bottom  of  the  Gulph  of  Bothnia,  and 
through  him  he  had  secured  a  vessel  to  carry  our  luggage  and  instruments.  M.  de 
Maupertuis  hired  as  well  a  servant,  who  spoke  Swedish  and  French,  beades  which  H.  E. 
the  ambassador  gave  one  of  his  own ;  and  as  our  intention  was  that  the  operations 
should  be  carried  on  on  the  coasts  of  the  gulf,  his  excellency  insisted  on  our  shipping 
his  own  boat  in  the  vessel  which  carried  our  lu^age  and  instruments.  M.  Sommereux 
and  most  ofthe  servants  went  on  board,  and  sailed  on  Sunday  the  third  of  June. 

Monday  the  fourth,  after  dining  with  the  ambassador,  he  presented  us  altogether,  to 
take  leave  of  the  king  of  Sweden.  We  had  bought  two  coaches,  to  travel  from  Stock- 
holm  to  Tomeo  by  land :  M.  de  Maupertuis  set  off  in  one,  with  Messrs.  Clairaut  and 
Celsius,  on  Tuesdiay  morning  the  fifth,  to  visit  M.  le  Comte  de  Horn,  who  was  at  his 
country-house,  and  proceed  thence  to  Upsal,  where  we  were  to  meet  togedier.  M.  de 
Maupertuis  always  intended  that  we  should  have  pursued  our  route  from  Stockholm  to 
Torneo  by  sea ;  but  we  prevailed  upon  him  to  alterour  plan»  from  the  repugnance  to  the 

VOL.  I.  mm'* 


I 


1 


266 


0UTHi!ia»8  JOURNAL  OF 


•I' 

"is 

"i 

I 


sea  which  some  of  us  manifested.  It  is  true,  the  expence  of  travelling  by  land  was  not 
considerable.  Coaches  made  entirely  of  wood,  lined  with  fustian,  and  with  common 
glass  instead  of  plate,  cost  no  more  tha^^  five  hundred  livres  a  piece  ;  each  horse  in  Swe- 
den is  paid  for  after  the  rate  of  eight  sous  for  a  mile,  which  is  equal  to  two  French  leagues, 
and  in  this  manner  we  travelled  ;  this  formed  almost  all  our  expence. 

Wednesdax  the  sixth,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  set  off  in  the  second  coach, 
Messrs.  Camus,  Le  Monnier,  Herbeloi,  and  myself;  we  went  again  to  take  leave  of  the 
ambassador,  and  left  Stockholm  at  ni.jc  o'clock.  We  changed  horses  at  Rotebron,  two 
miles  off,  that  is  to  say,  nearly  four  Fnsich  leagues:  the  Swedish  mile  contains  eighteen 
thousand  Swedish  ells,  each  ell  one  foe*  ten  inches  of  French  measure.  From  Uotebron 
to  Maestrad  one  mile  and  three  quart;  ;•«  ;  from  Maestrad  to  Alsik  one  mile  and  three 
quarters :  these  are  the  names  of  the  pieces  where  we  changed  horses.  From  Alsik  is 
one  mile  and  a  half  to  Upsal,  where  we  iv-rived  at  ten  o'clock  at  night. 

It  is  seven  miles  from  Stockholm  to  Upsai,  through  a  country  filled  with  rocks  and 
small  hills,  covered  with  firs,  among  many  branches  or  sinuosities  made  by  the  river  of 
Stockholm.  We  passed  a  river  to  tlic  north  of  Alsik  in  a  flat  boat ;  and  a  little  before 
our  arrival  at  Upsal  we  entered  a  beat^^Uul  wood  of  large  firs,  traversed  by  a  road  in  a 
straight  line. 

The  roads  from  Stockholm  to  Upsal,  and  even  as  far  as  Tomeo,  are  fine,  well  kept, 
and  marked  at  every  quarter  of  a  mii?:  by  a  wooJen  post,  properly  shaped,  and  painted 
••d,  on  which  is  marked  the  number  of  miles  and  quarter  of  miles  from  Stockholm. 
Some  ancient  posts  are  found  as  well,  or  rather  pillars  of  stones ;  but  within  a  few  years 
th«*  roads  have  been  measured  by  the  pole,  and  smce  wooden  posts  have  been  placed. 
Frequently  along  these  roads  gates  are  met  with,  which  shut  in  a  most  ingenious  maimer. 
M.  de  Maupertuis  soon  after  arrived,  with  Messrs.  Clairaut  and  Celsius.  On  the 
seventh  we  all  went  together  to  see  the  governor  of  Upsal,  who  detaintu  us  to  dinner. 
At  the  end  of  the  repast  white  wine,  in  which  orange  and  sugar  were  mixed,  was  handed 
round  in  a  large  glass ;  every  one  drank  from  the  same  glass,  which  went  round  several 
times,  first  to  the  health  of  the  governor  and  his  lady,  and  afterwards  other  toasts.  After 
dinner  we  went  to  see  the  great  churcit,  which  is  the  cathedral,  the  university,  and  the 
garden  of  the  castle ;  and  all  of  us  supped  with  M.  Celsius. 

The  city  of  Upsal  is  rather  large,  most  of  its  streets  are  perfectly  straight.  Except 
the  cathedral  a\.d  seven  or  eight  houses,  which  are  of  stone,  all  the  other  buildings  are 
of  wood,  covered  with  birch-bark,  and  turf  upon  that :  there  are  only  the  houses  of  the 
governor  aqd  the  archbishop  which  are  covered  with  birch-bark  without  turf;  and 
throughout  the  remainder  of  the  road  towards  the  north  they  are  as  well  without  turf. 
On  an  eminence  to  the  south  of  tlie  city  the  castle  stands  in  ruins,  but  the  garden  is  yet 
handsome.  Looking  on  the  town  from  the  castle,  it  has  the  appearance  of  a  large  gar- 
den,  the  streets  of  which,  in  straight  lines,  sufficiently  resemble  the  alleys,  and  the  houses 
covered  with  tuif  the  squares.  A  river  passes  through  the  city,  the  water  of  which  'y 
red.  Over  diis  river  there  are  two  bridges,  suspended  to  beams  arching  from  one  side 
of  the  river  to  the  other. 

The  cathedral  is  rather  large,  but  ill  paved :  there  is  an  excellent  choir,  a  fine  altar, 
with  a  great  crucifix,  and  a  very  handsome  pulpit :  in  the  sacristy  are  ornaments  suffi- 
ciently rich,  among  others  a  suit  of  black  for  Good  Friday ;  two  chalices,  one  of  which 
is  of  gold  ;  wood  cf  the  real  cross,  on  a  great  cross  of  silver  gilt.  In  a  chapel  of  the 
cathedral  the  tomb  of  St.  Eric,  king  of  Sweden,  is  seen,  a  martyr :  both  the  tomb  and 
the  relics  are  greatly  neglected. 

In  the  university  arc  four  auditories,  or  apartments  for  teaching :  there  is  a  cabbet 


A  VOYAGE  TO  I'HE  NOUTII. 


207 


1 


of  rarities,  and  a  tolerably  good  library.     I  noticed  a  quadrant  of  Hevelias ;  it  is  ol" 
wood,  divided  into  spaces  of  ten  minutes,  four  feet  and  a  half  radius,  with  sights. 

Friday  the  eighth  we  went  to  the  archbishop's,  but  he  was  then  holding  a  consistory, 
and  we  could  not  see  him  :  M.  de  Maupertuis  returned  there  in  the  afternoon,  or  the 
next  morning,  and  held  a  long  conversation  with  him. 

If  we  had  set  off  together  we  should  frequently  have  been  delayed  at  the  stages,  where 
we  should  scarcely  have  been  able  to  meet  with  sufficient  horses  for  our  two  coaches ; 
we  therefore  took  the  precaution  of  sending  a  servant  before  on  horseback,  who  ordered 
the  horses  to  be  got  ready  for  the  first  coach,  and  this  gave  information  at  the  different 
stiiges  where  we  changed,  that  another  would  follow  in  seven  or  eight  hours,  in  order  that 
the  horses  might  be  got  ready,  and  we  arrived  the  quicker  at  Torneo. 

Messrs.  Camus,  Herbelot,  and  myself,  began  our  journey  at  five  in  the  evening  in  the 
first  coach.  M.  Meldecreutz,  a  Swede,  who  was  fond  of  geometry,  and  spoke  French, 
should  have  made  the  fourth,  and  promised  to  join  us  at  Upsal ;  he  however  did  not 
come  :  he  arrived  not  till  some  diiys  after  in  a  chaise  with  a  young  Swedish  nobleman, 
son  of  M.  de  Cederstrom,  secretary  of  state  :  this  young  nobleman,  having  a  desire  to 
see  the  country  which  we  were  going  to,  determined  to  take  the  opportunity  of  our 
expedition. 

We  found  about  half  a  mile  from  Upsal,  a  little  before  our  entrance  into  the  wood, 
a  church  and  some  ruins,  which  we  were  told  were  Old  Upsal.  We  changed  horses  at 
Hoystadt,  one  mile  and  a  quarter  from  Upsal ;  at  Laby,  one  mile  and  a  quarter  from 
Hoystadt ;  at  Yffetel,  two  miles  beyond  Laby ;  the  road  all  the  way  excellent,  but 
through  a  country  made  up  of  marshes  and  woods. 

We  arrived  at  Yffetel  a  lit'Je  before  midnight ;  we  found  some  e^s,  which  we  made 
them  boil  hard  for  us,  and  they  formed  our  supper.  We  left  it  on  Saturday  the  ninth, 
at  two  o'clock  irj  the  morning,  went  through  the  woods  as  far  as  Mehede,  a  distance  of 
two  miles  and  a  half,  and  always  through  woods  imd  low  grounds,  yet  covered  with  water, 
from  the  thawing  of  the  snow,  to  the  great  town  of  Elfskarby,  one  mile  and  a  half  beyond 
Mehede.  To  anive  at  this  town  it  was  necessar}^  we  should  pass  over  a  great  river,  which 
has  a  handsome  cataract,  where  there  are  iron  founderies,  in  a  boat.  We  left  it  at  eleven 
o'clock,  by  a  road  through  woods  of  fir,  between  lakes  and  rocks ;  having  passed  a  river 
by  the  way,  over  a  bridge,  we  arrived  at  three  in  the  afternoon  at  Geffle,  which  is  two  miles 
and  a  half  from  Elfskarby,  and  eighteen  from  Stockholm. 

Geffle  is  a  pretty  large  town ;  through  it  a  river  passes,  over  which  is  a  wooden  bridge ; 
vessels  come  up  the  river  into  the  town.  In  the  middle  of  the  town  are  seen  the  remains 
of  a  stone  castle,  which  seemed  to  have  been  somewhat  grand.  Some  of  the  houses  of 
the  town  are  of  stone,  the  remainder  of  wood,  without  turf  on  the  roof.  The  enclosure 
of  the  tovni  is  the  same  as  at  Stockholm ;  and  at  Upsal  is  a  pallisado,  with  very  neat 
wooden  gates ;  it  encloses  several  large  gardens ;  by  the  remains  of  the  church  which  was 
burnt,  it  appears  to  have  been  of  size. 

"'  We  found  a  good  inn  at  Geffle.  After  dinner  we  went  to  the  governor's,  who  was 
absent :  we  begged  his  secretary  to  forward  orders  for  our  obtaining  post-horses,  and  set 
off  at  six  in  the  evening,  before  the  coach  of  M  de  Maupertuis  arrived. 

After  half  a  league  of  open  country,  we  at-jain  met  with  woods  atid  rocks,  as  far  as 
Troye,  a  mile  and  a  half  distant,  where  finding  fresh  horses,  we  went  on,  through  a 
marshy  and  woody  country,  toHamrung,  one  mile  and  three  quarters  farther:  we  arrived 
there  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  We  soon  afit  i  sigain  set  off;  we  passed  through  veiy 
thick  woods  for  the  space  of  r-ix  French  leagues,  in  the  midst  of  which  arc  some  houses, 
oti  the  banks  of  the  river  Liusna,  which  vire  crossed  in  9  boat ;  farther  on  we  crossed 

uu2 


If 


m 

iifl 

m 


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268 


OUTHIER'8  JOURNAL  OP 


another ;  afterwards  we  continued  our  route  between  lakes  on  the  right  and  left,  and 
arrived  at  Skoog,  a  three  mile  stage,  at  five  in  the  morning.  This  night  the  gnats 
plagued  us  greatly  :  to  get  quit  of  them,  we  were  obliged  to  draw  up  the  glasses  of  the 
coach,  when,  the  weather  being  extremely  hot,  we  were  nearly  suffocated :  this  incon- 
venience, however,  was  more  tolerable  than  the  gnats. 

As  it  was  Sunday,  the  tenth,  we  could  not  obtain  horses  until  the  people  returned 
from  church ;  we  consequently  threw  ourselves  on  beds  to  take  some  rest,  having  first 
eaten  some  bread  and  cheese  which  we  took  with  us ;  for  in  general  we  could  meet  with 
nothing  to  eat,  sometimes  eggs  and  milk,  but  the  milk  mostly  sour ;  they  make  it  sour 
immediately  upon  milking  the  cows.  When  the  good  people  we  travelled  among  had 
any  thing  to  give  us,  they  gave  it  most  willingly  ;  and  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  insist, 
before  diey  could  be  persuaded  to  receive  for  it.  Every  thing  there  is  cheap,  and  our 
liberality  astonished  them. 

The  post.master  is  not  obliged  to  keep  more  than  one  horse  in  the  stable :  when 
several  are  wanted,  he  informs  the  individuals  of  his  neighbourhood,  who  go  to  the 
woods  to  seek  theirs.  These  individuals,  sometimes  as  m^^ny  as  three,  came,  bring^g 
their  horses ;  one  mounted  the  coach-box,  another  one  of  the  horses,  and  at  times  they 
ran  on  foot  a  great  length  of  way.  It  is  the  rule  to  pay  them  eight  sous  per  horse  per 
mile ;  for  the  drivers,  we  paid  them  twice  or  three  times  as  much  as  the  people  of  the 
country  are  wont  to  do,  which  was  very  trifling.  If  we  ^ve  them  eight  sous  for  two 
or  three  miles,  they  were  surprised  at  our  generosity  ;  they  took  us  by  the  hand,  with 
an  air  of  joy  and  friendship,  exclaiming:  "  For  myck,  tak  myn  herr;"  you  give  too 
much,  thank  you,  sir. 

After  reposing  ourselves  a  little,  we  set  off  at  one  in  the  afternoon :  the  road  still 
through  woods ;  some  lakes  and  mountains  are  seen.  We  passed  in  a  boat  by  rowing 
across  a  river,  and  arrived  at  half  past  four  at  Soderella,  two  m^'es  from  Skoog. 

From  Soderella  we  went  to  Noralla,  one  mile  off:  between  these  places  we  passed  by 
Soderham,  famous  in  Sweden  for  its  musquets. 

From  Noralla  we  proceeded  two  miles  and  a  half  through  woods,  wherein  were 
marshes,  and  here  and  there  some  houses,  and  arrived  at  Upang^  at  eleven  o'clock, 
leaving  it  at  midiiight.  One  Swedish  mile  farther  on,  on  v.he  eleventh,  we  entered  a  more 
pleasing  country,  but  more  mountainous :  there  are  lakes,  and  a  river  which  works  a 
considerable  forge,  near  to  which  is  a  handsome  house,  close  to  the  post-house  of  Eksun- 
da,  one  mile  and  a  half  distant  from  Upange. 

We  left  Eksunda  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  at  a  mile  distance  parsed  close 
to  Hudswikstvald,  without  entering  it ;  it  is  a  town  of  a  neat  appearance ;  it  had  two 
steeples,  and  a  town-house  with  a  kind  of  dome ;  tlie  town  is  situated  4t  the  bottom  of 
the  gulf. 

A  little  farther,  that  is  to  say,  one  mile  and  three  quarters  from  Eksunda,  we  took  fnesh 
horses  at  the  post-house  of  Sand,  and  again  others,  three  quarters  of  a  mite  farther,  nt 
Weista :  these  two  latter  places  are  situated  in  a  fine  country,  of  vaUies  abounding  with 
barley  and  rye. 

From  Weista  we  went  on  to  Hermongar,  one  mile  and  three  quarters  off,  always  amcMig 
woods.  For  the  first  time  on  the  ro«  \  we  saw  a  rein-deer,  which  shepherds  were  guard- 
ing, and  which  appeared  very  tame.  Leaving  Hcrn\o>\gur  we  passed  a  river ;  all  the  way 
was  lined  with  woods  of  birch,  for  one  mile  and  a  half,  to  Unarp,  which  we  reached  lit 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

We  waited  there  for  M.  de  Maupertuis,  who  arrived  at  nine  in  the  evening.  White 
waiting  for  him  we  dined  and  slept,  and  departed  at  ten  o'clock,  leaving  our  companioQS 


by 


!ih 
at 


lit 


T 


A  VOYAOE  TO  THK  NORTH. 


269 


in  the  second  coach  to  take  their  rest  in  their  turn.  Almost  ahvays  MOods  of  fir ;  \vv 
passed  through  a  hamlet,  crossed  a  torrent,  and  at  last  a  great  river,  over  a  bridge,  at  the 
end  of  which  is  the  post-house  of  Niuronda,  t*vo  miles  and  three  quarters  from  Gnarp. 
Messrs.  de  Cederstrom  and  Meldeorcutz  joined  us  here. 

At  six  in  the  morning  oi  ..  v.esday  the  twelfth,  after  going  one  mile  and  a  half,  we 
arrived  at  the  little  town  of  Sundswald,  very  prettiiy  situated  at  the  bottom  of  a  small 
gulf,  where  vessels  come  up :  the  church  and  the  town-house  have  a  very  neat  appear- 
ance, as  well  as  the  houses  themselves.  We  piissed  a  great  river,  a  quiu'ter  of  a  mile 
before  we  came  to  it,  and  a  small  one  on  leaving  it,  which  empties  itself  into  the  gulf. 
We  asked  for  bread,  and  were  told  there  was  none.  There  is  no  post-house  in  this  town, 
wherefore  we  went  on,  with  the  same  horses,  one  mile  farther,  to  Dinguelstadt,  two  miles 
and  a  half  from  Gnarp. 

We  left  Dinguelstadt  at  eight  o'clock,  and,  through  roads  mountainous  and  full  of 
sinuosities,  came  to  the  great  river  of  Lindal :  we  passed  in  a  bark  the  two  branches 
which  it  forms  on  different  sides  of  an  island ;  and  after  landing  we  chan  i;ed  horses  at 
Fiahl,  one  mile  and  a  quarter  from  Dinguelstadt. 

At  noon  we  quitted  Fialil,  going  through  woods  of  birch,  and  at  three  o'clock  arrived 
at  Marck,  one  mile  and  seven-eighths  distant ;  we  dined  there  and  left  it  at  seven  o'clock. 
We  met  now  with  an  unequal  country,  but  in  which  were  fine  vallies,  intermixed  with 
lakes ;  mid- way  passed  a  river,  and  got  to  Skoog  by  ten  o'clock,  one  mile  and  three 
quarters  from  Marck. 

We  were  now  near  Hemosand,  and  passed  by  the  country-house  of  its  bishop.  M.  de 
Maupertuis  afterwards  informed  us  that  he  went  to  sleep  there,  and  received  at  his  hands 
every  marie  of  poiiteness.  M.  de  Cederstrom,  his  relation,  told  us  as  well  he  would  have 
been  much  gratified  to  have  seen  us. 

\V  e  left  Skoog,  on  the  thirteenth,  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and  towards  midnight 
arrived  at  the  borders  of  a  gulf,  into  which  the  great  river  Angcran  empties  itself.  It 
blew  fresh ;  the  boatmen  advised  us  not  to  go  over  with  the  coach ;  they  joined  two  boats 
leather,  fastening  them  well ;  they  placed  the  two  hind  wheels  of  the  coach  farthest  from 
the  shore,  making  them  run  on  planks,  and  afterwards  the  two  fore  ones  in  the  other,  and 
got  over  by  dint  of  rowing,  being  ill-favoured  by  the  wind,  which  had  much  to  work 
upon  in  the  coach .  ve  were  obliged  to  use  the  same  means  in  the  passage  of  several  other 
rivers  on  the  road.  After  the  coach  was  landed,  they  returned  to  pass  us  over ;  this 
maroruvre  cost  us  nearly  three  hours. 

On  landing  we  met  with  horses  ready  for  us  on  the  banks  at  Veyda,  and  at  four  in  the 
mormng  we  reached  Skullerstadt,  three  quarters  of  a  mile  from  Veyda,  and  one  mile  and 
five-eighths  fix)m  Skoog.  We  slept  at  Skullerstadt,  and  did  sot  leave  it  till  eleven  o'clock ; 
tlie  roads  were  very  crooked,  and  over  higli  mountains,  th  vallies  of  which  are  mostly 
lakes,  or  arms  of  the  sea.  We  went  tv^o  miles  and  a  half  farther,  and  arrived  at  four  in 
the  aftemx>n  at  Saltzoker,  thence  over  mountains  to  Essya,  five-eighths  of  a  mile  from 
it :  we  found  there  flat  bread,  in  the  form  of  cakes,  which  v/as  good,  as  well  as  the 
milk  and  butler i  fo-  a  long  time  wc  had  not  forcd  so  well.  The  country  still  full  of 
mountains,  but  the  best  we  had  seen  since  we  left  Upsal.  The  vallies  end  in  lakes,  or 
gulfs ;  but  there  are  many  fields  sowed  with  buley  and  rye.  We  quitted  Essya  at  six 
o'clock,  and,  on  account  of  the  mountains,  did  not  arrive  at  Dokstat,  although  no  more 
than  a  mile  distant,  until  nine.  We  could  have  embarked  our  coach  in  boats  at  Saltzoker, 
and  passed  by  water  to  Di^stait  j  it  was  proposed  to  us,  but  would  liave  given  us  too 
muchtroul^. 


'fr« 


»'& 


'W   --J   •'* 


t      v"' 


270 


OUTIIIER'8  JOURMAL  OV 


At  a  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond  Dokstat  wc  p;tssed  undei  mou  it  Skula ;  above  we 
Ijcrccived  the  entrance  of  an  apparently  inaccessible  cavern  ;  we  werj  told,  however,  that 
people  had  entered  it,  and  that  it  was  very  white  inside.  We  travellv'd  between  the  sea, 
which  was  east  of  us,  and  this  mountain,  which  is  nothing  but  one  prodigious  rock. 
The  country  continually  mountainous,  but  the  roads  much  beiter.  Wc  arrived  the 
fourteenth,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  Biestadt,  two  mi'cs  frcm  Dokstadt.  We 
waited  here  for  M.  de  Maupertuis,  who  came  up  with  us,  together  with  Messrs.  Clairaut, 
Le  Mon'iier,  and  Celsius,  at  half  past  five.  M.  de  Cederstrom,  with  M.  Meldecreutz, 
airived  nearly  at  the  same  time.  M.  Hcrbelot  staid  behind,  to  follow  in  M.  Cederstrom. 's 
chaise  ;  and  M.  Meldecreutz  occupied  his  place  in  the  coach,  which  carried  M.  Camus 
and  myself. 

We  set  off  at  six  in  the  morning,  meeting  with  many  mountains  and  woods,  and  after 
travelling  a  mile  arrived  at  the  post-hou^e  of  Hoonas.  We  left  it  at  ten  o'clock ;  many 
mountains,  the  vallics  of  which  were  fertile,  frequently  lakes  and  gulfs  ;  we  passed  over 
one  by  a  bridge,  and  arrived  at  Brostadt,  a  mile  and  one  eighth  from  Hoonas. 

As  all  their  moveable  feasts  were  four  weeks  behind,  they  were  now  keeping  Ascen- 
sion Day,  and  we  could  not  obtain  horses  till  one  in  the  afternoon.  We  were  twice  obliged 
to  have  some  parts  of  our  coach  mended,  and  M.  de  Maupertuis  overtook  us.  Al^e.* 
proceeding  a  mile,  we  crossed  a  large  and  rapid  river  over  a  bridge  ;  the  water  of  it  was 
red,  the  case  with  the  most  part  of  the  rivers  of  this  country  ;  we  crossed  a  second  by  a 
bridge  called  Husa,  a  little  while  before  we  reached  Onska,  two  miles  and  three  quarters 
from  the  last  post-house. 

We  arrived  at  Onska  nearly  all  together ;  a  man  came  to  inform  us  that  M.  Somme- 
reux  and  our  luggige  was  at  anchor  about  three  leagues  from  us.  M.  de  Maupertuis 
went  first  in  his  coach  ;  one  of  our  servants  driving  him,  on  going  down  fix)m  Onska 
CiV»r  *he  peasants  of  this  country  do  not  understand  driving)  ran  the  coach  against  the  gate, 
and  broke  the  shafts,  which  obliged  him  to  return  to  the  post-house  to  have  them  mend- 
ed ;  and  as  we  were  still  together,  M.  de  Maupertuis,  tired  of  the  inconveniences  of  tra- 
velling by  land,  took  horse,  and  joined  the  ship.  M.  de  Cederstrom  in  '•ur  coach  took 
the  place  of  M.  de  Meldecreutz,  who  remained  at  Onska,  to  wait  for  M.  Sommereux, 
who  M.  de  Maupertuis  was  to  send  back  from  the  vessel. 

The  fifteenth  we  journeyed  for  two  miles  through  woods  of  fir  and  birch,  and  by  mid- 
night came  to  the  post-house  of  Afwa,  and  one  mile  and  a  half  farther  to  that  of  Lafwar. 
Thence  to  Sodermiola  was  three  miles  and  three  quarters,  and  two  miles  and  a  quarter 
from  Sodermiola  to  Rodbek  ;  we  passed  entirely  through  forests  of  fir  and  birch,  over 
very  sandy  roads,  with  now  and  then  a  lake. 

Rodbek  is  a  fine  and  large  village,  at  the  west  of  a  great  plain  or  meadow,  interspersed 
with  a  number  of  small  sheds  for  housing  the  hay.  In  this  village  there  is  very  good 
water,  said  to  be  mineral.  We  changed  horses  at  Rodbek,  which  is  only  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  distant  from  the  town  of  Uhma ;  we  crossed  a  part  of  this  great  plain,  and  passed  in 
a  boat  the  river  of  Uhma,  where  we  arrived  at  half  past  five  in  the  evening ;  the  second 
coach  followed  us  very  closely. 

The  city  of  Uhma,  sixty-eight  miles  one  eighth  from  Stockholm,  is  no  otherwaj-s 
handsome  than  from  its  situation  on  a  river  of  the  same  name,  wide  as  the  Seine,  at  Pans, 
and  on  which  the  vessels  come  up  to  the  houses.  There  are  four  streets  in  a  straight 
line,  running  from  east  to  west,  and  parallel  with  the  river  :  tliey  are  crossed  by  several 
others  north  and  south.  At  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  city  is  a  great  square,  in  which 
is  the  church  :  on  Sundays  and  holidavs  there  are  numbers  of  men  with  halberts  in  the 
city,  to  prevent  noise  and  disorder.     And  further  on  towards  the  north,  in  every  parbh  in 


A  VOYAGl*.  10  THE  .VOmii. 


271 


the  country,  there  is  a  lansiman,  that  is,  a  man  to  whom  the  governor  addresses  all 
orders  ibr  the  pul)lic  service ;  in  lovviis  he  is  called  a  biirg(Mnaster. 

I'he  prospect  of  the  neighbourhood  is  plia-^ing ;  it  consists  of  large  plains,  full  of 
small  houses  or  sheds  for  hay,  ijcyond  \vhii:h  arc  the  mountains,  rather  elevated  ;  half  a 
mile  from  die  city  to  ''"'  east,  on  the  norlliern  side  of  the  river,  is  the  house  of  die 
governor  of  the  province,  built  endrely  of  wood,  nevertheless  very  liandsonie  for  that 
country  ;  people  were  at  work  in  making  large  gardens,  sufliciently  pretty. 

It  having  been  noised  aijout  in  the  city  that  some  Frenchmen  were  to  arrive  there,  >x 
number  of  persons  had  collected  to  see  us.  M.  Clairaut  arrived  with  the  second  eoae!i, 
the  care  of  which  M.  de  Maupertuis  h.id  left  to  him  ;  we  supped  together  in  a  good  inn, 
and  met  with  wine  :  at  half  past  ten,  Messrs.  Camus,  Celsius,  Herbelotand  myself  iet 
off;  M.  Clairaut  with  the  coach  waited  for  Monsieur  Sommereux,  and  to  hear  of  thi 
embarkation  of  M.  de  Miiupertuis. 

Leaving  Uhma  we  met  with  nothing  but  Helds,  with  some  valleys,  for  the  space  ofa 
mile,  and  arrived  at  Taffley  by  midnight :  thence  still  the  same  country  :  we  passed  a 
river,  and  Ix'yond  it  found  a  camp,  consisting  of  t^vo  companies  only  ;  they  exclaimed, 
in  German,  war  das ;  M.  Celsius  answered,  goth  wan ;  that  is  to  say,  a  good  friend. 
The  sixteenth  we  changed  horses  at  Saswaar,  one  mile  and  three  eighths  from  Taffley, 
and  again  entered  woods,  which  continued  one  mile  and  seven  eighths  to  Diekneboda. 
About  a  mile  farther,  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  came  to  the  village  of  Bygdo  ; 
we  saw  there  an  arch  formed  by  two  trees  from  thirty  to  forty  feet  high,  from  which  is 
suspended  a  kind  of  eii'cle  made  of  branches ;  here  the  troops  exercise  themselves  in 
throwing  hand  grenades.  We  did  not  change  horses  at  Bygdo,  the  post-house  was  at 
Riklera,  a  little  farther,  one  mile  and  three-eighths  from  Diekneboda ;  from  thence  we 
went  on  to  Gamboda,  through  a  pleasant  country,  the  same  distance  of  one  mile  and  three 
eighths.  Afterwards  higher  mountains  succeeded,  one  in  particular  which  extends  a 
great  way  from  north  to  south,  at  the  bottom  of  whicii  is  a  lake :  we  passed  this  moun- 
tain in  an  oblique  dii-ection,  and  arrived  at  noon  at  Grimmersmack,  one  mile  and  one 
eighth  distant ;  we  left  it,  without  waiting,  and  travelling  through  a  similar  road,  came  by 
a  beautiful  valley,  between  two  lakes,  to  the  post-house  of  Selet,  one  mile  from  the  former. 
We  met  here  with  good  fish,  and  dinR(i ;  they  asked  next  to  nothing  for  our  dinner,  and 
when  we  offered  them  more,  made  some  difficulty  in  accepting  it. 

It  was  two  in  the  afternoon  when  we  arrived  at  Selet ;  we  left  it  at  four  o'clock ;  we 
passed  a  river,  over  a  bridge,  between  two  lakes  ;  soon  after  another ;  then  succeeded  a 
flat  counUy,  and  fine  woods  of  fir,  as  far  as  the  post-house  of  Dagbostadt,  one  eighth  of 
a  mile  off;  Thence  through  woods  of  fir  for  one  mile  and  a  half,  when  we  reached 
Burea.  We  left  this  place  at  seven  o'clock,  and  shortly  after  passed  a  river,  then 
tf.rough  a  long  valley,  in  which  runs  a  large  river,  on  the  banks  of  which  we  left  our. 
horses  at  Simmanasin,  which  is  divided  from  Sialefstadt  only  by  the  river,  which  we 
passed  in  a  boat.  From  Burea  to  Sialefstadt  two  miles ;  it  was  midnight,  on  the 
seventeenth,  when  we  landed ;  we  did  not  go  into  Sialefstadt,  which  is  a  large  town  ; 
we  found  horses  near  the  church,  to  the  west  of  the  village ;  the  iansiman  had  been  in- 
formed  of  our  coming,  and  many  were  collected,  waiting  to  see  us.  At  first  they  put 
horses  to  our  coach  which  did  nothing  but  rear,  not  knowing  how  to  draw.  We  had 
others  haniessed  to,  and  when  about  to  depart,  the  countryman  who  was  to  drive  us 
was  much  puzzk^d  where  to  place  himself,  and,  after  considering  some  time,  at  last 
clapped  himself  in  the  boot,  where  we  could  scarce  perceive  him,  which  diverted  us 
highly.  We  slept  without  fear,  all  four  of  us,  during  a  great  part  of  the  way,  notwith- 
standing the  bad  coacliman  we  had,  and  the  horses  which  drew  us  having  been  just 


\ 


1 


1 


.'  I'll, 


272 


OTTIIIEH'S  JOURNAL  Ok' 


\ 


cuiight  ill  the  woods,  and  which  were  very  little  suited  to  coaches,  and  that  through 
immense  forests,  and  sumciimcs  deserts,  where  for  four  or  five  miles  not  u  huu^c  wus 
to  be  seen. 

\Vv  at  lengtl  set  off;  travelled  through  a  tolerably  fine  country,  and  crossi-d  two 
rivers  by  bridges,  and  arrived  at  Vraskager,  one  mile  and  a  half  farther,  at  diree  o'clock 
in  die  morning;  we  left  it  :i|jain  inunediately ;  die  road  was  perfectly  level,  ihmugh 
forests  of  fir  and  birclt,  intermixed  with  marshes.  We  passed  a  Itundsotne  and  htrgc 
river  called  Dusti  '  ir  o\  lock,  whereat  the  coach  was  put  in  two  boats ;  same  road, 
level  and  amid  Wi  >  Abyn,  two  milts  and  a  quarter  distant.     We  arrived  there  at 

seven  o'clock ;  atw  .  aids  we  passed  a  river  over  a  bridge  of  wood  (in  this  ( ountry 
there  are  none  of  stone.)  We  tncn  had  a  very  even  roiid,  amid  woods  of  fir  and  marshes, 
but  very  sandy,  and  in  which  we  liad  much  trouble  to  get  on,  so  that  we  did  not  arrive 
at  Geffre,  no  more  than  seven-eighths  of  a  mile  distant,  l)cfoie  eleven  o'clock.  The 
valley  of  Geffre  is  sufficiently  pretty ;  one  of  its  extremities  reaches  to  the  sea  to  the  south- 
east, and  at  the  other  is  a  lake,  through  which  the  river  runs.  A  number  of  houses  arc 
dispersed  about,  and  a  great  quantity  of  land  is  under  cultivation.  We  passed  the  river, 
and  after  riding  two  leagues,  over  an  even  but  sandy  ro^d,  amid  woods,  we  perceived  a 
handsome  common,  well  cultivated,  with  two  hamlets:  yet  some  woods,  and  a  sandy 
road,  till  \  e  came  to  the  great  river  Pithea,  which  we  passed  in  a  boat  at  four  in  the 
afternoon,  and  arrived  at  Pithea,  two  miles  and  a  quarter  from  Gefl're. 

It  is  the  ancient  Pithea,  which,  besides  a  large  village  built  round  about  the  church, 
comprises  a  great  number  of  houses,  dispersed  in  a  beautiful  meadow,  on  the  borders  of 
some  lakes  contiguous  to  the  sen.  and  the  great  river,  which  is  rather  an  arm  of  the  sea. 
New  Pithea,  or  the  town,  is  a  French  league  from  it ;  we  saw  it  on  our  return. 

The  eighteenth  we  dined,  and  stopped  at  Pithea  till  Monday  morning.  M.  de 
Cederstrom  and  Meldecreutz  arrived  at  two  in  the  morning,  their  chaise  much  damaged. 
M.  de  Clairaut  came  shortly  after  with  his  coach.  As  soon  as  these  gendemen  had 
breakfasted,  we  were  desirous  of  going  on,  but  had  to  seek  M.  Celsius,  who  had  gone 
to  sleep  at  the  clergyman's,  or  rector  of  the  parish,  at  some  distance  from  the  inn.  M. 
Clairaut  and  myself  went  to  look  for  him,  but  neither  of  us  knew  where  he  lived.  We 
knocked  at  the  door  of  a  seemingly  genteel  house,  imagining  it  to  be  that  of  the  clergy, 
man :  although  M.  Clairaut  already  knew  something  of  the  language,  he  could  not 
make  the  servant  understand  him,  and  we  were  going  further  at  hazard,  when  the 
master  of  the  house,  who  was  the  judge  of  the  place,  came  out,  and  said  to  us  in  French, 
qui  demandez  vous,  Messaeurs?  (What  do  you  wish.  Gentlemen.)  We  were  bath  sur- 
prised and  pleased :  he  politely  accompanied  us  to  the  house  of  the  clergymw,  which 
was  some  way  off.  M.  Celsius  returned  with  us,  and  set  off  in  the  first  coach  with 
M.  Camus,  M,  Le  Monnier,  who  took  the  place  of  M.  Herbelot,  and  myself.  M. 
Clairaut  and  M.  Sommereux  reposed  themselves  a  little,  and  afterwards  set  off  in  their 
coach,  with  M.  Cederstrom  and  Herbelot. 

It  was  eight  o'clock  when  we  left  Pithea,  and  after  a  mile  and  seven-eighUis,  through 
woods  intermingled  with  fields  and  lakes,  we  arrived  at  Roswik  by  noon ;  thence 
travelling  on,  we  passed  a  bridge  over  a  river,  and  after  going  up  hill  for  a  long  time 
in  the  woods,  we  descended  into  a  beautiful  plain,  and  arrived  at  two  o'clock  at  Emas, 
one  mile  and  an  eighth  from  Roswik.  Leaving  Emas,  .we  passed  an  arm  of  the  sea, 
which  looked  like  a  marsh,  and  afterwards,  through  woods  <rf"  fir,  to  a  river,  which  vre 
crossed  in  a  boat  about  five  o'clock.  After  passing  this  river,  in  a  wood  of  fir  we  had 
a  very  bad  and  sandy  road  to  get  through ;  when  we  passed  the  river,  our  two  coaches 
were  together :  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Celsius,  and  some  others,  weiAinaboattoIaiUea:  M. 


tmit 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


973 


itommereux  and  myself  continued  unr  route  l)y  land  with  the  coaches,  and  arrived  there 
at  seven  o'clock  in  the  evcnin|3;.  This  place  is  called  Lullea  gammal  Htadt,  that  into  say, 
Lullea  the  old  town ;  it  is  a  largi-  place  built  about  the  church  ;  tluri'  are  streets  in  it, 
as  in  a  town,  but  without  being  burn)undcd  by  palisades.  New  Lullea  is  a  town,  a  good 
league  from  it  on  the  sea  shorc,  which  ue  did  not  see  from  tlrnas  to  LuUcu,  a  ntile  and 
a  quarter. 

On  Quitting  I^ullca,  wc  entered  a  country  much  diversified  by  woods,  marshes,  and 
fine  fields,  well  cultivated.  After  passing  a  large;  collection  of  water  over  a  bridge,  at 
a  mile  and  a  half  from  Lullea,  wc  reached  the  pcjst-house  of  Porseon,  situated  in  delight- 
ful meadows.  Wc  left  it  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night ;  passing  the  plain,  wc  went  up  hill, 
through  a  wood  :  from  this  eminence  we  saw  the  sun  entire,  although  it  wanted  but  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  of  midnight.  M.  Le  Monmcr  and  myself  climbed  up  trees  ;  we 
wished  much  to  sec  the  sun  at  midnight,  and  wouh'  -gladly  have  waited,  but  we  could 
not  hold  out  against  the  gnats,  which  plagued  us  to  death  :  continuing  our  route,  wc 
descended  into  a  valley,  and  lost  the  sun.  The  country  continued  covered  with  woods 
of  fir  and  birch,  and  marshes,  and  after  a  mile  and  a  half,  we  passed  a  great  river  in  a 
boat,  to  get  to  Raunea,  where  we  arrived  the  nineteenth,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  mom- 
ing,  and  by  a  similar  road  at  Huitathn,  a  mile  and  a  quarter  beyond.  For  there  we  passed 
two  bridges,  over  watery  marshes,  and  reached  Toreby  at  eight  o'clock,  distant  a  mile  and 
five  eighths  ;  we  passed  through  great  woods  by  a  mountainous  and  unequal  country. 
It  was  nearly  noon  when  wc  found  ourselves  on  the  bank  of  a  great  river,  which  forms 
a  lake,  from  which  it  issu(  s  with  rapidity.  On  both  sides  the  river  the  country  is  well 
cultivated,  with  some  houses ;  till  two  o'ck>ck  we  followed  the  course  of  its  southern  bank, 
and  after  two  miles  riding  we  crossed  it  in  a  boat,  to  arrive  at  Calix  :  M.  Celsius  and 
iome  others  of  our  party  went  to  the  clergyman's,  or  rector's,  called  in  Swedish 
Kyrckher. 

'  From  Calix  we  set  off  at  four  o'clock,  ulwiiyi  through  woods,  with  bad  and  sandy 
roads.  The  servant  which  we  had  with  us,  tim  wrcftt  before,  sent  us  horses  to  llic 
middle  of  the  wood,  and  we  changed  after  liaviiiff  gone  a  mile.  We  walked  another 
mile,  passed  between  two  lakes,  and  ( iuni  »(»  a  IIHIe  tWtc,  just  before  a  village  cidled 
Sangis,  wliere  tliere  are  some  well  tulllvnl*  il  li<  M  ,  m  Is  gtJii  rally  the  case  round  about 
the  villages  and  hainifffi  tf  thf*  rountry,  wituli  ttii  t^ver  near  tlie  banks  of  some  river, 
or  the  shores  of  some  gulf. 

At  Sangis  we  crossed  in  a  boat  a  latge  ti  I  ||{|fk  li  vjth  which  we  travelled 

for  a  mile  iKtween  lakes,  thioiitfh  n  rT|oiiii(Hiii  '  d  by  marshes,  as 

far  as  Sanhiwitz,  where  we  arrived  iif     I'-  i      i   i.t^^i...     We  yet  continued 

among  woods  and  marshes,  crossed  two  liiui^  ill  rivers ;  then  an  arm  of  the 


sea  in  a  boat,  at  two  o'clock  (Hi  the  f  \ventieth,  and  a  similar  at  four :  yet  some  woods 
and  marshes ;  after  which  we  arrived  at  Hm  1 1,  uprni  the  shore  of  the  gulf,  formed 
by  the  river  Torneo,  at  five  o'clock,  two  m^  «i!i  from  Sanliiwitz,  and  one  hundred 

and  seven  miles  and  three  eighths  from  StocklKiim. 

We  passed  this  gulf  with  oui  coa(  lw:s  by  lipats,  to  go  to  Torneo,  where  we  reckoned 
on  taking  up  our  quarters ;  but  having  learnca  that  M.  Piping,  burgomaster  of  the  town, 
lived  near  the  bottom  of  the  (iulf  at  Martila,  in  his  house  called  Nara,  we  did  not  go 
down  to  the  town,  but  went  io  the  same  boat  to  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  and  entered 
the  house  of  M.  Piping  who  had  been  informed  of  our  journey  by  M.  D'Hegreman, 
lus  son-in-law,  a  merchant  of  Stockholm,  and  in  consequence  prepared  apartments  for 
us.  M.  Clairaut  and  those  who  were  in  his  coach  arrived  soon  after  us.  We  were  all 
very  much  fatigued,  aoKl  rested     -rsdves  during  Wednesday  and  Thursday.     It  was 


."M 


VOL.    I. 


N    N 


't! 


274 


oimrren'i  JoimxAi.  or 


the  day  of  the  summer  solstice,  on  the  twcnty-fimt,  a  season  when  in  this  cmmtry  the 
sun  is  seen  passing  the  mcridiut)  ut  midnight,  in  the  nodh.  Wc  looked  Tor  this  si^htt 
but  in  vain ;  the  vapours  with  which  the  horizon  was  overcharged  hindered  us, 
ChtU'lcstlu;  Eleventh,  king  of  Sweden,  incited  by  the  same  desire,  purposely  undertook, 
a  voyajjc  from  Stockholm  to  Tomco,  to  sec  it ;  he  was  more  fortunate  than  us,  for 
getting  mto  the  lx:lfry,  he  saw  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  diameter  of  the  sun,  at  midnight. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  had  made  a  fortunate  voyage ;  he  had  seen,  froni  sea,  the  sun 
duritjg  a  whole  night,  at  leitst  a  part  of  its  disk.  He  arrived  at  Tomeo  nearly  two  days 
before  us,  and  found  there  M.  Gullingrip,  governor  of  the  province,  who  was  going 
into  Lapland.  M.  dc  Mauiiertuis  did  not  hesitate  to  accompany  him,  impatient  to  exa- 
mine the  country ;  he  went  as  far  as  Oswer  Tomco,  and  ascended  mount  Avasaxa, 
to  sec  if  he  could  not  draw  some  advantage  for  the  observations  from  the  mountains. 
He  did  not  choose  to  go  farther,  wishing  to  be  at  Tomeo  against  our  arrival.  We  had 
thci)leasurc  of  seeing  him  there,  and  of  meeting  altogether  on  Thursday  evening. 

The  twenty-second  M.  Duriez,  lieutenant  colonel  of  the  regiment  of  Westro-Bothnia, 
was  then  at  Tornco.  Wc  went  altogether  on  Friday  to  visit  him,  at  a  somewhat  elegant 
house  which  he  had  at  Hapaniemi ;  he  treated  us  with  great  civility,  and  during  our 
stay  ir>  the  country  wc  saw  him  frequently.  There  were  only  two  persons  in  Tomeo 
who  spoke  French,  M.  Duriez,  and  a  young  man,  whom  the  governor  pointed  out  to 
M.  dc  Maupertuis,  and  who  served  us  for  an  interpreter. 

From  Hapaniemi  we  went  to  the  town :  we  ascended  the  balcony  of  the  town- 
house,  to  observe  the  neighlx)urhood ;  for  we  thought  of  nothing  but  finding  situations 
proper  to  form  a  succession  of  triangles.  M.  de  Maupertuis,  on  his  joumcy  to  Oswer 
Tomeo,  and  from  the  summit  of  Avasaxa,  had  seen  some  mountains,  which  appeared 
advantageous  to  our  purpose  ;  but  he  noticed  that  the  greater  part  of  these  mountains 
were  near  to  each  other,  and  covered  with  trees.  .  .     ,  .•,  '.  >  vr» 

We  employed  Saturday  and  Sunday  in  visiting  the  neighbourhood  of  Tomeo,  and  in 
deliberation  on  the  measures  most  proper  to  adopt  for  the  success  of  our  operations. 
At  length  we  resolved  on  going  to  visit  the  coast  of  Ostro-Bothnia,  and  the  islands  along 
that  coast.  We  no  longer  thought  of  the  coast  of  Westro-Bothnia,  since  M.  de  Mau- 
pertuis informed  us,  that,  coming  by  sea,  he  had  noticed  it,  and  that  both  the  coast  and 
islands  were  nearly  level  with  the  water,  and  covered  with  wood. 

M.  Camus,  Sommereux,  and  myself,  were  charged  with  the  examination  of  the 
course  of  the  coast,  and  the  islands  met  with  there,  from  Tomeo  as  far  as  Brakestadt : 
we  took  seven  men,  who  were  to  row  and  steer  the  boat,  which  was  a  common  one,  in 
which  we  embarked  with  two  scr\'ants,  and  provisions  for  a  fortnight :  that  is  to  say, 
biscuit,  and  some  bottles  of  wine,  remainuig  of  the  stock  laid  in  at  Dunkirk. 

We  began  our  voyage  Monday  the  twenty-fifth,  at  half  past  six  in  the  afternoon.  I 
continually  observed  with  my  compass  the  direction  we  took,  the  position  of  the  islands, 
and  the  most  apparent  parts  of  the  coast.  The  twenty-sixth,  at  four  in  the  morning,  we 
had  already  advanced  seven  miles  and  a  half  from  Torneo ;  the  wind  became  northerly, 
and  we  set  the  saUs.  We  were  all  extremely  cold ;  we  landed  on  the  island  of 
Knawaniemi ;  we  made  a  good  fire,  beside  which  we  breakfasted.  The  wind  continued 
northerly,  with  very  fine  weather  ;  we  carried  sail,  and  arrived  at  Ullea,  at  half  past  five 
in  the  evening,  on  the  same  day  (Tuesday)  which  with  them  was  Whit -Tues  jay. 

Ullea  is  a  pretty  considerable  town  of  Ostro-Bothnia;  the  streets  are  in  straight  lines,  and 
very  long.  There  is  but  one  church,  and  a  town-house,  where  there  is  a  public  clock.  Ves- 
sels come  up  nearly  to  the  town ;  it  is  built  entirely  of  wood,  as  well  the  church  as  the  houses 
of  the  town.  There  is  a  dock-yard,  in  which  vessels  are  built  The  castle  of  Ullea,  called 


A  VOVAOE  TO  TIIK  NOHTII. 


S^7j 


Ullaborg,  is  in  n  small  island  to  the  north  of  the  town ;  it  is  built  also  of  \vo<xl.  'I'hc 
cUHtom-hoiisc  is  in  another  Httlc  island  not  far  from  the  town,  at  north- went ;  .uul  west 
of  the  castle. 

At  Ullea  we  found  a  pretty  good  inn  ;  we  supped,  and  slept  there.  Ullea  is  fifteen 
miles  from  Tomco,  and  eight  from  Brakcstadt,  where  we  were  bound  :  we  coiikl  very 
well  have  dispensed  with  going  there,  lor  vvc  found  neither  the  coast  nor  islands  fit  lor 
our  work  ;  however,  not  to  neglect  any  thing,  we  continued  our  voyage.  M.  Camus 
had  recommended  a  second  boat  with  two  oars,  to  accompany  us  from  Ullea,  and  we 
departed  with  our  two  boats  on  Wednesday,  the  twenty-scventh,  at  five  in  the  morning  ; 
wc  steered  south-west  till  noon ;  we  carried  the  litUe  English  quadrant  with  us  ;  on  Tues- 
day we  had  observed  the  he  ight  of  the  lower  margin  of  the  sun,  and  fuui\d  it  48  degrees 
6  minutets  ;  this  day  we  found  it  48  degires  25  minutes. 

From  our  leaving  Ullea  we  had  had  but  little,  although  contrary,  wind,  and  by  noon 
we  had  advanced  no  more  than  three  luiies.  Shortly  after  ncxMi,  the  wind  having  niucli 
increased,  and  the  sea  being  greatly  ugitiited,  we  endeavoured  to  reach  the  shore ;  at  lirsi 
wc  got  behind  a  large  heap  of  stones,  projecting  somewhat  into  the  sea  ;  for  the  sea  being 
very  shallow  along  tne  coasts,  there  are  lew  places  where  it  is  easy  to  land  ;  in  the  mean 
time,  the  seamen  informing  us  that  if  the  sea  ran  higher  we  shouki  not  be  in  safety  Ijc- 
hind  this  heap,  we  returned  about  half  a  mile,  in  order  to  find  a  safe  harbour.  We  landed, 
erected  our  tent,  and  rested  ourselves  till  eight  at  night  The  wind  having  slackened 
then,  we  sent  back  our  second  boat,  which  was  useless  to  us,  and  set  off  in  the  first,  to 
continue  our  route.  By  midnight  wc  had  advanced  two  miles,  and  were  about  live  miles 
from  Ullea ;  M.  Camus,  deeming  it  unnecessary,  wished  to  return  towards  Tornco,  and 
visiting  the  i»vlands  of  Carloohn  and  Sandhon,  we  steered  then  north  north-west.  The 
sailors  werf  much  surprised,  and  knew  not  what  to  make  of  us ;  they  said  thev  had 
never  before  '  such  a  boat  proceeded  so  far  from  land  ;  for  these  islands  are  five  French 
leagues  from  '^  shore!  We  thought  first  of  going  to  Sandhon,  although  a  desert,  and 
wimout  any  hao'tation,  but  we  could  nf)t  get  near  enough  to  it,  owing  to  the  extreme 
shallowness  of  the  water.  We  returned  t  wards  Carloohn,  where  we  landed,  with  diffi- 
culty, at  five  o'clock  in  the  miming :  one  of  our  mariners  was  obliged  to  carry  us  on  his 
shoulders  for  a  considerable  disitance,  the  boat,  while  loaded,  not  bein^  able  to  approach 
near.  We  ff^und  there  a  hamlet,  and  entered  the  best  house,  called  Heikis ;  they  shewed 
us  into  a  room  with  two  beds  in  it,  th'  room  furnished  with  benches  all  round.  We  re. 
mained  there  al>ove  two  days,  living  oi  our  provisions,  with  some  milk  and  fish  that  we 
bought  in  a  villai|?e ;  for  shortly  after  our  landing  the  wind  blew  so  violently,  and  so 
adversely  the  whole  time,  that  wf  oould  not  leave  the  place. 

Towards  evening  M.  Camus  and  Sommereux  went  to  the  house  of  tlie  clergyman, 
which  we  were  informed  was  about  three  quarters  of  a  league  distant.  He  shelved 
th';ir\  fjrcat  civility ;  the  next  day  he  stmt  us  eggs,  and  on  Saturday  morning  he  came  to 
see  ns.  I  accompanied  him  a  good  part  of  the  way  on  his  return,  and  we  had  a  long 
convti  "sation  together :  as  he  had  learnt  that  I  was  a  priest,  hi  often  inquired  of  me, 
vhy  rre  you  not  allowed  to  marry?  This  good  chaplain  was  shoi  v^  about  to  marry  the 
daughter  of  the  rector  of  Flaminia,  who  had  recenUy  died,  and  expected  thereby  to 
insure  to  himself  a  succession  to  the  rectory,  of  which  he  was  only  te  curate  :  he  took 
all  our  names,  and  was  delighted  with  our  having  touched  at  hih  island.  We  saw 
there  very  fine  crops  of  rye  and  barley.  Every  countryman  here,  as  w-ll  as  in  Westro. 
Bothnia,  has  several  out-houses ;  he  has  his  windmill,  and  manufactures  liis  own  cloth. 
This  island  is  four  miles  from  Ullea,  and  two  miles  from  the  main  land ;      nearly  joins 

•    -  ■       1 ■     •  ■    - -     ■        ■■■    -  -  V    V   2         '     ••'.«.     .    -'.:  ■,     .  -    *   ,   , 


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r. 


976 


OUTIIIKR'a  JOURNAL  Or 


the  lilllc  iHlnmU  of  Hauin  iind  fjnppiikari.     Cnrloohii  w  the  only  itlancl  which  w»-  -vw  on 
our  voyage  which  m  iiihaUitid. 

At  length,  oil  Satiitilay  the  thirtieth,  ut  nine  in  the  evening,  the  wind  having  nhuted, 
we  returned  to  our  lH)at,  to  proceed  toward**  Tonieo.  At  half  past  eleven  u  hr^v  ilock 
of  birch,  called  Curlews,  cume  over,  making  u  horrid  noiiie,  and  Hying  very  nnir  us i 
occasioned  by  our  aimnmching  an  island  formed  hy  u  great  heap  ol  stones,  on  whl -*t  they 
made  their  nests.  VVe  arrived  there  ut  niidniglit,  and  funded ;  this  caused  an  increase  in 
the  cries  of  the  birds,  who,  when  we  took  any  of  their  little  ones,  up|xared  n*ady  to  m  tack 
us.  We  afterwards  |)assed  by  three  similar  islands.  A  strong  soiith-west  winfl  r  lit^g^ 
which  caused  u  great  swell,  at  two  oVlock  in  the  ufteriKX}n  we  got  into  a  creek  where 
we  landed.  In  this  place  were  fishermens'  houses  ;  it  is  culled  Muscakckti,  and  i>  .^  little 
to  the  north-west  of  Siinoka.  VVe  were  told  that  M.  dc  Maupcrtuis  had  been  t'urc  on 
Friday.  At  live  o'clock  we  left  this  place,  and  arrived  by  ten  at  the  island  of  Moii:u  Iota, 
where  we  landed,  and  from  which  '1  ornco  is  easily  distinguished.  We  did  not  dc^ocnd 
the  river  by  the  same  course  we  took  on  leaving  Torneo;  we  steered  then  cast  f  the 
Finnish  church,  and  the  island  of  Biorckholn,  near  the  little  island  of  Kugen,  i  >•<'  re. 
turned  by  the  other  branch  of  the  river  to  the  \vest  of  the  islxmd  of  Biorckholn,  and  a;  iffd 
ut  the  burgomaster's  ot;  Monday,  the  second  of  July,  at  three  o'clock  in  tite  motumg, 
where  wc  commiinicated  to  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  all  the  remarks  wc  had  made  on  our 
voyage.  He  had  himself  undertook  a  journey  along  a  part  of  the  eastern  coast  oi  die 
gulf,  and  saw  that  there  were  no  means  of  forming  a  succession  of  triangles.  M.  Celsius 
proposed  to  postpone  the  work  until  winter,  and  to  effect  it  by  actual  measurement  on 
the  ice  of  the  gulf;  but  what  should  wc  have  been  doing  for  three  months,  during  which 
we  could  see  no  star,  the  sun  Ix'ing  always  above  the  horizon,  or  so  little  set,  that  there 
was  u  continual  strong  twilight  ?  Besides,  we  had  not  yet  received  the  sextant,  by  whuh 
we  were  to  observe  the  distance  of  certain  stars  from  the  zenith ;  and  the  inhabitan!  of 
Torneo  could  tell  us  nothing  for  certiiin  of  the  state  of  the  gulf  in  winter :  they  uriAi^nyc 
that  die  whole  of  it  is  frozen  over  ;  but  no  one  could  tell  us  now  far  we  mi^ht  with  tailty 
venture  on  the  ice.  And  if  certain  of  being  able  to  traverse  it,  a  south  wind  happeiuiig 
to  blow,  the  ice  would  be  opened,  and  sometimes  piled  up,  and  thereby  our  plans  become 
interrupted,  und  lost. 

It  was  proposed  to  cut  a  line  directly  north  and  south,  and  measure  it  with  a  rod,  through 
the  woods ;  this  was  a  pro|)osition- superior  in  value  to  our  trusting  to  the  ice ;  it  was  more 
certain,  but  subject  to  great  inconveniences.  Although  the  country  be  not  very  uneven, 
we  could  never  expect  to  meet  with  twenty  leagues  without  considerable  elevations,  and 
without  having  lakes,  rivers,  and  marshes,  to  pass,  which  would  have  made  this  measure 
difficult  of  execution. 

At  last  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  resolved  on  undertaking  the  operations  on  the  mountains. 
M.  Viguelius,  director  of  the  schools  of  Torneo,  who  had  for  a  long  time  acted  us  pastor, 
or  chaplain,  in  Lapland,  informed  us  that  the  river  Torneo  ran  more  nearly  from  north 
to  south,  than  what  the  mops  described,  which  gave  us  further  encouragement.  M.  de 
Maupcrtuis  laid  his  plan  with  M.  Duriez,  to  have  a  number  of  soldiers  ready  to  forward 
us  in  their  boats :  these  men  are  peasants,  residing  in  their  own  houses,  always  ready  at 
call,  either  to  pass  in  review,  or  to  join  the  army ;  a  very  courageous  set  of  men,  and  not 
afr  lid  of  fatigue.  There  is  not  an  inhabitant  of  Torneo  without  one  or  more  lx)ats ;  for 
during  the  summer,  and  as  long  as  the  river  be  navigabk:,  they  travel  in  no  other  man* 
ner ;  and  it  is  terribly  laborious  to  walk,  as  we,  in  the  event,  were  obliged  to  do,  through 
a  country  made  up  of  marshes  and  forests,  and  where  the  moss  grows  so  high,  that  a  man 
can  scarcely  extricate  himself  from  it. 


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A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH.  277 

Tuesday  the  third,  and  Wednesday  the  fourth,  we  employed  ourselves  in  preparing 
for  travelling  .  some  biscuits,  a  few  bottles  of  wine,  some  rem-deer  skins  for  our  beds, 
four  tents,  which  could  contain  no  more  than  two  persons  each,  two  quadrants,  a  plane- 
table,  a  pendulum,  thermometors,  and  all  he  instruments  necessary  or  useful  towards 
the  completion  of  our  operations ;  this  was  our  baggage. 

We  went  twice  near  the  Fins'  church,  in  the  island  of  Biorckholn,  in  order  to  recon- 
iioitre  properly  two  or  three  mountains  perceivable  from  that  spot,  and  the  belfrey,  which 
we  went  up.  Thursday  the  fifth  was  the  feast  of  St.  John,  which  they  keep  eleven  days 
later  than  us,  according  to  the  old  stile ;  it  was  a  grand  solemnity,  and  we  could  not  de- 
part that  day,  notwithstanding  every  thing  was  ready. 

Friday  the  sixth,  by  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  our  instruments,  our  provision,  and 
the  few  clothes  which  we  took  with  us,  were  embarked,  and  we  departed  m  seven  boats, 
each  boat  manned  by  three  men.  We  were  all  eight  of  us  together,  with  five  servants, 
the  other  two  being  left  at  Twneo ;  besides,  we  carried  with  us  our  host,  M.  Piping,  the 
young  M.  Helant,  who  M.  de  Maupertub  had  met  with  at  the  governor's,  and  who 
served  as  an  interpreter  throughout  the  expedition.  M.  Piping  and  M.  Helant  spoke  the 
Finnish  tongue,  the  vOnly  one  in  use  among  the  soldiers,  and  throughout  the  country 
beyond  Tomeo,  and  which  is  entirely  diiFerent  from  the  Swedish ;  he  spoke  Latin  also. 
We  landed,  and  walked  along  the  banks,  while  the  sailors  with  great  difficulty  ^ot  the 
boat  up  the  cataracts  of  Wojackala  and  Kuckula. 

The  mountains  which  we  saw  from  Tomeo  were  Nieva  and  Kukama :  the  first  is  not 
far  from  the  river,  it  b  nigh  some  houses  called  Cofpikyla ;  and  it  was  on  this  mountain 
that  M.  de  Maupertub  wished  to  make  his  first  station,  and  begin  the  operations ;  but  for 
this  purpose  objects  to  be  seen  were  necessary.  Kukama  presented  itself  as  fit  for  this 
purpose,  and  me  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  construct  a  signal  there.  At  six  in  the 
evening,  while  all  our  flotilla  was  before  the  village  of  Karungi,  I  detached  myself,  with 
Messrs.  Sommereux  and  Helant,  two  servants,  and  two  boats ;  of  the  six  men  whicn 
manned  these,  one  was  left  in  care  of  them,  and  with  the  five  others  we  undertook  to  go 
to  the  mountain  of  Kukama.  We  met  widi  dreadful  roads ;  as  the  snow  had  but  lately 
thawed,  the  marshes,  which  formed  a  great  part  of  the  road,  were  impassable.  The 
inhabitants,  to  pass  these  marshes,  had  joined  together  fir-trees,  end  to  end,  on  which, 
by  keeping  a  due  balance,  it  were  possible  to  pass,  if  the  knots  of  these  trees,  which 
are  like  so  many  pcnnts,  allowed  of  treading  on  them :  and  there  was  nothing  impossible 
to  our  soldiers ;  they  carried  our  provisions  and  their  own,  with  hatchets,  the  plane-table, 
vnth  a  part  of  our  clothes ;  and  when  we  could  no  longer  walk  on  the  trees,  we  trudged 
through  the  marshes ;  onoe  I  sunk  in  up  to  the  knee,  and  with  difficulty  got  out.  We 
travereed  two  lakes ;  a  boat  which  was  in  the  first  of  these  lakes  not  being  on  the  side 
nearest  us,  our  soldiers  gathered  together  some  pieces  oi  timber,  upon  which  two  of 
them  got,  to  go  to  fetch  the  boat,  on  which  they  ferried  us  over.  On  the  second  lake 
there  was  no  boat ;  in  the  same  manner  as  before  they  fastened  together  six  pieces  of 
timber,  on  which  we  all  ten  embarked ;  but  as  it  sunk  a  little  under  our  collected  weight, 
two  soldiers  re-landed,  with  our  two  servants ;  they  joined  five  pieces  of  wood,  together, 
on  wluch  they  passed,  while  we  went  over  on  the  first.  On  all  the  road  we  found  only  a 
deserted  mill,  on  the  river  Musta,  and  two  bams  for  hay  near  the  lakes.  We  suflfered  a 
great  deal,  not  only  from  iatigue  on  the  road,  but  from  the  stin^ngof  gnats  and  the  heat. 
Althou^  it  be  no  more  than  three  French  leagues  from  Karungi  to  Kukama,  we  were 
eig^  hours  in  going,  and  did  not  arrive  there  t^fore  two  o'clock  on  Saturday  morning. 


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278 


OUTHIER'S  JOURNAL  OF 


Our  soldiers  went  to  the  side  of  the  mountain  to  cut  some  firs,  and  carried  them  to 
the  fop,  which  is  naked  and  crag^^y  :  most  of  the  rocks  composing  it  arc  foliated  with 
large  leaves  and  small,  all  laying  like  bow-traps,  and  supporting  one  another,  so  that  it 
is  difficult  to  walk  on  them.  Gn  the  most  elevated  part  of  these  rocks  we  planted  one 
of  our  firs,  which  we  supported  at  foot  by  means  of  the  other  trees.  Although  we  had 
no  need  of  warmth,  we  kmdled  a  large  fire,  to  drive  away  the  gnats,  and  to  be  enabled 
to  sleep  a  little,  laying  on  the  rocks.  I  observed  with  the  plane-table  the  angles  made 
by  the  Finnish  mountains.  We  luckily  found  abundance  of  excellent  water,  in  a  sort 
of  natural  cisterns  made  by  the  rocks,  and  after  eating  cf  our  provisions,  we  descended 
from  the  mountain  at  noon. 

By  diflferent,  but  equally  difficult,  roads  wc  proceeded  to  mount  Nieva.  After  passing 
a  lake  in  a  little  boat,  which  came  close  to  the  side,  M.  Sommereux,  a  servant,  and  four 
soldiers,  went  for  the  two  boats  which  we  had  left  at  Karimgi ;  and  the  fifth  soldier  con- 
ducted M.  Hclant  and  me  straight  to  Nieva,  by  tolerable  roads. 

We  arrived  at  seven  in  the  evening  at  the  top  of  Nieva,  where  we  found  the  tents 
erected,  as  well  as  a  signal  imagined  by  M.  dc  Maupertuis,  of  a  most  advantageous  des- 
cription.  Instead  of  a  single  tree  to  serve  as  a  signal,  as  I  had  done  at  Kukama,  M.  de 
Maupertuis  constructed  a  pyramid  of  trees,  stripped  of  their  branches,  and  placed  one 
against  the  other.  These  trees,  fastened  together  at  the  top,  and  spreading  towards  the 
bottom,  made  at  the  same  time  a  signal,  the  point  of  which  could  be  distinguished  with 
nicety,  and  an  observatory,  in  the  middle  of  which  was  placed  the  instrument  for  ob- 
serving the  angles,  without  any  reduction  at  the  centre.  This  plan  was  afterwards  adopted 
for  all  the  signals  which  we  constructed,  even  for  that  of  Kukama,  which  was  rebuilt. 

Shortly  after  M.  Helant  and  myself  had  arrived  at  the  top  of  Nieva,  M.  de  Maupertuis, 
with  M.  Camus,  two  servants,  and  twelve  soldiers,  having  M.  Piping  a^  interpreter  with 
them,  departed,  to  plant  signals  on  such  mountains  towards  the  north  as  he  should  find 
sufficiendy  high,  and  in  situations  suitable  to  forming  good  triangles. 

Sunday  the  eighdi  we  had  a  great  deal  of  company ;  the  Fin  mhabitants  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood came  ni  flocks  to  see  us.  Our  party,  on  reaching  the  mountain,  found  two 
Lapland  women  feeding  their  rein-deer ;  their  hut  was  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  to- 
wards the  north-east. 

We  suffisred  greaUy  from  the  gnats  on  Nieva,  and  multitudes  of  other  diflferent  flies. 
To  preserve  us  from  them,  we  covered  our  faces  with  a  kind  of  gauze ;  if  this  veil  hap- 
pened  to  touch  the  face,  or  to  have  any  vacancy,  in  an  instant  the  gnats  covered  ns  with 
blood.  While  eating,  when  it  was  necessary  to  uncover  our  faces,  we  kept  in  as  thick 
a  smoke  as  we  were  able,  which  we  found  to  be  the  best  reifiedy  against  die  gnats  and 
flies.  At  night  especial  care  was  taken  to  drive  them  out  of  the  tents,  which  were  after, 
wards  closed  as  exactly  as  possible.  Their  humming  was  heard  continually  about  the 
tent ;  but  as  they  could  not  r^t  in,  it  served  but  to  lull  us  to  sleep.  That  in  which  I 
was  upon  Nieva  being  exactly  shut,  I  could  scarcely  support  the  heat  it  occasioned.  On 
Monday  the  ninth  I  caused  the  soldiers  to  bring  firs,  which  they  hewed  on  the  side  of 
the  mountain :  I  inclined  them  against  a  rock,  which  was  perpendicular,  and  about  nine 
or  ten  feet  high,  at  the  bottom  of  which  was  a  large  rock,  very  even  and  horizontal, 
which  served  me  for  floor  and  bed,  in  the  chamber  which  I  made  with  these  trees.  Our 
party  having  very  hard  beds  in  the  tents,  as  well  as  myself,  we  made  ourselves  mattresses 
with  the  little  twigs  of  birch,  which  we  covered  with  a  rein-deer's  skin ;  this  was  the 
extent  of  the  schemes  for  our  accommodation.  I  had  air  sufficient  in  my  new  apart- 
ment ;  but  the  flies  and  gnats  were  to  be  guarded  against :  my  boots,  which  I  never 
pulled  off",  served  to  defend  my  legs,  and  fitting  my  veil  over  my  face,  I  managed  to 
sleep  pretty  tranquilly. 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


279 


Tuesday  the  tenth,  in  the  afternoon,  it  thundered ;  we  had  however  no  rain.  At 
seven  in  the  evening  we  perceived  a  signal,  in  shape  of  a  pyramid,  which  Messrs.  do 
Maunertuis  and  Camus  had  erected  on  Mount  Horruakero ;  we  had  already,  on  Sunday 
evening,  perceived  one  on  that  called  Avasaxa.  Wednesday  morning,  the  eleventh,  wc 
perceived  a  third  on  Cuitaperi ;  and  on  the  evening  of  that  day  Messrs.  dc  Mau^x^rtuis 
and  Camus  came  back  with  their  detachment. 

Nieva,  Kukama,  and  Cuitaperi,  are  the  only  mountains  whose  summits  were  unco- 
vered by  trees ;  on  the  two  others  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis  and  Camus  were  obliged  to 
cause  a  number  of  trees  to  be  felled,  to  make  the  signals  visible,  which  were  erected  on 
the  most  elevated  spot.  They  had  very  bad  roads  through  the  marshes  which  they  had 
to  pass,  in  going  to  Horrilakero ;  there  they  suffered  more  than  on  any  of  the  other 
mountains  fkom  gnats ;  neither  fire  nor  smoke  could  entirely  drive  them  away  ;  they 
were  obliged  to  cover  themselves  with  their  skin  dresses,  and  inclose  themselves  with 
branches  of  trees,  in  order  to  take  a  little  rest,  if  it  were  possible  to  rest,  half-smothered 
as  they  were,  during  a  heat  as  powerful  as  in  France.  They  crossed  again  the  same 
marshes  to  reach  their  boats,  on  the  bank  of  the  river  Tengelio,  by  which,  and  through 
lake  Patimo,  they  passed  into  the  great  river  Torneo,  turning  round  the  foot  of  Avasaxa, 
where  they  erected  their  first  signal  on  Sunday  evening. 

These  gentlemen  saw  at  some  distance  from  the  river  a  mountain,  four  leagues  below 
Avasaxa,  which  appeared  to  them  fit  for  their  operations :  they  left  their  boats,  and  by 
hilly  and  difficult  roads  they  got  to  the  summit  of  this  mountain,  which  is  called  Cuita- 
peri ;  from  it  they  perceived  all  the  mountains  upon  which  there  were  signals,  and  the 
belfry  of  Torneo ;  they  erected  a  signal  there,  and  returned  to  their  boats.  After  these 
gentlemen  had  advanced  a  league  on  the  great  river,  they  found  themselves  at  the  cata- 
fact  of  Waojcnna,  which  is  the  largest  and  most  violent  of  all  we  met  with  between 
Torneo  and  Pello. 

It  is  not  usual  to  pass  these  cataracts  in  boats,  particularly  Waojenna.  The  Fins  who 
conduct  them  take  care  to  cause  the  passengers  to  land ;  jtheir  interest,  as  much  as 
the  safety  of  the  passengers,  influences  them  in  this.  They  wish  to  make  them  so  light 
as  scarcely  to  touch  the  water,  to  avoid  the  stones,  against  which  the  boat  is  every  mo- 
ment exposed  to  be  broke ;  to  keep  it  above  the  billows,  and  to  secure  it  from  the  waves 
which  threaten  it  astern,  while  two  men  pull  lustily  at  the  oars,  with  another  the  third 
continually  steers  it  one  way  or  another,  to  avoid  the  rock.  Sometimes,  when  we 
landed,  we  saw  from  the  bank  these  boats  half  in  the  air,  skimming  over  the  tops  of  the 
waves,  as  if  over  rollers,  so  quick  was  their  motion ;  at  other  times  they  seemed  swal- 
lowed  by  the  billows. 

All  the  boats  of  this  country,  even  large  ones,  such  as  that  which  brought  us  to  Ullea, 
are  extremely  light ;  they  are  made  of  planks  of  deal,  extremely  thin,  fastened  to  a 
skeleton,  composed  of  a  keel  and  ribs ;  the  planks  are  only  nailed  on  the  sides,  they 
are  sewed  to  the  keel,  and  to  one  another,  for  their  whole  length,  by  thread  made  from 
the  nerves  of  the  rein-deer,  which  is  like  catgut ;  after  this  the  whole  is  well  covered 
with  pitch.  These  skiffs,  so  slender,  possess  two  advantages  in  their  flexibility,  which 
prevents  their  breaking  when  they  sU"ike ;  and  their  lightness,  which  not  only  causes 
them  to  draw  very  little  water,  but  renders  cordage  unnecessary  for  fastening  them  on 
landing ;  they  are  easily  drawn  out  of  the  water,  and  are  left  on  the  beach ;  most  of 
them  are  furnished  with  a  mast,  which  is  raised  and  lowered  by  three  lines,  to  carry  a 
sail  when  the  wind  favours.  We  saw  many,  in  which,  for  want  of  a  sail,  the  seamen  had 
raised  a  small  fir  vnth  its  branches  on.  The  inhabitants  need  sails  in  most  parts  of  the 
river,  which  fOTms  lakes,  where  the  water  is,  as  it  were,  stagnant,  dll  you  arrive  at  the 
spot  where  it  discharges  itself  with  impetuosity  tlirough  some  cataract.    It  b  in  this  that 


280 


OUTIITER'S  JOURNAL  OP 


the  address  and  courage  of  the  Fins,  who  are  the  inhabitants  of  the  country,  arc  particu- 
larly conspicuous. 

The  danger  which  there  was  in  remaining  in  the  boat  while  going  down  the  cataracts 
did  not  intimidate  Messrs.  Maupenuis  and  Cumus ;  perhaps  fatigue  had  its  nart  in  pre. 
venring  their  landing.  M.  de  Maupertuis  was  without  any  apprehension  ;  he  amused 
himself  in  the  boat  with  observing  the  different  effects  of  the  water,  while  rushing  for. 
waid  with  violence  :  as  for  M.  Piping,  who  only  remained  in  the  beat  out  of  complai- 
sance, he  was  terribly  frightened,  and  si;id  nothing,  except  that  •'  it  was  no  laughing 
matter;"  but  the  following  morning,  pretending  business,  he  returned  to  Tomeo. 

Wednesday  evening  we  were  all  assembled  together.  We  began,  on  Thursday  the 
twelfth,  the  observation  of  the  angles;  wc  finished  them  on  Friday  the  thirteenth;  and 
it  was  proposed  to  move.  Messrs.  Camus,  Le  Monnier,  and  Celsius,  undertook  to 
make  the  observations  upon  Kukainu :  they  set  off  on  Saturday  morning  the  fourteenth, 
with  two  servants,  and  six  sailors  or  soldiers,  who  relieved  each  other  in  carrying  on  their 
shoulders  the  quadrant,  of  two  feet  radius.  Shortly  after  we  all  descended  the  moun- 
tain with  M.  de  Maupertuis,  to  rt^ain  our  boats  on  the  side  of  the  river ;  we  left  two 
for  those  of  our  party  who  were  gone  to  Kukama,  and  we  embarked  in  the  others  to  go 
up  towards  Cuitaperi.  We  land«=;d  at  the  cataracts  of  Matka  and  Waojenna ;  it  was 
even  necessary  to  transport  by  lan('[  p?rt  of  the  baggage  and  instruments.  It  was  nine 
in  the  evening  when  we  arrived  at  Cainunkyla,  one  of  the  first  hamlets  of  the  parish  of 
Oswer  Tomeo,  which  begins  at  the  cataract  Waojenna ;  thence  ascending  towards  the 
north  the  space  of  six  or  seven  leagues,  the  river  becomes  very  large,  and  is  full  of  small 
islands,  covered  with  grass,  which  is  mo\ved.  Both  sides  of  the  nver  are  well  furnished 
with  houses,  surrounded  by  some  wry  verdant  meadows,  little  fields  of  fine  round-eared 
barley  and  rye ;  in  many  plades  also  hops  for  making  beer :  some  sow  hemp,  but  it 
grows  hardly  two  feet  high. 

After  taking  repose,  and  eating  uome  milk,  at  Cainunkyla,  we  left  it  at  ten  o'clock. 
We  proceeded  in  the  boat  a  league  farther ;  after  which  we  left  tlie  river,  to  cross  the 
woods  and  rocks  between  it  and  the  summit  of  Cuitaperi,  which  we  did  not  reach  until 
Sunday  morning  the  fifteenth,  at  tliree  o'clock. 

We  immediately  erected  our  tents,  to  shelter  us  from  the  fog,  and  a  very  cold  rain, 
which  fell  on  our  journey.  On  thh  mountain,  as  well  as  on  Nieva,  and  Kukama,  we 
were  obliged  to  look  about  a  long  while,  before  we  could  find  proper  spots  for  fixing  the 
tent-posts ;  for  tlic  summit  of  the  mountain  is  almost  entirely  covered  with  rocks. 

Monday  the  sixteenth,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  the  fog  had  dispersed :  we  mounted 
the  eighteen-inch  quadrant  on  its  stand,  and  made  some  observations.  Comparing  the 
angles  taken  upon  Nieva  with  this  little  quadrant  with  those  taken  with  the  two  feet  quad- 
rant,  we  found  a  difference ;  by  examination  we  discovered  the  cause.  The  little  quadrant 
gave  for  the  circle  of  the  horizon  360  degrees  4  minutes,  while  the  other  gave  exacdy  360 
degrees.  M.  Langlois,  known  for'  his  skill  and  exactitude  in  the  construction  of  mathe- 
tnatical  instruments,  made  them  both  ;  and  I  owe  him  the  justice  to  state,  that  the  one 
of  two  feet  radius  was  as  perfect  as  can  possibly  be  made. 

M.  de  Maupertuis,  who  considers  no  impediment  when  truth  is  to  be  obtained,  descend- 
cd  with  M.  Clairaut  from  CuitajMiri,  to  return  to  observe  on  Nieva  with  the  little  instru- 
ment of  eighteen  inches :  I  left  it  at  the  same  time  with  M.  Helant,  to  go  towards  the 
north,  in  search  of  mountains  fit  for  continuing  our  triangles.  Messrs.  Sommereux  and 
Herbclot  remained  on  Cuitaperi. 

Monday,  at  eleven  at  night,  we  left  our  boats  near  the  houses  of  Marcosari,  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  neighbouring  mountains  of  the  same  name  :  we  were  there  almost  devoured 


\  VUVAUb  1  U  TIIL  NUltl  11, 


J81 


by  gnatb,  which  iciircely  allowed  us  the  liberty  ol" examining  the  ncighlwuilioocl.  Wc 
returned  to  our  boats,  ascending  the  river  as  far  as  the  mountains  of  Kattilla,  which  wc 
went  up:  wc  visited  three  of  their  summits,  and  thence  perceived  another  mountain 
towards  the  north,  which  seemed  perfectly  adapted  to  our  onerations,  but  >vhich  \vas 
entirely  covered  with  trees.  Our  sailors  told  us  it  was  Pulhngi,  and  we  immediate!) 
resolved  on  going  dicre. 

While  our  siiilors  with  great  difficulty  got  the  boats  up  the  cataract  of  Katilla,  wc 
proceeded  on  fcot  along  the  bank  ;  and  here  it  was  I  first  passed  the  polar  circle.  It  was 
nciirly  seven  in  the  morning  when  our  boats  received  us  above  the  cataract :  we  found 
the  river  still  fine  and  spacious,  some  very  good  fields  on  its  sides  of  excellent  rye,  barley, 
and  hops,  near  the  hamlets  of  Komnus,  Hiougsing,  and  Rattas.  VV'e  got  out  of  the 
boat  again,  to  examine  the  mountains  of  Rattas,  but  found  they  could  be  of  no  use  tu 
us.  We  left  them  at  noon,  and  arrived  by  two  o'clock  at  Lambisen  Nieva :  we  found 
there  a  comfortable  house,  where  we  left  a  part  of  our  things,  in  order  to  get  to  PuUingi, 
through  the  woods  and  marshes,  with  greater  facility.  It  was  too  leagues  distant ;  we 
attained  its  summit  at  seven  o'clock,  exceedingly  tired ;  the  gnats  tormented  us  here 
more  than  any  where  before;  besides  these,  the  air  was  full  of  extremely  small  flies, 
whose  stings  drew  blood.  In  order  to  eat  our  bread,  for  we  had  nothing  else,  we  were 
obliged  to  be  very  quick  in  passing  our  hand  under  the  veils  which  covered  our  faces ; 
without  this  precaution,  we  should  have  been  covered  with  blood  by  their  stinging,  and 
have  swallowed  an  many  of  them  as  crumbs  of  bread.  M.  Helant  and  I  were  by  our- 
selves, with  six  soldiers  or  sailors ;  we  enveloixd  onrselves  botli  together  in  the  cloth  of 
a  tent,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  leave  no  entrance  to  the  flies,  and  seated  ourselves  near 
a  large  fire,  in  order  to  Kleep. 

The  eastern  extremity  of  PuUingi  is  the  most  elevated  part  of  the  mountain,  but  co- 
vered with  fir-trees,  of  a  much  larger  size  than  any  whicli  we  had  hitherto  met  with. 
From  the  top  of  a  tree  I  discovered  Avasaxa  and  Horrilakero,  and  I  determined  on  erect- 
mg  a  signal ;  but  it  was  necessary  to  fell  beforehand  a  part  of  the  trees.  Our  six  men 
were  employed  about  it  incessantly,  and  the  signal  was  raised  on  Wednesday  the  eigh- 
teenth,  at  four  in  the  afternoon ;  we  then  retraced  our  way,  to  take  our  clothes  at  Lam- 
bisen Nieva,  and  re-ascend  the  river  in  our  boats.  We  were  so  much  fatigued,  that  we 
<did  not  land  on  going  down  the  cataract  of  Kattilla,  which  in  truth  is  not  the  most 
dangerous ;  and  at  nine  in  the  evening  we  left  the  frigid  for  the  temperate  zone.  We 
afterwards  iescended  the  cataract  of  Sompa,  and  continued  our  route  till  Thursday 
morning  the  nineteenth,  at  five  o'clock,  when  we  arrived  at  the  top  of  Cuitaperi, 
where  we  were  all  collected  together.  All  the  morning  it  continued  raining ;  in  the 
afternoon  the  observations,  begun  by  the  gentlemen  whom  we  joined,  were  continued  ; 
they  were  completed  on  Friday  the  twentieth. 

M.  Meldecreutz,  who  left  Stockholm  with  a  design  of  accompaoying  us  through  our 
-operations,  preferred  travelling  with  M.  de  Cederstrom  through  the  country,  not  to  say 
the  deserts ;  for  to  the  north  of  Pello  few  habitations  are  to  be  met  with.  As  soon  as 
they  arrived  at  Torneo  they  set  off,  going  to  the  sources  of  the  river,  and  the  lake  of 
Tomeo ;  they  even  saw  the  north  sea.  M.  de  Cederstrom,  on  leaving  us,  proposed  to 
us  this  journey  ;  but  M.  de  Maupertuis,  with  the  whole  party,  were  of  opinion  it  would 
be  better  to  be^n  the  work  which  formed  the  subject  of  our  voyage. 

M.  Meldecreutz,  on  his  return,  learnt  we  were  upon  Cuitaperi ;  he  came  there.  M. 
de  Maupertuis  behaved  with  great  civility  towards  him ;  but  as  he  had  not  thought 
proper  to  begin  the  work  with  us,  we  paid  no  attention  to  the  inclination  he  manifested 
of  conUnuing  it  vnthus,  and  he  departed,  to  join  M.  de  Cederstrom. 


VOL.    I. 


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282 


OirrillEIl'S  JOURNAL  OP 


At  four  in  the  evening  \vc  sent  down  ull  our  baggage,  and  at  seven  wc  embarked  in 
six  boats,  each  conducted  by  three  men,  to  proceed  to  Avasaxa,  on  whose  summit  we 
urrivcd  at  midnight.  After  having  pitched  our  tents,  and  taken  food  and  rest,  on  Satur- 
day the  twenty-first  we  came  down  the  mountain,  to  go  to  Oswer  Torneo,  or  rather 
Sarkilachti,  to  sec  M.  Brunius,  pastor  of  Oswer  Torneo,  and  M.  dc  Guilingrip,  governor 
of  the  province,  who  was  at  his  house.  VVc  were  very  well  received  ;  wc  dined  there ; 
and  he  promised  to  come  the  next  day  to  dine  with  us.  If  we  had  to  suft'er  from  the 
flies  and  tiie  heat,  we  had  yet  the  consolation  of  perfect  freedom  as  to  our  dress ;  we 
were  in  our  jackets,  with  Finnish  shoes,  a  kind  of  leathern  socks ;  we  dressed  as  we 
pleased,  in  short,  and  no  one  looked  upon  it  as  extraordinary.  We  received  the  governor 
and  all  his  retinue  in  the  same  dress.  Our  tents  were  too  little  i  we  could  not  shelter 
ourselves  from  the  sun  under  them ;  we  therefore  made  our  soldiers  build  a  dining-room 
with  trees  and  leaves,  furnished  with  a  table  and  benches ;  we  had  there  the  remainder 
of  our  wine,  and  there  it  was  finished. 

It  is  difficult  to  descend  the  mountain.  After  having  got  down  through  a  little  wood, 
we  met  with  large  and  slippery  rocks,  lying  very  unevenly ;  afterwards  we  entered  into 
a  forest,  which  stretched  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  where  we  found  the  river  Tengelioi 
which  on  three  sides  runs  round  it,  and  afterwards  empties  itself  into  the  great  river  Tor- 
neo.  In  going  up  and  down  these  mountains,  notwithstanding  their  difficulty,  two  of  onr 
soldiers,  marching  with  a  steady  pace,  carried  on  their  shoulder.s  our  two  feet  quadrant, 
and  so  by  two  and  two  our  baggage  and  provisions ;  they  never  objected  to  the  labour, 
although  it  was  incessant.  Notwithstanding  their  fatiguing  work,  these  Fins  ate  very 
little ;  a  few  dry  fish,  which  they  carried  in  a  bag,  made  of  the  bark  of  the  birch-tree, 
and  which  hung  at  their  side,  with  a  cask  of  soured  milk,  was  all  their  food  and  be- 
verage. They  sometimes  have  a  little  barley-cake,  extremely  dry,  and  as  they  empty 
their  cask  of  sour  milk,  they  replenish  it  with  water. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  neighbourhood  came  to  our  mountains  in  flocks  ;  many  of  them 
offered  their  boats  and  their  services  ;  we  gave  two  thalers  per  day  to  each  man,  which 
is  about  twenty-four  sols  French  money,  very  high  wages  for  that  country.  The  ardour 
which  inspired  them  to  serve  us  engaged  some  to  buy  their  places  of  those  who  brought 
us  from  Torneo ;  others  brought  us  milk,  sheep  or  fish.  On  the  two  first  mountains, 
Nieva  and  Cuitaperi,  we  ate  a  quantity  of  fresh  salmon :  we  bought  one  at  Cuitaperi, 
three  feet  ten  inches  long,  for  which  we  paid  three  livres,  and  the  seller  thought  it  a 
great  deal ;  he  would  not  have  obtained  for  it  more  than  ibrty  sous  from  his  country 
people. 

PuUingi  was  the  only  mountain  on  which  we  had  a  signal  towards  the  north,  and 
another  was  to  be  found,  to  continue  the  triangles  further.  For  this  purpose,  I  set  off 
with  M.  Helant  and  six  soldiers,  in  two  boats,  on  Sunday  the  twenty-third,  at  eight  in 
the  evening.  We  embarked  on  the  river  Tengelio ;  we  crossed  the  lake  Portimo,  and 
continued  yet  on  the  river  until  three  o* clock  in  the  morning :  we  then  left  our  boats, 
and  went  across  the  marshes  and  forests  to  mount  Horrilakero ;  we  made  the  signal  larger, 
to  be  the  better  perceived.  From  thence  I  examined  the  mountains  which  are  perceived 
beyond,  but  which  appeared  confounded,  and  piled  one  upon  the  other.  Our  soldiers  told 
me,  that  one  which  appeared  the  most  likely  for  our  purpose  was  called  Lango,  but  was 
very  distant ;  that  they  knew  it,  and  could  lead  us  to  it.  We  were  not  sufficiently  well 
provided  with  food  to  go  so  far  into  a  desert,  where  there  were  no  habitations ;  we  there- 
fore came  back  to  Avasaxa,  reaching  it  on  Monday  night. 

We  always  landed  while  the  boat  was  worked  through  the  cataracts  in  the  Tengelio ; 
the  sailors  made  use  of  a  different  method  here  to  that  used  in  the  Torneo;  instead  of 


1 


.^5 


A  VOYACiK  lO  lilK  NUIilll. 


2S.I 


rowing  in  the  cataracts,  they  held  fast  with  their  poles,  and  oftentimes  pot  out  of  the 
boat  and  held  it  hy  the  hides,  in  order  to  get  between  the  stones  whieh  fill  the  bed  of  the 
river,  and  eause  the  cataraets. 

After  eonferring  with  M.  de  Manpcrtuis  and  the  rest  of  his  company,  and  having 
taken  som6  provisions,  we  departed  anew,  M.  llelant  and  myself,  with  our  six  men,  on 
Tuesday  the  twcnty.fourth,  in  the  afternoon,  at  two  o'clock,  and  after  re-ascending  the 
Tengelio,  and  crossing  the  lake  of  Portimo,  by  ten  at  night  we  arrived  at  the  cataract  of 
Luonion,  at  the  bottom  of  which  we  leave  the  river,  when  ^ing  to  mount  Horrilukero. 
We  walked  up  this  cataract,  and  at  midnight  were  in  the  middle  of  lake  Maiama  Lom- 
bolc.*  Wc  passed  through  lake  Lohi  in  a  thick  fog,  and  arrived  on  the  twcnty-fifth,  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  the  houses  called  by  the  name  of  the  lake  Lohi  Jerfwi. 
All  the  family  were  asleep  there,  in  the  middle  of  a  very  dirty  chamber,  whieh  is  called 
Porti :  we  entered  into  a  similar  room,  where  we  ate  some  fresh  eggs.  This  was  the 
only  inhabited  house  we  met  with  Ijeyond  lake  Portimo ;  some  huts  are  met  with,  but 
they  arc  no  other  than  places  of  retreat  for  the  fishermen,  who  in  the  season  go  as  far  as 
these  distant  lakes.  The  inhabitants  arrange  among  themselves  the  distribution  of  the 
fishery,  and  every  one  has  his  own  fixed  station. 

We  left  the  place  at  five  o'clock,  passed  the  cataract  of  Pessa,  and  the  lake  of  the  same 
name,  and  after  continuing  our  route  pretty  far  into  the  great  lake  Miecko,  we  found 
ourselves  at  the  foot  of  mount  Ketima :  we  went  to  the  summit  of  it ;  and  as  I  perceived 
Horrilakero  and  Pullingi,  upon  climbing  a  tree,  we  should  immediately  have  raised  a 
signal  there,  if  I  had  not  imagined  that  mount  Lango  would  be  a  more  advantageous 
spot. 

We  therefore  returned  to  our  boats,  and  set  off  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  to 
proceed  further.  We  had  a  favourable  wind,  and  hoisted  a  sail  during  the  remainder 
of  our  passage  along  the  lake ;  but  at  the  cataract  Lango,  where  there  was  but  little 
water,  we  were  obliged  to  get  up  it  from  stone  to  stone,  with  much  difficulty,  on  foot, 
the  wood  on  the  sides  being  so  thicl:  as  to  prevent  our  passing  through  it.  Our  sailors 
had  a  still  harder  task  to  get  their  boi^t  up.  Above  the  cataract  we  embarked  again  on 
lake  Lango,  and  at  seven  at  night  we  had  got  up  the  mountain  of  that  name,  east  of  the 
lake. 

On  the  twenty-sixth  we  were  so  greatly  fatigued  that  we  quickly  fell  asleep,  laid  by  a  fire 
upon  the  rock.  In  vain  did  I  travel  over  all  the  mountain ;  I  could  not  distinguish  any  of 
the  others  on  which  the  signals  were  placed ;  our  soldiers  had  made  a  mistake  at  Horrila- 
kero, and  taken  some  other  mountain  for  that  of  Lango.  We  conceived  nothing  to  be 
better  than  to  return  to  Ketima;  but  on  entering  lake  Miecko  again,  we  saw  on  its  western 
side  mount  Pieska,  which  promised  to  be  of  service.  At  six  o'clock,  with  much  trouble, 
we  got  up  it,  for  it  is  very  ru^ed  on  the  side  of  the  lake;  the  top  is  entirely  covered  with 
large  firs,  and  here  we  were  greatly  plagued  by  gnats ;  we  were  only  free  from  them  when 
we  had  climbed  up  one  of  the  largest  trees,  from  which  we  could  distinguish  nothing. 

When  wc  had  determined  on  climbing  this  tree,  as  it  was  lopped  too  much,  our  Fins 
felled  another  in  a  little  time,  and  stripping  it  of  its  branches,  made  notches  all  along  one 
of  its  sides,  which  served  us  as  steps  to  ascend  its  highest  branches. 

We  then  returned,  on  the  twenty-seventh,  to  Ketima.  Before  we  ascended  it,  we 
supped  on  the  side  of  a  lake,  in  order  to  take  advantage  of  its  water,  and  towards  mid- 
night we  walked  up  to  the  summit  of  the  mountain.    We  pitched  a  tent,  which  it 

*  Lombole,  Jerfwi,  and  Ripi,  are  three  different  denominations  of  lakes  in  the  Finnish  language ; 
Jerfn-i)  ugnifies  ft  lake  simply ;  Lombole,  a  very  long  lake ;  Ripi,  a  small  lake.    ^    .  . 

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284 


OI'THIEH'S  JOUHNAI.  OF 


was  not  long  btforc  wc  needed ;  it  rained,  with  thunder,  till  nine  in  the  morning ;  our 
soldiefii  sheltered  themselves  from  it  ns  well  as  they  could  with  the  sails  of  their  bouts. 

Immediately  after  the  rain  we  began  I'ellinf;  the  trees,  which  was  continued  all  day 
long.  While  our  men  were  so  occupied,  I  went  down  the  mountain  with  M.  Helant,  to 
drink,  in  the  afternoon,  at  the  lake,  and  to  fetch  water  for  ourselves  and  the  soldiers. 
We  saw  for  a  long  time  from  the  side  of  the  lake  a  large  animal,  which  was  swimming 
a  great  distixncc  from  u» :  our  sailors  told  us  it  was  probably  a  large  pike  ;  they  were  not 
so  visionary  ns  a  number  of  the  inhabitants,  v«rho  take  them  for  spirits,  callctl  by  them 
Haltios  :  others  say  they  arc  lx;ars,  who  swim  towards  the  boats  for  the  pur|X)se  of  over, 
turning  them,  ancl  devouring  the  men  in  them.  Scarcely  had  wc  re-ascended  the  moun< 
tain,  when  wc  saw  M.  de  Guilingrip  with  six  boats  crossing  the  lake ;  he  was  going  into 
these  lost  countries  in  search  of  mountains  containing  iron. 

We  saw  a  singular  appearance  in  the  sky  at  seven  o'clock ;  as  the  sun  shone  from  the 
north-west,  there  ap|)eared  in  the  rain  which  was  falling  in  the  south-east  three  rainbows, 
the  colours  of  the  internal  and  external  of  which  were  vivid  ;  of  the  middlemost,  which 
was  parolkl  to  the  internal  one,  and  which  bisected  the  external,  the  colours  >verc  not  so 
lively. 

On  the  twenty  .eighth,  at  night,  it  rained  heavily,  with  thunder,  after  which  we  con< 
structcd  the  signal,  and  continued  stripping  the  mountain  till  four  in  the  afternoon.  Wc 
descended  and  re>emJarked,  and  after  two  hours,  which  it  took  to  cross  the  lake,  we  again 
entered  the  river.  Fortunately  we  arrived  by  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  at  the  house 
of  Lohi  Jerfwi,  where  we  sheltered  ourselves  from  the  rain,  which  fell  m  abundance 
throughout  the  night,  accompanied  by  dreadful  thunder.  We  slept  upon  heaps  of  new- 
mown  hay,  the  best  bed  we  had  met  with  since  we  left  Tomeo. 

We  did  not  leave  this  place  till  near  ten  in  the  morning,  to  continue  our  journey  to- 
wards Avasaxa,  where  we  expected  that  M.  de  Maupertuis  yet  remained.  Our  provi- 
sions failing,  we  proceeded  to  the  house  of  Portimo,  on  the  lake  of  that  name,  to  try 
what  we  could  find  to  eat :  we  met  with  bread,  or  rather  dry  barley-cake,  made  half  of 
straw  ;  extreme  hunger  made  this  appear  delicious.  We  reached  the  i  j)  of  Avasaxa  at 
ten  o'clock,  as  those  gentlemen  were  returning  from  the  house  of  M.  Bmnnius.  The 
length  of  my  voyage  had  given  them  time  to  make  their  observations ;  they  had  not  l)ccii 
able  to  see  the  signal  on  Ketima,  and  waited  fo*-  our  return,  in  order  to  determine  on  the 
course  we  should  take. 

Mount  Avasaxa  is  situated  in  the  best  peopled  and  finest  part  of  the  river :  its  bed, 
above  all,  towards  the  south,  for  the  space  of  four  or  five  leagues,  is  extremely  wide, 
and  offered  the  most  proper  spot  we  could  desire  for  an  excellent  base,  whose  extremities 
would  be  visible  from  Cuitaperi  and  Avasaxa.  This  base  could  not  be  measured  at  any 
other  time  than  in  winter,  over  the  ice  ;  but  it  suited  to  fix  upon  it,  and  erect  signals  at  its 
extremities,  to  join  it  to  the  triangles,  and  to  make  the  necessary  observations  before 
winter  came  on. 

Monday  the  thirtieth,  shortly  after  noon,  we  all  came  down  from  Avasaxa :  Messrs. 
Clairaut  and  Camus  took  upon  themselves  to  determine  the  direction  of  the  base,  and 
its  extremides ;  and  M.  de  Maupertuis  with  the  rest  of  his  party  embaiked  in  five  boats, 
to  go  to  Pullingi.  At  nine  at  night  we  landed,  to  get  up  the  cataract  of  Kittilla,  which  is 
intersected  by  the  polar  circle :  our  seamen  took  us  to  Hiougung,  on  the  western  side  of 
the  river,  to  a  good  house,  where  we  supped ;  we  found  there  good  barley-bread,  dry  fish, 
milk,  cream,  ^tter,  and  cheese,  and  were  served  in  a  very  cleanly  manner. 

We  left  this  house  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  instead  of  going  to  Lambisen  at  Pullingi  by 
land,  we  went  on  in  the  boats  to  the  Uttk  village  of  Turtula,  and  fxota  thence  to  the 


A  VOYACiE  TO  TIIK  N<»KT»I. 


Jb.) 


mouth  of  tlic  river  Kcutas,  vvliicli  is  nut  navigaljlc.     Wc  left  out  buut:i  on  the  bunkn  of 
thcjrrcat  river,  uiul  nrocccckd  on  lixjt  to  tlic  sicU'  ol'  Luke  Kvutas. 

'Flic  thirty-firhL  Ordinarily  they  have  a  littli-  Ixwt  on  culH  hike,  to  fetch  the  hay  nu)\v(d 
in  the  marches  :  on  this  lake  we  f'otnid  two,  and  we  made  use  of  one  on  several  expedi- 
tions to  the  foot  of  the  moinitain  of  PuUin^i.  VVe  hadnutch  trouble  to  reaeh  the  huiu- 
mit  5  it  is  very  steep,  and  at  every  step  we  made  w  <j  were  up  to  the  knees  in  moss.  Tlie 
mountain  itself  is  the  highest  of  alt  those  on  Avhich  we  went,  and  incomparaljly  die  me.st 
pestered  with  gnats  and  Hies.  What  we  snftcred  there  from  these  insects  ts  inconceivable ; 
tlie  Fins,  our  soldiers,  of  the  regimeiu  of  VVcstro- Bothnia,  men  as  courageous  as  inde- 
fatigable, uikI  insensible  to  the  intemperance  and  inconveniences  of  the  weather,  were 
not  able  to  hold  u|)  against  them,  but  were  obliged  to  cover  their  faces  with  pitch.  The 
servant  ffiven  to  us  by  the  ambassador  hud  his  head  prodigiously  swelled  by  their  sting- 
ing. JVl.  Lc  Monnicr,  also,  hud  great  difficulty  in  su|)|)orting  this  continual  torment, 
and  his  health  was  very  much  hurt  by  it :  n  disgust  of  the  food  we  ate  did  not  a  little  con- 
tribute to  his  illness.  VVe  found  in  the  little  village  of  Turtula  plenty  of  mutton,  milk, 
and  fish ;  but  scarcely  were  they  ready,  and  withdrawn  from  the  fire,  than  they  w  ere 
quite  black,  from  the  little  flies  which  covered  them.  During  our  three  first  encamp- 
ments wc  were,  obliged  to  go  down  die  mountain  to  the  river,  to  obtiiin  what  water  we 
wanted ;  at  PuUingi,  we  found  a  fountain  towards  the  souUi-west,  on  the  declivity  of  the 
mountain.  We  found  there  also  an  abundance  of  a  small  black  fruit,  which  they  cull 
blober;  the  plant  on  which  it  grows  is  seven  or  eight  inches  high,  and  the  leaf  similar  to 
that  of  the  myrtle ;  the  fruit  consists  of  small  black  grains,  of  the  sizL'  of  junijxir  berries ; 
this  fruit  is  met  with  in  France.  All  day  Tuesday  was  very  line  ;  we  discerned  very 
well  the  signals  of  Avasaxa,  Horrilakero,  and  Ketima ;  but  other  signals  were  requisite 
towards  the  north. 

On  the  first  of  August  M.  de  Maupertuis  had  met  with  a  serjeunt  or  subaltern  of  the 
regiment  of  Westro-Bothnia,  at  Avasaxa,  a  well  informed  active  man ;  he  engaged  him 
to  accompany  us  to  Pitllingi.  The  day  after  we  arrived  there,  this  officer,  M.  Hclant, 
and  myself,  set  out  towards  the  north,  to  seek  fbr  some  mountain,  whence  wc  might  dis- 
cover at  least  Pullingi  and  Ketima,  if  we  should  not  be  able  to  distinguish  as  well  Hor- 
rilakero. We  went  to  the  most  northern  houses  of  Pello,  and  we  got  down  to  that  of 
Corten  Niemi  by  two  in  the  aikrnoon,  where  we  dined.  We  made  every  possible  search; 
for  this  no  one  could  be  better  adapted  than  our  officer ;  no  inhabitant,  not  even  the 
master  c£  Corten  Niemi,  who  did  not  wrant  for  intelligence,  could  give  us  any  satisfac 
tory  information. 

At  last,  after  having  examined  all  the  neighbouring  mountains,  which  are  low,  we 
found  nothing  to  answer  our  purpose  better  than  the  little  mount  Kitds ;  we  easily  dis- 
cerned Pulling  from  it,  but  could  not  perceive  either  Ketima,  or  Horrilakero.  Wc 
saw  other  mountains  to  the  east  of  Pullingi ;  but  one  gave  them  one  name,  another  a 
different  one,  and  were  as  little  agreed  about  the  roads  which  lerl  to  them.  We  should 
have  p^ne  farther  towards  the  north,  if,  after  going  up  to  the  summit  of  Kittis,  we  had 
perceived  some  higher  mountaiii.  more  advantageous ;  but  none  was  visible,  and  the 
direction  of  the  river  swerved  greatly  from  that  of  the  meridian,  and  ceased  to  continue 
fiivourable  to  our  operations.  On  the  second  we  determined  therefore  on  constructing 
£  signal  on  the  highest  part  of  Kittis ;  we  caused  all  the  trees  to  be  felled,  which  might 
(under  the  sight  of  it  from  Pullingi,  and  the  mountains  which  we  saw  to  the  south-€;ast. 
As  we  foresaw  thsit  our  signal  would  appear  almost  overwhelmed  by  the  surrounding 
country,  in  order  to  render  it  more  visible,  we  put  in  practice  a  suggestion  of  M.  de 
Maupertuis;  it  was,  to  split  the  trees  which  we  used  for  building  the  signal,  and  to  place  the 


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286 


OUTIIIf.H'H  JOrilNAL  OF 


itucrnal  split  piirt  outwnnU,  in  order  that  ith  whitcncsit  inip^ht  make  it  diatinguinhable 

Witll  CiUC. 

Wc  rcturmd  to  our  Iw.u  on  'I'luirsdiiy  the  third,  at  tifflit  o'clock  in  the  cvcni'ifj, 
and  arrival  on  Friday  inorninp^,  at  one  oMock,  at  ihc  summit  of  I'lilliiini.  Alter 
having  related  to  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Le  Monnier,  and  Celsius,  the  diHiculties  wc 
had  met  with,  and  after  informing  them  that  beyond  Kittis  no  place  was  visible,  proper 
for  continuing  the  triangles,  that  th«.  river  did  not  even  continue  from  the  same  direc* 
lion,  its  course  bein^j  from  a  great  inclination  towards  the  west,  we  rebolvcd,  in  concert,  to 
set  oiT  immediately  m  search  of  some  mountains  to  the  eastward,  from  which  we  might 
ducover  Pullingi,  Ilorrilakero,  or  Ketima,  and  Kittis.  We  then  at  noon  left  Pulhngi. 
M.  Celsius  had  instructed  the  Swedish  oflicer  in  what  was  necessary  for  making  good 
triangles :  this  oiKcer  with  six  soldiers  went  towards  the  south-east,  while  M.  Melant  and 
myself  went  with  six  soldiers  to  the  east-north-east.  Wc  passed  through  the  village  of 
Turtulu,  where  they  were  rea|)iiig  some  very  fine  barley  ;  und  after  going  through  u  short 
disUincc  of  wockI,  intermixed  with  marshes,  we  embarked  on  lake  Piimas  :  we  continued 
a  little  forward  into  the  river  Manki,  having  marshes  in  the  wocxis  at  its  sides,  and  after, 
w,  rds,  having  walked  for  a  long  time  amid  woods  and  marshes,  we  found  mount 
Kukas,  the  summit  of  which  we  reached  at  nine  in  the  evening.  Immediately  we 
made  n  great  fire  ;  this  was  always  our  first  measure,  on  nccount  of  the  gnats,  and  after 
taking  with  a  compass,  from  the  tops  of  trees,  the  directions  of  Horrilakero,  Pullingi, 
and  Kittis,  the  signals  on  which  I  discovered  on  the  fourth,  we  caused  tliose  trees  to 
be  felled  which  were  in  the  suitable  directions,  so  forming  avenues,  in  the  midst  of 
which  the  signal  was  placed,  whence  we  perceived  Horrilakero,  Pullingi,  and  Kittis. 
We  did  not  finish  till  Saturday,  at  six  o'clock ;  we  then  returned  to  our  boats,  and  by 
the  lake  Pamas  entered  the  river  of  that  name ;  thero  was  so  very  little  water,  that  every 
instant  we  were  obliged  to  get  out  of  the  boat,  and  leap  from  rock  to  rock,  for  the 
river  is  full  of  them.  Wc  did  not  get  to  Turtula  until  midnight.  We  took  up  our 
abode  with  a  rich  farmer,  whose  house  is  called  Mnrtiln.  M.  Helant  threw  himself  on  a 
bed  ;  for  my  part  1  preferred  sleeping  on  a  bench,  with  which  all  their  chambers  arc 
furnished,  going  entia'ly  round,  and  of  a  good  breadth.  We  left  this  place  on  Uie  fifth, 
shorUy  alter  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  reached  Pulling  by  seven  o'clock. 

All  day,  Sunday,  the  weather  was  delightful,  and  very  few  flies ;  the  observations 
were  continued  :  the  signal  upon  Kittis  was  distinctly  seen,  as  well  as  that  1  had  con- 
structed upon  Kukas ;  and  two  which  die  Swedish  oflicer  had  erected,  the  one  on  Niemi, 
which  was  employed  in  the  triangles,  and  the  other  on  mount  Alpus.  This  last  would 
have  made  a  better  triangle,  but  it  was  not  distinguishable  from  Kittis.  The  two  con- 
stnicted  by  M.  Helant  and  me  upon  Ketima  and  Kukas  were  not  used,  Niemi  bein^ 
more  advantageous  than  Kukas,  s^eeing  that  Kukama  was  seen  from  it^  and  that  it 
thence  completed  a  heptagon. 

On  Sunday  evening  we  began  sending  down  our  baggage,  and  at  seven  o'clock  in 
die  morning  of  Mond  /  the  sixth  we  all  went  down,  to  einbark  on  the  lake  Keutas, 
and  proceed  in  our  five  boats  to  the  side  of  the  great  river. 

The  river  Keutas  is  not  navigable,  as  well  from  want  of  water,  as  from  what  there  is 
lieing  employed  for  turning  a  saw  mill ;  this  mill  is  as  ingeniously  contrived  as  those  in 
France ;  after  the  log  or  trunk  of  a  tree  which  is  placed  to  be  sawed  has  advanced  '. ..  '*9 
whole  length,  and  it  has  been  sawed  through  from  one  end  to  the  other,  the  mr,'^<^  .  of 
the  water  carries  it  back  again,  to  receive  a  second  sawing.  In  other  places  on  the&e  i  c'j 
rivers,  they  have  very  small  mills  for  grinding  grain,  which  have  only  one  iiorszor  t^l 
wheel  turned  by  the  water :  the  stones  placed  on  die  same  axis  are  very  small,  ux\:^  *iM:\t 


A  VOV AfiK  TO  Tli:.  NOliTir 


287 


no  more  revolutions  thnn  the  water  wheel ;  it  only  crushes  the  grain  very  co.".<"jcly  with 
the  Htruw  whi(  h  is  mixal  with  it,  to  iiurcasc  the  hulk.  There  is  one  of  those  niilU  uti  the 
Tcnjifelio,  IkIow  L;ike  Portimo;  they  have  sonu",  the  water  wheels  orwhidjurc  vertical, 
but  as  small  as  the  (urmer,  and  which  [./unX  no  Ik  tter :  we  met  with  one  in  j^oinuf  from 
Kurunm  to  Kukuma,  on  the  little  river  Musta,  i-.  the  niuUlle  of  the  woods;  M.  I'iping 
has  u  sHuiliar  one  at  Tonieo :  north  of  Tornco  we  met  no  lonf^er  with  windmills. 

The  health  ol"  M.  Monnier  was  far  from  l)ein{5  re-established ;  notwithstanding,  he 
made,  besides  observations  of  the  angles,  »ome  on  the  meridional  elevation  f)f  the  sun, 
iti  concert  with  M.  de  Maut>crtuis  and  Celsius  ;  and  observed  an  eclipse  of  Aldebjran 
by  the  moon,  which  was  u.cful  in  ascertaining  the  difterence  between  the  meridians  of 
Pullingi  and  Puris.  To  p.t  Ixitter,  it  was  necess;u-y  he  should  be  more  comfortably 
lo<lged,  and  above  all  rcce  vt  nourishment  of  a  less  disgusting  naturc  tlun  Hies.  Kn  vaiu 
did  M.  de  Maupertuis  use  th-  most  pressing  intreaties  lo  induce  him  to  amain  at  Tur- 
tula,  where  he  would  have  had  very  comlf)rtable  accommcxlation  at  the  farmer's  of 
Martila;  or  to  descend  the  river  to  Oswer  Torneo,  and  go  to  the  house  of  M.  Brmjius. 
where  he  would  have  found  Messrs.  Clairaut  and  '^  ..us ;  he  insisted  absolutely  on  ac- 
companying us  to  Pillo.  V\'e  therefore  all  went  on  Iward,  and  at  noon  found  ourselves 
close  to  a  large  even  rock,  ori  the  western  side  of  the  river,  on  which  we  dined,  The 
inliabitants  call  it  Pellon  Pyta,  which  in  the  Finnish  language  sigiiifies  the  table  of  Pillo ; 
it  is  a  practice  among  them  on  going  up  the  river  to  make  n  meal  there,  before  tliej 
nscend  the  cataracts :  these  were  not  so  tull  of  rocks  as  the  cataracts  of  Katilla,  and  the 
others  lower  down  :  nevertheless,  the  river  is  very  rapid,  and  they  uit:  not  got  up  without 
difficulty. 

We  landed  at  die  house  of  Saukola,  the  most  northern  of  Pillo,  and  d.c  iwarest  to 
Kittis.  We  arrived  at  our  signal  at  five  o'clock  ;  the  weather  was  delightful ;  we  observ- 
cd  the  angles  between  Pullingi,  and  Niemi,  and  Kukas,  as  well  as  Uie  elevation  of  the 
signals.  We  slept  on  the  mountain,  and  the  next  day  took  the  meridional  height  of  the 
sun.  We  made  secure  here,  as  in  every  i)revious  instance,  of  the  centre  of  the  signal, 
by  different  marks,  and  lines  oi  trees  and  neighbouring  rocks,  by  stakes  deeply  sunk,  in 
order  to  find  it  again,  if  by  any  accident,  and  above  all  by  fire,  it  should  hapi)en  to  be 
destroyed.     We  found  a  number  of  small  flies,  but  fewer  gnats,  on  this  mountain. 

At  four  in  the  afternoon  we  went  down  Kittis,  to  visit  the  houses  of  Corten  Niemi, 
and  Purainen,  and  to  know  if  the  owners  could  furnish  lodgings  for  us,  when  ^ve  re- 
turned to  make  the  celestial  observations.  The  house  of  Saukola  would  have  been 
nearer  to  the  mountain,  but  it  was  not  fit  for  us ;  while  here  we  found  two  sufficiently 
commodious  rooms  in  each  of  these.  We  went  on  board  at  five  o'clock,  and  arrived  it 
Turtula  at  eight,  where  we  supped,  and  slept  at  the  house  Martila.  Were  it  not  for  the 
small  gnacs  during  the  night,  it  would  have  been  pleasant,  he  weather  being  charming : 
they  had  just  gathered  in  their  hay  here,  as  well  as  at  Pello,  and  were  about  the  end  of 
their  barley  harvest.  We  began  to  see  small  birds,  such  as  sparro\vs  and  finches ;  till 
now  we  had  seen  none  but  swallows.  Many  more  ducks  were  seen  on  the  riven 
After  leaving  Torneo,  we  met  no  longer  with  any  domestic  fowls,  unless  at  the  house 
of  M.  Brunius.  The  country  people  fasten  to  llic  bottoms  of  trees  logs  of  wood,  or 
trunks  of  trees  hollowed,  to  attract  certain  large  birds,  who  come  to  these  places  to  lay 
their  eggs,  which  they  take  and  eat.  The  sun  set  at  nine  o'clock,  and  at  m'  jnight  there 
was  scarcely  sufficient  twilight  to  read. 

On  the  eighth  I  joined  M.  de  Maupertuis,  and  we  persuaded  M.  Le  Monnier,  who 
was  in  a  very  languid  state,  to  go  to  rest  himself  and  recruit  his  health  at  Oswer  Torneo ; 
Messrs.  Sommereux  and  Hclant  accompanied  him ;  and  sent  their  boat  back  to  Tnr- 


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288 


OUTIIIER'S  JOUnVAL  OF 


tula,  to  be  of  use  to  us  on  '  ir  return  from  Nicmi,  where  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis, 
Celsius,  and  myself,  went  to  make  observations  with  the  quadrant  of  two  feet. 

Niemi  is  the  mountain  on  which  the  Swedish  offiecr  erected  a  signal ;  he  went  there 
with  us,  to  stn'e  as  an  interpreter,  understanding  the  Finnish,  as  well  as  the  Swedish 
language. 

Wednesday,  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  left  Turtula,  and  we  went  to  some 
distance  to  embark  in  three  of  those  little  boats,  which  the  inhabitants  have  in  almost 
every  part  for  fetching  fodder  from  the  marshes ;  ours  we  left  on  the  banks  of  the 
great  river ;  they  would  have  been  too  large  to  be  any  ways  of  use  on  the  little  river 
Pamas,  on  which  we  had  great  trouble  in  passing  even  the  small  boats  wliich  carried  us 
between  the  rocks ;  and  from  which  we  were  frequently  obliged  to  get  out,  in  order  to 
step  from  sto:ic  tt^  ««tone.  At  length  we  entered  Lake  Pamas,  which  I  had  crossed 
before  \vith  M.  Helant.  The  water  of  it  was  not  clear ;  it  was  entirely  filled  with 
small,  round,  yellowish  grains,  resembling  millet ;  and  which  M.  de  Maupertuis  took 
to  be  the  chrysalides  of  gnats,  or  of  those  little  flies  with  which  the  air  swarmed.  Our 
sailors  told  us  this  was  always  the  case  during  the  autumn,  and  that  at  other  seasons, 
from  the  time  of  the  melting  of  the  ice,  the  water  of  the  lake  was  perfectly  clear. 

We  left  the  lake  by  the  river  Sika,  which  we  went  up  in  our  boats,  and  afterwards 
left. 

After  about  an  hour's  walking  through  the  woods,  we  came  to  the  little  lake  Kassuri, 
on  which  there  was  but  a  very  small  boat  and  a  raft ;  we  loaded  them  with  our  baggage 
and  quadrant,  and  went  on  foot  round  its  side,  through  the  wood,  which  was  so  thick 
that  we  were  obliged  to  cut  our  way.  There  was  besides  a  very  high  moss,  which 
covered  many  trunks  of  trees  blown  down  by  the  wind,  in  such  sort  that  we  never 
knew  where  we  placed  our  feet,  and  frequently  thinking  to  be  walking  on  higher  ground, 
we  stepped  into  a  hollow ;  we  walked  on  in  this  manner  for  two  hours,  and  arrived  at 
length  at  the  side  of  a  great,  lake,  on  which  were  two  boats :  we  loaded  them  with  tut 
baggage  and  instrument,  to  be  transported  to  the  foot  of  Mount  Niemi,  which  is  washol 
by  the  other  extremity  of  the  lake  nearly  a  lez^e  long.  Our  sailors  brought  u.e  boat  back 
to  take  us  over,  and  not  having  any  sail,  they  substituted  branches  of  fir.  At  length, 
before  four  o'clock,  we  had  attained  the  summit  of  Niemi. 

The  lake  which  we  passed  is  called  Ajangi ;  it  is  at  the  north  of  our  mountain,  and 
communicates  with  other  lakes  at  tlr  south  of  the  same.  We  saw  on  this  lake  towards 
the  soi'.th  some  vapours  rise,  which  some  of  the  inhabitants  take  to  be  spirits,  and  call 
them  haltios.  The  soldiers,  who  served  us  both  as  workmen  and  sailors,  were  not  so 
credulous. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  was  delighted  with  Mount  Niemi :  I  ought  not  to  say  any  thing, 
after  the  description  he  has  given  of  it  in  his  work  on  the  Figure  of  the  Earth.  It  is 
true  the  objects  seen  there  form  a  contrast,  a  variety,  which  present  a  spectacle  equally 
agreeable  and  singular.  It  might  be  thought  nothmg  but  bears  and  wild  beasts  should 
be  met  with  in  a  place  so  distant  as  four  or  five  leagues  from  any  habitation,  and  lost  as 
it  were  amid  woods  and  lakes;  nevertheless,  wesaw  there  nothing  but  the  haltios  whicli 
I  have  before  mentioned. 

The  remainder  of  the  day  the  horizon  was  much  loaf'ed  with  vapour.  On  Thursday 
the  ninth,  thunder  and  rain  interrupted  our  observations  during  the  whole  day.  Frid^'^ 
the  tenth,  foggy  all  the  morning,  and  the  remainder  of  the  day  rain,  which  prevented 
our  work. 

The  weather  was  fine  when  we  left  Turtula.  We  reckoned  upon  its  :continuance,  and 
that  at  the  latest  our  observations  would  be  finished  by  Friday.    Neither  ourselves  nor 


■■•i«ftw-  (-I  im^iyi^  0mm 


»<wr*wqyj»>  t)— 'imm 


M 


A  VOYAGE  TO  TIIE  NOBTH. 


289 


lay 


pior 


our  sailors  had  laid  in  provisions  for  more  than  two  or  three  d;iys ;  in  the  mean  time 
we  had  no  prospect  of  fair  weather,  and  had  already  begun  to  divide  the  provisions 
which  we  had  remaining  among  our  soldiers :  we  therefore  dispatched  five  of  them  to 
Turtula  on  Friday  evening,  for  victuals  for  us  and  for  themselves. 

Saturday  the  eleventh,  the  weather  becoming  fine,  we  begun  our  observations  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  they  were  completed  before  noon :  we  sent  our  baggage 
down  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  thinking  that  the  soldiers  sent  to  Turtula  would  make 
huste  back.  The  boats  returned,  and  we  embarked  at  five  in  the  evening ;  we  had 
difficulty  in  crossing ;  a  very  violent  contrary  wind  had  rose,  and  the  boats  were  not 
sound  ;  the  sailors  took  the  precaution  of  keeping  close  to  the  side,  to  be  under  shelter 
from  the  wind  by  the  forest.  It  was  ten  o'clock  before  we  reached  Turtula ;  we  supped 
at  the  farmer's  at  Martila,  and  although  there  were  two  empty  beds,  Messrs.  de  Mau< 
pertuis  and  Celsius  slept  in  a  tent,  wluch  was  pitched  before  the  house  ;  and  as  three 
could  not  commodiously  sleep  in  it,  I  returned  to  sleep  on  the  bench  which  had  been  my 
bed  before. 

M.  Le  Monnier  had  sent  back  the  boat  which  carried  him  to  Oswer  Torneo,  and  we 
had  five  on  the  bank  of  the  great  river.  We  went  ofi  board  them  with  all  our  ba^age 
on  Sunday  the  twelfth,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  and  arrived  somewhat  before  two  o'clock 
at  Ruktula,  where  we  dined.  We  afterwards  crossed  the  river,  to  go  to  the  house  of 
M.  Brunius,  the  pastor  of  Oswer  Torneo ;  we  found  at  the  water-side  Messrs.  Clairaut 
and  Camus,  with  M.  Le  Monnier,  who  was  much  recovered.  The  weather  was  de- 
lightful, and  the  air  free  from  flies ;  together  we  took  rather  a  long  walk,  entertaining 
ourselves  with  plans  for  spending  the  winter  at  Torneo ;  we  met  all  at  M.  Brunius's, 
who  with  much  politeness  offered  us  his  house. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  willingly  took  upon  himself  whatever  was  laborious,  and  insisted 
upon  every  one  C:ring  better  or  less  ill  than  himself.  I  did  not  spare  myself,  pardcu- 
larly  when  I  had  to  accompany  him ;  notwithstanding,  he  obliged  me  to  remain  at  M, 
Brunius's,  to  take  repose.  I  stopped  with  Messrs.  Le  Monnier,  Sommereux,  and  Her- 
belot,  who  had  remained  there  since  their  departure  from  Avasaxa ;  and  Messrs.  de 
Maupertuis,  Clairaut,  Camus,  and  Celsius,  departed  on  Monday  the  thirteenth,  at  nine 
in  the  morning,  to  make  observations  on  mount  Horrilakero. 

Messrs.  Clairaut  and  Camus  had  determined  the  base,  and  caused  a  signal  to  be  con- 
structed at  each  of  its  extremities.  Messrs.  Le  Monnier^  Sommereux,  and  myself,  after 
dinner,  took  a  walk  to  the  signal  at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  base ;  we  secured  the 
centre  by  difierent  directions,  taken  firom  the  neighbouring  trees,  which  we  marked, 
that  we  might  know  its  position  again,  in  case  of  any  accident ;  and  as  we  could  not  see 
the  signal  on  Avasaxa  from  this  one,  on  account  of  the  trees  on  the  summit  of  that 
mountain,  I  went  up  it  with  two  sailors,  in  order  to  fell  them.  I  rejoined  Messrs.  Le 
Monnier  and  Sommereux,  and  we  returned  together  to  the  house  of  M.  Brunius. 

I  went  by  myself  in  the  evening  to  take  a  walk  on  the  Uttle  mountain  Sarki  Wara, 
which  joins  the  Presbytery :  from  the  Dp  of  it  I  had  a  most  beautiful  view  towards  the 
south,  along  the  course  of  the  river,  as  fir  as  Kainenkyla ;  the  weather  delightfiil,  and 
no  gnats. 

M.  Brumus  returned  from  Hieta  Niemi,  a  chapel  of  ease  to  Oswer  Torneo :  we 
supped  with  him  and  Mad.  Brunia ;  he  exercised  the  functions  of  curate,  and  expected 
'  to  succeed  his  father  in  the  rectory  of  Oswer  Torneo,  who  was  blind,  and  incapacitated 
fix)m  fulfilling  his  duties. 

Tuesday  me  fourteenth,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  I  set  off  alone  with  three  sailors  in 
a  boat  to  go  to  the  southern  extremity  of  the  base,  in  order  to  secure  the  centre  of  the 

VOL.  X.  r  ? 


tv 


OT 


290 


OirTFIIEn'S  JOURNAL  OP 


signal :  I  could  not  effect  it  by  directions  taken  from  tree  to  tree,  for  there  were  none 
except  what  were  very  small ;  but  I  made  a  more  certain  mark,  by  the  means  of  a  great 
rock  which  was  near  the  signal. 

We  passed  the  day  of  the  assumption  of  the  Blessed  Vir^n  (whose  feast  is  not 
held  in  Sweden)  very  tranquilly.  M.  Brunius  kept  company  with  us  almost  all  the  day ; 
we  entertained  ourselves  in  talking  Latin  with  him.  Just  as  we  were  all  in  bed,  ut  eleven 
o'clock,  M.  Camus  returned  from  Horrilakero,  to  go  the  next  day  to  Kukuma,  in  order 
to  rebuild  the  signal  which  the  winds  had  blown  down.  He  took  some  rest ;  and 
Thursday  morning  the  sixteenth  we  both  set  off,  with  a  servant  who  spoke  Swedish, 
and  nine  soldiers,  one  of  which  also  spoke  Swedish.  We  embarked  in  three  boats,  of 
which  we  left  one  at  Hieta  Niemi ;  two  being  sufficient  for  us,  a  third  would  only  have 
embarrassed  and  detained  us  in  passing  the  cataracts. 

M.  Camus  and  myself  were  in  the  same  boat,  in  which  we  kept  going  down  the  cata- 
racts. At  that  of  Waojenna,  a  wave  on  the  side  where  I  sat  spent  itself  over  the  boat, 
and  almost  covered  me  with  water.  We  were  obliged  to  keep  ourselves  in  a  posture 
almost  lying,  in  order  that  we  might  not  hinder  the  pilot  from  seeing  the  rocks,  which 
he  continually  avoided  by  the  means  of  ihe  rudder,  while  two  Fins  rowed  with  all  their 
might :  in  some  places,  however,  they  suffer  the  boat  to  fall  down  the  stream,  guided 
only  by  the  pilot.  The  cataract  Matka  was  quite  as  terrible  as  the  first ;  we  were,  as 
it  were,  buried  amidst  the  waves,  but  this  was  of  short  duration.  We  arrived  at  Kor- 
pikyla  at  three  in  the  afternoon ;  we  stopped  more  than  two  hours  at  a  farmer's ;  we 
dined  there,  as  well  as  our  sailors,  who  required  a  little  rest. 

We  got  to  the  top  of  Kukuma  by  ten  o'clock  :  the  heat  and  almost  continual  rays  of 
the  sun  had  somewhat  dried  the  marshes,  and  we  found  the  road  pretty  good.  A  rein- 
deer  belonging  to  the  Lapland  girls  who  lived  at  the  foot  of  mount  Nieva  took  a  liking 
to  us,  and  followed  us  in  spite  of  his  mistress,  who  could  not  prevent  him ;  he  stayed 
on  mount  Kukuma  all  the  time  we  remained  there.  The  nights  began  to  be  cold,  and 
we  passed  this  near  a  great  fire.  At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  seventeenth 
we  set  to  work  to  re-establish  the  signal ;  we  set  off  at  nine  o'clock,  and  arrived  by  noon 
at  Korpikyla. 

The  rein-deer  came  back  with  us,  and  returned  to  his  mistresses,  who  had  five  or  six 
others.  We  ascended  the  cataracts  on  foot ;  the  waters  were  very  low  in  them,  and 
the  navigating  through  them  incommodious  :  we  got  into  the  boats  again  at  Kainuq- 
kyla,  and  arrived  at  M .  Brunius's,  where  all  were  in  bed  except  himself,  who  was  re« 
turning  from  fishing  at  midnight. 

Saturday  the  eighteenth  was  very  fine,  scarce  any  gnats  or  small  flies ;  there  were 
only  a  few  flies  remaining,  similar  to  those  we  met  with  in  France.  Messrs.  de  Mau- 
pertuis,  Clairaut,  and  Celsius,  returned  from  Horrilakero  at  five  in  the  afternoon,  and 
we  were  all  met  together.    In  the  evening  we  perceived  a  fine  aurora  borealis. 

On  Sunday  the  nineteenth,  some  of  our  party  going  to  church,  where  there  was  a 
sermon,  were  astonished  to  hear  the  sobbing  of  the  audience,  affected  by  the  discourse 
of  M.  Brunius.  On  their  return  from  church,  it  was  said  that  the  forest  of  Horiilakero 
was  on  fire ;  this  turned  out  but  too  true  :  after  dinner  we  saw  from  the  top  of  Avasaxa 
the  smoke  of  the  fire  ;  it  even  prevented  our  observing  the  angles  of  the  extremides  of 
the  base,  or  seeing  Horrilakero.  We  were  obliged  to  send  an  express  there,  to  know  if 
the  signal  was  not  damaged ;  as  for  the  rest,  the  weather  continued  fine,  and  the  nights 
rather  cold.  Messrs.  de  Maui^ertuis^  Celsius,  and  myself,  notwithstanding,  slept  on  the 
mountain.  Messrs.  Clairaut  and  Camus  went  to  M.  Brunius  with  M.  Le  Monnier,  as 
yet  convalescent ;  they  found  M.  Herbdot  there,  who  on  taking  a  trip  in  a  boat  was 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


291 


near  being  tlro\vned  :  as  all  the  ill  that  followed  the  accident  was  only  his  fear,  we  diil 
nothing  but  laugh  at  it,  and  kept  ourselves  alive  by  our  gaiety. 

Monday  the  twentieth,  the  smoke  was  still  thicker ;  it  was  distinguishable  in  every 
quarter.  In  dry  weather,  as  it  was  then,  the  mountains  of  the  country  often  take  fire, 
which  commimicates  in  an  instant  to  the  dry  moss,  and  spreads  prodigiously ;  sometimes 
three  weeks  elapse  before  it  is  extinguished.  The  smoke  of  these  fires  extends  over  the 
gulf,  hides  the  beacons  from  the  pilots,  and  frequently  causes  shipwreck.  This  shewed 
us  how  wisely  we  had  acted  in  not  losing  time  in  Sweden  and  at  Tomeo,  and  in  nearly 
completing  our  trigonometrical  observations  before  this  smoke  was  common,  which  would 
not  allow  the  perception  of  distant  objects,  such  as  the  points  of  our  triangles  were.  Messrs. 
Clairaut  and  Camus  returned  in  the  evening,  to  sup  and  sleep  with  us  on  the  mountain. 

Tuesday  the  twenty -first,  the  express  sent  to  Horrilakero  having  reported  that  the 
signal  there  was  burnt,  Peter,  the  servant  which  the  ambassador  gave,  an  intelligent  man, 
and  who  knew  the  centre  of  the  signal,  departed  with  six  men  to  reconstruct  it.  We 
never  failed  to  take  exactly  the  centre  of  our  signals,  and  in  the  observation  of  the  angles 
to  make  the  intersection  of  the  two  refl^^tors  of  the  instrument  answer  to  it.  When 
we  left  a  signal,  if  it  was  on  a  rock,  we  made  a  mark  at  the  centre  on  the  rock ;  and  we 
made  more  sure  of  it,  by  taking  its  distance  and  direction  from  certain  neighbouring 
trees  and  rocks,  of  which  frequently  we  preserved  a  copy  in  the  register  of  our  obser- 
vations. If  the  signal  was  placed  on  the  ground,  or  we  were  any  ways  able  to  drive  a 
stake  in  at  the  centre,  we  did  so,  and  on  leaving  the  place  we  covered  it  with  a  large 
stone  ;  it  is  thus  we  had  acted  at  Horrilakero. 

Madame  Brunia  sent  to  us  on  the  mountain  a  dish  of  harshed  meat,  and  one  of  green 
peas ;  but  they  were  so  much  sugared  and  seasoned  with  lemon-peel,  according  to  the 
taste  of  the  country,  that  we  could  not  eat  it. 

At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  smoke  was  dispersed,  and  we  took  the  two  angles 
remaining.  At  nine  o'clock  we  went  down  to  sleep  at  M.  Brunius's,  where  we  found 
letters  announcing  the  arrival  of  the  sextant,  which  M.  Celsius  had  ordered  in  England, 
and  which  was  to  serve  us  to  examine  the  distances  of  some  star*^-  from  the  zenith. 

The  next  day,  Wednesday  the  twenty-second,  early  in  the  morning,  we  all  went  to 
the  northern  signal  of  the  base :  we  caused  it  to  be  rebuilt  in  as  solid  a  manner  nearly  as 
the  houses  of  the  country  are  wont,  preserving  in  a  scrupulous  manner  the  same  centre. 
We  had  only  to  take  the  angle  Ijetween  Avasaxa  and  the  southern  signal  of  the  base, 
and  were  not  able  to  effect  this,  owing  to  the  smoke,  till  four  in  the  afternoon ;  we  were 
even  obliged  to  send  a  man  to  spread  a  very  white  cloth  over  the  signal.  At  nine  o'clock 
we  returned  to  sup  and  sleep  at  M.  Brunius's :  his  house  was  the  best  retreat  we  met 
with ;  it  was  placed  nearly  in  the  middle  of  the  space  comprised  by  our  triangles,  and 
very  near  the  northern  extremity  of  our  base :  we  always  found  there  three  rooms 
that  we  could  occupy,  without  inconvenience  to  the  family,  which  was  very  numerous. 
They  fumbhed  us  abundantly  with  every  thing  necessary  for  our  sustenance,  and  every 
one  there  exerted  himself  to  serve  us.  The  good  father,  old  and  blind,  the  mother 
of  the  same  age,  their  son  and  son-in-law,  with  their  family  and  servants,  formed  a  very- 
natural  representation  of  a  house  of  the  ancient  patriarchs.  Hospitality  is  exercised 
pretty  generally  throughout  the  country :  if  want  of  rest,  or  dread  of  bad  weather,  at 
any  time  induced  us  to  take  refuge  in  a  house,  the  master,  before  we  could  say  any 
thing  to  him,  sometimes  even  without  an  interpreter  to  make  ourselves  understood,  im- 
mediately opened  for  us  an  apartment,  apparently  destined  for  strangers  only,  and  re- 
mained standing,  looking  at  us,  his  family  assembled  about  him,  and  every  one  quickly 
hastened  to  wait  on  us.    If  it  were  in  the  smallest  degree  cold,  fire  was  immediately 

r  p2 


292 


OUTHIEH'S  JOURNAL  OP 


kindled ;  and  frequently  they  brought  what  little  they  had  to  eat  before  we  asked  for  it. 
As  M.  Helant,  the  only  Finnish  interpreter  we  had,  could  not  be  eveirwhere,  that  we 
might  not  want  for  necessaries  in  his  absence,  we  learnt  to  salute  in  this  language,  and  to 
ask  for  milk,  butter,  bread,  water,  or  drink. 

Thursday  morning  the  twenty.third,  not  content  with  giving  us  an  excelleni  breakfast, 
M.  Brunius  put  several  bottles  of  beer  into  our  boats :  we  had  five  ready,  and  at  ten 
o'clock  we  embarked,  to  go  to  the  southern  extremity  of  the  base.  M.  Brunius  went 
with  us ;  he  was  going  to  lay  in  his  stock  of  salmon :  he  told  us,  for  many  years  there  had 
not  been  so  great  a  scarcity  of  water  in  the  river,  nor  so  much  dry  weather ;  in  conse. 
quence  on  every  side  there  were  fires  in  the  forests.  Peter  returned  then  from  Horrila> 
kero,  where  he  had  employed  twenty-two  men  in  extinguishing  the  fire,  and  re-establish- 
ing  the  signal :  he  left  seven,  to  watch  lest  it  should  break  out  afresh. 

At  three  in  the  afremoon  we  reached  the  southern  signal  of  the  base,  at  a  moment  when 
the  clouds  of  smoke  were  tolerably  dispersed ;  but  scarcely  had  we  begun  our  observa< 
tions,  before  the  wind  changing  brought  them  back  ae;ain.  We  were  impatient  to  finish 
them,  and  to  profit  of  the  remaming  time,  before  the  frosts  set  in,  to  go  to  Kittis,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Pello,  in  order  to  make  the  necessary  observations  with  the  sextant, 
which  had  Just  arrived  from  England  at  Tomeo.  In  the  evening  yve  went  down  to  Nie- 
misby,  which  is  a  small  village ;  we  pitched  our  four  tents  there  in  the  meadow,  where 
we  passed  the  night.  After  listening  to  all  the  means  proposed  for  preventing  the  loss 
of  time,  M.  de  Maupertuis  thought  it  would  be  best  for  some  (me  to  go  to  Pello,  to  pre. 
pare  every  thing  necessary,  in  oracr  that,  on  arriving  there  with  the  sextant  and  other  in- 
struments,  we  might  be  enabki  to  begin  immediately  the  necessary  observat'ions.  M. 
Camus  took  these  preparations  upon  himself,  and  for  that  purpose  left  us  on  Friday  the 
twenty-fourth,  accompanied  by  M.  Herbelot. 

We  returned  to  our  southern  signal,  where  we  happily  terminated  our  observations : 
we  then  came  back  to  Niemisby,  to  embark  in  our  four  boats,  to  go  to  Cuitaperi,  to  take 
the  angle  between  the  southern  signal  of  the  base  and  mount  Avasaxa.  Friday  night,  and 
Saturday  the  twenty-fifth,  we  made  many  fruitless  attempts ;  we  were  unable  to  make 
our  observations,  the  clouds  of  smoke  which  covered  the  country  keeping  us  on  this 
mountain,  where  our  residence  was  extremsly  disagreeable  ;  in  spite  of  cold,  we  had 
numbers  of  gnats.  A  little  rain  which  fell  in  the  night  was  not  sufficient  to  extinguish  the 
fires ;  it  had  however  beaten  down  and  dbper sed  the  smoke,  and  we  had  clear  weather 
sufficiently  long  to  make  our  observation,  which  was  only  of  one  angle,  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing the  twenty-sixth. 

At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  came  down  the  mountain ;  we  found  five  boats  at 
the  banks  of  the  river,  M.  Camus  having  sent  his  back  as  soon  as  he  had  reached  Oswer 
Tomeo,  where  he  took  another.  I  embarked  in  the  same  as  M.  de  Maupertuis,  and  we 
kept  in  it  going  down  the  cataract  of  Matka.  A  little  below  this  cataract,  as  we  were 
threatened  with  a  heavy  rain,  and  it  was  late,  we  made  for  land  at  a  good  house  of  Korpi. 
kylu,  on  the  western  side  of  the  lake  made  by  the  river :  the  rain  dispersed,  we  pitched 
our  tents,  and  passed  the  night  there.  M.  Viguelius,  chaplain  and  director  of  the  schools 
of  Tomeo,  was  with  us ;  he  had  that  day  preached  at  this  house,  which  was  called  Te- 
pane  Piping ;  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighbourhood,  having  been  informed  of  it,  had 
assembled  there.  M.  Vigi^elius  told  me  that  this  was  often  the  case  at  places  distant 
from  a  church ;  and  further,  that  when  there  was  any  one  ill,  he  used  to  make  the  con- 
secration to  them  to  adnriinister  the  communion.  In  the  evening  we  saw  between  the 
clouds  an  aurora  borealis. 


.-.i'  KhT 


>»:i  i!', 


'.i!    *k.'i  ii-i' 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


293 


Monday  morning  the  twenty-seventh,  there  was  in  the  court  a  Lapland  man  and 
woman ;  they  were  two  ill  made  persons,  almost  always  sitting  on  their  heels,  and  came 
begeing ;  they  would  not  have  been  very  short,  had  they  stood  up. 

We  left  this  place  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  We  landed,  on  passing  the  cata- 
racts of  Kuckula :  we  amused  ourselves  in  noticing  the  movements  of  our  boats  from 
the  banks,  how  at  times  tliey  appeared  in  the  air,  and  at  others  engulfed  bv  the  waves. 
We  saw  there  an  ermine,  which  hid  itself  so  cunningly  among  the  stones,  that  we  were 
unable  to  find  it ;  we  sometimes  saw  them  run  into  the  water  towards  the  banks  of  the 
river  or  lakes.  We  saw  also  birds  of  the  eagle  species  dart  into  the  waters  of  the  cata- 
ract, and  carry  away  fish  in  their  claws :  we  were  told,  that  when  these  birds  dart  upon 
fish  of  too  considerable  a  size  for  them  to  bear  away,  they  are  sometimes  drawn  beneath 
the  water  by  them,  and  drowned,  not  being  able  to  withdraw  their  claws.  At  three  in 
the  afternoon  we  arrived  at  M.  Piping's,  where  we  first  landed,  on  our  arriving  at  Torneo; 
we  found  there  again  the  same  rooms  and  beds.  It  was  the  first  time  from  the  sixth  of 
July  that  we  lud  between  sheets. 

From  the  mountains  of  Nieva,  Kukuma,  and  Cuitaperi,  we  distinguished  the  belfry 
of  Torneo,  and  from  this  belfiy  we  had  to  take  the  angles  between  those  three  mountains : 
the  two  first  were  easily  distinguished ;  but  neither  on  Monday,  nor  at  any  time  on 
Tuesday  the  twenty-eighth,  could  we  perceive  the  third.  At  length,  on  Wednesday 
monung  the  twenty-ninth,  we  perceived  from  the  belfry  of  the  town  mount  Cuitaperi, 
and  we  ascended  with  our  quadrant  to  make  our  observations ;  the  weather  did  not  allow 
of  our  taking  them  to  our  satisfaction.  During  the  night  it  rained  a  great  deal,  and  still 
more  on  Thursday  morning  the  thirtieth.  The  rain  began  again  in  me  evening,  lasted 
all  the  night,  and  the  whole  of  Friday  the  thirty-first. 

After  wandering  about  so  long  among  die  lakes  and  mountains,  Torneo  appeared  to 
us  another  world.  Lieutenant-colonel  Dariez  came  to  see  us,  and  invited  us  to  dine 
with  him ;  we  all  of  us  went  on  Friday ;  Messrs.  de  Cederstrom  and  Meldecreutz  were 
of  the  party.  The  next  day  these  gentlemen  accompanied  us  to  tlie  belfry,  where  we 
staid  all  day,  waiting  in  vain  for  an  opportunity  to  observe  our  angles.  We  then  re* 
gretted  the  tranquility  of  the  mountains ;  we  were  surrounded  by  spectators,  who  in. 
commoded  us,  and  were  no  ways  interested  in  our  observations. 

Sunday  the  second  of  September  there  was  clear  weather,  very  fit  for  cur  taking 
the  angles ;  we  thought  of  nothing  else.  In  order  to  get  rid  of  troublesome  company, 
and  to  make  our  observations  at  ease,  M.  Celsius,  who  went  to  church,  as  soon  as  it  was 
over  went  up  the  belfryl  and  shut  himself  in.  M.  de  Maupertuis  and  myself  pretended 
to  take  a  walk,  and  when  by  ourselves  we  ascenderi  to  the  tower  of  the  belfry,  where 
M.  Celsius,  as  we  had  concerted,  was  waiting  for  us,  and  where  we  had  shut  up  our 
quadrant  some  days  before.  Before  evening  service  we  had  sufiicient  time  to  complete 
our  observations. 

We  had  now  no  more  than  one  angle  to  take,  to  perfect  our  trigonometrical  series ;  it 
was  at  Kukuma,  to  take  the  angle  of  Horrilakero  and  Niemi,  in  order  to  close  the  hepta- 
gon which  the  utuation  of  places  had  allowed  us  to  form,  and  which  afforded  us  singular 
advantages  for  proving  the  series  of  our  triangles. 

During  the  too  long  stay  we  had  made  at  Torneo,  we  had  got  ready  every  thing  we 
had  to  taike  to  Pello,  for  making  the  different  observations.  For  the  sextant  alone  three 
boats  were  required :  we  had  besides,  three  pendulums  vibrating  seconds,  several  simple 
pendulums,  quadrants,  barometers,  thermometers,  and  a  variety  of  other  instruments,  to 
take  with  us.  M.  de  Maupertuis  had  obtained  an  order  for  the  lansiman  of  Oswer  Torneo 
to  furnish  us  mth  fifteen  boats ;  the  soldiers  and  countrymen  were  so  anxious  to  serve  us, 


U 


394 


OUTIIIBR'8  JOURNAL  OF 


that  instead  of  fifteen,  there  were  eicrhtccn  or  nineteen.  There  was  a  long  dispute  among 
these  Fins;  they  would ull  go,  and  siezed  on  the  dilTercnt  packages  to  load  their  l)oats 
with;  but  the  laiisiman  had  sent  a  list  of  fifteen  which  he  had  engaged,  and  in  these  wc 
all  set  off  on  Monday  the  third,  a  little  after  noon.  We  only  left  two  servants  at  M. 
Piping's  at  Torneo,  with  M.  Herbelot,  who  was  just  returned  from  Pcllo.  Along  the 
catiracts  we  walked,  and  again  saw  birds  taking  fish.  It  rained  a  little,  and  us  it  in- 
creased  after  passing  the  cataract  of  Kukula,  we  landed  on  the  island  Toiwolmi,  otherwise 
Kukulan  ;  there  were  some  houses  there,  wherein  we  spent  the  night. 

Tuesday  the  fourth,  about  six  in  the  morning,  we  departed,  and  arrived  with  our 
little  fleet  at  Corpikyla  at  ten  o'clock.  After  dining  here  all  together,  while  the  rest  of 
the  party  continued  their  road  to  Pcllo,  M.  de  Maupertuis,  M.  Celsius  and  myself,  set 
out  towards  Kukuma ;  the  rein-deer  which  followed  us  on  the  nineteenth  of  August 
resolved  again  to  be  of  the  party,  and  would  not  leave  us.  At  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon one  of  our  sailors  or  soldiers  |x?rceived  we  were  gone  wrong,  and  one  of  them 
returned  to  Coqiikyla,  to  obtain  a  guide.  We  were  tlien  obliged  to  wait  for  him  in  a 
heavy  rain ;  and  after  our  guide  had  arrived,  we  were  able  t<  proceed  but  very  slowly, 
our  Fins  being  very  heavily  laden. 

We  arrived  on  the  top  of  Kukuma  a  little  after  eight  o'clock ;  it  was  already  very 
dark,  and  the  rain  came  on  heavier  ;  the  whole  summit  of  the  mountain  was  nothing 
but  rock  or  water :  nevertheless  we  pitched  a  tent  in  a  spot  as  damp  as  it  was  hard,  and 
Peter,  who  was  with  us,  pitched  the  other  near  tlie  signal,  to  put  the  quadrant  under  shel- 
ter. Our  Fins,  well  skilled  in  making  fires,  kindled  one,  in  spite  of  the  badness  of  the 
weather ;  we  endeavoured  to  warm  and  dry  ourselves,  but  die  cold  rain,  which  fell  in 
torrents,  rendered  our  attempts  useless.  M.  de  Maupertuis,  tired  of  being  cold,  and 
getting  wet  by  the  fire,  retired  towards  the  tent :  the  night  was  very  dark,  it  was  one 
of  those  not  lightened  by  the  aurora  borealis.  M.  de  Maupertuis,  walking  on  the  points  of 
the  rocks,  on  which  by  day  it  b  difficult  to  walk,  put  his  leg  between  two  rocks,  and  fell. 
Peter  and  myself  ran  to  him  on  hearing  the  noise,  and  found  him  in  such  a  situation  as 
to  give  us  apprehension  he  had  broke  his  thigh :  we  helped  him  into  the  tent,  and  we 
cut  twigs  of  birch  to  serve  as  a  mattress  for  him.  I  supped  by  the  fire  with  M.  Celsius ; 
we  went  to  lay  down  in  the  tent  beside  M.  de  Maupertuis,  and  passed  the  night  coolly 
enough. 

It  rained  again  on  Wednesday  the  fifth,  all  the  morning,  with  a  fog;  in  the  afternoon 
we  endeavoured  to  take  our  angle,  but  could  not  satisfy  ourselves ;  we  were  however 
comforted  by  learning  that  M.de  Maupertuis  found  himself  better,  and  that  he  had  nothing 
to  fear  from  his  accident.  It  rained  very  much  through  all  the  night  again :  our  poor  Fins 
bore  with  all  the  constancy  imaginable  the  brunt  of  the  weather,  without  any  shelter ; 
they  appeared  as  insensible  to  its  roughness  as  our  rein-deer. 

Thursday  the  sixth,  by  ten  in  the  morning,  it  ceased  to  rain ;  we  made  our  observa- 
tion very  well,  dined,  and  left  the  mountmn  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  to  go  by  very  bad 
roads,  and  often  thrciigh  water,  to  sleep  at  Corpikyla.  M.  de  Maupertuis  walked  very 
well,  and  felt  scarcely  any  pain ;  our  rein-deer  came  back  with  us,  and  rejoined  the  others 
feeding  by  the  hut  of  die  Laplanders. 

Friday  morning  the  seventh,  one  of  the  Lapland  women,  very  infirm,  came,  drawn 
by  a  rein- deer,  to  M.  de  Maupertuis,  to  bring  him  a  basket  which  she  had  made,  and 
which  she  sold  to  him.  At  six  o'clock  we  set  off  in  five  boats ;  we  ascended  all  the 
cataracts  on  foot  as  far  as  Cainunkila.  While  waiting  there  for  our  boats,  we  saw  them 
thresh  their  barley :  they  put  it  first  in  a  room  to  dry,  in  the  corner  of  which  is  a  kind  of 
stove ;  it  is  a  large  square  block  of  stone,  rather  longer  than  wide,  through  the  middle 


A  VOYACr  TO  THE  NORIH. 


295 


of  which  a  cavity  is  cut,  which  runs  its  whole  length.  They  kindle  a  fire  in  this  hollow, 
as  we  do  in  our  ovens,  and  this  causes  an  amaznig  heat,  which  contiiuics  for  a  great 
length  of  time  in  the  block  of  stone.  It  is  in  this  room  that  they  finish  the  drying  of 
the  biirley,  which  beforehand,  after  the  harvest,  has  been  exposed  to  the  rays  of  the  sun 
on  large  ladders,  which  are  erected  for  this  purpose  near  to  every  house  ;  there  are  even 
some  in  the  middle  of  the  town  of  Torneo.  They  thresh  their  grain,  thus  dried,  with 
flails,  sufficiently  resembling  those  which  the  country  people  make  use  of  in  France ; 
and  after  clearing  the  gr;un,  by  throwing  it  from  one  side  of  the  bam  to  the  other,  to 
separate  the  dust,  they  complete  the  operation  of  cleaning  in  rather  deep  baskets,  which 
serve  them  for  fans. 

I  ought  to  have  observed  before,  that  they  reap  their  rye  and  barley  with  a  sickle,  as 
is  the  practice  in  France  ;  not  so  with  the  hay ;  they  use  a  scythe,  the  blade  of  which, 
almost  as  long  as  ours,  is  much  more  narrow ;  it  is  listened  to  a  handle,  which  is  no 
more  than  two  feet  four  inches  long,  or  at  most  two  feet  and  a  half:  they  dart  this 
scythe  among  the  grass,  first  to  the  right,  and  then  to  the  left,  with  such  quickness,  and 
stooping  so  low,  that  it  is  wonderful  how  they  are  able  to  support  the  fatigue. 

We  began  to  see  some  horses,  which  were  returning  from  their  summer  quarters. 
The  manner  of  living  of  these  animals  is  among  the  most  surprising  things  of  this  coun. 
try :  it  is  only  in  the  winter  that  they  are  made  use  of  in  dragg-'ng  sledges,  which 
serve  for  travelling  in,  as  well  as  to  carry  the  different  necessaries  of  life,  particularly 
wood  and  fodder ;  for  during  the  summer  all  travelling  and  carriage  of  every  thing  is 
eifected  by  water. 

During  the  month  of  May,  earlier  or  later  according  to  the  length  of  winter,  the 
horses  leave  their  masters  on  the  first  thawing  of  the  snow,  and  go  into  certain  quarters 
of  the  forests,  where  they  seem  to  have  established  among  themselves  a  rendezvous. 
These  horses  form  sepaiiite  troops,  which  never  interfere  or  sepiu'ate  from  each  other  : 
each  troop  takes  a  different  quarter  of  the  forest  for  its  pasturage,  and  keeps  to  that 
which  is  fixed  upon,  without  encroaching  on  the  others.  When  their  food  is  exhausted, 
they  decamp,  and  go  in  the  same  order  to  occupy  another  pasture. 

The  police  of  their  society  is  well  regulated,  and  their  march  so  uniform  hat  their 
masters  always  know  where  to  find  them,  if  by  chance  they  should  want  in  the  spring 
or  summer  to  travel  any  where  in  a  carriage  or  sledge,  which  sometimes  happens  to  be 
the  case ;  or  if  any  traveller  should  want  horses.  In  that  case  the  countrymen,  receiving 
the  orders  of  the  gifwergole,  that  is  to  say,  the  post-master,  go  into  the  woods  to  fetch 
their  horses,  which,  after  rendering  the  services  required,  return  to  the  forest  of  them- 
selves, and  join  their  companions  again.  When  the  season  becomes  bad,  which  it  began 
to  do  in  the  month  of  September,  the  horses  quit  their  forest  in  troops,  and  every  one 
proceeds  to  his  own  stable :  they  are  small,  but  excellent,  and  lively,  without  vice  ;  their 
masters  lay  hold  of  them  sometimes  by  the  tail  to  catch  them,  and  they  seldom  make 
resistance.  There  are  however  some,  in  spite  of  their  general  docility,  who  defend 
themselves  on  taking  them,  or  attempting  to  harness  them  to  carriages.  They  are  very 
healthy  and  fat  when  they  return  from  the  forest ;  but  their  almost  continual  labour 
during  the  winter,  and  the  little  food  given  them,  makes  them  lose  their  good  appearance 
very  soon.  When  fastened  to  the  sledges,  they  frequently,  as  they  run,  seize  on 
mouthfuls  of  snow ;  and  as  soon  as  released  they  roll  amid  the  snow,  as  ours  are  wont 
to  do  in  the  grass ;  they  pass  the  night  as  frequently  In  the  yard  as  the  stable,  even  in 
the  sharpest  frosts ;  they  frequently  are  in  want  of  food,  particularly  when  the  winter  is 
very  long ;  the  horses  then  go  and  forage  for  themselves,  in  places  where  the  snow  has 
begun  to  thaw. 


V;. 


J 


c    :■ 


i 


296  ouTiirF.n's  journal  or 

Not  so  witli  the  cows ;  in  the  villages  ulong  the  rivers  theyeo  to  no  distance  from 
the  houses,  to  which  thev  are  daily  taken  to  be  milked.  At  Tornco,  in  the  Hummer, 
there  arc  few  cows  brought  to  Uie  town  :  during  rainy  years,  when  the  isthmus  of  Nara 
is  overflowed  by  the  river,  they  can  only  reach  it  by  swimming ;  on  this  account,  many 
of  the  burghers  have  sheds  on  the  western  banks  of  the  river,  south  of  Matila,  to  which 
their  wives  and  maids  go  by  water  to  milk  them ;  they  are  small,  almost  all  white,  and 
many  without  horns. 

By  then  our  boats  had  got  up  the  cataract  Waojenna,  it  was  ten  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing ;  we  re.embarked,  and  took  shelter  from  a  very  heavy  rain  at  two  o'clock  at  Alkula. 
We  arrived  at  night  at  M.  BruniusN,  where  as  usual  we  were  received  in  the  most  gra- 
cious manner. 

Saturday  morning  the  eighth,  after  taking  tea,  which  is  much  the  practice  in  the 
better  houses  of  the  country,  a>  '  eating  our  breakfast,  we  set  ofl'  for  Pello,  with  only  four 
boats  :  the  conductor  of  the  fitth  could  not  accompany  us ;  he  was  a  corporal,  and  had 
received  order  to  be  at  a  certain  place,  to  attend  tne  exercise  of  the  soldiers.  At  eight 
o'clock  at  night  we  arrived  at  Turtula,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  house  of  Martila,  where  we 
always  took  up  our  abode.  We  left  it  on  Sunday  the  ninth,  at  seven  o'clock,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  dine  on  the  rock  of  Pello  Pyta :  there  was  a  fog,  and  very  cold  north  wind ; 
we  made  a  good  fire,  for  wood  in  thb  country  is  nowise  scarce. 

At  length,  at  three  o'clock,  we  arrived  at  Pello,  where  we  all  met  together,  except 
M.  Herbelot,  who  was  employed  at  Tomeo  on  some  drawings  he  had  to  finbh.  M. 
Camus  had  been  a  fortnight  at  Pello ;  he  had  been  alone,  before  joined  by  Messrs.  Clai- 
rant  and  Monnier,  who  accompanied  the  sextant  with  all  the  instruments.  M.  Camus 
in  that  time  had  got  ready  for  us  two  apartments  in  the  house  of  Corten  Niemi,  one  of 
which  was  intended  for  observations  on  the  simple  pendulum,  and  to  fix  a  telescope  in, 
to  regulate  them  by  the  motion  of  the  fixed  stars.  M.  Camus,  for  that  purpose,  had 
caused  the  floor  of  the  apartment  to  be  cut,  in  order  to  erect  a  shaft  of  stone,  on  which 
to  fix  the  telescope,  and  hang  the  simple  pendulums ;  there  remained  therefore  no  more 
than  one  room  for  sleeping  at  Corten  Niemi.  He  had  provided  two  others  in  the  house 
of  Purainen,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  toises  from  the  other ;  one  of  these  apartments 
was  occupied  by  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Le  Monnier,  and  Celsius ;  the  other  by  M.  de  Mau- 
pertuis  and  myself. 

In  the  house  of  Saukola  we  should  have  been  much  nearer  to  mount  Kittis ;  but  it 
belon^d  to  a  poor  man,  who  had  not  a  single  room  fit  for  us.  M.  Camus  bought  of 
turn  his  cotta,  that  is,  a  sort  of  pavilion,  higher  than  the  other  parts  of  the  house,  and 
lai^r  at  the  top  than  the  bottom ;  at  the  top  there  is  usually  a  long  pole,  with  a  wea- 
ther-cock. In  this  cotta  it  is  that  snow  is  melted  and  water  warmed,  to  give  to  the  cattle 
during  the  winter ;  some  make  their  brandy  in  it  fix>m  grain.  M.  Camus  bought  diis 
cotta  then,  and  had  it  taken  to  pieces,  and  afterwards  carried  and  put  together  again  on 
the  mountain,  where  it  served  as  an  observatory  to  place  the  sextant  in,  and  to  take  the 
distances  of  some  stars  ftt)m  the  zenith.  We  had  the  convenience  of  a  foi^  at  Corten 
Niemi ;  although  not  in  venr  good  condition,  it  vna  useful  to  us ;  we  even  forged  several 
pieces  of  iron  work  for  which  we  had  occasion. 

Monday  morning  the  tenth  we  employed  a  great  number  of  workmen,  the  horses 
were  returned  to  their  homes;  those  of  our  two  hosts  were  used  in  drawing  upon 
sledges  the  cases  which  contained  the  parts  of  our  sextant ;  a  small  observatory  was  be- 
gim,  quite  new,  precisely  over  the  point  of  the  last  of  our  triangles,  to  take  there  the 
direction  of  the  meridian,  and  to  fix  a  pendulum.  The  following  days  these  different 
works  were  continued ;  every  one  worked  at  die  part  assigned  him ;  all  was  in  motion 


i  I 


3n 

Ithe 
ent 
ion 


A  VUYAbK  TO  TIIK  NOItl  H.  ^^97 

ut  Gorton  Niemi,  and  on'the  mountain :  tlic  ■k.aft  of  stone  wus  finished,  and  secured 
with  clamps ;  the  fixed  telescope  was  set  up,  and  un  excellent  pendulum  of  Julien  Lc 
Roi  was  iu  its  place,  on  Thursday  night  the  thirteenth.  Tiie  two  lust  nights  there  hud 
been  an  abundance  of  nun :  this  was  remarkable  fur  a  very  beautiful  aurora  borealis, 
whose  streams  of  light  formed  at  times  u  vault,  gushing  upwards  from  every  side,  und 
joining  at  the  zenith  ;  incessantly  they  changed  their  shuiK* ;  in  every  quarter  fresh  ones 
were  thrown  out,  less  however  in  tlic  north  than  in  the  other  divisions  of  the  skv. 

Friday  the  fourteenth  was  one  of  those  ^rand  prayer-days,  of  which  the  king  of 
Sweden  obliges  the  inhabitants  to  keep  four  m  the  year  ;  on  them  they  do  no  manher 
of  work  ;  they  arc  obliged  to  send  one  from  every  family  to  church,  though  it  should 
be  thirty  miles  distant,  that  is  to  suy,  sixty  kagues.  k'ive  families,  however,  in  the  viU 
lage  of  rello  ore  exempted,  for  fear  of  accidents  happenings  from  Pre,  or  any  other 
cause  ;  and  each  inhabitant  in  his  turn  succeeds  to  the  exemption.  At  church  the  numes 
of  those  who  attend  are  registered,  and  there  ore  penalties  for  such  (umilies  as  arc  ub. 
sent  without  satislactoiy  reason;  on  these  days  Uiey  remain  very  long  at  church.  At  Oswcr 
Tomeo  there  were  two  succesuve  sermons,  and  the  people  were  in  church  from  nine  or 
ten  in  the  morning  until  three  in  the  afternoon. 

Saturday  the  fitkenth,  a  man  coming  from  Wardhuis,  M.  Celshis  had  a  lon^  con. 
versation  with  him ;  if  we  had  had  notlung  else  to  do  than  to  satisfy  our  curiosity,  he 
would  have  created  in  us  a  desire  to  visit  a  courttry  still  colder  and  more  desert  than  that 
which  we  were  in.  There  came  some  La|^anders,  most  frightful  figures,  to  ask  charity 
of  us,  crying  all  the  time ;  they  came  in  without  tapping  at  the  door,  entering  our  apart, 
ment  without  ceremony ;  and,  whatever  they  said,  we  could  only  comprehend  the  word 
Jesou  Christou,  which  they  repeated  pretty  oAen.  Some  girls  of  the  village  who  were 
betrothed  came  with  their  mothers,  to  beg  a  few  pieces  of  money  towards  celebrating 
their  nuptials.  As  we  ptud  our  workmen  well,  in  so  poor  a  country  it  caused  a  high 
opinion  of  our  opulence.  M.  Camus  had  provided  a  case  of  drugs  and  medicines  for 
our  voyage ;  this  made  him  esteemed  throughout  the  country  some  famous  physician. 
A  girl,  who  had  fallen  ill  at  Tomeo,  sent  an  express  to  Pelto  to  consult  him  on  her  com- 
plainty  and  to  request  the  proper  remetfies ;  he  answered  with  so  much  j^vity,  that  she 
certainly  would  be  cured,  if  all  that  were  wanted  in  the  cure  were  to  stnke  the  imagina- 
tions These  little  adventures  added  to  the  gaiety  which  we  constantly  enjoyed  in  the 
midst  «f  our  operations^ 

'  The  sky  was  cloudy,  and  we  had  not  hitherto  been  able  to  observe  by  our  fixed  tele* 
scope  the  passa^  of  a  star ;  nevertheless,  the  observatories  were  ready  en  Kittis.  Sunday 
afternoon  the  sixteenth,  we  |daced  the  sextant  in  the  grand  observatory ;  the  weather 
continued  heavy,  with  a  little  rain  the  rest  of  the  day,  and  all  Monday  the  seventeenth, 
and  Tuesday  morning  the  eighteenth. 

Tuesday  afternoon  it  began  to  be  fine,  and  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Clairaut,  Somme. 
reuK,  and  myself,  went  to  take  a  walk ;  at  night,  die  sky  being  clear,  wc  observed  the 
passage  oiihe  bright  part  of  the  Eagle  over  the  thrfads  of  the  fixed  telescope,  which 
was  fastened  to  the  stone  shaft.  We  had  fixed  anc'her  telescope  against  the  planks  of 
wood,  which  served  as  a  wall  to  the  apartment :  but  we  very  soon  perceived  that  the 
wood  gave,  and  that  no  reliance  could  be  placed  on  the  observations  made  with  this 
telescope. 

Dunng  the  night  there  were  aurorse  boreales,  and  it  froze.  Wednesday  the  nine- 
teenth the  weather  changed,  the  wind  got  round  to  the  south,  it  was  m'lsty,  mth  an 
wpcarance  of  snow.  It  rained  very  hard  during  the  night,  so  that  no  opportunity 
offered  of  observing  an  eclipse  of  the  moon :  we  only  began,  at  a  quarter  past  four  on 

VOL.  r.  q,  q^ 


Q98 


UUTIIIF.R'S  JOt'RNAL  OP 


Thursday  morning;  the  twcntidh,  to  sec  the  moon,  which  was  then  entirety  cclinsed; 
it  was  very  feebly  distinguishi  d,  perhaps  owin^  to  the  twilight ;  at  u  quarter  past  five  it 
Xud  not  bef(un  to  pass  the  shadow  of  the  earth,  and  sinking  below  tlic  horizon,  it  was 
again  concealed  by  clouds. 

We  continued  to  work  at  what  related  to  the  observations  which  we  had  to  make : 
we  went  to  place  in  the  little  observatory  on  the  mountain  u  pendulum  which  Mr.  Gra. 
ham  h  id  sent,  with  the  sextant.  In  the  same  observatory  an  instrument  was  placed,  for 
taking  the  direction  of  the  meridian.  From  the  time  of  the  sextant  Ix^ing  put  up,  some 
one  of  us  had  slept  every  night  in  the  great  observatory,  in  order  that  the  instruments 
mi^ht  not  Ik:  deranged  or  spoilt. 

The  inhabitants  began  to  bathe  frequently  ;  their  bath  is  so  hot,  that  M.  de  Mauper- 
tuis,  who  wished  to  try  it,  found  that  the  thermometer  of  Reaumur  rose  to  44  tk  grecs 
above  the  freezing  point.  In  their  baths  they  have  a  kind  of  stove,  exactly  asembling 
that  which  I  described  as  in  use  among  them  for  drying  their  com  ;  it  is  as  well  placed 
in  the  corner  of  the  chamber.  When  the  block  of  stone  which  forms  it  Ix'comes  well 
heated,  ihey  throw  water  upon  it,  iuid  the  steam  from  this  water  makes  their  bath ;  they 
generally  go  in  two  together,  each  holding  a  handful  of  twigs,  with  which  they  whip 
each  other,  to  excite  perspiration.  I  have  seen  very  old  men  at  Pello  go  out  of  a  batn 
quite  naked,  and  violently  sweating,  and  i)ass  across  a  court  through  the  frosty  air,  with- 
out receiving  any  injury  from  it.  At  Corten  Niemi,  and  in  the  house  of  every  farmer 
at  all  of  easy  circumstances,  besides  the  room  designed  for  the  bath,  they  have  another, 
larger,  wherein  there  is  a  stove ;  two  or  three  little  square  holes,  of  six  inches  wide, 
serve  for  windows;  here  the  familyssleep  during  the  winter.  In  the  day-time  the  men 
work  at  mending  their  nets  for  the  fishery,  or  making  new  ones ;  the  women  sew,  or 
weave  cloth  :  they  are,  as  it  were,  in  a  hot<house  in  these  rooms,  which  are  called  Porti, 
or  Pyrti.  Small  slips  of  deal,  exceeding  thin,  two  or  three  feet  long,  which  they  light, 
serve  them  instead  of  lamp  or  candle ;  these  slips  of  wood,  which  are  very  dry,  burn  well, 
but  do  not  last  long ;  the  wick,  which  falls  on  on  its  being  consumed,  is  received  into 
dishes  of  snow,  to  prevent  danger  from  fire. 

Thursday  night  we  were  yet  troubled  with  some  of  those  vexatious  small  flies.  At 
night  the  sky  overcast ;  and  Friday  morning  the  twenty,  first  a  quantity  of  snow  fell 
imtil  ten  o'clock  ;  afterwards  the  weather  became  serene :  we  took  advantage  of  it  to 
ascend  the  mountain,  in  order  to  observe  the  direction  of  the  meridian,  and  to  fix  the 
sextant  in  that  direction.  All  night  long  the  weather  was  serene  ;  there  was  not  how- 
ever any  aurora  borealis  i  the  wind  north,  with  a  frost.  The  fine  weather  continued 
all  day,  Saturday  the  twenty -second;  we  passed  it  on  the  mountain,  taking  corresponding 
heights  of  the  sun,  to  regulate  the  pendulum,  and  describing  a  meridian  with  a  stretched 
thread  in  the  great  observatory,  to  prove  the  position  of  the  sextant  in  the  line  of  the 
meridian. 

We  had  placed  in  the  small  observatory  an  instrument,  for  the  purpose  of  having  the 
direction  of  the  meridian  with  respect  to  the  trianjics :  it  was  placed  exactly  ui  the 
point  of  the  last  triangle.  The  telescope  of  this  instrument  being  pointed  to  the  sun  at 
noon,  or  to  a  star  on  its  passing  the  meridian,  was  lowered  vcrticiUly,  and  gave  on  the 
horizon  a  point,  between  which  and  Pullingi  and  Niemi  we  observed  the  angles.  We 
repeated  this  observation  several  times  during  our  stay  at  Pello.  The  fine  weather  con- 
tinued all  night ;  there  were  aurorae  boreales,  and  it  froze  harder  than  on  the  preceding 
night. 

Sunday  the  twe\ity-third,  notwithstanding  the  north  wind  and  the  cold  continued, 
it  was  very  cloudy.    Monday  morning  the  twenty.fourth  the  north  wind  increased;  a 


A  VOYAOE  TO  TIIR  NORTIC. 


aoi) 


hu^  qlinntity  of  ^now  fell,  wliich  however  be^r.in  to  thaw  before  nij^ht.  The  had  wea- 
ther continued  throiij^hnit  '^lu^da}  ilic  tweniy-lifih ;  at  times  it  snowed,  at  others  it 
ruined ;  ull  our  atteiuion  was  occunied  in  preventing  the  {)cnetrution  of  the  snow,  whirh 
the  wind  drilled  throu^^h  the  Hniallest  crevice,  from  Ix-'infj  of  any  injury  to  the  instru- 
mcntH  upon  the  mountain. 

When  we  left  Torneo  we  did  not  exjx-ct  to  meet  with  such  b;id  weather:  and  as 
there  was  not  any  frreat  likelihood  of  its  <  liuu^^in^^,  M.  de  Maupertuis  sent  two  servants 
to  Torneo  for  provisions,  that  is  to  s;»y,  for  flour  and  brandy,  with  bed  clothes  and  rein- 
deers' skins,  which  the  si'verity  of  the  cold  lAvan  to  render  necessary.  We  occupied 
ourselves  variously  during  the  bad  weather ;  we  got  up  barometers,  and  proved  them, 
as  well  a%  the  thermometers,  and  made  places  for  our  observations  on  gravity,  with  the 
diflferent  simple  jK-ndulutr^H  which  we  had  brought  fn)m  Paris. 

There  was  some  apneiu^ance  of  line  weather  during  the  night,  and  the  next  day,  Wed- 
nesday the  twenty-sixtn.  We  were  always  anxiously  looking  for  fine  weather,  in  order 
to  profit  by  it  immediately :  for  this  puqwse  Messrs.  de  Maui^rtuis  and  Celsius  passed 
the  night  on  the  mountain ;  M.  I^*  Munnier  the  following  night ;  but  we  had  constantly 
cloudy  weather,  although  it  was  ice  cold,  and  were  unable  to  make  any  observation  with 
the  sextant,  or  take  the  passage  of  the  bright  part  of  the  Eagle  by  the  fixed  telescop'r,  to 
make  use  of  in  our  experiments  on  the  simple  pendulums. 

The  weather,  so  continually  adverse,  gave  us  much  uneasiness.  We  had  chosen  '  of 
the  Dragon  as  the  most  proper  star  for  the  observation  of  the  sextant :  it  passed  the 
meridian  near  enough  to  the  zenith,  at  the  most  suitable  hour  to  tx:  again  observed  at 
Torneo  ;  but  wc  were  under  continual  apprehension  of  not  finishing  our  obi-ervations 
at  Kittis  sufficiently  in  time :  in  the  interval,  we  were  approaching  the  period  when  we 
should  be  stopped,  not  only  by  our  observations,  but  also  by  the  ice  in  the  river,  which, 
in  the  beginning  of  winter,  and  frequently  for  a  long  time,  serves  as  an  impediment  to 
all  navigation,  but  is  not  sufficiently  strong  to  bear  sledges.  This  difficulty  became  so 
much  the  more  serious  for  us,  from  our  having  to  transport  thither  the  sextant,  the  foot 
of  which  alone  was  extremely  heavy. 

Had  the  weather  been  tolerably  favourable,  and  Ief\  us  without  inquietude  about  the 
success  of  our  operations,  our  residence  at  Pello  would  have  been  pleasant  enough. 
We  formed  a  society  very  much  attached  to  each  other,  had  comfortable  apartments, 
considering  the  country,  and  had  on  the  banks  of  the  river  walks  as  pleasant  as  they 
were  recluse ;  beer,  brandy,  and  water  from  the  river,  supplied  the  place  of  wine ;  and 
if  some  things  were  wanting,  we  had  a  superfluity  of  others.  To-day  two  dozen  of  fat 
moor.game  were  brought  us,  which  cost  us  no  more  than  two  sous  jach,  which  was 
however  much  moi%  than  what  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  were  wont  to  pay  ;  we 
frequently  also  had  woodcocks  and  hares.  M.  Brunius  came  to  see  us  ;  and  some  days 
after  M.  Antilius,  chaplain  of  Kengis,  who  had  been  preceptor  to  M.  Helant,  our  inter- 
preter ;  he  staid  two  days  with  us  at  Pello :  he  shewed  us  his  Lapland  almanac ;  it  was 
a  piece  of  wood,  two  feet  lon^,  with  diflierent  characters  engraved  on  its  four  lacrs ;  it 
was  ornamented  at  top  by  a  little  plate  of  silver,  and  at  bottom  with  a  very  long  iron 
ferrel,  badly  made :  he  gave  to  M.  Camus  a  loadstone,  armed,  but  very  weak :  he 
brought  us  in  his  boat  from  Kengis,  beer,  poultry,  and  barley-bread  spiced.  M.  de 
Maupertuis  presented  him  with  several  bottles  of  excellent  French  brandy.  We  had 
the  comfort  of  receiving  news  from  France  almost  every  week,  for  the  post  arrives 
weekly  at  Tomeo ;  and  although  we  were  thirty  leagues  distant,  our  letters  were  quickly 
delivered.  .  .  • 

0.^2 


( 


•  i; 


500  OVTHIU'I  JOtTBNAL  Of 

Holy  Thursday  the  twenty. seventh,  at  ninht,  the  Iwuromefer  got  up  n  line ;  tlic  sky 
ahvayii  coven*(l  with  the  name  north  wind,  but  Icm  cold  during  the  dav,  no  tluit  the  Hnow 
wuH  nearly  all  melted.  It  froac  again  during  tlv:  night ;  and  at  lengtn,  on  Saturday  the 
twenty.ninth,  we  h;id  clear  weather. 

Wc  {Kishcd  all  the  niorniiif^  on  the  mountain,  verifying  the  position  of  the  sextant  in 
tlic  line  of  the  mcridiun,  and  regulating  the  |K*ndulum  of  Mr.  (jrahtm  bjr  corresponding 
heighti,  in  the  little  observatory  where  it  was  placed. 

1  began,  in  the  apartment  where  the  stone  shaft  was,  to  observe  tlie  vibr.itions  of  a 
simple  pendulum  ;  it  was  l.  bar  of  well  polished  iron,  somewlwt  thiclier  Ik'Iow  than  at 
tlie  top,  where  it  was  open,  and  sus[)rndcd  on  u  pivot  of  steel,  made  like  a  knife.  I  coni< 
pared  the  vibrations  of  this  simpk*  pendulum  with  tlie  vibratkms  of  an  excellent  second 

Ecndiilum  of  M.  Julicn  Lc  Roi,  placed  in  the  same  npurtnneni,  and  which  waa  regulated 
y  the  fixed  stars. 

At  night  we  observed  the  passing  of  the  bright  part  of  the  £agle  by  the  fixed  teleacope; 
but  we  were  not  yet  able  to  make  any  observation  with  the  sextant ;  we  onlv  fitted  it 
more  exactly  in  the  Unc  of  the  meridian.  It  was  very  cokl  in  the  night.  Sunday  morn. 
ing  the  thirtieth  tlie  thermometer  was  eight  degrees  bcbw  the  frrrainff  point,  and  dw 
edges  of  the  river  were  frozen  the  thickness  of  ten  lines.  It  waa  very  nne  tdl  day  ;  but 
at  night  cloudy,  with  snow,  which  continued  on  Monday  the  first  of  October.  I  had 
gone  on  with  my  observations  on  the  sim{)le  pendulum  :  on  Monday  M.  de  Maupertuis 
came  to  continue  them  with  me,  and  went  to  the  mountain  in  the  evenbg,  where  he 
remained  all  night  with  Messrs.  Monnicr  and  Celsuus ;  ti«ey  passed  all  Tuesday  the  se> 
cond  there  oii  well,  which  was  u  tolerably  line  day,  and  at  length  began  to  talie  obscrva* 
tions  with  the  sextant.  It  hud  not  thawed  throughout  the  day,  notwithstanding  the  sun 
WDs  out  for  some  time,  still  we  did  not  much  feel  the  cold.  The  following  niglit  it  was  so 
extreme,  that  the  river  was  frozen  almost  totlic  middle  by  Wednesday  morning  the  third; 
at  the  edges  the  ice  was  from  fourteen  to-  fifteen  lines  thick.  Scarcelv  a  night  passed 
^vithout  aurorae  boreales.  Game  and  birds  became  every  day  more  plentiful ;  we  sa\T 
large  flocks  of  ducks  on  the  river;  and  frequently  heard  the  cry  of  cranes  and  storks>  as 
they  flew  over  us. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  came  in  the  morning  from  the  mountain  to  the  apartment  of  the 
stone  shaft,  where  I  was  continuing  experiments  on  the  simple  pendulums,  dming  the 
time  of  the  stay  of  the  others  of  our  party  on  the  mountain,  occupied  with  their  obserra- 
tions.  M.  de  Maupertuis  divided  his  attention  between  one  and  the  other.  This  evening 
he  received  a  letter  from  M.  dc  Maurepas,  which  he  communicated  to  us ;  it  was  highly 
complimentary  in  what  regarded  us. 

Tne  weather  was  still  cold,  and,  although  cloudy,  it  never  (ailed  to  freeze  at  night. 
Thursday  the  fourth  it  was  more  mild,  and  very  fine,  and  at  night  we  made  our  observa. 
tions  as  well  as  we  could  desire :  M.  de  Maupertuis,  M.  Camus  and  myself,  that  on  the 
bright  port  of  the  Eagle  with  the  fixed  telescope ;  and  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Le  Monnier, 
and  Celsius,  that  on  the  star  /  of  the  Drapon,  with  the  sextant.  The  two  following  days, 
the  fifth  and  sixth,  it  continued  fine,  and  ve  again  made  the  same  observations.  At  the 
sextant  we  always  observed  three  together,  and  not  every  day  the  three  same  persons  :  one 
counted  the  pendulum,  and  another  attended  to  the  micrometer,  while  the  person  observ- 
ing through  the  telesco[)e  moved  it  backward  or  forward  by  the  micrometer,  without 
looking  to  it  before  he  saw  the  star  cut  by  the  thread  of  the  telescojx:,  and  pass  through 
its  whole  scope. 

Sunday  the  seventh  the  weather  continued  fine ;  but  unfortunately  during  the  obser.. 
vation  a  motion  was  communicated  to  the  sextant,  which  made  us  suspicious  of  error. 


I 


A  \OYAnr.  TO  TMR  NOHTIJ. 


301 


Monday  the  (iglith,  Mill  liiu'  wrutlicr ;  tlic  ohwrvnlioti  at  ni^ht  wa-t  |)«*rfcrtlv  made  : 
the  cold  incrt'n<ial,  and  the  ice  in  tlic  river,  wliii  li  li.ul  tlia\ve<l,  iippiurcd  ii^  tin.  i'ncvlay 
live  iiiiitli  wafi  cloiuly.  VV«lne«liiy  the  tiiuh  line,  uiul  our  ol)vrv»tiof»«*  were  very  urll 
made  ;  Init  time  wtw  uo  lonj^vr  allowed  *>(  morr,  aiwl  M.  dc  Maiipertiiin  was  |Krfe('tly 
^utikfMtd  with  tlioMe  alremly  maile.  All  tlurtc  by  the  tcx  uiit  gave  the  Hiime  dintattce  ot  the 
»tar  /  otthc  Dragon  i'rom  the  zenith,  within  two  or  ll»ree  Jiccondi.  The  dift'crcnt  oli^cr. 
viitions  on  the  simple  |)cndiiliimt  hud  ul.so  Ixren  made  with  all  |K>s'»il)le  care,  hut  did  not 
^ive  the  same  result  to  c(|ual  ninety.  Two  of  iIkihc  i)endulumA  were  hnrs  of  iroii,  well 
|x>li»ltcd  i  one  e.ylindricul,  tunicd ;  the  otlrr  lozenge. niia|)e(U  with  four  sitlci :  three  others 
of  these  penduhimN  were  nuide  with  u  ImiII  of  hnisM,  lilled  with  lead,  strongly  Holdered  to 
a  riMl  of  steel,  at  the  end  of  which  it  was  sustKuded  upon  two  knive!i. 

VVetlnetNluy  nighl,  when  I  returned  to  Corten  Niemi  to  Puraincse,  I  found  M.  dc 
Muupcrtuis  come  bnck  from  the  mountain,  who  acquainted  me  with  the  result  of  tite 
observatiom  on  Uic  simple  |iciKlulum»,  and  told  me  Ik  was  desirous  that  at  least  one  of 
the  ball  |jendulums,  instead  of  Ix-ing  suspended  on  two  knives,  should  Ik>  huiif^  on  a  ring, 
or  ruthcr  u  simple  shaft,  lixed  at  the  extremity  of  the  rod  of  the  pendulum  :  thi«*,  on  the 
next  dtiy,  I  eftcctcd ;  in  retunung  from  one  side  to  the  other,  its  motion  was  more  uni< 
form  than  it  had  been  when  hung  on  two  knives.  I  took  away  the  bull  from  another  of 
these  penduloms^  and  substituted  a  lentil,  in  order  to  determine,  whether,  the  resistance  of 
the  air  inm^g  leas,  Uicrc  would  not  be  a  dili'crence  in  tlic  movements  of  the  pendulum ; 
there  did  not  appear  to  l)c  any. 

Thursday  the  eleventh  the  weather  had  become  very  mild,  but  there  was  a  thick  fog, 
which  cndoel  in  rain ;  and  atlerwards  there  was  nothing  but  a  succession  of  fog  and  rain  : 
if  at  any  tunc  some  short  intervals  of  clear  weather  occurred,  they  never  happened  at 
such  hours  as  were  seasonable  for  our  observations.  Any  man,  except  M.  de  Maupcr- 
tuis,  ^tould  hare  been  satislicd  with  those  we  had  already  made,  as  well  with  the  sextant 
as  the  sim|>ic  pendulum  ;  he  however  mshcd  to  wait  for  a  return  of  Rnc  weather,  to  repeat 
theiMb  Wc  hud  now  readied  the  twentieth  of  October,  without  luiy  appearance  ot  it ; 
the  barometers  rose  several  lines,  and,  notwithstanding,  wc  had  continually  either  fogs, 
rain,  or  snow,  which  melted  as  it  fell.  In  case  the  weather  should  Ixicome  clear,  tlic 
season  being  far  advanced,  wc  ran  great  risk  of  being  detained  at  Pcllo  at  least  for  a 
month :  there  would  have  been  a  (h)st  sufficiently  sharp  to  freeze  the  river ;  and  as  long 
as  this  remained,  without  becoming  much  more  severe,  the  ice  would  have  prevented  the 
navigation  of  the  river,  without  benig sufficiently  hard  to  bear  sledges.  Besides,  it  was 
desirable  to  suffer  as  short  an  interval  as  possible  to  elapse,  between  the  observations  made 
at  Pello  and  those  to  be  made  at  Tonieo. 

All  Saturday,  and  Sunday  the  twenty-first,  was  passed  in  deliberating  on  what  should 
be  done ;  and  at  last,  the  bad  weather  still  continuing,  wc  determined  on  going.  Mon- 
day morning,  the  twenty-second,  we  went  up  the  mountain,  and  took  down  the  sextant 
and  a!!  the  instruments,  which  kept  us  employed  till  five  in  the  evening,  when  we  returned 
to  Corten  Niemi. 

Tuesday  morning  the  twenty-third,  the  sextant,  part  of  the  simple  pendulums,  the 
pendulum  of  M.  Le  Roi,  and  almost  all  the  instruments,  were  put  on  board  five  boats  ; 
Messrs.  C;)mns  and  Celsius  embarked  at  the  same  time,  to  fhll  down  to  Tomeo,  and 
prepare  there  a  prO|ier  place  to  fix  the  sextant  in,  and  to  make  observations  upon  it.  On 
arriving  at  Oswer  Tomeo  they  took  fresh  boats,  and  sent  back  the  five  they  took  from 
Ptrllo :  Messrs.  Clairaut  and  Le  Monnier  set  off  the  next  day  in  the  afternoon,  with 
three  of  these  boats.  We  should  have  departed  together,  but  the  presence  of  all  of  us 
at  Tomeo  was  not  indispensable  during  the  preparation  of  a  place  for,  and  fixing  the 


302 


OUTIIIKU'S  JOURNAL  OP 


1 


sextant ;  and  M.  de  Maupertuis  was  yet  desirous  of  making,  for  two  days  longer,  some 
experiments  on  the  simple  pendulums.  We  continued  tlierefore  those  which  we  had 
bei'orc  begun;  but  as  the  weather  was  still  bad,  and  we  co.ild  make  no  observations 
with  the  fixed  teles:  ope,  to  ascertain  the  motion  of  the  pendulum  of  Mr.  Graham,  which 
we  had  reserved,  M.  de  Maupertuis,  fearful  of  \x'mg  detained  too  long  a  time,  if  the 
river  should  happen  to  be  frozen,  resolved  on  our  departure  the  next  day.  He  wished 
to  make  experiments  of  gravity,  without  interruption,  by  the  pendulum  of  Mr.  Graham, 
which  for  some  days  back  we  had  placed  in  the  apartment  of  the  stone  shaft :  we  there- 
fore left  it  at  Pello,  with  the  other  simple  pendulums  which  had  not  been  tried,  designing 
to  come  back  in  a  sledge  during  the  winter,  when  we  were  given  to  understand  we  might 
expect  a  very  serene  sky. 

Friday  the  twenty-sixth  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Sommereux,  Helant  and  myself, 
embarked  for  Tomeo  :  we  dined  at  Hyougsing,  in  the  house  where  we  had  been  so  well 
received  the  thirtieth  of  July,  and  by  night  reached  the  house  of  M.  Brunius.  The 
sailors  who  brought  us  from  Pello  knew  the  danger  to  which  they  were  exposed,  by 
being  at  any  great  distance  from  home  at  such  a  season :  they  were  apprehensive,  if  the 
frost  began,  of  being  stopped  by  the  ice  in  the  river  on  their  return ;  on  which  account 
they  besought  us  to  take  others  for  the  continuation  of  our  voyage.  We  took  four  at 
Osv'er  Torneo,  and  departed  early  on  Saturday  morning  the  twenty-seventh.  We  dined 
at  Coifwunkyla,  at  a  friendly  farmer's,  whose  nephew,  then  in  the  house  with  him,  spoke 
Latin.  M.  de  Mauper:uis  made  him  dine  with  us ;  and  we  were  looked  upon  with  great 
curiosity  by  all  the  family. 

We  did  not  land  to  go  down  the  cataract  Waojenna,  which  was  frightful,  as  much 
from  the  contrary  wind,  as  the  great  abundance  of  water ;  for  many  years  the  river  had 
not  been  so  much  swollen  at  that  season.  The  cataract  Macka  was  so  strong  and  impe- 
tuous, that  not  only  did  we  land,  but  the  sailors  themselves  were  obliged  to  unload  their 
boats,  to  carry  their  loading  along  the  bank  of  the  river  for  the  space  of  ftom  one  hun- 
dred to  one  hundred  and  fifty  toises,  and  aftenvards  to  pull  their  boats  ashore,  and  drag 
them  the  same  distance,  to  launch  them  again  into  the  water  below  the  cataract ;  there 
they  loaded  them  afresh,  and  we  embarked.  We  reckoned  upon  sleeping  at  Tohiwolan 
Sari,  where  we  had  before  slept  on  the  third  of  September ;  but  at  five  o'clock,  getting 
dark,  and  the  bad  v/eather  continuing,  we  landed  at  tlie  house  of  Frankila,  belonging  to 
a  very  hospitable  faimer,  where  we  fared  pretty  well ;  we  slept  there,  as  usual,  some  on 
Ijenches,  some  on  tables,  and  others  on  the  floor. 

Sunday  morning  the  twenty -eighth  the  sky  became  serene,  and  our  watermen,  fearful 
of  cold  and  ice,  set  off  with  us  a  long  time  before  day-light ;  they  would  not  allow  us  to 
remain  in  the  boats  at  the  cataract  of  Kukula,  belov*'  which  we  again  went  on  board. 
We  saw  a  numiaer  of  swans  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  We  passed  over  the  isthmus  of 
Nara  in  our  boats,  where  the  waters  of  the  river  formed  a  little  cataract,  entirely  sur- 
rounding  with  water  the  town  of  Torneo. 

M.  Piping,  the  burgomaster,  could  spare  us  no  more  than  four  apartments,  one  of 
which  was  required  for  our  servants :  we  were  vtry  well  able  to  bear  with  being  a  little 
straitened  for  room,  where  we  passed  a  few  days  only  at  his  house ;  but  now  having  to 
pass  ihe  winter  ut  Torneo,  vvc  sought  to  lodge  more  comfortably.  Instead  therefore  of 
landing  at  M.  Piping's,  at  his  house  of  Nara,  at  the  village  of  Matila,  we  advanced  far. 
ther  with  our  boats,  and  landed  pretty  nigh  the  town-house,  and  proceeded  to  the  house 
of  a  citizen,  who  had  provided  for  us  a  dining  parlour  and  two  bed  rooms,  which  Messrs. 
Le  Monnitr  and  Celsius  chose  for  themselves ;  Messrs.  Camus  and  Herbelot  lodged  ia 
the  same  street,  with  M.  Planstron ;  M.  Clairaui  lodged  at  M.  Creuger's ;  and  M.  de 


4 


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303 


Maupcrtuis  with  M.  Piping,  a  relation  of  the  burgomaster.  M.  Helant  went  to  his 
father's,,  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  town.  There  were  then  only  M.  Sommcrcux 
and  myself  unaccommodated.  M.  dc  Maupcrtuis  found  a  spare  room  at  the  house  of  his 
host  for  M.  Sommereux,  with  whom  he  had  frequent  business,  as  he  stood  in  the  double 
capacity  jf  secretary  and  treasurer.  M.  Herbelot,  who  had  stopped  at  Torneo,  and 
knew  the  town,  took  me  to  Madame  Tornbery's,  mother-in-law  of  M.  Rockman,  the 
surgeon  :  I  there  found  an  apartment,  which  was  very  quickly  pu.  in  order,  and  where 
I  lodged  during  the  whole  of  my  residence  at  Torneo.  All  the  others  ^  ere  in  the 
same  street,  along  the  margin  of  the  water ;  I  alone  was  in  the  second  street,  but  di- 
rectly opposite  to  M.  de  Maupcrtuis'  lodgings,  a  back  door  of  which  led  into  my  street. 

Torneo  is  a  little  town,  of  about  seventy  houses,  which  are  all  built  of  wood :  there 
are  three  parallel  streets,  extending  from  north  to  south,  a  little  towards  the  turning  at 
the  bank  of  a  branch  of  the  river,  which  is  nothi»;g  but  a  bay  during  the  summer,  when 
the  town  is  not  entirely  surrounded  by  water  j  these  three  principal  streets  are  crossed 
by  fourteen  lanes.  The  church,  which  also  is  of  wood,  is  somewhat  separated  from  the 
houses,  although  within  the  palisades  which  surround  the  town,  and  which  as  well  in- 
closes a  space  of  ground  which  is  cultivated,  of  rather  considerable  extent. 

In  this  church  the  prayers  are  read  in  the  Swedish  language,  on  account  of  the 
burghers,  who  speak  that  language.  The  town  and  this  church  are  situated  in  an 
island  or  peninsula,  called  Swentzlar.  There  is  another  church,  built  with  stone,  in 
another  bland,  called  Biorckholm,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the  south  of  the  town  :  here 
the  service  is  "ead  in  the  Finnish  language,  for  the  benefit  of  the  servants  of  the  town 
and  the  peasantry  of  the  neighbourhood,  very  few  of  whom  understand  tlie  Swedish. 
The  house  of  the  rector  is  near  the  second  church,  and  he  is  unable  to  go  to  the  city, 
except  by  a  boat,  or  over  the  ice.  In  1737  there  were,  besides,  4hree  curates  or  chap- 
lains, who  assisted  the  rector,  and  preached  or  read  the  service  sometimes :  they  all 
dwelt  to  the  west  of  the  river,  and  came  to  town  over  the  ice  in  winter,  and  in  summer 
in  boats,  to  avoid  the  greater  length  of  road  by  Nara.  One  of  these  chaplains  wiis  di- 
rector  of  the  schools,  and  came  every  day  to  town ;  it  was  M.  Viguiliers,  of  whom  I 
have  spoken,  and  who  came  very  frequently  to  see  us. 

All  the  houses  in  town  as  well  as  country  have  a  large  court,  inclosed  at  least  on 
two  sides  by  apartments,  and  on  the  two  others  by  stables  and  hay  sheds. 

In  the  country  these  courts  are  perfectly  square ;  in  town  they  are  oblong.  The 
sleeping-rooms  have  the  chimney  in  the  comer,  as  was  the  case  in  all  of  ours  :  the  chim- 
ney-places are  no  more  thai#from  two  feet  and  a  half  to  three  feet  wide,  by  four  or 
four  feet  and  a  half  high.  Above  the  chimney-piece  there  is  a  very  narrow  horizontal 
slit,  in  which  a  plate  of  iron  is  inserted,  called  Spihel,  in  order  to  shut  the  funnel  of  the 
chimney  entirely,   or  in  part,  at  will. 

When  they  make  a  fire  the  wood  is  placed  upright  in  sufficiently  large  quantity,  and 
as  soon  as  lighted  it  is  speedily  reduced  to  charcoal ;  the  spihel  is  then  shut,  and  a  de- 
gree of  heat  proportionate  to  their  wish  is  communicated  to  the  apartment.  In  my 
room  I  made  the  thermometer  of  Reaumur  rise  to  thirty -six  degrees  above  the  freezing 
point,  at  a  time  when  the  passes  of  my  windows  were  covered  with  ice.  A  candle 
placed  in  a  candlestick  near  the  window  became  so  soft,  that  it  bent  and  fell. 

In  the  country,  the  bed-ropms  and  the  kitchen  are  made  pretty  nearly  in  the  same 
manner  as  in  town  ;  the  chimneys  are  made  of  brick  and  unhewn  stones,  which  is  the 
only  mason's  work  known  in  the-country :  frequenUy,  under  the  same  chimney-flue,  near 
the  fire  in  the  kitchen,  they  have  an  oven  for  baking  bread ;  and  sometimes  an  alembiu 
for  distilling  brandy  from  barley. 


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OUTHIER'S  JOURNAL  01' 


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1  y 


\      •'; 


Beyond  Tonieo,  in  going  up  the  river,  every  countr}'man  has  a  kind  of  pavilion,  whicli 
they  call  Cotta,  larger  at  top  than  at  the  bottom,  and  higher  than  the  rest  of  the  house, 
at  top  of  which,  at  the  end  of  a  long  pole,  is  a  weather- cock.  Close  to  the  window  of  the 
cotta,  without  the  house,  there  is  a  well ;  through  the  window  the  water  is  made  to 
pass  into  cauldrons,  where  it  is  heated,  and  where  snow  for  the  cattle  is  sometimes  thawed ; 
occasionally  as  well  they  make  their  brandy  there.  Moreover  they  have  their  granaries, 
which  are  several  small  apartments  separate  from  the  house,  their  baths,  their  rooms  for 
drying  and  threshing  their  barley,  somewhat  resembling  their  baths ;  and  besides,  their 
kitchen,  and  room  called  Pyrty ,  of  which  1  have  before  spoken ;  ordinarily  they  have  two 
verj'  decent  rooms  for  strangers,  to  whom  they  always  offer  the  best  in  every  thing. 

The  burghers  in  town,  no  more  than  the  country  people,  use  above  one  blanket  on  their 
beds,  a  coverlid  of  white  hare.skin  serves  instead  of  a  second.  Many  of  these  farmers 
have  silver  forks,  large  spoons,  and  goblets ;  with  those  who  are  less  rich  they  arc  of 
wood :  they  are  kin'^,  studious  of  making  themselves  serviceable,  and  perfectly  honest. 

I  said  bcibre  that  every  farmer  had  his  magazines :  the  greater  part  of  those  of  Tor- 
neo  are  along  the  side  of  the  river.  This  magazine  is  a  room  built  of  wood,  Kke  the 
others,  but  raised  from  the  ground ;  many  even  placed  over  the  water,  on  four  or  six 
blocks  of  stone,  to  keep  away  rats :  they  get  up  to  them  by  a  wooden  ladder,  which  is 
divided  from  the  door  by  the  space  of  a  foot.  It  is  in  this  room  that  they  inclose  a  good 
part  of  their  provision.  Those  who  are  in  easy  circumstances  h;;(ve  several  of  these  ma- 
gazines. 

They  are  forbid  having  many  coats  of  the  same  colour :  they  are  not  allowed  to  wear 
any  cloth  coat,  which  is  not  marked  in  the  folds  with  the  king's  signet ;  any  venturing 
to  do  so  would  have  it  seized.  There  are  officers,  whose  duty  it  is  to  go  from  house  to 
house,  to  see  if  the  chimney-places  are  properly  kept ;  if  diey  have  a  lanthom ;  in  short, 
if  every  thing  be  in  proper  order. 

They  are  forbidden  also,  under  a  penalty  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  being  present  at 
the  mass  of  the  Catholics,  to  whom  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  only  permit  the  exercise  of 
their  religion  in  closed  apartments. 

They  season  all  their  meats  with  sugar,  saffron,  ^nger,  lemon  and  orange-peel,  and 
mix  cummin  in  all  their  bread.  The  ordinary  drink  is  beer,  which  thev  make  very 
good :  they  have  a  little  white  wine  a^.  Tomeo,  which  they  call  Vin  de  l^icardon ;  all 
red  wines  they  call  Pontacte,  Many  country  people  know  nothing  of  red  wine  ;  some 
of  those  who  followed  us  to  the  mountjuns,  seeing  us  drjnk  of  it,  imagined  we  were 
drinking  t'     blood  of  the  sheep  we  had  bought  of  them.  "^ 

Along  *'  e  river  there  are  nouses  from  space  to  space,  a  certain  number  of  which, 
although'  v-ery  widely  dispersed,  make  up  a  village.  All  those  from  Tomeo,  to  a  spot 
beyon  the  cataract  of  Waojenna,  belong  to  the  parish  of  that  town ;  and  all  north  of 
ti,"  cataract  to  that  of  Oswer  Tomeo,  that  is  to  say,  Upper  Tomeo. 

In  this  parish  of  Upper  Tomeo  there  are  as  well  two  churches;  the  chief  at  Sarki 
Lushti,  where  the  rector  Brunius  lives ;  the  other  at  Hieta  Niemi,  where  service  is  some^ 
times  performed,  for  the  convenience  of  those  parishioners  at  too  great  a  distance  from 
the  principal  church.  Besides  those,  there  is  a  chapel  at  Keiins,  with  a  chaplain,  who 
does  the  duty  of  the  rector.  The  villages  the  most  apart  are  Turtula  and  Pello ;  at  the 
first  are  only  nine  houses ;  at  Pello  are  seventeen,  nine  or  ten  of  which  are  nearly  con- 
tiguous to  each  other. 

At  Pello,  the  ninth  of  September,  there  was  rye  already  up,  very  green  and  promising. 
They  cultivate  the  land  with  shovels  and  spades  alone,  and  know  nothing  of  either 
ploughs  or  carts.    The  second  of  October,  as  the  eardi  was  much  frozen,  they  suflered 


i! 
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if 
'if 


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A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


305 


their  horses  to  graze  this  fine  rye.  They  sow  barley  at  the  earliest  in  May,  but  generally 
in  June,  and  it  iii  ripe  in  the  beginning  of  August,  as  well  as  the  rye  ;  they  then  reap  it 
with  a  sickle,  the  same  as  in  France.  All  the  barley  is  round-eared,  and  makes  a  very 
welUtasted  bread.  The  inhabitants  have  near  their  houses  long  poles,  placed  horizon- 
tally, into  holes  made  in  two  or  three  upright  beams ;  the  whole  forms  a  kind  of  ladder, 
very  wide,  on  which  diey  expose  their  barley  to  the  rays  of  the  sun,  during  the  remainder 
of  the  month  of  August,  while  it  yet  appears  for  some  time  above  the  horizon  :  when 
the  season  is  adverse,  they  take  them  into  the  rooms  set  apart  foi  .hreshing ;  they  place 
them  on  large  ladders,  with  the  ears  downwards,  so  that  birds,  no^  being  able  to  perch 
on  them,  should  do  them  no  damage. 

Their  harrows  are  contrived  very  ingeniously  ;  they  are  composed  of  small  pieces  of 
wood,  which  are  fastened  together  very  much  m  the  manner  of  certain  chains  made  for 
watches :  there  are  several  ranges  of  the^e  pieces,  each  range  consisting  of  twelve ;  the 
first  rank  hung  entirely  upon  two  cross  pieces,  to  which  the  harness  is  fastened,  by  which 
»he  horse  draws. 

In  all  the  country  through  which  we  passed  scarcely  any  other  trees  were  seen  but  fir 
and  birch.  In  the  islands  of  the  Gulph  of  Bothnia  there  grows  a  tree  resembling  the 
acacia ;  it  bears  bunches  of  white  flowers,  which  turn  to  berries  of  a  very  lively  red : 
there  are  a  number  of  these  trees  in  the  church-yard  of  Torneo :  no  use  is  made  of  their 
fruit.  A  little  to  the  sou  *h  of  Torneo,  in  West-Bothnia,  a  tree  is  met  with,  of  a  middling 
size :  some  of  them  have  leaves  which  resemble  those  of  the  pear-tree ;  others  resembling 
cherry  leaves ;  this  tree  bears  bunches  of  white  flowers ;  it  is  called  Eque. 

At  Torneo,  and  even  beyond  Uhma,  there  are  no  fruit  trees ;  we  did  not  find  either 
black  or  white  thorn,  nor  even  bramble  :  strawberries,  however,  grow  even  north  of 
Torneo,  with  some  currants,  and  wild  roses.  North  of  Torneo  no  raspberries  are  met 
with ;  they  have  yet  however  a  good  sort  of  fruit,  which  they  cail  Ocrubeus ;  it  is  be- 
tween a  raspberry  and  a  strawberry,  and  of  a  size  between  both ;  its  leaf  resembles  that 
of  a  raspberry,  its  height  is  inconsiderable,  its  stem  v/oody :  it  bears  a  red  flower, 
which  turns  to  a  red  fruit,  pleasing  to  the  taste.  In  some  of  the  islands  of  the  Gulf 
white-flowered  ocrubeus  are  met  virith ;  they  be  ir  five  or  six  white  flowers  on  the  same 
stalk,  very  much  like  the  raspberry,  while  the  red- flowered  ocrubeus  has  seldom  more 
than  one  flower  on  each  stalk. 

They  have  also  some  other  fruits:  the  hiouteron,  a  sojt  of  mulberry ;  its  stem  resem- 
bles that  of  the  ocrubeus,  five  or  six  inches  high,  and  its  fruit,  on  ripening,  becomes 
yellow ;  it  is  found  in  marshes  and  meadows.  In  dry  places,  in  the  woods,  lingen  is 
met  with ;  it  grows  on  a  small  plant,  whose  leaves  are  like  box ;  the  stems,  after  creep- 
ing in  nearly  tne  same  manner  as  verenica  for  four  or  five  inches,  lift  themselves  up, 
and  bear  at  their  extremities  a  bunch  of  very  pretty  bell-shaped  flowers,  of  a  purple  co- 
lour, which  in  autumn  produce  red  berries,  a  litde  sour ;  the  flavour  like  that  of  our 
barberry  :  this  fruit,  notwithstanding  its  sharpness,  frequently  incloses  a  small  worm. 
The  blober  is  another  fruit  of  this  country ;  it  is  a  small  black  berry,  which  is  often 
met  with  in  different  places  of  Normandy,  and  in  the  mountains  of  Franche  Compt^. 
That  of  the  north  is  of  two  kinds :  one  is  at  most  but  five  or  six  inches  high,  the  leaves 
of  a  bright  green,  and  the  fruit  of  a  fine '  'lack  ;  the  other  is  above  a  foot  high,  and  has 
the  leaves  and  fruit  somewhat  of  an  ash  colour ;  both  one  and  the  other  have  leaves 
similar  to  those  of  the  myrtle. 

Besides  fir  and  birch,  there  are  some  sallows,  and  here  and  there  aspins,  very  higli 
andstrai^t  ...  '•«, 

VOL.   I.  ^  R    ft 


fc 


f   '■'■ 


I" 


1  ir 


}        ' 

1     '- 

i 

i      ;l' 

306 


OUTIllKR'S  JOUUNAL  OF 


111  ihc  meadows  is  seen  a  kind  of  narcissus,  very  pretty  :  the  leaf  is  thick,  and  hkc 
that  of  clover ;  it  is  culled  Sceptrum  Carolinum,  and  kno\vn  to  the  French  botanists  by 
the  same  name.  We  saw  a  small  lily  of  the  valley,  much  less  »han  ours,  whose  leaf  was 
heart-shaped.  They  have  also  pirola,  golden  rod,  cudweed,  or  goldy  locks,  and  a  plant 
%vith  long  leaves,  whose  root  has  two  bulbs ;  it  bears,  on  a  lofty  stem,  a  bunch  of  hood- 
shaped  flowers ;  they  arc  not  handsome,  but  have  exactly  the  same  smell  as  honeysuckle. 
There  is,  besides,  a  sort  of  serpent's  tongue,  or  herb  without  partition,  a  great  quantity 
of  small  shrubs,  which  they  call  small  broom ;  most  of  the  marshes  are  full  of  them. 

Monday,  and  Tuesday  the  twenty-ninth,  after  our  arrival  at  Tomeo,  were  employed 
in  putting  the  observatory  in  order,  where  the  sextant  was  to  be  placed.  M.  Hellander, 
the  host  of  Messrs.  Lc  Monnier  and  Celsius,  and  at  whose  house  we  dined,  had  a  room, 
like  the  cotta  before  described,  which  was  very  fit  for  our  purpose.  We  dug  into  the 
ground  beneath  it,  to  fix  the  more  firmly  some  large  stones,  on  which,  as  a  base,  we  were 
to  place  the  sextant :  we  opened  the  ceiling  of  this  room,  as  we  had  before  done  with 
that  of  Pello ,  and  M.  Stenols,  a  Swede,  sent  into  that  country  to  visit  the  mines,  made 
a  pull,  of  very  ingenious  contrivance,  to  lift  with  ease,  and  quickly,  the  covering  of  the 
opening  of  the  roof,  when  it  was  necessary  to  make  an  observation. 

Wednesday  the  thirtieth,  the  sky  being  clear,  we  hastened  to  place  the  sextant. 
Messrs.  Le  Monnier  and  Celsius  had  already  marked  the  direction  of  the  meridian  in 
our  new  observatory  •  we  verified  it  anew ;  and  in  the  evening  the  sextant  was  ready, 
so  that  we  made  an  observation  on  the  star  of  the  dragon,  which  we  had  observed  at 
fello.  We  moved  the  sextant,  but  in  the  slightest  manner  imaginable,  to  place  it  more 
exactly  in  the  line  of  the  meridian ;  and  we  continued  taking  observations  every  day, 
the  fair  weatHer  continuing  to  the  seventh  of  the  next  month. 

The  weather  was  fine,  but  very  cold,  and  Thursday  the  first  of  November  the  river 
AVas  entirely  frozen  over,  between  the  town  and  Hapa  Niemi :  no  one  however  passed 
over  as  yet  upon  the  ice ;  but  the  waters  liaving  somewhat  subsided,  people  passed  from 
stone  to  stone  to  the  isthmus  of  Nara. 

We  saw  ourselves  now  established  in  the  tOTvn  for  all  the  winter ;  each  was  obliged 
to  make  hic  own  individual  arrangements,  and  at  the  same  time  to  attend  to  whatever 
conccnied  the  operations  and  object  of  our  voyage.  From  the  observatory,  where  the 
sextant  was,  we  could  not  see  the  horizon,  nor  make  any  other  observations  than  with 
the  sextant.  \\'e  caused  another  small  observatory  to  be  built  on  the  side  of  the  water, 
entirely  separated  from  the  houses  of  the  town :  the  little  English  instrument  was  placed 
here,  which  served  to  take  the  direction  of  the  meridian,  with  a  pendulum,  and  a  quad- 
rant. Messrs.  Lc  Monnier  and  Celsius  took  their  corresponding  heights,  regulated 
the  pendulum,  determined  the  south,  and  a  point  at  the  horizon,  by  the  means  of  which, 
with  the  little  English  instrument,  we  always  found  again  the  pascage  of  the  stars  over 
the  meridian.  We  made  new  barometers.  M.  de  Maupertuis  was  ver)'  careful  through- 
out the  winter  in  noticing  their  variations,  as  well  as  those  of  the  thermometers, 
whether  filled  with  spirits  of  wine  or  mercury,  constructed  upon  the  principles  of  M.  de 
Reaumur. 

Saturday  the  third  the  ice  of  the  river  was  strong  enough  to  allow  of  passing  from 
the  town  to  Hapa  Niemi.  Sunday  the  fourth  M.  Sommereux  and  myself  crossed  it, 
to  go  to  sec  M.  Viguelius  at  his  house  of  Granwik  :  we  were  obliged  to  make  use  of  a 
boat,  to  go  from  the  shore  to  the  ice,  and  again  from  the  ice  to  land ;  a  south  wind  had 
swelled  the  river,  by  driving  up  the  waters  of  the  gulf,  which  caused  the  ice  to  break 
along  the  sides.  The  vrater,  notwithstanding,  was  much  lower  than  on  the  twenty-eighth 
of  October,  when  we  passed  in  a  boat  over  the  isthmus  of  Nara ;  we  crossed  it  on  foot. 


A  VOYAGK  TO  THE  NOUTll- 


oO*. 


returning  from  Granwik  to  the  town ;  it  is  true,  we  were  obliged  to  step  irom  stone  to 
stone.  The  ice,  owing  to  the  rapidity  of  the  water,  was  not  firm  there,  although  the  cold 
was  so  intense  tliat  our  shoes  were  glued  to  die  stones,  upon  our  waiting  only  for  t^venty 
seconds  in  the  sjime  place.  M.  Marilius,  a  surveyor,  arrived  from  Stockholm,  to  sec 
our  o|x*rations :  he  was  sent  by  M.  Nodelcreutz,  director  of  the  office  established  at  Stock- 
holm for  geograpliv,  and  charts  and  maps  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  M.  Nodelcreutz  who 
prepared  for  us  in  his  office  the  chiuts  of  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  gulf. 

The  weather  continued  fine,  and  observations  with  the  sextant  were  made  every  day, 
as  well  as  aiuld  be  wished ;  they  were  continued  on  Monday  night  the  fifth ;  but  during 
the  night  it  began  to  snow.  It  continued  on  Tuesday  morning  the  sixth,  and  from  that 
time  till  towards  the  end  of  May,  there  was  neither  ice  nor  earth  to  be  seen,  there  was 
nothing  but  snow.  People  began  travelling  in  sledges  on  the  rivers  and  lakes,  as  if  upon 
land.  Orders  were  issued,  and  almost  as  immediately  executed,  for  planting  small  firs 
on  the  ice  in  avenues  along  all  the  places  through  which  the  road  was  to  go,  which  is 
most  usually  made  over  the  ice,  as  soon  as  sufficiently  strong,  on  account  of  its  being 
more  even,  and  the  shortest  way. 

They  are  obliged  every  year  thus  to  mark  the  road,  witliout  which  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  follow  it,  and  travellers  would  frequently  be  lost  in  the  snow,  when  increased 
to  the  height  of  four  or  five  feet.  The  first  sledges  which  pass  over  the  snow  press  down 
and  harden  it ;  soon  other  snow  falls,  which  fills  up  the  road,  and  which  succeeding 
sledges,  keeping  the  same  path,  harden  anew ;  so  that  by  the  middle  of  winter  the  snows 
which  have  fallen,  or  which  frequently  the  winds  have  drifted  into  the  road,  thus  hiu*- 
dened,  present  a  kind  of  highway,  extremely  hard,  as  high  as  the  rest  of  the  snow  above 
the  ice  or  ground. 

Wednesday  the  seventh  it  was  so  cold,  that  the  thermometers  fell  to  20  degrees  below 
the  freezing  point :  in  the  remarkable  year  of  1709  it  did  not  fall  below  14  i  degrees.  This 
extreme  cold  did  not  last  long.  Thursday  morning  the  eighth  it  was  much  milder. 
Friday  the  ninth,  and  Saturday  the  tenth,  ll  thawed ;  already  a  foot  and  a  half  of  snow 
had  fallen ;  a  good  part  had  thawed ;  but  the  ice  was  not  yet  sufficiently  hard  to  be.'ir. 

Sunday  morning  the  eleventh  the  sky  was  partly  clear,  and  we  prepared  every  thing 
for  observing  the  passage  of  Mercury  over  the  disk  of  the  sun ;  but  fog  succeeding,  we 
were  not  able  to  make  the  least  observation.  The  weather  became  more  cold,  and  it 
froze  very  hard  till  Wednesday  night.  Monday  the  twelfth  was  a  grand  holiday,  the 
feast  of  All  Saints,  according  to  old  stile,  which  is  followed  by  the  Swedes :  in  the  morn- 
ing were  two  services  in  the  church  of  the  town,  and  one  in  die  afternoon. 

The  last  vessels  were  not  yet  returned  from  Stockholm ;  they  were  expected  with 
impatience,  and  much  apprehension  was  entertained  for  them  from  the  north  winds,  and 
more  rij^d  frosts,  which  would  freeze  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia.  It  created  much  joy  on 
Thursday  morning  the  fifteenth,  to  liehold  the  wind  turn  to  the  south :  it  continued 
Friday  the  sixteenth,  ^vith  snow  from  time  to  time,  and  a  beginning  of  thaw,  which 
lasted  throughout  Saturday  the  seventeenth,  and  Sunday  the  eighteenth.  The  wind  was 
continually  south,  and  very  violent ;  the  ice  began  to  be  dangerous ;  a  horse  harnessed 
to  a  sledge  was  drowned,  but  the  men  in  it  were  saved.  The  violence  of  the  ^vind  threw 
so  much  water  from  the  gulf  into  the  river,  that  our  little  observatory  was  already  a  foot 
under  water :  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Le  Monnier  and  myself,  went  in  a  boat,  to  bring 
away  the  quadrant,  the  pendulum,  and  the  English  instrument,  which  however  we  could 
not  effect,  without  being  up  to  the  knees  in  water. 

Miss  Bek,  the  lady  to  whom  the  medicines  were  sent  from  Pello,  was  lately  married 
to  Dr.  Ervaste :  it  was  he  who  preached  on  Sunday ;  the  subject  was,  the  father  of  a 

R  K  2 


;•'■! 


) 


.,., .-^j^.. ac . 


If 


I' 


308 


OUTIIIER'S  JOURNAL  OF 


i':} 


■1| 


family  celebrating  the  nuptials  of  his  son.  Monday  the  nineteenth  the  same  mild  wea- 
ther continued,  with  a  violent  wind.  Thursday  the  twenty- second,  the  interment  of  a 
young  girl,  who  died  the  fourth  of  the  month,  took  place ;  she  was  exposed  for  fifteen 
days  at  ncr  mother's,  with  her  face  uncovered  ;  all  the  in!  ibitants  of  the  town  and  neigh> 
bourhood  attended  the  funeral ;  from  all  quarters  people  were  flocking  in  sledges,  the 
ice  having  become  firm  again,  and  travelling  safe  ;  there  was  only  half  a  foot  of  snow. 
I  went  with  M.  Camus  over  the  ice  to  Matila  on  Friday  the  twenty-third,  to  visit  M. 
Piping,  our  fii^st  host ;  it  was  scarcely  two  o'clock  when  we  saw  the  sun  set. 

The  ships  which  were  expected  from  Stockholm  had  arrived  pretty  near  the  shore  on 
Saturday  the  seventeenth  of  die  month,  but  the  ice  had  prevented  their  reaching  it, 
and  was  not  strong  enough  to  bear  on  sledges  the  merchandise  they  brought ;  many  of 
the  men  had  got  to  the  town  over  the  ice ;  my  host  was  one  of  the  number,  and  had 
arrived  on  Saturday  last.  This  day,  the  twenty-fourth,  the  ice  was  sufliciently  firm,  and 
some  of  the  goods  were  brought  on  shore :  they  consisted  of  grain,  rye,  rice,  cabbages, 
salt,  apples,  and  some  oranges  ;  till  four  days  more  they  did  not  trust  their  heavier  com- 
modities  to  the  ice,  less  aipable  of  bearing,  and  more  dangerous  on  the  gulf  than  what 
it  was  In  the  river. 

Aldiough  the  different  observations  made  at  Tomeo  and  at  Pello  all  agreed  to  two  or 
three  seconds,  and  though  there  was  no  ground  for  suspecting  any  injury  to  have  hap- 
pened to  die  instrument,  in  its  passage  from  Pello  to  Tomeo,  particularly  as  it  was  trans- 
ported in  a  lx)at,  M.  de  Maupertuis,  always  as  scrupulous  as  he  had  been  upon  the  moun- 
tains with  respect  to  the  observadons  on  the  angles,  thought  of  nothing  but  of  contriving 
means  for  verifying  the  observations  made  with  the  sextant.  We  talked  of  taking  it  back 
to  Pello ;  but  it  was  resolved,  instead  of  this,  which  was  a  difficult  expedient,  and  would 
have  taken  a  long  time,  to  transport  it  to  Matila,  a  quarter  of  a  league  from  Tomeo,  and 
observe  whether,  after  bringing  it  back  and  replacing  it  in  the  observatory,  subsequent 
observations  made  upon  the  same  star  would  have  the  same  results,  so  proving  no  altera- 
tion in  the  instrument. 

Tuesday  the  twenty -seventh  we  got  every  thing  ready,  in  order  to  observe,  as  soon 
as  the  weather  would  allow  us.  We  began  as  well  to  prepare  whatever  might  be  neces- 
sary to  us  for  the  measure  of  our  base  ,•  while  M.  Brunius  got  made  at  Oswer  Tomeo 
eight  large  rods,  very  straight,  each  five  toises  long,  with  a  good  number  of  supports, 
according  to  the  idea  which  we  had  ^ven  him,  and  which  we  had  entreated  him  to  at- 
tend to. 

We  lived  very  comfortably  at  Tomeo.  M.  Duriez,  lieutenant-colonel,  the  rector, 
named  Proubst,  that  is  to  say,  priest,  answering  to  deans  in  our  dioceses,  our  ancient 
host  M.  Piping,  M.  Viguelius,  the  brother  of  M.  Bmnius,  made  up  our  general  society} 
they  were  pleasant  and  sensible  men :  as  for  the  rest,  our  unanimity  and  gaiety  wc^  sum- 
ient  for  making  our  mode  of  life  agreeable.  The  inhabitants  of  the  country  had  con- 
:,2ived  a  friendship  for  us.  M.  Helant,  our  interpreter  for  the  Finnish  language,  in- 
,}  "med  us  at  dinner  on  Wednesday  the  twenty-eighth,  that  several  countrymen  wished 
to  go  to  France  with  us,  where  they  said  they  would  teach  our  fishermen  how  to  take 
salmon. 

Thursday  the  twenty-ninth  the  weather  became  very  mild,  the  thermometers  stood  at 
the  freezing  point :  the  wind  was  south,  pretty  strong,  and  drove  the  water  of  the  river 
over  the  tdges  of  the  ice.  Saturday  the  first  of  December  was  fine,  and  an  observation 
was  made  with  the  sextant. 

Sunday  the  second  two  Laplanders  from  Corpikyla  came  to  Tomeo,  each  drawn  by 
a  rein-deer.    We  had  never  seen  these  sledges  in  motion  before ;  the  con«*  niction  of 


C(4> 


A  VOYAGE  TO  1111".  KOnill. 


309 


them  is  singular,  and  the  Laplanders  and  Fins  made  use  of  them  with  wonderful  skill. 
I  shall  speak  more  at  large  of  them  at  the  twenty-seventh  of  December. 

Monday  the  third  was  fine,  and  we  made  other  observations  with  the  sextant.  The  cold 
increased  of  a  sudd.n  so  much,  that,  on  Tuesday  morning  the  fourth,  the  thermometer 
of  spirits  of  wine  was  at  18  degrees,  and  that  of  mercury  at  22  degrees,  beluw  the  freezini; 
point.  During  the  night,  and  all  day  on  Wedr  'sday  the  lifth,  it  snowed.  Thursda} 
morning  the  sixth  we  took  off  the  telescojx:  from  the  foot  of  the  sextant;  ^ve  put  it  into 
its  box,  and  caused  it  to  be  carried  to  Matila,  and  brought  back  again  into  the  observa- 
tory. The  good  people  were  very  much  surprised  at  this  ceremony ;  they  looked  upon  it  in 
some  measure  as  mysterious :  some  of  them  asked  M  Helant  how  he  came  not  to  attend 
the  procession  of  the  French?  We  replaced  the  sextant  on  its  pedestiil :  that  night  we 
made  an  observation,  which  gave  the  same  elevation  to  the  star,  and  shewed  that  the  sex- 
tant had  not  suffered  by  all  the  motion  given  it  in  the  porterage :  by  a  second  observation, 
made  on  Saturday,  we  found  still  the  same  height  for  the  star. 

Wednesday  evening  the  seventh  M.  Brunius  arrived,  and  was  to  go  back  on  Friday 
morning :  the  rods  for  the  measure  of  the  base  were  made,  as  well  as  the  supports :  but 
we  knew  not  how  to  act.  Were  we  to  measure  the  base  now,  or  defer  it  until  the  spring  ? 
A  great  deal  of  snow  had  fallen  already,  and  frequently  it  snowed ;  sometimes  even  the 
weather  was  mild,  and  it  rained,  as  was  the  case  all  this  day  ;  all  this  rendered  the  work 
of  measurement  very  difficult,  and  very  laborious.  In  putting  it  off  till  the  spring,  we 
were  sure  of  having  much  longer  days  ;  and  had  a  right  to  expect  that  the  surface  of  the 
snow,  a  little  melted  by  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  afterwards  hitfdened  by  the  frost  at  night, 
would  make  a  crust  hard  enough  for  us  to  walk  upon,  and  perform  our  work  with 
ease.  Many  citizens  of  Torneo  advised  us  to  put  off  the  measurement  till  the  spring, 
when  the  days  would  be  longer,  and  the  cold  less  severe.  M.  Brunius  and  some  others 
gave  different  advice ;  they  said  some  considerable  thuw  might  take  place  sooner  than 
expected,  and  we  run  the  risk  of  losing  our  measurements. 

After  consulting  among  ourselves,  Saturday  the  eighth,  and  Sunday  the  ninth,  it  was 
resolved  that  M.  Clairaut,  M.  Celsius  and  myself,  should  go  to  the  spot,  to  examine  if 
the  operation  was  then  practicable.  We  took  two  sledges,  and  all  three  departed,  with 
one  servant,  on  Monday  afternoon  the  tenth :  we  passed  by  Matila  and  Neder  Wojakala, 
thence  we  crossed  the  river,  to  go  to  change  horses  at  Oswer  Wojakala;  from  which  place 
we  proceeded  continually  among  woods  as  far  as  Kukula,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
river,  because  the  ice  was  not  passable  in  the  cataracts ;  they  were  very  rugged  there, 
with  large  chasms  in  them  in  several  places.  From  Kukula  we  crossed  the  river  again, 
to  go  to  change  horses  at  Lactilu :  we  left  it  at  half  past  five  o'clock,  and  arrived  at  three 
quarters  past  six  at  Corpikyla,  at  the  house  of  Tepane  Piping,  where  we  supped,  slept, 
and  took  fresh  horses  on  Tuesday  morning  the  eleventh.  We  passed  on  still  among 
woods,  on  the  western  side  of  the  river,  and  passed  over  a  small  like  in  the  forest  of 
Taipala.  We  arrived  at  Witza  Niemi,  whence  we  went  down  upon  ;he  ice  of  the  river : 
we  passed  before  Pckila,  near  to  the  church  of  Hieta  Niemi,  and  from  there  to  Coifwun- 
kyla ;  we  changed  horses  there,  and  after  leaving  Niemisby,  we  followed  very  near  the 
line  of  our  base,  as  far  as  Mickolen  Sari,  whence  we  proceeded  to  M.  Brunius's,  where 
we  arrived  at  noon. 

We  had  a  long  conference  with  him  on  the  project  we  had  formed  of  measuring  our 
base  immediately;  he  strongly  advised  it,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties  started  by  M, 
Celsius.  > 

Monday  it  was  very  cold,  and  still  more  so  on  Tuesday.  The  last  night,  while  we 
were  at  Corpikyla,  the  wood  with  which  the  houses  are  built  cracked  with  a  loud  noise, 


1 


i 


,.. 


11  < 


n    inw  jt.1 


I*! 


ilO 


OlfTIHRIt'S  JOimVAI.  rtl- 


♦(,; 


iis  though  it  was  about  to  split  in  every  direction.  Tuesday  evening  the  weather  was 
milder,  it  snowed,  and  spoiled  all  the  r(xid»,  greatly  retarding  our  return.  VVe  were  how- 
ever  inidcr  nu  apprehensions  of  mistaking  our  road,  iKcause  it  was  marked  by  trees  on 
one  side  and  the  other.  We  traced  the  same  road  we  came  by.  The  road  upon  the 
river  wm  perfectly  safe,  except  over  the  cataracts.  Above  Waojenna,  and  through  a 
g(x)d  part  of  its  current,  there  was  a  considerable  space  not  frozen,  from  which  continually 
a  prodigious  quantity  of  vapour  arose,  thrown  up  by  the  impetuous  motion  of  the  water. 
VVe  arrived  at  ten  o'clock  at  Torneo  :  we  made  our  report  on  the  state  in  which  we 
found  the  ice  and  snow,  and  the  next  day,  Thursday  the  thirteenth,  in  the  morning,  it 
was  resolved  to  go  and  measure.  We  prepared  every  thing  necessary  for  this  work,  and 
every  one  made  his  individual  arrangements. 

M.  Camus  and  myself  departed,  Friday  the  fourteenth,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  to 
adjust  the  rods  w  ith  which  we  were  to  measure,  and  trace  the  line  of  the  base.  Messrs. 
Helant  and  Herbclot  came  with  us  ;  \vc  h.id  five  sledges,  in  which  we  took  a  (]uadrant 
and  some  necessary  instruments,  thermometers,  files,  mallets,  and  several  iron  works 
for  our  measures.  We  arrived  a  little  after  eight  o'clock  at  the  house  of  M.  Brunius, 
where  we  found  one  room  short  of  our  former  accommodation ;  his  sister-in-law,  wife 
of  the  chaplain  of  Tomeo,  was  on  a  visit  to  him.  We  managed  as  well  as  we  could,  I 
had  my  bed  with  me,  which  I  laid  on  a  large  table. 

Saturday  the  fifteenth,  and  Sunday  the  sixteenth,  there  was  dull  weather,  and  it  snowed 
occasionally.  Monday  the  seventeenth  the  weather  was  fine ;  we  went  to  look  about 
the  course  of  the  base ;  on  the  eighteenth  we  liegan  to  fix  stakes,  and  continued  our 
work  on  Tuesday.  Messrs.  de  Mauiiertuis,  Clairaut,  Monnier,  Celsius,  and  Sommc- 
reux,  arrived  the  same  day,  and  Tuesday  we  were  all  assembled  together  at  the  house 
of  M.  Brunius. 

We  had  brought  from  Paris  an  iron  toise,  well  adjusted  by  that  of  Chatclet,  with  a 
standard  of  iron  as  well,  into  which  the  toise  exactly  entered.  Both  one  and  the  other 
were  adjusted  at  Paris,  at  a  tin.c  that  the  ihcrniometers  were  14  degrees  above  0,  of  Reau- 
mur. Wednesday  the  nineteenth  we  kept  them  in  a  chamber  of  the  same  temperament, 
by  means  of  a  good  fire.  We  made  five  toises  of  fir,  which  we  armed  at  each  of  their  ex- 
tremities with  a  large  round  headed  nail,  filing  it  away  till  the  toise  exactly  fitted  the 
standard.  We  carried  our  precision  so  fiu",  that  a  sheet  of  paper  could  not  enter  between 
the  measures  and  the  standard.  While  we  were  adjusting  the  toises,  beds  were  prepared 
for  us,  and  I  ceased  from  keeping  mine  on  the  table. 

Thursday  the  twentieth,  while  M.  le  Monnier  and  some  others  continued  fixing  stakes 
along  the  base,  Messrs.  Camus  and  myself,  with  the  five  toises  which  we  had  adjusted 
the  day  before,  had  fashioned  eight  long  fir  rods,  of  the  length  of  five  toises  each.  We 
made  for  this  purpose  a  sort  of  long  standard.  We  fixed  in  the  apartment  a  large  nail,  and 
another  in  the  porch,  at  a  distance  some  trifle  short  of  five  toises ;  we  placed  supports  in 
a  line,  forming  a  kind  of  scaffold  from  one  nail  to  another ;  we  ranged  along  them  our  five 
toises,  end  to  end,  very  carefully.  We  then  drove  our  two  nails  apart,  and  filed  away 
from  them  just  enough  to  allow  of  the  five  toises,  when  they  were  closely  joined  at  their 
ends,  to  enter  bet^veen  them,  the  nails  being  driven  into  the  wooden  walls  of  the  house. 
It  was  between  these  two  large  nails  that  we  adjusted  our  eight  rods,  as  exacdy  as  possi- 
ble  of  the  length  of  thirty  feet.  We  proved  the  length  of  the  five  wooden  toises,  and  after- 
wards the  distance  of  thirty  feet,  between  the  two  large  nails. 

We  made  ready  on  Friday  the  twenty-first  to  begin  our  measurement  from  the 
northern  signal.  As  a  great  deal  of  snow  had  fallen,  eight  machines  were  prepared  to 
clear  the  road  for  those  who  measured :  they  were  large  logs  of  wood,  fastened  together 


A  \(lVA(.i:  TO  TIIF,  NORTH. 


>ll 


in  the  hhapc  of  a  trianglo,  drawn  l)V  a  horse,  with  the  most  acute  anele  foremost,  m> 
that  the  sides,  cncrcasiufr  to  the  end,  ranged  the  snow  on  both  sides.  Those  machines, 
each  of  which  was  so  heavy  that  one  horse  could  scarcely  draw  it,  did  not  however  sink 
deep  enough  into  the  snow,  and  had  not  all  the  cHlct  which  the  ecjuntry  iKople  gave  us 
reason  to  expect,  so  that  we  made  no  further  use  of  them. 

As  soon  as  we  had  arrived  at  the  northern  extremity  of  our  base,  between  ten  and 
eleven  o'clock,  we  concerted  together,  to  begin  exactly  at  the  centre  of  the  signal,  and  to 
go  on  the  ice  from  the  shore  some  toises  distant  from  the  signal :  we  then  divid'  d  into 
two  parties,  each  consisting  of  four  measurers.  Each  of  us  had  a  pencil ;  som*^  made 
use  of  paper,  others  hung  a  slip  of  board  to  their  neck,  on  which  to  mark  a  stroki  with 
dieir  pencil  every  time  they  laid  down  their  rod.  We  did  not  trust  these  rods  to  any  of 
the  country  people,  nor  even  to  our  servants;  they  only  supported  one  end  of  them,  to 
help  us  in  carrying  them,  one  of  us  always  holding  the  other,  and  taking  care  to  unite 
exactly  the  nail  which  ended  it  with  that  at  die  extremity  of  the  one  before.  Wc  had 
the  precaution  to  mark  our  rods,  that  they  might  succeed  m  the  same  order ;  already  we 
had  measured  seven  hundred  toises  at  h;df  past  two,  \vhcn  night  coming  on,  we 
returned  to  the  house  of  M.  Brunius.  That  day  it  was  exceeding  cold  ;  the  thermometer 
was  at  18  degrees  below  the  freezing  point.  While  we  were  upon  the  base,  M.  Ic 
Monnier  drinking  some  brandy  out  of  a  silver  cup,  his  tongue  was  glued  to  it,  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  tear  off  the  skin. 

Saturday  the  twenty-second  it  became  milder ;  it  snowed  a  litde  till  noon  ;  it  did  not 
however  interrupt  our  measuring ;  even  till  three  o'clock  the  weather  became  ojien, 
enabling  us  to  see  sufficiently  well. 

Sunday  the  twenty -third  was  very  mild  and  ckar ;  while  wc  were  on  the  base  at  noon, 
we  saw  the  sun  entire,  elevated  about  a  (|uartcr  of  a  degree,  that  is  to  say,  about  half  its 
diameter  above  the  horizon,  in  the  direction  of  die  river ;  we  saw  it  as  well  on  Tuesday 
the  twenty-fifth;  it  rose  at  half-past  eleven,  and  set  half  an  hour  after  noon.  The 
weather  continued  fine  and  moderate  on  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesdey.  Messrs. 
De  Cederstrom  and  Mcldecreutz  came  to  sec  us  measure,  and  remained  with  us  Tuesda) 
and  Wednesday. 

Wednesday  the  twenty-sixth,   in  the  evening,  the  cold  increased ;   wc  all  suffered 

f'eatly  in  returning  to  M.  Brunius's,  from  which  wc  now  proceeded  as  far  as  full  two 
rench  leagues.  We  got  into  our  sledges,  heated  by  the  exercise  of  measuring,  and 
proceeded  two  leagues  ni  this  state  without  moving  our  limbs,  and  exjwsed  to  an  ex- 
treme cold ;  notwithstanding  which  none  of  us  was  materially  injured ;  'tis  true  M.  de 
Maupertuis  had  some  of  his  toes  frost  nipped  ;  and  I  for  some  weeks  felt  pain  in  my  fin- 
gers ;  but  this  was  little  to  what  we  had  a  right  to  apprehend.  Wednesday  evening  the 
thermometer  was  at  15  degrees  below  the  freezing  point,  and  Thursday  at  25  degrees. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  there  was  yet  one  part  of  the  base  to  measure,  which  ^\'as  not 
planted  with  stakes ;  Messrs.  Clairaut  and  Camus  went  to  fix  them,  while  M.  dc  Mau- 
pertuis and  myself  undcrook  a  short  but  terrible  excursion.  On  taking  observations 
of  the  angles  at  Avasaxa,  wc  had  omitted  to  take  the  height  of  a  tree  whicli  entered  into 
the  angles  observed.  This  could  not  cause  any  sensible  error  in  our  observations,  but 
M.  de  Maupertuis  was  too  scrupulous  to  pass  over  the  slightest  matter.  We  therefore 
ascended  Avasaxa,  drawn  in  pulkas  by  rein-deer :  they  are  sledges  made  like  small 
bouts,  p'^'''*?d  before,  and  ending  in  a  keel,  which  is  only  two  or  three  inches  broad. 
The  Laplanders  have  sledges  of  this  description  five  or  six  feet  long,  which  are  used  for 
transporting  their  dry  fish  and  rein-deer  skins;  but  those  common  among  the  inha- 
bitants for  travelling,  wliich  were  what  we  made  use  of,  are  at  most  only  four  feet  long ; 


II 


3 


i       » 


I      .• 


\       1^ 


\       I 


312 


oimiir.n'fl  journal  of 


tin-  deck  of  these  sledges  U  covered  with  lM)ard8,  and  on  the  cdji;c  of  them  a  rein  deer's 
skin  is  nailed,  which  lie  who  travels  \n  the  nulku  draws  over  his  breast,  and  fasten*!  witli 
cords  round  his  body,  to  prevent  the  snow,  in  which  he  is  sometimes  nearly  buried,  from 
entering  the  sledge.  The  principal  difficulty  is  to  paserve  a  balance,  the  milkas  luiving 
no  more  footing  than  the  skaits  which  are  commonly  used  in  France.  M.  Brunius,  who 
accompanied  us,  accustomed  to  this  sort  of  coiweyance,  managed  his  so  well,  that  he 
preserved  a  perfect  equilibrium  ;  M.  de  Mau|)ertuis  and  myself  were  continually  over- 
setting ;  when  we  attempted  to  raise  ourselves  with  a  little  stick  on  one  side,  we  fell  over 
to  the  other;  M.  de  Mau|x:rtuiseven  bruised  his  arm. 

The  rein-deer  which  drew  us  are  a  kind  of  stag,  whose  horns  arc  large,  with  the 
brunches  turned  down  before.  These  animals  serve  for  many  purjioses :  the  flesh  of 
them  is  eaten,  which  is  tender,  but  insipid  ;  the  inhabitants,  narticidarly  the  LaplaiKlers, 
dry  and  keep  it  for  u  long  time ;  with  the  nerves  of  them  they  make  thread,  which  is 
used  esiKcially  for  sewing  of  the  planks  of  boats  together ;  they  cat  their  milk,  and 
make  cnecse  of  it,  which  is  not  good.  Their  skin  serves  for  dresses,  particularly  that 
of  the  ^oung  ones,  the  hair  of  which  is  soft.  There  is  no  inhabitant  whatsoever,  whe- 
ther Fni,  or  Laplander,  or  even  Swede,  without  his  coat  of  rein-deer  skin  ;  we  as  well 
had  each  of  us  one  of  them  ;  dicy  arc  called  Lapmudes,  and  are  used  instead  of  great 
coats.  The  hair  is  worn  outside,  and  it  is  lined  with  cloth,  serge,  or  another  skin,  with 
the  hair  turned  inwards.  Of  the  skin  of  the  old  rein-deer,  stockings  or  rather  pliant 
boots  ore  made,  the  hair  of  which  also  is  worn  outside  ;  they  are  very  warm,  and  very 
serviceable  for  walking  with  on  the  snow,  when  it  freezes ;  when  it  thaws,  they  are  not 
wonv* 

/Rein-deer  arc  used  for  travelling  in  places  difficult  for  horses  to  pass,  or  in  (ouniries 
ivherc  there  is  a  scarcity  of  fodder  for  horses,  as  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kengis,  and 
to  the  north  of  it,  that  is  to  say,  in  all  the  northern  part  of  that  continent.  Some  travel- 
lers have  pretended,  that  on  being  told  in  its  ear  the  place  tc  which  you  were  disposed  to 
go,  the  rein -deer  understood  you  ;  this  is  a  mere  tale ;  they  are  very  fleet,  but  not 
strong ;  harnessed  to  a  sledge,  provided  the  road  were  well  beaten,  they  might  travel 
thirty  leagues  in  u  day  ;  but  when  the  road  is  not  hard,  and  well  beaten,  and  the  snow 
resists  the  sledge,  the  rein-deer  gets  on  with  difficulty,  and  very  slowly.  It  has  the 
advantage  of  being  able  to  find  its  food  everywhere.  When  tired,  his  master,  well 
wrapped  up  to  keep  himself  from  the  cold,  loosens  the  animal,  who  does  not  wander  far : 
he  scratches  up  the  snow,  and  at  bottom  finds  a  white  moss,  which  is  almost  his  only 
food,  so  that  the  traveller  only  carries  provision  for  himself;  he  puts  it  on  the  head  or 
fore  part  of  the  sledge.  A  matter  which  will  appear  extraordinary  is,  that  on  a  journey 
to  Wardhuis  the  traveller  is  obliged  to  carry  provision  of  wood,  on  account  of  passing 
over  great  extents  of  country  entirely  naked,  and  without  trees. 

From  the  house  of  M.  Brunius  we  proceeded  over  the  ice  with  dreadful  rapidity, 
there  the  road  being  beaten  as  far  as  Narki,  at  which  place  we  were  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain.  It  was  entirely  covered  with  snow,  there  was  no  beaten  track,  and  we  had 
to  apprehend  falling  between  rocks,  where  we  should  have  been  overwhelmed  in  the 
snow.  A  Fin,  who  had  long  and  narrow  boards  fastened  to  his  feet,  walked  slowly 
before  us,  to  fathom  the  road ;  he  led  with  a  string  the  rein-deer  of  the  first  sledge : 
this  poor  animal  sunk  into  the  snow  up  to  its  belly,  and  had  great  difficulty,  as  well  as 
those  which  followed  him,  to  draw  us  to  the  top  of  the  mountain ;  we  were  frequently 
obliged  to  stop  for  them  to  rest,  and  take  breath. 

We  however  arrived,  and  immediately  made  ready  our  quadrant  of  eighteen  inches, 
for  taking  our  observations,  while  two  Laplanders  and  a  Lapland  woman,  who  served 


A  V0Y40B  TO  THJC  NORTH. 


31J 


us  fbr  guides,  made  a  Ux)^  fire,  and  the  rdn-dcer  were  diffgino;  in  titc  Know,  and  Cvvd- 
\ng  on  die  moM  they  fuuiul.  TIk*  cold  wus  so  extreme,  tliat  tn  -  uiiuwdid  nut  nic-lt  be. 
lure  tlie  fire,  nor  a  foot  from  it.  On  going  down  the  mountain,  our  Lu|)lunder8  cau> 
tioned  u»  to  pluuge  our  sticks  into  tlK*  snow  as  deep  uh  we  could,  to  lessen  the  velocity  ol 
the  Nlcdgi^H,  and  to  prevcu  their  eontinuiUly  fulling  on  tlie  hind  kvH  of  the  rein-deer, 
which  were  fastened  to  them.  When  we  were  ut  die  iMttoni  uf  the  mouutuin,  our 
Luplandcni  lefl  Uieir  own  sledges  at  Nurki,  and  cucJi  guide  seated  himself  on  the  fore* 
part  of  a  slodKc,  aikl  kept  it  poised  with  singular  address.  We  went  all  the  way  to  the 
nouseof  M.  urunius  without  once  ovcrturnnig,  and  very  rapidly. 

M.  MuritiuB,  belonging  to  the  chart  and  map-office  ol'  Stockholm,  arrived  at  Tornco, 
and  came  to  sec  us  conthiuc  and  complete  our  measurement  of  the  l)ase,  and  returned 
again  to  Tomco.  We  measured  in  two  distinct  parties,  as  before  noticed ;  Uic  result  of 
tlic  mciuiurement  of  one  was  seven  diouHiind  four  hundred  and  six  toises  live  feet  four 
inches,  of  the  other  seven  thousand  four  hundred  and  six  toises  five  feet  exactly.  The 
second  party,  in  meaauring,  fixed  in  the  ice  a  stake  at  every  hundred  toises.  M.  dc 
Maupertuis,  Camus,  and  myself,  went  on  Saturday  the  twenty-ninth,  arul  Sunday  the 
thirtieth,  to  be  certain  that  no  error  had  occurred  in  the  number  of  the  hundreds,  and 
measured,  with  a  long  cord  of  fifty  toises,  the  whole  length  of  the  base. 

We  competed  this  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Sunday  ;  a  quantity  of  snow  fell, 
with  a  bleak  north  wind.  M-  de  Maupertuis  with  M.  Hclunt  set  off  fur  Tomeo,  to  which 

Clace  Messrs.  Cbiraut,  Le  Monnier,  Sommcreux,  and  HerlK'lot,  had  gone  the  Friday 
cfore.  M.  Camus  and  myself  returned  to  M.  Brunius,  whom  we  left  on  Monday 
morning  the  thirty-first,  accompanied  by  M.  Celsius,  and  two  servants,  and  arrived  at 
Tomeo  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  It  was  very  fine  in  the  morninK*  and  suificiently 
temperate,  but  at  four  in  the  afternoon  a  very  cold  south  wind  blew,  with  snow. 

Tuesday  the  first  of  January  was  very  fine,  but  very  cold :  the  thermometer  re- 
mained for  a  long  time  at  20  degrees,  and  even  fell  so  low  as  22  degrees,  below  the 
freezing  point.  Wednesday  morning  the  second  the  thermometer  of  mercury  was  at 
28  degrees,  and  that  of  spirit  of  wine  at  25  degiees.  On  the  evening  of  the  same  day 
the  cold  increased,  the  thermometer  of  mercury  was  at  31}  degrees,  and  a  bottle  of 
strong  French  brandy  was  quickly  frozen.  We  heard  the  wood  of  which  the  houses 
are  built,  in  the  night,  crack  with  a  great  noise.  The  noise  resembled  that  of  mus- 
quetry.  In  spite  of  this  dreadful  cold,  the  inhabitants  travel  a  great  deal,  and  seem  to 
prefer  this  season  for  their  business. 

Thursday  the  third  it  snowed  in  quantities :  at  night  the  sky  was  clear,  and  Friday 
morning  the  fourth  it  was  covered  with  aurorse  boreales ;  the  thermometers  were  at  25 
degrees  and  28  degrees,  which  they  continued  to  be  at  on  Saturday  the  fifth,  the  day  on 
which  they  kept  Christmas,  which  they  call  Jnle ;  the  inhabitants  passed  a  great  part 
of  the  day  at  church,  and  the  rest  in  their  houses,  very  much  retired,  and  occupied  with 
reading,  or  singing  the  psalms  and  candcles  of  the  church. 

The  thermotneter  of  mercury  in  the  evening  was  31  degrees,  and  Sunday  morning  the 
sixth  33  deg^es.  An  entire  botde  of  French  brandy  was  frozen  in  a  room  without  a 
fire.  The  evening  of  the  same  day  the  thermometer  was  at  37  degrees,  while  that  of 
spirit  of  wine  was  but  at  29  degrees,  and  this  last  was  frozen  on  Monday  morning  the 
seventh,  and  had  risen  to  the  temperature  of  the  cellars  of  the  observatory.  M.  de 
Maupertuis  carried  it  into  his  room  in  this  state ;  immediately  after  thawing  it  fell  a 
great  deal,  and  afterwards  rose  to  the  temperature  of  the  apartment.  The  weather 
became  milder  in  the  evening,  and  the  thermometer  of  mercury  was  at  25  degrees ;  a. 
quantity  of  snow  fell,  with  a  south  wind. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  had  begun  at  the  house  of  M.  Brunius,  while  we  were  measuring 

VOL.   I.  s  s 


*ii 


n\ 


'■I 


II 

It  h, 


!  i 


'    I 


314  oirTlliru'n  JOtrR\Al.  OF 

ihc  l);i8c,  an  experiment,  which  lie  repented  sicvcrul  times  at  Tomco,  to  ascertain  if  the 
toiscs  nnd  ickIh  of  wotxU  were  lenfi^hened,  or  shortened,  by  the  diHerrnt  tem|)er.iture<»  of 
uir  :  he  kept  continually  in  his  imurtment  two  of  tlK*  W(xx(en  toincM  that  we  had  adjusted 
in  the  iron  ittandard,  nnd  two  otners  without  in  the  «:ourt ;  he  never  distinguished  any 
sensible  diminution  or  lengthening; ;  he  wus  nither  of  opinion  thiU  those  which  hud  Ikch 
exposed  to  the  cold  were  lengthened.  By  the  height  or  dintuncc  from  tlie  zenith  of  the 
star  /  of  the  dragon,  taken  at  I*ello  nnd  Torneo,  we  obtained  the  amplitude  of  the  arc 
of  the  meridian  comprehended  iK-tween  the  two  observatories.  We  had  but  to  com- 
{Mire  it  with  the  distance  in  toises  from  Kittis  to  Torneo,  which  we  were  enabled  to  cal- 
culate, after  ascertaining  the  length  of  our  l)ase.  The  Parallel  of  die  observatory  of 
Torneo  was  different  from  that  of  the  steeple,  which  served  for  the  point  of  the  last 
triangle.  We  had  not  measured  the  distance  between  these  parallels;  but,  from  the 
measurement  I  h;id  made  for  taking  a  plan  of  the  town,  I  knew  within  u  trifle  the  dis- 
tance between  them.  We  every  one  were  occupied  in  private,  calculating  our  triangles. 
M.  de  Maupcrtuis  luis  published  those  which  he  made  by  sevend  successions  of  triangles, 
in  his  book  on  the  Figure  of  the  Karth,  with  all  the  corrections,  and  subtractions,  which 
the  most  rigid  geometrici;in  could  re(|uire. 

Besides  our  usual  occupations,  and  the  observations  which  we  had  sometimes  the  op. 
portunity  of  making,  although  very  rnrely,  every  one  had  some  distinct  pastime  :  I 
passed  many  of  my  leisure  moments  in  copying  fair  the  plan  of  the  town  of  Torneo 
which  I  had  taken,  and  the  course  of  the  river  comprised  withii«  the  extent  of  our  tri- 
angles :  M.  dc  Maupcrtuis  had  brought  a  great  number  of  books,  which  he  lent  to  us ; 
we  were  rather  long  at  table  after  dinner  and  supix:r ;  frequently  visited  each  other ; 
went  often  to  sec  our  friends  in  the  town  and  neighbourhood.  These,  together,  made 
our  time  pass  pleasantly  enough. 

During  the  night  the  wind  abated,  and  Tuesday  the  eighth  it  was  fair,  and  not  so  cold. 
In  the  morning  I  went  to  see  our  old  landlord  the  burgo  master,  and  afterwards  we  all 
went  to  dine  with  die  licuter  nt-colonel,  who  had  invited  us.  There  was  a  large  com- 
pany, we  were  twcnty-ninc  at  table,  fourteen  ladi's  and  fifteen  gentlemen.  It  was  All 
Saints  Day  ;  we  saw  one  lunidrcd  Fins  come  ou'i  f»f  church  at  noon,  who  were  re- 
turning  to  their  houses,  some  in  town,  some  in  (hjc  country,  higher  up  the  river.  This 
succession  of  so  large  a  number  of  sledges  form  d  a  singular  spectacle,  nnd  at  Hapu 
Niemi  wc  were  most  advantageously  placed  for  seeing  it. 

Wednesday  the  ninth  was  fine,  and  rather  mild,  ns  well  as  the  next  day ;  still  the 
thermometers  were  at  17  degrees  to  19  degrees,  and  although  the  cold  was  much  more 
intense  than  it  was  in  France  in  1709,  we  could  bear  it  very  well. 

Thursday  the  tenth  there  was  a  grand  dinner  at  Papilla,  or  Preskhot  (the  presbytery, 
or  priest's  house)  at  Mr.  Foulq's,  tnc  rector  of  Torneo :  during  the  night,  and  on  Fri- 
day the  eleventh,  it  snowed,  with  very  mild  weather ;  the  thermometer  of  mercury  was 
no  more  than  3  degrees  below  the  freezing  point,  and  that  of  spirits  of  wine  5  degrees ; 
instead  o*"  which  diftcrence,  before  the  severe  colds  of  Sunday  and  Monday,  they  were 
both  of  them  at  the  same  degree,  4  degrees  or  5  degrees  below  0. 

Saturday  the  twelfth  was  new  year's  day,  a  great  holiday  in  this  country ;  it  was  fine, 
but  rather  cold.  After  dinner  M.  Duriez  arrived  with  his  lady;  they  supped  with  us, 
and  did  not  leave  us  till  midnight.  The  cold  increased  continuall),  and  on  Sunday  the 
thirteenth,  at  noon,  the  thermometers  were,  that  of  mercury  at  27  degrees,  and  that  of 
spirits  of  wine  at  23  degrees.  Monday  the  fourteenth  it  was  less  cold,  and  in  the  after, 
noon  it  snowed,  with  a  strong  south  wind.  Tuesday  the  fifteenth  the  two  thermometers 
were  at  13  degrees ;  it  was  cloudy,  and  snowed  all  night. 

Thursday  the  seventeenth  it  continued  to  be  very  mild,  at  least  we  found  it  such^ 
although  it  froze  hard :  M.  de  Maupcrtuis  invited  to  dinner  all  those  who  had  shewn  us 


A  \l)VA(ie  TO  Tin.  NOHTII. 


J 15 


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civiliticK,  and  the  principul  inhnbitantM  of  the  town,  wc  wore  thirty -1^0  Ht  taUle,  and 
treated  them  haiulHomcly.  The  eoiirt  and  "itrcct  were  full  of  Fiiw,  and  ehildren,  who 
eume  to  Hee  the  novelty  of  the  entertainment. 

It  wan  at  the  time  of  the  fair  of  Jukas  Jerfwi :  it  l)C|i;ins  the  fourteenth  of  Januar)\ 
and  endn  the  day  of  the  Converition  of  St.  I*aul.  It  in  held  thirty  miles  from  Tonuo, 
about  sixty  Freneh  leugue>( ;  the  citizens  of  Tornco  [^>  there  in  crowds ;  they  alone 
havi:  the  rii^ht  of  huyin^r  there.  They  are  obliged  tool)tain  a  [icrmit  from  the  governor 
oithe  provma:  to  jjfoto  this  fair;  this  costs  them  three  dollars,  worth  nlK)Ut  thirty-four 
or  thirty-five  sous  of  French  nioney  t  were  they  to  go  to  this  fair  without  this  licence, 
they  would  be  fined  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  Coppermyth,  that  is  to  say,  eighty 
livres  French  money  (the  silver  dollar  being  worth  about  thirty-four  sous,  the  cop|)crmyth 
dollar  only  eleven  sous.)  To  go  any  where  else  reciuircs  a  similar  permit ;  however, 
when  they  arc  going  no  farther  than  Oswcr  Torneo,  or  Pello,  the  allowance  of  the 
lieutenant-colonel  who  commands  in  the  town  is  sufficient,  and  is  given  gratis.  They 
det  ofi'tbr  die  fair  of  J  ulcas  Jerfwi  in  their  sledges,  drawn  by  horses  as  far  as  Oswer  Tor- 
neo ;  there  they  tiike  sledges  drawn  by  rcin-oeer,  and  send  their  horses  back.  They 
have  at  the  place  where  the  fair  is  held  a  great  number  of  shops,  which  belong  to  them, 
wherein  they  dwell.  Phese  shops,  which  are  abandoned  during  the  rest  of  the  year, 
com^xise  the  village  of  Jukas  Jerfwi,  with  the  church  and  the  house  of  the  rector.  It  is 
diere  that  the  citizens  of  Torneo  trade  with  the  Laplanders ;  they  carry  there  some  bot- 
tles of  low  brandy,  syrup  which  they  bring  from  Stockholm,  u,m  dried  bread  in  cakes. 
The  Laplanders  1"  exchange  give  them  cod,  and  other  dried  fish,  skins,  and  dried  meat 
of  the  rein-deer,  !.  ar  and  foxes  skins,  of  different  colours,  ermines  and  martins.  I 
wished  to  sec  this  fair;  the  base  being  measured,  I  hod  leisure,  but  I  could  r '>r  find  any 
suitable  com|)any  to  go  with,  the  burgomaster  not  going.  I  did  not  much  regat  it,  how- 
ever, the  whole  country  being  covered  wid»  snow,  so  that  I  could  not  have  distinguished 
cither  lakes  or  rivers,  scarcely  even  the  forests. 

Friday  the  eighteenth  the  weather  was  delightful,  not  at  <ill  cold ;  M,  Canuis  and 
myself  had  Ix'gun  to  turn,  with  exactitude,  some  balls  of  iron,  for  experiments  on  the 
simple  pendulum.  M.  Camus  also  himself  cast  some  balls  of  pewter,  silver,  and  cop|x:r; 
he  turned  these  as  well  for  the  same  purpose. 

We  had  alternately  snow  and  fine  weather,  almost  always  cold.  The  thermometers, 
on  Saturday  the  nineteenth,  were  at  19  and  21  degrees  below  0.  Monday  morning  the 
twenty-first  at  12  and  13  degrees ;  the  evening  16  and  18  degrees.  Wednesday  the  twenty- 
third  20  and  22  degrees.  All  day  on  Thursday  the  twenty-fourth,  and  all  the  following 
night,  at  the  freezing  point,  with  a  strong  south-west  wind,  and  the  snow  melted  a  little. 

All  day  Saturday,  all  night,  and  Monday  morning  the  twenty-eighth,  very  fine  and  mild, 
the  thermometers  at  1  degree  below  0.  This  weather  continued  the  remainder  of  the 
month,  but  it  frequently  snowed. 

On  the  last  day  of  January  the  cold  began  to  increase,  in  such  manner,  however,  that 
it  frequently  all  on  a  sudden  became  mild.  The  van.nt.ions  of  cold  ;n  this  coimtry  are 
extremely  sudden ;  at  times  we  were  almost  frozen,  and  immediately  afterwards  found 
the  r.nld  very  easy  to  bear.  The  thermometers  confirm  the  reality  of  these  variations ; 
and  that  they  arc  not  to  be  attributed  simply  to  the  individual  temperament  of  men,  and 
less  to  the  imagination. 

At  Stockholm  the  idea  they  entertained  of  this  country  was  not  very  cojrect ;  it  tn 
not  to  be  v/ondered  at  that  we  should  be  ignorant  of  it  in  France.  When  we  cume 
away,  M.  Le  Comte  de  Maurepas  presented  us  with  church  plate,  with  directions  to 

s  s  2 


T'f 


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316 


OUTHIER'S  JOURNAL  OP 


!t. 


make  use  of  it,  provided  our  ambassador  should  not  d^sapprc^'*  of  our  doing  so.  His 
excellency,  after  consulting  with  his  friends,  told  mc  by  no  nr  cans  to  perform  mass  in  the 
country  to  wliich  \vc  were  going ;  since,  if  we  were  to  give  offence  in  any  measure  to  the 
inhabitants,  vvc  might  expose  ourselves  to  inconveniences,  which  would  incapacitate  us 
from  executing  the  work  we  were  upon.  Notwithstanding,  the  inhabitants  of  Torneo 
took  no  umbrage  at  our  performing  the  offices  of  our  religion,  provided  it  were  in  pri- 
vate, and  with  closed  doors.  Havmg  from  motives  of  prudence  abstained  for  some 
time,  we  met  with  gentle  reproaches  on  the  occasion  from  M.  Foulq,  the  rector,  and  M, 
Viguelius. 

Sund.'i)'  the  third  of  February,  although  the  thermometers  were  at  10  degrees  below  0, 
as  it  was  fine,  M.  Sommereux  and  myself  went  to  take  a  walk  in  the  vicinage  of  the  town, 
as  folks  in  France  are  wont  to  do  in  summer,  a  litde  before  sunset. 

Wednesday  the  sixth  it  was  much  more  sharp,  the  thermometers  sunk  to  20  degrees 
and  25  degrees.  During  the  night  a  great  wind  arose,  which  continued  all  Thursday  the 
seventh,  with  snow.  It  was  dreadful  weather ;  die  wind  had  raised  in  different  places 
prodigious  heaps  of  snow,  particularly  along  the  houses ;  of  many  it  covered  all  the  win- 
dows, and  some  small  houses  were  buried  in  the  snow. 

The  thirteenth,  the  Feast  of  the  Purification  of  the  Virgin  Mary  was  celebrated  in  a 
very  solemn  manner ;  there  were  prayers  twice  in  the  town  church.  Many  people  re- 
ceived the  communion.  The  cold  had  somewha':  abated,  the  tlermometers  were  not 
lower  than  13  degrees  below  0. 

Tuesday  the  nineteenth  the  weather  was  tine  and  mild ;  sr  mp  snow  melted  in  the  sun ; 
Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Sommeretjx  and  myself,  went  out  walking.  This  fine  weather 
did  not  last ;  the  same  evening  it  became  cold,  with  wind  and  snow,  which  continued  the 
two  following  days.  Friday  the  twenty-second,  on  going  to  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  town,  I  was  much  pleased  with  the  singular  appearance  v/hich  the  heaps  of  snow, 
drifted  by  the  wind,  and  collected  along  the  nouses,  and  on  the  tops,  oflered.  The  road 
through  the  town  was  exceedingly  ru^ed,  and  the  masses  of  snow  by  which  it  was 
bordered  very  much  resembled  rocks ;  notwithstanding  this,  Messrs.  Le  Monnier  and 
Celsius  went  to  Kimi,  where  there  was  a  hu^  assembly. 

Monday  the  twenty-fifth  it  was  much  colder ;  the  thermometer,  which  was  already  at 
15  degrees,  vesterday  sunk  to  20  degrees.  The  burgomaster  and  four  Romans,  who  are 
the  judgefj^of  the  town,  went  to  meet  the  governor.  He  did  not  arrive  till  Tuesday  morn- 
ing the  tv/cnty-sixth,  and,  without  stopping  at  the  town,  continued  hb  route  to  Oswer 
Torneo,  '  vhere  he  stopped  a  fortnight. 

The  first  of  March  *.ve  had  a  Swedish  officer  to  dine  with  us,  who  served  in  France ; 
he  came  from  Petersburg  in  sixteen  days,  and  after  dinner  departed  for  Stockholm.  I 
conforn^cd  to  the  ancient  stile  in  keeping  the  feasr  days,  as  the  catholics  in  Sweden  are 
wont ;  we  kept  that  of  St.  Matthias  on  Thursday  the  seventh. 

Monday  the  eleventh,  at  night,  M.  de  Guillingrip,  governor  of  the  province,  returned 
from  Oswer  Torneo ;  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Clairaut  and  Celsius,  went  to  dine  with 
him  at  M.  Silfrisson's,  where  he  lodged.     We  went  to  pay  our  respects  after  dinner. 

Saturday  the  sixteenth  I  made  ready  a  telescope,  and  went  to  the  house  of  M. 
Viguelius,  at  Grenwick,  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  to  hang  a  second  pendulum,  and 
all  of  us  went  over  in  the  evening  to  observe  an  eclipse  of  the  mooi.  We  had  the  whole 
horizon  towards  the  west  uninterrupted,  which  we  should  not  have  had  in  the  town. 
The  borizoi)  was  thick,  and  full  of  vapour :  we  nottvitlistanding  observed  this  eclipse  of 
ihc  moou ;  but  We  co'Ud  not  observe  that  of  ahy  of  the  satellites  of  Jupiter,  because  of  his 
not  beii:g  but  very  little  above  the  horizon  at  that  time. 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH 


317 


Although  wc  had  every  reason  to  rely  upon  the  exactitude  with  which  we  had  deter- 
mined the  amplitude  of  the  arc  of  the  meridian,  comprehended  between  Kitlis  and 
Tornco,  by  the  observations  of  the  sextant  made  upon  the  star  ^  of  the  dragon,  the 
star  a  of  the  same  constellation  passing  very  nigh  to  the  zenith,  we  formed  a  design  of 
taking  advantage  of  the  time  which  the  long  winter  afforded  us,  to  observe  again  at  Tor- 
neo,  and  afterwards  at  Kitr.is,  the  distance  to  the  zenith  from  tuc  latter  star  a.  We  made 
ready  the  sey unt  for  this  -"urpose,  and  the  sky  being  clear  on  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth, 
and  nineteenth,  we  mar'e  the  observation  on  those  days. 

The  soulh  was  determined  at  the  little  observatory  built  at  Tomeo,  upon  the  edge  of 
the  watei.  Already  several  days  had  passed  since  we  had  fixed  staiies  in  the  snow,  fol- 
lowing the  direction  of  the  meridian :  on  this  line  we  sought  with  a  "uadrant  two  points, 
from  which  two  perpendiculars  set  oil',  the  one  answering  to  ;  ..  rund  observatory  of 
the  sextant,  theotner  to  the  steeple  of  the  church  of  the  town.  Wf  measured  on  Thurs- 
day the  twenty-first  the  distance  between  these  two  points,  that  is  to  say,  between  the 
pandlel  of  the  church  of  Torneo  and  the  parallel  of  the  observatory  of  the  sextant.  We 
found  the  distance  seventy-three  toises  lour  feet  five  inches. 

Friday  the  twenty -second  the  weather  was  very  mild,  the  snow  sunk,  and  melted  a 
little.  Saturday  the  twenty-third  we  took  down  the  sextant ;  we  put  it  into  the  cases, 
and  prepared  whatever  was  necessary  for  the  voyage  to  Pello,  which  we  proposed  begin- 
ning the  following  Monday.  M.  de  Maupertuis,  on  Sunday  the  twenty  fourth,  gave  a 
grand  dinner  to  the  governor.     More  than  thirty  persons  were  present. 

On  Monday  the  twenty  fifth  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Le  Monnier,  Celsius,  and  myself,  set 
off,  one  after  the  other,  each  having  care  of  the  instruments,  which  we  transported  in 
sledges  ;  we  followed  the  same  road  we  had^one  before  ;  and  all  of  us  had  arrived  at 
nine  o'clock  in  the  ev-ning  at  th''  house  of  M.  Brunius,  and  the  next  day,  Tuesday  the 
twenty-sixth,  we  reached  Pello.  We  could  not  always  keep  c-i  the  ice  of  the  river,  it 
was  ttx)  uneven  in  the  cataracts ;  there  were  even  some  considerable  breaks ;  we  were 
on  this  account  sometimes  obliged  to  traverse  the  woods.  We  found  in  them  three 
Lapland  families,  who  had  erected  there  their  huts. 

These  huts  were  formud  of  a  number  of  poles,  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  high,  one  end 
leaning  on  the  ground,  wheie  they  formed  a  circle  of  about  twelve  feet :  by  the  ether 
extremity  these  poles  joined  at  the  top,  and  formed  a  cone.  They  put  over  tht.%  poles 
some  rags,  and  some  rein-deer  skins,  which  only  covered  a  part.  The  top  is  endrely 
open,  and  serves  for  a  chimney  for  the  fire,  which  they  make  in  the  middle  of  this  sort 
of  tent.  They  pass  their  winter  thus,  very  badly  clad,  and  often  sleep  with  the  snow  for 
their  pillow.  When  they  change  their  abode,  they  carry  away  their  rags  and  deer- 
skins,  and  leave  their  poles  as  they  were,  secure  of  finding  others  everywhere  in  the 
forests.  We  saw  a  number  of  these  huts  which  had  been  abandoned.  One  of  the  three 
families  which  we  met  with  consisted  of  twelve  persons,  the  two  others  of  no  more  tlian 
iive  or  six. 

When  we  were  at  our  landlord's  9*  Purainen,  we  found  his  court  full  of  Laplanders, 
with  their  sledges  loaded  with  merchandise  ;  that  is  to  say,  cod,  dried  fish,  and  rein-deer 
skins.  These  poor  Laplanders  lay  in  the  middle  oiT  the  court  during  a  most  rigid  frost, 
in  some  of  the  sledges  which  were  empty ;  we  even  saw  a  child  among  them,  who  was 
perhaps  not  a  year  old. 

Wednesday  the  twenty-seventh  Messrs.  Sommereux  and  Kelant  arrived  with  the 
telescope  of  the  sextant  We  had  already  placed  upon  moimt  KJttis  a  large  three  feet 
quadrant,  and  lie  mstrument  for  taking  the  south,  Thursday  th.^  twenty-eighth  we 
returned  to  the  moiintain,  and  verified  the  quadrant  by  a  back  observation,    Friday 


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OLTHIKn'S  JOURNAL  OF 


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the  tweiuy-niiuh  ii  snowed  a  little ;  M.  dc  Maupcrtuis  arrived,  and  told  us  that  M.  Camus 
was  ill,  and  would  remaiti  at  Torneo,  with  M.  Hcrbclot.  Saturday  the  thirtieth  we  placed 
the  sextant  on  the  nioin\tain,  and  the  pendulum  of  Mr.  Graham  in  the  apartment  of  the 
htonc  shaft,  that  is  to  say,  the  apartment  of  Corten  Niemi,  wherc  we  had  constructed  a 
stone  shaft.  We  saw  a  large  number  of  Laplanders  arrive  in  their  pulkas,  followed  by 
many  sledges,  full  of  merchandise ;  the  following  days  some  of  them  came  into  our 
j«K)ms ;  they  entered  without  knocking,  and  placed  Uiemselves  on  their  knees  tu  ask 
alms,  making  a  long  speech,  of  which  we  comprehended  nothing  but  the  word  Jesou 
Christou.  As  soon  as  we  had  given  them  a  piece  of  money,  tliey  immediately  asked  the 
master  of  the  house  for  brandy,  and  after  drinking  some,  danced  and  sung  with  all  their 
might  in  the  court ;  there  was  no  harmony  in  their  singing.  They  have  dogs  who  make 
such  a  singular  noise,  that  we  mistook  it  for  the  catterwauling  of  giimalkins. 

It  continued  to  sno'.v  occasionally  ;  on  Wednesday  the  third  of  April  it  snowed  while 
the  thermometer  was  at  5  degrees  below  0.  M.  Le  Monnier  and  myself  flistened  the 
fixed  telescoiie  to  the  shaft,  und  observed  the  passiige  of  Rcgulus,  for  the  experiments  of 
the  simple  pendulum ;  Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Clairaut  and  Celsius,  were  upon  the  m<  >  •^' 
tain,  disposing  properly  the  sex  ant  for  observing  the  passage  of  the  star  a  of  the  dra^  (. 
They  began  to  make  their  observations  on  Thursday  morning  the  fourth,  and  continued 
it  the  succeeding  days. 

The  balls  which  M.  Camus  had  made  of  different  metals  were  finished,  and  M.  de 
Maupertuis  had  brought  them.  The  pendulum  of  M.  Julien  Le  Roi  v^as  phced  in  the 
stone  s**  ^t  room,  its  rod  was  split,  and  was  separable  into  two  pieces ;  tlie  diHereat  balls 
were  successively  fitted  to  it,  to  observe  the  length  or  the  number  of  their  vibrations  in  a 
determined  time,  which  was  known  by  the  pendulum  of  Mr.  Graham,  regulated  by  the 
observation  of  Rcgulus,  keeping  the  temi^erature  of  the  apartment  always  the  same,  by 
increasing  the  fire,  o:  suffering  the  admission  of  cold  air  at  the  door. 

Thursday  night  the  thermometer  out  of  the  room  was  9  degrees  below  0.  And  Friday 
morning  the  fifth  it  was  17  degrees ;  the  night  was  fine,  we  made  the  observation  with  the 
sextant.  M.  de  Maupertuis  had  his  bed  placed  in  the  apartment  of  the  stone  shafl,  where 
the  pendulums  were,  in  order  to  be  n.jre  within  reach  of  preserving  a  regular  heat.  That 
day  the  Annunciation  of  the  Virgin  was  celebrated  with  great  solemnity  :  We  continued 
our  observations  on  the  simple  pendulums ;  we  made  that  of  the  passage  of  Regulus  by 
*'>e  fixed  telescope ;  afterwards,  M.  Le  Monnier  and  myself  went  to  observe  the  star  a 
of  the  dragon  with  the  sextant ;  we  were  very  well  satisfied  witl»  thte  observation. :  a. little 
after  we  took  the  elevation  of  Venus,  at  its  passage  to  the  meridian  towards  the  north ; 
she  was  1  degree  15  minutes  above  the  horizon.  We  descended  from  the  mountain,  and 
entered  our  apartments  on  Saturday  the  sixth,  at  three  in  the  morning.  The  twilight 
finished  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and  the  dawn  began  at  one  in  the  morning.  The 
thermometers  yesterday  were  in  the  evening  at  12  degrees  below  0,  and  this  morning 
they  were  at  16  degrees.  The  wood  of  the  houses  cracked,  as  it  had  done  in  the  months 
of  December  and  January ;  M.  de  Maupertuis  was  all  the  morning  observing  the  balls, 
and  I  all  the  afternoon. 

Again  it  was  exceeding  cold  during  the  night.  Sunday  the  seventh,  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  the  thermometer  of  spirits  of  wine  was  at  20  degrees,  and  Monday  morning 
the  eighth  at  18  degrees.  These  two  days  we  continued  the  observations  of  the  balls  and 
pendulums.  We  went  to  the  mountain  on  Monday,  to  take  dotvn  and  pack  up  the  sex> 
tant,  and  the  other  instruments,  to  be  ready  to  return  the  sooner  tc  Torneo.  The  cold  still 
continued,  and  Tuesday  morning  the  ninth  the  thermometers  of  spirits  of  v/Lie  were 
17t  degrees  below  0 :  there  were  yet  some  balls  and  pendulums  to  make  experiments 


■  ii 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


319 


with,  which  was  done  on  Tuesday  and  VVcdnesdii^ ;  and  on  Thursday  the  eleventh 
we  setoff  to  return  to  Torneo,  where  we  arrived  on  Friday  the  twelfth,  in  the  sil'tcrnoon. 

M.  de  Maupcrtuis  had  set  off  from  Pc!lo  with  M.  Celsius,  to  go  beyond  Kengis,  to 
look  after  a  great  stone,  on  which  certain  characters  were  engraven,  and  which  was 
spoken  of  as  a  curious  monument.  They  only  arrived  at  Torneo  on  Sunday  the  four- 
teenth, at  ten  or  eleven  at  night.  We  remained  at  Pello  as  short  a  time  as  possible : 
it  was  time  to  come  back  to  Torneo,  in  order  to  prevent  our  being  exposed  to  the  ha- 
zard  of  l)eing  obliged  to  wait  five  or  six  weeks,  or  perhaps  longer,  at  Pello.  Travelling 
b  altogether  impracticable  during  the  height  of  the  thaws,  whether  by  land  or  water ; 
these  begin  earlier  or  later,  and  last  sometimes  a  very  long  while.  The  snow  began  to 
melt,  afterwards  it  froze  again,  and  formed  a  crust  sulHciently  hard  to  bear  almost  every 
where.  On  Monday  the  fifteenth  the  weather  was  fine ;  but  on  Tuesday  the  sixteenth 
there  was  a  south  wind,  and  much  snow.     The  thermometers  at  4  degrees  below  0. 

Thursday  the  eighteenth,  in  the  holy  week,  the  inhabitants  went  to  church ;  there 
was  a  sermon,  but  no  communion.  On  Friday  the  nineteenth  they  went  more  gene- 
rally  :  they  gave  a  sermon,  with  the  oommunion ;  many  received  the  Lord's  Supper. 
In  die  afternoon  a  second  discourse  was  given,  and  the  priest  sang  something  from  the 
pulpit.  They  do  not  fast  commonly,  even  on  Good-Friday ;  tney  however  practise 
some  mortifications,  as  they  think  proper ;  some,  more  devout  than  the  rest,  ate  nothing 
during  the  whole  of  Friday.  Saturday  the  twentieth,  and  Easter- Sunday,  the  twenty- 
first,  very  fine  and  mild  weather,  the  snow  melted  in  the  sun.  Easter-day,  the  rector 
and  the  ministers  did  not  administer  the  communion :  people,  however,  went  to  church, 
and  a  sermon  was  given  morning  and  evening. 

M.  de  Maupertuis,  immediately  after  his  return  from  Pello,  resumed  his  observations 
on  the  lengthening,  or  diminution  of  length,  of  the  wooden  toises,  from  exposure  to 
heat  and  cold.  During  Easter  week  we  observed  the  variation  of  the  needle,  which  we 
found  to  be  5  degrees  and  about  5  minutes ;  it  was  nearly  che  same  as  we  noticed  in  the 
Baltic,  before  our  arrival  at  Stockholm. 

The  house  which  M.  Camus  lodged  at  looked  upon  the  bay  which  the  river  forms 
to  the  west  of  the  town ;  and  one  of  the  rooms  was  a  very  fit  one  to  verify  the  sextant 
and  its  divisions  in,  by  actual  measurement  upon  the  ice.  M.  Camus  caused  the  floor 
of  the  room  to  be  taken  up,  in  order  to  fix  with  more  firmness,  upon  a  vault  which  was 
below,  two  strong  cross  trees,  to  serve  as  a  support  for  the  sextant,  and  enable  it  to  move 
in  the  line  of  the  horizon  with  its  divided  limb.  M.  de  Maupertuis  sent  a  servant  to 
Oswer  Torneo,  who  brought  thence  four  of  the  large  rods,  wth  which  we  measured  the 
base,  for  the  purpose  of  measuring  a  suitable  space  for  the  proving  of  the  sextant. 

The  weather  was  continually  changring :  at  times  the  snow  melted,  especially  when 
the  wind  was  southerly ;  at  others  it  snowed  again,  and  frequently  it  was  very  cold. 

Tuesday  the  thirtieth,  after  Low  Sunday,  there  was  a  great  dinner  at  the  rector's, 
at  Preskhot :  we  were  invited  ;  but  as  there  was  to  be  a  prodigious  number  of  guests, 
and  as  we  saw  sledges  going  there  from  every  quarter,  M.  de  Maupeituis,  M.  Somme- 
reux,  and  myself,  did  not  go,  nor  M.  Camus,  whose  health  was  not  yet  perfecUy  re- 
established. 

Wednesday  the  first  of  May,  at  half  past  two  in  the  morning,  we  saw  Venus,  on  her 
passing  the  meridian  towards  the  north,  elevated  about  4  degrees  above  the  horizon  ;  it 
nad  frozen  very  hard,  and  the  weather  was  beautiful ;  the  heat  of  the  sun  melted  the  snow 
from  nine  in  the  morning  till  six  at  night.  M.  Camus  and  myself  adjusted  to  their 
proper  length  of  five  toises,  the  four  rods  which  were  brought  from  Oswer  Torneo,  and 
which  were  found  each  too  short  by  about  half  a  line. 


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320 


OUTHIER'S  JOURNAL  OK 


Saturday  the  third  wc  placed  in  the  «ce  a  large  log,  with  a  sight  opposite  to  the  ixwm 
wherein  M.  Camus  had  caused  the  sextant  to  be  fixed  horizontally,  at  the  distance  of 
three  hundred  and  eighty  toises.  We  afterwards  placed  a  log  of  wood,  as  large  as  the 
first,  with  a  sight  in  such  a  position,  that  a  line  drawn  from  it  to  the  first  sight  should  fall 
perpendicularly  on  the  line  drawn  from  the  first  sight  to  the  centre  of  the  object-glai' :,  of 
the  sextant.  In  this  last  space,  of  upwards  of  three  hundred  and  ciglity  toises,  not  half 
a  line  of  difference  was  found  on  our  twice  measuring  it. 

Sunday  the  fifth,  after  mass,  we  began  to  observe  the  angle  which  the  two  objects 
formed  at  the  sextant :  we  began  on  Monday  the  sixth,  and  finished  on  Tuesday  the 
seventh.  It  was  yet  cold  at  times ;  but  it  began  to  thaw,  the  snow  melted,  and  occa- 
sionally it  rained ;  all  this  made  the  roads  very  bad.  The  letters,  which  ordinarily  ar- 
rived on  Sunday  and  Monday,  did  not  reach  us  till  Wednesday  tlie  eighth.  On  the 
first  of  the  month  I  was  present  '  "'th  small  sprigs  of  birch  in  a  phial,  as  flowers  are 
wont  to  be  presented  in  France.  ^varmth  of  my  apartment  made  die  sprigs  open 

their  leaves.     By  night  it  froze  a  litu*     in  the  day-time  it  was  fine,  or  at  least  mild. 

On  Thursday  the  ninth  the  ground  appeared ;  being  fine,  we  walked  out  of  the 
town  to  the  Bolplass  (bowling-green.)  A  part  of  the  isle  of  Lammas  was  visible ;  not- 
withstanding, people  passed  over  to  it  upon  the  ice,  and  there  were  there  already  two 
horses,  who  had  left  their  master's  house.  At  our  return,  passing  by  the  church,  we  saw 
the  funeral  procession  of  a  girl;  it  consisted  often  men,  dressed  in  black,  who  carried 
the  bier ;  the  priests  and  assistants,  five  or  six  in  number,  followed,  having  the  father  in 
the  midst  of  them ;  after  them,  another  relative  of  the  deceased.  The  procession  was 
ver}'  orderly,  and  well  conducted :  no  female  accompanied  it,  it  is  not  the  custom ;  they 
go  to  the  church  before. 

Friday  the  ninth,  and  the  two  following  days,  are  set  aside  for  familiar  instruction. 
A  catechism  is  made,  in  which,  indifferently,  young  and  old  are  examined.  Thursday, 
and  Saturday  the  eleventh,  it  is  conducted  in  the  Finnish  language,  for  i  ■^,  men  and 
maid  servants  ;  and  on  Friday  in  Swedish,  for  the  burghers,  who  attend  very  punctually. 

Sunday  the  twelfth  the  weather  pretty  fine,  the  thaw  continued ;  and  on  Tuesday 
the  fourteenth  the  water  began  to  spread  in  quantity  over  the  surface  of  the  ice,  and 
made  the  passing  over  it  very  difficult.  The  bui^omaster  and  M.  Viguelius  came  to 
reside  in  the  town  till  the  passage  in  boats  should  be  free,  after  the  melting  and  dispersion 
of  the  ice.  A  great  number  of  country  people  coming  to  town  had  planks  on  their 
feet,  four  or  five  inches  wide,  and  eight  feet  long :  they  make  use  of  them  in  winter 
for  hunting  with,  and  travelling  over  the  snow,  when  there  is  no  beaten  road.  These 
skaits  are  also  useful  during  the  thaws  to  pass  over  the  ice  with ;  they  hinder  it,  weak 
as  it  is  in  some  places,  from  giving  way  u.ider  them.  They  use,  particularly  in  the  fo- 
rests, machines  of  this  description,  of  no  more  than  six  feet  long. 

M.  de  Maupertuis,  before  the  thaw,  caused  a  lump  of  ice  to  be  cut  out  of  the  river ; 
it  was  two  feet  thick :  we  were  told  that  it  was  frequently  thicker ;  but  that  the  snow, 
which  had  fallen  immediately  after  the  first  frosts,  prevented  its  becoming  so  thick  as 
usually  it  did.  The  post  did  not  arrive  until  Wednesday  night  the  fifteenth,  owing  to 
the  snow,  and  the  difficulty  of  the  passages. 

Thursday  the  sixteenth,  the  weather  being  pretty  fine,  we  walked  into  the  northern 
part  of  the  island,  where  more  than  half  the  ground  Nvas  visible.  Friday  the  seven- 
teenth, and  Saturday  the  eighteenth,  it  was  colder;  some  snow  fell,  and  it  froze  dur. 
ing  the  night.  Sunday  the  niineteenth  was  finer.  Monday  the  twentieth  it  snowed 
all  day,  but  it  melted  immediately  along  the  streets ;  howev  r,  lai^  heaps  of  it  remained. 
Tuesday  the  twenty.first  it  was  fine :  in  walking  about  we  looked  for  some  proper 


A  VOYAf.K  TO  TlIK  KOItl  H. 


321 


place  on  which  to  erect  a  monument,  commemorative  of  our  exi)edition,  with  asuitabli' 
uiscription.  On  going  out  of  the  town  wc  found  a  large  rock,  which  was  not  far  front 
the  church;  we  examined  it,  and  findii\g  it  solid,  began  to  work  upon  it.  In  thiscoun 
try  tl  y  have  no  masons  :  instead  of  working  with  the  mallet,  they  make  a  fire  on  the 
rock,  and  when  the  part  they  wish  to  open  is  sufticiently  heated,  they  throw  water  upon 
it,  which  makes  the  rock  splinter.  A  letter  which  M.  de  Maupertuis  received,  on  Wed- 
nesday the  twenty- second,  stopix.'d  the  work.  We  thought  of  nothing  now  but  re- 
turning  to  France,  as  soon  as  the  navigation  should  be  free.  The  same  day  M.  dc 
Maupertuis  learnt,  by  a  letter  from  M.  de  Maurepas,  that  liis  majesty  had  granted  a 
pension  of  a  thousand  livres  to  M.  Celsius. 

Friday  the  twenty-fourth  was  another  of  those  grand  prayer-days  which  I  have  be- 
fore noticed.  The  river  brought  down  a  quantity  of  floating  ice,  and  jx;opIe  began  to 
pass  it,  although  not  without  danger.  The  sun  set  entirely  at  ten  minutes  past  ten. 
VVe  ascended  the  highest  part  of  the  isle  of  Swentzlar:  we  observed  with  a  quad.anl 
the  angle  between  the  sun  at  the  horizon  and  the  signal  of  Kukama,  at  the  same  time 
counting  seconds  by  a  pendulum  which  we  had  placed  near  the  spot,  in  one  of  those 
houses  used  for  keeping  fodder  and  cattle  in,  and  which  then  was  empty.  The  night 
was  very  fine  :  the  next  morning  we  returned  to  take  the  angle  between  the  rising  sun 
on  the  horizon  and  the  same  signal.  The  direction  of  our  succession  of  triangles,  with 
respect  tr>  the  meridian,  as  found  by  these  observations,  differed  by  some  minutes  from 
the  direction  found  at  Pello.  We  were  at  first  surprised ;  but  quickly  reflected  that, 
Kittis  and  Torneo  not  being  under  the  same  meridian,  we  ought  to  find  some  difterence, 
on  account  of  the  two  meridians  approaching  sensibly  towards  the  poles  in  the  country 
where  we  were.  M.  Clairaut  very  quickly  made  the  calculation  of  what  this  approxi- 
mation of  the  two  meridians  amounted  to ;  and  it  was  found,  by  taking  this  into  com- 
putation, the  directions  of  the  triangles  taken  at  Kutis  and  Torneo  agreed  within  half  a 
minute  of  a  degree. 

There  was  now  scarcely  any  ice  on  the  river ;  yet  the  sea  was  quite  white  with  the 
floats  of  ice  covered  wiUi  snow.  There  was  very  little  snow  remaining  on  the  ground, 
even  on  the  northern  side  of  bushes :  and  the  inhabitants  began  to  sow  their  barley  all 
over  the  island. 

Sunday  the  twenty-sixth  there  was  no  longer  any  night;  and  a  fortnight  had  elapsed 
since  our  being  enabled  to  read  in  our  apartments  the  most  small  characters  at  midnight. 
I  had  my  fire  only  once  made  up  in  the  day.  I  was  much  amused  for  a  long  time  on 
Sunday  afternoon,  admiring  the  address  ofacitizen  of  Torneo,  who  could  draw,  without 
having  ever  been  taught,  and  delineated  figures  with  singular  skill ;  had  he  been  under 
the  hand  of  a  master,  he  would  have  excelled  in  this  line ;  he  drew  pictures,  made  coats, 
and  was  the  only  tailor  at  Torneo. 

They  kept  Easter  the  same  day  as  we  did,  and  Rogation  Sunday  as  well.  Monday 
the  twenty-seventh,  and  Tuesday  the  twenty-eighth,  people  went  much  to  church  :  that 
day  they  preached  on  the  gospel  which  we  have  for  the  Rogation  mass.  They  call 
these  days  Gonge  dagen,  the  days  of  procession ;  they  however  have  no  procession,  and 
are  satisfied  with  preaching,  and  singing  the  hymns  of  the  church. 

I  went  to  M.  de  Maupertuis,  to  help  him  to  place  two  pendulums  near  to  each  other ; 
he  made  use  of  tliem  for  examining  if  two  pendulums,  moving  very  near  each  other  with 
unequal  vibrations,  had  any  sensible  influence  one  on  the  other :  M.  de  Maupertuis 
did  not  find  that  they  had. 

The  horses  had  all  proceeded  to  their  summer  quarters  ;  my  landlord  sent  for  his, 
which  he  wanted,  to  go  to  Kimi.     The  horse  on  his  return  rested  at  his  master's ;  and 


•  11 


VOL.    I. 


T    T 


1 


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322 


ouTuren's  joirnvAL  op 


Wednesday  morning  the  twenty-ninth  departed,  of  himself,  to  join  his  companions, 
which  he  could  not  effect  without  swimming  across  the  river. 

M.  Viguclius,  assistant  minister  and  diiector  of  the  schools  of  Torneo,  had  composed 
a  Latin  |iocm  in  honour  of  the  king  of  France,  and  the  academicians  which  his  mnjcstv 
had  sent  into  the  North  ;  he  invited  us  to  dine  with  liim  on  Wednesday,  and  gave  eacK 
of  us  a  copy. 

Thursday  the  thirtieth,  Ascension  Day,  was  kept  very  solemnly;  we  kept  it  also  in 
our  little  chapel.  Wc  hiid  a  large  company  to  dine  with  us  •  the  lieutenant-colonel, 
with  the  gravm'  which  answers  to  countess,  was  of  the  party.  Sunday  the  second  of 
June  very  fine  weather,  and  Monday  the  third  the  same.  I  went  with  M.  Sommercux 
to  the  highest  part  of  the  island,  to  see  the  sun  set :  the  upper  edge  passed  behind  mount 
Nieva,  near  to  Corpikyla,  and  shortly  afterwards  it  again  appeared  on  the  other  side,  that 
is  to  say,  on  the  right  of  the  mountain ;  it  did  not  entirely  cUsappear  before  two  or  three 
minutes  after  eleven. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  went  in  the  afternoon  to  see  the  vessel  which  was  to  carry  our  in- 
struments and  luggage  to  Stockholm.  We  began  to  make  ready  for  our  departure ; 
the  following  days  were  dedicated  to  this  purpose,  and  were  fully  occupied.  On  Wednes- 
day night  the  fifth,  many  cases  filled  with  instruments  were  carried  on  board  the  vessel, 
nearly  two  leagues  distant  from  Torneo :  the  sea  and  the  river  are  so  shallow,  as  not  to 
allow  vessels  to  approach  nearer  to  the  town.  We  took  our  leave  :  M.  de  Maupertub 
rewarded,  in  a  noble  manner,  all  those  who  had  rendered  us  service,  and  we  thought  no 
longer  of  any  thing  but  our  departure. 

DEPARTURE  FROAI  TORNEO  TO  RETURN  TO  FRANCE. 

All  the  instruments,  bag^ge,  and  one  of  our  coaches,  were  put  on  board  a  ship  be- 
longing to  Torneo,  which  was  speedily  about  to  sail  for  Stockholm.  Sunday  the  ninth, 
Whit-Sunday,  I  said  mass  early ;  and  M-  de  Maupertuis,  after  hearing  it,  had  every 
thing  ready  to  go  by  sea  to  Stockholm.  Messrs.  Le  Monnier,  Sommereiix,  and  Her- 
belot,  were  to  accompany  him ;  Messrs.  Clalraut,  Camus,  Celsius,  and  myself,  intending 
to  go  by  land,  in  the  coach  which  for  that  purpose  was  left  behind  at  Torneo.  The 
wind  became  fair  in  the  afternoon ;  and  as  ^^.  Le  Monnier,  who  was  gone  to  Kiemi  with 
M.  Celsius,  was  not  returned,  M.  Clairaut  took  his  place,  and  went  after  dinner  with 
Messrs.  de  Maupertuis,  Sommereux,  and  Hcrbelot,  to  embark  on  board  the  vessel  in  the 
harbour  of  Puralakti,  two  or  three  leagues  from  the  town :  Messrs.  Camus,  Helant,  our 
interpreter,  and  myself,  acccmpanied  them  on  board :  we  saw  them  set  sail  at  seven  in 
the  evening,  and  returned  in  one  of  our  boats.  We  M^nt  to  Hapa  Niemi,  to  take  leave 
of  the  lieutenant-colonel,  and  at  ten  o'clock  got  back  to  town,  where  we  met  with  M. 
Le  Monnier  returned  ;  M.  Celsius  came  back  during  the  uight,  that  is  to  s^,  towards 
midnight,  for  there  was  continual  da|^.  Monday  morning  the  tenth,  M.  Camus  and 
myself  looked  to  our  coach  being  put  m  order,  and  got  every  thing  ready  for  setting  off. 

It  was  two  in  the  afternoon  when  we  left  the  town;  we  passed  in  a  boat  mm  our 
coach  at  Hapurunda,  where  we  were  to  find  horses ;  we  had  much  trouble  in  obtaining 
any,  they  had  but  lately  returned  to  their  summer  quarters ;  a  number  of  them,  how- 
ever, was  brought,  but  very  meagre,  not  having  yet  got  over  the  fatigues  of  their  winter 
service.  We  at  length  set  off  at  five  o'clock  ;  there  was  yet  some  sntiw  along  the  coasts 
of  the  gulf:  we  found  some  at  Sangis,  where  we  arrived  on  Tuesday  the  eleventh, 
athalfpastoneinthe  morning.  We  could  not  obtain  horses  here  until  the  afternoon, 
and  then  very  bad  ones ;  of  the  four  which  were  brought  us,  only  two  could  draw : 
M.  Le  Monnier  said  :nyself  were  obliged  to  mount  the  other  two,  which  were  badlf 


'J»^VV>^ 


jriC/.,.,, ;T,-iJJ^.  .iU.'-'ficH?;' ,.  J  ' 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NOITH. 


323 


saddled,  and  had  much  difficulty  in  keeping  on  their  Icj^s.  We  arrived  at  Calix  towards 
six  in  »hc  evening:  thence,  on  Wednesday  the  twelfth,  at  ten  in  the  mornit\g, at  llunea. 
In  Sweden  they  observe  the  fourth  day  of  VVhitsn:itide  with  more  strictness  than  the 
preceding  ones,  and  wc  could  not  get  away  until  'I'hursday  the  thirteenth,  at  five  in  the 
afternoon.  We  passed  at  midnight  by  Old  Lullca ;  there  tliey  gave  us  such  bad  horaes, 
that  in  order  to  reach  Bac,  which  is  only  half  a  mile  from  Bourg,  wc  were  obligvd  to  send 
back  twice  for  fresh  ones  ;  it  is  true,  the  roads  were  through  sands,  and  very  bad.  After- 
wards we  obtained  better  horses :  we  were  seven  minutes  and  thirty- five  seconds  in  pass- 
ing  over  the  wooden  bridge,  which  the  maps  describe  to  have  one  hundred  and  two  arches, 
and  notwithstanding  went  at  a  good  rate. 

On  our  arrival  at  Old  Pithea,  as  M.  Celsius  was  conducting  us  to  the  proubst,  or 
rector,  we  were  much  surprised  at  meeting  with  one  of  the  servants  which  M.  de  Mau- 
pertuis  had  taken  on  board  with  him.  He  told  us  that  the  vessel  was  run  upon  the 
coast  at  two  miles  from  the  town  of  Pithea,  from  which  we  were  at  the  distance  of  a 
good  French  league  ;  that  these  gentlemen  had  gone  to  the  town,  and  begged  us  to  join 
tnem  there.  We  went  immediately,  and  arrived  to  dine  with  them ;  and  iJter  hearing  the 
account  which  M.  de  Maupertuis  gave  of  his  shipwreck,  we  made  arrangements  for 
continuing  our  journey  in  company. 

Scarcely  had  the  vessel  on  which  these  gentlemen  were  embarked  left  Puralakti,  at 
seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  proceeded  three  or  four  hours  on  its  course,  before 
the  wind  changed,  and  became  furious :  all  Monday  they  were  beaten  about  by  the 
tempest.  On  Tuesday  morning  M.  Sommereux,  from  his  bed,  perceived  the  pilot 
apparently  very  uneasy  and  agitated,  and  learnt  that  the  vessel  made  a  great  deal  of 
water.  At  this  news  every  one  rose  and  stirred  about :  there  was  but  one  pump,  at 
which  a  part  worked,  wliile  the  others  emptied  the  water  with  buckets  through  the 
skuttles.  As  soon  as  there  was  any  respite  taken,  instantly  the  water  gained  upon  them. 
The  wind  was  continually  changing.  They  often  went  up  aloft,  but  could  descry  no 
land ;  they  could  only  distinguish  at  a  distance  long  white  flats,  which  were  supposed  to 
be  floating  ice.  At  length,  the  same  day  in  the  evening,  the  wind  was  more  favourable : 
the  pilot  ordered  all  sails  to  be  hoisted  before  the  wind,  while  they  concinued  emptying 
the  water ;  and  at  length  they  discovered  the  shores  of  Westro-Bothnia.  The  pilot, 
who  was  experienced,  and  had  much  frequented  the  coast,  found  a  proper  place  on 
which  to  run  the  vessel  ashore ;  and  he  did  this  with  so  much  caution  and  management, 
that  the  ship  was  no  ways  damaged  by  it.  They  had  thrown  overboard  a  part  of  the 
boards  with  which  tliey  were  loaded ;  as  soon  as  she  grounded,  they  quickly  landed 
the  rest,  with  the  luggage,  and  all  our  instruments.  It  was  on  the  skirts  of  a  wood ;  the 
servants  erected  tents,  and  remained  there,  while  M.  de  Maupertuis,  and  his  companions 
in  the  shipwreck,  went  to  the  town  of  Pithea. 

M.  de  Maupertub  departed  on  Friday  the  fourteenth,  in  the  coach  which  brought  us, 
with  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Celsius,  and  Camus,  who  was  directed  to  examine  with  attention 
the  copper  mines  of  Fahlun ;  while  M.  Sommereux  remained  with  M.  Le  Monnier 
and  myself  at  Pithea,  until  the  vessel  was  put  into  condition  to  resume  its  course  to 
Stockholm. 

Saturday  the  fifteenth,  the  wind  b^ing  southerly,  and  favourable  for  returning  from 
the  vessel  to  town,  Messrs.  Le  Monnier,  Sommereux  and  myself,  went  with  two  boats 
to  bring  back  the  coach  which  had  been  embarked  at  Tonieo,  and  which  was  with  t^e 
servants,  the  luggage,  and  the  instruments.  The  vessel  remained  there  no  more ;  it  had 
been  brought  closer  to  the  town,  to  be  nearer  to  the  workmen  who  were  to  refit  it ; 
we  found  it  laying  on  one  ude,  and  entirely  empty.    We  came  back  to  town,  the  wind 


,  w  ■  ■ 


>.,r.»  >.  >-■>». 


324 


gUTHIRR'S  JOURNAL  OP 


5, 


'     Hi 


bcine  Ckvourablc,  remarkably  quick  ;  on  the  rood  wu  hud  thunder  and  ruin,  but  in  the 
evening  und  the  ni^ht  there  was  fair  weather :  there  was  yet  some  clouds ;  and  I  re« 
marked  at  midnight  that  the  sun  iUuminuted  them  as  far  us  to  the  horizon  on  the  side  of 
the  south,  the  same  us  with  us  it  does  on  the  side  of  the  west  some  minutes  before  rising ; 
it  robC  at  nearly  half  past  twelve  in  the  morning 

Sunday  the  sixteenth,  as  our  lodging  was  in  front  of  the  bridge,  we  had  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  all  the  people  come  from  church  :  there  was  u  very  large  congregation,  great 
part  of  them  very  well  drest,  and  all  returning  with  much  decorum.  Durnig  our  resi- 
dence at  Pithcu  1  took  the  plan  of  it :  1  went  therefore,  while  all  Uie  inliabitunts  were  in 
bed,  to  step  the  principal  streets  about  midnight.  The  situation  of  tlie  town  is  singular 
enough ;  it  occupies  entirely  u  small  island,  which  has  no  communication  with  the  town 
but  by  a  wooden  bridge,  at  the  end  of  which  is  agate  which  shuts.  The  church  is  out 
of  the  town,  and  people  go  to  it  over  the  bridge.  The  streets  of  the  town  are  all  straight ; 
in  the  middle  is  a  little  square,  regular  enough,  one  side  of  which  is  made  up  by  the 
town-house  and  school.  This  town  is  half  a  mile,  that  is  to  say,  a  league,  from  the  old 
town,  whence  it  is  distinguishable.  The  road  leading  from  one  to  the  otner  was  our  cus- 
tomary walk  :  having  lost  our  way  one  day  in  the  wood,  we  found  a  woodcock's  nest, 
where  as  yet  there  was  only  eggs. 

Tuesday  the  eighteenth  the  vessel  was  in  proper  condition,  and  we  now  only  waited 
for  a  fair  wind,  to  put  our  baggage  and  instruments  on  board.  It  became  fair  on  Wed- 
nesday the  nineteenth ;  we  immediately  repaired  to  the  spot  where  the  baggage  was,  und 
off  which  part  the  vessel  had  proceeded  to  lay :  we  Ixgan  to  load,  and  continued  the 
next  day,  the  twentieth,  in  oitler  to  depart  immediately.  We  came  back  to  the  town, 
whence  we  designed  setting  off  in  our  coach  on  Friday  morning  early,  the  twenty-first ; 
but  it  was  one  of  those  grand  prayer-days,  on  which,  under  great  penalties,  they  are 
obliged  to  attend  both  at  service  and  sermon,  that  we  could  not  obtain  horses  until  they 
bad  come  from  church. 

At  length,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  Messrs.  Monnier,  Sommereux,  and  my. 
self,  set  off;  M.  Herbelot,  shortly  after  the  vessel  grounded,  embarked  in  another,  which 
went  from  PiUiea  to  Stockholm.  When  we  had  ])aased  Aby,  we  came  to  a  river  called 
Byka ;  our  coach  was  put  into  two  bouts  joined  to  each  other,  to  pass  it :  we  then  took 
fresh  horses ;  we  went  on  to  Fruskayer,  and  arrived  on  Saturday  the  twent^'-second,  at 
ten  o'clock,  at  Sielefflat,  which  is  a  large  town,  where  we  dined.  Leaving  it,  we  passed 
a  very  broad  river,  on  a  wooden  bridge,  quite  new,  and  very  well  built.  We  were  sur- 
prised to  see  so  considerable  a  work  entirely  fiinshed,  having  passed  by  there  in  boats  a 
year  before,  without  seeing  any  preparations  for  the  construction  of  it. 

We  arrived  at  eight  o'clock  at  Selit,  where  there  is  a  church  ;  and  as  we  could  not 
obtain  horses  until  the  afternoon  of  Sunday  the  twenty-third,  we  went  on  with  the  same 
as  far  as  Gremmersmark,  where  we  arrived  at  eleven  o'clock :  we  passed  the  night 
there,  lodging  very  badly,  and  very  cold ;  it  froze,  and  they  were  under  much  concern 
on  account  of  the  barley.  We  made  so  much  interest  as  to  get  hoi'seB  by  ten  o'clock 
in  the  morning :  we  passed  by  the  side  of  the  church  of  Nasastra ;  afterwards  through 
the  village  of  Saswor ;  then  across  a  river,  over  which  was  a  bridge :  we  passed  after* 
wards  a  heath,  where  there  were  some  Swedes  encamped ;  the  sentinels  cried  out  in 
German,  who  goes  there  ?  they  came  to  reconnoitre,  and  suffered  us  to  go  on. 

About  a  mile  beyond  the  camp»  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  we  arrived  at  Uhma :  we 
supped  and  slept  in  the  inn,  which  is  a  very  good  one ;  and  Monday  morning  the 
twenty-fourth  M.  Sommereux  and  myself  went  to  see  M.  Guilingrip,  the  governor  of 
dtie  pi'ovince,  wh9i9  we  i^td  iHet  with  ^YG^I  times  j»t  Tornco :  1  loiind  tHcve  R  tetter 


A  VOYAGE  TO  TIIR  NORTH. 


335 


which  M.  dc  Maupertuis  had  left  fur  mc,  in  which  he  mentioned  that  M.  Camus  w;iitcd 
for  us  ut  the  c()p|)er  miiicst  of  I'uhlun.  The  house  of  the  |j;ovc:rnor  in  about  u(]uurter 
of  a  mile  out  of  the  town  :  we  dined  with  him,  and  went  to  rejoin  M.  Le  Moiini'  r,  at 
R<xlbek,  where  he  went  in  the  murniiigto  cxumine  tlu;  mineral  waters.  Wc  kl'i  KudlKk 
at  six  in  the  evening,  and  arrived  at  Sodermiola  at  eleven  u'clock  ;  which,  after  changing 
horHcs,  we  left  at  midnight. 

On  leaving  Sodermiola,  we  had  for  three  niiles  and  a  quarter,  that  is  to  say,  nearly 
seven  leagues,  a  woody  country,  without  any  hou^e  or  fields ;  after  which  the  country 
b  much  l)etter,  but  mountainousi.  Tuesday  the  twenty-fifth,  in  going  down  these  moun- 
tains we  fastened  our  wheels  vvitii  a  cord,  which  wc  hiid  fixed  to  the  shafts  for  that  pur- 
pose :  the  coachmen  admired  the  invention,  and  exclaimed  to  one  another.  Bra  const, 
that  is,  the  excellent  plan.  They  are  not  wanting  uf  genius ;  but  they  sec  so  few  coiiches, 
that  it  is  not  wonderful  they  should  be  ignorant  of  this  simple  exiK'dient. 

We  iu-rived  at  Hoonas  at  eight  o'clock  at  night ;  we  supped  and  piissed  the  night  there, 
during  which  a  great  deal  of  rain  fell.  Wc  left  it  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  Wed- 
nesday the  twenty  sixth,  nassing  on  to  Uorkstitt;  and  by  ten  in  the  evening  came  to  the 
great  river  Angerman.  The  watermen  made  some  difficulty  at  ferrying  us  over,  because 
tnere  was  a  strong  south  wind,  and  the  water  was  much  agitated.  Nevertheless,  seeing 
us  anxious  to  get  over,  they  made  a  deck  of  planks  from  one  boat  to  another,  after  first 
tying  and  fastening  them  very  tight,  on  which  they  placed  the  coach,  with  the  wheels  on; 
and  thus  we  passed  the  river,  which  is  full  a  kniguc  m  breadth,  and  the  passage  of  which 
was  so  much  the  more  difficult,  from  tlic  body  of  a  coach  taking  a  gix'at  deal  of  wind, 
which  happened  to  be  contrary. 

North  of  the  great  river,  from  the  entrance  into  Angermania,  the  country  is  very 
mountainous ;  but  south  of  this  great  river  the  country  is  more  even,  with  many  lakes, 
in  the  vallies.  Tlie  country  as  far  as  Maik  is  well  cultivated  :  we  s<iw  more  churches 
also ;  that  of  Sion,  through  which  we  passed,  is  built  entirely  of  brick,  as  well  as  ano- 
ther with  a  steeple,  which  we  perceived  three  quarters  of  a  mile  before  we  arrived  at 
Sundswald  :  we  saw  another  very  little  uistant  from  this,  and  in  a  country  well  croped 
with  barley  and  rye ;  both  in  agreeable  situations. 

On  Thursday  the  twenty-seventh,  at  half  past  three  in  the  afternoon,  we  arrived  at 
Sundswald  ;  it  is  a  little  but  pretty  town :  we  left  il  at  four  o'clock,  aiid  arrived  at  six 
o'clock  at  Niuranda,  and  at  midnight  at  Gnarp.  The  weather  was  fine,  and  one  could 
even  yet  see  to  read.  We  reached  Hermenger  on  Friday  the  twenty-eighth,  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning :  the  church  at  thb  place  is  handsome,  the  belfry  of  stone.  We 
passed  beside  the  town  of  Hudwickswald,  and  arrived  by  nine  at  night  at  Noralea,  which 
IS  a  large  place,  in  the  mkldle  of  a  well  cultivated  plain.  Wc  crossed  at  midnight  the 
great  river  Liusna  in  a  boat  passing  on  to  Skoog  and  Hamrung,  two  considerable  vil. 
lages,  and  arrived  at  Geffle,  or  Guiewle,  on  Saturday  the  twenty-ninth,  a  little  before 
noon. 

We  passed  all  the  way  without  being  troubled  with  gnats  till  Friday  evening ;  but  the 
last  n^gnt,  and  on  Saturday,  they  were  very  troublesome.  We  left  Geffle  on  Saturday, 
at  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon ;  all  night  long  we  were  incommoded  with  gnats.  We 
passed  by  Bek  and  Hop\  through  an  unpleasant  country,  as  far  as  Halstad,  which  is  a 
large  village,  situated  in  i>  beautiful  country  :  from  there  to  Lingscre  and  Boriklo,  which 
is  four  mUes  to  the  south  of  Swersio  Kyrka,  which  is  the  pari^i.  The  people  returned 
very  late  from  church  on  Sunday  the  tmrtieth,  and  we  were  obliged  to  wait  till  four 
o'clock  at  Boriklo,  the  x)ad  being  shut  with  a  gate  and  chuin  till  aft:er  service.  The 
road  passes  in  two  places  on  causeways,  very  icng,  elevated  above  the  level,  among 
fields,  lakes  and  rivers :  along  diese  causeways,  which  are  said  to  be  natural,  we  met 


! 


f 


1  < 


•^.-^.mmt^i^t* 


I  »k  AH  '■»■•■ 


I  *.fc 


326 


otTTiirr.n'i  joitrmal  of 


with  siomc  houses,  with  a  numlxT  of  forjrcs  for  melting  the  copper  ore.  Frotn  thrnc 
forges  to  Fahliiii  nothing  wusi  acm  but  woods,  mountains  unci  :»toncs ;  we  arrived  then:  on 
Sunduy,  at  nine  o'clock. 

The  town  of  F^ihhni,  otherwise  called  CopperlxTg,  is  very  large  :  it  is  not  surrounded 
with  barriers,  as  are  all  the  other  towns  ol  the  country ;  the  greets  of  it  are  (Krfeilly 
straight.  There  are  two  souaas,  one  of  which  is  handsome,  large,  and  regular.  North 
of  this  is  a  large  house,  built  of  stone  ;  it  comprises  the  hill  where  justice  is  rendered, 
a  cellar,  a  granary,  and  a  public  dispensary.  Eubt  of  the  s<inare  is  a  large  stone  church, 
the  iK'Ifry  of  which  is  lofty ;  there  is  in  it  a  very  goal  ring  ol  bells  :  the  eliurch  is  covered 
with  copper  ;  the  gates  are  of  brass ;  as  for  the  rest  it  is  not  ornamented  within.  In  the 
church-yard  are  many  tombs  of  metul.  Out  of  the  town,  on  the  eastern  side,  is  another 
church,  built  as  well  of  stone ;  it  is  covered  with  cop|KT,  as  well  as  the  steeple  of  the 
tower,  which  is  very  handsome.  Besides  these  two  churches,  among  the  buildings  be- 
loniring  to  the  mine  there  is  a  chapel  for  the  oflRccrs  and  workmen  of  the  mine. 

At  tne  south-east  of  the  town  is  a  tolerably  handsome  house,  which  belongs  to  the  king 
of  Sweden :  the  governor  of  Fahlun  dwells  in  it ;  and  the  king  somerimes  goes  there. 
The  neighl)ourhood  is  embellished  by  many  pretty  coimtry  houses,  which  belong  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town.  They  are  all  concerned  in  the  mines ;  without  it  they  cannot 
obtain  the  rights  of  citizenship  :  they  are  CiUled  Busemans,  that  is  to  say,  men  of  the 
company  ;  and  those  who  work  themselves,  Brukande  Busemans.  The  greater  part, 
instead  of  sticks,  carry  little  hatchets ;  they  wear  hats  without  loops,  like  our  priests, 
black  coats  without  |)ockets,  black  stockings,  and  black  gloves. 

All  the  western  side  of  the  river,  for  at  feast  the  space  of  half  a  mile,  is  entirely  bar- 
ren and  rocky.  Among  these  rocks  are  the  mines  of  copper :  several  canals  conduct, 
by  different  channels,  water  for  working  an  infinite  number  of  machines.  There  are 
to  be  seen  the  houses  of  the  officers ;  besides  these,  nothing  but  masses  of  scorise,  which 
form  hillocks ;  between  which  roads  are  kept  up,  for  carrying  the  ore  to  little  carts, 
drawn  by  one  horse. 

The  eastern  side  of  the  river  is  not  so  barren  ;  there  is  all  along  the  to  tvn  pretty  good 
meadows,  for  three  or  four  hundred  toises;  beyond  there  are  only  mountains  and 
woods. 

Monday  the  first  of  July  we  went  to  see  the  mines,  M.  Le  Monnier,  M  Sommereux, 
and  myself.  They  made  us  all  change  our  dress  at  M.  Bentzel's,  one  of  the  bailiffs  of 
the  mine  ;  they  gave  us  breeches,  jackets,  waistcoats,  wigs,  and  hats,  and  each  of  us 
a  guide.  We  at  first  descended  to  the  bottom  of  a  very  large  pit,  about  one  hundred 
toises  wide,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep :  we  went  down  by  stairs  cut  in  the 
rock,  and  by  wooden  stairs,  when  the  rock  was  wanting.  Our  guides  carried  several 
bundles  of  long  slips  of  deal :  at  the  bottom  of  the  pit  they  each  lighted  one,  that  we 
might  see ;  and,  each  preceded  by  a  guide,  we  entered  one  after  the  other,  through  a 
very  narrow  cavern.  We  at  first  descended  by  a  great  number  of  stone  steps,  which 
winded  frequently,  and  arrived  at  a  square  hole  perpendicular  to  the  horizon,  three  or 
four  feet  wide,  and  at  least  thirty  feet  deep,  furnished  on  two  of  its  sides  with  ladders, 
which  they  have  been  obliged  to  tie  together  two  by  two,  in  order  to  get  to  the  bottom  of 
the  hole.  We  entered  into  a  very  narrow  cavern,  through  which  having  advanced  a  little, 
we  found  eight  or  ten  men,  almost  naked,  having  nothing  but  their  breeches  on ;  they 
were  lying  on  the  ground,  and  had  no  other  light  than  what  was  yielded  by  some  deal 
splinters  :  the  way  was  so  narrow,  -that  we  could  scarcely  pass  them.  The  heats  which 
were  emitted  from  these  caves,  added  to  that  of  the  flambeaux  of  our  guides,  almost 
suflfocated  us ;  we  were  every  now  and  then  obliged  to  turn  our  heads  to  breathe. 


:*-.(-,."'■.--:■-•■>.   t:,'      - 


A  yOYAOE  TO  TMR  NORTH. 


327 


After  pa.isinpf  these  naked  men,  wc  ugnin  descended,  nnd  found  oursclvc»  at  lcngtl>  In 
cavities  from  thirty  to  forty  feet  Imwd,  sonu"  of  which  were  tcriniimted  by  very  lurj;!' 
wclla.  Wc  paHiicd  by  narrow  passai^H  to  gt t  from  one  of  these  cavities  to  the  other. 
The  greater  part  of  these  roadN  are  furnished  Ulow  with  a  wtxxicn  channel,  to  direct 
the  wliecls  of  the  tumbrils,  in  which  the  horses  draw  un  the  ore,  to  conduct  it  op- 
posite to  the  wells  which  are  cut  to  the  top.  It  is  throni^h  these  openings  that  the  ore 
IS  raised  in  very  large  buckets.  These  buckets  arc  snsjKiul.d  tocaulcs,  rolled  over  the 
axis  of  large  wheels,  some  of  which  are  turned  by  horses,  and  others  by  water.  'I'luy 
arc  so  constructed,  as  while  one  bucket  descends,  another  is  riiis<.'d.  When  it  is  retjuired 
to  let  down  a  horse,  a  band  which  gocK  under  the  whole  of  his  body  is  fastened  to  one 
of  these  cables. 

On  each  side  of  the  canal  I  am  speaking  of  there  is  sufficient  room  for  a  person  to 
pass  ;  and  to  prevent  passengers  from  iK-ing  hurt  by  the  tumbrils,  they  are  confined  by 
a  middle  wheel,  placed  under  them,  to  the  middle  of  the  channel.  In  some  places  there 
arc  other  wooden  channels  fastened  along  the  rock,  the  use  of  which  is  to  concUict  the 
water  ncc(.*ssary  in  the  working  the  mine.  In  these  subterraneous  places  wc  saw  two 
stables  for  horses,  and  a  smithy,  wherein  tools,  and  shoes  for  horses,  were  made. 

In  all  these  caverns,  but  above  all  in  the  larger  ones,  wc  saw  a  great  number  of  work, 
men,  some  clothed,  others  naked ;  they  make  a  fire  on  the  stone  they  are  desirous  of 
breaking,  and,  when  sufficiently  heated,  remove  it,  aixl  directly  throw  water  upon  the 
hot  stone,  whicn  splits  ;  on  every  side  there  arc  a  number  of  these  fires.  Here  wc  saw 
levers  of  every  description  for  moving  the  ore,  and  placing  it  within  reach  of  the  tum- 
brils. There  were  various  punnps  for  raising  water  from  parts  where  it  was  injurious, 
and  directing  it  to  others  where  it  was  of  use.  Sometimes  we  saw  rivulets  running, 
which  apparently  lost  themselves  in  the  crevices  of  the  rock. 

There*  is  in  these  mines  a  great  numlxr  of  roads,  which  we  did  not  see,  on  account  of 
the  gates  being  shut.  In  many  of  the  caverns  the  rock  is  supported  by  walls ;  in 
others  by  planking  joined  together,  some  with  iron  clamps,  others  with  wooden  stays. 
In  spite  of  these  precautions  the  tops  of  the  mines  are  not  firm,  for  workmen  are  fre*- 

Jiucntly  either  wounded,  or  crushed  to  death,  by  the  fall  of  large  fragments.  These  un- 
ortunatc  beings  know  the  danger  to  which  they  are  exposed,  and  in  consequence  a 
sombre  sadnesa  reigns  among  them  it  seems  as  though  mirth  were  prohibited  indeed, 
for  they  are  not  allowed  cither  to  whistle  or  sing  in  the  mine.  Women  arc  also  expressly 
forbid  going  down  them. 

Af\er  having  gone  throuf^h  different  caverns  during  two  hours,  we  found  ourselves  at 
the  bottom  of  the  largest  well,  and  Uiought  it  rained  abundantly,  notwithstanding  the  se- 
renity of  the  sky,  the  vapours  ascending  from  all  parts  resolving  mto  real  rain,  which  conti- 
nued to  wet  us,  till  we  had  ascended  two  thirds  of  the  height  of  the  well.  It  is  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  Swedish  ells  deep,  which  make  six  hundred  and  forty  French  feet. 

We  now  wanted  no  more*  than  two  guides  to  brin^  us  to  the  light  of  day  ;  one  of 
them  placed  himself  with  M.  Lc  Monnicr  and  myself,  in  a  large  bupket,  which  is  used 
to  draw  up  the  ore.  We  had  neither  of  us  more  than  one  leg  in  the  bucket,  and  held 
by  the  chain  with  which  it  is  fastened  to  the  cable.  While  ascending,  every  now  and 
then  our  guide  touched  the  sides  of  the  well,  in  order  to  direct  the  bucket,  and  avoid  the 
points  of  the  rock  which  projected,  as  well  as  the  descending  bucket,  the  shock  of 
which  would  have  been  dangerous.  The  coachman  of  this  singular  kind  of  carriage 
required  a  considerable  portion  of  skill ;  for  the  swinging  of  the  bucket,  the  turnings 
wmch  the  cord  occaidoned  by  its  twisting,  and  the  snuJl  uze  of  the  well,  rendered  ue 


9^ 


i 


■wrl»« 


I  p>»f»^fc»i 


'■^.^ 


>  ^i    ■^■■•i* 


1*1 


I     .": 


1 


328 


Olr-nilRII'll  JOI/RNAL  Or 


paiiH;)gc  difficult.  Notwithntanding  the  horv^s  which  drew  us  went  at  u  very  good  rate, 
wc  were  nint*  minutes  in  rising  from  the  (xjttom  to  the  top  of  the  well. 

There  are  two  water. w«)rkH,  which  draw  up  the  ore  i«»  chains  instead  of  cables. 
They  are  composed  of  large  overshot  wheel"*,  with  two  rows  of  buckets,  one  of  whu  li  i« 
opposite  to  the  other.  These  ivh(  els  are  placed  in  large  wooden  buildings,  closely  shut 
up.  At  the  top  of  the  building  is  a  large  reservoir,  into  which  pumps  continually  throw 
up  water,  carried  to  it  by  large  wooden  nines ;  at  each  opiKwite  side  of  the  reservoir 
there  is  un  opening  with  u  flood-gate,  which  corres|X)nds  with  the  buckets;  so  that  by 
oi)ening  oiu  of  the  Rood-gates,  the  water  fulls  into  the  buckets  that  answer  to  it,  and 
the  wheel  turns  one  wuy  ;  instead  of  which  it  turns  the  other  way,  upon  the  shutting 
that  and  opening  the  op|)osit(  tlo(xl-(rate. 

We  saw  anoUi'T  water- work,  which  had  two  wheels,  each  twenty-seven  French  feet  in 
diameter.  It  was  not  at  work  when  we  went  there ;  it  is  used  for  raising  the  ore,  and 
to  work  a  prodigious  (luantity  of  machinery  for  pumping,  and  other  purposes.  There 
arc  besides  several  otner  machines  worked  by  water  and  horses,  for  drawing  such 
water  from  the  mine  us  is  superfluous  ;  the  machinery  foi  workhig  these  pumps  extends 
to  a  very  givat  distance,  and  divides  and  sub-divides  in  a  numlx.'r  or  brunches,  for 
pumping  at  the  same  time  in  a  great  many  different  places.  Some  of  this  machinery 
moves  vertically ,  others  horizontally ;  and  if  the  mountain  be  frightful  from  its  rug- 
ged rocks,  the  moving  forest,  formed  by  the  different  machinery,  is  an  object  well  worthy 
u  curious  eye.  All  the  bodies  of  the  pumps  are  of  \vood :  the  wheels,  the  levers,  and 
all  other  parts  ot  the  machinery,  are  perfectly  well  constructed.  All  the  reservoirs  us  well 
arc  of  wood,  very  closely  joined  and  i)itchcd,  so  as  no  water  can  escape. 

As  the  ore  is  drawn  it  is  separatee!  into  different  heaps,  which  are  the  property  of  in- 
dividuals.  Every  proprietor  carries  away  his  share  in  little  tumbrils,  to  take  it  to  the 
foundery,  where  they  prepare  it  fur  fusion. 

The  mines  are*  south-west  of  die  town,  about  one  hundred  and  fifcy  toises  distant  from 
the  nearest  houses.  Between  the  houses  and  the  town,  and  the  town  itself  even,  and 
along  the  banks  of  the  river,  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen  but  forges,  the  bellows  of  which 
are  moved  by  water.  Near  these  forges  are  a  number  of  furnaces,  where  the  ore  is  ex. 
tended  on  two  layers  of  wood,  which  is  set  fire  to,  and  is  \e[t  to  bum  for  several  days ; 
this  is  the  first  part  of  the  process  for  the  preparation  of  the  ore,  and  is  called  Kallerostat. 

The  second  is  in  a  nearly  similar  kind  of  furnace ;  it  is  lons^er  only  and  narrower. 
They  then  make  the  metal  run  in  a  very  violent  fire  blasted  by  immense  bellows, 
worked  by  water.  There  then  remains  to  refine  it  only.  Of  this  I  shall  speak  presently, 
when  I  come  to  Afbta. 

On  passing  near  the  Kallerostats  to  leeward,  the  smoke  is  so  thick  and  sulphurous,  as 
not  to  be  respirable.  Sometimes  it  entirely  covers  the  town,  and  although  incommo- 
dious tc  the  inhabitiints,  it  procures  them  the  advantage  of  being  never  troubled  with 
gnats ;  an  insupportable  vexation  throughout  Uie  rest  of  the  country. 

The  officers  of  the  mine  made  us  each  a  present  of  u  Berseman's  hatchet,  on  the  part 
of  the  company  ;  they  are  very  small ;  the  inhabitants  of  Dalecarlia  always  carry  one, 
which  is  to  them  in  lieu  of  a  stick.  The  governor  invited  us  to  dinner,  and  shewed  us 
the  greatest  civility. 

Tuesday  the  second  of  July  we  went  to  see  a  man,  who  they  said  was  petrified ;  he 
bad  been  crushed  under  a  mass  of  rock.  After  forty  or  fifty  years,  in  digging,  his 
body  was  found ;  it  was  so  little  changed,  that  a  woman  recollected  him ;  for  sixteen 
years  lie  had  been  kept  as  a  curiosity  in  an  iron  choir.  We  saw  nothing  but  a  Body 
perfectly  black,  much  disfigured,  and  which  exhaled  a  cadaverous  smell. 


A  \u\  s(.r.  ro  lilt'.  Nourii 


32\> 

SntiircUy  the  ^ixth,  alter  dinner,  we  took  leiivc  ut'  the  governor,  :uk1  dcpnrtcd  in  our 
coach ;   we  Kto|)|K-d  at  the  CDUiitr) -house  ot  M.  'IVohili,  tiie  li«ir^oinustcr :  it  i.h  very  ele- 

Smt;  the  garden  in  exteiiMve,  the  |)ros|>eet  diverhilicd  by  wuuiit,  nuadowk,  und  lar^e 
eet»  of  water,  in  which  Home  excehi  ni  fish  were  cuuKht  lor  our  hup.ier.  W't  did  not 
depart  till  eleven  o'clock  in  the  evening ;  we  rode  all  night  through  u  "tue  country, 
and  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  way  on  very  large  cause wayit.  W  c  puitkcd  the  ga*i)t 
river  Ualu  three  tiincH  on  fli)ating  bridges. 

Thciic  Hoating  bridges  are  large  planks  of  w(X)d  joined  together,  p&rallcl  to  tlic  cur- 
rent of  the  river,  and  laid  ovciodK-r  planks,  similar  but  longer,  which  art  ut  right  angles 
ivtth  the  tintt ;  uli  these  planks  are  well  join*  d  ;  when  loaded  with  a  heavy  carnage,  they 
•tnk  a  little,  and  tin*  water  sometimes  comes  to  the  highest  edge.  These  flouting  uridgcs 
•re  of  two  descriptions ;  the  one  extends  from  one  side  of  the  river  to  the  odier,  as  in 
the  case  with  bomc  at  Stockholm  ;  the  other  occunies  but  u  small  part  of  the  river,  and  is 
crossed  along  a  cable  extended  from  one  side  of  ttic  river  to  the  other,  in  the  sume  man- 
ner us  our  ferry  bouts.  Sunday  noon,  the  fccventh,  we  arrived  at  Afsta,  seven  miles 
bom  Falilun. 

Afsta,  to  which  nume  For  is  added,  signifying  forge  and  cataract,  b  a  very  small 
place,  situated  on  the  side  oi  die  great  river  Dalu,  Ixriowumost  friglitful  cataract,  which 
turns  a  large  number  of  wheels  used  for  refining  copixi.  We  first  went  to  see  the  inspec- 
tor of  the  works,  who  received  us  very  politely  ;  he  told  us  he  would  cause  the  whole 
process  of  refining  to  be  gone  through  as  soon  as  we  p'cased  ;iAer  midnighs  IV  r  dtey 
observed  the  Sunday  with  great  strictness. 

At  midnight  we  went  to  see  them  at  work.  The  cop[)er  is  forwarded  from  Kahluii 
to  Afsta  b  clocks,  in  a  very  impure  state,  only  having  undergone  the  first  fusion. 
When  it  arrives  at  Afsta,  an  exact  account  is  taken  of  w  hat  belongs  to  each  individual, 
in  order  to  know  what  he  may  have  to  receive,  after  deducting  the  king's  dues,  and 
the  charges  of  refining. 

They  began  by  putting  into  a  kind  of  large  crucible,  cut  in  the  ground,  a  bed  of  char> 
coal,  and  above  that  a  heap  of  large  inj^tsor  blocks  of  copper,  till  there  was  about  eight  ^ 
or  nine  thousand  weight,  with  a  cjuantity  of  charcoal  above  it.  This  was  set  fire  to,  and 
blasted  by  two  large  bellows,  which  the  water  kept  continually  playing,  until  the  ingots 
were  entrely  melted ;  after  this  the  bellows  continued  to  play  for  a  long  time,  fresh 
charcoal  being  added  as  often  aK  requisite ;  now  and  then  the  crucible  was  opened,  the 
charcoal  which  floated  on  its  surface  was  taken  away,  and  the  melted  ore  skimmed  of 
whatever  dross  swimmed  upon  it.  At  length,  a  little  before  ten  o'clock,  the  whole  of 
the  charcoal  was  removed,  and  the  bellmvs  ceased  from  working.     On  the  melted  cop- 

Etr  a  little  water  was  thrown,  which,  not  being  able  to  evaponite  ei  :he  instant,  rolled 
ack wards  and  forwards  on  the  surface  in  little  drops :  this  water  halving  chilled  the  top, 
a  crust  was  formed,  which  was  taken  oflP  with  hooked  poles,  and  other  iron  instntments ; 
water  was  thrown  on  a  second  time,  and  a  second  crust  taken  off;  and  thus  until  the 
crucible  was  empty ;  it  gave,  if  I  mistake  not,  forty  crusts,  or  round  sheets  of  copper, 
the  last  of  which  are  always  the  purest  and  the  best.      : 

This  work  was  completed  by  ten  o'clock  ;  the  inspector  came  to  seek  us,  and  car- 
ried us  to  see  die  last  fusion,  which  was  not  long.  A  great  number  of  these  round  sheetu 
were  put  into  a  crucible  nearly  resembling  the  former ;  they  were  very  soon  melted ; 
they  then  dipped  out  of  it  with  large  iron  spoons,  suspended  as  a  lever  by  chains,  the  melt- 
ed matter,  which  was  poured  into  moulds  as  large,  and  nearly  of  the  shape  of  the  top  of  a 
hat  This  matter  become  solid,  but  yet  red,  was  placed  on  an  anvil,  and  flattened  by 
the  stfokes  of  a  heavy  hammer,  which  the  water  worked.    These  sheets  of  copper  were 


VOL.    I. 


ir  u 


3M 


OUTHIBR'S  JOURNAL  OF 


aflen'rards  cut  into  narrow  plates,  and  passed  between  rollers,  to  make  them  even  ^nd  of 
equal  ihickness.  Three  men  weighing  upon  a  large  pair  of  sheers,  the  lever  of  which 
was  horizontallv  placed,  cut  the  plottes,  that  is  to  say,  the  large  copper  coin.  Four 
others,  each  holding  a  comer  of  the  pieces  with  its  impression,  received  the  stroke  of  a 
large  hammer  moved  by  the  water,  which  stamped  the  coin.  Others  cleaned  it  in  rolling 
casks.     The  inspector  went  with  us  every  where,  and  invited  us  to  dine  with  him. 

Tuesday  the  ninth,  at  five  ni  the  morning,  we  went  in  out  coach  to  Messinsbrok,  a 
quarter  oi'a  mile  dicta'^*^  from  Afsta,  to  see  them  make  brass.  They  have  three  aubter* 
ranetin  furnaces,  each  furnished  with  a  lid ;  they  let  down  with  lai^  hooks  to  the 
boUcm  of  these  fum.:ccs  nine  very  deep  crucibles,  which  have  of>en  filled  with  red 
ccp^)er,  calaminaris,  with  some  raspings  of  yellow  coppei.  Soa-e  time  after  they  take 
up  these  same  crucibles,  in  which  the  matter  is  founded :  they  pour  it  into  a  large 
mould,  very  flat,  to  make  sheets  of  brass ;  some  are  cut  into  long  ilips,  which  are  put  to 
heat  again  m  a  large  oven,  wherein  the  fire  is  on  one-side ;  they  are  afterwards  cut  for 
bra^  wire,  at  first  square,  and  large,  but  they  are  rendered  round  and  slender  as  they 
please,  by  being  drawn  through  guages  by  means  of  water  that  works  nippers,  which 
lay  hold  of  the  wi.e  on  its  being  forced  through  the  gudge,  and  draw  it  forward  with 
violence.  On  ore  machine  there  are  twelve  of  theses  guages,  with  their  nippers,  which 
the  tree  of  one  single  wheel  works  with  surprising  celerity.  They  melt  and  work  also 
a  number  of  different  articles  in  yellow  copper. 

The  inspector  made  us  take  tea  there,  and  to  dine  we  resumed  to  Afsta,  which  we 
led  at  noon  for  Salsberg,  four  miles  and  an  1  ilf  distant  from  Afsta.  The  whole  i\Md 
through  en  even  country,  but  very  barren,  am  almost  wholly  wood :  through  the  wholr 
distance  v/e  passed  but  three  villages.  We  had  bad  horses,  and  did  not  arrive  till  eif^ht 
o'clock  r«t  night. 

S^l^.berg  is  a  large  and  handsome  town;  the  streets  are  straight,  and  paved,  as 
well  as  the  square,  which  is  handsome  and  r^ular.  On  the  twenty-first  of  August,  in 
^  736,  this  town  was  almost  wholly  destroyed  by  fire,  and  presented  a  very  sad  appear* 
ance,  few  of  the  house?  being  yet  re-built.  The  town  is  watered  by  a  very  ^mall  river. 
We  went  on  Wednesday  morning  the  tenth  to  see  the  silver  nunes ;  as  they  were  not  of 
any  magnitude,  we  did  not  go  down  them  ;  ihe  bui^master  sheweH  us  all  the  oits ;  there 
is  but  one  machine,  both  for  pumping  the  water,  and  drawing  up  the  ore.  Thb  ma- 
chine is  well  made,  but  not  so  large  ss  those  at  Fahlun. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  left  Salsberg ;  for  seven  miles  we  travelled 
through  a  very  fine  ;uid  well  cultivated  level  country  :  we  saw  quantides  of  rye,  bar- 
ley, peas,  and  even  very  fine  crops  of  wheat ;  plenty  of  meadows,  several  parishes  and 
villages,  and  but  litde  wood.  The  rest  of  the  road  was  more  diversified ;  plenty  of 
wood,  mixed  however  with  cultivated  fields  in  the  vallies,  and  often  lakes ;  we  passed 
a  strait  between  two  lakes  on  a  flpating  bridge,  which  was  drawn  over  by  a  rope.  We 
were  then  two  miles  and  a  half  from  Stockholm ;  we  travelled  all  night,  and  arrived 
on  Thursday,  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning ;  we  put  up  at  the  same  inn  which  we 
lodged  at  the  year  before ;  we  met  then  Messrs.  dc  Maupertuis,  Clairaut,  Celsius,  and 
Herhelot,  with  all  the  servants,  and  the  luggage,  which  had  arrived  mth  the  vessel,  after 
a  good  voyage. 

Ot.  Sunday  the  fourteenth,  after  saying  mass,  Messrs.  de  Maupen  ii«:  Camus,  and 
myself,  went  to  dine  with  the  ambassador.  On  Monday  the  fifteenth  his  excellency 
took  us  to  Carlsbei^  at  ten  in  the  morning,  and  presanted  us  to  their  mujesdes.  it 
the  day  of  St.  Ulric,  whose  name  her  majesty  bore ;  on  this  occasion  an  entertain- 


wai 


merit  was  given  in  the  gardens  of  Carlsberg ;  the  king  wished  to  see  the  drawings  (^some 


A  VOYAGE  TO  TUB  NORTH.  33 ^ 

plants  and  animals,  of  some  Laplanders,  and  their  dwellings,  which  M.  Herbelot  had 
designed,  and  conversed  with  much  familiurity  and  benignity  with  all  of  us ;  wc  took 
leave  of  their  majesties,  and  returned  to  Stockholm. 

Tuesday  the  sixteenth  M.  Clairuut,  M.  Camus,  and  myself,  went  to  see  the  count  de 
Tessin ;  afterwards  I  went  to  Mr.  Horleman,  and  to  see  Mr.  Bentzilius,  at  the  king's 
library.  After  dinner  we  employed  ourselves  in  cleaning  the  quadrants  and  other  instru- 
ments, which  had  got  wet  in  the  ship.  \\  ednesday  the  seventeenth  we  put  them  in  their 
cases,  and  ^J .  de  Maupertuis  got  every  thing  ready  for  our  departure.  For  M.  Somme. 
reux  and  hin>self  he  had  engaged  a  p  assage  in  a  vessel  going  to  Amsterdam ;  M.  Her. 
belot  and  some  servants  remained  at  Stockholm,  rill  some  vessel  should  sail  for  Rouen, 
on  board  which  they  might  ship  the  luggage  and  instruments.  One  of  the  coaches  was 
presented  to  M.  Celsius,  and  the  other  was  designed  to  carry  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Camus, 
Le  Monnicr,  and  myself,  to  Amsterdam,  whither  M.  de  Maup«:rtuis  went  by  sea. 

Thursday  the  eighteenth,  at  five  in  the  morning,  M.  de  Maupertuis  departed  with 
M.  Sommereux ;  Messrs.  Clairaut,  Camus,  Le  Monnier  and  myself,  after  taking  leave 
of  the  ambassador,  set  off  in  our  coach,  at  six  o'clock.  We  passed  over  two  very  fine 
floating  bridges,  and  by  midnight  arrived  at  Soder  Talge,  and  on  Friday  the  nineteenth, 
at  eleven  in  the  morning,  at  Nicoping.  We  did  not  leave  it  till  six  in  the  evening,  and 
arrived  on  Saturday  the  twentieth,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  Nordkoping :  it  is 
a  large  town,  in  which  there  are  many  stone  houses :  below  a  very  rapid  cataract,  which 
works  the  wheels  of  an  iron  forge,  we  saw  a  great  number  of  vessels.  By  noon  we  were 
atLinkoping,  twenty  4wo  miles  from  Stockholm. 

The  city  of  Linkoping  is  handsome ;  it  is  the  see  of  a  bishop ;  there  is  a  cathedml, 
with  a  large  burial  place,  which  many  good  houses  look  out  upon ;  we  lodged  in  one 
which  was  very  neat,  and  in  which  we  felt  ourselves  at  ease ;  two  or  three  miles  before 
we  arrive*^  at  the  city,  there  began  a  handsome  causeway,  planted  on  both  sides  with 
willo  ,-s.  We  left  Linkoping  at  seven  o'clock,  we  travelled  frequently  among  rocks, 
and  came  near  to  the  side  of  the  great  lake  Water.  For  two  miles  we  co  't'.nued  our 
route  along  its  side,  at  first  over  rocks  which  surround  it,  and  afterwards  under  the 
rocks,  along  the  margin  of  the  lake.  We  passed  through  a  village,  very  small,  and  very 
poor,  opposite  to  which,  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  the  remains  of  a  castle  are  distin> 
guished,  called  Brahuss,  or  good  house,  which  had  been  burnt  down ;  to  judge  from  its 
remains,  it  must  have  been  very  handsome. 

On  Sunday  the  twenty.first,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  further,  below  the  same  range  of 
rocks,  from  cn^  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  toises  from  the  lake,  is  the  little  town 
of  Gnenna,  thirty  miies  from  Sv  xkholnu  The  houses  are  very  small,  and  all  of  wood ; 
they  form  two  parallel  street  i^,  on  the  same  line  as  the  length  of  the  lake.  The  lirgest 
of  them  b  very  broad,  and  nearest  to  the  lake ;  in  the  middle  of  the  street  there  is  a  row 
of  lofty  trees,  which  divides  it  from  beginning  to  end,  and  affords  a  pretty  prospect ;  it  is 
neariy  three  hundred  toises  long,  running  north  north.east ;  a  third  part  down  tHi«  street 
towards  the  north-east  b  a  pretty  regular  square,  utuated  between  the  two  streets,  into 
which  five  or  ax  little  cross  streets  fall.  The  church,  the  only  stone  building,  is  about 
two  thirds  up  the  great  street,  going  towards  the  south-west.  Between  the  town,  which 
is  quite  at  the  bottom  of  the  rocks,  and  the  lake,  is  a  well  cultivated  country,  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  toises  broad,  stretching  along  the  lake.  There  are  several  ^rdens,  in 
which  cherries  are  very  plentiful,  M^ich  appeared  to  us  to  be  of  a  good  kind.  We  amved 
there  at  nine  o'clock  in  ue  morning,  and  departed  at  four  in  the  afternoon. .  j  .^  ,  <    ,?. » , , 

-•■>,.:--v  --..•,      .    ,-  .  ■  ■^.       VV2  ■   ...  ■.".-..'.•;>'•,_>. 


i. 


I 


332 


OUTHIER'8  JOURNAL  OP 


Af^cr  travelling  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  at  the  foot  of  the  rock,  upon  leaving  Grenna, 
we  ascended  it,  und  passed  to  the  east  of  a  small  lake.  Some  time  aticr  we  descended  to 
the  side  of  the  great  lake,  along  which  we  continued  to  Jonekoping.  West  of  Grenna 
in  the  lake  we  perceived  a  large  island,  with  houses  upon  it. 

At  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  arrived  at  Jonekoping ;  the  town  appeared  to  us 
large  and  handsome ;  a  large  and  very  broad  street  passes  through  it ;  the  houses  of  it 
are  neat,  altl-iough  aiinost  all  of  wood,  it  is  situated  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
great  lake  Water,  the  water  of  which  as  well  forms  a  large  bason  within  the  town.  We 
saw  no  boat  either  on  the  bason,  or  on  the  lake,  which  much  surprised  us  :  1  had  before 
remarked  that  there  was  none  on  the  lake  near  Grenna,  nor  in  uiy  of  its  extent,  while  we 
were  coasting  it  ovtr  the  rocks.  I  was  not  able  to  learn  the  reason  of  it  at  Jonekoping ; 
we  waited  only  an  instant  there,  because  there  were  some  German  noblemen  behind  us, 
who  took  sixteen  horses,  and  we  were  fearful  of  their  getting  before  us.  We  left  it  on 
Monday  the  twenty-second,  at  ten  o'clock  at  night 

We  found  an  even  country  on  proceeding,  the  road  almost  always  sandy,  and  through 
woods ;  to  this  succeeded  fields,  meadows,  lakes,  and  heaths ;  we  passed  two  rivers,  and 
on  Tuesday  the  twenty-third,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  amved  at  Hionby,  where 
we  saw  more  empty  sh^-ps  than  houses ;  it  is  a  place  famous  for  markets  and  fairs.  At 
eight  o'clock  we  arrived  at  Hambneda  or  Hamna,  where  we  rested  ourselves ;  the  hostess 
took  us  for  people  out  of  their  senses,  to  ask  to  go  to  bed  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
We  did  not  set  out  till  five  in  the  evening ;  we  passed  a  river,  and  afterwards  throu^ 
coppices,  where  we  saw  beech  for  the  first  time. 

By  seven  o'clock  we  reached  Trahry ;  we  went  slowly  throu^  the  woods  the  space 
of  two  miles,  as  far  as  Muskarid,  where  we  arrived  at  nudnight ;  afterwards,  having  got 
to  Fayerhah,  one  mile  and  a  half  further,  by  two  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning  the 
twenty-fourth ;  we  left  it  at  four  o'clock,  passed  by  Orkliona,  and  Lenby,  and  reached 
Helsinbore  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

We  had  travelled  for  a  lone  time  through  a  coimtr)r,  the  kmguage  of  which  was  not 
familiar  to  us.  We  were  delisted  with  finding  at  Helsinbor^  several  persons  who  spdce 
French.  The  town  of  Helsinbor^^  is  not  handsome ;  there  is  a  small  terrace  on  the  bank 
of  the  strait,  where  many  cannon  are  placed. 

The  wheels  were  taken  dF  our  coach,  and  it  was  put  ittio  a  large  boat,  in  which  we 
embarked  at  seven  o'clock.  The  wind  was  southerly,  v.'e  kept  as  near  to  it  as  posuble, 
and,  using  our  oars,  we  passed  the  Sound  in  an  hour;  but  as  the  wind  and  the  current 
had  thrown  us  out  of  our  course,  and  carried  us  somewhat  to  the  north  of  the  eastte  of 
Elsineur,  we  were  obliged  to  puU  against  wind  and  tide,  to  get  to  the  town  at  the  soath 
south-east ;  we  did  not  land  at  Elsineur  until  nkie  o*ck)ck :  this  town  is  pretty,  the  bosses 
have  a  neat  appearance,  but  they  have  very  few  lodgings,  ar*i  do  not  behave  with  much 
politeness  to  strangers.  t^^ft<- 1 « -it-vjAC.n-- 

We  left  Eliuneur  on  Thursds^  the  twenty-fifth,  at  one  in  the  eftemoom ;  we  met  ividi 
roads  very  ill  kept,  and  sometimes  very  bad,  and  did  not  arrive  at  Copenhagen  nntik  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening.  We  lodged  at  an  inn,  which  was  oj^osite  the  palace  of  the  king 
of  Denmark.  Friday  the  twenty-Mxth,  M.  de  la  None,  envoy  of  France,  invited  us  to 
dinner.  Afler  dinner  I  went  with  Messrs.  Clairaut  andCamus  to  see  a  n^  palaee,  catted 
Frederiksberg,  which  is  handsome,  and  has  fine  gardens. 

Saturday  the  twenty  eighth  I  heard  mass  said  by  the  Jesuits^  who  officiate  at  the  em- 
peror's  chapel.  This  chapel  is  elegant ;  »  number  of  catholics  were  collected  there, 
to  hear  divine  serke.     M.  de  la  Noue  did  us  the  honour  of  visicing  us ;  and  we  passed 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THB  NORTH. 


335 


the  remainder  of  the  day  in  looking  about  the  town,  canals,  ports,  and  vessels  of  the 
kine.  ' 

On  Sunday  the  twenty-ninth,  M.  de  la  None  again  invited  us  to  dine ;  he  invited  ns  well 
M.  Herrebon,  astronomer  of  the  king  of  Denmark.  After  dinner  we  went  to  M.  Hcr- 
rebon,  who  made  each  of  us  a  present  of  some  books  of  his  composing :  he  gave  us  a 
coUation  in  his  garden  ;  he  had  requested  the  company  of  a  clergyman,  whose  dress  ap- 
peared to  me  extraordinary  ;  he  had  on  a  long  coat,  with  a  ruff  of  very  fine  linen  round 
his  neck,  and  wore  a  cap,  terminated  at  top  by  a  large  round  piece  of  felt,  about  eighteen 
inches  in  diameter,  placed  horizontally ;  this  is  the  usual  dress  of  professors  of  divinity 
at  Copenhagen.  We  afterwards  went  to  see  the  astronomical  tower,  where  several  of  the 
instruments  of  Tycho  Brahe  are  preserved,  and  part  of  the  original  registers  of  his  obser- 
vations. We  saw  the  library  of  the  university,  over  the  vault  of  the  church,  contiguous 
to  the  astronomical  tower.  M.  Le  Cierc,  son  of  the  famous  Le  Clcrc,  designer  and 
engraver  at  Paris,  invited  us  to  supper. 

Monday  the  twenty-ninth  we  all  went  to  the  king's  library,  to  the  stables,  and  the 
riding<scnool,  where  M.  Le  Grand,  equerry  of  the  king  of  Denmark,  then  was,  and 
caused  several  horses  to  be  mounted ;  we  saw  hunters  and  riding  horses  very  v/ell  trained. 
Thence  we  were  conducted  to  a  royal  castle  in  the  town,  which  contains  great  wealth, 
a  great  quantity  of  gold  plate,  df  a  handsome  shape,  and  well  wrought :  we  were  shewn 
as  well  cabinets  of  medals,  and  natural  hbtory,  very  complete ;  with  many  paintings  and 
statues  of  great  value.  The  king  of  Denmark  was  ten  or  twelve  leagues  fi-om  Copeti- 
hagen,  which  prevented  our  paying  our  court  to  him.  We  went  to  take  leave  of  M. 
de  la  Nouc,  and  departed  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

After  travellii^  four  milea,  we  arrived  on  Tuesday  the  thirtieth  at  Roskild,  at  one 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  a  middling  city,  the  see  of  a  bishop ;  four  miles  farther,  at 
Ringstead;  and  again  miles  more,  at  Slagen,  a  town  much  resembling  RoskiH, 

and  near  to  which  is  a  cu  n  ich  tik'  a  monastery.  i  ngth,  at  fiivein  the  evening, 
we  came  to  Kcx^r,  a  Httlc  town  on  the jxxnt  of  a  tontine  of  land ;  in  gtnng  out  of  the 
town  i&a  little  castle,  with  a  garriKMi.  From  Copmhaeen  to  Korser  is  fourteen  Danish 
miks ;  the  cotfntry  is  level  enough,  ar  \  the  roads  ^^^ood :  there  are  fine  forests  of  beech, 
several  lakes  and  fields,  some  uncultivated,  others  cultiv  ted,  but  *he  soil  bad.  We  gave 
for  each  horse  fourteen  sols ;  the  postilions  are  lazy,  anu  fond  of  drink.        '     * 

At  ax  o'ck)ck  at  i^ht  we  were  on  the  shor.  of  the  Great  Belt ;  we  embarked  in  a 
smatt  vessel,  on  the  deck  of  whKh,  with  its  viiceh  on,  our  coach  was  placed.  The 
wind  was  south ;  we  kept  near  to  it,  in  older  to  go  west  south-west,  and  arrived  by  nine 
o^cknk  on  the  other  shore ;  we  slept  at  an  inn  on  '>c  quay,  the  gates  of  the  town  of 
Niuboig  being  shut 

We  left  that  place  at  seven  in  the  mornmg  oi  » ednesday  the  thirty.first ;  we  passed 
through  Niuborg,  vrh/ere  there  is  a  garrison,  and  after  trarelfing  four  miles  arrived  at 
Qoon  at  Odenzee,  a  handsome  and  lai^  town ;  we  went  fax  miles  farther  to  Middelfast, 
»  small  toim,  which  we  reach''  i  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night ;  we  immediately  embarked, 
to  cross  the  little  Belt,  in  a  large  flat  boat.  We  were  cmliged  to  row  against  the  wind, 
which  was  south-west ;  at  every  stroke  of  the  oar  (which  was  very  k>ng)  we  perceived  a 
kumnous  train  of  sparics  on  the  8urfeK:e  of  the  agitated  waters.  The  water  of  the  Belts 
bein^  the  same  as  that  of  the  Baltic  Sea,  which  is  scarcdy  at  all  salt,  it  is  presumable 
that  It  is  not  the  agitation  of  the  saline  particles  alone  which  causes  these  spark«:  after 
having  gsuned  on  the  wind  by  dint  of  rowing,  we  hoisted  ssdl,  and  passed  over  in  an  hour 
and  a  fastfy  landing  stt  one  in  the  morning. 


iu 


OCTIIIER'S  JOURNAL  OP 


We  set  off  on  Thursday  the  first  of  August,  at  three  o'clock,  and  aAer  travelling 
three  miles  arrived  at  Kolditig,  a  small  town,  in  which  is  a  garrison  :  we  travelled  four 
mil^s  farther,  arriving  by  noon  at  Hatterslebjn,  a  pretty  town,  but  without  gates.  The 
postilions  drove  us  very  slowly  :  we  journie  all  night,  and  did  not  arrive  at  Flensborg 
till  Friday  the  second,  at  six  in  the  morning,  where  we  had  to  do  witii  vcij'  uncivil  peo< 
pie,  disobliging,  and  selfish  in  the  extreme.  We  left  Flensborg  at  eight  in  the  morning, 
passing  over  nothing  but  heath  to  Rensborg,  where  we  arrived  at  ten  o'clocL  at  night. 
As  the  gates  of  the  town  were  closed,  we  took  up  our  abode  with  a  friendly  ffxmer,  who, 
from  his  courteous  behaviour,  might  well  have  been  taken  for  a  stranger. 

From  this  place  the  country  houses,  and  even  some  in  the  town,  are  singularly  plan, 
ned  :  they  consist  o."  a  large  court,  to  which  you  enter  bv  a  great  gate ;  at  the  bottom 
of  this  immense  court  are  some  apartments ;  all  round,  m  sheds,  the  cattle  and  poultry 
are  kept,  who  in  consequence  are  habituated  tc  live  very  familiarly  with  the  family  :  thie 
kitchen  is  in  the  comer  of  the  court,  which  is  large  enough  to  serve  for  a  coach  house ; 
carriages  are  kept  in  it. 

We  continued  our  journey,  passing  through  the  town  of  Rensborg ;  it  b  well  forti- 
fied ;  it  is  divided  in  two  by  a  canal,  on  which  were  many  handsome  boats,  carrying 
masts ;  the  southern  part  is  very  handsome.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  arrived 
at  Itzehoa ;  it  is  a  fine  town,  of  great  trade,  but  not  inclosed.  We  "et  off  thence  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  evening ;  we  passed  over  a  fine  fertile  country,  variegated  by  meadows,  and 
watered  by  canals.  A  mile  beyond  Itzehoa  we  saw  on  die  side  of  the  road  a  fortified 
castle,  surrounded  by  meadows.  We  stopped  a  little  at  midnight  in  the  town  of  £lme« 
shem,  and  arrived  on  Sunday  the  fourth,  at  eight  o'ckxk  in  the  morning,  at  Hambourg. 

We  went  to  pay  our  respects  there  to  M.  Poussin,  envoy  of  the  king ;  he  kept  us  to 
dine  with  M.  de  la  Chetardie,  who  was  returning  from  his  embassy  to  Prussia.  On  Mon> 
day  the  fifth,  and  Tuesday  the  sixth,  we  dined  there  again  :  we  cannot  speak  too  highly 
of  the  eagerness  he  manifested  to  have  us  continually  with  him.  Tuesday  he  gave  a  dinner 
to  M.  de  Chavigny,  who  was  going  as  ambassador  to  Copenhagen. 

Wet'nesday  the  seventh  we  went  to  see  M.  Rochefort,  commissary  of  the  marine, 
and  to  (ake  leave  of  M.  Poussin.  We  dined  at  our  inn :  towards  the  close  of  dinner 
some  Prussian  soldiers,  extremely  tall,  gave  us  a  concert  with  a  bass  viol,  a  bassoon,  vio> 
lins,  a  guitar,  and  French  horns. 

At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  set  off  in  our  coach ;  and  afler  travelling  two 
miles  along  the  northern  bank  of  the  Elbe,  we  crossed  it  at  Blankinese  in  a  rery  incom- 
modious boat,  and  conducted  by  very  unskilful  boatmen.  We  continued  our  route  in 
this  boat  along  a  little  river,  which  discharges  itself  into  the  Elbe,  &vA  which  allows  of 
decked  vessels  to  go  up  of  some  burthen ;  we  landed  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  on 
tlie  bank  of  this  little  river.  W«  went  on  a  mile  farther  to  Boxtehode,  situated  on  the  same 
river ;  we  arrived  there  at  midnight ;  we  changed  horses  there,  and  left  it  (mi  Thursday 
the  eighth,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  There  are  four  or  five  villages  on  the  road, 
both  sides  of  which  present  barren  uncultivated  plains,  as  far  as  near  to  Bremen.  We 
dined  at  on .  of  these  villages,  and  fared  very  v/ell ;  they  presented  s  first  with  tea  and 
coffee,  which  is  the  custom  of  the  country. 

At  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  arrived  near  the  gates  of  Bremen,  which  were  already 
closed.  Bremen  is  a  very  fine  and  large  town ;  we  were  told  it  contained  a  church  for 
the  catholics.  ■        ^ 

After  travelling  a  mile  we  passed  by  Delmerhorst,  continually  in  a  bad  country, 
nothing  but  heath  and  sandy  roads.    Two  miles  farther  we  reached  Villenhusen ;  we 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THR  NORTH. 


335 


left  it  at  seven  o'clock,  ^ing  through  a  very  unpleasant  country,  composed  of  heath  and 
uind,  and  arrived  on  Friday  the  ninth,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  Klappcnborg, 
all  the  inhabitants  of  which  are  Catholics.  We  departed  at  five  o'clock,  and  by  nine 
reached  the  village  of  Largning,  where  wc  heard  mass.  In  this  country  they  no  longer 
conform  to  the  old  stile :  the  feast  of  St.  Laurence  was  celebrating,  whose  muss  was 
solemnly  sung,  accompanied  by  the  organ. 

We  went  afterwards  to  the  town  of  Hasselune,  thence  to  Lingen,  and  arrived  on 
Sunday  the  twelfth,  at  two  in  the  morning,  at  Nothoron,  a  small  town,  in  which  the 
Catholics,  Lutherans,  and  Calvinists,  each  publicly  exercise  their  religion.  The  post- 
masters of  this  country  are  not  famous  for  their  honesty  ;  they  asked  us  twice  what  they 
had  a  right  to  receive,  and  we  were  obliged  to  wink  at  their  n^ery,  m  order  to  get  on. 
We  travelled  over  heaths  almost  as  far  as  Dolden,  a  large  village,  near  which  is  u  fine 
castle ;  there  we  came  to  a  better  country,  as  well  in  what  regarded  the  soil,  as  its  in. 
habitants. 

When  we  passed  Ddden,  we  ^^  xeived  many  castles,  with  fine  avenues  to  them ; 
notwithstanding  there  yet  was  a  quantity  of  heath,  on  which  they  cut  turf,  which  b 
almost  their  omy  fuel.  We  arrived  at  the  gates  of  Deventer,  which  were  sliut,  at  mid- 
night :  we  passed  the  night  in  the  suburbs,  and  on  Monday  the  thirtee  ith,  at  six  o'clock, 
entered  the  town,  which  is  pretty,  neat,  and  apparendy  well  fortifier.  We  took  fresh 
horses  there,  and  departed  at  seven  o'clock :  on  leaving  it,  we  went  over  a  handsome 
floating  bridge  (^  boats.  The  country  afterwards  was  beautiful  for  two  miles  from  the 
town  :  we  tnien  came  to  a  very  handsome  and  very  large  castle,  a  short  time  before  we 
reached  the  post.house ;  afterwards  a  forest  of  beech,  and  immense  heaths,  v/ithout  vil-. 
lages,  until  within  a  mile  of  Amersford,  where  the  country  be^ns  to  improve. 

We  saw  there  a  great  number  of  fiel^  of  tobacco,  and  several  very  long  buildings 
for  drying  it  We  passed  through  the  town  of  Amersford,  which  is  handsome  and  large ; 
the  fortifications  are  not  in  rep^.  At  midnight  we  arrived  at  Narden,  as  pretty  a  town 
as  possible  to  be ;  its  fortifications  are  respectable ;  it  is  separated  by  several  canals,  over 
which  are  bridges.  We  continued  our  road  along  a  canal  until  we  arrived  at  Amster- 
dam, on  Tuesday  the  thirteenth,  at  nine  in  the  morning. 

We  had  again  the  pleasure  to  meet  with  M.  de  Maupertuis ;  he  had  only  arrived  the 
day  before :  the  wind  for  a  long  time  had  been  adverse  on  his  passage,  and  the  vessel 
had  been  tempest  tost.  The  rest  of  the  day,  and  the  succeeding  one,  we  employed  in 
examining  the  city  and  the  port.  Wednesday  the  fourteenth  we  embarked  in  a  schuyt, 
where  we  were  not  very  comfortable  till  we  arrived  at  Leyden :  we  there  took  another 
boat,  much  more  comraodious,  and  more  clean ;  and  again  another  at  Delft,  which 
conducted  us  to  R(Aterd{\m.  AXi.  these  towns  are  elegantly  handsome,  and  yield  nothing 
in  neatness  to  Amsierdanu  Xji. -.-'H.  «t   :,t^-  i  ■■■^u^.-,.  t.  .  y ».         . 

The  banks  of  the  canal  are  adorned  with  magnificent  houses,  and  very  fine  gardens, 
particularly  opposite  to  the  Hague.  On  one  of  the  bridges  of  Rotterdam  is  the  brass  statue 
of  Erasmus,  dressed  as  a  Coraelier,  holding  a  book  in  his  hand.  The  vessels  seen  on 
every  ude  in  th'is  town,  on  the  canal,  and  on  the  river,  ofier  a  very  fine  spectacle. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  hired  two  calashes  to  continue  our  journey.  Friday  the  sixteenth, 
at  two  in  the  morning,  we  crossed  the  Meuse  in  a  large  flat-bottomed  boat ;  at  nine  we 
passed  the  Scheldt,  at  a  place  where  its  waters  are  stopped  by  three  fine  locks,  which 
serve  to  let  down  into  the  canal  the  barks  and  small  vessels  with  which  this  prodi^ously 
wide  river  is  covered.  Near  the  locks  there  h  a  very  large  lanthem  at  the  top  of  a  mas^ 
with  a  ladder  to  go  up  to  it. 


1 
1 


Vi 


336 


OUTIIIRR'8  JCl/RNAL,  8u: 


'\ 


We  sent  back  our  calashes  on  arriving  at  the  banks  of  the  Scheldt ;  and  after  passing 
it  we  met  with  fresh  ones  at  Mordyk,  which  carried  us  to  Antwerp,  where  we  again 
changed  our  carriage  :  we  there  hired  a  lar^  coach,  which  would  hold  eight  persona. 

From  Antwerp  we  had  the  bent  road  possible,  well  paved,  straight,  and  planted  with 
trees  on  the  sides ;  attcrwards  beside  a  fine  canal,  which  we  parsed  by  a  bridge,  on  com* 
ing  nigh  to  Brussels.  The  side  of  the  canal  towards  the  wcsi  U  horned  with  country 
houses,  and  magnificent  garderts,  where  fountains  >.re  seen  playing,  and  very  high  and 
well  cut  hedges. 

On  C.'turduy  the  seventeenth,  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  we  arrived  at  Brussels, 
whence  we  followed  the  customary  road  to  Paris,  where  we  arrived  on  Tuesday  the 
twentieth,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

M.  de  Maupertuis  went  forward  from  rercnni ;  we  proceeded  to  his  house,  and  after 
resting  ourselves,  we  completed  our  voyage  by  supping  all  tc^ther. 

We  arrived  too  late  on  Tuesday  to  complete  our  hrst  dutv,  which  was  to  go  and 
render  an  account  of  our  expedition  to  his  majesty,  the  cardinal,  and  M.  de  Maurepas. 
On  Wednesday  the  twenty-first  we  all  proceeded  to  Versailles :  we  first  went  to  M. 
Le  comte de  Maurepas,  who  received  us  m  the  most  kind  manner;  he  presented  uato 
the  cardinal  minister,  and  aftermirds  to  the  king.  The  cardinal  observed  to  us,  that 
the  perfect  union  whkh  had  reigned  among  us  during  so  k)ng  a  voyage  delighted  him 
extremely.    M.  Le  comte  de  Maure^  afterwards  carried  us  home  to  dine  with  him. 

It  was  scarcely  possible  for  M.  de  Maupertuis  to  prevent  the  loss  of  some  time,  occa- 
sioned by  the  earnestness  of  so  many  friends.  It  was  a  week  after  our  arrival  before  he 
laid  the  account  of  our  trigonometrical  observations  before  the  academy ;  in  which,  on 
a  large  scale,  he  exposed  tne  series  of  our  triangles. 

■  Friday  the  thirteenth  of  September  we  all  went  to  the  comte  de  Maurepas* ; ,  I 
took  my  leave  of  him,  and  returned  to  the  bishop  of  Bayeux,  to  resume  my  ftxmer 
course  of  life. 


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TRAVELS  OF  M.  ARWID  EHRKNMALM  INTO  Wl.STERN  NOPDt.AND.  AND  'iHi: 
LAPLAND  HKOVINCL  OF  ASLIILL,  Oil  ANGHEUMANLANU,  IN  THE  MONTH  OF 
JUNE,  1741. 

rrROM  THE  HWr.  OBN,  DKS  VOT.  XXV.  «««.] 


1  HIS  work,  translated  from  the  Swedish,  is  pcrfecUy  new  to  foreigners,  and  the 
translation  has  been  made  for  the  History  of  Voyages  and  Travels  :  It  will  t-nlargc  our 
knowledge  of  a  country,  which,  though  barren,  and  bvi  a  waste,  is  sufliciently  near  our 
civilized  states  to  merit  the  attention  of  the  reader.     Shut.ld  an  invasion  in  Europe  ever 
take  place,  it  will,  we  have  no  doubt,  proceed  from  thof  c  countries  which  wc  at  present 
despise.     The  most  indigent  nations  only  wait  for  some  violent  convulsion,  some  rupture 
in  Europe,  to  fall  upon  it  from  all  '>uarters ;  and  perhaps  the  Nordlanders  will  per- 
form their  part  in  this  great  revolution.     We  regard  it  as  a  mere  chimera  ;  because 
history  does  not  present  the  samift  even*     Kice,  and  that  the  past,  we  imagine,  fa.'  fmrn 
being  an  example  which  ahontd  abrm  the  present,  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  guarantee  of 
our  securiQr ;  so  does  the  difference  of  d^ne  ftnd  situation  change  the  order  of  causes 
and  effects.     We  confide  b  the  polttica^  connections  of  Europe,  which  balance  all  its 
powers  by  one  another,  wfaSch  gii!«^^A(<  fo  >ulty  of  foreseeing,  and  time  to  guard  against, 
u-ruption.     We  trust  in  the^progreMof  die  art  of  wjm"  ;  in  the  security  of  fortresses ;  in 
the  mexhaustible  reaouroe  of  fire-armii ;  in  money,  which  creates  numerous  armies ;  in 
the  multiplicity  of  states,  winch  mutually  thwart  the  enterprises  and  retard  the  progress 
of  one  another;  in  commeiice,  in  fine,  wMoh,  nioUipiying  and  mingling  interests  and 
wants,  diverts,  towards  tubonr  and  indtistry,  that  restlesa  «nd  furious  activity  of  men, 
which  formeriy  inclined  them-'to  vmr.     But  ia  not  the  inventioiv  of  fire.arms  favourable 
to  the  northern  nations,  Whooti'  nature  has  i^^shed  with  iron,  to  conquer  the  land  ? 
Citadels,  which  may  fmvtnlt  ikapriscy  will  t^|j^ii^«{|M^  famine  and  devastation,  with 
which  it  is  easy  to  aurrotfhd  thtra  ?  The  gdiP' liHlioh  pa^s  the  troops,  will  it  inspire  them 
with  courage  ?  If  ivsM^  fbr  deftnect  will  .<|r^'tijt  an  aflurement  for  attack  ?  All  the 
riches  of  the  new  world,  Hihildf^  low  in  d>imjf|(]|bbrl«^^     of  Europe,  do  they  not 
invite  the  inhabitants  of  the  n'J^.tfl  to^va!n|b  tn0  Mn^f;A^  iiot  the  connections  of  powers 
hasten  the  rev(^udon  they  '4i^i  ,^ts^m^  fMiytn%f:  V^^  not  the  preponderance  of 
one  of  these  northern  eJwM^ades  bpw^  on  the  &I^ind^  ruin  of  the  equilibrium? 
Would  not  each  petiqr  r/iMiiber  anite  vypt^ilie  greates#,^*|vMi  the  strongest,  to  complete 
the  destruction  of  ^mdlK^biidy  f  DoMnSit  commerce' jpm  out  the  way  to  conquest ; 
does  it  not  inspire  tempt;tf|iif  'What  biR|Vilen  years  warih-BjOrope  is  sufficient  to  de- 
prive the  richest  powers  kl^nii^rica  of  diW'Oolonies?  Why  aMure  ourselves  that  these, 
at  the  least  shock  of  the  tnoAttr  countiy,  ^Ruld  not  throw  oflT'the  yoke  of  the  power 
which  oppresses  them  ?  T^  *iHial  iHl{j|(q^l|l^(»  #ttipon^me^  ^^^  ^^^  Indies,  but  to 
enervate,  perhaps  eiim^t^tibterieMii  it -y^         the  nadCft^1^|||ve  seized  on  it,  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  othergr  >  "Hie  nbrfhem  nations,  foil  of  vigour,  ^th1ih<^ir  fbr(x.'s  united, 
would  fall  upon  our  southern  Countries.    They  are  open  to  invasron  %  the  passage  of 
the  two  seas,  which  at  pruient  form  the  path  of  all  countries ;  by  the  effeminacy  of 
the  only  inhabitants  who  have  interest,  without  power ;  by  the  misery  of  ^e  only  inha. 
bitants,  who  have  power,  without  interest,  to  defend  the  state.    What,  when  Rome  pos- 
sessed all  the  riches  of  Asia,  and  all  the  strength  of  Europe ;  a  discipline  unique ;  a 
nation  trained  up  to  war  by  the  conquest  of  the  world ;  nations  which  it  had  enlightened 
and  civilized ;  laws,  arts,  knowledge,  and  enjoyments,  which  should  have  rendered  it 


I 


VOL.    I. 


X   X 


338 


TRAVBLI  OP  BIIRENMALM. 


dear  to  the  extent  of  its  dominion  ;  even  at  that  rime  it  lost  all,  beheld  every  thing 
sink  under  its  tcct :  in  lean  than  two  aecs,  the  barhariunH  seized  on  all  itii  wcscrncun- 
quests,  arrived  at  its  gates,  overturned  its  empire,  annihilated  its  power  I  And  wc  dare 
to  hope,  that  with  all  its  vices,  and  without  its  resources ;  without  spirit  of  union  and  pa- 
triotism  among  the  principal  families  of  each  nation,  all  debased  or  corrupted  by  the 
servitude  of  courts ;  without  any  political  link  between  the  people,  who,  by  turns  ene- 
mies and  allies,  know  neither  the  mtcrests  nor  sentiments  whicfi  should  unite  or  divide 
them  ;  without  attachment  fur  a  land,  in  which  the  soldiers  who  dcfeixi  it  poHsess  no- 
thing, where  all  the  fundamental  bands  of  society  are  relaxed  by  the  licentuiusness  of 
the  manners,  and  by  the  fatal  necessity  of  a  celibacy,  which  luxury  ordains,  though  pro- 
scribed by  nature ;  we  ho))e  that,  in  such  a  situation,  the  nations  will  not  dare  nor  be 
able  to  attempt  any  thing  ?  Slumber  in  indolence,  ye  that  are  bom  to  slavery  ;  it  is  of 
little  conseciuence  to  you,  into 'v hat  hands  your  chains  may  fall. 

In  the  mean  time  let  us  consider  the  land,  we  idle  cotitemplators,  who  can  only  think, 
without  acting ;  we,  whom  the  spectacle  of  the  vices  of  the  age  and  our  native  countrv 
strongly  repels  toward  regions,  dreary  indeed  to  the  sight,  but  consolatory  to  the  mind. 
Let  us  follow  an  enlightened  traveller,  who  seeks,  in  the  ruins  and  the  deserts  of  nature, 
the  traces  and  hoiieu  of  socialness  :  he  is  an  academician  of  Stockholm,  who  has  visited 
regions,  where  the  liberty  which  reigns  in  his  country  might  give  rise  to  culture,  and 
correct  the  defects  of  the  climate.  This  journey  w'M  not  be  found  the  least  instructive 
of  this  volume,  nor  of  the  whole  collection.  I^t  us  give  the  trave'ler  leave  to  speak  for 
himself;  permitting  ourselves  to  add  and  blend  our  reflections  w  a  those  with  which 
he  has  embellished  hih  work. 

I  acquit  myself  of  a  duty,  by  prese"««'«g  the  observations  I  have  been  enabled  to  make 
in  my  journey  to  the  acaden>^  '*'  which  had  countenanced  it :  whatever  good  it  will 
meet  with  will  be  the  lexw  of  the  happy  fruits  it  has  produced  i  what  defects  and  errors 
will  be  seen,  only  belong  to  the  most  useless  of  its  members. 

Before  commencing  the  description  of  the  province  of  Asehle,  which  is  the  principal 
object  of  this  ioumey,  let  me  be  permitted  to  say  a  few  words  of  the  country  whicn  I 
have  traversedf,  with  my  faithful  companion,  the  baron  of  Cederhielm. 

The  road  leading  from  Upsal  to  Flaedsund  is  divided  into  three  branches,  towards  the 
south,  the  north-east,  and  the  north-west ;  the  Utter,  which  conducts  to  Old  Upsal,  ex- 
tends in  a  line  so  straight,  that  on  departure  the  exuvmity  may  be  perceived.  This 
road  appears  to  me  the  image  and  emblem  of  the  order  which  should  reiirn  in  all  our 
ideas,  whether  of  speculation  or  of  conduct,  and  be  directed  towards  the  utility  of  man. 
The  studies  of  the  learned,  the  enterprises  of  the  politician,  conducting  to  the  same  end, 
ought  equallv  to  concur  to  the  happiness  of  society  ;  all  which  does  not  lead  there  de- 
viates from  the  paths  of  nature  and  of  truth. 

The  country,  extending  for  two  miles  and  a  half  from  Upsal,  presents  a  soil  nearly 
all  argillaceous,  or  fertile,  whetlier  in  tlie  cultivated  lands  or  the  meadows,  without  any 
other  wood  than  juniper-trees,  which  are  regarded  by  skilful  economists  as  a  sign  of  fer- 
tility. This  land,  which  has  never  been  manured,  and  wluch  is  but  indiffereutly  culti- 
vated, produces  sufficiently  good  crops,  with  a  certain  abundance.  The  pasturages 
furnish  a  turf,  which  might  make  useful  fuel.  If  trees  were  planted  along  the  hedges,  the 
flocks  would  And  shade:  lO  repose  in  the  night-time,  during  the  long  stay  of  the  sun  in 
summer,  and  the  ix:asants  wood,  in  the  winters  still  longer.  Great  con(|uests  would  cost 
more  to  Sweden,  and  yield  less,  than  the  knowledge  and  cultivation  of  the  good  lands 


The  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Sweden. 


T»;.. 


TRAVrUI  or  KMnKXMAI.M. 


339 


of  that  kingdom.  It  in  hi^h  time  that  man,  who  has  ruvngcd  and  depopulated  the 
earth  for  ages,  hhould  ;it  laiit  cndcaivour  to  fertilize  it  completely,  und  to  cover  it  with 
inhabitants. 

The  road  leading  from  Licbi  to  Ohtflr  is  bordered  with  a  land  produciii}^  nothing  but 
firs ;  but  if  peace  continue  long,  thcM-  trees,  yet  ^oung,  will  lx;come  ol  great  utility 
to  navigation.  This  district,  howevir,  |)OS!iesbe8  villages,  the  fruits  of  cultivation,  und 
exhibits  some  fertility.  The  sand  of  this  soil  is  covtred,  in  some  pliices,  with  a  l)tdof 
black  earth ;  but  this  Iku)  is  of  such  little  thickness,  that  it  is  more  prejudicial  than  advau> 
tageous  to  bum  the  fields,  in  order  to  render  them  fertile. 

r«fo  land  is  entirely  useless  in  the  eyes  of  an  industrious  economist.  In  these  countries, 
almost  deserts,  the  intelligent  cultivators  have  left  the  hills  to  Ix:  covered  with  woods, 
while  they  have  distributed  the  plain  into  fields  and  pasture  lands.  Here  are  found 
fields  of  a  sundy  soil,  which  receives  fertility  by  manure;  hinds,  a  mixture  of  sand  and 
argil ;  and  sf)ils  of  pure  at-gil :  beneath  the  beds  of  sand  there  must  be  u  bed  of  argil,  of 
the  same  nature  as  that  of  the  vallies. 

At  two  miles  and  a  half  on  this  side  of  Gheflc  we  crossed  the  river  of  Dal,  which 
proceeds  from  Dalecarlia,  and  passes  to  the  manufactory  of  Avesta.  Near  this  pus- 
Kigc  we  saw  a  fall,  or  cataract,  which,  wc  were  told,  is  the  strongest  of  this  river.  At 
that  place  two  islands  divide  it  into  three  arms,  which  form  three  falls  ;  that  on  the  east 
the  steepest,  and  four  fathoms  high,  falls  from  four  rocks,  which  iiu  "Hse  the  rapidity  : 
the  two  oth/  r  cascades,  the  one  more  feeble  ihan  the  other,  are  little  remarkable,  and 
sometimes  fail  of  water. 

Below  these  falls  the  shores  of  the  river  are  of  a  bed  of  sand,  which  at  the  depth  of  two 
fathoms  covers  a  bed  of  argil.  The  annual  increase  of  the  waters  in  the  spring  raises  up 
the  sand,  and  transports  it  to  the  bed  of  the  river,  where  there  are.  formed  moving  banks, 
from  ten  to  twelve  firt  in  height:  thr»  tee  of  t]w  river  breaking  up  also  detaches  the 
sand,  and  augments  the  bunks  of  the  river  at  the  expcnce  of  its  snores ;  thus\hc  shores 
are  undermined,  and  its  channel  lessened;  the  lands  become  the  prey  of  the  waters, 
which  should  nourish  them.  An  attempt  might  be  made  to  dig  the  shores  of  the  river 
when  the  waters  are  low,  and  to  plant  trees,  which  would  protect  the  lands  against  tlie 
inundations  :'  the  river,  then  compelled  to  run  in  its  proper  channel,  would  soon  destroy 
the  banks  of  sand  which  time  has  accumulated.  It  would  become  navigable  ;  and  pos- 
terity would  bless  the  generation,  who  should  have  thus  prepared  for  the  welfare  of  its 
descendants. 

It  would  be  the  means  of  deriving  fertility  even  from  the  bosom  of  this  river,  which 
consumes  the  countries  that  it  waters,  to  dig  in  the  argil,  or  the  rich  land,  which  is  bu- 
ried under  the  sand;  the  two  mixed  together  would  enrich  the  fields.  This  work 
might  be  attempted  during  the  summer ;  it  would  often  be  laborious,  on  account  of  the 
depth  of  the  sand.  But  there  are  places  where  the  argil,  lying  very  near  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  would  rewsird  the  labourer  lur  the  pains  which  this  method  of  fertilizing  his 
land  would  cost.  Thus  the  river  Dal,  which,  besides  very  full  of  other  fish,  furnishes 
great  quantities  of  salmon  and  lampreys  to  the  inhabitants  of  its  shores,  would  also  be- 
come a  great  resource  for  agriculture.  There  are  few  countries  where  the  waters  do 
not  offer  to  man  more  means  of  subsistence  than  it  deprives  him  of:  the  torrents,  which 
ravage  in  winter,  water  the  lands  in  summer.  The  great  rivers,  which  desolate  their 
shores  to  the  right  and  left,  moisten  the  lands  far  distant  from  these  same  shores,  which 
they  never  cease  to  overflow.  The  sea,  which  exercises  over  the  globe  an  eternal  and 
insurmountable  empire,  receives  men  and  nourishes  them,  when  it  has  dispossessed  them 
of  their  lands,  or  transports  them  to  countries  which  it  permits  to  exist,  during  some 

XX  2 


I 


*       i 


340 


lltAVKU  or  t'.IIRR.XMAI.W 


! 

I 


i 


a^;c!i,  01)  titcir  rtniiulationn.  Holland,  China,  tlu*  commerce  ol'  the  whole  world,  thi- 
fiMlicrmcn  of  thi  north,  and  of  all  the  (luvu^t:  isluniU,  cvi  ly  thuiK  dc  moniitraicH  that  thr 
bcu,  notwithstandinu^  itH  dclugcH,  iiuindationh,  and  •ihipwackit,  ih  yet  an  element  more 
bountifid  than  terrible. 

All  die  country  is  sundy  from  IClfcarleliy  to  Ghctle  ;  at  timt  place  Upland  endii,  and 
GhcKtri-Kcland  commenced.  It  in  impoHiiibU-  tcKi  nuich  to  admire  the  road  leading  to 
that  province  across  martheti ;  or  to  Ik  weary  of  l>choldin|r  die  muniRT  in  which  lunnuti 
induttry  has  fnniished  it  on  both  sides  with  a  rampart  of  Hints,  which  protect  and  Ixirdcr 
it  like  walls ;  at  the  price  of  what  lalM)iirs  the  inhabiiaut  of  un  inacccMiible  country  Iuih 
been  able  to  o|)en  these  mcuns  of  communication,  which  comiKiisate  for  die  avarice  und 
the  .  ugijiedness  of  nature  ! 

Ghene  is  of  no  (^reat  compass  ;  most  of  the  houses  are  built  of  stone  and  wood  toge- 
ther ;  die  streets  are  narrow,  and  sometimes  cr(K)ked ;  the  market  Uicrcforc,  for  want 
of  outlets  and  o|M:nings,  has  no  fixed  place  ;  it  is  even  held  in  the  streets,  which  it  in- 
cumbers, an  inconvenience  still  more  grievous  in  ga'at  citiea,  where  carriages  and 
cquipagis  arc  multiplied  by  luxury.  But  Ghefle  is  recomjKrnsed  for  this  inconvenience, 
inse|)arable  from  its  smal!:u;a9  and  construction,  by  innumerable  advantages,  for  which  it 
is  indebted  partly  to  na  urc,  and  piully  to  industry.  It  is  situated  at  the  extremity  of  a 
gulf;  which  the  seu  hab  formeti  half  a  mile  in  the  land  :  the  vessels  ore  sheltered  dR*re 
from  the  rcx:ks  and  breakers,  which  beset  the  coasts  of  Sweden  with  diingei-s :  hirge  ves- 
sels, it  is  true,  cannot  anchor  in  the  harbour ;  but  as  the  town  is  traversed  by  a  river,  this 
establishes  a  continual  intercourse  l)etwcen  the  magazines  built  on  its  bonks,  and  the 
merchandise  unloaded  or  embarked  at  the  port.  A  crowd  of  small  boats  carry  on  this 
communication.  A  machine,  which  serves  to  carry  off*  the  mud,  never  ceases  clearing 
this  channel  of  navigation  and  commerce.  Ghefle  is  n  commercial  and  manufacturing 
town,  rich  and  populous ;  all  the  mechanics  profit,  all  the  inhabitants  labour.  This 
town,  happily  situatc*d  lx:tween  the  sea  and  the  mountains,  serves  as  a  magazine  to  the 
whole  country,  stamps  a  great  value  on  its  mines,  and  scatters\^undance  throughout  its 
lands.  By  the  mediation  of  this  port,  the  cop|)er  attracts  provisions,  and  the  provbions 
occasion  the  exportation  of  the  copper :  the  manufactures  serve  as  vehicles  for  this  com- 
merce. Under  u  heaven  which  only  yields  snow  is  seen  a  bakehouse  of  sugar,  a  pro- 
duction which  only  thrives  under  a  burning  sky ;  this  manufacture  ir  without  the  town ; 
within  is  a  manufacture  of  tobacco,  another  production  of  the  torrid  zone.  But  what 
occasions  one  of  the  smallest  cities  of  the  north  to  flourish  in  an  extraordinaiy  manner, 
is  a  school  for  the  thread  and  linen  trade.  The  principal  citizens  send  their  children  there, 
as  well  for  their  own  advantage,  as  for  an'example  to  the  people,  who  find  in  this  school 
a  certiiin  resource  for  the  maintenance  of  their  families. 

I  cannot  conceal  the  sentiment  of  joy  with  which  my  soul  was  aflfectcd  at  behold- 
ing an  establishment  so  patriotic,  so  founded  on  humanity.  The  great  quantity  of  flax 
which  grows  in  this  country,  and  the  laborirus  and  careful  character  of  the  women, 
united  widi  the  moderate  price  of  provisions,  cannot  fail  rendering  the  manufacture  of 
cloth  very  advantageous,  by  increasing  the  cultivation  of  flax,  so  natural  to  lands  which 
produce  HtUeclse.  The  munufuctures  of  which  the  materials  are  foreign  are  not  near  in 
so  great  a  proportion ;  yet  the  bakehouse  of  sugar,  established  at  Ghefle,  is  of  great  be- 
nefit. The  proprietor,  who  prejwres  five  thousand  pounds  of  sugar  weekly,  supports 
many  men  by  this  labour.  The  fir^t  who  opened  this  branch  of  industry  was  com|x:lled 
to  buy  of  foreigners  sugar-loaf  moulds,  for  the  value  of  twenty-four  or  thirty  thousand 
cop|x  r  crowns.  But  the  love  of  gain  has  occaaioned  the  discovery  in  the  country  iwelf 
of  an  earth  sufficiently  fine  for  these  brick  moulds;  and  the  inventors  are  enriched,  as 


THAVKLN  Ur  CHUKNMAL.M. 


Ml 


well  a«  their  c.mntry,  with  all  the  mnnry  which  wnxM  have  ^onc  out  of  it  without  thi-. 
diicitvcry.  Virtue?!,  as  uNo  vices  wlKtlar  in  luonility  or  |M)htics,  never  go  »ir»p;U  ,  one 
brunch  orcoiniuircc  has  given  birih  toothers.  Happy  the  counui<«*  who«»e  inliabitants 
love  hil)our,  atui  p-  leuvour  to  proc.iire  it  hy  their  inj^eiuiity  !  When  ti,v  material  of  the 
inanuru(^tiirc!i  is  at  a  great  price,  and  the  return  of  the  great  advances  slow,  the  worknufi 
are  long  idle,  for  the  enterpriser  will  not  overcharge  hiln^.'lf  with  merciiandiac  In  the 
uncertainty  of  gain  he  avoids  hazard,  or  makes  it  fall  on  the  purchaser,  by  raising  the 
price  of  these  articles  :  from  that  time  he  diminishes  the  consumption,  and  leaves  unent' 
ployed  a  great  many  hands,  wliom  ofteti  he  has  taken  from  agriculture,  to  which  thev 
no  more  return.  Such  is  the  inconvenience  of  manufactures  of  luxury.  Those  of  Ghellc 
are  not  liable  to  it :  the  two  thirds  of  its  inluibitants,  which  industry  or  eommeree  doen 
not  occupy,  are  employed  in  fishing ;  and  even  the  peasants  have  recourse  to  this  busi> 
ncss,  when  the  earth  is  not  §u(hcient  for  their  subsistence. 

The  rich  people  possess  in  the  town  u  school,  and  a  small  college,  with  six  lecturers. 
Children;  to  whom  nature  has  given  genius  or  taste  for  the  sciences,  may  there  accpiire 
suthcient  Uieory  to  |x:rfcct  tlie  practice  of  the  civil  arts. 

Ghcflc  is  the  residence  of  the  governor  of  Western  Nordland,  which  comprehends 
Ghestri-Kelund,  Helsingeland,  Medclpad,  iemteland,  and  Anghcrmanland.  There 
was  formerly  a  small  castle,  which  the  government  have  not  possessed  the  iK'cuni.iry 
means  to  rebuild,  but  which,  ncvcrUickss,  would  ben  eccssary  to  protect  the  town  from 
any  insult. 

In  Ghestri-KelaiKl  nearly  all  the  peasants  live  with  comfort ;  they  dwell  in  houses  tole- 
rably  well  built :  it  is  because  they  are  citizens  of  a  country  where  their  class  is  an  order 
of  the  state,  a  body  respected  by  all  the  others,  us  the  most  numerous,  the  most  ix)u  crful, 
and,  above  all,  the  most  useful,  in  the  view8  of  nature.  It  is  not  innuired  in  Sweden 
whether  it  b  proper  to  give  propriety  of  lands  to  the  peasants ;  they  have  it,  and  they 
cuUivatc  them,  because  they  arc  in  possession  of  them. 

The  inhabitants  of  Nordland  aro  more  active,  laborious,  healthy,  and  strong,  than 
those  of  the  south  of  Sweden  ;  they  receive  strangers  with  much  more  affection,  if  they 
are  not  importunate.  Most  of  the  Nordlanders  paint  the  interior  of  their  chambers,  to 
enliven  their  abodes,  which  the  climate  renders  dreary.  They  arc  cleanly  in  their  dress, 
and  also  in  their  food  ;  but  their  nourishment  is  not  very  delicate  :  cheese  and  butter 
are  suflBicient  for  the  simple  inhabitants :  they  cat  barley  and  oaten  bread  in  scarcity  oi 
rye,  which  is  observed  to  decrease,  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  the  farther  wc  advance 
north.  But  the  vices  which  exist  in  the  south  are  observed  to  diminish  in  the  same  pro. 
portion :  travellers  are  there  as  safe  as  the  inhabitants,  without  locks  or  bolts.  Ecggarj 
IS  very  rare,  because  idleness  excites  no  pity ;  but  the  wants  of  old  age  and  infirm  indi  - 
gence  are  supplied  by  the  social  affection  which  unites  families.  The  duties  of  kindred, 
ttie  sentiments  of  friendship,  have  no  reputation,  they  ivre  so  common  :  little  falsehood, 
and  no  oaths.  The  candour  of  youth  is  pK^rpetuated  in  the  uprightness  of  old  age  : 
there  are  no  vices  between  these  two  ages,  which  wither  the  flowers  oi*  the  former,  and  the 
fruits  of  the  latter.  The  picture  of  these  manners,  worthy  the  pencil  of  Tacitus,  is  not 
a  mere  fiction. 

The  peasants  of  Nordland  are  excellent  cultivators :  meadows  are  the  mothers  ol 
fields;  they  are  acquainted  with  this  rule  of  agricuHure.  In  order  to  obtain  the 
best  grass,  they  every  year  cultivate  a  portion  of  their  pasturages :  the  first  year  they 
sow  flax  without  manyre  ;  the  second,  barley,  or  mixed  grain ;  the  third  winter  they 
cast  dung  on  it,  especially  that  of  the  horse ;  they  afterwards  plough  this  field,  and  in 
the  spring  sow  oats.    When  the  harvest  is  got  in,  they  again  appropriate  this  land  to 


342 


TRAVELS  OF  EHURNMALM. 


nicadows,  and  change  the  land  of  men  into  what  the  /  call  cows'  land  :  the  grass,  rich 
and  abundant,  which  dicy  derive  from  it  for  seven  or  eight  years,  pays  them  with  usury 
both  for  their  manure  and  labour.  These  large  meadows  are  intersected  by  hedges, 
where  each  peasant  proprietor  has  his  barn  :  the  fields,  in  the  same  maniiCr,  are  divided 
into  as  many  partitions  as  there  are  families  or  cultivators ;  these  latter  comn¥jnly  only 
sow  the  argi..uceous  lands,  which  may  reward  their  pains. 

If  this  country  possessed  more  inhabitants,  it  would  become  more  fertile.  I  have 
seen  many  places  capr.ble  of  cultivation,  and  much  marshy  ground,  which  might  be 
turned  into  excellent  meadows.  Not  merely  that  on  the  heights  there  is  found  much 
stony  sand,  which,  scarcely  having  an  inch  of  rich  land,  would  not  be  worth  the  pains  of 
clearing  the  wood.  But  good  croos  might  be  drawn  from  many  vallies,  covered  with 
hv-rbs,  which  grow  naturally  amongst  birch  and  oziers  :  these  trees  are  of  a  green,  and 
vigour  which  indicate  a  land  fit  for  cultivation. 

The  products,  as  well  of  the  land,  of  the  commerce  of  grain,  the  fishery,  the  flocks,  of 
which  thty  sell,  the  milk  and  butter,  mines,  manufactures,  and  especially  of  those  of 
flax,  pay  for  their  subsistence,  and  the  imposts  of  Nordland.  In  the  west  of  this  pro- 
vince they  also  collect  hemp,  of  which  they  make  sails.  They  are  inferior  to  those  of 
Stockholm ;  but  if  they  are  not  sufficiently  strong  for  vessels,  they  serve  at  least  for  barks, 
and  to  make  tents  and  sacks. 

The  peasants  of  Nordland  have  procured  a  species  of  cows,  which  are  small  indeed, 
but  yield  a  great  quantity  of  milk,,  a  profit  for  which  they  are  indebted  to  the  assiduity 
of  their  cares,  and  the  quality  -if  their  pasture  lands.  They  have  excellent  hay ;  i  i.d  the 
straw  of  the  grain  they  sow  is  better  than  that  of  rye.  They  are  careful  during  the  sum- 
mer to  collect  leaves  of  brrch,  alders  and  oziers,  which  they  dry.  They  mix  them  in  the 
winter  with  the  bran  of  their  grain,  in  hot  water,  and  fill  large  tubs  with  them,  which  are 
in  the  stalls  of  the  Cc.:tle. 

The  forage  cf  the  meadows  is  reserved  for  the  winter.  Thus  during  the  summer 
the  Nordlanders  lead  th°  cattle,  far  from  their  dwellings,  into  kinds  of  stalls,  or  they 
leave  them  at  liberty  to  graze  on  the  environs.  Some  of  these  pens  are  common  to 
whole  villages :  some  belong  to  particular  families.  A  peasant  has  in  his  fold  one  or 
several  chambers,  where  he  dwells,  prepares  and  keeps  his  milk  food.  These  folds  are 
established  in  ^he  midst  of  the  woods.,  at  places  where  there  is  tolerably  good  grass. 
These  uncultivated  spots  are  by  degrees  changed  into  meadows,  field&>  and  gardens. 
The  cattle  pass  the  night  in  these  grounds,  when  they  would  prepare  them  for  tillage  ;  or 
else  they  carry  che  dung  there  from  the  stalls. 

In  each  family  the  greater  number  passes  the  summer  with  their  cattle.  During  that 
time  they  prepare  the  fal'ow  ground,  by  burning  the '.» jods  and  heaths ;  inclose  fields ; 
they  till  them,  gather  the  little  they  have  sown,  spin,  and  make  cloth.  At  the  time  of  the 
hay  harvest  they  all  go,  men  and  women,  to  reap  and  gather  in  their  crop. 

The  Nordlanders  have  many  goats,  a  cattle  easily  bred  up ;  but  few  sheep,  the  wool 
of  which  is  too  coarse  to  repay  them  for  the  trouble  it  costs.  The  swine,  nearly  all  the 
summer,  seek  their  food  in  the  woods.  They  are  only  seen  in  the  winter  in  villages, 
where  they  are  fed  with  b&rk  of  trees. 

The  p  asants  dwelling  near  the  mines  are  those  who  may  possess  the  greatest  number 
of  horses :  but  they  have  scarcely  one  for  nine  cows.  These  horses  are  at  the  most 
four  fee:  and  a  half  high.  The  finest  are  those  which  were  left  by  the  Finlandish  regi- 
ments  of  cavalry  in  Nordland,  during  the  winter  quarters  of  the  war  preceding  1740. 
In  proportion  as  we  advance  north,  the  horses  decrease  in  size  and  strength.  Those  of 
Western  Nordland  are  of  a  smgular  form.    They  have  the  head  and  eyes  large,  small 


I'RAVELS  OF  EHRENMALM- 


343 


ears,  very  short  neck,  full  chest,  strait  ham,  the  body  of  little  length,  but  large,  short 
loins  between  the  tail  and  the  belly,  the  upper  part  of  the  leg  long,  the  lower  siiort,  the 
bottom  of  the  leg  without  hair,  the  hoof  small  and  hard,  the  tail  large,  the  hair  thick, 
small  feet,  sure,  and  never  shoed :  they  are  good  horses,  seldom  restive  or  obstinate, 
climbing  up  all  the  mountains.  They  owe  their  strength  to  the  excellent  grass  on 
which  they  feed.  The  odour  of  clover  announces  fine  meadows  from  afar.  When 
these  horses  are  moved  to  the  pasture  lands  at  Stockholm,  they  seldom  pass  a  year  there 
without  growing  lean,  and  losing  their  vigour.  On  the  contrary,  the  horses  which  come 
from  more  northern  countries  into  Nordland,  though  sick  the  first  year,  recover  their 
strength.  But  on  the  other  hand,  stallions  brought  from  a  more  southern  climate 
would  here  degenerate,  perhaps  at  least  in  size. 

From  Gheflc  to  Hemosand,  we  never  lose  sight  of  the  gulf  of  Bothnia,  which  t>y  its 
fishery  might  su^iport  the  inhabitani:;^  of  its  shores ;  but  there  are  also  found  in  the  midst 
of  the  woods,  lakes,  some  of  them  extensive,  others  smaller,  which  abound  in  large  fish, 
and  of  good  flavour,  such  as  pike,  bream,  and  perch.  These  lakes  are  bordered  with 
verdant  shrubs  ;  they  flow  in  small  vallies,  which  they  clothe  with  grass,  and  often  form, 
by  their  union,  rivers,  in  which  salmon  is  found.  Most  of  these  lakes  are  in  elevated 
situations,  and  their  waters  turn  many  mills.  The  trees  of  this  dbtrict  are  tolerably 
good  in  some  places,  and  fit  for  timber- work,  but,  in  general,  small,  weak,  old,  and 
overgrown  with  moss. 

There  is  but  a  single  peasant's  house  between  the  inns  of  Hammarangria  and  Skog, 
which  are  at  the  distance  of  three  miles  from  each  other.  It  is  situated  by  a  lake 
abounding  in  fish,  near  the  bridge  thrown  over  the  little  rivulet  separating  Ghestri. 
keland  from  Helsingeland.  The  peasant  who  dwells  there  possesses  lands,  which,  bor. 
dering  the  highway  for  the  space  cf  a  mile,  extend  half  a  miie  into  the  country.  A  wood 
to  the  south  serves  in  common  for  the  parish  of  Hammarangria ;  a  wood  to  the  north 
serves  in  common  for  the  paiish  of  Skog.  Each  of  these  woods  is  a  mile  and  three 
quarters  in  length,  and  one  in  breadth.  This  country  only  wants  men.  Although 
the  whole  extent  of  this  road  is  covered  with  sand  and  aged  firs,  at  intervals  there  are 
seen  lakes  and  vallies,  clothed  with  herbage  and  wood.  Nature  k  ready  to  assist  culti. 
vation. 

From  Skog  we  proceed  to  the  river  of  Saderahl,  where  b  found  a  ferry-boat.  This 
river  merits  attention.  It  yields  a  very  considerable  salmon  fishery.  It  serves  to  trans- 
port to  Soderhama  ^>ie  iron  which  is  worked  in  the  mills  it  turns.  Every  thing  ivhich 
contributes  to  the  subsistence  of  man,  to  the  relief  of  his  real  wants,  ought  to  interest 
him.  The  iron  mines  of  Nordland  do  not  present  to  the  imagination  of  the  reader  those 
torrents  of  blood  and  carnage,  with  which  we  see  the  mines  of  gold  overflowing,  in  the 
deplorable  history  of  the  New  World.  Man,  bom  good  and  virtuous,  delights  to  travel, 
at  least  in  imagination,  into  these  barren  countries  of  the  North,  which,  existing  under  a 
fi-ee  and  patriotic  government,  do  not  repel  the  heart  by  scenes  of  crime  and  vexa- 
tion, engendered  by  one  another.  Nature  there  is  sad,  and  even  harsh ;  but  there  man 
b  not  imilevolent;  man,  who  nearly  over  the  whole  earth  occasions  the  woes  of  his 
kind. 

The  soil  of  Helsingheland  is  similar  enough  to  that  of  Ghestrikeland  ;  equally  stony, 
more  barren,  overspread  with  steeper  mountains.  Helsingheland  has  besides  a  mixture 
of  every  kind  of  soil ;  gravel  and  sand  which  produce  firs,  rich  and  firm  argil,  marshes, 
miry  plains,  black  earth ;  in  fine,  it  is  intersected  with  lakes,  of  which  the  bottoms  are 
sometimes  sand,  and  sometimes  mud.  In  the  district  where  the  road  borders  the  sea, 
ih-^re  appear  to  have  beeq  woods  fit  for  timber  work,  but  they  have  all  been  cut,  and 


344 


TRAVELS  OP  EHRENMALM. 


I 

I 


ii 


no  more  is  seen  than  pines,  and  woods  of  which  the  blackish  verdure  is  eternal,  like 
the  sadness  and  melancholy  which  it  imparts. 

The  difference  observed  of  one  province  from  another  is  composed  of  insensible 
shades.  It  gradually  augments  and  diminishes.  Nature  does  not  proceed  by  leaps : 
all  her  works  form  a  chain,  the  links  of  which  are  imperceptible  to  the  eye  which 
regards  them  the  nearest,  while  the  vulgar  eye  only  sees  itk  the  picture  of  the  physical 
or  moral  world  strong  and  sharp  colours,  which  diversify  it,  without  observing  the 
intervals  where  tliey  mingle  and  grouiul  with  one  another.  The  people  vary  but  little, 
like  the  climate  and  soil  they  inhabit.  A  sudden  difference  is  seldom  seen  between 
neighbouring  nations.  Yet,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  constitution  of  our  bodies  de- 
pends on  our  food,  the  method  of  thinking  and  acting  is  the  fruit  of  education,  ex. 
ample,  and  custom.  The  government,  which  may  be  termed  the  education  of  the 
people,  modifies  the  natunil  disposition  of  the  mind  and  body,  and  sometimes  derogates, 
by  transient  variations,  the  constant  law  of  the  climate.  But  u  the  policy  of  states  has 
litUe  influence  in  Nordland,  nature  alone  has  there  fonmed  the  constitution  of  the 
men. 

The  inhabitants  of  Helsingheland  are  of  thick  stature,  with  large  limbs.  They  are 
vigorous,  industrious,  and  expert  in  the  mechanical  arts.  Their  culture  differs  from  that 
of  the  environs  of  Stockholm.  All  their  lands  are  sowed  with  spelt,  excepting  one  or 
two  acres  intended  to  produce  rye.  These  latter  are  first  lightly  plougi.ed  in  the  spring ; 
but  they  undergo  several  operations  in  summer.  The  harrow  is  passed  over  them  ei^t 
days  after  the  plough  or  mattock.  The  land  fit  for  r;^e,  which  is  so  rank  as  to  nroduce 
many  tares,  requires  hard  labour,  but  short,  and  little  expensive,  because  it  docs  not 
extend  far.  Flax  is  sowed  in  the  lands  prepared  for  the  culture  of  com,  in  untilled 
land,  and  in  argillaceous  earths,  where  it  greatly  thrives. 

The  dung  is  liot  conveyed,  either  during  the  summer,  because  the  com  is  then  stand- 
ing, nor  during  the  autumn,  because  the  cattie  graze  the  stubble,  but  in  the  spring, 
because  in  that  season  the  cold  is  not  sufficiently  strong,  nor  the  sun  sufficiently  hot,  to 
dry  up  the  moisture  of  the  earth.  The  dung  is  then  of  greater  bulk  and  less  weight.  It  is 
spread  at  several  different  times,  and  in  thin  beds.  The  manure  does  not  so  soon  loose 
itself  in  the  sand,  and  the  rain  much  better  dissolves  the  salts.  But  the  dung  and  the 
lands  are  often  burnt,  in  the  idea  and  hope  of  increasing  the  fertility. 

When  they  reap,  the  sheaves  of  corn  are  never  placed  upright  in  the  fields.  But  if  the 
weather  is  serene,  several  sheaves  are  arranged  in  crosses  on  one  another,  which  are 
pierced  through,  and  fixed  to  the  ground  by  a  stake  six  feet  in  length.  When  the 
wind  has  blown  for  two  days  on  these  sheaves,  during  very  dry  weather,  they  are  car- 
ried into  the  barns.  But  during  cloudy  or  rainy  weather,  they  are  laid  up  in  a  machine 
called  a  hassior.  These  are  vertical  beams,  through  which  pass  cross  bars ;  these  beams 
are  often  composed  of  two  pieces  fastened  together  with  oziers,  to  raise  or  lower  the  cross 
bars  at  pleasure.  The  sheaves  are  spread  on  these  bars.  The  lowest  is  a  little  raised 
above  the  ground.  A  bed  of  corn-ears  is  placed  on  it,  which  b  fixed  by  the  second  bar, 
which  presses  it.  This  latter  supports  a  second  bed,  fastened  and  picssed  by  a  third  bar ; 
and  this  heap  of  sheaves  is  thus  raised  to  the  height  of  four  or  five  fathoms.  Under  the 
bar  which  supports  the  first  bed  from  below  is  placed  a  pole,  fastened  at  one  of  its  ex- 
tremities, with  an  ozier,  to  the  second  bar  from  above.  At  the  other  extremity  is  a  hole, 
.and  through  it  passes  a  cord,  by  which  the  whole  mass  is  raised,  so  that  a  man  cannot 
reach  it ;  this  pole  perhaps  raised  from  one  extremity  of  the  hassior  to  the  other.  Th» 
whole  heap  is  covered  with  straw.  The  com  thus  collected  is  left  under  the  roof  of  the 
suraw,  for  any  length  of  time,  and  in  all  weather.  Beyond  Hernosand,  towards  the 
north,  the  hassior  serves  as  a  granary,  not  only  for  corn,  but  to  dry  and  preserve  the  hay. 


TRAVELS  OF  RHRENMALM. 


345 


» 

9 
D 

e 

It 
or 

} 

It 

3t 

:d 


The  hay  harvest  lasts  longer  in  these  northern  provinces,  than  towards  the  soutli, 
though  both  men  and  women  labour.  In  Helslnghcland,  the  hay  mowed  in  the 
morning  in  the  evening  is  placed  in  small  heaps.  In  other  parts  it  is  spread 
in  l)eds  in  the  barns,  where  u  is  left  to  dry,  before  it  is  laid  up.  In  Anghcrman. 
land  :t  b  kept  in  the  hassiors,  which  are  by  the  side  of  the  meadows,  until  the  approach 
of  winter. 

Formerly  the  fields  of  Helsingheland  were  not  inclosed.  ^*t  present  they  more  re- 
semble gardens  than  fields,  by  the  moats  with  which  they  are  surrounded.  Their 
economy  proceeds  so  far  as  to  draw  all  the  herbs  from  these  ditches,  which  are  left  to  rot, 
to  make  manure.  Green  turf  and  peat  equally  serve  for  this  purpose.  This  manure 
prepares  the  lands  for  the  sowing  of  the  corn. 

The  com  has  two  plagues  to  dread,  frost  and  mildew.  This  latter  stains  the  ears  witli 
a  dusky  red ;  but  it  only  blasts  the  com  near  the  mines.  The  fogs  of  the  morning 
and  evening,  so  destructive  to  com  in  many  countries,  are  salutary  m  Nordland.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  serenity  of  the  nights  sometimes  occasions  scarcity. 

In  the  montlis  of  July  and  August  we  often  experienced  a  hot  day.  and  a  cold  night 
We  felt  a  very  sharp  cold,  especially  in  the  vallies  covered  with  wood.  This  might 
perhaps  be  a  reason  for  clearing  the  country  of  all  the  useless  wood.  The  naked  lands, 
and  the  open  heights,  are  less  exposed  to  the  cold.  If  the  land  were  more  cleared,  it 
would  increase  in  population.  The  rye  thrives  well  in  those  parts  where  the  wood  has 
been  burnt.  The  ears  of  com  I  have  seen  were  full  and  rich ;  the  straw  strong. 
But  a  small  number  of  inhabitants  cannot  undertake  an  extensive  cultivation.  New 
colonics  must  be  established  in  these  desert  districts,  or  at  least  the  number  of  families 
and  houses  should  be  increased.  But  new  farms  are  not  formed,  because  the  lands  are 
never  divided.  A  father  of  a  family  is  only  succeeded  by  one  of  his  children ;  all  the 
others,  having  no  share  in  the  estate,  rather  choose  to  become  mariners. 

Yet  if  they  remained  in  Sweden,  they  would  be  of  essential  service  to  the  state.  But 
after  having  been  trained  to  the  sea  in  Nordland,  they  often  engage  at  Stockholm,  with 
vessels  which  sail  to  distant  countries.  The  allurement  of  a  greater  recompence  oc- 
casions them  to  lose  sight  of  their  country :  they  serve  foreign  nations,  and  seldom  re- 
turn to  Sweden.  In  vam  do  the  laws  forbid  them,  to  leave  their  province ;  interest  pre- 
vails, both  over  the  wisdom  of  the  regtilations,  and  the  vigilance  of  a  few  magistrates, 
who  are  unable  to  manage  a  country  too  extensive.  Ihe  ordinances  which  limit 
the  rights  of  a  free  nation  are  never  observed,  when  they  would  detmn  in  a  land,  but 
thinly  peopled,  men  who  have  no  hare  in  the  possession.  They  have  no  native 
country,  who  possess  no  land.  A  country  is  in  fact  only  peopled  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  its  proprietors.  Artizans,  sailors,  and  soldiers,  belong  to  any  country  who 
can  aifoni  to  pay  them.  Man  properly  only  belongs  to  the  land  which  belongs  to  him. 
Mankind  is  mcreased  by  lands.  All  other  methods  of  popuLition  are  precarious  and 
transient 

Nordland  has  still  more  occasion  to  attach  her  inhabitants  by  possession,  since  the  soil 
is  more  unkind.  The  dales  are  scarcely  inhabitable.  Most  of  the  villages  and  parishes 
are  situated  cm  hills.  The  cold  of  the  climate,  which  permits  but  little  cultivation,  and 
occasions  firequent  scarcity,  compels  the  Nordlanders  to  live,  not  on  acorns,  which 
nature  denies  them,  but  even  on  the  bark  of  trees.  From  underneath  the  thick  rind 
of  the  fir  they  take  a  white  cuticle,  covering  this  wood,  dry  it,  first  in  their  hassiors,  then 
in  the  oven,  and  reduce  it  to  flour.  In  fruitful  seasons  it  feeds  the  swine,  and  makes 
them  become  very  fat  But  in  time  of  scarcity,  the  rich  people  mix  this  fiour  with 
barley,  and  the  poor  with  bran,  and  make  a  kind  of  bread.    It  b  dry,  and  rough 


VOL.  X. 


V  y 


346 


TRAVELS  OV  EHRV.NMALM. 


to  the  palate ;  those  wlio  eat  it,  are  neither  less  healthy  nor  vigorous.  Perhaps  the 
cheese  and  butler,  with  which  they  season  this  hard  and  insipid  mess,  may  supply  the 
want  of  substance  and  moisture.  Beholding  on  one  side  the  treasures  and  crimes  pro- 
duccd  by  the  torrid  zone ;  on  the  other  the  want  and  peace  which  reign  towanls  the 
frozen  zone  ;  we  a^  at  a  loss  for  which  we  should  be  most  thankful,  the  prodigality 
or  avarice  of  nature  !  Happy  are  the  countries,  where  she  is  neither  so  harsh  as  to  com- 
pel men  to  w  t,  nor  so  liberal,  as  to  dispense  with  l&*jour.  Such  is  the  situation  of 
Nordland. 

At  the  distance  of  half  a  mile  from  the  ferry-boat  of  Ssederahl,  towards  the  north- 
west,  is  found  the  linen  manufactory  of  Flors.  We  saw  children  of  the  country, 
who  had  been  at  the  business  but  three  or  four  years,  working  with  all  die  confidence 
and  address  which  might  result  from  a  long  experience.  Here  are  manufactured  fine 
and  coarse  cloth,  thread  stockings,  night-caps,  Jamasked  table-cloth,  as  fine  as  the 
foreign.  Yet  it  is  complained  that  the  works  of  this  manufactory  are  of  unequal  tex- 
ture, and  little  duration.  This  defect  iu-ises  from  the  inequality  both  of  heat  and 
humidit}',  which  reigns  in  the  rooms  where  they  work.  Each  workman  leans  his  loom 
against  a  window ;  the  exterior  air  is  often  moist,  while  that  of  the  room  is  hot.  The  air 
Avhich  then  entei  .>  at  the  crevices  of  the  window  meeting  the  nearest  threads  preserves 
them  in  their  full  length ;  and  those  which  are  farther  in  the  chamber  dry  and  con- 
tract. The  warp  therefore  becomes  unequal,  shorter  at  one  of  its  extremities  than  the 
other,  and  breaks  when  worked.  It  r.  ust  often  be  renevved,  and  the  cloth  in  conse< 
quence  is  weakened.  When  it  is  used,  the  change  of  dryness  and  humidity  which  it 
experiences,  giving  an  imequal  tension,  occasions  it  to  yield  and  break. 

The  hot  water  which  is  kept  in  these  rooms  might  ^ve  a  temperate  heat,  and  the 
vapour  arising  from  it  might  preserve  the  threads  in  nearly  an  equal  degree  of  tension. 
But  the  sun,  whose  light  is  requisite,  shining  on  one  side  of  the  room,  still  occasions 
inconvenience.  To  remedy  this,  M.  Bennet,  the  director  of  this  manufacture,  has 
buried  his  shop  in  a  sandy  eminence,  and  constructed  a  large  parapet,  raised  to  the  win- 
dows, made  of  bark  of  trees,  moss,  heath,  and  everywhere  covered  with  green  turf. 
By  these  means  he  gives  a  moderate  degree  of  (humidity  to  his  rooms,  nearly  every- 
where  equal,  which  must  produce  the  best  works.  If  the  manufacture  of  Flors  had 
not  been  placed  in  such  skilful  hands,  it  would  have  fallen  into  discredit,  from  which 
the  greatest  exigence  could  have  raised  it  again  but  extremely  slow ;  since  it  is  not  more 
easy  to  restore  fashion  to  articles,  than  reputation  to  men. 

Thanks  to  the  cares  of  an  industrious  administrator,  I  have  seen  in  the  bleaching 
yard  of  the  manufacture  of  Flors  thread  as  fine  as  that  of  Holland.  The  method  of 
sowing  the  linseed  in  the  environs  is  the  same  as  fcrmerly.  But  this  manufacture  has 
inspired  them  viith  desire,  and  afforded  them  the  means,  of  cultivating  flax  proper  for 
fine  works.  They  have  learned  the  art  of  making  the  flax  and  cloth  more  quickly,  and 
rendering  them  extremely  white.  When  the  inhabitants  of  a  country  are  able  to  im- 
prove the  gifts  of  nature,  to  procure  themselves  a  livelihood,  which  affords  greater  com- 
forts, at  the  same  time  that  it  requires  more  labour ;  wheii  the  increase  of  industry  en* 
sures  that  of  fortunes  and  families ;  a  commerce  more  extended,  the  means  of  subsistence 
multiplied,  agriculture  brought  to  perfection,  a  general  activity,  a  more  universal  pros- 
perity ;  this  moving  spectacle  fills  the  heart  of  a  true  patriot  with  a  lively  and  unaffect- 
ed joy,  with  love  for  the  labour  which  produces  all  these  benefits,  with  zeal  to  employ 
his  talents  and  power  for.tjje  happiness  of  his  brethren.  A  happy  and  contented 
people  is  never  beheld  without  a  delightful  emotion,  which  makes  us  rejoice  in  our  ex- 
istence.    We  do  not  contribute  to  this  public  felicity,  without  gathering  ourselves  the 


rRAV«:L»  OF  KIlRbNMALM. 


J47 


first  fruits.  How  is  it  possible  there  caii  be  princes  and  ministers  on  the  curtii,  who  do 
not  enjoy  this  foretuste  of  the  immortality  reserved  for  their  labours ! 

The  manufacture  of  Flors  spreads  industry  and  fertility  around  it.  In  its  eastern 
environs,  which  border  the  sea,  few  families  are  found,  either  rich  or  poor,  who  are  not 
occupied  in  making  spinning-wheels  and  looms.  This  lal)our  procures  them  the 
means  of  living  tolerably  well,  notwithstanding  the  dcarness  of  the  corn  they  must  buy, 
and  their  objection  to  pay  a  tax  which  is  well  administered.  The  town  of  Soderhamni, 
which  is  a  mile  and  a  half  distant  from  Flors,  feels  but  faintly  the  influence  of  this  manu- 
facture. It  is  small,  situated  between  two  mountains,  on  the  banks  of  a  rivulet.  Few 
houses  are  seen,  which  are  better  constructed  than  those  of  the  peasants  around  it.  To 
paint  them  would  lie  an  idle  luxury.  'I'he  inhabitants  only  labour  in  order  to 
subsist.  The  works  of  their  hands  clothe  them,  and  their  food  would  be  little  relished 
elsewhere.  But  the  method  of  spinning  and  making  cloth  they  have  brought  to  per* 
fection.  Commerce  would  thrive  well,  if  the  town  were  not  too  far  from  the  sea.  Yet 
fishing,  the  common  resource  of  all  the  Nordlanders,  a  little  agriculture  and  gardening, 
in  a  soil  which  produces  with  difficulty,  contribute  to  support  its  inhabitants  in  that 
state  of  mediocrity,  which  leaves  nothing  to  wish  for,  nothing  to  regret.  These  men, 
who  lead  a  life  of  innocence,  arc  besides  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  arms,  for  the 
chastisement  of  vicious  nations. 

The  forge  of  Soderhamm  is  the  most  ancient  of  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  and  at 
present  the  least  excellent.  Yet  there  is  seen  a  handsome  pump,  which  is  worked  by 
means  of  a  single  wheel ;  a  simple  and  wonderful  invention  of  Polheim,  a  man  of  great 
talents  in  the  most  useful  arts. 

Soderhamm  is  besides  remarkable  for  the  church  of  Ulrica  Eleanora,  a  tolerably  good 
building.  It  has  some  ornaments  of  wood,  as  its  dome,  sufficiently  tasteful,  though  little 
eypencivf.  As  a  man  is  allured  even  to  piety  by  the  senses,  an  organ  has  been  con  ict- 
ed  in  this  church,  and  I  can  affirm  that  it  will  be  one  of  the  best  in  Sweden,  for  strength, 
harmony,  and  purity  of  sound.  When  I  saw  it,  besides  the  ordinary  tones  of  an  organ, 
it  produced  those  of  a  woman's  voice,  and  German  flute :  the  latter  was  so  accurate, 
that  the  ear  was  completely  deceived.  The  name  of  the  artist  who  constructed  this 
oij^n  is  Daniel  Strale.  This  man  deserves  to  be  much  more  known,  since  he  is  un- 
airccted  in  his  manners,  mild,  without  any  arrogance,  and  without  that  spirit  of  cupidity, 
by  M^iich  intri^ing  men  obtain  the  reward  of  the  inventors. 

Helsingheland  extends  to  a  village  two  miles  to  the  north  of  the  inn  of  Gnarp.  On 
this  road  we  meet  with  nine  or  ten  villages,  and  some  lonely  houses.  In  several  places 
of  this  road  we  observed  those  stones  called  lapis  violarum  spurius.  If  intelligent 
miners  were  sent  to  these  districts,  they  would  no  doubt  find  mines ;  and  this  discovery 
would  be  extremely  useful  to  the  proprietors  of  the  smitheries  established  in  the  envi- 
rons. It  would  even  increase  the  number  of  mills  with  much  greater  facility,  since  the 
whole  country  abounds  vrith  woods  and  water  falls. 

Between  Igghesunid  and  Saima  I  saw,  on  my  journey,  the  town  of  Houdwikswald. 
It  is  situated  on  a  small  tongue  of  land,  stretching  between  the  sea  and  the  lake  Houd- 
wik.  It  has  a  very  good  and  deep  harbour.  Its  inhabitants  are  employed  in  fishing 
and  the  mechanical  arts.  They  manufacture  in  particular  a  great  number  of  wooden 
chairs,  which  are  transported  to  Stockholm.  Every  town  which  labours  for  the  capital 
deserves  some  fame.  The  smallest  branch  of  industry  is  interesting,  in  p.  country  where 
nature  offers  few  means  of  subsistence.  It  is  pleasing  to  see  the  men  struggling  against 
the  cruelty  of  her  denials,  endeavouring  by  labour  to  avoid  that  insignificance,  from 


V 


which  she  appears  to  have  drawn 


them  with 
y  y2 


regret,  to  invo've    them   quickly 


.348 


TKAVRLS  OF  KIIRRNMALM. 


1 


aguin.     Where  the  earth  is  sordid,  man  is  the  creator ;  where  the  earth  yields  every 
thing,  man  alone  is  nothing. 

On  the  roud  leading  from  Ghi>flc  to  Sundswald,  I  observed  some  hop  plantations,  on 
hillocks  exposed  to  the  sun.  Beyond  Sundswald,  the  only  plantation  I  saw  was  by  a 
small  house  situated  on  the  Niouronda.  Periiaps  these  arc  the  last  efforts  of  a  land,  which, 
removing  from  the  sun,  sinks  into  the  obscunty  and  solitude  of  the  frozen  zone. 

When  we  passed  through  Gnarp  there  was  a  little  fair.  We  saw  merchants  enough, 
but  little  merchandise.  This  parish  is  the  mart  of  the  towns  of  Nordland.  All  com- 
mercc  is  carried  on  there  by  reciprocal  exchange.  The  peasants  come  to  pay  for  the 
merchandise  they  h  ;  taken  on  credit ;  they  acquit  themselves  by  provisions.  This 
species  of  commerce,  oy  xchangc,  is  universal  throughout  Nordland,  although  the  met. 
enandisc  is  not  every  where  the  same. 

The  peasants,  who  in  winter  have  occasion  for  corn,  tobacco,  or  clothes,  in  spring 
and  summer  for  salt,  iron,  and  even  money,  to  pay  the  taxes,  borrow  what  thev  want  of 
the  citizens.  When  their  fortune  and  credit  warrant  their  solvency,  they  lend  them  what 
they  require,  on  condition  of  re-payment  at  the  first  fair,  at  the  current  price  of  the  place, 
in  butter,  cheese,  meat,  fish,  flax,  cloth,  stockings,  pitch,  and  tar,  and  sometimes  in 

?lanks.  But  if  they  are  little  known,  the  price  of  what  they  lend  is  fixed  before  hand, 
"he  opulent  {x^ople,  who  repair  to  the  fair  to  sell,  proportion  the  price  of  their  merchan- 
dises to  the  want  the  purchaser  has  for  them.  Those  who  pay  ready  money  for  the 
commodities  the^  purchase  for  ilie  maintenance  of  the  whole  year,  might  sell  these  for  a 
greater  price,  which  they  would  not  be  obliged  to  give  in  return.  But  die  citizens  never 
buy  of  a  p<  '\sant,  who  sells  to  any  other  but  his  confidential  merchant.  Th«  latter,  on 
his  side,  never  buys  any  more  of  the  peasant,  who  does  not  confine  to  him  alone  the 
whole  of  his  commerce,  and  endeavours  to  injure  the  merchant  who  succeeds  him. 

It  is  a  species  of  monopoly ;  but  it  arises  fi'om  the  Nordlanders  being  compelled  to 
bring  the  produce  of  their  land  to  Stockholm,  and  to  derive  all  their  consumption  from 
that  city.  The  government  will  no  doubt  correct  these  abuses,  and  render  the  com- 
merce of  the  capital  more  favourable  to  the  peasant.  The  higher  class,  whose  interest  it 
is  to  participate  in  every  kind  of  riches,  will  be  enabled  to  trade,  in  proportion  as  the 
population  increasing  in  the  countries  will  stock  the  towns  with  real  dealers,  and  particu- 
lajh  mechanics. 

Example  has  more  effect  than  rule.  The  inferior  classes  imitate  the  higher ;  and 
villages  are  modelled  afler  cities.  Let  manufiictures  be  established  at  Stockholm,  and 
the  provincial  towns  will  bring  their  industry  and  commerce  to  perfection,  in  imitation 
of  the  capital. 

From  Helsingheland  we  pass  into  Medelpad.  The  first  object  which  meets  the  atten* 
Uon  of  the  traveller  is  the  river  of  Niouronda.  It  descends  from  Heriedale,  deriving  its 
source  from  the  mountains ;  it  is  large  and  navigable.  Its  shores  are  bordered  with  large 
woods  and  rocks ;  few  fieldis  which  admit  of  cultivation,  and  yet  fewer  which  are  tilled. 
Towards  Sundswald,  the  land  is  sandy,  useless  to  the  inhabitants,  and  incommodious  to 
travellers.  Sundswald  is  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  plain,  covered  with  barren  sand,  and 
surrounded  by  high  mountains.  A  small  gulf,  extending  for  half  a  mile  to  the  sea,  ren- 
ders this  town  extremely  fit  for  commerce,  affording  to  vessels  the  facility  of  coming  there, 
and  taking  in  their  cargo  almost  entire.  The  exports  from  Sundswald  consist  in  chairs, 
pitch  Hud  tar,  planks,  the  bark  of  trees  to  make  bread,  works  of  wood,  linen  cloth,  meat, 
and  milk  food.  The  imports  ^ven  in  exchange  conust  of  com,  salt,  tobacco^  wooUeQ 
cloth,  spices,  wine  and  brandy. 


TRAVELS  OF  KIIUEVMALM. 


349 


A  dock  for  building  of  ships  has  lutcly  been  established.  It  might  also  serve  for  the 
provision  of  the  salt  of  all  Nordland.  A  niuiiMlUctory  of  wool  is  also  seen  there,  which 
IS  only  in  its  infancy,  but  happily  enough  begun  to  increase  and  pros|)er.  The  sheep 
of  the  country  have  a  coarse  rfeece.  If  the  peasant  were  assisted  by  the  advances  of  the 
rich  proprietors,  he  would  soon  have  flocks  with  fine  wool.  For  this  purpose  it  would 
only  be  required  to  improve  the  forages  by  culture. 

The  church  of  Sundswidd  is  of  wood,  and  very  ancient,  as  are  all  the  houses.  Oppo 
site  to  the  custom-house  a  church  has  been  constructed  of  free-stone,  on  a  sandy  hill. 
Its  form  is  oval ;  the  walls  and  roof  are  fmished  ;  but  the  dome,  which  is  but  half  made, 
is  every  where  cracked.  The  architect  is  a  peasant  of  the  vallies.  But  the  workman  is 
less  to  blame  than  those  who  have  employed  him.  A  good  architect  would  say,  that 
the  dome  has  cracked,  because  the  arch  is  too  elevated,  or  too  flat ;  or  because  the 
foundation  lies  in  a  moving  and  little  stable  soil ;  or  that  the  building  itself,  without  piU 
lars,  is  too  wide  for  its  length.  But  I  dare  afiirm  that  all  these  defects  are  there  united. 
Besides,  the  vvaiis  are  too  thick,  and  the  windows  small. 

The  country  to  the  north  of  Sundswald  a|)pears  to  be  a  little  better  cultivated  than  that 
towards  the  south.  In  general,  it  rather  wants  culuvators  than  fertility.  The  banks  of 
the  river  Indahl,  on  tlie  right  and  led,  for  the  space  of  a  league  and  a  half,  are  deep 
sands,  but  fertile,  and  covered  with  a  thin  bed  of  black  earth.  Between  two  large 
neighbouring  mountains  are  found  many  cultivatable  lands,  composed  of  sand  and  argiL 
Li  this  prospect  we  observed  a  great  number  of  alders  thriving  on  the  heights ;  they 
resemble  nut-trees,  in  their  leaves,  bark,  and  wood ;  hut  they  are  a  little  larger. 

We  imagined  we  saw  beds  of  argil,  sometimes  thick,  sometimes  thin,  underneath  the 
sand  of  the  heaths  we  traversed.  In  several  places  we  met  with  people  who  assured  us 
they  had  found  beds  of  arg^l,  sometimes  of  the  thickness  of  three  fathoms,  and  some> 
times  of  only  a  foot.  The  banks  of  the  rivulets  and  rivers  of  the  whole  of  this  district 
are  very  much  elevated,  and  the  bed  of  argil  lying  under  the  sand  may  be  distinctly  seen. 
The  sands  appear  to  be  the  eflR.ct  of  a  very  ancient  inundation.  Most  of  the  hills  of  sand 
are  steep,  and  increase  in  height  from  south-east  to  north-west ;  while  the  rivers  descend 
from  the  north-west  to  the  south-east,  towards  the  sea,  which  probably  has  formed  the 
hills  and  rivers.  Add  to  this  observation,  that  there  is  seldom  found  in  the  vallies  a  pure 
sand,  without  a  mixture  of  argil.  The  latter  no  doubt  must  belong  to  the  nature  of  the 
soil,  the  former  may  have  been  cast  there  by  the  sea. 

The  woods  of  Medelpad,  especially  those  through  which  the  road  lies,  are  nearly  all 
cut  or  burnt.  Few  firs  are  seen,  but  many  small  pines  and  other  shrubs.  The  country  of 
this  province  resembles  that  of  Helsingheland ;  with  this  difference,  that  we  meet  with 
more  inc'tosed  fields,  and  a  richer  soil.  Does  ihis  advantage  arise  from  the  mountains 
with  which  the  country  is  surrounded  ?  We  know  that  vallies  and  plains  are  enriched  at 
the  expence  of  the  mountaia<),  which  are  thinned  by  the  torrents.  Is  not  this  land  in. 
debted  for  its  abundant  moisture  to  the  number  of  lakes  which  water  it  ?  The  pasturages 
are  more  fisrtile ;  die  fields,  more  multiplied,  remain  unemployed  for  a  longer  time ;  the 
flocks  are  not  led  there,  nor  is  there  so  much  flax  sown  as  in  Helsingheland. 

The  men  at  Medelpad  are  large  and  athletic,  more  able,  lively,  adroit,  and  more  addict- 
ed to  commerce,  than  in  that  province.  The  cattle  ai-e  larger,  give  more  milk,  assume 
a  wlutish  colour,  which  gradually  augments,  so  that  there  are  very  few  at  Asehle  which 
are  not  wtute.  Is  this  a  quality  of  the  same  sf)ecies  of  cattle  ?  Is  it  owing  to  the  climate, 
to  the  nature  of  the  pasture  lands?  Or  have  the  peasants  chosen  in  preference  white 


I 


35Q  IkWKLS  UF  KllltKNMAI.M 

animals?  Tlic  climate  is  one  of  the  strongest  reasons.  It  lias  a  sin^^ular  inHuencc  on 
colour. 

In  the  middle  of  the  river  Induhl,  by  the  place  \vc  passed,  is  seen  u  very  beautiful 
island,  which  has  on  each  side  a  bridge,  formed  of  Hat  bo.its  :  beyond  and  below  this 
isle  the  river  appears  to  be  u  thousand  fathoms  in  width  ;  it  is  rapid  ;  it  springs  from  the 
lake  Storsion,  or  great  lake,  and  receives  in  its  course  nine  small  rivers,  which  descend 
from  the  mountain.  Beyond  this  isle  arc  many  water-falls :  a  mile  below  it  runs  into 
the  scu  on  the  east,  which  supplies  it  with  salmon. 

The  province  of  Medelpad  is  separated  by  a  small  rivulet  from  Angherman.  On 
entering  this  latter  Hcrnosand  presents  itself,  situared  in  afi  island  surrounded  by  the  sea, 
and  joining  the  continent  by  a  bridge  thirty  fathoms  in  length.  This  town,  burnt  by 
the  Russians  in  1719,  like  all  those  of  Nordland,  is  com|Xised  of  wooden  houses  and  nur. 
row  streets.  The  south  side  is  built  on  the  declivity  of  a  hill,  extending  to  the  seu;  on 
this  side  it  only  receives  lighters  and  large  barks ;  but  on  the  northern  side  the  largest 
vessels  may  anchor,  and  load  before  the  magazines.  There  are  few  inhabitants.  Bodies 
of  trades  are  useless  here,  for  want  of  capital ;  and  the  college  is  of  no  benefit,  in  the 
want  of  occupations  more  essential  than  study.  The  women  spm,  warp,  and  manufacture 
cloth  ;  though  they  succeed  indifferently,  it  is  one  of  their  principal  resources. 

Nearly  all  the  men  fish  during  the  summer :  they  salt  all  the  fish  they  take,  or  sell  them 
fresh  to  the  peasants,  who  salt  them  for  their  use.  When  the  birds  of  the  sea  collect 
together,  it  is  a  signal  for  the  fishermen  that  the  fish  are  not  far  off:  the  sea  is  imme> 
diately  covered  with  boats  and  nets.  Every  society  would  have  laws  relative  to  its  kind 
of  life  and  property.  The  fishermen  of  Hernosand  have  a  maritime  code,  according  to 
which  they  are  Judged,  by  a  particular  council.  All  the  inhabitants  of  Hcrnosand,  ex- 
cepting five  or  six,  live  on  the  product  of  their  fishery  or  lands. 

The  lands  are  divided  between  all  the  citizens ;  they  burn  them,  and  sow  them  with 
rye ;  they  have  pasture  lands,  which  they  hire  of  each  other  on  occasion,  at  a  price  vary, 
ing  with  the  abundance  or  scarcity  of  forage.  Near  a  soil  which  they  have  observed  to 
be  fit  for  the  bearing  of  flax,  they  have  built  in  the  town  itself  a  manufacture  of  linen 
cloth.  This  establishment  will  become  considerable,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  situation 
of  the  town,  the  character  of  its  inhabitants,  and  the  nature  of  the  soil. 

The  commerce  of  this  country  consists  particularly  in  flax :  it  has  besides,  like  the 
other  districts  of  Nordland,  a  resource  in  the  traffic  of  game,  which  it  sends  to  Stock- 
holm during  the  whole  of  the  winter.  In  Hernosand  there  are  factors,  who  travel  in  the 
summer  to  certain  parts  of  Lapland,  to  buy,  or  exchange  for  brandy,  all  merchandise 
suitable  to  that  town  :  these  merchants  travel  farther  than  fifteen  miles.  They  would 
render  greater  service  to  commerce  and  the  state,  if  they  employed  themselves  in  tan- 
ning of  hides,  and  prei^aring  the  skins  of  the  beavers  they  procure  from  Anghermanland 
and  Lapland :  they  would  add  or  substitute  the  profit  of  the  manufacturer  to  that  of  the 
dealer :  the  returns  of  their  capital  would  augment  in  their  hands. 

The  town  of  Hernosand  is  paved  with  a  species  of  flint,  which  might  be  used  as  whet- 
stone ;  but  it  is  so  common,  that  the  commerce  would  not  compensate  for  the  cxpences. 
The  mineral  waters  of  the  environs,  very  rich  in  ochre,  form  a  more  lucrative  object, 
Hcrnosiuid  has  the  advantage  of  being  the  residence  of  the  superintendant  of  all  Nord- 
land, which  is  the  most  extensive  and  perhaps  the  best  government  in  Sweden.  But 
there  exists  an  abuse,  common  enough  in  that  kingdom,  which  is,  that  the  superintendant 
possesses  the  prebends  destined  for  the  lecturers  of  the  colleges,  who  never  enjoy  them  : 
thus  the  patron  becomes  the  incumbent;  nevertheless,  Hernosand  without  a  college 


TKAVM.S  OF  I.IIItKNMAI.M. 


351 


would  merely  be  a  vilInfj;o.  Indif^'ncc  often  rcigiis  then?,  from  the  scarcity  of  corn,  nnd 
the  smallncss  of  the  product  of  the  fi!>hci\  :  there  air  siicccjihive  years,  in  which  the  earth 
und  the  seu  arc  equally  Hordid.  The  inhahitaiits  of  Hernosund  might  remedy  these  de« 
fects  by  the  resource  of  labour,  if  it  were  suffuient  to  Ix?  miserable,  in  ortler  to  become 
induhtrious ;  but  they  would  have  ixic.ision  for  advance<i  and  encouragement.  IVrhapn 
the  rich  part  of  the  community  gains  more  bv  the  poverty  of  the  iKopIc  than  by  their 
prosperity  :  at  least  it  is  apolitical  maxim,  suAici  ntly  spnadover  Luropc,  to  |)refer  the 
opulence  of  a  small  numlxr  to  the  easy  circumstances  of  Uk*  people  at  large;  and  to 
divide  society  une(iually  into  two  classes,  of  which  the  one  labours,  and  the  other 
enjovs. 

1  he  commerce  carried  on  by  Nordland  in  dried  and  smoked  meats  is  one  of  the  most 
op|)osite  to  the  pros|x.'rity  of  that  country,  however  advantageous  it  may  l)e  to  the  citi- 
zens  and  {peasants  of  northern  Angherman.  The  butter  and  cheese  are  excellent  in 
that  country,  and  they  have  the  cruelty  to  kill,  in  order  to  make  salt  meats,  many  she- 
goats  and  cows,  which  aBbrd  good  milk ;  but  like  the  boy  in  the  fable,  Uicy  would  have 
all  the  golden  eggs  of  the  hen  at  once.  If  the  labour  and  industry  were  directed  by 
wise  views,  if  the  administrators  of  the  states  had  immediately  for  end  the  public  utility, 
and  only  employed  as  the  means  the  weaUh  of  individuals,  the  happiness  of  all  the  citi- 
zens would  be  the  result  of  their  operations. 

We  leil  part  of  our  equipage  at  Hernosand,  and  we  embarked  on  a  large  gulf  near 
that  town.  We  afterwards  iiscended  the  river  of  Anghermanna  for  eight  miles  and  a 
half,  north-west ;  at  its  mouth  it  is  nearly  a  league  in  width ;  large  vessels  can  only 
navigate  to  the  inn  of  Hanmar,  where  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  have  established 
a  depot  for  the  iron,  planks,  and  other  materials,  distributed  among  the  manufactories 
of  this  country.  Beyond  this  magazine,  which  is  five  miles  from  Hernosand,  flat-bot- 
tomed boats  are  used. 

The  fields  and  pasture-lands  bordering  Anghermanna  are,  for  the  most  part,  well 
situated,  handsome  and  fertile,  to  the  parish  of  Solett,  where  the  land  consists  of  a  rich 
and  fine  argil :  here  we  meet  the  first  cataract  of  the  river.  This  river  might  easily  be 
rendered  navigable  for  a  much  greater  distance,  by  constructing  a  sluice,  which  would 
serve  to  raise  the  flat-bottomed  boats  to  the  level  of  the  water-fall ;  but  as  this  is  followed 
by  several  others,  only  separated  by  short  intervals,  the  number  of  sluices  which  would 
be  required  for  the  navigation  of  the  river  would  incur  great  expences. 

Near  the  fall  of  Solett,  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Anghermanna,  is  found  a  low  land, 
where  it  seldom  freezes,  while  the  elevated  places  are  constantly  frozen.  Much  farther 
to  the  south  the  heights  are  not  subject  to  frost,  and  '^e  low  -ts  are  commonly  ex- 
posed. It  may  be  presumed,  from  this  singularity,  thsL  .le  natu.^  o^ the  soil  contributes, 
as  much  as  its  situation,  to  the  effect  of  the  influence  of  the  seasons. 

Half  a  mile  to  the  north  of  Solett  the  Anghermanna  receives  the  river  of  Adale,  which 
rises  in  the  mountains,  and  issues  by  the  Rock  of  Swans,  near  Kitschewari.  In  the  pa- 
rishes of  Solett  and  Botea,  a  third  part  of  the  lands  is  every  year  left  unemployed  :  the 
other  two  thirds  are  sown,  half  with  autumnal  ^rain,  half  with  that  of  spring  i^  sometimes 
they  sow  them  only  with  the  latter.  The  soil  is  rich  and  fertile ;  but  without  doubt  cold, 
since  the  inhabitants  warm  the  water  they  give  their  cattle  to  drink. 

.  The  country  of  the  environs  of  Solett,  which  borders  the  river,  is  called  Adal ;  the 
appearance  is  very  pleasing :  the  shores  are  crowned  with  hills  of  a  tolerable  height,  the 
declivity  of  which  is  insopsible.  These  hillocks  are  argillaceous,  and  owepartly  to  art 
the  agneeableness  of  their  prospect,  intersected  with  fields  and  meadows.     The  shor«s  of 


352 


rHAVELS  OP  k.llRHN.MAUI. 


n 


the  Aiigbcrmanna  are  equnliy  spread  with  straight  and  high  hills,  forming  valliet  nearly 
as  deep  as  the  bed  of  the  river. 

ItH  tihores  are  also  adorned  aiul  enlivened  with  smithcrict^  founderies,  and  saw-mills : 
but  these  machines  arc  not  turned  by  its  waters ;  its  vweUs  are  too  strong,  and  its  falls 
too  feeble.  Water-falls,  of  a  surprising  height,  formed  by  the  torrents  which  descend 
from  the  woods  of  Anghennanna,  are  the  soul  of  tite  mechanism  oi'  the  forges  and  mills. 

The  undertakers  of  the  manufactures  of  this  dis'j'tct  derive  their  ore  from  Utoo,  and 
the  unwrought  iron  from  other  founderies :  the  cxpencc  occasioned  by  the  transport  of 
these  materials  makes  it  desirable  to  find  in  the  vicinity  of  the  forges  the  iron  ore  which 
they  work  into  bars.  When  the  material  is  in  the  neighlK)urho(Ki  of  the  place  where  it 
is  manufactured,  the  work  becomes  less  expensive.  Abundance  of  provisions  alone  can 
maintain  the  balance  between  the  undertakers  of  manufactures,  and  the  merchants  who 
bell  them  the  materials. 

From  the  mouth  of  the  Anghermanna  to  the  heights  of  Liens  we  meet  with  salmon 
fisheries,  which  afford  subsistence  to  the  fishermen,  and  duty  to  the  government ;  but 
often  neitlK'r  yield  the  expcnces,  nor  the  reward  of  the  labour. 

From  the  parish  of  Solctt,  proceeding  to  Liens,  we  pir  1  on  horseback  the  course 
nearly  taken  by  the  river,  to  the  north-west;  but  it  makes  a  (^  at  many  windings :  both  its 
shores  are  bordered  with  hills  of  sand,  covering  a  rich  and  fertile  land,  which  nature  seems 
to  have  been  willing  to  preserve  from  the  overflowings,  or  rather  which  is  concealed  under 
the  heaps  of  rubbish  brought  even  by  the  inundations ;  since  the  waters,  which  in  their 
source  sometimes  wash  away  the  mountains,  in  stripping  them,  sometimes  in  their  course 
raise  hills  of  sand. 

However  it  be  concerning  the  formation  of  these  sands,  and  the  rich  lands  underneath, 
the  country  we  traverse  on  leaving  Solett  is  entirely  composed  of  mountains  and  rocks : 
y<^t  we  perceive  some  good  lands  before  arriving  at  Liens  ;  but  the  soil  of  this  parish 
is  stony  and  barren,  mtermingled  with  marshes,  which  mi^ht  be  fertilised.  The 
little  river  which  waters  it,  and  supplies  it  with  salmon,  is  divided  by  a  large  rock, 
or  rather  an  island,  forming  a  water«fall  little  considerable  :  the  rock  from  which  it  is 
precipitated  is  scarcely  six  fathoms  in  height. 

The  land  of  tliis  district  is  mixed  witfi  sand ;  it  requires  a  third  part  of  the  fields  to 
be  left  unemployed  every  year,  to  enrich  it.  No  hedges  are  seen ;  the  fallow  ground  is 
not  even  divided  from  the  pasture  hind,  because  the  cattle  remain  in  the  folds  till  the 
hay  harvest. 

The  farther  we  penetrate  into  this  country,  the  more  do  we  meet  with  beautiful 
woods,  especially  beyond  Resilla.  The  saw^-mills  have  consumed  the  greater  part  of 
the  woods  on  this  side,  not  only  on  \he  banks  of  the  river,  but  as  far  in  the  land  as  the 
peasants  have  had  convenience'  to  export  the  wood.  Everj-  hamlet  extends  its  territoir 
to  one  or  two  miles  on  both  sides  of  the  Anghermanna :  most  of  these  hamlets  are  built 
on  the  banks  of  this  river :  the  cold  even  compels  men  to  live  near  it ;  for  it  always 
freezes  the  corn  in  the  dry  lands,  which  do  not  receive  any  influence  from  the  running 
waters.  It  is  the  same  of  the  vicinity  of  great  rivers,  as  of  the  influence  of  courts,  of 
which  there  is  constant  complaint,  and  yet  they  are  always  approached.  It  is  an  inju8> 
tice,  or  at  least  a  folly,  of  courtiers  to  complain  of  the  disgraces  which  they  should  have 
foreseen,  by  facing  them ;  which  they  purchase  before-hand,  by  the  value  they  set  on  . 
the  shortest  favour ;  and  which  they  constantly  deserve,  were  it  ojjly  by  the  good  offices 
they  render  themselves,  by  corrupting  or  pilfering  their  maiter.  But  it  is  an  ingrati- 
tilde  in  people  who  dwell  on  the  banks  of  rivers,  when  they  complain  of  inundations. 


"'^i 


TRAVKU  or  CURKNMALM.  ^53 

A  ltirf[;e  river  overflown  rsvaf^s,  it  is  true,  cultivated  fields ;  sometiines  curricH  away 
hiimlcts,  with  tlicir  inliabiUtnts  uixl  Hoclcti  destroys  the  pruvisions  ul' oiu- Viur,  the  crupK 
of  antHlier,  and  tlic  rcHourcot  of  Hcvcrul.  But  this  river  has  produced  during  agen  nii 
inimcnM:  )xj()uluticN),  by  the  fertility  of  its  banl(8,  by  navifration,  and  commcrcr  ;  it  has 

given  water  to  the  cattle,  who  manure  the  land,  and  att'ord  food  to  nnait ;  it  has  supplied 
lu  inhabitanU  of  its  utiort  s  with  ii^h  :  if  it  had  not  fed  the  regions  which  it  traverses, 
we  should  not  behold  them  covered  with  fields,  towns,  rich  and  populous  cities.  Happ) 
therefore  are  the  states  which  are  watered  by  great  rivers,  it  the  inhabitants  know  how 
to  take  advantage  of  the  bcnctits  thev  oiler,  and  provide  aguiuht  the  disiL<iters  they  may 
occasion  !  Egypt  has  subdurd  tlie  Nile :  the  Po,  the  Hhoiie,  the  Loire,  and  Garonne, 
are  they  more  formidable  ?  Everywhere  do  the  waters  rcquiit:  tlie  assistance  of  art, 
either  to  become  useful,  or  to  prevent  their  being  prejudicial  to  mankind. 

It  seems  even  hh  if  Nordland  should  rather  ex|)ect  it!>  subsistence  from  the  waters  than 
tlie  land :  it  scarcely  possesses  any  other  soils  fit  for  cultivation  than  those  which  arc 
marshy.  Near  Resilla  is  seen  a  hill  covered  with  bushes,  which  arc  only  fit  for  burn- 
ing; It  is  the  must  elevated  part  of  the  environs ;  the  soil  is  G;ood,  but  uncultivated,  be. 
cause  it  is  overspread  with  streams,  which  render  it  miry.  Nearly  in  all  Nordland,  each 
peasant  possesses  a  small  water-mill,  the  wheels  of  which  ore  horizontal.  Water  even 
which  refuses  to  tht;  culture  of  lands,  lends  at  least  its  assistance  to  the  labour  of  man. 

Between  Liens  and  lunsila  the  lands,  nearly  all  stony,  are  covered  with  moss  and 
wood  :  they  could  procure  timber,  if  thev  h\A  the  means  of  conveying  it.  A  merchant 
of  Hemosand  has  attempted  to  procure  some :  durfng  the  winter  he  had  some  cut,  and 
carried  to  the  riverside  ;  then,  about  the  middle  of  summer,  at  the  greatest  swells  of  the 
waters,  he  had  his  wood  thrown  into  it  in  pieces :  the  river  has  brought  sevenil  of 
them  to  the  place  he  wished  ;  but  many  others  have  been  stopped  by  the  sinuosities  of 
the  river  :  p<  rhaps  another  swell  will  bring  the  remainder  of  his  c4irgo  of  wood.  This 
metliod  of  conveyance  would  be  useful  to  navigation  ;  for  in  those  woods  there  are  found 
trees  which  appear  very  fit  for  masts  :  it  is  true  that  they  are  in  general  iiijured  by  the 
inclemency  of  tlie  seasons ;  many  are  frozen,  beat  down  by  the  wind,  01  at  least  broken ; 
the  greater  part  is  cracked. 

The  cold,  which  is  injurious  to  the  trees,  is  yet  more  fatal  to  the  com.  The  inha- 
bitants of  all  the  country  to  the  north  of  Resilla  are  uiiable  to  derive  from  the  land 
either  any  thing  for  sustenance  or  to  pay  duty  :  the  nights  there  are  so  cold,  when  the 
com  ripens,  that  it  is  often  frozen,  and  irrecoverably  lost.  The  parishes  of  Liens  and 
lunsila  have  few  hamlets  which  are  not  exposed  to  this  calamity.  The  greater  part 
therefore  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  district,  and  the  parish  of  Asehle,  give  themselves  up 
to  the  care  of  their  cattle,  in  which  consist  all  their  riches ;  that  is,  vmich  afibrd  subsist^ 
ence  to  the  cultivator,  and  duty  to  the  state. 

From  lunsila  to  the  village  of  Hellan,  in  the  parish  of  Asehle,  we  traversed  for  four 
miles  marshes,  woods,  and  mountains :  we  followed  for  some  time  by  water  the  wind- 
ings of  the  river,  in  the  places  where  there  were  no  falls. 

Those  kinds  of  channels,  where  the  calm  of  the  waters  is  not  intermpted  by  any  fall,  are 
called  in  the  Nordland  language  Sehles.  Stark  is  a  name  give:  to  the  intervals  of  water 
where  the  current  is  stronger,  but  not  sufficiently  rapid  to  prevent  the  passage  of  vessels  : 
those  where  the  waters,  without  falling,  run  with  sufficient  rapidity  to  carry  away  every 
thing,  are  called  Forss :  lastly,  they  give  the  name  of  Fall  to  those  where  the  waters  are 
precipitated,  from  whatever  height  they  fall.  This  is  a  land  as  much  neglected  by  na- 
ture, and  disr^;arded  by  man,  as  that  of  which  the  unequal  declivity  occasions  so  irrc. 

VOL.1.  ?  li 


I 


T 


354  TRAVF.IJ  or  P.IIRKVMAI.%1.  * 

gular  A  course  to  the  waterH,  no  little  niivi^ahlc.     Hom'  nhould  n  country  be  inhnbited, 
which  pri..tnts  vi  nvMxy  difficulticit  to  thr  truvcllc-r? 

VVc  travelled  iiljout  four  njiles,  over  mx  of  thiiic  schlen,  where  the  water  wemn  to  re- 
poAC  :  the  Hntt  wah  that  of  IiiOHila.  Hence  wr  travelled  half  u  mile  by  land  to  the  schle 
of  lal,  upon  which  we  navigated  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  Afterwards,  having  trivclUd 
thrti*  quarter;!  of  a  mile  by  land,  wc  travelled  u  fourth  by  water  on  the  nehle  ot  Korting ; 
then  r)uc  and  a  half  by  land,  and  tliree  quarters  of  a  mile  on  the  sehic  of  Gouhlo.  A  sni  til 
island  whit^h  wc  meet  in  the  middle  of  this  la»t  tichlc  separates  Angliernianland  from 
Western-Bothnia. 

We  again  travelled  by  land  seven  eighthd  of  a  mile,  then  a  quarter  of  a  mile  on  the 
schle  of  Alfwets;  aOerwanU  half  a  mile  by  latKi  j  lastly,  we  navigated  on  the  sehle  of 
Hellan,  to  the  village  of  that  name.  We  arrived  there  in  the  evening,  very  mu(  h  fa- 
tigued, by  a  route  of  about  twelve  leagues,  in  which  we  were  obliged  to  embark  and 
disemlKirk  six  times  in  the  space  of  twenty-two  hours,  passed  in  the  open  air,  during  a 
continual  rain ;  for  no  house  is  met  with  in  the  whole  of  this  road,  intersected  with 
deep  marshes,  high  mountains,  and  extensive  countries  of  gravel  and  sand.  Hellan  is 
two  miles  and  a  lialf  from  the  church  of  Asehle,  where  we  went  the  next  day,  as  much 
by  foot  as  by  water.  The  course  on  these  nuites  \»  directed,  as  at  sea,  by  the  comtMss 
and  map  ;  not  tluit  the  waters  vary  as  much  as  the  wIikIs,  but  their  dia'ction  isoi)liquc 
and  sinuous.  The  terms  north-east  and  by  north,  north  and  by  east,  should  be  as  fami- 
liar and  as  frequent  in  a  journey  in  Nordland,  as  they  are  in  the  journal  of  a  navigator. 

Though  the  province  of  Asehle  be  in  Lapland,  there  are  no  Lapland  inhabitants  in 
its  southern  part :  some  peasants  havr  formed  in  these  deserts  colonies,  which  they  call 
Nybvgghes. 

They  reckon  twenty-five  ;  the  parish  of  Asehle  contains  a  part  of  them :  Hellan  and 
Gaffehle  arc  the  most  ancient :  they  have  iK'en  established  nearly  fifty  years ;  the  others 
arc  recent. 

The  first  traces  up  even  to  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Eleventh.  This  great  monarch,  by  an 
ordinance  of  the  twenty-third  of  September,  1673,  exempted  from  the  militia,  the  lodge, 
ment  of  troops,  and  the  poll-tax,  all  those  who  would  settle  in  the  province  of  Asehle  ; 
and  tliese  privileges  were  confii*med  by  the  states  of  the  kingdom,  at  the  diet  of  1720. 
Each  colony  only  pays,  like  the  Lapland  districts,  a  fixed  sum,  which  never  varies  with 
the  wealth  of  the  contributors.  '1  he  richest  peasant  only  pays  twenty-one  crowns  of 
copper,  which  amounts  to  twenty -five  livres  and  four  sous  of  France  ;  but  the  greater 
part  only  pay  three  crowns  of  copper,  or  three  livres  and  twelve  sous.  For  this  price 
they  may  possess  a  land  of  about  twelve  miles,  or  four  leagues,  in  circuit ;  and  often 
even  any  quantity  of  land  they  choose.  The  land  indeed  is  so  barren  and  poor  in  these 
countries,  that  it  need  not  be  measured.  The  exempti(m  from  service,  and  the  small- 
ness  of  the  taxes,  are  the  least  encouragements  which  may  induce  men  to  come  and  culti- 
vate these  barren  and  frozen  mounts. 

The  inhabitants  of  Asehle  are  large,  laborious,  active,  able  in  their  kind  of  commerce, 
and  hospitable  to  strangers:  their  houses  arc  tolerably  well  built,  very  similar  to  those 
of  Nordland,  except  that  their  walla  are  not  of  stone  or  lime.  The  province  neither 
aftbrds  that  material,  nor  the  kind  of  argil  which  might  be  substituted  :  in  two  places 
only  IS  found  a  very  fine  atrgil,  of  which  they  make  bricks,  which  serve  for  building. 
These  people  are  very  comfortable,  notwithstanding  their  little  wealth,  which  consists 
in  their  cattle  and  nets;  but  this  latter  resoilrce  seldom  disappoints  their  hopes.  The 
river  of  Anghermanna,  which  traverses  the  province,  and  all  the  small  lakes  by  which 


TRAVBU  or  kiihknmalu. 


:i55 


;e, 

se 
er 
es 

its 


tlie  Ittnc!  U  Intcniccted,  furnish  a  Mifficicnt  qimntity  of  fish  to  feed  the  inhabitants,  and  to 
sell  to  strati^vn. 

A  rich  colony  may  posHCss  twelve  or  liftcin  <:ows,  with  their  calves,  siheip,  a  horse, 
and  ^oat!i.  The  hay  of  thin  province  is  so  iMHirishiiifi;,  that  the  cows  yield  an  ahundaiu  e 
of  milk  three  tmie.i  a  diiy.  Kach  cow  aflonis  two  |xjunds  of  Initter,  as  jjoixl  a>»  tluii  (»f 
HelhiiiKlu  land,  which  is  the  best  that  is  catcit  in  Sweden,  and  iterhapH  it  is  superior  to 
that  of  Holland. 

Thin  butter  is  an  object  of  commerce,  and  constitutes,  with  cheese,  drietl  fish,  '>irds, 
andstonie  firs,  all  the  wealth  of  the  country.  These  provisions  serve.to  procure,  inex« 
chan^',  corn,  salt,  tobacco,  and  other  objects  of  consumption. 

The  iK'asants  are  not  much  of  cultivators  :  the  whole  sowing  of  the  year  only  amounts 
to  three  casks  of  barley  and  rye.  The  men  and  women  till  the  laiuls,  and  gather  in  the 
cropsi  in  all  Nordland.  Their  scythes  equally  serve  to  cut  the  hay  and  corn.  Tluy 
mow  the  grass  very  short,  and  close  to  the  ground  ;  but  this  labour  is  slow,  and  tlu  y  Urn- 
in  tim«  what  they  giiin  in  hay.  When  they  employ  this  scythe  to  cut  the  corn,  tluy 
fix  a  bow  to  it,  which  serves  to  collect  the  ears  together,  and  to  spread  them  as  they 
mow.  But  a  single  night  has  often  cropiied  the  whole ;  and  when  the  colonist  rises  iu 
the  morning,  he  finds  the  grass  withered,  the  corn-curs  blemished,  his  labour  lost,  and 
his  ho|K's  destroyed  by  the  frost,  in  the  middle  of  summer. 

It  is  diHicult  to  determine  the  cause  of  these  accideiits.  The  high  latitude,  and  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  frozen  zone,  do  not  alone  produce  this  extraordinary  cold.  The 
Alps  and  the  mountains  of  Sweden,  though  much  nearer  the  tropic,  have  snow  all  the 
year.  Holland,  though  farther  north  than  Swisserland,  is  yet  less  cold.  Even  in  Nordland 
there  are  fotuid,  in  the  midst  of  the  mountains,  two  parislati,  called  Nordlian  and  Sudlian, 
in  which  rye  and  barley  are  sown,  which  never  freeze.  In  certain  districts  a  field  is 
frozen  by  the  east  wind,  while  tluit  wind  does  not  produce  the  same  effect  elsewhere : 
another  field  freezes  with  a  west  wind,  which  does  not  aifect  the  surrounding  fields  ;  ano- 
ther freezes  by  the  south  wind ;  another,  in  fine,  by  the  north  wind.  These  sudden  and 
unforeseen  frosts  happen  from  the  end  of  July  to  the  beginning  of  August,  the  hottest  part 
of  the  year.  The  cold  nights  of  the  summer  are  accomixmied  with  ice,  which  soon  melts, 
because  the  sun  only  quits  the  horizon  for  a  short  time,  and  does  not  delay,  to  warm  it. 

Among  the  reasons  assigned  for  these  pernicious  phenomena,  the  t)easants,  who  com< 
plain  of  them,  attribute  them  to  the  fogs  which  arise  from  the  marshes,  with  which  the 
fields  are  surrounded.  As  these  vapours  are  not  attracted  by  the  course  of  any  water,  they 
fall  again  about  the  marshes  which  have  exhaled  them  ;  but  this  cause,  which  may  aug- 
ment the  cold,  does  not  produce  it.  Near  Solett  is  observed  a  field,  which  often  freezes ; 
while  the  neighbouring  fields,  which  are  surrounded  with  marshes,  do  not  experience  the 
same  misfortune.  The  corn  of  Hellan  is  never  frozen,  though  the  lands  there  are  full  of 
marshes.  That  of  Gaffele  and  Nore  are  often  frozen,  though  near  to  a  river,  which  may 
attract  in  its  course  the  fq^  of  the  marshes  through  which  it  traverses. 

The  fog  arising  from  rivers  and  rivulets  generally  secures  the  corn  from  frost.  They 
do  not  experience  this  disaster  during  the  cloudy  nights ;  yet  we  sometimes  see  a  field 
situated  on  the  bank  of  a  river  freeze  sooner  than  another.  These  frosts  might  be  attri- 
buted to  the  north  wind,  if,  in  certain  districts,  the  other  winds  were  not  more  formi. 
dable.  It  may  perhaps  be  said  that  these  fields  being  sowed  every  year,  the  moisture  is 
soon  exhausted  from  a  soil  naturally  barren,  and  they  cannot  give  sufficient  strength  to 
the  corn  to  resist  the  frost ;  but  the  quantity  of  cattle  which  the  countrj'  feeds  furnishes 
sufficient  dung  to  manure  the  fields  every  other  year.  Though  the  Imds  for  the  most 
part  are  formed  of  a  l)ed  of  sand,  by  the  means  of  a  thin  bed  of  dung,  which  is  spread  from 

z  z  2 


356 


TRAVELS  OF  EHRB>'MALM. 


1  :i 


ii; 


time  to  time,  they  afford  sufficient  nourishment  to  the  corn  :  I  have  seen  it  extremety 
Ai.'C,  and  adorned  with  very  large  leaves. 

Tl.us,  in  order  to  discover  the  secret  cause  o4'  these  frosts,  the  baron  de  Cederhielm 
and  myself  proposed  to  M  Elic,  inspector  of  the  fishery  of  pearls,  to  make  continued 
observations  for  several  years,  in  diiferv-nt  places,  on  the  times  and  circumstances  of  ^his 
destructive  phenomenon,  which  must  certainly  be  the  effect  oi'  a  concurrence  and  comi^i- 
cation  of  causes :  we  advised  hirn  to  observe  the  position  of  the  fields,  the  nature  of  the 
soil,  the  state  of  the  weather  preceding  these  unforeseen  frosts,  and  the  wind  with  which 
they  were  accompanied. 

While  waiting  till  the  source  of  the  evii  may  be  discovered,  in  order  to  find  a  remedy, 
I  am  of  opinion  that  it  may  arise  from  the  vapour  of  the  acid  waters  which  are  in  the 
earth.  When  this  vapour  rises  in  fogs,  it  dissipates,  and  occasions  no  injury;  but  when 
it  cannot  exhale  with  sufficient  strength,  it  is  attracted  by  the  corn,  stops  there,  and 
blights  it  in  a  single  night. 

Near  Hell?n,  where  the  com  is  seldom  frozen,  the  bottom  of  die  soil  is  of  rock,  rarely 
covered  wi»h  three  feet  of  sand :  the  moisture  of  this  sand  is  evaporated  during  the 
middle  of  simmer ;  but  elsewhere  the  sand  is  deep,  and  without  rich  land  to  bind  it. 

Near  Gaftclc,  and  particularly  Nore,  the  marshes  are  more  elevated  than  the  fields  ; 
hence  the  waters,  which  are  corrupted  there,  flow  from  the  former  to  the  htter  before 
they  evaporate. 

In  fine,  the  fields  near  the  mountains,  from  which  the  snow-water  descends,  and  insen- 
sibly  filters  through  the  sauds,  are  more  subject  to  frost  than  the  others. 

Perhaps  the  scarcity  occasioned  by  this  calamity  also  depends  on  the  quality  of  the 
f^?ain :  they  only  sow  barley  at  Asehle,  on  a  tract  if  land  from  eight  to  nine  miles  in 
length.  Would  it  not  be  preferable  to  sow  rye  ?  This  is  what  a  skilful  economist  should 
r.wempt :  not  to  mention  the  advantage  arising  fi-om  a  com  which  makes  the  best  bread, 
and  which  keeps  better,  i  ye  yields  more  than  barley,  and  especially  resists  the  cold 
Ijetter ;  it  is  sowed  in  autumn ;  it  has  time  to  shoot  strong  roots  during  the  winter ;  a 
moderate  degree  of  heat  is  suifioient  in  the  summer :  this  corn  ripens  early,  before  the 
return  of  the  frosts  of  the  month  of  August.  At  least  a  trial  should  be  made,  by  sowing 
rye  and  barley ;  one  crop  might  supp'}'  the  failure  of  the  other. 

For  want  of  these  precautions,  L,^  l..:quent  scarcity  experienced  by  Asehle  renders 
the  corn  very  dear.  When  v/e  pasr  •'  through  it,  a  cask  of  barley  sold  for  nearly  forty 
Swedish  crowns.  On  account  o''  uii!»  d^amess,  the  inhabitants  cannot  always  eat  it ; 
they  therefore  have  recourse  to  timT  bark  of  the  fir,  dried  and  moulded ;  and  not  to  lose 
ihe  habit,  they  mix  it  with  barley  >!o.f,  even  in  abundant  years.  Were  they  to  change 
suddenly  from  a  healthy  and  light  fool  toche  i^se  of  this  bark,  their  digestion  would  be 
injured,  and  scarcity  would  occasion  plagues  and  epidemical  disorders.  Art  and  pre- 
caution are  necessary  to  tlie  poor  inhabitants  of  the  nc-rth,  in  order  to  accommodate 
theniselves  to  ihe  wretched  food  of  their  climate  ;  as  they  are  to  the  rich  nations  of  the 
south,  to  accustom  themselves  to  the  use  of  the  Apices  and  the  delicious  beverages  of  Asia 
and  America.  But  while  the  tables  of  our  voluptuaries  are  overloaded  with  the  super- 
fluities of  a  foreign  world,  whole  nations  have  not  even  one  of  the  necessaries  which  wc 
refuse.  The  Laplandeis  is\d  Nordlanders  might  feed  on  nKlishes  and  potatoes ;  they 
could  make  a  bread  of  them  much  superior  in  flavour  and  digestion  to  that  of  bark  : 
these  roots  would  thrive  in  the  sands.  The  minister  Forsbei^  has  produced  some  radishe<: 
with  success. 


1  ■' ;  '> 


( 


i4i 


TRAVELS  OF  EHitF.NMALM. 


357 


he 
sia 
sr- 


The  tree  from  which  they  take  this  rind,  which  affords  food  to  man,  is  very  common 
and  ancient,  particularly  in  the  north.  The  fir  reigns  in  the  sands  and  cold  countries, 
like  the  cedar  on  mount  Lebanon.  Nordland  exhibits  some  of  very  great  age.  At  th<; 
distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  church  of  Asehle,  to  the  south-west,  we  cut  a 
fir,  and  we  counted  the  concentric  circles  of  which  the  trunk  was  com]X)sed,  in  order  to 
determine  the  difference  between  the  growth  of  the  side  of  the  tree  towards  the  north, 
and  that  of  the  side  towards  the  south.  We  found  that  the  bulk  of  this  fir,  which  was 
of  three  thousand  circles,  and  consequently  of  three  hundred  years,  had  been  formed 
nearly  in  the  following  manner :  From  the  centre  we  counted,  for  the  first  half  century, 
five  hundred  and  seventy-two  parts  to  the  south,  and  five  hundred  and  nine  to  the  north  ; 
for  the  second  half  century,  three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  parts  to  the  south,  and  three 
hundred  and  twenty  ■.«•  ^ -n  to  the  north ;  for  the  second  centur)',  six  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  parts  to  the  south,  six  hundred  and  nine  to  the  north ;  lastly,  for  the  third  century, 
five  hundred  and  seven  parts  to  the  south,  and  four  hundred  and  fifty  to  the  north.  The 
whole  diameter  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree  three  hundred  years  old,  therefore,  contained  four 
thousand  and  twenty-seven  parts  of  our  geometrical  scale ;  tliat  is,  twenty  geometrical 
inches  and  nearly  an  eighth.  The  soil  of  this  tree  was  sandy,  and  covered  with  moss,  as 
is  the  whole  of  the  province  of  Asehle. 

The  inhabitants  of  Asehle  are  troubled  during  the  summer  by  a  species  of  fly,  which 
they  call  Knort :  they  are  small  insects,  of  a  foetid  iimell,  which  seem  to  form  a  species,  or 
a  middle  class,  between  the  fly  and  gnat :  they  have  black  and  yellow  stripes  on  the  back 
and  legs.  They  are  so  numerous,  and  especially  in  hot  weather,  and  under  a  serene  sky, 
that  the  inhabitants  are  obliged  to  protect  themselves  by  a  kind  of  pomatum,  a  mixture  of 
fat  and  tar,  with  which  they  smear  the  face ;  but  the  odour  is  not  less  insupportable  to 
me  n  who  are  not  accustomed  to  it,  than  to  the  flies,  who  always  remove  from  it.  The 
inliabitants  also  preserve  themselves  fiom  these  insects  in  their  houses,  by  burning  every 
night  pieces  of  a  knotty  tree,  the  smoke  of  which  kills  them. 

The  last  church  we  meet  to  the  north  of  Asehle  is  of  wood,  very  badiv  constructed, 
and  more  resembling  a  barn  for  beasts,  than  a  fold  for  a  christian  flock,  it  was  erected 
under  the  reign  i>f  Christina,  for  the  conversion  of  the  Laplanders,  and  cost  six  thousand 
crowns  of  copper.  I  can  affirm  that  the  architect,  whoever  he  was,  could  liOt  have  lost  by 
the  undertaking  of  this  edifice. 

The  province  of  Asehle  is  so  extenNve,  and  the  Laplanders  are  so  far  removed  from 
the  church,  that  divine  service  is  only  performed  once  in  fifteen  days.  All  the  inhabit- 
ants assemble  tt^ther  from  the  Saturday  in  the  even*<ng  until  the  evening  of  the  next 
day ;  the  Laplanders  keep  in  the  huts  they  have  raisea  about  the  church,  the  colonists 
in  the  houses  they  have  built  there.  The  mountain  Laplanders  only  repair  there  on  great 
festival  days ;  yet  they  are  attracted  by  some  human  interest,  which  is  always  united  with 
motives  of  piety.  At  Christmas  a  fair  is  held  near  the  church ;  at  this  time  the  taxes 
me  pakl,  and  law  suits  determined.  Commerce,  justice,  and  reli^on,  are  in  some  mea- 
sure  united,  to  bind  men  together,  and  preserve  them  in  peace,  unifcr  the  yoke  of  society. 
But  the  Laplanders  who  frequent  the  church  during  the  fair  are  the  most  attracted  by 
the  charms  of  drinking  strong  liquors,  and  giving  themselves  up  to  gross  intemperapce. 

Near  this  church  is  a  school,  where  the  government  pays,  lodges,  and  feeds  a  master, 
wth  six  children,  who  are  taught  to  read,  and  instructed  in  religion.  The  master, 
whom  we  saw,  told  us  he  would  accustom  his  pupils  to  eat  bread  and  wear  cloth  :  he 
16  jjersuaded  that  this  habit,  strengthened  by  time,  will  familiarize  the  nation  with  the 
Swedes,  with  whom  they  will  seek  commerce ;  and  this  is  the  only  method  to  civilize 


358 


I'RAVELS  or  KHnENMAL>r. 


iia 


the  Laplanders,  and  to  divest  them  of  their  idolatrous  practices.  The  minister  Forsberg, 
who  formerly  held  this  school,  is  of  the  same  opinion,  which  apj)ean>  to  have  greater  foun- 
dation,  since  to  the  present  time  the  conversion  of  the  Laplanders  has  only  been  a  scene 
of  fraud  and  Ij>  pocrisy.  Infatuated  with  the  customs  and  opinions  of  their  ancestoi-s,  they 
regard  our  ceremonies  with  the  same  eye  that  we  behold  their  superstitions.  They  see  no 
other  difference  between  their  idolatry  and  Christianity,  than  the  protection  afforded  to  the 
gospel  by  the  government.  It  may  ji'itly  be  concluded,  from  their  manner  of  life,  their 
aversion  to  die  Swedes,  and  especially  to  the  ministers,  from  the  fear  they  testify  at  speak- 
ing of  religion,  from  the  habit  which  they  have  of  agreeing  with  their  superiors  on  the 
truths  of  Christianity,  still  suspending  their  offerings  to  the  sacred  trees,  from  the  secrecy 
they  all  preserve,  when  they  commit  actions  forbidden  among  christians.  It  will  cost  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  to  make  them  renounce  their  drums  of  divmation.  They  have  innu- 
merable places  to  conceal  them  in  their  woods  ind  deserts,  eternal  asylums  of  supersti- 
tion. The  minister  Forsberg  broke  one  of  these  instruments  of  their  pretended  magic, 
but  they  soon  made  others,  at  little  expence.  It  is  not  the  drums  which  must  be  broken, 
nor  the  books  which  must  be  burnt ;  but  it  is  the  human  mind  which  must  be  insensibly 
freed  from  its  errors,  by  reason,  and  especially  by  the  mild  laws  of  a  government,  bene- 
ficial to  the  nation  which  finds  itself  subdued.  When  the  people  are  happy,  they  do  not 
disturb  themselves  with  idle  discussions  of  tenets,  they  do  not  become  fanatics  for  their 
o» anions.  It  is  the  cruel  infatuation  of  forcing  them  to  admit  that  which  they  cannot  per- 
suiivle,  of  imposing  silence  by  punishment ;  it  is  persecution,  in  a  word,  which  first  creates 
enthusiasts,  then  martyrs,  then  sects,  then  rebels,  and  finally  civil  wars. 

The  Laplanders  are  surprised  when  we  would  forbid  their  drums,  which  serve  them, 
they  say,  to  direct  the  winds ;  while  the  Swedes  have  compasses  to  direct  their  course, 
and  mark  the  progress  of  time. 

Notwithstanding,  the  Laplanders  do  not  entirely  rely  on  their  juggling.  They  are 
attracted  to  the  religiouu  lestivals  by  the  fmrs.  Among  other  merchandise,  they  bring 
skins  and  firs.  In  exchange  for  this  clothing  furnished  by  nature,  they  take  that  which 
art  has  manufactured,  such  as  woollen  cloths  or  stuffs.  For  meats  and  dried  fish  they 
procure  tobacco  and  pipes,  salt  and  pepper.  For  cords  drawn  from  the  roots  of  trees, 
they  receive  hemp,  of  which  they  make  nets.  They  sell  baskets,  and  buy  kettles,  knives, 
sometimes  hatO'iets,  more  rarely  planes  or  augers.  They  prefer,  before  all  these  tools, 
brandy  or  port  wine,  which  they  find  excellent  when  mixed  with  that  strong  liquor.  The 
Laplanders  are  unwilling  to  be  paid  in  copper  money,  though  it  is  current  in  the  traffic 
between  the  Swedes  who  come  from  Oumea  and  the  colonists  of  Asehle ;  but  they  ac- 
cept, and  even  seek  the  silver  money.  Such  is  their  clownishness,  that  they  have  no  con- 
fidence in  a  supposed  value,  which  only  has  the  stamp  of  the  prince  for  guarantee. 

At  our  departure  from  Asehle,  we  took  some  Laplanders  as  guides,  for  we  had  to 
ascend  the  river  Anghermanna,  with  its  falls.  We  met  with  some  of  great  height,  whirh 
obliged  us  to  convey  our  boats  and  crews  by  land.  Sometimes  we  were  compelled  to 
walk  two  or  three  miles,  to  relieve  those  who  rowed,  dragged,  or  forced  the  boats  against 
the  current.  The  Laplanders  reckon  the  way  by  journies,  and  the  Nordlanders  by  miles. 
From  the  church  of  Asehle  to  the  mountains  to  which  we  went,  th*^  distance  is  neariy 
seven  miles.  During  this  route,  the  magnetic  needle  pointed  to  tl^  north,  north-east, 
and  north-west ;  but  the  most  part  of  the  time  to  the  north  north-east.  The  river  makes 
a  great  many  windings,   •n'^.  ■^<';';\.,:;:;iHr  :'>4^j<^^*^-M.i.?J:,fe'^'*f.^  <i-;  c  '■^•^>.«i-eVf>}js'>:s^ ';,^\i'iK 

It  was  about  six  in  the  morning  when  we  arrived  at  Wolksio.  At  midnight  a  thick 
fog  arose,  which  began  to  dissipate  about  four  in  the  morning,  and  was  completely  dis- 


TKAVKL8  OF  EIIRENMALM 


35y 


persed  by  the  time  we  had  passed  the  Forss,  or  current  of  Wolksio.  We  then  beheld, 
on  the  lake  of  that  name,  a  kind  of  rain-bow,  a  thousand  paces  from  us.  The  air  was 
calm  and  serene,  the  sun  brilliant ;  and  the  waters  so  clear,  that  we  could  distinctly  sec 
the  gravel,  flints,  coarse  and  fine  sand,  of  a  brown  and  gray  colour,  at  the  depili  oi'  two 
fathoms. 

At  a  mile  from  Wolksio  is  seen  a  mountain,  Separated  from  the  others.  It  is  a  singu- 
larity,  like  the  phenomenon  of  the  rain-bow  seen  on  the  hike  in  serene  weather.  VVe 
crossed  this  lake  at  the  width  of  a  quarter  of  a  league,  and  after  travelling  for  about  a 
mile  and  a  half,  we  arrived  at  Telt-Sio-Arne.  From  the  parish  of  Asehle  to  this  last 
place  there  are  eighteen  currents,  falls,  or  sheets  of  water  to  cross,  in  ascending  the 
Anghermanna.  This  river  rises  in  the  mountains  of  Koultsiofiall  and  Biorkfiall.  It 
receives  the  river  of  Marsfiall,  and  many  small  lakes  and  rivulets ;  it  even  traverses  the 
lakes  of  Malgomai  and  Wolksio.  It  is  so  increased  by  the  tribute  of  all  these  waters, 
that  in  many  places  it  is  from  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  a  league  in  width.  It  then  glides 
slowly,  and  forms,  by  its  dormant  waters,  what  are  called  Sehles.  But  in  proportion  as 
it  grows  narrower,  it  dashes  over  the  obstacles  it  meets,  and  falls  with  so  violent  a  noise, 
that  in  calm  weatherit  may  be  heard  at  the  distance  of  two  miles.  What  a  country  is 
this ;  merely  a  desert,  where  are  only  beheld  mountains  without  cultivation,  without 
any  trace  of  human  industry,  nor  scarcely  of  life  and  sensation ;  where,  even  in  the 
season  of  life,  when  nature  revives,  no  noise  is  heard  but  that  of  cataracts,  which,  roar- 
ing from  afar  behind  hideous  rocks,  seem  to  environ  the  traveller,  whom  they  threaten, 
sometimes  to  approach  him,  sometimes  to  follow  him!  Miserable,  indeed,  if  he  were 
alone  ;  all  the  horrors  of  a  deluge,  all  the  images  of  the  Styx,  with  its  nine  great  wind- 
ings, would  assail  his  trembling  soul.  Then  would  he  experience  those  involuntary 
^terrors  which  gave  birth  to  the  spectres  of  superstition,  and  as  if  fantastic  beings  were 
necessary  to  assist  him  to  struggle  against  nature.  Man  alone,  surrounded  by  dan- 
ger and  objects  of  terror,  beholds  the  lace  of  nature  in  a  different  view.  Every  thing 
ithen  becomes  a  demoni,  every  thing  a  deity.  He  invokes  the  stone  against  the  roaring 
*  torrent ;  as  he  approaches  the  source  of  his  fears,  they  multiply  ;  his  mind  is  disturbed, 
'his  knees  totter,  his  eyes  roll,  all  his  senses  are  disordered  ;  and  if  he  discover  not  the 
cause  of  his  fear,  his  reason  for  ever  sinks  into  unfathomable  obscurity,  into  everlasting 
night. 

:  I  have  seen  the  peasants  of  Asehle  ascend  this  river  with  their  boats ;  when  they  ap- 
proached a  rock,  land,  and  draw  these  light  skiffs  against  the  current,  with  all  the  cou- 
rage and  adroitness  which  arise  from  a  long  habitude.  But  they  are  not  equal  to  the 
Laplanders  in  this  laborious  and  difficult  art. 

:.  The  LaplaiKlers  have  boats,  the  keel  of  which,  one  fathom  long  at  bottom,  extends 
to  two  fathoms  upwards.  It  is  large,  flat,  and  equally  pointed  at  both  ends.  The  ribs 
are  very  narrow.  There  are  three  or  four  of  a  tolerable  length  on  each  side ;  they  are 
covered  or  doubled  with  fir  planks,  which  have  been  cut  with  the  hatchet.  These 
planks,  two  lines  thick,  are  joined  with  the  sinews  of  the  rein-deer,  or  fastened  with 
ropes  from  the  root  of  the  fir.  It  will  be  seen  by  this  description  how  brittle  these  little 
boats  are  ;  a  man  might  break  them  with  his  hand ;  if  he  placed  his  foot  on  the  sides  of 
-the  boat,  on  entering,  the  timbet  would  crack.  A  boat  only  contains  the  rower  seated 
at  one  end,  and  the  passenger  at  the  other,  to  keep  it  in  equilibrium.  A  bowl,  of  the 
bark  of  the  birch-tree,  to  bale  out  the  watt  r  which  enters  at  the  joints,  cracks,  and  even 
•the  pores  of  the  wood,  two  oars,  and  a  hatchet,  form  the  whole  cargo  of  the  little 
ihoat. 


S60 


TRAVELS  OF  KilRKNMAL.M. 


But  if  the  boat  can  only  carry  two  men,  one  man  is  sufficient  to  carry  the  boat. 
When  a  Laplander  meets  with  a  water-fall,  which  he  cannot  pass  by  nicanij  of  his  oars, 
as  he  does  not  even  iiossess  any  idea  of  sails,  he  puts  the  bowl  of  liis  little  boat  on  hiti 
headv  passes  the  oars  into  two  wickeni  :<ttrongly  fastened  to  the  sides  of  the  boat,  takes  lus 
sack  of  provisions  on  his  back,  and  places  the  boat  above  the  bowl ;  then,  by  means  of 
the  hatchet,  which  he  fixes  to  the  stern,  he  preserves  his  boat  in  equilibrium,  and  guides 
it  to  the  right  and  left  through  the  trees.  When  he  has  passed  on  land  above  the  level 
of  the  fall,  he  replaces  his  boat  in  the  wuter,  and  continues  to  row. 

HoNvever  frightful  to  the  eye  is  the  nmidity  of  one  of  these  little  boats  descending  a 
fall  between  the  rocks;  the  great  cal  aaessof  the  Laplanders  amidst  these  perils  in- 
duced us  to  attempt  these  passages  witi;  them,  and  when  we  had  overcome  several,  wc 
no  longer  wished  to  land,  as  we  did,  fxfore  we  had  been  inured  to  these  dangerous 
ways. 

The  lands  watered  by  the  Anghermaina  are  more  or  less  fertile,  according  to  their 
distance  or  proximity  with  respect  to  the  river.  But  as  it  overflows  its  shores  every 
year,  at  the  return  of  spring,  it  is  diffiiuli  to  say  whether  it  is  more  useful  to  them  by 
its  waters,  than  hurtful  by  the  sands  v.  hh  which  it  covers  them.  Yet  it  may  be  of. 
firmed  that  this  river  is  to  the  country  of  Asehle,  what  the  Nile  is  to  Egypt.  Its  in- 
undations, which  cover  the  fields  fron\  ihe  month  of  May,  when  the  sun  begins  to  melt 
the  snow  of  the  north,  to  the  month  of  July,  preserve  the  plants  and  corn  from  tliose 
backward  frosts,  which  surprise  the  crops  in  the  flower,  and  destroy  the  harvest  before 
it  has  arrived  at  maturity.  In  like  manricr,  the  Nile,  by  its  periodical  iiumdations,  se- 
cures the  plains  of  Egypt  from  the  ardour  of  the  sun,  which  would  dry  up  the  fruits  and 
cultures  of  that  rich  country.  But  this  comparison  still  admits  of  as  much  difference 
between  the  objects  compared,  az  nature  has  made  in  distance  between  the  tropic  and 
polar  circle.  Besides,  in  Egypt,  art  with  all  its  invendons  assis*  i  the  fertility  of  a  pro^- 
gal  land.     In  the  northern  countries,  lodustry  is  as  limited  as  nature  is  sordid. 

It  might  perhaps  be  imagined,  that  in  the  immense  forests  which  overspread  Lapland 
there  must  be  found  trees  proper  for  the  making  of  masts ;  but  it  would  be  in  vain  to 
seek  for  them.  Nearly  the  whole  of  these  woods  has  been  destroyed  by  fires,  which 
have  been  falsely  attributed  to  thunder,  but  which  only  arose  from  the  imprudence  of 
the  Laplanders.  When  they  quit  an  habitation,  they  often  leave  fire,  through  inatten- 
tion. Sometimes,  if  they  want  to  warm  themselves,  they  set  fire  to  a  tree,  to  avoid  tlie 
trouble  of  cutting  it  down.  Lastly,  they  set  fire  to  a  forest,  lest  the  Sivedes  should  seek 
for  mines  in  the  neighbourhood,,  and  distress  the  inhabitants,  in  order  to  procure  iron 
and  copper. 

The  lake  of  Wolksio,  to  the  north,  receives  a  great  river,  which  derives  its  name  from 
the  lake  Hwoima,  whence  it  proceeds  to  the  distance  of  six  or  seven  miies,  anil  alter 
great  windings  discharges  itself  into  a  more  southern  lake.  It  would  appear  that  lakes 
in  these  countries  are  only  large  reservoirs,  which  empty  themselves  into  one  aiy>ther  by 
natural  ctiannsis,  forming  as  many  rivers.  These  lakeN  indicate  a  land  rising  in  plat- 
forms, disposed  one  above  another,  in  amphitheatres.  They  resemble  large  terraces, 
where  the  rain  and  snow  form  themselves  basons,  the  waters  of  which  flow  out  by 
water-falls,  rivulets,  or  ponds,  accon^'ng  as  the  declivity  of  the  liuid  is  sometimes  sud- 
den, sometimes  gentle,  or  interrupted  and  bix)ken  ofl'.  The  soil  of  the  lake  (^ 
Wolksio  is  stony  and  sandy.  Towards  the  upper  extremity  of  this  lake  the  fir  woods 
liecome  rare,  and  tliose  of  the  pine  more  numerous;  so  that  near  the  lake  Malkomai 
scarcely  any  firs  are  seen.     This  was  the  last  lake  on  which  we  navigated ;  yet  we  did 


HUM 


Bmi 


IRAVT.LS  OF  RMRRNMALM. 


361 


not  proceed  on  it  for  more  than  two  miks,  though  it  is  three  and  a  half  in  length,  with 
an  unequal  breadth,  varying  from  a  quarUT  to  a  whole  mile.  It  stretches  from  the  north- 
east to  the  south-west,  and  empties  it'^ellinto  the  Anghtrmanna  towards  the  south-west. 
The  bed  of  this  lake,  and  !♦     '-her/,  are  the  same  is  all  the  others. 

Arriving  there,  we  perceived,  at  the  distance  of  six  miles  on  the  western  side,  the 
mountains  called  Akick-fiall.  The  heights  near  the  mouth  of  the  lake  are  sufficiently 
fertile,  as  is  part  of  the  surrounding  land.  But  the  woods  are  nearly  all  burned.  We 
felled  the  largest  fir  we  could  find  in  this  place.  By  the  number  of  circles  which 
appeared  from  its  section,  it  must  have  been  a  hundred  and  sixty-two  years  old.  Its 
semidiameter  contained  thirteen  hundred  and  thirty-one  parts  of  the  geometrical  scale, 
or  about  six  iiches  three  lines  and  a  fourth.  The  soil  in  which  this  tree  had  grown 
was  stony.  The  pines  of  these  environs  were  of  a  tolerable  height,  and  covered 
wiUi  moss.  In  these  far  removed  countries  from  the  sun,  nature  employs  ages  to 
produce  little.  The  inhabitants  live  to  a  great  age,  but  what  a  life  !  withouf  ever  feeling 
the  pk'asures  of  the  senses  or  the  i  imagination,  which  yield  to  the  soul  a  live^/  and  solid 
enjoyment;  without  experiencing  that  inward  and  continual  action  r.nd  re-action, 
which  Wnd  men  to  every  thing  in  nature,  by  sensation,  desire  and  enterprise  ;  without 
any  taste,  which  may  attach  a  being  to  himself  and  to  those  around  him.  Thus  the 
manners  of  these  people,  incloKed  by  frozen  seas  and  mountains  of  snow,  possess  not  the 
least  of  animation,  or  of  vigour.  Society  there  is  dull,  monotonous,  without  passion, 
without  incitement.  The  inhabitants,  like  the  trees,  are  almost  isolated,  though  placed 
by  the  side  of  each  other.  Love  has  no  branches ;  friendship  no  name.  They  arc 
perfect  strangers  to  ideas  oi"  protection,  assistance,  compassion,  beneficence  and  charity. 
But,  ye  senseless  beings,  who  glory  in  these  interesting  names,  do  ye  know  how  much 
they  cost  to  human  nature ;  and  that  those  virtues  are  created  at  the  expence  of  the  vices, 
crimes  and  misfortunes  of  your  fellow  creatures  ? 

We  left  the  lake  Malgomai,  and  ascended  a  small  rivulet  for  half  a  mile  north-west, 
towards  Tetsio,  where  we  landed,  and  left  our  ixu-ks.  We  were  obliged  to  perform  the 
remainder  of  our  journey  on  foot,  among  the  highest  mountains. 

Tlie  first  district  we  had  to  traverse  had  been  set  on  fire.  The  soil  was  sandy,  and 
mixed  wkli  stonc=.  We  afterwards  entered  a  wood  of  very  small  pines,  which  ex- 
tended to  the  top  ot  die  mountain,  a  mile  and  a  half  distant.  These  trees  were  tolerably 
ft«sh ;  most  of  their  branches  lay  horizontally.  They  were  lower  and  smaller  than 
th(»e  of  Asehle. 

The  ir  wiM  not  thrive  among  pines,  it  is  of  too  elevated  a  structure.  The  small  num. 
ber  wfiich  is  seen  of  these  majestic  trees,  created  to  defy  the  <'^nds  of  the  land  and  ocean, 
are  of  a  dwarfish  species.  But  we  observed  that  the  smo*  tl.tr  and  more  marshy  the 
country  was,  the  greater  number  of  birch-trees  and  poplars  grew,  always  small  and 
low,  with  many  branches,  and  few  leaves.  The  birch-trees  appeared  of  two  different 
species  ;  the  one  had  small  leaves,  of  the  ordinary  form  of  this  tree  :  the  leaves  of  the 
other  wMte  larger,  thicker,  more  curled,  and,  being  of  greater  substance,  they  formed  a 
medium  between  the  ieaves  of  the  birch  and  those  of  the  gooseberry  bush.  In  these 
marshy  places  we  also  saw  some  thickets  of  both  the  hawtfiorns,  but  neither  of  them 
having  any  fruit. 

In  these  marshes  there  grows  a  shrub  called  Myr-riss ;  that  is,  Moor's- shrub.  The 
branches  are  strait,  without  suckers.  The  wood  is  strong.  Near  the  root  the  bark  is 
gray  :  towards  the  summit  it  is  of  the  brown  of  young^ birch-trees.  The  leaves  are  ar- 
ranged  thi«ee  by  thr«c,  very  near  the  branch,  and  are  rotindish,  like  those  of  clover. 


VOL.    I. 


3    A 


Ml 


,«««k»««^>*^    -^  ■ 


JB2 


TRAVELS  OF  KIIRBNMALM. 


1 


!t 


The  soil  which  produced  these  woods  was  partly  of  rock  and  partly  of  stones,  co- 
vered with  moss,  between  which  was  |x.'rccived  a  fine  sand  of  a  brown  colour :  the 
land  about  the  marches  we  met  with  in  these  woods  was  also  a  St\nd,  among  which, 
from  time  to  time,  we  perceived  a  black  eaith,  formed  by  putrified  saoss.  This  soil  in 
some  pluccs  was  half  a  foot  thick,  in  others  two  feet,  and  perhaps  more ;  for  we  were 
not  al)le  to  measure  it  everywhere.  The  marshes  are  covered  with  a  prodigious  quan^ 
tity  of  Hies,  which  they  appear  to  produce.  Thev  are  in  greater  numbers  in  these 
mountains  than  in  the  parish  of  Asehle,  and  of  a  different  form.  Their  body  and  feet 
are  yellower ;  their  sting  is  sharper.  Their  stings  pierce  through  the  cowls  of  crape, 
with  which  the  inhabitants  in  vain  cover  their  faces.  They  are  also  more  venomous, 
and  commonly  leave  a  black  spot  on  the  skin,  which  becomes  a  tumour. 

At  the  extremity  of  the  wood  we  found  a  verdant  country,  the  soil  of  which  was 
stony.  We  saw  many  plants  and  herbs  which  were  unknown  to  us ;  among  others, 
one,  the  leaves  of  which  resembled  those  of  the  lily  of  the  valley.  We  also  saw  many 
junipers,  but  very  small,  and  without  kernel,  of  a  very  deep  brown,  as  if  they  had  been 
burned. 

All  these  observations  are  not  wholly  useless,  even  to  the  inhabitants  of  more  scutiuvu 
countries.  Everywhere  we  meet  with  sandy  and  barren  soils,  where  grow  pines  and  shi  ubs 
similar  to  thoae  which  alone  nearly  cover  all  Siberia,  Lapland,  and  the  most  northern 
countries.  By  estimating  the  quality  of  the  soils,  and  the  nature  of  the  productions 
which  are  found  in  such  different  climates,  we  might  examine  if  the  soil  contributes, 
still  more  than  the  sun,  to  the  generation  of  plants :  whether  the  abode  of  the  waters  of 
the  sea,  or  the  internal  structure  of  the  earth,  do  most  determine  the  disposition  of  the 
beds  on  its  surface.  The  sands  of  Africa,  those  of  the  heaths  of  Spain  and  France, 
{hose  of  the  north  of  Europe  and  Asia,  are  they  the  same,  with  respect  to  grain,  colour, 
iliickness,  mixture,  vegetable  substance  ?  Nature  has  done  nothing  in  vain ;  her  con- 
templator  should  observe  nothing  without  reaping  benefit. 

We  at  length  arrived  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  of  Rod-fiall.  It  occupied  us  an  en- 
tire hour  to  reach  its  summit.  From  the  lake  of  Malgomai,  whence  we  had  perceived 
it,  it  seemed  to  supiwrt  the  heavens.  Nevertheless  we  found  this  mountain  to  be  of  less 
altitude  than  any  of  the  surrounding. 

In  Lapland  a  mountain  covered  with  stones  is  called  a  fiall.  The  mountains  which 
are  wholly  of  rock,  an  uncommon  circumstance,  have  so  many  gaps,  that  they  may  be 
regarded  as  a  pile  of  rocks.  The  latter  are  sometimes  bare,  but  oftener  covered  with  a 
little  tnoss,  or  earth.  The  mountain  of  Rod-fiall  is  curved  towards  the  north,  and  forms 
an  arch  of  a  circle  about  the  lake  of  Rodsio.  The  soil  is  rich,  and  overspread  with  small 
birch-trees,  oziers,  and  herbs  of  every  kind. 

The  soil  of  the  hills  is  a  white  and  fine  sand ;  beneath  is  a  white  argil,  having  no 
binding  earth.  If  the  fountains  which  issue  in  great  numbers  from  that  mountain  did 
not  hinder  the  corn  in  the  spring  from  thriving,  by  the  frosts,  of  which  the  coolness  of 
the  running  waters  augments  the  cold,  tliis  district  might  support  many  inhabitants.  It 
is  the  best  we  have  seen  in  the  whole  of  this  country.  Here  we  meet  with  a  pure  black 
earth,  a  foot  in  thickness,  with  a  little  mixture  of  gravel.  The  declivity  of  the  land  is 
gentle,  and  stretches  sufficiently  far  for  one  to  walk  upright. 

Pursuing  our  route  we  passed  by  a  round  mountain,  encompassed  with  stones  and 
marshes.  The  latter  are  very  common.  They  might  be  drained,  and  prepared  for 
culture  by  manure,  suitable  to  the  productions  we  would  familiarise.  The  most  ele- 
vated might  be  turned  into  fields ;  the  less  elevated  into  meadows.  The  Laplanders 
say,  tliat  towards  Norway  sinrlkr  kinds  have  been  peopled  and  cultivated.    Those  which 


tkavl:ls  uf  kiiurnmalm. 


o63 


uc  saw  might  be  tilled,  if  the  Laplanders  were  made  to  quit  their  waiideriiiy;  life  of  shep- 
herds, for  the  stationary  life  of  tillers ;  or  if  the  Swedish  colonies  were  to  increase,  and 
extend  by  degrees  to  these  mountains.  It  would  Ik'  imprudent  to  plant  an  isolated  co- 
lony here.  The  construction  of  houses  would  be  difficult  and  too  expensive,  in  a  place 
from  which  the  nearest  woods  of  iir  are  six  miles  distant.  The  necessary  advances  for 
two  or  three  years  would  become  burthensotne  ;  to  transport  cattle  by  water  would  U' 
difficult ;  to  conduct  them  by  land  troublesome.  When  the  colony  enlarged,  they 
would  jjcrhaps  want  wood  to  build  new  houses,  or  to  inclose  fields,  or  even  for 
firing.  'IVees,  which  grow  more  slowly  than  men,  would  not  assist  the  wants  of 
cultivation,  and  might  deprive  ihc  colonists  of  the  fruit  of  their  advances  and  paia&. 
The  general  maxim  for  the  clearing  of  land  is,  to  do  it  by  degrees,  by  advancing 
from  all  the  inhabited  places  which  surround  the  untilled  country.  Men  should  proceed 
step  by  step,  like  nature.  The  population  and  culture  of  a  desert  must  not  be  com- 
menced at  the  'cntre,  but  at  the  circumference.  The  borders  of  a  hiiith  join  toiVuiiful 
lands  ;  it  is  there  it  should  be  vivified,  bv  the  communication  of  seeds  and  the  sources 
of  cultivation.  Every  other  method  is  m  vain,  and  ruinous.  The  nations  of  Europe, 
who  were  willing  to  seize  on  the  interior  lands  of  America,  have  lost  their  popula- 
tion and  their  culture.  The  English,  who  have  only  occupied  the  sea  coasts,  ha\'e 
gathered  strength,  increased,  and  enriched  themselves.  The  colonies  of  the  interior 
will  in  the  end  Ix;  invaded  by  those  of  the  extremities.  It  is  because  the  former 
are  insulated,  while  the  latter  are  supported  by  a  free  communication  with  their  me- 
tro)x)lis. 

We  travelled  two  miles  more  to  arrive  at  the  mountain  of  Kitschewari.  Although  ii 
was  the  middle  of  August,  we  walked  over  sr.ow,  with  a  kind  of  pattens  made  of  green 
branches.  VVe  met  with  inoi*e  ice-houses  than  could',  be  wished  for,  in  this  season,  in  the 
warmest  countries  of  Europe. 

Here  the  travellers  separated,  in  order  to  proceed,  some  towards  the  north  beyond  the 
mountain,  the  others  towards  the  south,  over  an  extensive  and  marshy  land.  It  reaches 
in  the  form  of  a  circle  for  two  miles  to  the  south  one-fourth  west.  Many  hills  of  va- 
rious  heights  are  there  observed,  covered  with  some  jMiies  and  bushes.  Those  who 
passed  beyond  the  mountain  discovered,  to  the  north-east  and  by  east,  the  western  ex- 
tremity  of  the  lake  Malgomai,  about  three  miles  from  Kitschewari :  the  two  lakes  of 
Lidsio,  to  the  north-east  and  by  north ;  to  the  north,  a  part  of  the  lake  of  Koultsio, 
which  the  Anghermanna  crosses ;  to  the  north  north-east  the  lake  of  Mai-sio,  which  com- 
municates  with  that  of  Malgomai.  Lidsio  is  three  miles  and  a  half  from  the  mountain  ; 
Koultsio  and  Marsio  are  four  miles.  From  the  same  place  are  also  seen,  twelve  miles  to 
the  north-east,  the  mountains  of  Lycksele-fiall ;  Mars-fiall,  five  miles  to  the  north  north- 
east; Fiald-fiall,  twelve  miles  north;  Biork-fiall,  nine  miles  to  the  north-west  and  by  north; 
Amas-fiall,  twelve  miles  north-west;  the  mountains  of  Norway,  twenty  miles  west  one- 
fourth  north ;  Hammardahls-fiall.  eight  miles  to  the  west  south-west ;  Yemptelands-fiall, 
twelve  miles  to  the  south-west  and  by  south;  Block-fiall,  four  miles  to  the  south-east;  and, 
lastly,  Arksio,  fourteen  miles  to  the  south-west:  and  many  other  mountains,  which,  on  ac- 
count of  their  smallness,  have  no  name,  although  it  does  not  secure  them  from  being  co- 
vered with  snow  nearly  the  whole  of  the  year.  In  the  midst  of  this  frightful  compass,  the 
traveller  feels  the  superiority  of  nature  over  human  strength.  In  other  countries  we  find  it 
yield  to  the  industry  of  man,  which  changes  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  sea  even  afibrds 
a  passage  to  man  through  its  tempests,  iuid  its  rocks.  Bui  here  the  mountains  forbid  him 
fi-om  afar  to  approach,  and  their  summits,  bristled  with  Bakes  of  ice,  oppose  to  his  au- 
dacity a  barrier,  more  formidable  than  the  fires  which  formerly  burned  on  a  mountain 
of  Arabia.  The  feet  of  volcanoes  are  inhabited ;  the  mountains  of  Norway  and  Lapland 

3  A  2 


364 


TRAVP.LS  OK  RIIUP.NMALM. 


can  scarcely  be  factd.  The  Alps  am  crossed  ;  but  it  is  to  pass  into  the  beautiFiil  und 
delightful  couuti  y  ol"  Italy.  The  north  defends  itself  by  the  horror  of  its  pros|x;ct,  und 
itu  climate ;  but  mountains  of  greater  height  than  those  of  the  pole  have  never  ar- 
rested tlu:  pi  )grebs  of  the  conquerors,  who,  for  these  ten  centuries,  have  disputed  the 
richest  country  of  Europe.  Germany,  France,  and  Spain,  have  ravaged  by  turns  this 
same  It;ily,  which  is  now  the  prey  of  those  nations,  of  which  it  was  formerly  the  mis- 
iress. 

It  will  no  d  Dear  surnrising,  that  mounUiins  may  be  seen  which  are  more  tlian 

forty  leagues  >  d,  and  that  consequently  objects  may  be  discovered  at  a  greater 

distance  on  laud  liian  at  sea.  But  it  must  be  observed,  that  this  disbmcc  does  not  lie 
in  a  direct  line,  and  that  we  reckon  on  the  length  of  the  path,  which,  descending  from 
the  summit  of  the  mountains  into  deep  vallies,  by  sinuosities  and  inflections,  renders  it  of 
much  greater  length  than  it  appears  to  the  sight.  Besides,  the  place  from  which  the  eye 
embraces  so  vast  an  horizon  is  considerably  above  the  level  of  tne  sea.  The  distance  is 
very  great  from  Hernosand,  which  is  on  the  shore  of  the  gulf  of  Bothnia,  to  tlic  moun- 
tain of  Kittschevari.  We  proceed  from  the  one  to  the  other,  ascending  the  course  of  the 
Anghermanna  by  cascades,  always  incrcasing  in  height  from  south  to  north.  Thus  the  foot 
of  the  mountain  of  Rod-fiall  must  be  half  a  league  higher  than  Hernosand.  It  occupies 
more  than  an  hour  to  ascend  from  the  foot  of  Kittschevari  to  its  summit.  From  the 
foot  of  that  of  Rod-fiall,  there  are  three  mountains  equally  high  to  ascend.  Now,  if  from 
the  height  of  a  mast,  which  is  only  sixty  feet,  we  can  see  to  a  much  greater  distance  in 
the  sea  than  from  the  deck  of  a  vessel ;  from  the  summit  of  the  mountain  of  Kittschevari, 
or  Rod-fiall,  we  should  see  the  summit  of  anoUier  mountain,  which  is  at  the  distance  of 
twenty  miles. 

Arrived  at  the  mountain  of  Swans,  which  constitutes  part  of  that  of  Kittschevari,  we 
pitched  our  tent,  near  a  hut  of  Laplanders.  The  northern  path  had  a  much  greater  quon. 
tity  of  snow  tlian  the  southern,  and  it  thence  extended  a  mile  farther.  Besides  the  moun- 
tains, we  saw  between  the  lakes,  in  the  environs  of  Kittschevari  and  Mars- fiali,  hills  over- 
spread  with  pines. 

These  hills  and  mountains  form  no  chains.  They  are  all  separated,  as  if  they  had  arisen 
from  as  many  different  lakes,  which  had  undermined  their  shores,  and  flowed  out  on  alt 
sides.  On  the  hills  we  meet  M'ith  many  springs,  and  in  the  vallies  with  small  lakes,  or 
large  marshes,  from  which  issue  rivulets  of  considerable  size,  which  discharge  them- 
selves in^o  the  inferior  lakes.  It  would  appear,  that  in  these  countries  die  mountains  are 
die  work  of  the  snows,  which,  tarrying  for  a  length  of  time,  and  melting  slowly,  dig,  tear 
up,  and  overthrow  Uie  surface  of  the  earth,  where  they  have  not  a  free  and  quick  passage^ 
In  more  southern  countries,  the  rivers  cajry  along  to  the  sea  all  the  waters  which  &1I 
either  in  rain  or  snow.  In  the  north,  the  blocks  of  ice  break  the  earth  and  rocks,  where 
the  snow  undermines  in  the  end  the  land  which  it  covers. 

Between  the  gaps  of  the  rocks  there  is  always  snow,  which  the  Asehlese  call  Groub- 
bar,  and  which  no  doubt  produces  the  springs  that  are  met  with  at  the  summit.  The 
snow  fallen  in  winter  melts  in  the  spring,  and,  filtering  between  the  sand  and  stones, 
pierces  and  flows  in  rivulets  through  the  clefts  of  the  rocks ;  so  many  principles  of  ruin^ 
which  concur  to  the  formadon  of  these  isolated  mountains. 

I  have  found  on  the  highest  some  handfuls  of  black  earth,  collected  here  and  there 
between  the  flints.  I  confess  that  I  do  not  see  any  reason  for  this  phenomenon,  unless 
the  snow  contains  this  earth,  and  leaves  it  on  the  surface  in  filtering  through  the  sands. 
This  conjecture  will  not  appear  strange  to  those,  who  lielieve  that  rain  water  may  even  be 
converted  into  earth. 


i 


TBAVKLH  OK  l'.linKNIVIAI.>r. 


365 


The  sand  of  these  mountnins  is  white,  sometimes  ns  fine  as  dust ;  and  in  humid  wea- 
ther it  la  of  the  consistence  of  urgil.  The  j^rcatcr  part  of  the  rocks  are  of  sand- 
stone.  Those  which  ure  found  scattered  in  the  country  become  nearly  as  hard  as  Hint, 
no  doubt  by  the  action  of  the  air  and  wind.  Some,  which  appear  to  have  the  nature 
of  hme-stdne,  are  not  of  less  hardness  than  the  others.  Some  appear  of  alabaster,  and 
are  harder  than  flint.  In  thiii  hideous  <  ountry  are  also  seen  a  s|)cctes  of  hematite, 
or  blood-stone,  black  and  gray  slate,  ;uid  many  other  stones,  some  of  which  resemble 
iron  ore,  but  are  only  flints  iuid  quartz :  there  are  many  of  these  substances  among  the 
sand-  stones. 

The  highest  mountains  of  the  north  do  not  admit  of  trees.  The  snow  and  ice  little 
accord  with  verdure.  But  on  the  lowest,  as  well  ;is  in  the  vallies,  we  here  and  there 
meet  with  tirs.  We  cut  down  the  largest  we  sav  and  by  the  circles  of  the  vegetation 
we  judged  it  to  be  two  hundred  and  forty-six  years  old.  Notwithstanding  it  was  only 
thiriy-two  feet  in  height,  its  diameter  near  the  root  was  only  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty 
parts  of  our  geometrical  scale,  that  is,  nine  inches  and  three  lines.  All  its  branches 
were  bent  towards  the  south,  and  inclined  to  the  earth.  This  direction,  no  doubt, 
arises  trom  the  snow,  which  the  north  wind  drives  towards  the  south.  The  top  of  this 
tree  was  (Xjinted,  and  its  trunk  unfurnished  with  branches :  we  observed  that  it  had 
grown  m  spite  of  the  seasons  and  climate  ;  similar  to  a  vessel  disabled,  and  without  rig- 
ging, ciist  upon  a  desert  shore  by  tempests  and  currents. 

About  this  wild  pine  were  birch-trees  and  pop!;irs,  small,  knotty,  and  near!)  dl 
withered.  These  trees  perish  by  die  excess  of  cold,  as  soon  as  they  rise  above  the  heig^ht 
of  eighteen  feel.  They  have  the  fate  of  the  Laplanders,  whom  nature  does  not  per- 
mit to  grow  to  the  ordinary  height  of  tnan>  But,  in  the  place  of  lofty  trees,  we  meet 
with  junipers  of  a  brown  colour,  utid  diniil'ozjtrij.  The  latter  are  remarkable  by  a 
singular  difference  in  the  sex.  The  Icavts  oj  llie  nmle  ozier  are  green,  smooth,  and 
shining;  those  of  the  female  ozier  are  gray  and  roUgli.  If  the  bark  of  the  male  ozier 
lie  scraped  with  a  knife,  the  raspings  rest  niblr  lint.      Tne  Laplanders  ornament  the 


cradles  of  (lii.ir  children  with  it,  anniHl  jl  jiito 
ozier  ia  too  hard  for  such  »'eiint' 


I  hell  Hlir)es.     But  the  bark  of  the  fe- 


male 

ceive  themselves,  when  rhi )'  give  the 


liu 


(ii/ailllt 
jiii 


(LJne  would  imagine  that  men  de- 
/lielr  own  sex  to  these  female  trees, 
jjear,  when  they  are  planted  near  a 

i;  ''r  :  M'  i\i'm'.  kinds  of  trees  which 
I       I        necessary  to  oziei's  for 


But  we  observe  them  wiili  (k/ii((^i  wjiii  li  ih  ^ 
male  ozier  in  an  isolated  place  ;  while  wt    i     <■ 
are  assembled  together  withoiil  nrim      Mnii  ! 
fruitfulness,  as  it  is  useful  to  men.  ^ 

Although  these  shmbs  are  very  near  the  eflHIl 
the  mountain  of  Bwans,  andtlitte  thiji '  ho  vvej 
country.     In  the  southern  districts,  tile  ()ei|)  o 
great  quantity  in  the  fields  watt  red  by  the  Aiigji 
in  its  course  the  berries  which  iall  into  it  near  lis  spring. 

The  soil  of  the  hills  where  the  j)liics  grow  is  nearly  every  where  sandy.  A  little 
black  earth  is  sometimes  perceived  between  the  stones.  Grass  is  also  seen  in  those 
parts  exposed  to  the  south.  Thi  colour  of  the  grass  becomes  greener  as  we  descend. 
This  district  produces  in  partituilar  wild  sorrel  and  other  plants,  which  the  Laplanders 
eat,  or  mince  and  mix  with  their  milk,  when  they  cook  it. 

When  the  weather  is  serene,  the  mountain  of  Swans  exhales  from  its  summit,  and 
particularly  from  the  fountains  whifh  are  seen  to  issue  from  it,  a  thick  mist,  which  ob- 
scures the  sun  even  in  full  da^,  and  which  is  insensibly  converted  into  clouds.    But 


and  almost  creeping,  they  increase  on 
,  that  It  may  be  said  to  be  their  proper 

ijiis  tree  seldom  ripens.  It  grows  in 
manna.  This  river,  no  doubt,  disperses 


i 


1*1 


i 


J()(}  IHATIXH  Oti'  IWIUKNMALM. 

when  the  wcutlicr  is  ^^loumy,  this  mist  only  rises  from  the  middle  of  the  declivity,  about 
us  high  us  the  place  where  we  werecncutn|Kd  between  two  Lapland  huts.  It  wus  so 
near  us,  that  one  of  our  fellow-truvellers  walked  for  a  whole  ni^ht  in  this  nust  without 
being  able  to  get  out  of  it,  nor  to  perceive  the  fire  wc  had  purposely  kindled,  to  serve  him 
as  a  light- house. 

In  the  time  of  these  mists,  which  commence  in  Augiitt,  the  cold  is  as  sharp  in  this  dis- 
trict as  it  is  at  Stockholm  in  the  beginning  of  October.  The  distance  of  three  or  foin* 
degrees  of  latitude  should  not  occasion  so  great  a  difference  in  the  elfccts  of  the  climate. 
We  may  therefore  attribute  the  premature  rigour  of  thii»  cold  to  the  northerly  wind,  which 
l)lows  from  the  mountain  of  Swans. 

The  most  neighbouring  summit  to  this  latter  appear  d  very  near  us,  and  yet  the  rein- 
deer which  we  perceived  running  seemed  so  small,  that  wc  could  scarcely  discern  a  flock 
of  sixty.  How  should  we  measure  the  distance  betwee)  these  two  mountains  ?  We  hud 
no  trigonometrical  instrument.  The  mountain  was  too  steep,  to  judge  of  its  disUmcc 
by  the  number  of  paces.  We  could  only  estimate  it  by  the  power  of  the  voice,  or  soimd. 
I  therefore  went  there,  and  the  baron  Cederhielm  remuincd  near  the  tent.  This  dis- 
tance appeared  to  us  about  two  hundred  fathoms.  From  the  sight  alone,  I  should  have 
judged  it  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  ;  but  the  tent  appciu-ed  lo  mc  at  a  greater  distance,  than 
the  summit  where  I  was  situated  appeared  to  those  who  observed  me  from  the  tent. 
This  is  a  phenomenon  in  optics,  arising,  no  doubt  from  the  dift'ercnce  in  the  projection 
of  light,  or  in  the  reflection  of  the  rays.  I  was  not  less  surprised  at  the  thirst  which  is 
experienced  on  these  mountains,  while  it  is  not  felt  in  the  climate.  Nevertheless  the 
waters  are  very  clear,  tasteless,  and  commonly  produced  from  the  melting  of  the  snow, 
which  should  quench  the  thirst,  unless  Uie  salts  and  the  nitjre  with  which  they  abound 
produce  the  contrary  cflect. 

From  the  lake  of  Malgomai  wc  had  Ijeheld  all  the  countr)'  to  which  cultivation  migi 
extend.  It  apix:ared  to  iis  impossible  to  be  carried  farther.  Thus  we  resolved  to  walk 
back,  after  having  waited  three  days  in  vain  for  clear  weather.  The  mist,  which  the 
little  heat  remaining  occasioned  to  exhale  about  these  mountains  covered  with  fresh 
snow,  deprived  us  of  the  sight  of  the  sun  and  stars.  It  was  time  to  return  to  the  abode 
of  light  and  the  living.  Nature  only  oftered  to  our  observation  the  prospect  of  an  eternal 
winter.  It  threatened  to  envelope  us  in  its  frosts,  if  ^ve  delayed  to  resume  a  route,  which 
even  in  the  summer  had  caused  us  great  dilficulty  to  pursue.  The  lakes  were  about  to 
be  covered  with  ice  ;  the  trace  of  the  paths  eflaced ;  the  Laplanders  buried  in  their  huts. 
Navigators  are  still  happy,  when  they  only  behold  sky  and  water;  but  to  wander 
among  snow  and  clouds,  unable  to  advance,  or  only  to  advance  to  be  bewildered  ;  to 
have  rivers  to  descend  by  frequent  cataracts,  between  points  of  rocks,  from  which  are 
detached  flakes  of  ice?  sufficient  to  break  a  small  boat  to  piece&..  or  to  sink  it ;  this  was 
the  situation  that  awaited  us,  if  we  made  the  smallest  delay.  We  hastened,  with  the 
satisfaction  of  having  observed,  not  lands  to  conquer,  but  countries  to  till,  a  country  suf- 
ficiently extensive  to  jxiople,  to  cultivate ;  in  fine,  to  render  worthy  of  the  innocence  of 
its  inhabitants.  A  short  summary  of  their  manners  shall  complete  the  picture  of  their 
dreary  region. 

Such  is  the  weakness  of  the  human  mind,  that  it  can  only  arrive  at  truth  through  a 
croud  of  errors.  It  is  only  by  reading  the  different  descriptions  which  travellers  have 
made  of  the  form  and  manners  of  a  people,  that  we  can  obtain  a  perfect  knowledge. 
These  pictures  differ  according  to  the  observers.  A  traveller  almost  every  where  mea- 
sures man  by  his  stature,  and  judges  of  his  manners  by  hb  education.    But  those 


It 


TRAVr.LS  01    F.HIIENMALM. 


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In 


whrtw  understnmlinpfn  arc  more  extended,  and  their  mituls  more  enlarged,  arc  not  the 
most  ditficiilt  to  teco^piize  inuii  in  Uie  stavagc  Luplundcr.  Very  liinitcd  mindii  uloiic 
find  in  liim  the  liruie. 

The  Laplanders  are  strong,  nnd  of  a  toleruhlc  stature.  Their  limbs  are  coarse,  thelf 
huir  long  and  thick,  face  small,  their  forehead  strait,  the  beurd  smooth,  their  breast  and 
shoulders  broad,  u/id  their  legs  ctimmonly  bent. 

The  women,  on  the  contrary,  have  small  limbs,  huir  oflittlc  thickness,  and  narrow 
breasts.  'I'hc  men  are  incontinent,  without  being  vicious,  and  the  women  extremel) 
licentious;  that  is  to  say,  that  both  scarcely  know  pleasure  nor  *  rime  in  love;  and  us 
they  almost  attach  no  moral  idea  to  the  intercourse  of  the  svs's,  they  make  no  virtue 
of  continence.  But  the  Lapland  women  would  be  capable  of  inspiring  it,  by  the 
intirmities  widi  which  nature  s(xms  to  have  armed  them  against  the  attempts  ofag. 
gressors. 

The  only  advantage  which  thev  may  possess  over  women  of  other  nations  is,  of  being 
ignorant  of  the  alteration  of  fashion  in  dress  ;  if,  however,  it  is  a  nu  rit  in  a  weak  and 
slender  sex  to  be  free  of  those  frivolous  tastes,  which  jj;ive  it  so  much  importance.  One 
would  say,  that  they  are  afraid  of  pleasing,  lest  they  should  have  cause  to  blush  at  the 
flight  of  the  conqueror,  at  the  moment  of  triumph.  'I'hey  |)retend  to  have  preserved 
the  attire  of  ancient  times ;  yet  I  do  not  Ix'lieve  it,  nor  think  that  fhe  Laplanders 
have  a  sufficient  resemblance  to  the  Israelites  to  be  descended  from  them,  us  some 
would  presuade  them.  It  is  more  reasonable  to  think  that  transmigrations  of  na- 
tions proceed  fron\  the  frozen  zone  to  the  torrid,  than  from  the  equator  towards  the 
pole. 

A  nation  has  scarcely  any  occasion  to  borrow  its  cu«>toms  from  another ;  at  least  all 
the  oust' -MS  which  relate  to  the  first  wants  of  life.  The  Laplanders  live  and  dress  as 
the  dima  permits.  They  use  no  luien  cloth ;  this  only  accf)rds  with  warm  countries. 
All  their  loi  •  ign  luxurv  consists  in  a  very  coarse  woollen  cloth.  They  ha\e  caps  of  it, 
which  they  t)order  on  all  the  '>eams  wirh  a  lace  of  a  richer  or  more  shinmg  cloth.  They 
make'  their  doublet  of  ii ,  it  is  a  great  coat  with  long  sleeves,  wide  about  the  neck,  and 
open  at  tlie  breast.  Yet  thty  cover  the  skin  with  u  stomacher  :  in  the  bad  weather  of 
summer  this  piece  of  cloth  is  covered  with  an  old  furred  robe ;  in  the  winter  with  a 
warmer  fur.  In  the  severe  cold  <  »  that  long  season,  they  wear  caps  or  cloiiks  of  skin. 
The  Laplanders  of  'he  woods  in  summer  wear  shoes  made  of  the  bark  of  birch  ;  the 
Laplanders  of  the  m*  'untains  in  winter  hav  shoes  of  rein-deer  skin.  The  trees  and  the 
rein-deer  are  tlieir  resource  for  clothing  and  food.  They  have  neither  in  abundance  ; 
but  they  are  seldom  in  dread  of  want.  Careful  to  ])rovide  subsistence  for  themselves, 
they  do  not  expect  it  from  public  provisions  and  magazines,  which  may  suddenly  raise 
ja  price,  or  totally  fail.  Tney  are  not  subject  to  scarcity  or  famine,  before  the  grana> 
riei.  or  tables  of  opulence,  which  overflow  with  superfluiu  They  are  not  seen  to 
V. finder  pale  and  dishtartened  in  the  provinces,  about  castles  id  parks,  of  which  the 
misters  make  parade  at  court,  or  in  the-capital,  of  gold,  silver,  diamonds,  and  sumptuous 
dresses  of  various  colours,  where  the  people  might  reclaim  its  l>  »od,  and  the  labourer 
his  reward. 

The  dress  of  the  Lapland  women  is  nearly  the  same  with  that  of  ail  the  savage  women 
of  the  north,  short  and  tight,  differing  litde  from  that  of  the  men.  Ex^rnme  want  in  re- 
spect of  clothing  makes  no  distinction  of  sexes,  except  by  concealmc  tt;  and  if  they 
conceal  them  in  the  north,  it  is  because  the  cold  will  not  suffer  nudity.  Nevertheless,  even 
in  Lapland,  the  women  are  willing  to  distinguish  themselves,  at  least  in  their  .tcad-dress 


368 


rmvf.i.Ji  Of  KiinnNMAi.M. 


by  a  fillet  of  woollen  cloth,  fur  want  uf  rihhonsi  of  bilk,  and  a  light  border  of  wool,  io- 
M«'atl  ol'  laer. 

'I'ht  jlutllinf^  of  the  LaplandtTs  are  no  wnv  HuiKrior  to  their  clonthing.  They  arc  of 
three  kinds,  known  by  the  name  of  Kator.  'f'he  nrst  i"*  a  sort  of  tent,  com|KVied  ufnolcs 
diii|)()M.(l  in  a  eircular  form  ;  it  Im  covered  widi  branches  of  the  pine,  eloth,  or  hides ; 
so  that  the  rain  eaniu^t  penetrate.  A  lioir  contrived  at  the  top  serves  at  the  same  time 
for  ( hinniey  and  wind(Av.  Hut  ttu  transparency  of  the  skins  which  inclose  the  tent 
coni|M;nHates  for  the  little  day-light  afl'orded  by  the  ui)erture  of  the  roof.  The  door  is  a 
frame,  composed  of  two  upright  and  six  cross  bars,  to  which  is  attached  asqiuirc  piece 
of  cloth,  yet  it  is  so  narrow  tnat  it  can  only  be  passed  sideways.  But  they  seldom  (piit 
their  tents,  and  never  enter  in  u  crowd. 

The  second  species  of  tent  is  of  n  more  oblong  fonn,  but  round.  It  consists  of  four 
poles,  a  little  bent  at  the  top,  and  joined  together  by  u  scpiare  frame.  In  all  other  re- 
s|)ects  it  re!>embles  the  former. 

The  third  kind  is  the  most  comm(xlious,  and  l)cst  suits  the  more  sociable  Laplanders. 
Every  family  builds  one  of  these  dwellings.  The  greater  part  have  them  near  the 
church  of  Asehle,  to  pass  the  Sunday,  'i'hesc  cabins,  or  barracks,  arc  formed  of  four 
partitions  of  planks  thrust  into  the  earth,  six  feet  in  height,  covered  with  a  sort  of  roof, 
composed  of  very  short  poles ;  supporting  green  turf  and  the  bark  of  the  birch.  The 
door,  also  made  of  planks,  is  small,  and  serves  for  a  window.  The  hearth,  always  in 
the  middl^',  consists  of  a  flat  and  round  stone,  upon  which  they  place  wood,  and  the  smoke 
arising  from  it  departs  through  the  hole  in  the  roof.  In  this  house  all  the  Laplanders 
sleep  together,  men  and  women,  children  and  fathers,  married  or  single.  But  the  crimes 
and  debauchery  which  accompany  both  misery  and  opulence  in  civilized  countsies  never 
enter  into  these  little  habitations.  The  climate  prevents  the  temptation  of  licentiousness ; 
ignorance  and  simplicity  have  not  even  the  idea. 

The  household  utensils  consist  of  pots  of  brass,  and  seldom  of  iron ;  wooden  plates 
and  spoons.  Men  who  do  not  tarry  in  one  place  for  more  than  three  weeks  should 
not  have  many  goods  to  remove.  A  chain  furnished  with  hooks,  where  they  hang 
their  pots  and  other  kitchen  furniture;  some  chests  secured  by  plates  of  iron,  a  flint, 
boats  and  nets;  these  form  all  the  luggage  they  have  to  transjwrt  on  their  sledges.  With 
so  small  a  retinue,  they  do  not  feiu-  the  meeting  of  robbers,  nor  the  pursuit  of  creditors, 
nor  the  visit  of  extortioners. 

The  subsistence  and  manner  of  life  vary  among  the  Laplanders  according  to  the  soil 
they  inhabit.  The  Laplanders  of  the  woods,  such  as  those  of  the  province  of  Asehle, 
who  retire  in  winter  to  the  forests  of  pine  trees,  where  their  rein  deer  feed  on  the  moss 
of  the  trees ;  these  Laplanders  mostly  live  by  fishing.  The  waters  of  that  region,  and 
the  river  Anghermanna  in  particular,  furnish  them  with  perch,  trout,  and  pike.  In  the 
failure  of  these  fish,  4he  lakes  have  others,  and  each  lake  has  some  which  are  peculijir 
to  it.  In  general  the  fish  are  finer  and  fatter,  hot  not  so  large,  in  the  lakes.  Should  the 
goodness  of  these  fish  be  attributed  to  the  purity  of  the  waters,  to  the  length  of  the 
winters  during  which  the  fry  are  not  disturbed,  to  the  great  numlier  of  fisheries, 
which  not  jxirmitting  the  Laplander  to  travel  over  them  all  in  a  year,  the  fish  are  left  to 
increase  and  fatten  ?  It  is  besides  a  custom  among  the  Laplanders  and  Swedish  colonists 
to  pay  regard  to  the  time  of  spawning,  and  to  leave  the  fisheries  at  rest,  like  the  lands. 
Every  father  of  a  family  has  a  space  allotted  for  fishing;  but  this  space  comprchcnds  so 
many  lakes,  that  the  year  is  closed  before  he  returns  to  the  first  in  which  he  fished.  A 
certain  policy  finds  its  way  amongst  men  in  the  most  savage  state,  whether  hunters  or 


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fishemiaii.  They  have  no  jccasion  for  kings,  philosophers,  nor  pontiffs,  in  order  to  Hve 
in  peace,  and  to  observe  those  rules  of  justice,  on  which  depends  the  safety  of  individuals. 
Nature  alone  dictates  to  them,  and  her  voice  is  sufficient. 

They  commonly  make  use  of  nets  called  Ryssior,  which  they  stretch  at  the  mouth  of 
the  rivulets.  They  have  four  sorts,  which  bear  :he  name  of  four  species  of  fish:  the 
first,  which  is  called  a  Mort  net  (a  species  of  Gudgeon)  has  its  meshes  two  fingers  wide  ; 
the  second,  which  is  the  Pike  net,  has  its  meshes  four  lingers  wide  ;  the  third,  which  is 
called  a  Suk  net,  has  its  meshes  four  inches  wide  ;  and  the  fourth,  which  is  called  a  Skaft 
net,  nearly  resembles  the  pike  net.  They  have,  besides,  nets  stretched  upon  poles  :  they 
have  also  nets  for  winter.  The  poles  or  sticks  of  these  first  arc  a  little  longer  and  thinner 
than  those  of  the  nets  of  Stockholni ;  some  are  only  an  inch  in  diameter,  being  twelve 
fathoms  in  length.  The  reason  of  this  little  thickness  is,  that  the  fishermen,  being  always 
in  small  bodies,  they  would  not  be  able  to  carry  nor  manage  them,  if  they  were  larger. 
The  use  of  the  large  net  may  be  said  to  be  unknown  in  the  province  of  Asehle ;  they 
are  not  necessary  in  waters  so  limpid  as  those  of  these  fisheries. 

The  Laplanders  eat  some  of  these  fish  as  soon  as  they  are  taken  out  of  the  water, 
others  they  dry  for  the  winter,  and  the  remainder  they  sell,  to  pay  the  impost.     In  the 
spring  they  kill  a  great  quantity  of  birds,  which  they  never  dress,  but  dry,  after  having 
stripped  them  of  their  feathers :  I  have  eaten  of  them,  and  the  flavour  was  not  unpleasant. 
During  the  autumn  the  Laplanders  of  the  woods  search  for  the  caves  or  dens  of  the 
bears,  and  in  the  winter  they  hunt  them,  armed  with  firelocks  and  stakes :  they  have 
dogs,  which  they  send  to  rouse  the  bear  from  his  den.    A  Laplander  will  often  alone 
attack  a  bear,  and  the  animal  seldom  escapes.     When  our  soldiers  or  officers  shall  thus 
dare  to  brave  a  bear  in  his  den,  they  will  only  possess  the  courage  of  the  Laplander. 
Those  people  are  therefore  not  so  pusillanimous,  or  perhaps  it  is  only  in  the  chace  of 
men.     But  it  is  what  they  are  unacquainted  with,  and  the  preparations  of  a  camp  under 
arms  or  tents,  and  the  regular  and  measured  march  of  men  and  horses,  covered  with 
gold  or  steel,  pluross  of  feathers  floating  in  the  air,  the  dust  and  sweat  of  war,  heaps 
of  ensigns  and  trophies,  and  decorations,  and  pompous  and  magnificent  titles,  which 
only  conceal  at  the  bottom  carnage,  wounds,  blood ;  the  shrieks,  convulsions,  palpita- 
tions  often  thousand  innocents  slaughtered  on  one  another  in  the  space  of  an  hour,  by 
twenty  thousand  assassins,  to  appease  the  jealousy  of  a  man,  or  the  caprice  of  a  woman. 
At  least  the  Laplander  eats  the  flesh  of  the  bear  he  has  killed ;  he  sells  the  skin,  if  he 
does  not  make  use  of  it  for  clothing  himself.     This  bear  is  the  enemy  of  the  rein-deer 
of  Lapland;  and  for  want  of  deer  he  will  attack  men,  if  extremely  pressed  by  hunger. 
Nature  has  decreed  war  between  the  bear  and  the  Laplander ;  but  does  she  compel 
entire  nations  to  leave  their  fields  untilled,  in  order  to  go  and  desolate  those  of  a  distant 
country  ;  to  put  to  the  sword  a  neighbouring  nation,  whose  only  crime  is  a  wish  to  en- 
joy  its  own  rights ;  to  exterminate,  as  we  have  lately  seen  in  Servia,  thousands  of  colo- 
nists, transplanted  at  great  expence  to  a  desert  country,  which  they  had  cultivated ;  to 
cross  two  wide  seas,  in  order  to  spread  fire  and  devastation  to  the  two  extremities  of 
Europe  ? 

AVhatever  be  the  latter,  their  fate  occasions  more  horror  than  the  life  of  the  former 
excites  pity.  The  Laplanders  of  the  woods  live  on  fish ;  those  of  the  mountains  on 
their  rein-deer.  The  milk  of  these  animals  is  so  rich,  that  mixed  with  three- fourths 
water  it  is  still  as  thick  a;s  the  milk  of  the  cow.  We  preserved  some  in  a  bottle  for  the 
length  of  seventy-two  hours,  and  we  found  it  sufficiently  sweet  to  boil  and  drink.  A 
reb-deer  gives  each  time  hiUf  a  bottle  of  milk.  When  they  wonld  milk  the  mothers, 
they  lead  the  fawns  or  young  to  pasturage,  where  they  remain  till  noon  unmuzzled: 

VOL.    I.  3    b 


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1'UAV1:L8  UF  LIIRKNMALM. 


they  arc  then  led  back  to  the  fuld,  and  al^out  five  in  the  afternoon  they  are  re-conducted 
to  pasturage  ;  at  night-time  they  re-enter  their  habitation,  and  the  young  are  muzzled, 
to  prevent  their  exhausting  the  milk  destined  for  the  support  of  men.  These  animals 
arc  so  gentle,  that  I  think  they  mi^ht  dispense  with  shutting  them  up  in  folds :  they 
never  leave  them  before  the  dog  of  their  shepherd,  and  till  they  hear  the  bell  of  the 
rein-deer,  which  is  brought  before,  in  order  to  serve  as  guide  ;  but  then  they  all  rush 
out  together,  disix.*rsing  themselves  in  every  direction.  In  very  hot  summers  they  graze 
till  midnight,  and  repose  during  the  excessive  heat :  they  are  at  that  time  encompassed 
\vith  fire,  to  protect  them  from  the  flies :  such  are  the  rein-deer  of  Asehle,  in  the  more 
northern  parts  of  Lapland  they  are  tamed,  and  are  more  difficult  to  manage. 

The  Laplanders  immediately  boil  part  of  the  milk  they  draw  :  they  leave  the  remain- 
der till  it  becomes  of  sufficient  consistency,  to  be  preserved  as  a  provision  for  winter. 
In  that  season  they  eat  it  boiled  in  water :  the  taste,  though  strong,  is  not  disagreeable  ; 
but  it  requires  tin^e  to  be  accustomed  to  it. 

The  life  of  the  Laplanders,  whether  they  inhabit  the  woods  in  the  plains,  or  encamp 
on  the  mountains,  is  really  severe  and  pitiful ;  but  it  is  yet  preferable  to  that  of  the 
Grecnlanders,  who  have  only  the  choice  of  ihe  ice  of  the  sea  and  that  of  the  land ;  who 
have  not  even  cattle  for  their  companions,  and  for  support  in  their  misery.  It  is 
better  than  the  life  of  the  people  of  Siberia,  who  only  see  the  arrival  of  soldiers  to 
oppress  them,  or  disgraced  courtiers,  whose  fall  announces  a  frightful  power,  and 
spreads  consternation  m  the  deserts.  This  needy  and  wandering  life  of  the  Laplanders 
is  no  way  uneasy  or  distressing  to  them  :  they  do  not  possess  the  talent  of  writing ;  but 
the  liberty  of  talking  remains,  for  they  have  only  to  complain  of  the  evils  of  nature. 
All  equally  subject  to  her  power,  and  almost  equally  independent  of  that  of  man,  they 
have  at  least  no  fear  of  being  punished  for  their  virtues,  of  being  persecuted  for  their 
opinions,  or  being  betrayed  by  their  good  faith.  Society  amongst  them  does  not  require 
those  discretions,  which  occasion  a  public  idolatry  of  the  fashionable  vices  :  they  are  not 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  choosing  between  clamour  and  disdain,  between  obstacles 
which  repel  talents,  and  the  oppression  which  follows  obscurity  :  they  do  not  perceive  any 
trace  of  that  desire  to  injure,  which  wearies  and  disheartens  tne  best  intentions.  Among 
them  the  sentiments  of  the  honest  are  not  stifled  by  the  wants  of  competency :  in  a 
word,  they  receive  all  their  benefits  and  ail  their  evils  fix)m  the  hands  of  nature ;  and 
have  neither  to  fear  the  unforeseen  blows  of  fate,  which  bring  the  ind^;ent  to  punish- 
ment, nor  the  invasions  of  war,  nor  the  thunderbolt  ofdespotism,  which  bometimes  falls 
upon  opulence :  they  are  only  acquainted  with  the  vicissitudes  and  injuries  of  seasons, 
less  destructive  to  man  than  the  vicissitudes  and  injuries  of  fortune :  in  fine,  the  exemp- 
tion from  our  pains  indemnifies  them  with  usury  for  the  privation  from  our  pleasures. 

They  are  seldom  exposed  to  absolute  want.  The  Laplanders  of  the  mountains,  in 
particular,  find  on  the  heights  lakes  abounding  in  fish.  They  never  spread  their  nets 
without  drawing  in  them  several  species  offish,  but  particularly  of  red  fish,  which  they 
call  Rodfish.  As  this  species  is  difierent  in  Lapland  from  many  other  known  elsewhere 
under  the  name  of  red  fish,  I  shall  here  subjoin  a  description  of  it. 

They  took  one  in  our  presence  ;  it  was  only  nine  inches  long,  though  it  sometimes 
may  be  two  feet  in  length.  This  fish,  in  general,  has  the  form  of  the  trout.  On  each 
side  are  two  broad  streaks,  very  distinct,  of  a  dusky  colour,  and  crossing  each  other. 
The  first,  formed  by  little  points,  situated  v^  near  one  another,  and  of  a  dark  green, 
commences  near  to  the  head,  and  proceeds  along  die  tmck  bone,  terminating  about 
the  middle  of  the  tail.  The  second  streak,  commencing  at  the  fore  part  of  the 
fin,  which  is  situated  on  the  back,  extends  to  betow  the  belly,  where  it  is  of  the  cohmr 


if 


TKAVKr.S  OF  r.IIUl'.XMAI.M. 


,)71 


the 
our 


of  a  lemon  :  a  little  beyond  is  seen  a  third  streuk,  shorter,  and  of  the  same  colour,  but  not 
so  strong.  The  back  is  dyed  like  that  of  a  small  marbled  perch  ;  and  the  belly  is  of » 
fire  colour,  which  varies  in  the  two  great  divisions  made  on  each  side,  by  the  two  streaks 
which  extend  to  the  right  and  left  along  the  body.  This  colour  is  more  dusky  on  the 
fore  part  of  the  back,  and  clearer  towards  the  other  extremity.  The  edge  near  the  head 
is  of  the  same  colour  as  the  back  ;  but  it  becomes  lighter  as  it  approaches  the  fin,  where 
the  colour  of  the  pale  fire  changes  by  degrees  about  the  navel  into  a  yellowish  colour. 
This  fish,  covered  with  spots  like  the  trout,  also  resembles  it  by  the  form  of  the  head, 
and  the  parts  composing  it :  nevertheless,  the  eyes  are  larger,  and  a  little  more  elevated, 
the  bone  of  the  upper  jaw  shorter,  and  that  of  the  lower  longer.  Above  the  jaw  it  is  of 
a  dusky  green. 

The  palate  is  of  a  blood  colour ;  it  is  divided  into  four  parts  ;  of  which  the  first  has 
twenty -two  teeth,  and  each  of  the  others  twenty.  The  colour  of  the  fins  is  variable,  like 
that  of  the  body  of  the  fish ;  they  have  each  fourteen  joints. 

The  prickles  of  the  back  are  twelve  in  number,  very  pointed,  and  of  a  dusky  green  ; 
the  last  is  double  the  length  of  the  first.     Those  beneath  the  belly  are  of  a  bright  yellow 
in  front ;  towards  the  middle  of  a  deep  bro\vn,  the  tint  of  which  is  singular ;  and  towards! 
the  exti^mity  of  a  fire  colour ;  there  are  nine  on  each  side. 

This  fish  feeds  on  the  dead  flies  which  fall  into  the  water.  Near  a  cascade  we  saw 
many  little  fish  seizing  on  a  dead  fly  ;  but  I  cannot  afiirm  that  they  were  red  fish. 

For  the  rest,  similar  descriptions  can  only  interest  professed  naturalists,  by  their  in- 
stinct,  to  keep  a  register  oi  every  thing.  But  when  a  botanist  describes  all  the  leaves  of 
a  plant,  with  an  exactness  driving  his  readers  to  despair,  a  traveller  may  be  allowed  to 
reckon  the  spots  and  fins  of  a  fish.  Lapland  possesses  so  few  animals  and  terrestrial 
plants,  that  the  admirers  of  natural  history  are  reduced  to  ichthyology,  for  the  food  of 
their  curiosity,  as  the  Laplanders  are  to  fish,  for  the  greatest  resource  of  their  suste> 
nance. 

Nevertheless  they  have,  besides  their  fisheries,  green  plants  which  they  eat,  such  as 
clover.  Where  tro  cattle  feed  on  moss,  the  shepherds  must  be  contented  with  herbs, 
The  rein-deer  are  so  gentle  and  quiet,  that  the  women  guard  and  lead  them.  The  care 
of  their  children  and  flocks,  which  they  raise  and  feed  at  the  same  time,  constitutes  their 
principal  occupation.  A  mother  conducts  her  rein-deer,  having  her  child  at  her  breast ; 
she  suckles  her  children,  while  making  the  young  fawns  graze.  These  innocent  beings 
can  sleep  together  without  danger.  The  shepherdess  sometimes  beholds  them  all  skip, 
ping  and  playing*  together,  without  dread  of  accident.  If  tears  flow,  thev  are  tears  of  joy. 
Her  mind  is  not  distressed,  nor  her  heart  torn,  by  the  afllicting  idea,  that  she  may  one 
day  behold  this  child  of  her  breast  torn  from  her  arms,  to  shed  m  battle  the  blood  he  has 
drawn  from  her. 

The  Laplanders  of  the  mountains  subsist  more  on  their  rein-deer,  and  those  of  the 
woods  more  on  fish.  Though  the  latter,  living  nearer  to  cultivated  and  populous  coun- 
tries,  have  less  distance  to  travel  than  the  former  to  traffic  with  their  provisions,  they  are 
nevertheless  more  indigent.  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  their  misery  to  brandy :  for  these 
two  years  they  have  purchased  it  at  a  great  price;  and,  as  I  have  been  informed,  a  crown 
was  ^ven  last  summer  for  a  glass  of  brandy.  Perhaps  it  may  have  been  imagined  that 
this  was  the  means  of  giving  them  a  dislike  to  it,  but  it  has  only  served  to  impoverish 
them.  When  a  people  are  accustomed  to  things  which  please  their  taste  and  senses, 
but  particulariy  to  strong  liquors,  they  will  not  renounce  them.  It  is  a  snare  to  g^ve 
them  these  tastes  ;  but  it  is  a  cruelty  to  make  them  pay  an  exorbitant  price,  when  they 
have  become  accustomed  to  them.  - 

3  0  2 


■it ' 


372 


TRAVELS  Or  KHRRVMALM. 


The  Laplanders  regard  the  nassion  they  have  tiiken  for  brandy  as  a  misfortune.  But 
when  we  represented  to  them  the  danger  of  this  custom,  and  how  useless  was  this  foreign 
liquor  to  them,  they  answered,  that  without  brundy  they  could  have  no  wives,  in 
fact,  the  first  proposition  of  marriage  is  made  with  a  glass  of  brandy  in  the  liand.  It  is 
in  joy  this  bargain  is  concluded ;  for  they  sell  a  woman  like  a  rein-deer,  and  pay  for  her 
from  five  to  nuie  crowns.  This  would  yet  be  too  much,  if  the  man  was  a  true  pur- 
chaser. The  less  a  woman  costs,  the  more  valuable  she  becomes :  at  this  rate,  a  Lap- 
land woman  must  be  an  inestimable  treasure.  But  those  are  ideas  taken  in  a  wc  id,  where 
delicacy  is  an  clement  of  select  souls.  The  Laplanders  are  not  sufficiently  corrupted  to 
have  occasion  for  these  refmements.  The  sublimity  of  manners  and  sentiment  supposes 
a  society  depraved,  where  virtue  requires  heroism  to  resist  contagion ;  where  we  are  only 
great,  elevated,  singular,  because  all  are  little,  base,  and  common. 

Whether  it  be  a  received  prejudice,  an  agreement,  or  love  of  preference,  it  is  said 
that  the  Laphuiders  have  more  dislike  than  inclination  for  promiscuousness  in  the  inter- 
course with  their  women.  They  do  not  unite  themselves  to  one  another  accidentally, 
like  their  flocks  :  they  even  respect  the  degrees  of  consanguinity,  which  are  so  religious- 
ly  observed  among  civilised  nations,  in  or  Jer  to  unite  again,  by  the  ties  of  love  and 
blood,  families  which  have  been  divided  by  property.  If  the  relations  were  always  to 
marry  among  one  another,  each  lace,  remaining  foreign  to  all  the  others,  would  forma 
distinct  society,  and  discord  would  arise  from  this  social  state.  It  is  necessary  for  families 
to  intermix,  in  order  that  fortunes  may  circulate,  interests  unite,  and  that  prejudices  and 
manners  may  be  softened.  The  Hebrews  were  commanded  to  marry  in  their  own  tribe; 
but  it  was  {jcrhaps  a  means  of  encouraging  them  all  to  population.  Twelve  tribes  among 
the  Jews  were  more  certain  of  agrei.>ing,  than  the  two  classes  of  plebeians  and  patricians 
among  the  Romans.  Between  these  two  factions  nothing  could  bring  back  the  equili- 
brium; among  twelve  classes  it  maintained  itself:  all  with  emulation  counterbalanced 
each  other,  and  each  was  of  sufficient  weight  to  prevent  the  predominance  of  any  one. 
Thus  the  circulation  of  blood  from  family  to  family  is  an  infallible  guarantee  for  the  peace 
of  states.  We  do  not  hate  beforehand  a  family  into  which  we  may  one  day  enter.  We 
cease  to  despise  a  race  to  which  we  may  be  united.  We  support  without  spleen  a  dis- 
tinction of  rank  and  honour,  from  which  we  are  not  excluded  without  hope,  especially 
in  those  empires  where  labour  leads  to  fortune,  and  fortune  to  honour.  In  this  passage 
there  are  only  hasty  and  sudden  revolutions,  which  clash  all  conditions,  when  a  man  finds 
himself  suddenly  transported  by  money  or  favour  from  the  level  of  the  crowd  to  the 
summit  of  greatness. 

Among  the  Laplanders  every  one  i^  of  the  common  class,  and  this  natural  lowness 
does  not  excite  the  envy  of  any  body :  the  order  of  peasants  is  the  only  one.  There  are 
not  sufficient  riches  in  Lapland  to  establish  a  large  body  of  nobility,  a  numerous  and  pow- 
erful clergy,  as  in  Sweden.  Their  drums  of  divination  do  not  create  much  noise,  and 
those  of  war  are  almost  unknown. 

In  fine,  the  little  fruitfulness  of  the  Laplanders  exempts  them  from  possessing  of  pri- 
vileged conditions,  supreme  honours,  burthensome  and  brilliant  titles.  They  are  suffi- 
ciently limited  to  be  devoid  of  ambition,  and  only  know  how  to  defend  their  life  against 
cold  and  want,  without  attacking  that  of  other  men.  They  have  few  children,  and  per- 
haps love  them  the  better.  A  father  rejoices  to  have  a  son,  because  he  has  not  to  fear 
for  him  those  whims,  and  even  virtues,  which  may  equally  conduct  him  to  misfortune. 
He  never  says  to  himself,  while  receiving  him  from  the  breast  of  a  mother  into  his 
paternal  arms,  perhaps  in  my  old  age  I  shall  expire  on  the  wheel,  accused  of  having 
assassinated  this  son,  whose  misfortunes  or  superstition  shall  have  armed  his  hands  against 
his  own  life. 


1 


•»  UAVKLS  OF  KIIUFNMALM. 


373 


As  scon  as  a  child  is  bRni,  he  is  wrapped,  without  any  swaddling  clothes,  in  a  piece  of 
woollen  cloth,  and  placed  in  a  sort  of  wooden  case,  wide  at  one  extremity  and  narrow  at 
the  other,  a  cradle  much  resembling  a  coflin.  The  bottom  is  concave,  and  the  sides  are 
only  raised  to  the  level  of  the  child.  But  to  prevent  his  falling  out,  two  hides  are  passed 
over  his  body,  and  fastened  sufficiently  tight.  These  cradles  arc  suspended  in  the  tents, 
exposed  to  the  smoke  ;  two  cords  are  attached  to  rock  the  children,  tor  they  rock  them: 
this  custom  begins  to  appear  prejudicial  to  us  j  but  the  example  of  savages  instructed 
by  nature  seems  to  justify  it.  Besides,  the  hammocks  of  the  Negroes,  and  the  suspen- 
ded cradles  of  the  Laplanders,  have  no  occasion  for  the  hand  of  a  nurse  to  lull  the  chil- 
dren to  sleep.  The  natural  oscillation  which  they  have  supplies  this  attention.  It  is 
even  more  gentle  and  natural  than  the  jolting  of  a  cradle  placed  on  a  plane,  and  which 
is  agitated  by  a  motion  too  irregular  no  doubt  not  to  be  sometimes  hurtful,  or  per- 
niciuus. 

In  Lapland  we  may  judge  of  the  education  of  the  children  from  the  manners  of  their 
fathers.  In  Europe  this  would  often  be  a  slender  inference.  The  first  education  of 
youth  differs  much  more  among  us,  than  among  the  Laplanders,  from  the  remainder  of 
life  ;  and  it  perhaps  is  not  to  our  advantage.  In  the  age  of  innocence  we  imbibe  errors; 
in  the  age  of  knowledge  we  imbibe  vices.  Those  alone  who  have  no  education  arc  nearly 
equally  unhappy  in  all  the  stages  of  life ;  too  enlightened  not  to  feel  its  evils,  too  limited 
to  overcome  them.     It  is  not  thus  with  the  Laplanders. 

Before  I  saw  these  people,  I  had  pictured  them  to  myself  as  a  stupid  race.  I  have 
had  great  reason  to  be  undeceived.  They  have  received  from  nature  the  same 
advantages  of  body  and  mind  as  the  rest  of  men ;  but  to  the  greater  part  of  the  Lap- 
landers these  benefits  are  lost.  An  excessive  love  of  liberty  which  they  possess,  so  as 
not  to  wish  for  any  empire  among  themselves,  a  profound  ignorance  maintained  by  the 
prejudices  of  their  education,  remove  all  idea  of  a  reasonable  society.  They  love 
better  to  abide  in  the  misery,  in  which  they  are  born,  than  to  release  themselves  from  it 
by  labour.  To  the  most  delicious  dishes  they  would  prefer  the  liberty  of  eating  the 
rind  of  the  pine,  or  clover,  to  satisfy  their  appetite.  They  are  not  acquainted  with 
fixed  hours  for  repast  or  sleep.  To  lie  on  the  hard  and  dry  earth,  between  thick 
nishes,  and  bear  or  rein-deer  skins,  better  suits  their  ungovernable  character,  than 
a  bed  of  the  softest  down,  which  they  only  enter  and  leave  at  times  regulated  by 
custom  or  business.  The  less  soft  their  bed  is,  the  less  they  remain  attached  to  it. 
They  have  no  dread  of  meeting  with  the  anxiety  of  watching,  or  of  the  next  day ;  the 
wakefulness  which  Hums  and  parches  ;  the  vapours  of  high  living  or  of  voluptuousness. 
They  forget  their  hardships,  where  so  many  others  encounter  them. 

Independence  in  their  opinion  is  true  happiness.  Jealous  to  excess  of  every  thing 
which  may  injure  this  sovereign  wealth  of  their  life,  their  imagination  is  very  lively  and 
sensible,  though  in  a  cold  climate.  Hence  arise  the  extacies  of  their  pretended  magicians, 
the  ability  of  these  people  in  counterfeiting  the  sounds  of  the  voice,  the  gestures  and 
motions  of  those  who  speak  to  tliem.  Equally  timid  with  their  rein-deer,  and  ready  to 
flee  at  the  least  noise,  their  propensity  to  superstition,  their  horror  at  the  idea  of  servi- 
tude and  constraint,  their  easily  being  alarmed,  and  fainting  at  the  slightest  accident, 
at%  all  indications  of  a  sensibility  of  organs,  not  commonly  observed'  among  the  savages 
of  the  north.  PerhapS  in  this  respect  they  resemble  certain  ferocious  animals,  who  are 
startled  at  every  thing  with  which  they  are  unacquainted ;  as  if  fear  was  the  first  senti- 
ment of  every  creature  that  is  careful  of  its  preservation. 

t:   After  the  character  of  the  Laplanders,  it  may  be  judged  im{^sible  to  subdue  them 
by  rigour,  but  easy  to  vrin  them  by  gentle  means.     When  they  are  convinced  of  the 


374 


TRVVELS  OF  FJIRENMALAf. 


l)encvolcncc  ol"  those  who  sjx^ak,  they  willingly  listen,  and  readily  conceive.  If  they 
were  more  industrious,  their  condition  would  become  eiusier,  they  would  increase  their 
money  both  for  the  means  of  living,  and  for  paying  the  impost.  Though  it  is  so  small 
as  not  to  exceed  ten  copper  crowns  for  the  richest  Laplander  and  all  his  family,  they 
find  it  exorbitant.  Yet  the  province  of  Aselile  only  contains  fifty-three  inhabitants 
subject  to  the  tax.  Hence  wc  perceive  what  revenues  Sweden  may  derive  from  Lap. 
land. 

My  fellow  traveller,  the  baron  of  Cederhiclm,  has  endeavoured  to  encourage  the 
Laplanders  to  quit  the  misery,  in  which  their  natural  inertness  retains  them.  He  had 
carried  half  a  cask  of  rye,  with  the  intention  of  trying  whether  the  corn  would  thrive  in 
this  country,  of  which  he  had  conceived  the  most  sanguuie  hopes.  But  finding  the 
difficulty  of  attempting  the  execution  himself,  ?.nd  unwilling  to  quit  Lapland,  without 
having  contributed  at  least  to  some  happy  trial  for  its  improvement,  he  searched  for  a 
soil  proper  for  the  experiment  he  had  at  heart.  He  imagined  that  he  saw  some  lands  of 
sufiicient  goodness  in  the  parts  where  they  had  established  foids  of  rein-deer  and  sheep. 
He  therefore  had  the  com  sowed,  in  his  presence,  by  some  Laplanders,  to  whom  he  had 
gratuitously  given  it,  on  condition  that  tney  should  inform  him  of  the  success  of  his 
experiment.  They  could  very  promptly  execute  every  thing  which  was  directed  to 
them,  and  they  set  about  it  with  tliat  ardour  inspired  by  a  project,  the  utility  of  which  is 
conceived.  Their  docility  was  not  unrewarded,  and  the  bi\ron  de  Cederhielm  has  since 
informed  me  that  these  Laplanders,  having  come  to  the  fair  of  Koll,  had  assured  him  of 
ihe  good  success  of  his  rye. 

Industry  alone  is  wanting  to  this  people,  in  order  to  render  them  happy ;  for  they 
|X)ssess  few  vices,  particularly  those  injurious  to  society.  Compelled  for  ever  to  wander, 
and  not  always  being  able  to  transport  the  whole  of  their  provisions,  they  place  them  in 
magazines  erected  m  the  midst  of  the  woods,  with  four  stakes  supporting  a  roof. 
These  magazines  continue  open,  and,  notwithstanding,  the  provisions  there  placed,  sheU 
tered  from  the  injuries  of  the  weather,  are  scarcely  ever  taken  a^vay.  If  ui^nt  necessity 
do  sometimes  prompt  a  Laplander  to  steal,  it  is  only  to  appease  his  hunger ;  he  eats  in 
these  magazines  whatever  he  chooses,  but  never  carries  any  thing  away. 

In  fine,  the  Laplanders,  humane  and  charitable  towarcU  the  poor,  live  together  in 
good  understanding.  Far  from  accusing  one  another  of  their  bad  actions,  they  are 
careful  to  conceal  faults,  and  the  guilty,  m  order  to  save  them  fram  the  rigour  of  the 
laws.  This  is  a  consequence  of  that  national  spirit,  which  a  people  subjected  to  a  foreign 
dominion  nearly  always  preserves,  by  a  secret  revolt  against  lawj,  or  masters,  which 
are  not  of  their  choice. 

Here  I  conclude  the  relation  of  my  travels  into  Nordland  and  Lapland.  I  have 
written  it  as  much  for  my  own  instruction,  as  with  the  intention  of  acquitting  myself  to  the 
academy  of  a  duty,  which  the  sentiments  of  my  heart  impose.  With  more  leisure  I 
should  have  added  to  this  work  other  particulars.  But,  happily,  my  occupations  have 
spared  my  readers  from  great  weariness.  If  some  errors  have  escaped  my  attention  and 
my  sincerity,  I  presume  to  hope  that  those  who  are  sufficiendy  enlightened  to  perceive 
them  will  have  tne  indulgence  to  pardon  them. 

I  shall  finish  these  observations  by  a  reflection,  which  they  Iiave  more  than  once  sug- 
gested to  me.  I  have  not  been  able  to  think  on  the  wise  constitution  of  my  native 
country,  without  feeling  how  advantageous  it  would  be  to  it,  were  its  citizens  to  apply 
themselves  to  the  knowledge  of  a  country,  in  die  prosperity  of  which  they  possess  so 
much  interest.  Our  youth  are  all  inflamed  with  the  desire  of  travelling  into  foreign 
countries.    But  what  do  they  go  to  seek  ?  Perhqps  vices  unknown  in  theirs :  taste  ^d 


TRAVELS  OP  EIIRENMALM. 

those  amongst  us,  whom  m-akc»Mtv^^^\u^T'^^r''"'''f '''"''''''■  i^"™ 
country,  anS  who  willing  to  rSa'n™  rlct^rfS  1  •  ,  n  '"™^  '^'""  ""'••  '"'i™ 
that  country  wh..rc  the  fL^  tave^"i„rd~^^^^  I"''"  '»"' 

the  famous  names  of  the  Rhine  the  OdtV  nS  S  v' .1  ■  ''««'!«■'">  """'"on  to 
been  dyed  with  our  blood  Bnf'.r^l,T?  .h  /u  X'^"}''  """  '*>«'  •">»<:  '00  loiiR 
NiouroV  and  Severn  IrmS  ,n,i  k"!!, °i *'  Anghermaima.  the  Iiidal,  and  th? 
steriliry  whic^he%a„W,S■^l«f»^!;H^^^  ">'  ""S  '^  <>f 'he  cold  and 
tie.,  na'ture  posseie.  hef,e«S,3,d  her  SS,  ""  '"""""""^     ^«  "^"  '"  S'^" 

so?S  Z'^rrb  oK^'K^/T"''''^''  r"'  5'  »'*«  of  "■»  kingdom, 

feast  a  permamS  ^Jbil^rOe^trtol^pa^L tZli'"  ^."•^'T  '  P""^  »' 
treaty  of  We«tnh«1i»      «lui.j.„        I j  t'       P™panng  by  |the.r  victories  t  le  celebrated 

if  £  mo«  wffir 'of  h!?  k?„       ^  b"!^  P^ribed  limits  to  Turkey  and  t^  Ru^to 

triumph  B^u,dL,ted«„«J„^?t\'\™,!"^^  '■™'"f  ""^  ca«er  of  iS 

■nonaSj,.  have  irrii^etXrfe^k  of  Ae^,aL^l,T™'^  "nd  reverses  of  that 
nor  its  nrrvmorWir    T-u^  ^    •  „  ?*  ^"*^  nation,  it  has  never  recovered  its  o-lorv 

Wish  this  sprine  of  ite  vklour  rh^?^*  however,  by  agnculture,  that  it  can  hope  toesta- 

them,  and  chiWrei  w^rU^v  of  thl  ^  .  ^™^  ,}^^  "»  go  to  seek  successors  to 
late  thb  land.^  n^3l  L^  wSr*  '^-f'^i  andlSothnia.  Let  us  stimu! 
selves;  and  If  Mo^"  Tcld^th  JX^^^n^^^^^  remember  vour- 

be  the  greatest  object^  v™.rJ!^K:/  *  T"^.  *° J^onQuer  and  subjugate,  let  it  always 
would  Ke  Euio^!^  ^  "'  '"'*'"*°"  "^  ''"'*  ^^^^^  *^'^'  ^i'**  wfich  your  enemiS 


"'.  ■; 


''-■'     *■.,('    'r.'  '    («♦       -*        >        i^l- 


V 


ri^UV' -•'   i:!':^)i'>  li.i  .,t,-!.,"  ,,  ,4'j  ,.■>.  ,  ,  , '. 


'<  I 


376 


VN  ACCOUNT  OF  THK  LAPLANDERS  OF  FINMARK,  THEIR  LANGUAGE,  MAN- 
NKHS,  AND  RELIGION,  BY  KNUU  LEEMS,  PKOlhSSUR  OF  THE  LAl'LANOIC, 
WITH  THE  NOTES  O^"  GUNNER,  HISHOF  OF  DHONTHEIMj  AND  A  THi.ATlbE, 
DY  JESSEN,  on  the  PAGAN  RELIGION  OF  THE  FINS  AND  LAPLANDEUS* 

[NEWLY  TRANSLATKO.] 


CHAP.  I OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  LAPLAND  NATION.  

Whence  they  have  drawn  the  origin  of  their  nation  the  Laplanders  themselves 
arc  uitogcthcr  ignorant ;  nor  is  it  an  easy  matter  to  conjecture  whence  they  are  de- 
rived. In  an  inland  of  the  government  of  SuiKlmocrs,  culled  Gidschoe,  not  very  far 
from  the  gulf  of  Aalesunda,  is  a  statue  I  6aw  myself,  when  young,  marked  with  verses 
of  the  following  import : 

**  Fiiidus  blew  his  brother,  because  it  was  not  agreed  upon,  between  them,  how  they 
should  go  into  the  northern  part  of  the  kingdom,  where  his  descendants  had  multiplied 
themselves  to  an  immense  degree.  From  him  are  descended  all  those  Normans,  who 
qjl  themselves  Fins." 

But  admitting,  as  some  historians  maintain,  it  should  be  ever  so  clear,  that  the  said 
Findus  had  been  the  great  grandfather  of  that  very  valiant  Norman,  so  celebrated  in 
the  annals  of  history,  Findus,  the  son  of  Arno,  and  of  the  family  of  Gidschoe,  yet  is  it 
hardly  probable  that  the  same  should  be  the  founder  of  the  Laplanders ;  for  the  Lap- 
landers,  whom  wc  vulgarly  call  Fins,  diifer  altogether  from  the  other  inhabitants  of 
Norway,  and  their  language  is  ns  different  from  that  of  the  maritime  Fins,  inhabiting 
huts,  as  from  the  Laplanders,  who  live  in  huts  on  the  mountains  ;  and  has  no  more 
resemblance  to  the  common  language  of  Norway,  than  the  Arabic  has  to  the  Latin. 

With  the  ancient  Scythians  the  Laplanders  hold  some  affinity,  for  what  historians 
relate  of  them  perfectly  corresponds,  such  as  clothing  themselves  from  the  skins  of 
wild  beasts;  their  inhabiting,  without  regard  to  any  fixed  or  settled  abuu  ,  the  wild 
and  rough  parts  of  the  country,  the  fickleness  with  which  they  change,  with  their  wives 
and  children,  from  place  to  place ;  their  frequent  use  of  animal  food,  and  neglect 
of  the  culture  of  the  soil.  In  all  these  customs  thty  agree  with  the  Laplanders,  using 
just  the  same  mode  of  life.  So  that,  if  we  cannot  altogether  conclude,  yet  it  is  fair  to 
infer,  that  this  nation  is  a  branch  of  the  ancient  Scythians.  What  connection  may  be 
between  the  language  of  each  nation,  the  learned,  read  in  these  matters,  may  discern. 
Thunder,  which  in  the  Lapland  tongue  is  called  Diermes,  the  Scythians  called  Tarami. 

Between  the  Laplanders  and  ancient  Israelites  a  certain  similitude  is  observed.  The 
Jews,  in  general,  have  black  hair,  so  have  man^  of  the  Laplanders.  The  Jews,  like  them, 
are  of  a  low  stature,  and  affix  to  the  extremities  of  their  gannents,  by  divine  precept, 
phylacteries ;  the  Laplanders  are  accustomed  to  sew  to  the  borders  of  theirs  certain 
bandages  or  fillets,  which,  in  the  chapter  of  the  clothing  of  the  Laplanders,  I  have  shewn 
in  many  places.  Saturday,  the  Jewish  sabbath,  the  Laplanders,  by  horrid  superstitions, 
formerly  kept  holy  in  solemn  rituals.  Psalmody,  which  the  Jews  attend  to  in  their 
synagogues,  diflers  little,  if  you  hear  the  tune,  from  the  modulations  of  the  Laplanders. 
The  Jews  polluted  the  sacrifices  of  their  true  God,  which  the  Laplanders  did  also  by 

*  Copenhagen,  1 7#7,  quarto,  in  the  Danish  and  Latin  Lang^ges.  The  Notes  and  Treatise  are  of  little 
consequence. 


AtCOrXT  OK  DAKIIflll  I.APLANO  HV  Lt;K»^^  577 

their  oft'cringn  to  idols,  coiiMimiiig  the  flesh  themselves,  and  con»ccratin^  to  their 
fulsc  god  the  bare  lM)ncs  alone.  1  lint  the  I  -^raeliteH  had  rurmcrly  erected  statues  uiul 
monuments  of  stone,  und  had  paid  to  them  divine  honour  and  religious  veneration, 
tliere  is  no  doubt,  (or  so  Ood  himself  speaks  totlicm  :  Make  not  to  yourself  idols,  noi 
a  graven  image,  nor  place  up  a  fif^ured  stone  in  your  land,  that  you  may  adore  it,  be. 
cause  I  am  the  Lord  your  God ;  that  the  Laplanders  were  formerly  guilty  of  this 
crime,  from  the  notoriety  and  ubimdancc  of  proofs,  WfMjId  be  needless  to  demon- 
strate. It  was  impious  among  the  Jews  tr)  raise  up  altars  of  hewn  htones  ;  the  sto.ies 
which  the  Laplanders  consecrated  with  religious  worship  were  rude,  and  fashioned  by 
no  workmansnip.  Men  performed  the  offices  of  booking  among  the  Jews  ;  tijc  simie 
became  a  custom  among  the  Laplanders,  as  is  shewn  in  the  chapter  on  their  meat  and 
drink. 

Some  of  the  precepts  concerning  women  labouring  imder  monthly  infirmities,  laid 
down  in  the  Jewish  laws,  are  observed  by  die  Laplanders,  who  hold  a  woman  for  that 
time,  and  in  that  condition,  in  a  state  of  impurity.  From  all  these  it  is  sufficienti) 
manifest,  thnf  the  Laplanders  agree  in  customs  with  the  early  Hebrew  race,  under  a  va- 
ne* '  of  comparisons ;  yet  it  docs  not  follow  that  they  owe  to  them  their  origin. 

That  the  Laplanders  had  formerly  made  one  people  with  the  Fins  of  Sweden,  or,  as 
otherwise  called,  Finlands,  is  u  common  opinion,  and  everywhere  adopted ;  and  that 
as  well  from  certain  words  common  to  each  nation,  as  from  other  circumstances  not 
underserving  of  credit.  But  when  I  grant  that  the  Laplanders  had  of  old  made  one 
nation  with  the  Finlands,  yet  it  appears  fair  and  just  to  me,  for  the  purpose  of  esta- 
blishing some  difference  between  nations  not  little  disagreeing  in  language  nnd  customs 
at  this  day,  to  call  by  one  common  name,  Laplanders,  those  who  inhabit  on  the  coast 
of  Finmark  and  Norland,  pasturing  their  sheep  and  cows,  like  the  rest  of  the  Norwe- 
gians, OS  well  as  those  who  wander  with  their  rein.deer  and  tents  over  the  mountains, 
and  who  constitute,  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  coast,  as  above  mentioned,  one  and  the 
same  nation,  agreeing  in  language,  in  dress,  and  customs  ;  especially  when  this  nation, 
for  some  ages,  had  been  distmguished  by  this  name.  Nor  do  I  ever  remember  to  havo 
heard  that  any  of  them  ever  took  this  name  amiss  but  the  Fins  of  Sweden,  or  inhabit 
tants  of  Finland,  who  feel  themselves  hurt  by  it,  if  any  one  happened  to  call  an  inhabi- 
tant of  Finmark  a  Fin,  contending  that  he  should  be  called  a  Laplander,  and  that  the 
name  of  Fin,  as  a  more  honourable  appellation,  belonged  peculiarly  to  him.  Led  then 
by  these  reasons,  I  shall  call  them  everywhere  in  this  History  Lappones,  Laplanders, 


kiule 


CHAP.  II OF  THE  LAPLAND  LANGUAGE. 

The  Lapland  tongue  seems  to  stand  detached  and  obviously  different  from  all 
other  languages,  except  the  Finnish,  with  which  it  holds  some  affinity  and  analogy,  yet 
not  so  much  as  the  Danish  idiom  holds  with  the  German.  This  language  possesses,  as 
I  have  already  shewn,  in  the  preface  of  the  Lapland  Grammar  I  have  published,  certain 
peculiarities  in  common  with  the  Hebrew,  but  I  dare  not  be  bold  enough  to  assert,  that 
It  derives  its  origin  from  this  language.  In  the  said  preface  I  have  quoted  also  certain 
words,  which  seem  to  be  derived  from  a  Greek  or  Latin  origin,  but  thence  it  little  fol- 
lows that  they  were  pure  Greek  and  Latin  words  thus  adopted  into  the  language ;  for 
they  nught  have  been  vernacular,  not  foreign.  And  though  this  language  contains  not 
a  few  words  akin  to  the  Swedish,  Danish,  or  what  may  be  said,  with  more  truth  and 
propriety,  to  the  Norwegian  idiom,  yet  in  most  words  it  so  far  recedes  from  these  said 

VOL.  I.  3   c 


I 


378 


ACCUUMT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LCKMft. 


lun^niagcs,  that  ifnich,  uh'mk  hi«i  own  dinlcct,  sthould  H{)cak  his  own  language,  tlie  one 
cuukl  not  iiiukrMaiul  the  uthcr. 

But  tills  lungtiagt'  to  thin  duy  has  l)ccn  irjcctrd  to  that  dcgivc,  that  it  in  little  known 
or  eultivatid  by  the  Norwegians  them.->eives,  tlu:  neighlxHirs  uf  the  Laplanders,  to 
say  nothing  of  other  iKUions  more  remote,  thongh  it  is  thought  not  less  deserving  of 
cultivation  than  other  languages  estahlislied  through  the  gloix',  and  tiich  us  if  duly  cuU 
tivated  would  t)ceonie  distinguished  by  many  excellencies,  as  having  the  means  ol'  re- 
commending itself  by  its  genius,  and  u  certaui  conciseness  of  phrase,  us  u  whole  period, 
which  in  the  Danish  is  expressed  by  u  circuit  of  words,  in  the  Lanlund  lunguage  is  ex- 
pressed  by  n  single  one  ;  for  cxuni[4e,  my  smull  loaf,  in  the  Lupland,  is  Laibatzhium. 
The  m/  :  of  die  diminutive  Atz  and  the  pronoun  Am,  mine,  being  joined  to  laibc,  a 
loaf.  But  the  whole  genius  and  character  of  this  language  I  lutve  so  clearly  explained 
and  laid  down  in  iiie  Lapland  Grammar,  lately  published  by  me,  thut  u  few  examples 
will  be  sufficient,  I  ho|)c,  for  my  present  purpose. 

In  the  Laplund  lunguage  the  interchange  of  consonants  taken  place  between  the  b  nnd 
p,  b  aiul  m,  f  und  v,  wtiich  are  labials ;  between  the  pulatiuls  g  and  k  ;  between  the 
dentals  s  iuul  z  ;  between  the  linguuls  d  und  n,  d  and  t,  uitd  between  the  lubial  f  and 
the  palatiul  letter  k.  The  letters  gn  united  in  one  are  expressed  by  a  nasal  sound. 
In  the  pr  munciation  of  many  words,  a  certain  aspiration  of  breath,  with  a  hissing  sound, 
is  observed.  The  letter  d  is  sometimes  pronounced  with  this  aspiration,  and  there  arc 
certain  dipthongs  of  difficult  pronunciation.  The  vowel  v  seldom  occurs.  As  to 
what  belongs  to  accent  or  tone,  among  the  innumerable  Lapland  words  I  have  met 
with,  I  have  not  found  one  that  is  n^arked  fbr  an  elevation  of  the  voice. 

There  is  not  a  great  number  of  proverbs  in  Uiis  language  !  but  so  numerous  are  the 
diminutives,  with  which  it  abounds  and  recommends  itself,  that  I  know  of  none  equal  to  it. 

The  Dnnish  word  Camcrat,  a  companion,  in  the  Lapland  is  expressed  by  two  words, 
Pusse  vcelje ;  for  when  a  Laplander  salutes  a  Norwegian  peasant,  he  speaks  to  him  in 
these  kind  words.  Passe  veelje,  that  is,  my  friend,  my  companion,  though  in  strictness  it 
may  be  holy  brodier }  if  a  woman,  his  manner  is  usually,  rasse  Oaabba !  literally,  holy 
sister. 

The  rcin.deer  that  arc  castrated  are  in  highest  estimation  among  the  Laplanders,  as 
&ur|)assing  the  rest  of  their  kind  in  size  and  fatness,  and  as  of  the  greatest  use  to  their 
owners.  Hence  the  expression,  Haerge  Yetz,  a  castrated  rein-deer  itself  I  by  which 
eulogy  they  do  not  in  common  honour  any  one,  unless  he  is  esteemed  worthy  of  the 
highest  praise.  A  Lapland  lictor,  or,  if  it  sound  better,  a  tribune  of  the  country  people, 
in  Norwegian,  Lensmand,  whose  name  was  John  Peterson,  when  somewhat  puffed  up 
with  himself,  and  disposed  to  brag,  was  used  to  say,  Haerge  Zhionvga ;  what  a  glorious 
thing  is  a  gelded  rein- deer! 

On  a  child-bearing  woman  near  her  time,  they  usually  say ;  Nisson  lae  kietzhiembei- 
which,  faithfully  translated,  is,  the  woman  is  in  the  days  of  inspection :  by  which 


viin; 


form  of  expression  doubtlessly  is  signified,  that  the  woman  is  in  that  condition  and  time, 
that  she  should  both  carefully  look  to  herself,  and  that  she  stood  in  the  greatest  need  of 
the  attention  of  others. 

Speaking  of  the  adages  in  use  among  the  Lnplanders,  I  cannot  pass  by  unnoticed  an 
expression  familiar  to  the  Norwegian  peasants  inhabiting  Finmark,  and  chiefly  made 
use  of  when  they  profess  to  lament  the  condition  and  misfortunes  of  others ;  and  if  he 
may  be  a  |)erson  of  very  distinguished  rank  and  of  very  ample  fortune,  and  of  the 
greatest  dignity,  whose  fall  they  lament,  yet  do  they  not  hesitate  to  testify  their  gri  ^1' 
for  him  in  these  words :  Beiste  staffur  ;  that  is,  poor  beast  1  by  which  expression,  thou^a 


ACOOVNT  OK  DANlNll  I.APi.ANU  nv  i  RP.MM. 


370 


of 

an 

kdc 

he 

Ithc 


nouikVui^  cxlrcmtly  liarsli  uixl  full  ofruHlicity,  yet  tluv  nican  to  express  how  much  thiy 
urc  ufVcctcd  and  moved  hy  hin  uiiluippy  lot  and  coiulitioii 

CMAIV  III OF  THE  CtNlUU  OF  THE  I,M'LANl)F.«S  i  TIIEIU  VIIITUES  AND  VICES 

'I'lIK  tliildrcii  of  the  Laplandcrji  arc  very  brawny  in  the  face,  as  well  as  in  other 
parts  of  iIk:  Innly,  yet  this*  bruwniness  decreases  with  their  years.  The  nation  in  ^e- 
neral  is  of  u  dark  and  swarthy  complex i(in,  short  hair,  iTfje  mouth,  hollow  cheeks, 
U)u\r  chin,  waterish  eyes,  the  defUixion  of  which  is  |.:..  ily  to  l)c  ascribed  to  the  nature 
of  their  climate,  partly  to  th.'  excessive  smoke  with  which  they  are  infested  in  dieir  tents 
und  huts,  partly  to  the  snow  which  drifts  itself  into  the  eyes  of  travellers,  who  pass  the 
moimtains  about  the  tempestuous  season  of  their  winter,  and  partly  to  be  ascril)ed  to 
their  looking  on  entire  plains  and  i.  ountains  whitened  with  snow,  whence  it  seldom 
haj)pens,  on  their  returning  from  luiniing  the  rein-deer,  that  they  arc  not  almost  de. 
prived  of  the  use  of  sight  for  at  leat    ome  days. 

It  has  been  related  to  us  by  certain  writers,  but  of  no  authority,  that  the  Laplanders 
had  coarse  rough  skins,  like  wild  beasts.  Another  writer,  also  of  weak  credit,  has  not 
scrupled  to  assert  that  the  Laplanders  had  but  one  eye,  und  ♦•'"♦.  placed  in  the  centre 
of  the  forehead.  Opinions,  which,  w  ith  other  ridiculous  faoics,  arc  most  properly  ex- 
ploded. There  are  others,  too,  wlin  do  not  hesitate  to  afHrm,  that  a  certam  slrc»ng 
smell  is  naturally  in  the  Lanhuiders ;  and  to  this  assertion,  though  avowedly  false,  some 
have  incautiously  g'ven  their  belief.  I,  on  my  part,  do  not  deny  that  the  Laplanders 
smell  very  strong,  but  this  very  strong  smell  I  do  noi  assign  to  the  nature  of  them,  more 
than  to  that  of  other  »ncn,  when  it  is  obviously  clear  that  that  smell  is  produced  from 
no  other  cause  but  from  the  clothing  of  this  people,  stained  and  greased  through  by  the 
constant  smoke  of  their  huts,  and  by  the  oil  squeezed  from  the  fat  of  fish. 

The  generality  of  the  Laplanders  arc  short  of  stature,  but  of  amazing  strength.  A 
hardy  race,  capable  of  fatigue  and  cold,  beyond  the  belief  of  any  man  ;  in  confirma- 
tion of  which  I  shall  deem  it  sufficient  to  relate,  that  when,  I  was  curate  at  Altcn,  in 
the  Western  Finmark,  a  certain  Lapland  woman,  on  the  fifth  day  after  her  lying-in, 
about  Christmas,  travelled  over  those  mountains,  covered  with  a  constant  snow,  to  mc, 
begging  that  I  would  introduce  her  ciuly  and  afker  the  forms  of  our  rites  into  our 
church.  The  Highland  Laplanders  can  Ixar  the  greatest  extremity  of  cold ;  and  the 
maritime  along  the  coast  the  most  intolerable  heat,  which,  in  their  huts  (owing  to  the 
fire  having  no  vent,  the  duct  through  which  the  smoke  should  pass  being  closed  up, 
bums  them  almost  to  death. 

And  as  the  Laplanders,  by  their  own  nature  and  habits,  are  hardy  and  laborious, 
so  even,  as  we  observed,  vulgar  medicines,  and  those  elsewhere  of  no  repute,  are  suf- 
ficient to  repel  diseases  and  restore  health.  Though  the  tribe  of  doctors  may  laugh,  yet  it 
is  so  ;  and  the  experience  of  many  years,  experience  that  does  not  deceive,  has  confirmed 
it  For  all  poweiful  and  beneficent  Nature  has  so  providently  and  wisely  ordained  all 
things,  that  what  is  of  no  account  and  common,  in  the  opinit/h  of  some  men,  can  furnish 
the  most  essential  benefit  to  the  indigent  and  afflicted  in  those  places,  where  more  costly 
and  excellent  medicines  are  not  to  be  had.  And  for  this  reason,  nothing  is  more  ac 
ceptable,  nothing  more  agreeable  can  happen  to  a  Laplander,  than  for  any  jierson  to 
make  him  a  present  of  a  small  bit  of  the  root  of  nicotiun,  o.  a  few  grains  of  pepper,  or 
some  such  trifling  thing. 

3  c  2 


380 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  HY  LERM8. 


They  arc  furnished  with  an  amazing  and  extraordinary  agility  of  body,  for  a  very 
great  niimbei  of  them  can  be  compact<.d  into  the  smallest  space,  and  one  man  brought 
so  close  upon  another,  by  means  of  his  feet  being  placed  with  art  under  his  seat,  so  that 
all  may  sit  down  closely  and  compactly  together. 

They  travel  over  the  very  highest  mountains  by  the  swiftest  speed,  and  faster  than 
thoughc.  By  a  certain  wooden  machine,  of  an  oblong  figure,  fastened  to  their  feet, 
commonly  called  wooden  sandals,  they  are  carried  with  such  rapidity  over  the  highest 
mountains,  through  the  steepest  hills,  making  no  use  of  a  staff,  which,  in  the  midst  of 
their  course,  they  hang  carelessly  and  negligently  from  their  shoulder,  that  the  winds 
whiz  about  their  cars,  and  their  hair  stands  an  end.  Yet,  notwithstanding  the  celerity 
of  their  course,  should  you  throw  a  ball,  or  any  thing  else,  before  the  runner,  in  the 
midst  of  his  speed,  inchnpg  his  body,  he  instantly  overtakes  it,  and  picks  it  up.  In> 
fants  can  no  sooner  walk,  than  ihcy  make  for  the  hills,  and  there,  on  foot,  after  they 
have  put  on  their  sandalt.,  arc  borne  through  the  declivities ;  to  this  exercise,  from  their 
earliest  years,  they  are  accustomed. 

By  their  rein-deer  they  are  borne,  with  an  incredible  velocity,  not  only  over  plains, 
and  o])cn  fields,  but  up  acclivities  and  precipices  of  mountains,  and,  while  driving,  shift 
the  reins  with  such  readiness  from  side  to  side  of  the  animal,  as  scarcely  to  be  perceived. 
Those  who  inhabit  the  sea  coast  know  the  management  of  boats  to  such  a  degree  of 
dexterity,  that  they  would  not  yield  to  the  best  and  most  experienced  seamen  in  this  art. 
This  great  agility  of  body,  in  my  opinion,  is  partly  natural  to  this  people,  and  partly 
acquired,  by  the  frequent  consuiaptiun  of  oil  which  is  got  from  the  fat  of  the  fish,  to 
which  from  their  very  cradle  they  are  accustomed. 

In  wood  and  horn  they  have  the  art  of  forming,  with  a  common  utensil,  by  the 
inhabitants  named  (Taelle  Kniv)  various  figures,  and  with  a  certain  natural  sagacity. 
Hence  a  variety  of  vases,  bowls,  cups,  &c.  are  made.  They  fashion  their  own  vehicles, 
the  parts  of  which  are  so  well  adapted  to  each  other,  so  nicely  fitted,  as  scarcely  to  suffer 
a  drop  of  water  to  pass  through  them ;  they  make  too,  from  horns,  spoons,  ornamented 
with  various  resemblances  of  wreaths  and  flowers.  See  chapter  the  fourteenth,  concer- 
ning the  workmanship  of  the  Laplanders. 

Among  the  women  are  also  found  some,  who  are  not  ignorant  of  the  tuming.art,  or  the 
the  art  of  chiseling.  But  the  ingenuity  of  this  sex  principally  is  exerted  in  sewing  to- 
gether belts,  and  making  purses,  \nih  tin  filaments  interwoven  in  them.  As  they  are  al- 
so very  skilful  in  throwing  the  javelin,  they  ibrmerly  made  use  of  the  bow  and  arrow, 
now  they  use  muskets  and  bullets,  with  which  they  kill  birds  and  beasts.  The  invention 
of  the  said  Peter  Nicolaus,  of  whom  further  in  chapter  the  seventeenth,  concerning 
sports,  Sec.  &c.  there  is  a  full  account  of  the  Laplanders,  in  which  it  has  been  laid  down 
and  argued,  how  much  they  excel  in  the  art  ofthrowing  the  javelin. 

Among  the  virtues  of  the  Laplanders,  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  deservedly  holds 
the  first  place,  which  they  have  obtained  to  in  no  small  or  idle  degree. 

Before  the  goverment  of  the  august  Frederic  the  Fourth  the  Laplanders  were  inveloped 
in  more  than  common  darkness.  He,  in  addition  to  his  other  regal  and  glorious  insti- 
tutions for  promoting  the  conversion  of  mankind,  by  which  this  most  worthy  prince  ac- 
quired for  himself  immortal  praise,  instituted  a  mission,  continued  and  promoted  by  his 
son  Christian  the  Sixth,  his  grandson  Frederic  the  Fifth,  and  his  great  grandson  Christian 
the  Seventh,  our  lord  and  king,  with  the  same  happy  auspices  of  the  Divine  Being,  and 
the  glory  of  his  name,  and  the  true  felicity  of  the  subjects  of  his  realm,  and  with  a 
zeal,  for  which  we  can  never  return  due  praise,  but  by  imploring  the  Divine  good- 


^ 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEMft. 


381 


ness  to  bless  and  shower  on  his  reign  continued  prosperity.  For  to  say  nothing  ol" 
this  state  of  darkness  in  the  religious  adoration  of  idols,  formerly  celebrated  in  this  na- 
tion, with  the  greatest  superstition,  almost  all  were  ignorant,  or  had  very  little  knowledge 
of  the  divine  essence,  of  the  benefit  and  of  the  will  of  the  true  God,  united  in  the  blessed 
Trinity.  The  knowledge  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  was  one  of  the  distinctions  of 
learning,  and  he  who  knew  them  was  considered  as  eminently  learned.  As  an  exam- 
ple of  the  hardened  ignorance  under  which  this  miserable  nation  then  laboured,  I  shall 
just  mention,  that  when  a  Laplander  from  the  bay  of  Porsanger  was  asked  the  manner 
m  which  Christ  ascended  into  Heaven,  he  answered,  on  two  stones  of  marble.  The 
poor  miserable  fellow  happened  to  hear  something  of  the  tables  of  the  decalogue  of 
Mount  Sinai,  but  what  they  referred  to  he  was  ignorant. 

But  those  times  of  ignorance,  praise  be  to  God,  the  Father  of  knowledge,  and  to  his 
august  race  of  kings,  who  have  so  powerfully  and  happily  dispelled  it,  have  passed  av/ay ; 
and  the  Laplanders,  enlightened  by  the  holy  doctrines  of  the  Evangelists,  are  willing  and 
ready,  either  with,  or  even  without  book,  by  the  aid  of  memory  alone,  to  answer  all,  who 
inquire  on  the  reasonableness  of  hope,  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability.  In  the  tract  in 
which  my  mission  is  described,  not  a  few  are  to  be  found,  v/ho  faithfully  retained  in 
memory  the  whole  catechism,  a  portion  of  the  history  of  the  passion  of  Jesus  Christ,  with 
some  of  the  Psalms  of  David.  There  was  one  who  could  recite  thirty-six  whole  psalms 
from  memory  ;  and,  what  may  excite  admiration,  an  old  man,  of  the  name  of  Niels 
Kistrand,  whom  the  Laplanders  in  their  common  language  called  Nikke  Kokko-gedde 
(Niels  they  express  by  Nikke,  and  the  place  where  he  lives,  the  Norwegians  by  Kis- 
trand, they  call  Kokko-gedde)  above  seventy,  learned  by  heart  the  first  three  parts  of  the 
catechism,  when  he  never  knew  the  form  of  the  alphabet,  nor,  till  then,  had  ever  learn- 
ed any  thing  by  memory.  It  is  now  thirty-eight  years  since  I  was  missionary  among 
the  Laplanders  ;  after  so  g^at  a  lapse  of  time,  a  faithful  discharge  of  the  duties  of  a 
minister  of  the  word  of  God  does  not  leave  me  to  doubt,  when  accompanied  with  so 
large  a  portion  of  Divine  goodness,  but  a  much  greater  progress  in  the  salutary  know- 
ledge of  the  true  God  is  made,  especially  when  the  missionaries  shall  have  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  the  language  of  that  nation,  which  by  all  means  should  be  done,  if  they 
mean  to  undertake,  mr  the  happiness  and  advantage  of  the  Laplanders,  their  religious 
instruction.  If  they  do  not,  the  miserable  men,  to  whom  they  preach,  will  hear  nothing 
but  empty  sound  and  unmeaning  words.  For  what  numbers,  among  the  Laplanders, 
especially  of  the  female  sex,  are  found,  who  do  not  understand  a  single  word  of  common 
Norwegian  language.  And  the  most  of  the  men,  especially  such  as  live  along  the  coast, 
can  manage,  from  daily  intercourse  and  habit  with  the  Norwegians,  the  inhabitants  of 
this  region,  their  domestic  and  secular  affairs  in  a  manner  in  Danish,  or  Norwegian ;  yet 
it  by  no  means  follows,  that  they  shoukl  succeed  in  sacred  things,  and  that  they  there- 
fore comprehend  and  turn  to  their  benefit  the  Divine  truths,  delivered  in  sermons,  in 
catechetical  institutions  in  the  Danish,  as  they  would  in  their  own  vernacular  language. 
And  lience  the  people  themselves  freely  and  sensi  Jy  confess,  that  they  draw  much  greater 
instruction  from  discourses  and  catechisms  in  the  Lapland  language,  and  that  they  are 
more  agreeably  and  more  strongly  afiected,  than  they  are  by  those  discourses  which  are 
composed  in  the  Danish. 

Whilst  among  the  Laplanders  in  the  office  of  missionary,  it  was  a  custom  with  me  to 
preach  and  examine  them  in  the  Lapland  language ;  at  the  same  time  I  gave  them 
chapters  of  the  Evangelists  to  be  learned,  explaining  to  them  also  hymns,  that  were  to 
be  sung  in  stated  prayers,  morning  and  evening,  on  the  Lord's  day,  in  the  said  language. 
Afterwards,  by  the  appdntment  and  indulgence  of  my  most  potent  sovereign,  being 


! 


382 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  UY  LEEMti. 


preferred  to  the  office  of  pastor  of  a  congregation  of  Alten,  in  the  Western  I'inmurk, 
which  was  made  up  of  Norwegian,  Lapland,  and  Swedish  auditors,  I  preached  one  time 
in  Danish,  at  another  in  Lapland,  just  as  the  audience  seemed  to  recjuire,  addressing  the 
Laplander  and  the  Norwegian  each  in  his  own  peculiar  language.  The  offices  of  abso- 
lution, betrothings,  nuptials,  the  introduction  of  women  afttr  child-bearing,  1  adminis- 
tered to  the  Laplanders,  always  in  their  own  |]eculiar  language. 

And  as  the  Laplanders,  as  already  observed,  have  made  no  inconsiderable  progress  in 
the  knowledge  of  religion,  so  do  they  hold  it  in  the  greatest  veneration.  For  notwith« 
standing  the  public  performance  of  singing,  of  preaching,  and  examination,  can  seldom 
be  finished  in  less  than  three  hours,  yet  all  of  them,  should  the  cold  be  as  intense  as  pos- 
sible, sit  attentive,  in  tents,  rent  and  full  of  chinks,  bare-headed,  in  the  deepest  devotion, 
silence,  and  veneration,  listening  to  the  word  of  God. 

They  hold  in  the  highest  honour  and  veneration  die  professors  of  religion.  They  re- 
ceive  their  doctor  or  divine  instructor  with  reverence  and  great  affection,  addressing  him 
Buorre  Atzhie,  that  is,  good  father ;  they  rise  to  him,  and  assign  the  most  honourable 
place  in  the  inn.  They  place  before  him  the  most  costly  and  excellent  things  they  have ; 
as  the  milk  of  the  rein-deer,  hardened  into  a  consistence,  cheese,  flesh,  the  tongue  and 
marrow  of  the  said  animal.  They  return  their  best  thanks  for  any  religious  office  he 
performs  among  them,  making  use  of  this  form,  Kutos  ednak  ibmel  sanest ;  that  b| 
thanks  for  the  word  of  God. 

A  great  many,  even  in  the  absence  of  the  missionary,  though  on  their  journey,  do  not 
neglect  a  solemn  attention  to  prayer,  morning  and  evening.  There  are  some  also,  who 
at  private  devotion  instruct  their  children  and  the  rest  of  the  family.  Nor  is  it  sufficient 
for  them,  merely  to  have  learned  faithfully  the  word  of  God,  unless  they  also  exemplify 
the  force  and  efficacy  of  it  in  a  life  worthy  of  a  Christian.  And  hence  it  is,  that  no  oath, 
no  curse,  is  ever  heard  amon^  them,  but  rather  the  indignation  of  the  Norwegians, 
execrating  those  addicted  to  this  crime.  Their  holy  sabbaths  seldom  or  ever  do  they 
violate,  they  are  naturally  nuld  in  temj^r,  and  very  fond  of  peace,  so  as  even  hardly  ever 
to  come  to  words  and  blows.  Most  continent  too  in  their  h»hits,  for  during  the  space  of 
four  years,  that  I  discharged  the  duty  of  missionary  amuug  the  Laplanders  of  the  parishes 
of  Kiollcfiord  and  Kielvig,  not  a  single  child  was  bom  out  of  wedlock ;  and  for  the 
whole  six  years  of  my  office  at  Alten,  only  one.  They  refrain  with  modesty  from  the 
marriage  of  relations ;  theft  is  very  rarely  committed  among  them.  During  the  whole  of 
my  time  engaged  as  missionary  among  them,  I  never  lost  the  least  thing,  but  every  thing 
remained  without  lock  and  key,  packed  and  untouched.  It  is  a  habit  with  them,  not  to 
touch  a  crumb  of  food,  without  devoutly  blessing  it  first  hi  this  form,  Jesusatzh  sivned, 
Uiat  i3,  O  Jesus  sanctify ! 

It  is  much  to  the  praise  of  the  Lapland  nation,  diat  strolling  beggars  are  very  seldom 
seen  there.  £ach  pauper  keeps  himself  in  his  ovim  hut,  to  be  examined  and  suf^rted 
by  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  parish :  when  in  the  other  parts  of  Norway,  and  where  you 
would  expect  better  provision  from  the  law  in  the  management  of  paupers,  you  find  va- 
grants of  this  sort,  and  sometimes  in  herds  together. 

The  Laplanders,  like  the  rest  of  mankind,  have  their  faults,  but  they  are  few,  and 
seldom  occur ;  among  which  I  name  drunkenness,  to  which  some  are  addicted,  and 
fraud  in  their  dealings,  which  the  following  instance  shews :  In  the  spring  of  the  year 
there  are  found  in  the  rein-deer  little  worms  between  the  skin,  short  but  thick,  called 
gnormak,  which  gnaw  into  and  perforate  the  hide  of  the  animal ;  and  hence  it  arises  that 
the  hides  of  rein-deer  killed  about  the  spring,  vitiated  by  the  said  worms,  yield  much  in 
value  and  price  to  the  hides  of  the  same  animal  killed  in  the  summer  or  autumn.    To 


ACCOUXT  OF  DAXISII  LAPLAND  BY  LEEM9. 


383 


remedy  this  defect,  and  to  prevail  on  the  purchaser,  the  dishonest  Laplander,  in 
order  to  conceal  it,  cunningly  covers  over  the  little  holes  in  the  hide  that  is  eaten 
through. 

CHAP.  IV OF  THE  CLOTHING  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

A  CERTAIN  >vriter  has  related  to  us,  that  the  Laplanders  wore  cloathing  of  gold 
and  silver  ornaments.  Another  writer,  of  no  better  faith,  confidently  asserts,  that  theii' 
apparel  consbted  of  the  skins  of  sea-calves  and  bears,  and  that  the  whole  body  was  co- 
vered over  from  head  to  heel  as  with  a  sack.  A  third  writer  has  left  it  upon  record, 
that  the  women  of  this  nation  wear  ornaments  made  from  the  dried  entrails  of  wild 
beasts ;  which  accounts,  from  their  very  air  of  romance,  refute  themselves. 

The  men  wear  on  their  heads  tall  caps,  not  unlike  a  sugar-loaf.  Grcat  numbers  of 
tliis  sort  are  made  out  of  red  cloth,  called  Kersey,  consisting  of  four  parts  or  segments, 
broad  at  bottom,  but  narrowing  to  a  point  at  top.  On  every  hem  where  there  is  a  join- 
ing, a  very  thin  slip  of  cloth,  kersey,  of  a  yellov  colour,  is  seen  in  such  a  manner,  that 
the  beholder  thinks  he  sees  four  yellow  fillets,  from  the  lowest  rim  of  the  cap  to  its  top : 
on  the  top  of  which  is  displayed  a  crest  made  from  pieces  of  party  coloured  cloth,  with 
a  bordering  from  the  skin  of  the  otter,  drawn  about  the  lower  part. 

In  some  caps  the  said  bordering  before  and  behind  has  a  narrow  form,  which  kind 
of  covering,  Niudne  Kapperak,  a  covering  for  the  nose,  is  so  named  in  the  Laplind 
language.  I  remember  once  to  have  seen  a  poor  Laplander  with  a  cap  made  from  the 
dressed  skin  of  a  salmon ;  it  was  well  nigh  white  coloured,  marked  with  squares,  resem- 
bling scales  of  fish  which  had  been  thrown  off. 

The  cap  in  which  the  men  go  hunting,  or  wear  in  pasturing  their  tame  rein-deer,  is 
called  Rivok.  A  small  aperture  is  in  the  front,  but  the  breast,  shoulders,  and  part  of 
the  back,  is  covered  by  it ;  neither  is  it  fastened  over  the  bosom  by  belt,  button,  or  any 
other  ligature,  but  fits  close.  In  the  fi'ont  of  the  cap  is  a  plate  or  covering,  in  Lapland 
called  Zhialbme-raft. 

Cravats  are  very  seldom  worn  by  the  men,  and  if  worn,  so  scanty  and  short  are  they, 
tliat  they  come  round  the  neck  but  once ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why  the  neck  is  usually 
exposed  naked,  and  without  covering,  to  the  inclemency  of  their  cold. 

The  tunic,  or  inner  garment  of  the  Laplander,  called  Tork,  is  made  of  sheep  skin, 
neither  sheared  nor  dressed,  the  hairy  part  being  turned  in.  On  the  upper  part  of  the 
tunic  is  a  stiff  high  collar,  made  firom  kersey,  or  some  other  cloth,  artificially  variegated 
with  party-coloured  threads.  The  tunic,  as  the  shirt,  is,  downwards,  an  entire  and  con- 
tinued  piece,  but  upwards  open,  where  i^  covers  the  breast,  and  if  made  after  the  fashion 
and  condition  of  the  nation,  is  rather  elegant  and  costly ;  a  bordering  goes  round  that 
opening,  of  kersey,  or  some  such  cloth,  the  edge  of  which  is  trimmed  with  a  fillet  made 
from  the  skin  of  the^  otter.  On  the  left  side  are  slender  bandages ;  but  the  right  is  orna- 
mented, especially  in  the  womens  garments,  with  gold  and  silver  tassels.  Their  sleeves, 
in  like  manner,  have  this  edging  to  them,  made  from  kersey,  or  some  such  cloth,  on 
the  extremity  of  which  is  a  fillet  from  the  skin  of  the  otter.  The  lowest  border  is  tacked 
round  with  a  fringe,  from  the  same  cloth  as  the  fringes  on  the  bosom  and  on  the  sleeves ; 
and  as  the  hairy  side  is  always  turned  in,  as  observed,  it  follows  that  the  hair  is  every 
where  seen  to  hang  below  the  extremities  of  their  garments. 

Shirts  are  very  little  worn  either  by  the  Laplanders ;  but  the  tunic  or  inner  garment, 
just  now  described,  b  next  to  the  body,  and  supplies  the  place  of  the  shirt. 


.384 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEBM9. 


Cloaks,  Avhich  the  men  wear,  are  made  either  from  thick  cloth,  commonly  called 
Badmel,  or  from  kersey,  or  of  the  hides  of  their  full  grown  rein.deer,  or  from  the  young 
of  the  same  animal,  of  a  gray  colour.  Cloaks  from  tlie  cloth  badmel  are  in  Luplund 
called  Gaggcs-Kafte  ;  which  also,  as  the  tunics  of  which  I  made  mention,  arc  made 
with  a  stift' collar,  covering  the  whole  neok  to  the  shoulders,  ornamented  with  a  -/ariety  of 
coloured  threads,  for  the  disdnfetioii-'dr  ^e  wearer.  And  as  the  tunic,  made  from  sheep 
skin,  in  the  form  of  a  riiirt,  is  enore  from  betdw^  and  open  in  the  bosom,  and  trimmed 
with  kersey,  or  some  such  doich,  it  dbea  not  agree  widi  oki  cloak  in  the  same  manner. 
Over  each  shoulder  is  a  slip  ofclcHhi  which  is  eKherplaih  or  jtiu^ -coloured,  of  kersey,  or 
some  other  cloth  of  a  varied  oolourr>,Tbe4lq^|i:  Extremity  »  embellishad  with  a  fringe, 
adorned  and  diversified  withvj^l^eadiaCdiffi^  colours,  dfled  in  i«aplai^d  Luskuldac. 
Under  the  neck  is  a  button,  j|;;^^<^08e  the  aperture  of  the  doak.  CIdaks'  of  kersey,  or 
made  even  of  other  cloth,  are  'Called  Kersey*Kafte  and  Ladde-Kafle,'J|i  the  Lapland 
language.  -.  -  ji,^:^  ' /^  '; 

Garments,  of  this  kind,  like  tt^i^  cloak  i^sti^^^  aitrmade  frori)^  a  very  coarse 

cloth,  called  Badmel ;  but  if  entiwp^V^  iityi^ebt  part,  opctli  in  the  breii$t,  \vith  a  very 
narrow  fringe  coming  rouiid  thatlp^ueei  llfa^  ar^  finfsh<i|l  ivith  kersey^  ,pr  with  some 
other  cloth  different  ih>m  the  cOMN^.^f^tl^  cIcKi|;,r  ij|^  trim^nij^  come  round 

the  sleeves,  and  a  s^  collar  ah|>^  '($b,  necli)  vari^pited  withf«<twisted|liitad.  A  border 
is  thrown  round  the  shoulders,  vlf-a-iMlOlbt^^d^^  from  ti^,  rest  df&lhe  garment.  A 
fringe  ornaments  the  lower  extremity,  of  a^our  different  (pm  the  Mttliient ;  so  that  if 
the  cloak  is  of  a  red  colour,  the  cdiodr  "of  the  border  is  yeSw^,  whi^j<^  green :  under 
the  neck  is  a  button,  which  closes  the  opening..  In  their  dmks  atid  Svteetes  they  have, 
like  other  nations,  no  pockets ;  in  ihe  room  df  which  they  |6arry  in  th^b^l>osom  a  little 
leathern  bag,  called  Nivsak-Gierdo,  where  th^y  put  up  a  tinder-box,  which  they  arc 
never  without,  and  other  commodities,  of  which  they  make  daily  use. 

In  Finmark,  the  cold,  which  is  the  most  severe  imaginable,  prevails  in  winter ;  for,  to 
pass  over  other  instances,  it  will  be  to  my  purpose  to  men^n  that  the  lakes  and  rivers 
are  so  frozen  up  witli  cold,  that  the  ice  has  bt<^i]ux>wil  JO  incnease  two  ells  and  a  half 
in  thickness.  It  is  not  undeserving  of  note,  thfl  Jcli  o(  itjki^li  fl]^9re  (KMidensed  by  the 
cold  than  when  covered  with  snow :  for  fronai^^  iAc^fl^t^t^ei^  kept,  as  it 

were,  from  its  attack,  and  defended  against  ^ikclcmpXty  ^o  ^s  pervading 

and  almost  unusually  felt  degree  of  coMhess  i«>to  be  ascnbed  Ittpj^  the  inhabi- 

tants of  Finmark  clothing  themselves  with  the  l^t\s  of  beasts.       v  ;   f  < 

The  cloak  made  from  the  ski^  oi^^  ieiti^i|)eer,  tvhen  n-own^,^k< called  in  Lapland 


Paesk.     It  is  made  from  tb6  skjui '^f i^  j^«iale,  which  the  T^drwea 
shaggy  side  bein^  turned  but,.li«iii9h  jjnyjii'tiie  .cloak  a  horrid  and  u( 
kind  of  garment  isnotasothere^6^p(^^th6b^         but  like  a  veil, 
nearly  to  the  neck.    About  the  liecWiShflL  iKntier  made  from  the  shs 
which  the  Laplanders  cfOl  li^.I^|£^ 
extremity  of  which  is  a  friihll  tafl||^||nrae  Mfewo  small  shreds 
very  small  into  very  little  pi^<;ea :  tnk,|ibb^^^  the  pu- 

cloak.     It  is  omamente d  too;' p  the  above  gbrments,  with  a  hi^. 
the  ears,  made  out  of  the  undi^sed  hide  of  the  mn-deer,  tis  i$, 
the  Laplanders  use  as  a  mantle  r  for  if  on  their  mflaritime  e 
happens,  they  should  be  sprinkled  ^th  the:brin^  ic^^  sea 
they  roll  themselves  instantly  in  iM  sno#,^thk' ^  i^fts,  sol 
may  by  this  means  be  extracted.  < ; 

The  mountain  Laplander,  for  his  comfort,  abd 


Simle,  the 

Bviook.     This 

"and  of  a  piece 

<;>f  the  hide, 

,  on  the 

^oths,  cut 

ning  the 

lair,  mounting  up  to 

iQ!5M|k;itself^    This 

|i>^;itirequemly 

)botn(f  on  shore 

^  the  garment, 


mmt 


^jm^Ad  on  his  jour. 


,*x/fTr  r.T  ^"/i  fii$A  <if 


r, 


/ 


^- ^'ii    ■•■■-"-■*'■■*■':■•■■--■      '^^-   ^ dM « 


.*.'.Ai.--vi-  --.^.TI.WK—Of^ 


M<'*fcii''ii<>iih-iii'ii  m 


■>-:. 
^-  ■ 

■;r:V  ^    • 


■lift' 


.'«  •'..•♦«  ^.W'-*  •■■''■  t'<2ftt»4n  Art'"  - 


>    ■  .:;  !|'.  .;■»,   ' 


■    .."^ 


VI  it 


■  •.-  >lt  l^i     .  \.'t)> 


ff  .(    ','•''■' ''  ■  <■''  .'S' 


(  'J,  . 


.'•'    'I-f^'V 


4      •«'■ 


'1     -^  "i-.  •t-Sj.ia  ,^ 


4 


i»r^  ''^1  ■    ■  <■'      .     '.i .       :■  ■■■ 


'  ■'1 
■"••a 

■tt, 


— > '■■■     -"^^i^'-^'  •'     ■  /"-H,..v-'  ■!..       \.JL;   . 


■  .n).^.ilLJi.-ik 


i 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAHI.ANI)  HV  LUKArs 


J85 


ncy,  usually  wears  a  muffltT  about  his  ncik,  made  out  of  the  skin  ol  a  young  {ox,  duly 
observing  that  the  tail  hangs  from  his  neck  on  his  shoulders.  The  Swedish  merchants, 
when  they  have  to  travel  over  the  mountains,  in  like  manner  cover  round  the  neck  with 
the  skin  of  a  martin,  in  order  to  keep  off  the  cold  :  and  that  nothing  should  be  wanting 
to  it,  they  usually  fill  up  the  crevices  made  in  it  by  the  eyes  taken  out,  by  new  ones  cast 
from  silver.  The  cloak  which  is  made  from  the  hide  of  the  rein- Jeer,  when  young,  the 
Laplanders  call  Moedda,  fashioned  according  to  the  model  of  the  aforesaid  cloak,  with 
this  difference,  that  it  has  fringes  to  the  sleeves,  and  it  is  trimmed  below  with  the  skin  of 
a  black  dog.  The  furred  garments  which  the  Lupland  women  make,  to  sell  to  persons 
of  honourable  condition,  are  made  from  the  skins  of  young  rein-deer,  of  a  gray  colour, 
and  are  open  at  the  bosom  and  on  each  side,  with  sleeves  ornamented  with  fringes  from 
the  skins  of  otters.  A  high  collar  is  tacked  to  them,  fringed  also  with  the  otter's  skin. 
At  the  bottom  is  constantiv  a  border,  the  hem  of  which  is  a  very  narrow  selvage  of  black 
dogrskin,  ornamented.  On  each  side  of  the  lower  border  is  seen  a  fillet,  in  the  form  of 
a  wedge.  But  it  is  to  be  noticed,  that  each  border  of  cloth  before  the  breast,  about  the 
neck,  or  in  whatever  part  of  the  garment  it  is  placed,  is  ornamented  and  diversified  with 
twisted  threads  of  tin,  drawn  in  a  variety  of  forms  and  figures,  as  the  taste  of  the  pur- 
chaser may  require. 

The  men  sometimes  make  use  of  leather  gloves,  called  Rappukak.  They  are  most 
usually  made  from  the  skin  that  is  stripped  from  the  feet  of  the  young  rein-deer,  the 
shaggy  part  being  turned  outside ;  and  for  the  better  defence  against  the  cold,  they  put 
in  them  hay  or  long  straw,  called  Sueinek.  The  Lapland  women  make  up  these  gloves 
for  persons  of  condition,  which  are  made  at  the  desire  of  the  purchaser,  tnat  the  part  of 
the  glove  which  covers  the  hand  itself  should  be  of  the  skin  from  the  feet  of  the  rein- 
deer,  or  of  the  black  fox,  with  the  hairy  part  put  outside.  That  the  sleeve,  which  covers 
the  wrist,  with  part  of  the  arm,  should  be  finished  with  cloth,  of  variegated  threads  of 
tin,  and  trimmed  with  otter's  skin.  There  are  among  the  Laplanders  men,  as  well  as 
women,  who  have  the  custom  of  wearing  bracelets  of  mountain-trap,  which  from  a  vain 
superstition  they  use  as  a  charm  against  pains  of  the  joints. 

The  men  never  wear  stockings,  but  breeches  or  pantaloons,  which  fit  the  ;s  closely 
and  compactly,  going  from  the  nip  to  the  ancles.  Breeches  of  this  sort  are  made  from 
thecloth  Badmel,or  from  the  cloth  Kersey,  or  from  the  dressed  leather  of  animals,  or  lastly 
from  the  hide  and  the  skin  from  the  feet  of  the  rein-deer  together.  Those  made  from 
coarse  cloth,  Badmel,  the  Laplanders  call  Gagges-Busak.  Breeches  made  of  cloth  Kersey, 
that  they  should  last  longer,  they  usually  strengthen  before  the  knees  with  a  leather 
guard.  Those  made  of  dressed  leather  are  called  Sistekak,  used  principally  on  maritime 
business.  Those  made  up  of  hide  and  skin  taken  from  the  feet  of  the  rein-deer  are 
called  Kamas-Busak.  The  upper  part  of  these  is  made  of  hide  alone  ;  the  lower,  com- 
ing from  the  hip  to  the  ankles,  of  the  skin  from  the  feet  of  the  rein-deer.  These  are 
usually  worn  on  joumies  by  land,  yet  in  srch  a  manner  that  they  may  be  drawn  over 
other  breeches  next  to  the  body,  made  from  cloth  of  Badmel,  or  others  made  of  coarse 
cloth. 

~  The  Laplanders  fix  but  one  sole  to  their  shoes ;  and  the  shoes  of  some  men  are  so 
made,  as  to  consist  of  the  hide  taken  from  the  skull  of  the  rein-deer  for  a  sole,  and  that 
which  comes  from  the  feet  of  this  animal  for  the  upper-leather  and  latchets.  The  shoe 
of  this  kind  is  called  Gallokak,  covered  over  with  h^r,  and  very  much  in  use  among  the 
mountaineers.  And  as  these  shoes  are  on  every  side  shag^,  it  is  plain  that  they  are 
smooth  and  slippery  ;  and  for  this  reason  the  ends  of  the  hair  on  shoes  which  boys  wear 
are  singed,  lest  walking  on  the  ice  with  a  tottering  step  they  may  to  their  danger  tumble 

VOL.   I.  »  3   D 


iU: 


i! 


dfls 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEBMS. 


down.  Some  shoes  have  soles  from  the  skin  of  the  seal,  the  upper  and  other  parts  being 
made  from  drissed  leather,  or  somcthinj;  else  of  a  soft  pliant  nature.  There  are  some 
also  made  from  the  hide  alone,  yet  in  such  a  manner  that  the  soles  are  of  a  leather 
thicker  than  the  other  purts,  and  this  kind  is  called  Zhi  izekak.  In  some  the  soles  are 
of  the  iiiidre^sed  hide  of  the  cow,  the  hair  Ixing  all  outside,  the  upper-leather  and  lat* 
chet  lieinf;  eitlier  from  tiinned  skins,  or  soft  pliant  leather.  This  third  kind  is  very  much 
in  use  among  the  seafaring  people.  The  Laplanders  fasten  their  shoes  neither  with  but- 
ton nor  latchet,  but  putting  them  on,  tie  them  round  the  culf  of  the  leg  with  a  thong  of 
leather,  or  a  twisted  cord.  It  is  a  custom  among  them  to  put  in  hay  or  bulrushes  to 
their  shoes,  that  they  may  retain  the  warmth  the  better ;  and  since  the  breeches  in  use 
among  that  nntion  do  not  come  below  the  ankles,  it  follows  that  the  rest  of  the  foot 
is  thrust  naked  into  the  shoes.  The  straw  too  put  in  is  placed  about  the  sh(x:s,  and  at 
evening,  when  taken  off,  is  taken  out  to  be  dried  by  the  fire,  that  the  moisture  may  be 
taken  out :  in  the  morning,  when  they  are  to  be  put  on,  the  straw  is  again  put  in,  which, 
when  worn  out  with  long  service,  is  at  v3t  rejected,  and  other  straw,  fresh  and  sound, 
put  in  its  place. 

The  women  make  up  boots  for  sale,  which,  at  the  will  of  the  purchaser,  are  so  made, 
that  the  soles,  the  upper-leather,  and  latchets,  taken  from  the  hide,  the  feet  of  the  rein- 
deer, with  the  sh iggy  side  turned  outward ;  but  the  other  parts,  which  cover  the  soles 
of  the  feet,  the  hams,  and  knees,  consist  of  cloth,  ornamented  and  diversified  with  threads 
of  tin :  they  are  fastened  above  the  knee  with  a  leather  thong,  on  the  end  of  which 
hangs  a  small  tassel  made  frc>m  short  shreds  of  cloth.  Boots  of  this  kind,  which  the 
inhabitants  call  Soepokak,  end  in  a  crooked  and  sharpened  beak. 

The  belts  which  the  men  gird  themselves  with  are  leather,  and  set  with  tin.  From 
the  fore  part  is  hung  a  purse,  resembling  a  little  satchel.  In  this  purse  they  put  up 
their  tobacco,  take  it  out  in  small  parts,  put  it  in  their  mouth,  and  chew  it  On  the 
other  side  is  hung  a  variety  of  leather  thongs,  ornamented  with  t'ui,  tin-tassels,  keys,  and 
such  things.  There  is  appended  to  the  belt  besides,  a  knife  in  a  sheath,  and  a  variety 
of  rings  hanging  by  a  leather  thong.  The  women  make  up  these  belts  for  sale  out  of 
cloth,  the  outside  of  which  is  ornamented  with  tin ;  the  inner  is  underlaid  with  leather. 

THE  CLOTHING  OF  WOMEN. 

TH£  Lapland  wometi  most  usually  wear  linen  caps,  seldom  woollen.  The  woollen 
caps  are  made  of  kersey,  or  some  such  cloth,  and  consist  of  two  pieces,  one  of  which, 
reaching  to  the  neck,  covers  the  hinder  part  and  crown  of  the  head,  the  other  part  the 
temples  and  the  rest  of  it.  Along  the  edge  of  the  sewing,  where  these  parts  are  joined, 
a  bandage  of  kersey,  or  of  yellow  cloth,  is  placed.  The  lowest  end  of  the  cap  is  orna- 
mented with  a  fillet  of  gold,  or  counterfeit  silver,  or  some  other  shining  bandage,  or  with 
a  strip  of  cloth,  of  a  different  colour  from  the  cap  itself,  which  is  bound  round  with  rib- 
bons, with  gold,  or  counterfeit  silver,  which  make  a  very  shining  appearance.  I  re- 
member to  nave  seen  a  poor  woman  with  one  that  was  bound  with  a  bandage  made  of 
the  dressed  skin  of  a  salmon,  of  a  colour  almost  white,  in  every  other  respect  like  the 
ribbons  just  mentioned.  The  caps  of  linen  do  not  differ  from  woollen  but  in  the  trim- 
mings ;  these  being  trimmed  with  ribbons  and  a  bandage  of  cloth,  whereas  the  linen 
are  ornamented  witn  more  elegant  fringes. 

The  Lapland  woman,  before  she  puts  on  her  cap,  rolls  up  a  certain  round  ball  on  the 
crown  of  the  head,  and  draws  it  together  under  the  ball  with  a  thong,  by  which  she 
gives  an  appearance  to  her  head  covering  not  unlike  the  women  of  Amager  in  Zealand, 
and  of  Opdal  in  Norway.    Concerning  the  hood,  or  that  covering  for  die  head  which 


l 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAMD  BY  LKEM8, 


387 


Avomen,  either  intent  on  a  journey,  or  occupied  in  keepinj^  the  rein-deer  by  night,  make 
use  of,  these  observations  occur  :  they  put  on  a  certain  kind  o*"  covering,  which  reaches 
from  the  upper  part  of  it  to  the  neck  or  chin  ;  but  from  the  lower  is  stretched  over  piurt 
of  the  breast,  of  the  arms,  and  back.  This  kind  of  covering  is  fastened  by  no  buttons 
or  riblx)ns,  as  being  on  each  side  entire  and  fitting  ;  it  is  generally  made  up  of  red,  green, 
or  blue  cloth  kersey,  adorned  at  the  lower  part  with  a  border  of  cloth,  of  a  colour  di  Be  r- 
ent  from  the  hood  itself.  When  they  have  put  n  this  sort  of  covering,  they  place  a  high 
hood  on  their  head,  which  rises  broad  in  the  shape  of  a  crown,  being  spread  out  in  the 
upper  part  of  it.  Below,  along  the  lefl  side,  is  a  selvage  of  cloth,  of  a  diflferent  colour 
from  the  hood ;  and  such  as  mean  to  surpass  in  dress,  make  use  of  a  bandage  instead 
of  the  selvage,  made  up  of  gold  and  counterfeit  silver,  from  which  a  gilt  silver  button 
is  pendent.  Men  as  well  as  women  wear  tunics  and  cloaks.  The  ^'.nics  are  made  from 
the  dressed  skins  of  sheep,  resembling  the  tunics  of  men,  except  that  behind  tliey  fall  into 
a  variety  of  folds,  lie  closer  about  the  breast,  and  are  longer  ;  for  they  come  down  to 
the  hams,  when  those  of  the  men  come  only  as  far  as  the Icnees.  And  as  the  tunics  of 
sheep  skin  serve  the  men  instead  of  shirts,  so  women  make  use  of  no  other  covering  than 
tunics  of  this  kind,  made  from  the  unshorn  skins  of  the  sheep,  with  the  shaggy  part 
turned  inside.  The  outward  garment  of  the  women,  made  of  badmel,  kersey,  or  any 
other  cloth,  is  like  the  cloaks  of  men  in  almost  every  particular,  with  these  few  excep* 
tions :  the  mens'  come  but  to  the  knees,  the  womens'  to  the  hams  ;  the  men's  are  orna- 
mented with  a  stiff*  collar,  the  women  wear  none.  The  tunics  of  women,  made  of  sheep 
skins,  have  a  stiff*  collar,  reaching  over  the  ears  and  neck  ;  which  cloaks,  made  of  clotn 
Badmel,  have  not,  as  just  mentioned,  and  which  when  worn  leave  the  neck  above  the 
tunic  exposed.  Among  the  women  there  is  also  a  certain  kind  of  cloak  in  use,  called 
Barve,  made  of  kersey,  or  some  other  common  kind  of  cloth  ;  but  in  this  diff*ering  from 
others,  that  it  is  not  entire  from  the  head  to  the  ankles,  but  cut  and  sewn  "^gain  about 
the  belly,  and  drawn  into  folds.  The  cloaks  of  women  made  up  from  the  skms  of  rein, 
deer,  or  from  their  young,  difi'er  only  in  form  from  the  mens' ;  that  these  come  down 
to  the  ankles,  whereas  the  mens'  reach  but  to  the  knees. 

The  gloves  of  women  agree  in  shape  with  those  of  the  men  ;  those  who  are  desirous 
of  ornament  and  elegance  have  hairy  gloves,  o'l  a  very  white  colour,  made  from  the  skin 
taken  from  the  feet  of  the  white  rein-deer,  arid  ornamented  on  the  outside  with  varie- 
gated shreds  of  a  diflferent  cloth.  And  as  the  men  wear  breeches  made  of  cloth,  kersey, 
or  of  some  other  sort,  or  skin  taken  from  the  feet  of  the  rein-deer,  the  hairy  part  being 
turned  outside,  from  dressed  skins  or  leather,  so  the  women  wear  them,  yet  they  are 
very  seldom  made  of  leather,  but  in  (.'very  other  respect  they  are  like  the  mens'.  The 
shoes  of  the  men  and  women  only  difi*er,  that  as  the  soles  of  mens'  shoes  are  made  of 
the  skin  which  is  taken  from  the  skull  of  the  rein-deer,  but  the  upper  part  and  latchets 
from  the  feet  of  the  said  animal,  so  the  womens'  are  made  up  entirely  from  the  skin 
from  the  legs  of  the  rein-deer.  Those  who  wish  to  be  distinguished  among  the  moun- 
taineers have  shoes  covered  with  h^r,  of  a  white  colour,  from  the  skins  which  are  taken 
from  the  feet  of  the  white  rein-deer.  The  girdles  of  the  women  are  of  leather,  or  some* 
dmes  of  cloth,  covered  on  every  side  with  tm  plates  ;  under  the  girdle  is  seen  a  button, 
of  a  larger  size,  made  of  mountain-trap,  from  which  some  rings  cl  the  same  metal  for 
ornament  and  elegance  are  hung.  Women  of  condition  wear  silver  girdles.  Handker- 
chiefs, with  which  the  women  ornament  their  necks,  are  either  of  stanped  linen  of  Rus- 
sia, or  of  coloured  linen,  which  is  vulgarly  called  in  taverns  Cattun ;  or  of  common 
white  linen,  a  covering  of  which,  spread  over  the  cloak,  extends  over  the  shoulders  and 
breast.    The  aprons  of  the  women  are  narrow,  made  from  the  stamped  linen  of 

'3  s  fi 


i 


f 


J88 


ACCOUNT  OV  UANI8H  LAPLAND  ■¥  LKRMt. 


Hdssia,  or  linen  Cattun,  or  of  the  white  common  linen,  of  which  the  liandkcrchicf  juat 
mt-ntioiicd  wuh  made,  biich  uh  arc  white  are  omanicnted  with  fiingcsi  ot  u  nujic  cle> 
gant  U'xture.  ** 

The  women  of  Russian  Lapland  wear  silver  ear* ringn ;  sometimes  bilvcr  chuinh  comin(|^ 
round  the  neck,  uiul  uppendin)^  to  the  ears.  An  the  cloak!i  of  each  hex  in  shape  diiter  no 
little  from  one  another,  it  docii  not  rarclv  happen,  a  circumstance  of  which  1  have  Ijeen 
a  (Tedible  cye-witnciis,  that  tlic  hubband,  witnout  knowing  it,  puts  on  the  cloak  of  his 
wife,  us  she  does  in  the  sume  manner  tlic  clouk  of  her  husband. 

All  cUxtthing  of  this  kind,  mule  us  well  as  female,  such  us  furred  garments,  gloves, 
^hoes  of  leather,  &.c.  arc  made  by  women  alone  ;  us,  on  the  other  h.tnd,  the  men  ore  cm- 
ploy  ed  in  the  occupation  of  women,  in  preparing  food  and  refreshment. 

1. 

CHAP.  V....OF  THE  HABITATIONS  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THK  hut  of  a  maritime  Laplander  u  cull  Laume-Guatte  ;  it  is  built  within  of  timber 
set  upright,  and  without  of  the  bark  of  the  birch-tree,  thatched  over  with  turf.  Of  these 
beams  four  are  thicker,  culled  in  Lapland  Baeljek,  bent,  and  are  the  principal  beams  that 
sustain  the  bulk  of  tlic  building.  A  pair  are  fixed  on  each  side  of  the  hut,  driven  at 
one  extremity  into  the  earth,  but  at  the  other,  towards  the  ^tter,  which  is  always  in  the 
middle  of  the  building,  upright.  When  they  are  fastened  in  the  ground,  they  are  distant 
from  each  other  by  a  small  interval,  but,  gradually  rising,  they  keep  inclining,  to  join  again 
near  the  brink  of  the  gutter.  Hence  the  said  four  beams  or  Baeljek,  raised  in  a  curved 
manner,  resemble  a  pair  of  arches  within.  Besides  those  four  thick  beams  used  in  erect- 
ing und  consolidating  the  hut  of  a  maritime  Laplander,  other  four  curved  rafters,  called  in 
Lapland,  Zhianmek,  are  erected  with  them.  A  pair  of  these,  separated  by  a  small  space 
in  the  building,  in  the  inner  part  of  the  hut,  ajid  a  pair  also  near  the  door,  are  set  up : 
they  are  fastened  in  the  ground  at  one  extremity,  but  towards  the  tc^,  arching  gradually, 
they  rise  towards  the  gutter  of  the  building. 

Between  the  said  beams  so  often  mentioned,  Baelj«k,  erected  on  each  side  of  the  hut, 
und  between  the  four  others  described,  Zhianmek,  placed  in  the  interior  part,  near  the 
door,  which,  as  I  have  just  now  said,  ore  at  a  small  distance  asunder,  little  beams,  or  broad 
pieces  of  wood,  are  lodged,  us  well  within  nciur  the  floor,  as  above  towards  the  roof, 
whence  it  is  easily  understood,  that  when  the  four  Baeljek  and  as  many  Zhianmek  rise 
archways  from  tne  ground  to  the  gutter,  and  that  the  little  beams  or  broad  pieces  of 
wood  fitly  correspond  in  situation  with  the  larger  timlier  of  the  building,  the  hut  resem- 
bles, on  the  inside,  a  small  arch,  from  the  ground  to  the  gutter.  This  urch,  which  the 
hut  of  the  muritime  Laplander  forms  on  the  inside,  is  so  low,  that  you  cannot  stand 
upright,  but  before  the  (ire,  just  under  the  gutter,  where  the  hut  is  highest ;  for  if  you 
incline  but  a  little  to  the  sides  of  the  building,  your  body  must  necessarily  be  bent. 
Where  the  arch  touches  the  ground,  there  too  are  the  seats  in  the  hut  of  a  maritime 
Laplander,  for  so  sunk  and  low  is  it,  that  you  must  sit  on  the  very  ground  itself.  The  hut, 
when  entirely  built,  und  the  timber  luid  in  order,  is  floored  within,  and  to  this  flcxiring 
the  beams  are  fastened  with  nails.  In  the  hut  of  the  mar'time  Laplander,  near  the  door, 
are  laid  on  each  side  some  smooth  stones,  in  Laplund,  Juoudok.  The  floor  of  the  hut 
is  usually  round  like  a  circle,  with  branches  of  trees  on  the  levelled  earth,  everywhere 
paved,  except  in  the  middle,  where  the  fire-place  is. 

The  fire-place  itself  consists  of  rough  stones,  in  a  double  row,  negligently  piled  on 
the  bare  ground,  from  the  door  to  that  part  of  the  building  most  fitted  for  it,  in  which 


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/ACCOUNT  UinANUII  LAFLANI)  BY  I.KKMH 


389 


incfoMire  a  fire  is  made.  Near  turh  riul  oi'  the  firr  two  columns  ure  rrrctcd,  of  a  mo> 
derate  thii:kiK'hH,  with  one  citU  in  the  ^louiui,  aiul  with  thcuther  niiM-d  up  tu  ilic  gutter, 
On  tht'itc  two  column!*  two  iKumn,  in  L.ipland,  e.illt  d  lialkok,  arc  liixl((cd,  on  which 
Otiier  poles  are  laid  acrociH,  (rom  which  are  hung  wooden  tuMtkit,  diat  hold  up  pots  and 
kciilc!!  on  the  (ire. 

WhiNt  die  lin-i^i  hnnun)|^on  the  hearth,  a  certain  ventilator  in  provided  in  die  house, 
near  the  gutter,  widi  this  view,  ksit,  while  the  hinokc  in  aHCciK.inir  through  the  gutter, 
thi  wind,  blowing  with  greater  violence,  it  tthould  he  fttop|)id.  The  ventilator  itself  is 
a|>ptiedtodiat  hide  oC  tla  gutter  which  is  towards  the  wind,  ho  diat  if  the  wind  rihCb  in 
tin  north,  the  ventilator  is  erected  on  that  side  of  die  gutter. 

The  nmritimc  Laplanderh,  before  they  gtj  to  bed,  extinguish  all  the  log«i,  which  are 
moved  from  the  heard)  by  means  of  a  stick  tilled  for  that  purpose  with  cold  water. 
Then,  letting  out  all  die  smoke,  they  climb  up  to  the  roof  by  means  of  rafters,  named 
ill  Lapland  fapimldagak,  to  shut  the  gutter.  At  that  end  of  the  fireplace  which  is 
opposite  the  d(K)r  arc  placed  two  trunks  of  the  birch-tree,  an  ell  asunder  from  each 
Otlier.  Thocic  form,  on  the  lloor  of  the  cottage,  not  far  from  the  door,  u  long  but 
narrow  space,  where,  whenever  the  fia>  is  to  Ix*  lighted,  pieces  of  wood  arc  to  be  put, 
which  consist  of  trunks  and  branches  from  trees  fresh  cut.  Here  too  die  guest  or 
Stranger  must  stand  who  shelters  himself  under  their  hut,  until  the  father  himself  Af  the 
family,  or^omeother  mendx.r  of  it,  invites  him  to  a  nearer  ai)proach. 

Near  the  other  end  of  the  lire -place,  looking  towards  the  interior  side  of  the  cottage, 
opposite  to  the  gate,  arc  placed  likewise  two  trunks  of  the  birch-trcc,  on  branches  ut  die 
exact  distance  of  an  ell  from  each  other;  which,  us  the  former  just  mentioned,  make  a 
long  but  narrow  space,  where  kelites,  plates,  and  odier  utensils  of  this  sort,  are  pLiced. 
Here  is  affixed  u  brazen  vessel  filled  with  snow  water,  where  the  Laplanders,  whenever 
need  or  inclination  calls  them,  ({uencli  their  thirst. 

From  what  has  hitherto  been  stated  it  is  easily  collected,  that,  from  the  outside  door 
to  the  inner  side  of  the  hut,  things  present  themselves  in  this  order :  first,  not  fur  from 
the  entrance,  between  two  logs  of  the  birch- tree,  laid  on  branches,  is  a  space  or  cer- 
tain limited  dimension  ;  then  ttie  fire-place,  which  is  raised  in  the  middle  of  the  floor, 
from  rough  stones  ranged  in  two  heaps ;  and  next  is  another  space  or  division,  nciu* 
the  interior  corner  of  the  hut,  made  like  the  first.  On  each  side  of  the  fire-place,  and 
of  the  said  spaces,  are  two  beams  on  boughs,  with  which  the  floor  is  covered,  at  the 
distance  of  two  ells  from  one  another,  reaching  by  one  end  to  the  fire,  by  the  other  to 
the  wall.  These  beams  form  three  spaces  or  measures  on  each  side,  one  near  the  door, 
at  the  sides  of  the  birch  trunks,  where  the  wood  for  firing  is  placed ;  another  in  the 
middle  of  the  hut,  near  the  sides  of  the  fire-place  ;  and  a  third  at  the  sides  of  those  trunks, 
where  their  kettles,  dishes,  8cc.  &.c.  are  kept.  In  any  one  of  the  said  spaces  or  divisions  die 
hide  of  a  rein-deer  is  spread  along  the  flcx>r,  lest  the  strewed  branches  of  the  trees  should 
incommode  them  too  much,  either  wlien  they  sit  or  lie  down.  The  hut  is  inhabited 
but  by  one  family  ;  the  father  of  the  family  and  his  wife  occupy  the  one  :4ide  for  them- 
selves, with  its  three  divisions,  leaving  the  other  to  die  children  and  servants.  But  if 
there  are  two  families,  each  has  its  side,  with  all  the  divisions  belonging  to  it,  so  that  the 
one  fatherof  the  family  is  placed  in  the  inward  division  of  the  side  he  has  got,  which  is 
the  most  honourable  in  the  hut,  and  is  called  Bosshio-Kiaezhie,  the  children  in  the 
middle,  called  Gosk-Loido,  and  the  servants  in  that  which  is  the  next  to  the  door,  and  is 
the  worst  of  all,  called  in  f  .upland  Ursa-Kiaezhie.  The  other  father  of  the  family  dis- 
poses in  the  same  manner  as  the  former  the  pirtof  the  hut  which  he  has  duly  obtained, 
assigning  to  each  member  of  die  family  its  ownpeculiar  portion  of  it. 


■it 


390 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEMS. 


He  who  has  obtained  the  inward  or  more  honoured  part  of  the  habitation  in  the 
hut,  on  the  lurivalof  a  missionary,  comes  out,  together  with  his  family,  and  most  wil- 
lingly gives  up  the  place  to  his  welcomed  guest,  us  long  as  he  is  p' cased  to  stay  with  him. 
And  though  two  families  should  occupy  the  hut  at  once,  yet  the  fire-place,  and  certain 
portions  of  the  place,  such  as  are  next  to  the  door,  adapted  for  the  keeping  of  wood, 
a>  well  as  those  opposite  the  fire-place,  adapted  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  various  do- 
mestic furniture,  are  in  common  use  with  both. 

This  nation,  which  is  accounted  by  many  very  ignorant  of  the  world,  as  savage  and 
asbrought  under  no  cultivation  of  humanity,  yet  make  use  of  the  same  hut  and  fire-side 
with  so  much  friendship  and  harmony,  that  no  contest,  no  brawl,  except  very  rarely,  is 
ever  excited  among  them  ;  when  yet  it  is  fully  and  abundantly  proved,  that  numbers, 
who  boast,  I  know  not  why,  a  degree  of  refinement  and  elegance  of  manners,  and  from 
whom,  on  that  account,  you  would  reasonably  expect  better  manners,  cannot  inhabit 
one  and  the  same  city  and  neighbourhood,  without  discord  and  contests. 

The  maritime  Laplander  stables  his  lambs  and  calves  in  the  same  hut  with  himself, 
but  a[)art,  and  in  inclosures.  How  strong  the  stench  of  such  a  sordid  lodging  must  be 
to  the  guests  is  easy  to  be  conjectured.  The  hut  of  the  maritime  Laplander  is  built 
with  a  yard,  on  the  one  side  of  which  is  the  hut  itself  inhabited  by  the  family,  on  the 
other  is  the  st;ill  for  cattle,  hence  men  as  well  as  beasts  must  come  by  the  same  door  in- 
to their  habitation. 

The  hut  inhabited  by  the  family,  the  cow-house,  and  in  the  middle  between  each,  the 
yard,  are  under  one  roof,  which  is  first  covered  with  the  bark  of  the  birch  tree,  then 
with  turf  from  the  ground  to  the  top ;  hence  the  appearance  of  the  outside  is  that  of  a 
lengthened  and  gently  declining  hill.  At  some  paces  from  the  hut  is  built  a  depository, 
called  in  Lapland  Loaave.  A  building  of  this  kind  consists  of  certain  beams  set  up- 
right, over  which  others  are  placed  across,  with  the  branches  of  various  trees,  in  the 
shape  of  a  house  without  a  roof.  To  this  building  the  Laplanders  bring  hay,  and  bind 
it  together  so  closely,  that  each  of  the  poles  are  covered,  except  the  ends  that  jut  out 
above  the  hay  ;  so  that  you  would  say  that  the  whole  mass  was  nothing  else  than  three 
avails  of  hay.  Hay  piled  and  bound  up  in  this  manner  is  kept  under  the  open  air 
during  the  whole  winter  very  sound  from  the  injury  of  rain,  which  very  rarely  infests 
this  quarter  of  the  world  in  winter.  The  outside  of  the  hay-rick  can  be  injured  indeed 
by  snow,  but  the  hay  nevertheless  will  be  unhurt  within.  Between  the  rafters,  where 
the  arch  is  bent,  the  Laplanders  hang  their  clothes.  The  space,  above  the  arch,  be- 
tween the  three  walls  of  hay  just  mentioned,  is  called  in  Lapland  Aske,  which  word 
properly  means  the  bosom.  Here  it  is  usual  to  lay  up  the  skins  of  the  rein-deer, 
baskets,  and  other  vessels  of  this  sort  :  here  sometimes  the  wearied  Laplander  takes  up 
his  rcst  by  night.  The  maritime  Laplanders,  as  often  as  chey  are  in  want  of  food  for 
their  cattle,  strip  the  trees  of  their  bark,  and  give  it  to  them  to  eat :  they  carry  home 
too  the  branches  of  trees,  as  provender.  When  a  tree  is  felled  and  its  branches  cut  off, 
the  trunk  is  put  aside,  and  hence,  as  it  happened  to  myself  not  seldom,  when  you  come 
into  those  parts  where  the  trunks  of  this  kind  lie  along  the  hills  and  plains,  they  will 
appear  to  you  as  so  many  putrified  carcasses.  The  herds  of  the  Laplanders  feed  be- 
sides on  certain  root.;,  some  of  which  have  the  figure  of  a  bird,  some  another,  8cc.  &c. 
Besides  hay,  the  usual  and  oidinary  fodder,  there  is  another  food,  so  to  express  myself, 
prepared  for  cattle ;  it  is  extracted  from  the  heads  nd  bones  of  fish,  from  straw,  sea- 
weed, and  from  the  sediment  under  the  oil  which  is  taken  from  the  entrails  of  fish ; 
which  ingredients,  when  put  together,  are  thrown  into  a  kettle  to  be  boiled,  and,  when 
done,  are  given  in  a  sufficient  quantity  to  cows,  as  a  food  they  are  very  fond  of.    Tlie 


1 

I 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEKMS. 


39  i 


or 
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in 
lie 


Norwegian  peasants,  called  also  Normans,  inhabiting  the  eastern  Finmark,  reed  their 
cows  not  only  with  hay,  but  sea  grass,  on  which  the  rcin-dccr  usually  feed. 

The  winter  cot  of  a  mountiiin  Laplander,  with  respect  to  the  floor,  din\cnsions,  and 
fire-place,  resembles  almost  in  every  thing  the  hut  of  a  maritime  one,  already  described, 
except  that  the  fcjr  beams  or  columns,  which  in  the  hut  of  a  maritime  Laplander  arc 
erected  near  each  end  of  the  fire-place,  are  not  wanted  in  the  cot  of  the  mountaineer. 
Between  the  floor  of  the  cot,  which  is  covered  with  boughs  of  trees  strewed  on  the  Ir.'^c 
ground,  and  the  cot  itself,  raised  on  slender  poles,  driven  at  their  extremities  into  inc 
snow,  and  covered  with  a  woollen  cloth,  a  wall  of  snow,  called  in  Luplund  Seine,  is  made ; 
and  since  the  snow  must  Ix:  removed  from  the  place  in  which  the  cot  is  to  be  raised,  in 
the  form  of  a  round  circle,  it  follows,  that  tha  snow  must  on  every  side  be  gathered 
round  the  floor,  as  a  solid  wall.  The  cot  itself  consists  of  four  crooked  beams,  in  Lap- 
land, Baeljek,  which  make  up  its  principrJ  parts,  and  as  it  were  its  foundation  and  basis. 
Two  beams  of  this  sort  are  raiseid  up  on  each  side,  but  separated  by  a  small  distance, 
driven  at  their  ends  into  the  snow,  the  other  extremity  raised  towards  the  gutter ;  and  as 
it  has  been  observed  above,  speaking  of  the  huts  of  the  maritime  Laplanders,  they  keep 
bending  as  they  rise,  until,  joining  at  top,  they  are  formed  into  the  sha|)e  of  a  double  arch. 
The  arches  themselves,  lest  they  should  totter,  are  braced  with  a  small  rafter.  Be- 
tween these  often  mentioned  four  beams  are  erected  various  poles,  which  are  fastened 
at  their  lower  extremity,  as  well  as  the  beams  themselves,  in  the  wall  of  snow  just  now 
mentioned,  but,  by  gradually  rising,  effect  that  the  cot  on  the  inside  should  not  mate- 
rially diff*er  from  the  sh^jieof  a  round  tu*ch,  especially  if  the  sirid  poles  are  drawn  over 
with  a  woollen  covering.  Above,  near  the  roof,  another  pole  is  placed  across,  from 
which  are  hung  bent  iron  hooks,  by  which  their  kettles  and  pots  are  suspended  over  the 
fire. 

The  poles,  as  said,  placed  in  their  situation  and  order,  are  covered  with  wcolien  blan- 
kets, which  the  Laplanders  call  Loudagak,  not  with  those  which  are  new  and  sound, 
but  irom  such  as  are  the  worse  for  use.  The  blankets  themselves  are  divided  into  two 
greater  parts,  covering  the  cot  on  each  side.  Each  part  of  the  blanket  is  fastened  to  the 
post  by  the  door,  or  in  the  inside  part  of  the  cot ;  this  forming  in  Lapland  what  is  called 
Skurro.  And  since  these  blankets  are  not  of  sufficient  breadth  as  to  cover  the  whole  cot 
at  once,  they  take  care,  by  a  certain  supplement,  called  in  Lapland  Naalish,  and  of  the 
same  stuff' as  the  covering  itself,  which  covers  the  gutter,  should  be  provided. 

The  door  of  the  cot  is  made  of  woollen  covering,  cut  in  the  shape  of  a  pyramid,  the 
inner  part  of  which  is  stretched  with  tenter-hooks,  with  which  they  usually  lay  out  s  nok- 
ed  salmon.  Should  a  door  covering  want  these  tenter-hooks,  which  the  Laplanders  call 
Zangak,  it  could  not  supply  the  place  of  a  door.  At  each  side  of  the  door  is  erected  a 
thin  pole,  called  in  Lapland,  Bishiamas,  to  supply  the  defect  of  posts.  When  the  wind 
blows  with  violence,  the  door,  which  is  hung  only  above,  and  indeed  with  a  thong  of 
leather  a" one,  is  fastened  to  one  of  the  poles,  so  that  on  that  side  where  the  wind  presses 
it  is  entirely  «>iMt  against  it,  which,  was  it  not  so,  under  a  strong  wind  the  fire  on  the 
hearth  would  be  tossed  about,  and  the  smoke,  checked  from  going  up,  would  fill  the 
whole  cot.  When  the  wind  does  not  blow,  the  door  is  open,  and  a  free  entrance  and  exit 
is  made  for  it. 

The  mountain  Laplander  usually  erects  his  cot  in  the  middle  of  the  wood,  and  goes 
out  every  day,  with  the  exception  of  festivals  alone,  to  provide  wood.  When  a  tree  is 
felled,  he  himself  draws  it  through  the  snow  to  his  cot,  where  he  cuts  off"  the  top,  and 
the  lesser  branches,  on  a  low  block  or  machine,  placed  behind  the  door  for  this  pur- 
pose.  The  trunk  and  thicker  branches  are  cut  into  larger  pieces.    The  wood,  moist  and 


id 


'■:^fk 


3f9  ACCOUNT  OI'  DANISM  LAPLAND  IIY  LKKM8. 

Stiff  with  the  cold  biiovv  and  ice,  as  brought  from  the  forest,  is  laid  on  the  fire,  where, 
taking  flame,  it  oozes  out  a  certain  dampness,  accompanied  with  a  strong  vapour.  The 
Laplanders  call  this  vapour  Sltiudga,  from  which,  they  say,  they  receive  greater  annoy- 
ance, than  even  from  the  smoke,  of  which  the  Lapland  mountaineer  so  nmch  com- 
plains. When  preparing  to  light  nhe  fire,  they  catch  the  spark  on  the  bark  of  the  birch- 
tree,  and  when  caught,  feed  it  from  dried  leaves  and  small  branches  of  trees ;  then,  as  it 
lights,  larger  pieces  of  wood  are  put  on  ;  when  the  fire  is  lighted,  the  whole  cot,  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom,  is  filled  with  smoke,  to  that  degree,  thai  all  who  are  in  it  are  envelop- 
ed in  a  thick  cloud,  and  are  well  nigh  deprived  of  the  use  of  sight.  As  the  fire  gradual- 
ly gets  up  and  breaks  out  into  flames,  the  smoke,  but  by  little  and  little,  decreases ,  and 
Sit  :h  is  the  abundance  and  force  in  which  it  remains,  that,  though  sitting  in  the  cot  on 
the  ground,  you  may  yet  reach  it  with  the  crown  of  the  head.  When  the  winds  blow 
more  than  common,  the  smoke  is  struck  back  from  the  gutter,  which  is  always  open. 

The  Lapland  mountaineer,  on  going  to  bed,  does  not  put  out  the  fire,  but  lets  it  bum 
until  it  is  extinguished  of  Itself.  He  does  not  use  a  lamp  with  oil  and  link,  contented 
with  that  light  alone,  which  the  fire  on  the  hearth  supplies  him  with  on  the  mountains. 

At  the  distance  of  some  paces  from  the  cot  of  the  Lapland  mountaineer  stands  a 
certain  vessel,  called  in  Lapland  Loaavve,  raised  on  beams  set  an  end,  on  which 
cross  ones  are  placed,  with  the  boughs  of  various  trees.  The  whole  of  this  building, 
where  vessels,  rein-deer  skins,  8ic.  are  put  up,  is  not  unlike  a  house  built  without  a 
roof. 

The  summer  coi  of  a  Lapland  mountaineer  is  almost  the  same  as  the  winter  cot,  as  I 
have  shewn,  with  this  difference,  that  this  is  covered  with  woollen,  the  summer  one 
with  thick  linen  cloth,  nor  is  it  defended  by  a  wall  of  snow,  the  snow  being  at  this  time 
of  the  year  everywhere  almost  dissolved. 

The  little  tent  which  the  Lapland  mountaineer,  when  he  goes  to  hunt  the  rein-deer,  or 
otherwise  intent  for  a  longer  journey,  carries  with  him,  is  made  of  thick  linen,  in  the 
Lapland  Lavvo.  In  the  place  where  he  intends  to  erect  this  tent,  the  snows  are  carefully 
cleared  away,  even  to  the  baie  soil,  so  *l'at  what  are  untouched  remain  as  walls  drawn 
round  in  a  circle.  He  then  strews  the  floor  with  branches  cut  from  trees,  laid  over  the 
bare  earth ;  he  makes  a  fire-place  from  stones  laid  along  in  two  heaps ;  he  erects 
beams,  from  trees  which  are  at  hand  in  the  place,  driven  at  one  end  into  the  edge  of  the 
wall  of  snow,  but  meeting  above,  and,  thus  raised,  surrounds  it  with  a  linen  covering,  of 
which  there  is  mention  above.  The  tent  built  in  this  manner,  the  Laplander  lights  a  fire 
on  the  hearth,  in  order-  to  restore  his  limbs  numbed  with  cold,  or  prepare  his  tbod,  for 
which  purpose  l^  usually  takes  with  him  a  little  kettle. 

Should  the  ^  ^plander,  intent  on  a  journey  by  sea,  be  compelled  to  put  in  where,  on 
account  of  t'  ^  tempest  suddenly  coming  on,  or  any  other  cause,  there  is  no  trace  of 
civiliz'ition  and  he  has  nothing  at  hand  of  which  he  stands  in  daily  use,  he  instantly 
builds  tilTiSelf  a  house  :  he  takes  the  oars  from  his  little  bark,  erects  on  the  shore,  and, 
when  erected,  covers  them  with  a  sail,  under  which  roof,  as  long  as  he  can  subsist  there, 
he  remains. 

Among  the  Laplanders  who  inhabit  the  mountains,  as  well  as  the  coast,  are  the  cup- 
boards, or  little  out-houses  propped  on  rjuls,  where  it  is  customary  to  put  up  provisions, 
and  little  utensils ;  the  cupboards  of  the  maritime  Laplander  are  at  no  great  distance 
from  his  hut,  the  inhabitant  of  the  mountain  usually  builds  them  in  the  forest.  See 
chapter  the  eleventh,  on  die  joumies  of  the  Laplanders.  The  mountaineers  usually  build 
vaults  under  ground,  called  Gedde-Borra,  cover  the  bottom  with  stone,  and  there  put  up 
the  flesh  of  the  rein-deer. 


AccouN  I  or  UAxren  lai'LANd  by  lkkms. 


>9.. 


Having  now  finished  the  description  of  tiie  habitations  of  the  Laplanders,  1  think  1 
should  add  something  of  the  little  hovels  of  the  Norwegian  and  Lapland  peasants.  The 
hovel  of  a  Lapland  peasant  has  wooden  walls,  and  them  low,  and  without  ceiling.  The 
beams  on  which  the  poles,  sustaining  the  turf  or  thatch,  arc  lodged,  are  not  laid  across, 
but  lengthways,  and  within.  There  is  no  gutter,  as  there  is  in  other  huts ;  nor  have 
ttiey  light  from  windows,  but  through  chinks,  which,  when  the  occasion  requires,  they 
shsit  up  with  a  little  shutter.  Within  is  an  oven,  not  very  unlike  those  of  bakers,  over 
which  is  piled  a  large  heap  of  stones.  In  this  oven  a  great  heap  of  wood  every  day  is 
lighted,  and  keeps  burning,  until  the  oven  and  the  stones  laid  on  it  glow  with  a  very  in- 
tense degree  of  heat. 

Whilst  the  oven  is  heating,  the  outlets  and  chinks,  as  many  as  are,  are  thrown  ojm}!!, 
that  the  smoke  may  have  a  free  egress,  to  be  closed  again  when  the  fire  is  out ;  by  which 
means  the  heat,  which  is  the  greatest  possible,  is  within,  and  kept  up  by  the  heat  of  the 
glowing  oven  and  stones,  it  continues  until  fresh  fuel  is  brought  and  lighted  up  in  the 
oven.  When  the  chinks  and  outlets  are  all  closed  up,  it  is  dark  within,  and  for  this 
reason  they  light  unctuous  pieces  of  the  fir-tree,  in  the  place  of  a  candle,  and  dispel  the 
darkness  so  far,  as  to  need  no  other  light  to  complete  their  usual  work.  The  floor  of 
the  hovel  of  a  Norwegian  peasiint,  an  inhabitant  of  Finmark,  is  paved  with  hewn  stone. 

The  inner  sides  of  the  walls  are  made  of  timber  set  upright,  not  unlike  a  piece  of  floor- 
work  ;  but  without  are  covered,  first  with  the  bark  of  the  birch-tree,  then  with  turf,  one 
lodged  .upon  another,  so  that  the  '  tark  of  the  birch-tree  should  be  between  the  turf  and 
flooring.  There  is  no  distinction  of  floors  throughout  the  house.  The  roof  rises  in  a 
point  outside,  as  with  the  other  peasants,  covered  with  the  bark  of  the  birch-tree,  and 
with  turf. 

Olaus  Magnus,  a  celebrated  writer,  is  of  opinion  that  the  boisterous  winds  and  deep 
snows,  which  are  condensed  in  Finmark,  are  the  reason  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  tract 
build  for  themselves  subterraneous  habitations ;  but,  in  my  opinion,  the  construct' on  and 
use  of  these  dwellings  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  scarcity  of  wood,  especially  in  insular  situa* 
tions,  where  the  soil  is  bare  and  barren.  But  as  to  these  habitations  of  wood  tumbling 
down  by  the  attack  of  winds,  provided  they  are  raised  on  a  firm  and  solid  foundation, 
is  an  idle  fear.  For  almost  all  persons  in  official  situaticiis,  appointed  by  the  king  for 
administering  the  public  affiiirs  in  this  country,  as  also  merchants  resident  here  for  pur. 
poses  of  business,  it  is  certain  live  in  wooden  houses,  and  them  seldom  consisting  of  two 
stories ;  to  say  nothing  that  these  subterraneous  caves  are  the  best  adapted  for  preserv- 
ing heat. 

CHAP.  VI....OF  THE  BEDS,  AND  BEDCHAMBERS,  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 


pe 
be 
Id 

1p 


THE  bed  on  which  the  maritime  Laplander  reposes  in  his  hut,  as  the  mountaineer 
when  he  goes  to  rest  in  his  cot,  is  covered  and  furnished  with  the  skin  of  the  rein-deer 
laid  on  the  bare  branches  of  trees,  which  is  the  flooring,  equally  of  the  hut  and  cot. 
The  clotlies  which  they  wear  by  day  serve  for  a  bolster ;  a  coverlet,  made  of  the  unshorn 
yet  dressed  skin  of  a  sheep,  with  the  hairy  part  inside,  is  their  blanket.  On  this  blanket 
is  afterwards  laid  a  rough  woollen  cover.  The  woollen  blanket  under  which  the  moun- 
taineer  lies  in  winter  is  m  the  shape  of  a  sack,  into  which  he  thrusts  his  feet.  The  hus* 
band,  wife,  children,  and  servants,  every  one,  even  if  the  cold  is  extreme,  go  naked  to 
bed.  The  beds  have  no  other  separation  than  a  small  pole  negligently  placed  from  each 
other.     In  the  inside  of  the  hut  (see  what  is  said  on  the  various  dimensions  of  the  floor 


VOL.    I. 


3  E 


^94 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LiiBMS 


.'  »l 


of  a  maritime  Laplander's  hut  in  the  preceding  chapter,  for  in  the  cot  of  a  mountaineer 
the  same  obtains)  is  a  small  piece  of  wood,  the  inside  of  which  the  husband  with  his 
wife,  on  the  outside  towards  the  door  the  children,  sleep.  A  little  below,  not  far  from 
the  door,  is  also  another  small  piece,  within  which,  next  to  the  door,  is  the  servants  bed. 
And  tlioiigh  all  the  beds  are  separated  by  this  partition  piece  of  wood  from  each  other, 
yet  so  near  is  one  to  the  other,  that  the  parents  can  touch  and  handle  the  children  when 
in  bed,  as  these  can  their  servants. 

The  mountain  Laplander,  sleeping  in  his  summer  cot  under  a  linen  covering,  equal- 
ing in  length  and  breadth  the  bed  itself,  and  coming  over  his  body  neither  tight*  nor 
close,  but  leaving  a  due  space  between,  goes  to  rest :  for  the  covering  raises  itself  in  the 
middle  like  a  small  oven,  touching  the  earth  at  the  end  and  on  each  side.  But  this  co* 
vering  is  bound  with  thongs  to  those  bent  beams,  which,  as  was  shewn  in  chapter  the  fifth, 
speaking  at  length  of  the  habitations  of  the  Laplanders,  form  within  the  cot  of  the  moun- 
taineer, to  the  intent  lest  when  they  repose  they  should  be  unceasingly  annoyed  by  gnats, 
with  which  this  country  in  summer-time  abounds. 

For  the  long  gnat  flies  about  Finmark  every  where,  and  in  such  swarms,  that  those 
who  walk  between  the  trees,  from  the  multitude  of  these  insects  that  get  about  the  face, 
seem  as  inveloped  in  a  cloud  :  they  are  equally  troublesome  to  man  and  beast.  Those 
who  are  stung  by  them  in  the  face  or  hands  begin  soon  after  to  itch,  and  to  swell  with 
certain  white  ulcers ;  so  that  you  would  believe  that  persons  coming  in  summer  out  of 
the  country,  with  commonly  a  swoln  and  deformed  face,  were  infected  with  the  leprosy. 
The  Laplanders,  busied  in  the  forests  in  summer,  either  in  getting  in  wood,  or  bark 
from  trees,  with  difficulty  can  eat  on  account  of  these  gnats,  who,  no  sooner  is  the  mouth 
opened,  than  in  a  swarm  they  fly  in.  When  the  winds  set  in  strong,  ihey  instantly  de- 
part ;  but  when  they  subside,  return  again,  and  fill  all  places  with  their  accustomed 
humming. 

The  recreation  which  the  mind  might  be  disposed  to  take  from  the  agreeable  return 
of  summer,  after  the  long  wearisome  time  from  the  festival  of  Michael  the  Archangel  to 
the  month  of  July  of  the  year  following,  is  disappointed  indeed,  in  a  great  degree,  by 
these  annoying  insects.  But  how  rude  and  immitigable  the  temperature  of  heaven  is  in 
this  quarter  of  rh-  world  may  be  learned  from  this,  that  when  on  the  festival  of  St.  John, 
and  of  course  in  the  middle  of  summer,  1  had  been  on  a  visit  with  Peter  Andius,  a  pro- 
vincial  judge,  who  lived  in  Talvigia,  near  the  shore,  I  found  a  great  heap  of  snow  lying 
near  the  windows  of  the  room  I  slept  in,  as  yet  unthawed. 

And  as  the  said  insects  are  so  troublesome  to  men,  so  do  they  create  no  less  trouble  to 
the  rein-deer  and  the  rest  of  the  cattle ;  for  whenever  the  herds  are  returning  from 
pasture,  these  annoying  gnats  in  a  swarm  fix  themselves  on  the  back  of  each  beast,  not 
to  quit  him  until  they  have  taken  their  full  of  blood ;  for  when  they  are  driven  off  by  the 
hand,  drops  of  blood  begin  soon  after  to  flow  from  the  Lack  of  the  animal.  It  is  with 
difficulty  that  they  endure  smoke  ;  and  for  this  reason,  when  the  cattle  are  brought  to 
the  milk  pail,  the  Laplanders  bum  turf,  or  some  other  moistened  materials,  that  will 
furnish  plenty  of  smoke,  to  the  intent  that,  the  gnats  driven  off  by  these  means,  they 
may  milk  the  cattle  quietly  and  without  disturbance.  And  though  this  kind  of  insect  is 
so  feeble  and  infirm  as  to  perish  with  the  slightest  touch  of  the  finger,  yet  is  it  able  to 
penetrate  with  its  sting  the  very  hard  hide  of  a  horse,  thick  woollen  stockings,  and  other 
things  of  equal  hardness. 


ACCOrNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  DY  LEUMt). 


;>f» 


CHAP.  VII....OF  THE  MEAT  AND  DUINK  OI'  THE  LAl'LANDEKS. 

THERE  arc  certain  things  on  which  the  Laplanders  live,  whether  you  look  to  the 
materials,  or  to  the  manufacture  and  manner  of  preparing  them,  common  with  those 
of  the  rest  of  the  Norwegian  jx;asants.  Concerning  these  it  is  not  my  intention  to  spiak, 
as  I  have  proposed  only  to  mention  something  of  that  kind  of  food  which  is  ix;culiar  to 
the  Laplanders,  from  the  nature  of  the  materials  and  manufacture. 

'I'licy  Ixiil  the  milk  of  the  rein-deer  in  summer,  infusing  their  liquor  called  Syrc,  until, 
tinctured  with  the  colour  of  that  lujuor,  it  comes  to  a  consistency.  The  milk  which  in 
autumn,  especially  about  the  festival  of  All  Saints,  is  taken  from  the  rein-deer,  is  iwuied 
into  casks  or  other  vessels  destined  for  this  purpose,  where,  from  the  heat  still  remaining 
in  the  air,  it  grows  sour,  and  soon  after,  the  cold  gradually  increasing,  it  is  condensed 
into  ice,  by  which  means  it  can  be  preserved,  and  is,  the  whole  winter.  The  milk,  which 
after  the  festival  of  All  Saints  comes  from  the  rein,  deer,  mixed  with  berries  of  a  black 
colour,  which  the  Norwegians  call  Kraefebaer,  is  poured,  purged,  and  clear  from  filth, 
into  a  rein-deer's  bladder,  where,  by  the  force  of  the  cold,  it  thickens  in  a  short  time. 
This  is  their  winter  nourishment,  which,  when  the  Laplanders  are  going  to  eat  (the} 
eat  it  during  winter  once  a  day,  about  noon)  they  cut  with  an  axe  a  piece  from  tin- 
bladder,  to  which  the  milk,  mingled  with  berries,  stick,  so  that  the  skin  of  the  bladder, 
milk  and  berries,  thickened  with  the  cold  into  one  consistency,  are  cut  together  at  once. 
This  mass  of  milk,  mingled  with  berries,  and  part  of  the  bladder  of  the  rein-deer,  con- 
densed  with  cold,  is  afterwards  cut  into  a  variety  of  parts,  which  as  they  were  cut,  stift 
and  unthawed  by  the  application  of  heat,  are  put  on  plates,  to  be  eaten.  Whilst  they 
are  eating  their  teeth  gnash  with  the  cold,  notwithstanding  there  cannot  be  in  the  milk 
of  the  rein-deer,  from  its  natural  fatness,  so  much  cold  as  m  the  milk  of  other  animals. 

The  milk  which  later,  and  when  the  winter  is  farther  advanced,  is  got  from  the  rein- 
deer, is  laid  up  in  bowls,  made  from  stocks  of  die  birch  tree,  where,  from  the  extremity 
of  the  cold,  it  is  soon  chan^'d  into  ice.  The  Laplander  does  not  use  this  congealed  milk 
himself,  but  keeps  it  for  his  missioniuy  and  others,  whom  he  is  pleased  to  receive  with 
magnificence  and  honour.  When  this  milk  is  ever  to  be  eaten,  the  bowl,  in  which  it 
has  congealed,  inclined  a  little,  is  placed  near  the  fire-side,  whilst  the  surface  of  the  con- 
gealed milk,  turned  to  the  fire,  gradually  liquifies  ;  which  when  done,  the  bowl  is  taken 
up,  and  whatever  milk  is  thawed  by  the  heat  of  the  fire  is  eaten  with  a  spoon  ;  this  is 
repeated  until  they  are  satisfied.  Congealed  milk  of  this  sort  is  protected  against  the 
wind  by  a  cover,  which,  if  neglected,  would  lose  in  a  short  time  its  sweetness  and  white- 
ness, and,  tinged  with  yellow,  would  soon  become  rancid. 

The  Laplanders  make  cheese  from  the  rein-deer's  milk,  and  in  the  making  of  it  ob- 
serve this  form  :  first,  they  mingle  water  with  the  milk,  which  otherwise,  by  reason  of 
its  thickness,  when  the  rennet  was  put  in,  could  not  be  dissolved  nor  separated ;  then 
they  heat  it  over  the  fire  in  a  kettle ;  when  heated,  the  rennet  is  poured  in,  by  which 
the  milk  is  instantly  dissolved,  and  the  whey,  being  separated,  is  formed  into  cheese. 
Lastly,  they  take  the  cheese  out  of  the  kettle,  in  any  shape  it  takes,  or  to  be  pressed  and 
formed  in  a  linen  cloth.  The  cheese  itself  is  fashioned  into  a  circular  form,  of  a  mo- 
derate  thickness.  It  is  eaten  at  will,  either  as  it  is,  or  boiled  in  water ;  sometimes  it  is 
roasted,  which  is  done  in  this  manner :  the  cheese  is  cut  into  small  parts,  which,  when 
pared,  are  put  near  the  fire  to  roast ;  which  is  repeated  at  the  will  of  the  feeder.  So 
much  does  this  cheese  abound  with  fat,  that  on  being  put  to  the  fire  it  bums  as  a  candle. 
It  is  thought  also  a  cure  for  a  kibe  on  the  heel.    That  rennet,  by  which  rein-deer  milk 

3e2 


396 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LREMS. 


1    ' 
I 

'1, 

il 


is  turned  and  made  into  cheese,  consists  of  a  whey,  in  which  the  paunch  of  an  ass,  or  tlie 
ciitruils  ut  a  ic  in-clcer,  huve  for  sonic  time  lain. 

BuUer  is  also  made  from  the  milk  of  the  rein-deer,  of  a  white  colour,  but  not  so  rich 
and  well  tasted  as  what  is  made  of  cow's ;  the  reason  is  obvious,  that  this  is  made  from 
creuu),  but  that  from  mere  fresh  milk. 

The  UKiritime  Laplanders,  whose  herds  consist  of  oxen,  sheep,  and  goats,  make  butter 
from  cream  alone.  The  La|)laiid  woman,  occupied  in  the  making  of  butter,  sits  on  the 
ground,  holding  a  bowl  in  her  lap  filled  with  cream,  which  she  stirs  and  works  with  her 
finger  till  it  thickens  into  butler. 

The  mountain  Laplander  subsists  on  the  flesh  of  the  rein-deer,  fresh  killed,  through 
the  \^  hole  winter ;  hence  not  a  week  passes,  during  the  season,  in  which  he  does  not 
kill  one  or  two,  if  the  family  is  numerous,  'i'he  flesh  is  cut  up  into  pieces,  which,  un- 
washed and  co\'ered  with  dirt,  is  put  into  a  kettle.  It  is  dressed  at  a  slow  fire,  put  to 
the  one  side  of  the  kettle,  that  the  fat  which  sticks  into  the  flesh  should  be  the  better 
extracted.  From  the  meat,  when  sufliciently  boiled,  the  oil  which  lies  above  is  skimmed 
oil'  with  a  ladle,  put  into  a  vessel,  sprinkled  with  salt,  and  put  aside.  Then  each  piece, 
taken  rough  from  the  kettle,  is  put  on  a  dish,  while  the  broth  is  left  to  stand.  When 
put  on  the  table,  the  father  of  the  family,  with  his  whole  household,  sits  down  round 
the  dish,  which  is  of  a  circular  shape.  Whilst  eating,  they  dip  the  bits  in  the  oil 
squeezed  from  the  fat  of  the  flesh,  which  is  put  in  a  vessel ;  these  they  take  not  with 
a  fork,  but  with  the  point  of  a  knife.  In  the  kettle  where  the  broth  remains,  when 
the  meat  is  taken  out,  is  a  little  ladle,  with  which  they  sup  a  little  of  the  broth  while 
they  are  eating.  This  broth  consists  of  mere  water,  without  any  mixture  of  flour,  or 
such  like,  and  is  well  tasted  from  the  meat  lx)iled  in  it  alone.  It  is  said  bv  some,  that 
the  Laplanders  feed  on  raw  flesh,  but  in  all  contradiction  of  truth.  The  mountain  Lap- 
lander, besides  the  flesh,  boils  the  legs  of  the  rein-deer,  fixsh  killed,  and,  when  suffi- 
ciently boiled,  takes  them  out  for  the  marrow.  A  dish  of  this  kind  is  among  this  |)eo- 
ple  of  any  price  ;  certain  it  is,  it  is  usually  set  before  a  missionary,  as  something  pecu- 
liar and  delicate.  The  entrails  of  the  rein-deer,  which  are  not  boiled  in  the  same  kettle 
with  the  meat,  are  food  yet  for  tiie  Laplanders.  So  economically  does  he  convert  every 
part  of  the  animal  he  has  killed  to  his  use,  that  not  even  the  bones,  in  which  any 
fat  or  marrow  may  be  left,  are  given  to  the  dogs,  but,  after  he  has  picked  them,  he 
breaks  them,  and  takes  care  to  extract  whatever  fat  may  remain,  by  boiling.  While 
he  is  engaged  in  this,  he  is  seated  on  the  ground,  and  on  the  rein-deer's  hide,  which  is 
spread  out  on  his  lap,  he  breaks  the  bones  with  a  mallet ;  when  broken,  boils  them,  un- 
til whatever  fat  be  in  them  is  extracted.  The  lungs  are  given  to  the  dogs ;  for  the 
mountain  Laplander,  when  a  rein-deer  is  killed,  usually  distributes  among  the  dogs, 
Avhich  he  must  have  to  guard  and  protect  the  rein-deer.  I  knew  a  Laj)lander  who  lived 
on  the  mountains,  named  Oluf  Nielsen  (that  is,  son  of  Nicolas)  Aujevare,  who  kept 
eigb*  of  these  watch  dogs.  But  they  can  bear  himger  to  an  incredible  degree ;  lor, 
wi*!  ne  exception  of  these  lungs  just  mentioned,  the  miserable  famished  animnls  get 
nt  "g  besides  a  little  broth  made  from  the  blood  of  the  animal,  called  in  Lapland 
Vuori  .tiaellc,  which  is  given  to  them  in  the  morning,  and  of  the  meat  in  the  evening, 
to  be  consumed. 

The  Laplanders,  as  was  said,  not  only  boil  the  meat,  but  roast  it  on  a  spike,  the  end 
of  which  is  fastened  in  the  ground.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  Laplanders  are  very 
fond  of  every  thing  roasted,  esjKcially  of  meats.  The  roasted,  of  which  they  are  so 
fond,  is  not  put  on  spits,  but  spikes,  nor  basted  with  butter.  From  what  is  said  on  this 
subject,  it  is  plain  that  the  flesh  of  the  rein-deer,  fresh,  is  the  ordinary  food  of  the  Lap- 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LRBMS. 


397 


lander,  and  that  he  makes  little  or  no  use  of  it  salted.  For  it  would  be  unnecessary  to 
sprinkle  with  b;ilt  d)e  Hesh  of  animals  which  arc-  killed  in  autumn  and  winter  (for  in  the 
summer  season  the  Laplanders  rarely  kill)  as  they  are  best  preserved  by  that  very  ex- 
treme  of  cold  itself. 

Yet  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  mountain  Laplander,  through  repetition  and  lan- 
guor of  the  constant  use  of  fresh  meat,  takes  care  to  smoke,  for  the  sake  of  variety,  some 
ribs  of  the  rein-deer,  and  those  when  raw,  which  he  first  stabs  with  the  point  of  a 
knife,  that  the  smoke  may  more  easily  tind  entrance.  And  when  this  is  done,  he  puts 
them  up  between  the  poles  and  rafters,  of  whieh,  in  chapter  the  fifth,  speaking  of  the  habi- 
tations of  Laplanders,  we  treated.  Besides  the  meat  of  the  rein-deer,  whicn  the  moun- 
tain  Laplandei's,  and  the  beef  and  mutton,  which  the  maritime  ones  use,  the  flesh  of 
bears,  foxes,  otters,  seals,  and  such  animals,  are  eatable  among  them,  with  the  exception 
of  the  swine,  which  is  interdicted  to  the  Laplander. 

The  Laplanders  engaged  in  fishing  for  salmon  cut  from  this  fish,  as  the  Norwegians 
do  from  the  larger  flounder,  long  slices,  called  in  Norwegian  Ravreffling  ;  but  though 
the  salmon  is  a  nobler  fish  than  the  greater  flounder,  yet  the  pieces  of  this  arc  better 
tasted.     The  salmon  is  cut  from  head  to  tail  into  two  equal  parts,  a  variety  of  cuts 
being  indented  in  its  flesh,  and  then  hung  up  to  dry  in  the  sun. 

The  Laplanders  live  on  fish  that  is  dried  and  pounded,  without  any  preparatory  dress* 
ing,  dipping  each  bit  into  oil  squeezed  from  the  entrails  of  the  fish  (oil  of  this  kind  is 
called  in  Norwegian  Tran)  and,  what  you  may  be  more  surprised  at,  the  mother 
gives  this  food  to  the  infant  at  her  breast.  She  chews  a  bit,  before  dipped  in  oil,  and, 
when  chewed,  puts  it  in  the  mouth  of  the  infant,  who  is  thus  accustomed  to  this  oil 
from  his  cradle.  And  hence  it  is  that  oil  of  this  kind  to  the  Laplander,  whose  natural 
appetite  is  changed,  is  more  agreeable  and  pleasing  than  butter.  But  though  it  is  true 
that  the  Laplanders  are  much  delighted  with  this  oil,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  true,  which 
some  author  asserts  with  suflicient  confidence,  that  every  Laplander  consumes  a  pint  and 
a  half  of  this  very  unctuous  and  rancid  liquor  at  each  meal.  Nor  have  I  ever  observed, 
what  yet  the  same  author  seriously  contends,  that  every  woman,  when  brought  to  bed, 
drinks  in  like  manner  a  pint  and  a  half  of  this  said  oil,  for  increasing  her  strength.  I  do 
not  yet  doubt  that  a  small  portion  is  given  to  a  woman  when  near  her  time,  which  is 
thought  to  assist  and  strengthen  her  when  in  labour. 

Those  who  are  in  distress,  through  want  of  dried  fish,  put  on  the  embers  the  dried 
heads  and  backs  of  fish,  in  which  there  is  any  meat  left,  and  when  done  eat  it. 

Dried  fish,  the  broiled  heads  and  back-bones  of  them,  the  marrow  of  seals,  cut  into 
long  pieces,  which,  together  with  the  fish,  before  put  into  the  pot  to  be  boiled,  were  some 
little  time  put  up  in  the  bladder  of  a  seal,  that  the  fat  might  be  the  easier  extracted ;  all 
these  collected  and  mixed  they  usually  boil  together.  A  half  hour  at  least  is  consumed 
in  the  boiling  a  fish,  which,  when  boiled  sufficiently  with  the  other  ingredients  just  men- 
tioned, are  eaten  together.  They  dip  the  fish  in  a  certain  liquor,  not  unlike  common  oil, 
which  exudates  from  the  marrow  in  the  bladder  of  the  seal. 

And  as  it  is  customary  with  the  Laplanders  to  roast  their  flesh  by  a  fire  on  spikes,  so 
do  they  dress  fish  in  the  same  manner ;  for  instance,  in  the  dressing  of  the  greater  codfish 
they  use  this  method :  from  this  fish,  when  fresh  taken,  they  first  take  out  the  entrails, 
then  the  liver,  and  stuflP  it,  and  then  put  it  on  the  spit  to  roast  by  the  fire,  and,  seated  on 
the  ground,  they  place  a  dish  in  their  lap,  and  cut  out  the  belly  ;  and,  since  more  time 
is  tiken  up  in  dressing  the  liver  than  in  roasting  the  fish,  they  put  it,  pounded,  and  not 
yet  fully  roasted,  on  a  heated  stone,  that  all  rawness  being  removed  by  these  means  from 
it,  they  may  eat  it  with  the  rest  of  the  fish  without  any  illness. 


'J7 


•£lt 


11 


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!'  t 


II 


398 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPI.AND  OY  LKR.MS. 


The  liver  of  fibh  is  boiled,  and  while  trailing  \h  stirred  with  a  ludle,  until  it  changes  into 
a  bort  of  a  pulse,  which  ib  mingled  widi  black  tx-rries,  called  in  the  Norwegian  Krafe- 
baer.  Fo(xl  of  this  sort  is  taken  with  snoons,  without  bix'ad,  which  they  never,  even 
with  the  fattest  foods,  make  use  of.  'I'liat  the  Laplanders  bliould  draw  on  them- 
selves a  variety  of  diseases,  from  the  frequent  use  of  such  unwholesijuie  meats,  you  would 
easily  believe  ;  but  that  it  is  otherwise,  the  experience  of  many  years  has  enough  and 
more  than  enough  confirmed ;  that  not  only  the  Laplanders,  who  inhabit  this  tract  of 
country,  but  almost  all,  are  men  of  very  great  strength,  and  very  healthy.  The  various 
kinds  of  disorders,  and  whole  battalions  of  fevers,  that  range  the  world,  are  banished 
from  this  place ;  for,  during  the  space  of  ten  years  I  have  been  in  Finmark,  I  could 
not  find  any  trace  of  dysentery,  of  leprosy,  of  malignant  fever,  and  such  contagious 
maladies.  The  said  foods,  such  as  dried,  pounded  fish,  dipjK'd  in  oil  pressed  from  die 
liver  of  the  fish,  dried  heads  and  back  Ijones  done  on  heated  stones,  fresh  fish  boiled 
with  the  marrow  of  seals,  and  dipped  in  oil  pressed  from  the  entrails  of  fish  ;  the  greater 
codfish  (this  the  Norwegians  call  Hyse,  or  Kolje)  stufi'ed  with  its  liver,  and  raisted,  asalso 
the  liver  beat  up  with  a  spattic,  and  mingled  with  a  kind  of  black  berry  much  in  use 
among  the  maritime  Laplanders.  The  mountain  Laplanders  contrive  to  get  now  and 
then  for  themselves  a  few  sea-fish  frozen  with  the  ice,  which,  by  reason  of  the  extreme 
cold  raging  on  the  mountain  tops  for  a  very  long  time,  can  easily  preserve  them  safe 
through  the  whole  winter.  From  fish  of  this  kind  they  acquire  a  food,  which  cannot 
but  be  to  them,  so  much  accustomed  to  live  on  rein-deer,  as  delicious,  as  it  is  rare. 
The  maritime  Laplander  frequently,  the  mountiiineer  more  rarely,  make  themselves  a 
broth  from  water  and  meal,  with  which  they  mingle  tallow,  to  make  it  more  savory. 
They  usually  put  the  tallow  into  a  certain  entrail  called  in  Lapland  Doggie,  which,  when 
stuffed,  resembles  a  long  pudding.  The  tallow  itself,  before  it  is  mingled  with  the  broth, 
is  beat  with  the  intestine,  with  which  it  is  so  bound  up.  Besides,  pieces  of  fresh  meat  and 
cheese  of  the  rein-deer,  cut  small,  are  put  into  this  broth,  to  render  the  relish  more  sa- 
vory. 

Another  broth  (Vuorra-maelle)  is  in  use  among  the  mountaineers,  made  from  water, 
blood,  pounded  tallow,  and  meal,  if  .1  plenty.  The  blood,  which  makes  up  part  of  this 
broth,  is  poured  from  the  bladder  of  the  rein-deer,  where  it  is  kept  frozen  by  the  cold 
the  whole  of  the  winter.  When  the  broth  is  ready,  a  piece  of  the  frozen  blood,  with 
piu-t  of  the  skin,  is  cut  from  the  bladder,  and  then  put  into  a  kettle,  to  be  boiled ;  they 
usually  dine  the  whole  of  the  winter  on  broth  of  this  kind.  They  sometimes  make 
cakes,  from  a  mixture  of  wati :  and  fine  flour,  which  they  bake  on  burning  coals. 

There  are  certain  foods  prepared  by  the  L;iplanders,  not  so  much  for  the  sake  of 
satisfying  the  natural  wants,  as  for  the  delight  and  gratification  of  the  palate  :  for  in- 
stance, they  scrape  or  pure  oft"  the  white  coveriiig  or  bark,  with  which  firs  or  birch- 
trees  are  surrounded,  with  a  knife,  which  some,  in  its  fresh  state,  others  when  dried  in 
smoke,  and  dipped  in  oil  pressed  from  the  fat  of  the  fish,  cat.  In  the  place  of  apples, 
nuts,  and  other  productions  of  this  kind,  diey  eat,  for  their  amusement,  Angelica,  not 
the  root  itself,  l:)ut  the  herb,  and  that  very  frequently  in  its  rdw  state,  and  sometimes 
baked  on  coals,  or  boiled  in  milk.  In  the  early  spring,  when  the  snow  is  giving  way, 
they  usually  gather  berries,  which  during  the  winter  were  covered  with  snow,  for 
use. 

I  myself  have  seen  boys  chewing  the  thick  weed,  which  the  sea  throws  upon  the  shore, 
which  is  not  unlike  a  thong  of  leather,  or  a  whip.  The  Laplanders  are  very  eager  after 
tobacco,  which  they  one  time  chew,  at  another  lighted,  they  draw  in  smoke  through 
a  pii)e  of  clay.    While  chewing,  they  spit  out  also  into  the  hollow  of  the  hand,  and  Uie 


I* 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH   I.APLAND  HV  LfX^Jf 


399 


spittle,  tinged  with  the  colour  and  taste  of  tobacco,  thiy  tajjcrly  snuff,  regaling  two  sen- 
scM  utoiice,  the  smell  and  taste,  with  one  piece  of  tobacco.  They  make  also  u  snutV  of 
the  same  tobacco,  with  which,  if  any  thing  is  mingled,  it  is  Castor.  And  indeed,  that 
they  should  give  the  stronger  proof  of  their  mad  fundness,  or  rather  mad  desire,  for  tol)ac> 
CO,  when  in  want  of  it,  they  do  not  svTuple  to  chew  the  rollers  pucki-d  up  in  the  tobacco, 
and,  what  you  will  express  greater  surprise  at,  the  little  dirty  leather  bags,  in  which  they 
keep  their  tobacco,  when  cut  into  small  bits. 

Among  the  Laplanders,  especially  the  rustics  inhabiting,  Finmark  there  is  a  custom, 
that,  when  in  a  scarcity  of  tobacco,  ten  or  even  inorc  smoke  by  turns  from  the  same  piiJC. 
Till)  so  order  it ;  thi  y  set  down  in  u  circle,  then  he  who  i«i  fonil  of  a  piix:  and  tobacco, 
after  a  few  whiH's,  from  his  seat  offers  the  pipe  to  him  who  sets  next  to  hun,  who,  taking 
also  t^vo  or  three  whiff->,  pusses  the  pipe  to  his  next  man,  and  thus  on,  until  the  owner 
shall  have  e(]ually  shared  it  among  all  his  companions ;  u  courtesy  of  this  kind  is  es- 
teemed very  lilxiral  and  honourable  in  that  nation,  and  he  who  [Krforms  it  obtains  con- 
siderable favour  among  them. 

The  daily  and  ordinary  drink  of  the  maritime  Laplander,  as  well  as  mountaineer,  is 
cold  water,  mingled  with  snow ;  for  snow,  vviien  at  hand,  is  always  mingled  with  their 
drink ;  and  hence  it  Ibllows,  that  the  veracity  of  this  author  is  questionable,  who  asserts 
that  the  Laplanders  hist  heat  in  u  brazen  kettle  over  the  fire  the  water  they  intend  to 
drink.  In  the  inside  of  the  cot,  as  well  as  hut,  is  a  brazen  kettle  or  tub,  fUled  with  wa- 
ter. See  chanter  the  fifth,  on  the  houses  of  the  Laplanders,  and  tub,  which  filled  with 
water,  w  hen  they  choose,  the)  drink  of. 

Tiie  mountaineer,  fearing  the  want  of  water,  generally  builds  his  cot  on  marshy 
grounds  ;  yet  sometinies  it  happens,  and  that  not  seldom,  that  he  is  obliged  to  build  in 
dry,  where,  through  want  of  u  spring,  he  is  compelled  to  drink  snow  melted  over  the 
fii-e,  a  bitter  and  very  unpleasant  drink,  on  account  of  the  very  bad  taste  which  snow 
melted  in  an  open  ketUe  contracts,  as  well  from  the  kettle,  as  the  smoke.  Coming  into 
places  where  the  water,  by  reason  of  the  ice  that  covers  it,  or  any  other  cause,  cannot  be 
easily  got,  the  Laplanders  procure  drink  for  themselves  in  this  manner  :  they  put  down 
at  the  one  end  a  hollow  bone,  or  an  earthern  tube,  into  die  water,  holding  the  upper  in 
their  mouth,  and  thus,  as  by  a  pump,  drink. 

The  Lapland  Mf^untaineer,  riding  in  winter  through  the  mountains,  usually  takes  his 
axe  in  his  sledge  with  him,  by  which,  on  his  journey  over  lakes  and  rivers  frozen  with 
cold,  he  cuts  the  ice,  and  inclining  a  little  with  his  body,  sitting  in  his  sledge,  he 
drinks. 

And  this  is  sufficient  on  the  meat  and  drink  of  the  Lapland  people.  But  it  deserves  to  be 
noticed,  that  the  offices  of  cook  are  performed  by  males,  not  by  females,  among  them;  for 
it  is  the  father  of  the  family  himself  that  puts  the  meat  and  things  into  the  pot  to  be  got 
ready ;  while  dressing,  he  sits  by  them,  and  takes  care,  that  when  boiled  and  got 
ready  they  are  laid  on  the  table.  The  Laplanders  rarely  wash  and  clean  their  pots  and 
kettles.  The  plates,  out  of  which  they  eat  their  pottage,  tbey  clean,  by  licking  with  their 
tongue. 


CHAP.  VIII OF  THE  VARIOUS  FURNITURE  AND  UTENSILS  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THE  whole  economy  of  the  Laplanders  is  simple  and  short,  so  as  not  to  stand  in 
need  of  much  furniture,  nor,  if  filled  up  with  it,  could  they  commodiously  make  use  of 
it.    The  Laplande<^  '^f  the  mountain  inhabit  a  small  cot,  w)iich,  here  to-day,  to-morrow 


40C) 


AUCUUN'i   UF  DANIMII  LAIM.WII  IIV  IXCMfl. 


l\ 


iH  taken  down,  unci  fixed  elsewhere.  Nur  do  the  maritime  Laplanders  fix  their  al)ode 
less  compactly,  so  that  an  abundance  of  furniture  would  Ix*  rather  an  inipedimcnt,  than 
use,  to  him.  'I'here  ore  no  sieats,  no  tables,  to  be  met  with  m  t!ieir  habitutionti.  A  llw 
pans,  kettles,  l)owls,  and  wooden  dishes,  which  aa-  ni.ide  of  birch,  stocks,  H.i^^jns  of 
tin,  horn  spoons,  and  other  vases  of  this  sort,  of  little  value  and  account,  make  up  the 
whole  of  their  household  furniture.  .Some  have  di?thes  of  tin,  and  some,  who  are  more 
opulent,  sometimes  possess  a  few  silver  spoons.  The  pots  in  use  amtjng  the  L.ipl.uiders 
are  without  feet,  ami  can  conveniently  Ik  so  ;  for  as  in  tin.  ir  habitations,  when  the  Hooring 
consists  of  mere  branches  of  trees  strcwcd  over  the  bare  )^(juud,  it  coulil  easily  happen, 
that  if  these  |)ots  had  feet,  when  placed  on  them,  they  could  not  stand  firm.  'I'he  hooks, 
by  which  these  kettles  and  |M)ts  are  held  over  the  lire,  amon^  the  moinitaineers,  are  in)n, 
but  among  the  inhabitants  of  tlie  coast  are  made  of  wood.  It  is  a  custom  among  tlicm  to 
keep  salt  in  the  skin  of  a  pigeon.  The  lamps,  which  supply  the  place  of  candles,  in  the 
huts  of  the  maritime  Laplanders  (the  mountaineers  use  none,  contented  with  the  light 
which  the  glowing  fire  furnishes)  are  fabricated  from  wood,  surrounded  with  a  wooden 
circle.  In  the  lamp  itself  is  put  u  shell,  which  in  Norwegian  is  caiieu  Har|x.--Skioel,  that 
is,  the  Harp-shell,  filled  with  oil  pressed  from  the  liver  of  fish,  a  certain  niaishy  weed, 
cidled  in  Lapland  Sinok,  being  used  in  the  place  of  a  link.  For  cradles  they  make  use 
of  a  hollow  trunk  (they  call  it  themselves  Gieedk.)  In  this  the  infant,  wrap|Kd  in  wooll- 
en clothes  and  skins,  and  fastened  with  a  twisted  ro)K',  going  oAen  round  the  cnidle,  lies. 
In  that  part  of  the  trunk  M'hich  the  head  of  the  infant  occupies  is  a  certain  bending,  repre- 
senting a  small  arch,  formed  by  a  skin  expanded  over  nieces  of  wood,  to  cover  the  head 
of  the  child  in  it,  From  this  arch  or  bend  is  n  corcl  drawn  along  die  cradle,  length- 
wise, to  which  is  annexed  a  thread  with  beads,  and  with  this  the  infant,  when  loosened, 
delights  to  play.  This  cradle,  with  the  infant  in  it,  the  mother,  when  wishing  to  hush  it, 
usually  puts  in  her  lap ;  when  going  to  walk,  on  her  back  ;  and  to  ride,  in  the  vcliiclc  or 
bledge. 

CHAP.  IX OF  THE  HEIN-DEER,  AND  THEIR  MANAGEMENT  BY  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THE  rein-deer  couple  about  the  end  of  autumn,  but  bring  forth  in  spring.  The 
elder  among  the  male,  and  superior  in  powers  among  the  herd,  called  in  the  Lapland 
Aino-valdo,  drives  off  competitors,  unequal  to  him  either  in  years  or  sta-ngth,  from  the 
view  and  contact  of  the  females.  It  is  an  opinion  with  many,  that  the  females  of  this  ani- 
mal do  not  produce  their  young  but  in  the  most  tempestuous  season,  clouded  with  mists 
of  snow  and  hail,  whence  the  storm,  which  in  spring,  after  seed-time,  arises,  is  commonly 
called  Rein-Kalve-Rein,  the  time  of  bringing  forth  the  young,  in  the  Norwegian  lan- 
guage. But  this  opinion  is  erroneous,  and  justly  exploded :  for  it  follows  of  course, 
and  the  order  of  nature  requires,  that  the  rein-deer,  like  other  dams,  should  necessarilj', 
when  the  time  comes,  bring  forth,  nor  can  they  bear  the  young  beyond  the  appointed 
time,  whatever  state  of  temjierature  the  air  may  be  in.  Some  bear  yearly,  called  Aldo ; 
others  every  other  year,  called  Rodno ;  and  some  iu-e  constantly  barren,  which  they  call 
Stainak.  The  young  soon  drop  their  horns  when  born,  and  instantly  from  their  birth 
take  delight  in  the  wonderful  swiftness  of  their  legs,  in  which  they  are  found  in  a  short 
time  to  equal  their  dams.  Every  dam  distinguishes  her  own  from  the  rest  of  the  herd, 
by  the  scent  alone. 

The  young  rein-deer  (I  mean  those  whose  dams  arc  of  an  ash-colour,  for  the  white 
generate  white)  when  first  born,  are  red,  with  a  black  line  ninning  along  the  back 


ACCOl  Ml'  01'  DAMdII  LAI'I.ANW  11^   I.KKM^ 


101 


din'ctly,  and  arc  then  called  MIcsse.  This  colour  endures  till  nutiimn,  when  it  clianj^cs 
into  a  hriiwnish  and  well  nigh  dark  culour,  red  hairs  diHtinguishiiig  the  greatest  part, 
when  they  are  ealltd  Xhierniuk.  The  youtij^  are  p;enerally  ash  coloured,  sonu-  white  with 
ttsh  spots  iKtwecn,  and  some  altogeU»er  whitr,  'I'hose  of  an  ash  colour,  when  the  winter 
gets  advanced,  and  is  drawing  to  a  close,  and  they  are  changing  their  furs,  change  then 
their  ash  colour  for  a  dark  gray,  but  these  fresh  hairs  increasing  more  and  more,  be- 
come insensibly  dark  and  sleek  in  the  end. 

The  male  by  far  surpasses  the  female,  called  I)y  the  Nonvegians  Simpler,  in  the  size  of 
the  Ixxly.  A  great  many  of  these,  evcti  some  from  the  females,  are  distinguished  by 
their  high  and  branching  horns  ;  some,  but  few,  are  altogether  destitute  of  thtm.  In 
some  a  single  horn  only  comes  out ;  these  the  Laplanders  call  Abmel.  Those  who 
Ixar  horns  lose  them  once  u  year,  in  the  spring  time.  When  the  old  are  fallen  off, 
new  ones  in  a  short  time  grow  up,  which  at  first  come  out  from  the  forehead,  like  two 
dark  downy  apples  ;  when  they  have  gradually  increased,  the  skin,  with  which  they  arc 
covered,  puts  on  an  ash  colour,  but  at  the  approach  of  autumn,  when  they  have  ob- 
tained their  full  growth,  shedding  their  coverings,  they  come  out  smooth.  Each  ani- 
mal  sustains  two  very  large  horns,  which  at  the  bottom  arc  thicker,  but  a  little  above, 
suppose  in  each  horn,  a  lesser  branch  grows  out  resembling  a  pointed  |ilate,  not  unlike 
the  p;ilm  of  the  hand,  with  its  fingers  extended.  This  brancn  is  called  in  Lapland  Aude- 
Giet.  Above  the  s;iid  branches,  es|H'cially  in  the  males,  other  small  points,  or  little 
branches,  project,  and  near  to  the  highest  point  of  each  horn  is  another  pointed  plate, 
called  in  Lapland  Liedme  or  Zhioaarve-Sleddo.  At  the  root  of  the  other  horn  is  ex- 
tended  another  pointed  plate,  called  Galb,  a  little  larger,  which  is  sonxetimes  turned 
downwards  to  the  nose  of  the  animal,  and  which  is  usually  cut  off,  lest  it  should  hinder 
it  whilst  fectling.  The  horns  of  some  wild  rein-deer  are  of  such  magnitude  and  size 
as  to  weigh  eighteen  pounds.  Anu  as,  just  said,  rein-deer  carry  branching  horns,  so 
docs  it  happen,  and  not  rarely,  that  struggling  with  each  other,  they  get  so  entangled, 
that  without  the  help  of  man  they  cannot  be  sundered  and  disengaged  from  each 
other.  The  greatest  fat  of  this  animal  is  on  his  loins,  and  among  the  rein-deer  are 
found  some  who  are  so  fat  in  these  parts,  that  in  the  autumn,  before  they  go  to  the 
females,  they  are  found  to  be  more  than  a  full  span  in  thickness. 

The  rein-deer  are  annoyed  the  whole  summer  by  certain  flies,  or  insects,  which,  getting 
into  the  nostrils,  miserably  worry  them.  This  animal  is  subject  to  a  variety  of  ills.  A 
certain  malady  resembling  the  pox  rages  among  them,  by  which  so  great  is  the  havoc, 
that  a  Laplander,  wh3  had  a  large  range  of  rein-deer,  could  perceive  that  he  would 
be  stripped  of  a  very  great  mimber,  if  not  all  of  them,  in  a  short  time. 

Certain  worms  that  get  into  the  flesh,  short  and  thick,  called  in  Lapland  Gurma,  near 
the  back  of  the  rein-deer,  especially  when  in  their  first  year,  are  also  generated  in  the 
spring  time.  The  Laplanders  sometimes  dig  out  wonns  of  this  sort,  and  the  rein-deer 
itself  ejects  them  through  the  nostrils,  with  a  snorting  and  neighing.  They  eat 
through  the-skin  of  the  animal,  and  occasion  that  the  skins  which  arc  stripped  from 
the  rein-deer  in  spring-time  are  esteemed  far  inferior  to  others.  There  is  a  certain 
worm,  which  is  called  in  Lapland  Saul,  not  rarely  found  under  the  tongue  of  the  rein- 
deer. In  some  the  neck  is  subject  to  swellings,  in  others  the  ears,  smelling  very  strong ; 
sometimes  it  happens  that  the  joint  next  the  hoof  is  diseased.  The  animal  when  walk- 
ingis  agitated,  and  brings  out  a  very  loud  noise. 

But  the  rein-deer  is  an  animal  of  the  greatest  speed,  because  within  the  shortest  space 
of  time  an  immense  journey  can  be  performed,  though  he  is  not  governed  as  a  horse, 
with  reins,  but  inclining  now  on  this  side,  now  on  that,  in  his  course  he  makes  n 

VOL.    I.  3    F 


'i 


J. 


M> 


403 


irNT  or  DAN1HII  I.APl.ANn  BV  ITRMH. 


winding  nnd  tonp;cr  truck,  which  \%  ctutily  collected  from  the  trucks  he  hn«  left  in  tlic 
Know.  Within  the  spucc  uf  six  huiint,  uiul  |K'rhu|)H  u  shorter  time,  from  the  rising  to 
the  netting  <iiin,  1  completed  with  a  single  rein-deer,  in  the  month  of  Kehruary,  when  the 
Mint  wuH  Hcurce  three  weeks  apparent  in  the  horizon,  u  journey  of  eight  entire  Norwegian 
mik'it,  Irom  the  Norwegian  chapel  of  Mazi,  which,  at  the  time  of  the  n)yal  mission  for 
the  iKiKJit  ot  the  Laplanders  ol  the  mountuins,  l>elonging  rormerly  to  the  congregation 
of  Alten,  was  htiilt  upon  a  rising  groin\d,  to  Koudekeino. 

As  the  reindeer  is  tleet  in  running,  ho  is  he  not  inexpert  in  swimming ;  they  usually 
run  lull  of  playfulness  up  and  down,  tor  their  own  pleusure,  without  ujiv  one  driving 
them,  and  exult  as  if  through  joy,  us  1  myself  have  fre(pienUy  seen.  '1  he  Laplanders 
aflirm  that  the  rein-deer,  hy  siK)rting  in  playful  roinids  and  gamliols,  predict  a  storm  ut 
hand.  When  annoyed  hy  heat  and  summer,  they  usually  get  unon  the  higher  groundu, 
cutching  at  the  cold  for  rifreshment,  by  striking  the  ground  with  their  feet. 

The  principal  and  most  usual  fo(xl  of  this  animal  is  the  white  lichen,  which  in  winter 
the  rt  in-deer  traces  out  under  the  snow  ;  and  for  the  getting  at  it,  he  removes  the  snow 
with  his  feet  till  the  ground  is  clear ;  and  hence  along  those  places  the  herds  range  in  for 
pasture,  frecpiently,  gaps  and  holes  are  seen  in  the  snow.  Sometimes  too  it  happens 
that  the  fields  are  so  hard  with  ice,  or  so  covered  with  snow,  diat  it  is  not  in  the  power  of 
the  rein-deer  to  get  with  his  h(K)fs  at  the  lichen  that  lies  imdcr.  There  is  no  calamity  the 
Laplanders  dread  mon^  than  this;  for  under  this  attack  there  m  grcutrisk  lest  the  whole 
race  of  reindeer,  the  chief  strength  and  greatest  care  of  this  nation,  should  all  fail,  and 
doubtlessly  would,  were  not  the  impending  evil  averted  by  Divine  Providence.  VVhile 
the  reindeer  are  Ht''aying  in  the  plains  and  mountains  in  search  of  fixjd,  it  now  and  then 
happens  that  an  error  carries  away  some  Irom  the  rest  of  the  flock,  \\<>\v  fed  and  at  rest, 
into  the  dreary  and  uninhabited  parts  of  d»e  country,  where  they  fall  instantly  a  prey 
and  food  for  the  ravenous  wolf. 

The  domestic  rein-deer  that  the  Laplanders  have  live  constantly  in  the  ojK'n  air,  never 
coming  under  roof,  and  feed  in  the  Huininer  on  grass,  and  on  lichen  in  winter.  But  the 
Norwegian  pciisants,  some  of  whom  dwell  near  the  river  of  Alten,  famous  for  salmon, 
use  the  rein-deer  as  draft  cattle  in  the  place  of  horses,  keep  them  the  whole  of  winter  un- 
der shelter,  and  feed  them  with  wSitc  muse,  which  they  gather,  not  as  hay,  with  a  scythe, 
but  with  a  kind  of  spade,  adapted  for  the  purpose.  '1  he  rein-deer  arc  very  fond  of  hu- 
man urine,  from  the  quantity  of  salt  in  it ;  hence  no  sooner  do  they  see  it,  than  they 
hasten  up  in  order  toclrink,  and  if  on  the  snow,  they  tii*yit  up,  to  get  at  it.  They  range 
at  large  about  the  plains,  searching  for  mushrooms  aril  mice,  in  Norwegian  called  Le- 
maenner,in  Lapland  language  Godde-Saeppan,a  descripiion  of  which  I  have  given  in  chap- 
ter the  twelfth,  on  the  wild  beasts  of  Finmark.  They  eat  off  the  heads  of  the  mice  and 
greedily  devour  them,  throwing  away  the  rest  of  them.  As  the  ground  is  covered  with 
snow,  they  very  seldom  drink  water,  satisfied  with  the  snow  alone  to  quench  their  thirst. 
The  rein-deer  in  the  sledge  inclines  his  head  to  the  ground  to  take  up  a  little  snow  for 
allaying  thirst,  which  the  Laplanders  express  in  their  language,  Muottagiit  Gadzut,  that 
is,  to  drink  snow. 

That  snares  are  ever  laid  for  the  rein-deer  by  wolves  is  evident  enough  :  to  keep  these 
off,  the  Laplanders  expose  old  rags,  and  beams  covered  with  rags,  and  other  terrors  of 
this  kind.  But  ...ver  is  the  danger  greater  to  the  herd,  than  when  the  tempest  is  setting 
in,  for  then  this  most  savage  animal  furiously  attacks  them;  so  that  the  Laplander,  if  he 
has  fixed  his  habitation  in  a  place  infested  by  wolves,,  is  compelled,  together  with  his 
whole  family,  to  b«i  continually  on  the  watch,  if  he  wishes  to  preserve  his  herds.  The 
domestics  come  out  by  turns,  to  strike  against  the  sledge  with  a  stick,  that  the  enemy, 


ACCOUNT  or  DANNII  I.API.ANU  IIV  L»'.».Mk. 


4(>J 


icrrilkd  l>^'  the  muwA,  may  Ik-  tlrivcn  from  the  cattK-.     And  iiulotil  so  much  constant 
and  snpcrmtt  ndinijf  (arc  do  the  miHtrahk'  rcindirr  really  stand  in  need  ol",  who  ate  not 
only  wi.ik,  hut  c  vc-n  ntupid,  to  their  own  ruin,  aminsl  their  crafty  invader,  that  they  pie- 
Sf.nt  iheniHelves  to  him  as  the  enemy  ;  for  no  sooner  do  they  nmcll  the  wolf,  than  all,  as 
n>any  as  are,  rist  np,  takinf^  flinht,  not  when'  the  wolf  is,  but  to  another  (piarter,  when 
they  would  b<  St  considt  for  their  safety,  did  llu  y  remain  in  ([uiet   round  the  cot ;   ilu: 
treacherous  invader,  as  he  well  remarks  it,  pursues  thetn  as  they  fly,  and  nuserahly 
kilU  llu  in.     The  domestics  heurinf(  of  the  sudden  flight  of  the  rein-deer  which  lie  .ilxnit 
the  cot,  and  of  their  iK'ing  v  attered  through  the  plains,  easily  infer  that  the  wolf  is  not 
at  a  ^;reat  distance,  and  readily  hrin^  assistance,  yet  usually  too  late  for  the  herd,  who 
has  already  suflered.     Should  u  wolf  meet  a  rein-deer  in  the  meadows,  not  far  from  his 
dwelliiifr,  and  hhould  perceive  that  he  is  making  for  the  hut,  he  cunnin^;ly   strives  to 
prevent  his  reaching  it,  and  forces  him  to  make  for  the  forest,  where,  at  his  will,  and 
without  the  fear  of  any  assistance  being  brought  to  him,  he  invailes  his  prey.     The  wolf 
very  rarely  comes  up  with  the  rein-deer  H)  ing  up  the  hills ;  it  is  wh(;n  running  down 
the  declivities  he  overtakes  him  most  easily.     Should  he  only  lav  hold  of  him  by  the 
loins  with  his  grine,  but  lose  him  when  wounded,  he  seldom,  and  with  difficulty,  lays 
hold  of  him  again,  escaped  from  his  claws,   usually  evaded  by  the  swiftness  of  the 
wounded  i*ein-deer;  but  if  he  does,  hechoaks  him,  by  laying  hold  of  him  by  the  throat. 
I  myself  have  seen  six  rrin-deer  together,  whom,  near  the  col,  the  wolf  has  strangled, 
but  alarmed  by  the  sudden  coming  up  of  the  men,  hud  not  lorn  ;  so  that  when  their 
carcasses  lay  stretched  upon  the  snow  without  sign  of  lifcv  but  sound  and  unhurt  in  ap- 
i)earunce,  for  the  wolf  had  so  artificially  killed  lliem,  that  by  intvrcepling  '.!:."..  breath 
he  did  not  leave  the  least  mark  of  a  mortal   wound.     The   wolves  do  not  devour  the 
carcass  in  the  place  it  is  kilUd  in,  but  dragged  elsewhere  ;  and  what  is  truly  surprising, 
they  so  place  the  carcass  they  ure  going  to  devour,  that  the  head  should  be  to  the  east, 
and  the  tail  to  the  west,  which  jxisition  it  is  manifest,  from  the  remaining  skeletons,  they 
never  neglect.     The  crows  arc  attendants,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  on  the  devouring 
wolves,  who,  led  by  the  hope  of  prey,  always  and  everywhere  accompany  thtm ;  and 
hence  the  Laplanders  learn  from  their  croaking  that  the  wolf  is  not  far  oft'.    The  wolves 
themselves,  after  they  have  made  a  slaughter,  and  put  the  carcasses  underground,  usually 
set  up  a  howling.     Those  of  the  rein-dccr,  a  little  more  spirited,  boldly  oppose  them, 
selves  to  the  wolf,  and  sometimes  repel  the  invader,  of  which  I  remember  a  remarkable 
instance.     A  certain  Laplander  of  the  mountains,  from  the  bay  of  Porsanger,  by  name 
Mads  Pedersen,  that  is,  Matthias,  son  of  Peter,  had  a  male  rein-deer  without  horns :  two 
wolves  attacked  it  in  the  night,  but  with  little  success,  for  on  the  next  day  the  marks  of 
the  contest  were  visible  in  the  snow ;  by  which  it  most  clearly  appeared  that  the  con- 
(juering  rein-dcer  had  overthrown  both  the  wolves,  and  that  they  had  consulted  their 
safety  by  flight.     The  rein-deer,  though  he  withdrew  from  the  contest  as  superior  in  it, 
was  found,  having  exhausted  his  strength,  at  some  little  distance  from  the  place  of  con- 
test, dead.     The  wolf  generally  spares  the  rein-deer,  if  tied  up  ;  but  if  terrified,  he  ex- 
tricates himself  from  his  fastenings,  and  takes  flight,  he  instantly  pursues  the  fugitive, 
and,  unless  through  swiftness  he  escapes  the  enemy,  miserably  k'"**  him.     But  by  no 
probable  argument  is  it  proved,  though  some  have  with  too  mucii  confidence  affirmed 
it,  that  wolves  most  eagerly  thirst  after  the  blood  of  a  pregnant  rein-dcer,  and  that  they 
prefer  the  slaughter  of  it  to  that  of  men ;  a  property  of  this  is  ascribed  elsewhere  to  bears, 
by  those  who  are  learned  in  natural  history. 

Besides  these,  in  the  manage  ment  of  the  rein-deer  among  the  Laplanders,  the  follow, 
ing  are  to  be  noticed.     The  Laplanders  impress  a  mark  on  the  ears  of  their  rein-deer, 

3  F  2 


I 


$ 


d' 


.4 


•-  I 


404. 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISfl  LAPLAND  BV  LERMS 


that  each  may  be  enabled  hy  it  to  distinguish  his  own.  They  take  care  tliat  the  rein- 
deer, lest  tlicy  may  be  scattered,  and  thus  carried  out  of  the  way  and  into  pathless  places, 
should  be  led  within  the  space  of  every  civil  day  twice  to  the  cot  to  rest,  and  twice  into 
the  forest  to  pasture,  which  they  repeat  continually  night  and  diy,  not  intermitting  it  even 
ill  .he  middle  of  winter,  when  each  night,  from  the  setting  sun  to  day-break,  contains  at 
least  sixteen  hours.  Nor  is  there  any  one,  I  think,  who  is  but  slightly  skilled  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  astronomy,  to  whom  it  is  unknown,  ihat  the  sun  in  that  climate  altogether  re- 
cedes from  the  hoiizon  for  seven  weeks  together,  and  that,  lying  imder  the  lower  hemis- 
phc'v.-,  ItHves  for  full  day  but  the  twilight  of  a  few  hours ;  which  yet  is  not  so  dark,  with 
a  pure  and  serene  air.  but  you  can  do  without  a  candle  from  ten  in  the  morning  to  one  at 
noon  fo  '.vriting  and  other  business  of  this  sort,  even  when  the  days  arc  shortest.  And 
since  the  siui,  as  mentioned  above,  altogether  draws  off  its  light  from  the  horizon  of  that 
zone  at  u  certain  i  ason  of  the  year,  it  is  "asily  inferred  that  the  lesser  stars  are  visible  on 
the  shortest  diiys  about  noon,  ar.d  that  the  moon  itself  shines  not  only  by  nighty  but  all 
the  day.  After  the  space  of  seven  weeks  the  sun  returns,  to  restore  that  delightful  light 
to  man  a.id  beast,  as  it  were  with  usury ;  for  the  day  in  a  short  time  takes  such  and  so 
great  an  increase,  ut  the  oeginuing  of  April,  that  the  whole  darkness  of  the  night  begins 
to  disappti-r.  And  astlic  winter's  sun  withdraws  its  light  for  the  whole  space  of  seven 
weeks,  and  make^  the  day  at  its  shortest ;  so  the  sum)ner's  sun,  in  cum,  repairs  that  loss, 
the  nocturnal  and  diurnal  light  lasting  for  the  space  oL*  as  knany  weeks :  where  it  is  to  be 
well  obs^^rved,  that  tlie  nocturnal  light  of  th":  sun  is  much  more  dull  and  remiss  than 
the  diurnal,  and  that  the  sun  itself  by  night  has  a  reddish  appeal oiice.  But  I  now  return 
to  the  rein-deer.  Led  home  to  rest,  they  He  down  about  the  cottage,  and  when  down 
form  accurately  a  full  circle.  The  watch  dogs,  of  which  some  are  named  Kiepros, 
others  Gonsak,  others  by  other  names,  are  employed  in  driving  the  rein-deer  into  the 
woods  and  meadows,  to  pasture.  They  run  about  in  the  pastures  here  and  there,  remov- 
ing  the  snow  by  their  heels,  if  any,  in  order  to  get  at  the  muse  that  is  under ;  they  are 
under  the  care  of  herdamen,  without  regard  to  time  and  season,  whether  good  or  bad. 
But  though  the  shepherds  take  the  greatest  care  of  their  herds,  yet  it  happens  sometimes, 
that  when  th^y  are  sheltering  themselves  behind  large  heaps  of  snow,  where,  driven  by 
the  vioknce  of  the  tempest,  they  sometimes  retire,  when  overtaken  with  sleep,  one  or  two 
rein-deer  str.iyl.ig  from  the  rest  of  the  herd  fall  the  prey  of  the  watching  and  invading 
wolf.  The  care  and  duty  of  feeding  and  guarding  the  herd  properly  belongs  to  the 
children  and  servants  of  the  family ;  yet  I  have  knowTi  a  married  woman,  who,  not  hav- 
i»g  cither  servants,  or  a  grown  up  family,  to  whom  the  care  of  feeding  the  cattle  could 
be  committed,  she  herself  undertook  the  duty  of  pasturing,  and  having  a  sucking  infant 
at  her  breast,  was  obliged  to  carry  it  with  her  into  the  woods  and  pathless  haunts,  whilst 
the  sky  ;v^.,  all  over  darkened  with  snow  and  hail  as  thick  as  possible.  The  rein-deer 
are  brought  home  from  pasture  by  the  assistance  of  dogs ;  nor  could  they  be  otl-erwise 
gathered,  as,  feeding  at  large  through  the  meadows,  they  go  separated  at  considerable  dis- 
tances from  one  anothtr.  The  watch  dogs  are  so  instructed,  that  they  obey  the  nod 
alone,  the  fi5)ger  of  the  herdsmen ;  hence  the  rein-deer,  admonished  on  the  sight  of  the 
dogs,  instantly  will  collect  themselves  in  herJfi :  when  collected  by  the  help  of  dogs, 
they  are  driven  to  the  cot  by  the  herdsmen.  In  'i^inter  the  father  of  the  family,  or  his  wife, 
examining  ©!•  this  side,  and  on  that,  usually  surveys  the  whole  herd,  now  fed,  and 
disposed  round  the  cot  to  rest,  to  see  if  the  whole  are  safe :  whether  any  have  strayed,  or 
fullena  prey  to  the  wolf.  There  are  Laplpjidcrs  who  are  masters  of  six  hundred,  and 
sometimes  of  a  greater  number  of  rein-deer ;  ta  these  it  is  difficult  to  know  whe<i>er  any 
one  from  so  gireat  a  number  has  gone  astray. 


i 


ACCOUNT  or  DANISM  LAPLAND  1)Y  LEEMS. 


406' 


It  appears  then  to  be  a  custom  among  the  Laplanders  of  the  mountains,  that  the  herds  of 
rein-deer  are  for  the  whole  cf  the  winter  season  alt'?niately  led  to  ))asturc  and  home  to 
rest;  but  in  summer,  the  castrated  deer,  together  with  young  steers  and  heifers,  have 
tlic  range  of  the  woods  and  mountains  free,  and  without  the  controul  of  the  he  rdsmen. 
During  summer  certain  female  rein-deer  have  the  freedom  lo  range  at  large  for  some  hours 
with  their  udders  clean  and  free,  from  filth  by  the  Lapland  women,  to  whom  this  care 
is  consigned,  to  the  end  that  tV'  young  should  have  a  full  opportimity  of  suckmg.  Af. 
terwards  they  are  driven  into  a  fold,  at  the  distance  of  some  paces  from  the  cot,  which 
is  made  from  the  green  branches  of  trees  fresh  cut,  where  the  women,  whose  business 
it  is  to  besmear  the  udders  of  each  of  them  with  rein-deer  dung,  taken  out  from  a  little 
case  made  from  the  bark  cf  the  birch-tree,  which  they  usually  carry  und'  r,  the  girdle ; 
which  when  done,  they  come  out  to  pasture  again  for  some  hours.  ^  the  fence  is 

opened,  when  the  young  is  repulsed  from  sucking,  on  account  of  the  i.dder,  which  is 
now  besmeared  with  dung.  They  now  again  compel  the  female  rein-det^r  within  the 
said  fence  for  some  hours  at  pasture  with  swollen  udders,  and  washing  off  the  dung  they 
milk  them ;  which  custom  for  some  days  is  practised  with  the  greatest  care.  There  are 
young  who  disregard  the  besmearing  of  the  udders,  whose  mouths  are  gagged,  as  to 
take  away  all  power  from  them  of  sucking  their  dams.  A  Lapland  woman,  when  going 
to  milk  a  rein-deer,  knowing  it  to  be  a  wild  one,  and  that  it  would  with  difficulty  come 
to  the  milking-pail,  keeps  at  a  distance  of  a  few  paces  from  it,  and  flings  the  rope,  the 
extremities  of  which  she  held  in  her  hand,  over  its  horns,  which  when  the  rein-deer  per- 
ceives she  stands  still,  and  lets  the  milker  instantly  approach  her.  Though  they  do  not 
come  up  even  to  goats,  in  the  quantity  of  milk  they  yield,  yet  such  is^the  number  of  them, 
that  there  is  neither  a  deficiency  of  milk  nor  cheese. 

A  wooden  log  is  put  or:  the  neck  "^  the  rein-deer,  to  prevent  their  straying  from  the 
flock,  by  ninning  up  and  down,  and  which  is  an  impediment  to  them  'a  running.  He  is 
governed  by  a  rein  made  from  the  skin  of  a  seal,  so  that  one  end  of  the  rein  may  be 
fastened  to  the  head  of  the  animal,  but  the  other  may  be  in  the  hand  of  the  leader,  whom 
the  rein-deer  follows,  with  a  little  distance  between.  They  are  managed  by  these  reins  also 
>vhen  drawing  the  sledge. 

The  Laplander,  when  castrating  his  rein-deer,  does  not  take  out  the  testicles,  as  is 
usually  done,  by  cutting  open  the  flesh,  but,  applying  his  mouth,  bruises  them  at  onrc. 
The  name  of  the  castrated  rein-deer  changes  with  his  years ;  when  two  years  old,  it  is 
Vareek,  four  years,  Goddodas,  five  year ,,  it  is  Kuoistus-haerge,  six  years,  Makan ;  but 
from  the  seventh  year  of  his  age  he  is  called  Namma  Lapak,  that  is,  completer  or  finisher 
of  his  name,  for  from  that  rime  he  no  more  changes  his  name. 

The  Laplander  fastens  by  a  rope  the  rein  deer  to  a  trunk  that  he  is  going  to  kill, 
which  when  done,  he  comes  up  to  him  and  sticks  his  breast  with  the  knife,  soon  after 
repeating  the  blow.  The  rein-tfecr,  struck  with  the  blow  of  the  knife,  makes  some  turns, 
until  he  drops  on  his  back  on  the  ground,  where,  when  he  has  lain  for  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  the  butcher  comes  up  to  strip  off  the  hide.  Not  a  drop  of  blood  comes 
from  the  blow  of  the  knife,  but  the  whole  mass  makes  for  the  entrails,  where  it  is 
afterwards  drawn  out,  infused  and  preserved  in  the  paunch  of  the  animal.  The  hide, 
when  taken  off,  is  stretched  on  tender  hooks,  such  as  we  see  used  in  the  smokii:g  of 
salmon. 

That  part  of  the  skin  which  goes  round  the  feet  of  animals,  before  the  body  is  strip- 
ped, is  taken  off,  aiid  stuffed  with  shavings,  that  it  should  the  more  readily  dry. 

The  mountain  Laplander,  reduced  to  distress,*  delivers  up  the  few  re.n-deer  that  re- 
main to  him  to  other  mountun  Laplanders,  to  be  protected  and  taken  care  of;  he  him 


i  . 


■J 


^t 


f 


40G 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAl'LAM)  HY  LEIiMH. 


self,  with  his  whole  family,  emigrates  to  the  sea-coast,  where,  mingling  with  the  muri. 
time  inhabitants,  he  gains  a  livelihood  for  himself  and  family  by  fishing. 

From  what  has  been  largely  mentioned,  it  is  clear  that  the  herds  of  Laplanders  con- 
sist of  tame  rein-deer.  It  happens  but  very  seldom,  that  a  tame  or  domestic  rein-deer, 
getting  by  accident  among  tne  wild,  contracts  the  ferocity  of  this  new  society  ;  but  it  is 
accident,  and,  as  I  have  just  said,  very  rare.  It  also  happens,  especially  in  the  antiimn, 
at  the  time  of  year  when  this  animal  is  most  incensed  with  desires,  that  a  wild  rein-deer 
will  mingle  with  a  herd  of  tame,  but  that  it  is  usually  at  the  expence  of  life,  for,  when 
seen,  the  Laplanders  beset  and  shoot  him.  The  wild  rein-deer,  thus  mingled  with  the 
tame,  now  and  then  gets  the  opportunity  of  coupling  with  the  tame  female.  The  fruit 
of  this  embrace  is  called  a  mongrel,  resembling  neither  sire  nor  dam  in  every  respect, 
for  he  is  less  in  size  than  the  wild,  and  greater  than  the  tame  ;  for  the  wild  ever  exceed 
the  tame  in  the  bulk  of  their  undies.  But  those  born  of  parents  of  unequal  sizes  are 
called  Baevi-ek,  by  the  natives. 


CHAP.  X OF  THE  CARRIAGES,  AND  M  AN.VER  OF  DRIVING,  IN  USE  AMONG  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THE  more  opulent  among  the  Laplanders  make  use  of  no  other  beasts  of  carriage 
than  castrated  rein-deer  ;  but  those  of  poorer  condition,  whose  circumstances  an;  narrow 
and  contracted,  are  obliged  to  employ  females.  The  rein-deer  destined  for  this 
purpose,  to  \ie  made  fit  for  the  yoke  and  vehicle,  is  to  be  well  broken  in  oy  much 
practice.  At  ..st  it  presents  itself  untractable  and  restive,  one  time  kicking  up  his  heels 
wantonly,  at  another  obstinately  lying  on  the  ground,  whence  he  will  not  get  up,  unless 
beaten,  and  not  slightly,  with  the  whip  and  club,  over  the  nose.  Some  are  even  so  in- 
docile, that  they  will  admit  of  no  discipline  whatever,  for,  when  yoked  to  a  vehicle, 
they  suffer  themselves  by  no  means  to  be  governed,  but,  turning  themselves  this  way 
and  that  way,  they  make  a  winding  path,  not  unlike  to  a  bending  serpent.  There  are 
others  which  are  much  more  easily  broken  in,  and  become  so  tractable  by  the  discipline 
they  receive,  that  in  the  carriage  they  so  slightly  bound,  as  is  seen  from  their  track 
marked  in  the  snow.  The  Laplanders  call  die  harness  that  ornaments  the  head  of  the 
rein-deer  Baggie.  The  rein  by  which  he  is  guided,  while  driven,  is  not,  as  is  usual  in 
riding-horses,  double,  but  single,  and  simple,  nor  passed  through  the  mouth  of  the  beast, 
but  v.un  one  of  its  extremities  fastened  to  his  head,  while  the  driver  holds  the  other  in 
hand. 

A  large  collar  surrounds  the  neck  of  th2  animal,  in  the  place  of  a  trace,  made  up 
from  the  rough  rein -deer's  hide ;  to  the  border  of  this  collar  is  fastened  a  long  thong, 
twisted,  from  die  skin  of  the  seal  or  ox,  which,  running  along  the  belly  of  the  animal, 
is  brought  between  the  fore  and  hinder  legs  directly  to  the  yoke  of  the  sledge,  where  it 
is  fastened  to  a  stick  for  the  purpose,  called  in  Lapland  Jnkko,  and  to  a  small  rib- 
bon,  called  Jukko-Lauvzhie.  By  means  of  this  twisted  thong  the  rein-deer  draws  the 
sledge,  which,  lest  in  driving  it  may  fret  the  legs  of  the  animal,  is  covered  with  a  hairy 
skin. 

Beside  that  larger  collar,  of  which  I  have  just  now  spoken,  there  is  another  less  in  size, 
called  in  Lapland  Riesegas,  for  ornamenting  sometimes  the  neck  of  the  rein-deer  of 
carriage ;  it  is  made  of  cloth,  or  texture  of  Kersey,  ornamented  with  threads  of  tin, 
and  bordered  with  woollen  fillets.  This  kind  of  collar,  which  is  not  used  by  all,  nor 
at  all  times,  is  entire  in  the  upper  part  and  sides,  but  below,  under  the  colhr;,  it  is 
open,  to  be  closed  with  a  thong  when  occasion  calls  for  it ;  from  this  part  too  hangs  a 
bell. 


I 


AWOINT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LBBMS. 


407 


I 


The  belly  of  the  rein-deer  is  girt  round  with  a  broad  bch,  called  in  Lapland  Aagotas, 
the  outer  part  of  which,  touching  the  belly  of  the  animal,  is  leather,  but  the  upper, 
which  comes  round  each  side  and  the  back  itself,  is  of  cloth  outside,  or  texture  of  ker- 
sey, adorned  with  threads  of  tin,  the  leather  being  turned  in.  The  lower  part  of  the 
belt  is  ornamented  with  broad  fillets  of  cloth  of  kersey,  drawn  into  a  variety  of  bend 
ings  or  spirals,  partly  of  the  colour  of  the  girt  itself,  and  partly  of  a  colour  different  from 
it.  This  girt  is  an  entire  piece  from  the  belly  te  the  back,  where  it  is  fastened  by  four 
small  ribbons,  on  the  extremities  of  which  arc  crests,  made  from  shreds  of  different  co- 
luured  cloth,  which  display  themselves,  for  the  greater  ornament  of  the  girt.  But  that 
these  are  merely  ornamental,  and  used  for  that  purpose  alone,  is  evident,  that,  when  the 
king's  treasurer,  together  with  his  wiite,  Swedish  merchants,  and  other  young  Laplan- 
ders of  quality,  wore  these,  they  generally  dressed  the  cattle  on  which  they  rode  after  this 
manner.  Meantime  these  girts  so  frequently  praised  among  them  are  not  without  theii- 
use ,  for  those  that  gird  the  middle  of  the  belly  have  in  them  small  apertures,  through 
which  the  ropes,  by  which  the  rein-deer  drew  their  sledges,  pass,  with  this  view,  that 
they  may  not  while  drawing  stagger,  or  the  vehicle  be  too  much  shaken.  The  Aago- 
tas, or  girt  of  this  sort,  yet  is  not  much  in  use ;  <br  very  frequently  they  do  \vithout  it, 
and  the  sledge  is  not  jogged  more  than  usual ;  and  the  reason  is,  that  the  rope  by  which 
it  is  draped  has  a  free  passage  between  the  legs  of  the  animal  while  drawing.  It  is 
usual  with  women,  when  driving,  to  put  coverlets  over  the  animals  that  draw,  ornament- 
ed with  bells  laid  in  order.  Besides  the  said  ornaments,  with  which  the  Laplanders  or- 
nament their  cattle  employed  in  carriage,  there  are  also  a  few  more  in  use,  but  so 
small,  not  sufficiently  that  we  should  longer  delay  ourselves  in  describing  them.  The 
hairy  collar  by  which  the  neck  of  the  rein-deer  is  surrounded,  the  lesser  collar,  or  Rie- 
segas,  to  which  the  bell  hangs,  the  girt  from  the  skin  of  the  rein-deer,  and  the  whole  re- 
maining harness  for  vehicles,  are  made  by  the  women  alone. 

The  rope  with  which  the  Laplanders  of  the  Swedish  mountains  fasten  their  rein-deer, 
when  they  wish  them  at  hand,  and  sometimes  tie  them  to  trees,  is  twisted  from  the 
small  roots  of  trees,  if  some  are  to  be  believed  on  that  subject. 

The  vehicle,  or  sledge,  in  which  the  mountain  Laplanders  are  drawn,  is  not  unlike  to 
a  small  boat  (our  people  call  Spegl  Baad,  on  account  of  the  shape  of  the  stern  resem- 
bling, as  it  were,  a  mirror)  for  in  the  stern  of  the  sledge,  to  make  use  of  a  sea-term,  is 
a  seat,  in  form  like  a  mirror,  which  falls  down  to  the  keel,  but,  by  rising  in  the  part 
above,  props  up  the  back  of  the  driver.  The  sledge  is  made  of  long  planks,  extending 
from  the  stern  of  it  to  the  prow,  a  little  bent,  and  put  together  almost  in  the  same  man- 
ner  as  the  planks  are  in  the  structure  of  ships,  with  this  difference,  that  these  are  fastened 
with  iron  spik  ^s,  but  the  others  with  wooden  buttons  or  fastenings.  And  that  the 
planks  should  the  more  closely  and  fitly  lie  together,  nor  through  ill  joining,  through 
their  joints,  let  in  the  water,  they  draw  them  together  with  oziers  twisted  round  and 
round,  with  their  greatest  exertions.  The  sledge  has  a  keel  orbottom,  of  a  span  broad, 
equalling  the  sledge  itself  in  length.  The  keel,  in  its  lower  extremity,  projects  a  little 
beyond,  in  front  it  is  extended  to  the  prow,  terminating  in  a  crooked  beak.  On  the  out- 
side, along  each  side  of  the  keel,  is  drawn  a  plate.  The  sledge  is  bound  tight  within  with 
a  variety  of  pieces  of  wood  placed  across,  as  is  usual  in  the  construction  of  vessels. 

Vehicles,  or  sledges,  in  use  among  the  Laplanders  are  of  four  sorts ;  the  first  is  called 
Giet-Kierres,  the  second,  Raido-Kierres,  the  third  Pulke,  the  fourth  Lok-Kierres,  each 
of  which  consisting  of  long  beams,  a  keel,  as  above  mentioned,  furnished  with  a  pro\v 
and  stem.  But  among  these  vehicles  or  sledges  there  is  a  difference,  though  minute. 
The  sledge,  which  in  Lapland  is  called  Giet-Kierres,  that  is,  the  hi.nd-sledge,  is  princi- 


a- 


ii 


f 


408 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAl'LAM)  BY  LKEMS 


pally  in  use.  This  above,  from  the  stem  to  the  prow,  i?  quite  oijcn,  and  so  slight  that  it 
can  be  carried  in  hand  any  where  ;  so  short,  that  the  driver  can  touch  at  once  wicn  his 
back  the  stern,  and  the  prow  with  his  feet ;  so  narrow  as  to  squeeze  on  each  side  the 
ribs  of  him  who  sits  in  the  fore  part  of  it ;  so  low,  that  the  driver,  if  he  inclines  but  a  liitle  on 
either  'de,  he  may  touch  the  snow  with  his  elbow.  He  takes  care,  who  drives,  to  put  a 
skin  under  him,  to  sit  soft  upon.  The  sledge,  which  is  called  Ruido-Kierres,  is  a  wag- 
gon, fitted  for  receiving  and  carrying  piu'cels :  it  is  rather  longer,  broader,  and  deeper, 
and  since  it  is  open  as  well  as  the  other,  when  laden,  it  is  covered  over  with  skins  of 
rein-deer,  or  some  other  covering.  The  covering,  Avith  which  the  waggon  is  tight  bound, 
lest  the  parcels  should  be  injured  by  rains  and  snows,  is  made  of  a  thick  yarn,  twisted 
from  the  fibres  in  the  feet  of  the  rein-deer,  and  often  fustrmd  round,  as  is  usual  in  cover- 
ings braced  up  tight.  No  ajxfrtures  r"*'^  seen  ir*  the  sides  of  the  waggon,  by  which  the 
binding  thread  is  passed,  but  it  is  inser.  /  '  "rtain  handles  in  the  sides  which  are  added, 
for  this  purpose.  The  sledge  called  Pu..  fit  for  exercise,  and  is  besmeared  on  the 
outside  with  pitch,  after  the  manner  of  a  bo;i. .  It  resembles  in  every  thing  the  sledge  call- 
ed Giet-Kierres,  with  the  exception,  that  this  is  opened  behind,  before  it  is  covered  with 
the  skin  of  a  seal,  which  goes  from  the  prow  to  the  knees  of  the  driver,  but  ail  the  rest  is 
open.  Another  woollen  covering  is  attached  to  that  of  the  seal  skin,  which,  coming  over 
the  lap,  the  rider  keeps  the  snow  heaped  in  on  him  whilst  driving ;  but  it  is  drawn  toge- 
ther  in  the  same  manner  as  the  covering  of  the  sledge  Raido-Kierres,  of  which  mention 
has  been  made  above.  He  then  who  sits  in  this  sledge  takes  care  to  cover  his  feet  with 
the  skin  of  the  seal,  and  his  lap  with  the  woollen  covering  drawn  tight  together  with 
thongs,  so  that  the  upper  part  of  the  body  alone  is  unsheltered  and  exposed.  Besides, 
skins  to  sit  on,  as  I  have  noted  above  concerning  the  sledge  called  Pulke,  are  laid  under 
the  drivers.  The  sledge  which  in  Lapland  is  called  Lok-Kierres  is  besmeared  outside 
with  pitch,  and  serves  for  carrying  provisions.  It  is  a  little  larger  than  the  above-men- 
tioned Pulke  and  Giet-Kierres,  made  from  planks  fitly  joined  together,  as  not  to  jffer  a 
drop  of  water  to  pass  through.  It  has  a  wooden  deck,  as  in  ships,  running  from  the  stem 
to  the  prow,  but  which  rises  a  little  in  the  middle,  and  comes  out  with  a  round  swelling, 
whereas  the  decks,  of  ships  are  levelled  by  rule  and  plane.  A  bolt  is  fixed  to  the  extremi- 
ty of  the  deck,  at  the  stem,  which,  when  any  thing  is  wanted  out,  is  opened  and  shut 
again.  The  Laplanders  raise  up  their  sledges,  beyond  their  ordinary  use,  about 
their  cot,  in  a  certain  wooden  machine  called  Bildagak,  and  made  for  this  purpose, 
(though  very  frequemly  they  roll  them  on  the  snow)  that  they  should  serve  the  purpose 
of  cupboards,  for  keeping  the  raw  meat  of  the  rein-deer  and  other  necessaries  of  subsis- 
tence. 

Concerning  the  mode  of  driving  and  of  carriage,  and  what  it  is  in,  among  the  people 
of  that  nation,  the  following  observations  come  into  use.  When  any  one  is  ready  to 
drive,  he  first  puts  on  his  gloves,  with  the  hairy  side  tumed  inside,  which  when  done, 
sitting  on  his  sledge,  he  fastens  to  his  right  thumb  the  rein,  the  other  extremity  being 
fastened  to  the  head  of  the  rein-deer,  who  is  quiet,  with  the  rein  resting  on  his  left 
side. 

The  Laplander  sitting  in  his  sledge,  and  just  going  to  let  off  the  rein-deer,  after 
shaking  very  swiftly  the  rein,  hits  him  on  each  side,  on  which,  starting  forward,  he  dis- 
patches the  longest  journies  with  an  incredible  speed.  And  as  the  rein-deer  in  running 
does  not  go  in  a  straight  line,  but  turns  this  way  and  that  about,  there  is  a  necessity  that 
the  driver  should  direct  him  with  the  rein,  that  he  should  reach  the  place  whither  he 
intended.  If  heistotum  to  the  right,  the  driver  hits  the  rc'.i  on  that  side,  and  so  by 
turns.    Hence  it  is  that  the  track  of  a  sledge  in  the  snow,  on  account  of  the  unsteady 


r 


ACCOUNT  or  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEM8. 


409 


gait  of  the  rein-deer  who  draws  the  sledge  represents  the  fieurc  of  a  serpent,  >vinding 
and  rolling  into  a  variety  of  spirals.     When  the  Laplander  is  in  haste,  entering  on  his 

1'ourney,  he  does  not  idly,  as  at  other  times,  sit  in  his  sledge,  but  falls  on  his  knees, 
f  he  wants  to  stop,  in  driving,  the  rein  is  tlirown  from  the  right  side  to  the  left,  and 
there  rest's ;    /hen  done,  the  rein-deer  instantly  stops. 

Should  it  happen,  that  any  one  is  insufficient  alone  for  the  management  of  the 
animal  which  draws  him,  as  being  too  untractable  and  unmanageable  in  the  course,  he 
then  gives  the  rein  to  h'ls  friend  next  before  him,  which  he  fastens  to  his  sledge,  and 
in  this  manner  he  draws  the  driver  together  with  his  rein-deer  and  sledge  after  him. 

And  since  the  rein-deer  who  draws,  as  mentioned  above,  draws  the  sledge  by  a  single 
slender  and  loose  rein,  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  animal,  going  through  declivities, 
cannot  post  with  such  speed,  but  the  sledge,  as  slippery  and  full  on  its  way,  must  be 
borne  with  a  greater  celerity,  so  that  it  must  either  strike  on  the  hinder  feet  of  the  rein- 
deer, or  even  out>strip  him  in  speed ;  to  remedy  this  inconvenience,  as  it  sometimes 
happens,  another  rein-deer  is  fastened  to  the  sledge  behind,  by  a  rein  put  over  his 
horns,  lest  by  too  much  haste  it  may  incommode  the  animal  that  draws,  who  will  be 
retarded  by  the  resistance  and  efforts  of  the  other. 

There  are  rein-deer  who,  thus  put  behind,  so  far  are  they  from  retarding  the  swiftness 
of  the  sledge,  willingly  follo\\ing  it,  aid  and  incite  It  as  it  spontaneously  moves  on. 
Others  are  of  such  adispusition,  so  obstinate  and  perverse,  that  after  the  first  experiment 
they  are  rejected. 

Riding  through  hills  that  are  not  so  steep,  there  is  no  need  of  this  method  of  check- 
ing the  sledge,  as  the  driver  himself,  by  a  certain  motion  of  his  body,  and  a  certain 
expertness  in  drawing,  can  easily  direct  the  sledge  in  which  he  sits  which  way  he 
pleases. 

But  when  he  has  to  travel  through  places  almost  steep,  and  well  nigh  broken  into 
precipices,  it  is  usual  then  to  join  to  the  sledge  a  rein-deer,  and  when  thus  joined  to, 
negligendy  &sten  him  to  the  Hinder  part  of  the  sledge,  leaving  the  sledge  to  its  free 
course,  where  chance  shall  carry  it. 

Parcels  in  the  said  sledges,  called  Raido-kierres,  are  thus  carried  :  the  driver  of  the 
sledges  sits  first  in  order ;  another  rein-deer  follows  bearing  the  second  sledge,  fastened 
by  a  rein  to  the  first :  then  a  third,  fourth,  and  sometimes  more,  each  carrying  his 
own  sledge,  following  in  like  order.  The  driver  who  sits  in  the  first  regulates  all  follow- 
ing  in  order.  Some  one  rebi-deer  closes  the  troop  without  a  sledge,  but  following  for 
the  purpose,  that  if  the  occasion  should  call  for  it,  he  should  check,  by  his  effort,  all  the 
sledges  running  with  too  much  celerity  along  the  declivities,  as  mentioned  above. 

It  sometimes,  and  but  sometimes,  happens  that  the  snow  increases  to  that  height,  that 
the  rein-deer  cannot  break  through  them,  on  his  way.  I  have  been  myself  earried 
through  snow,  so  high,  that  they  have  equalled  the  back  of  the  animal,  and  not  seldom, 
by  wliich  it  is  easy  to  be  judged,  that  travelling  is  at  such  a  time  very  slow  and 
gradual. 

CHAP.  XI....OF  THE  JOURNIES  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THE  Laplanders  of  the  coast  change  their  habitations  only  twice  a  year,  in  the 
spring  and  autumn.  When  changing  their  abode  they  do  not  take  down  their  huts,  as 
tht;  mountaineers,  but  only  forsake  them  for  a  time,  until  they  may  return.  The 
mountaineers  on  the  contraiy,  just  as  the  ancient  Scythians,  mcnUoned  in  history,  have 

VOL.  I.  >  3  c 


1; 


410 


ACrOtJXT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  HY  LRKMS 


;  i« 


done,  and  as  the  Arabs  and  Tartars  do  to  this  day,  arc  ever  changeable,  vagrant,  and 
not  contented  with  the  same  situation  and  place  long  together.  The  mountain  Lap- 
lander takes  himself,  together  widi  his  whole  family,  and  the  herd  of  rcin-deer,  to  the 
coasts  and  borders  that  lie  nearest  the  sea  in  the  midst  of  summer. 

But  when  the  autumn  is  coming  on,  he  retreats  again  with  his  cot,  his  rein-deer  and 
family,  to  the  mountains,  slowly  and  by  degrees;  for  ^tting  on  his  way,  and  having 
moved  scarcely  the  distance  of  a  mile,  he  stops,  and  going  on  the  next  day,  he  only  ad- 
vances one  mile,  which  he  docs  every  day  until  the  winter,  now  at  hand,  after  passing 
the  creeks  a  distance  of  five,  six,  or  about  seven  miles  from  the  sea,  he  has  penetrated 
to  the  very  confines  of  Swedish  Lapland ;  where,  when  he  has  at  length  arrived,  he  stops, 
but  not  so  as  to  preven'  his  moving  with  his  cot  and  rein-deer  from  one  wood  and  hill 
to  another,  as  necessity  should  require. 

On  the  approach  of  spring,  he  returns  in  the  same  manner  to  the  sea  coast,  but  slowly, 
and,  as  just  said,  step  by  step,  until  he  has  arrrived  with  his  family  in  that  place,  where 
he  has  determined  to  remain  the  whole  summer. 

On  the  aides  of  the  roads,  through  which  he  is  to  travel,  he  takes  care  that  a  number 
of  little  offices  should  be  built,  in  which  he  puts  up  his  provisions  and  furniture,  which, 
during  winter,  he  draws  out,  when  he  pleases,  and  when  it  is  necessary,  for  himself  and 
his  family.  When  the  mountain  Laplander  is  preparing  for  a  journey  from  the  coast  to 
the  mountains,  at  the  end  of  the  autumn,  he  usually  kills  some  rein-deer  at  this  season, 
which  are  very  well  fattened,  and  lays  up  in  his  house,  which  he  has  for  the  purpose, 
the  meat,  in  order,  that  on  his  return  in  spring,  by  the  same  road,  he  may  have  pro- 
vision for  himself  and  his  family. 

The  mountain  Laplander  in  the  spring,  summer,  and  autumn  seasons  of  the  year, 
when  travelling  over  the  plains,  now  clear  and  bare  from  the  snows,  with  his  family  and 
rein-deer,  travels  on  foot,  having  put  the  cot,  with  its  timber  and  furniture,  and  other 
baggage,  on  the  backs  of  the  rein-deer ;  if  the  mother  happens  to  have  an  infant  at  her 
breast,  she  carries  it  on  her  back,  put  up  in  a  hcllovv  piece  of  wood,  called  in  Lapland, 
Gieed'k,  which  I  have  described  above  in  chapter  the  eighth,  on  the  furniture  of  the 
LapUr.rk'rs.  The  herds  of  rein-deer,  on  their  way,  as  at  other  times,  are  managed  by 
their  keepers. 

The  mountain  Laplander,  travelling  in  the  winter  season  through  plains  covered  with 
thick  snows,  before  he  begins  his  journey  takes  u:^<'n  his  cot,  the  planks  of  which  this 
building  chiefly  consists,  the  covering  drawn  over  u,  the  timber  of  the  floor,  the  fire 
stones,  he  takes  with  him,  with  the  view,  lest  the  want  of  materials  of  this  kind  should 
render  the  place  into  which  he  is  disposed  to  emigrate  incommodious  to  him ;  but  he 
usually  flings  away  the  branches  with  which  the  floor  is  covered,  cutting  down  in  the 
place  he  erects  his  cot  new  ones  in  their  place. 

The  cot,  with  all  its  materials,  is  put  into  a  single  sledge,  called  in  Lapland  Guatte- 
Kierres,  which  by  the  help  of  a  single  rein-deer,  an  animal  neither  so  ^rear  nor  robust,  is 
drawn  through  the  thickest  snows,  whence  it  is  easy  to  be  inferred  that  the  cot  itself, 
with  all  its  furniture,  is  of  small  size  and  consideration. 

The  mother  puts  the  infant,  before  the  husband  enters  on  his  journey,  into  a  hollow 
piece  of  wood,  Gieed'k,  mentioned  before,  slightly  covered  with  woollen  clothes,  yet 
with  that  precaut'on,  that  a  small  aperture  may  be  open  before  the  mouth  of  the  child, 
by  ^vhich  he  may  breathe  freely. 

Their  own  baggage  is  carried  also  in  the  sledge.  The  husband  himself  goes  on  first, 
and  leads  on  the  troop.    The  mother  manages  the  sledge  in  which  the  infant  is,  who, 


ACCOUNT  01'  DANISH  LAPLANI)  «Y  LEEMS 


4U 


should  it  begin  to  cry  much,  instantly  stops  the  sledge,  and  getting  at  the  side  of  it  on 
her  knees,  gives  her  breast  to  the  babe  through  the  aperture  I  have  just  mentioned,  re- 
gardless of  the  severity  of  cold  or  snow. 

The  children,  with  the  rest  of  the  family,  manage  and  take  care  of  the  herds  of  the 
rcin-deer.  In  what  manner  the  baggage  is  carried  has  been  described  in  chapter  the 
tenth,  eoncernitig  the  kinds  of  carriage  among  the  Laplanders. 

It  is  wonderful,  and  scarcely  credible,  unless  one  had  seen  it,  that  the  Laplander, 
travelling  in  winter  over  vast  mountains  and  trackless  haunts,  especially  at  that  seasou 
when  all  nature  is  covered  and  whitened  with  a  constant  snow,  to  a  degree  that  neither 
the  stones  nor  the  least  part  of  the  earth  can  L'J  seen,  nor  any  other  trace  of  human  cul- 
ture, and  when  the  snows,  agitated  by  the  winds  and  whirled  in  circles,  take  away  all 
use  of  sight,  can  find  his  way  to  his  destined  place,  and  without  mistake.  What  I  am 
relating  1  write  from  experience ;  for,  indeed,  it  happened  to  me  not  rarely,  either  that 
through  clouds  of  mist  and  darkness,  with  which  the  snow  driven  round  in  a  whirlwind 
darkened  my  sight,  that  I  could  not  see  the  be;ist  by  which  I  was  drawn,  on  whieh  oc- 
casion  trusting  to  the  Divine  guidance,  and  the  faith  of  the  driver,  after  the  manner  of 
the  blind,  I  suffered  myself  to  be  carried,  not  knowing  where  I  was  going, 

But  it  appears  from  experience,  that  neither  enormous  heaps  of  snow,  nor  the  horrid 
diu-kness  of  the  night,  can  obstruct  travellers  from  arriving  safe  and  without  error  at 
their  place  of  destination.  They  usually  hang  bells  from  the  necks  of  their  rein-deer  cf 
carriage,  that  if  they  should  not  distinguish  by  sight,  they  might  at  least  know  eac'i 
other  from  hearing.  They  follow  the  wind  too,  if  it  is  not  veering,  as  a  guide,  so  that 
if  the  place  they  are  going  to  is  to  the  south,  and  that  the  wind  should  arise  in  this 
quarter,  they  begin  their  journey  directly  in  the  teeth  of  this  wind ;  if  it  is  a  south-west 
wind,  they  go  in  such  a  manner  as  to  have  the  wind  on  their  right  hand  ;  if  it  is  to  the 
cast,  they  contrive  to  have  it  on  the  left.  Should  they  chance  to  see  the  stars  shining 
on  the  way^  they  direct  their  couree,  with  confidence,  by  the  northern  star.  For  though 
the  Laplanders  have  never  learned  the  science  of  the  stijrs,  yet  they  know  the  various 
stars  and  their  situation,  and  designate  them  by  certain  names  :  for  instance  the  Pleiades 
in  Lapland  are  called  Nieid-Gjerrcg,  that  is,  a  company  of  virgins ;  the  fishes  in  the  zodiac 
Oaaggo,  that  is,  the  fisher ;  the  morning  stiir  is  Guouvso  Naste ;  another  star,  Saiva,  that 
is,  the  male  rein-deer,  others  by  different  names. 

As  it  is  assigned  to  Divine  Providence,  and  to  it  alone,  that  a  ship  in  the  midst  of  tem- 
pests, among  threatening  waves,  quicksands,  and  shoals,  and  darkened  clouds,  shall 
be  unhurt,  so  it  is  no  less  an  argument  of  the  protecting  care  of  the  Deity,  that  a  hu- 
man bein^  shall  pass  safe,  and  secure,  through  pathless  haunts,  through  mountains 
covered  with  constant  snows,  through  the  perpetual  attacks  of  hail,  of  snow  and  whirl- 
winds, forming  themselves  as  in  a  troop  in  the  very  face  of  the  traveller,  and  drawing 
on  a  darkness  thicker  than  the  most  darksome  night.  For  those,  who  are  obliged  to 
travel,  discover  themselves  so  often  surrounded  by  precipices  and  high  mountains,  that 
if  they  should  err  in  the  least  from  the  way,  they  would  necessarily  run  into  the  most 
imminent  danger  of  tlieir  life ;  a  melancholy  instance  of  which  truth,  we  have  had  not 
long  ago  in  one  Siver  Henrikson,  of  the  Lapland  youth,  then  in  Porsanger,  while  I  was 
mi^isionary  at  the  same  place,  who,  when  driving,  struck  his  breast  against  a  tree  in  the 
way,  by  turning  a  little  out  of  the  course,  which  occasioned  his  sudden  death,  which  fol- 
lowed ihree  days  afterwards. 

The  Laplander  is  furnished  on  every  journey  through  winter  with  utensils  for  lighting 
a  fire,  a  steel,  a  flint,  tinder  and  sulphur,  all  of  which  he  carries  in  his  bosom,  inclosed  in 
a  bag,  or  little  box,  in  order  that  when  there  is  occasion  he  may  kindle  a  fire  or  light 
liis  tobacco  pipe.    For  it  happens,  and  that  not  seldom,  what  I  myself  experienced  morr. 

3  G  2 


4V2 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISM  LAPLAND  HY  LEKMH. 


i 


hS 


than  once,  that  travellers,  obstructed  either  by  the  thickness  '^f  the  snows  or  Icnfi^h  ol 
the  way,  are  obliged  to  puss  whole  nights  under  tlic  open  air.  Whenever  this  happens, 
the  Lapland  traveller  erects  a  small  tent,  made  of  very  coarse  linen,  which  he  always  has 
at  hand,  on  the  snow,  and  lightinjr  a  Gre  refreshes  his  body.  In  winter,  whenever  occu- 
pied in  religious  affairs,  or  engaged  in  any  oUier  bubincss,  they  tie  the  rein-deer  that  draws 
them  to  a  tree  or  trunk  not  fiir  from  them  in  the  wood. 

On  the  maritime  excursions  of  Laplanders  nothing  occurs  which  can  long  detain  the 
curious  reader.  It  is  sufficient  just  to  mention,  that  they  always  have  a  tinder-box  with 
them,  and  when  the  occasion  requires  it,  they  can  light  a  fire  and  their  pipe  of  nicotiaiie, 
or  get  ready  their  meal ;  for  they  are  ever  ready,  if  they  happen  to  catch  a  fish,  imme- 
diately to  land  on  the  next  coast  to  them,  and  lighting  a  fire  between  two  stones,  whkh 
they.choosc  for  diis  use,  and  hanging  the  pot  by  a  pole,  with  each  end  propped  on  each 
stone  the  fire  place  is  made  of,  boil  the  fish  they  have  caught.  In  the  same  manner  they 
prepare  meat  for  themselves  from  the  otter  or  any  other  wikl  beast  they  might  kill  on  the 
way. 

From  what  has  been  hitherto  narrated,  it  is  abundandy  manifest  that  the  state  and 
condition  of  this  nation  is,  beyond  description,  restless  and  hard ;  but  since  the  sufferers 
are  accustomed  to  this  kind  of  life  from  their  childhood,  they  are  held  by  so  great  a  love 
of  their  native  soil,  that  scarce  any  other  nadon,  enjoying  the  most  happy  and  munifi. 
cent  bounty,  can  equal  them  :  in  confirmation  of  this  assertion  it  will  be  sadsfiictory  to 
read  the  following  history.  When  his  majesty  the  king,  of  most  glorious  memory, 
Christian  the  Sixth,  on  his  journey  which  he  undertook  through  the  kingdom  of  Norway  m 
the  year  1733,  had  stopped  at  the  gulf  of  Aalesund,  in  the  division  of  the  province 
of  Sundmoer,  he  honoured  me  most  humanely,  through  the  favour  of  Andrew  Ro> 
senpalm,  admiral  of  the  fleet,  and  a  most  worthy  gendeman,  with  an  audience  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  July  ;  which  day,  as  it  was  to  me  most  propitious  and  de»rable,  so  shall  its 
remembrance  never  fall  from  me.  It  was  agreeable  to  nis  most  rcyal  mujesty  to  propound 
various  questions  concerning  the  mission  to  Lapland,  on  merchandise,  and  other  matters 
rcsiiecting  Finmurk,  and  in  his  goodness,  truly  royal,  to  hear  my  humble  answers,  and 
then  to  mark  with  his  royal  hand,  which  I  humbly  repeat,  the  name  of  his  most  liege 
sul)ject  in  his  diary,  in  sign  and  token  of  future  promotion,  after  the  ten  years  ministry 
in  Lapland.  His  majesty  then  enjoined  on  me  that  I  should  most  humbly  take  care,  that 
as  soon  as  possible  some  of  the  young  men  of  Lapland  should  be  sent  to  him  at  court. 
I  obeyed,  as  I  should,  the  commands  of  my  sovereign ;  but  who  could  imagine  that 
any  person  could  be  found  who  would  refuse  so  munificent  a  condition  ?  But  all  did  refuse. 
At  lengdi  a  young  man,  whose  name  was  Nicholas  Peterson  Korsnaes,  with  some  diffi. 
culty  suffered  himself  to  be  prevailed  upon  to  go  to  Copenhagen.  This  young  man  was  of 
a  middling  stature  and  figure.  There  were  others  who  could  have  recommended  them- 
selves by  stature  and  comeliness  in  a  greater  degree,  among  whom  was  a  young  man 
from  the  gulf  of  Alten,  of  no  common  degree  of  manly  beauty  among  that  people,  whom 
I  endeavoured  to  prevail  on,  by  loading  him  with  promises,  to  go  to  Copenhagen,  and 
would  have  succeeded  without  doubt,  had  not  his  mother  opposed  it  toodi  and  nail,  who, 
at  that  time  pregnant,  came  to  me,  assuring  me  in  form,  that  it  would  be  a  scruple  of 
conscience  to  mc  should  I  rend  from  her  the  only  and  dearly  beloved  son  she  had,  and 
that  I  should  suffix  for  it  in  the  just  judgment  of  God,  if  any  accident  had  consequendy 
befallen  her,  and  the  birth  near  its  dme,  through  grief.  But  I  return  to  Nicolas  Peterson. 
As  soon  as  he  arrived  at  Copenhagen  he  was,  for  his  condition,  indulgently  received,  and 
handsomely  entertained  by  his  majesty.  He  was  dressed  in  costly  clotnes,  whose  bor- 
ders and  lower  extremities  were  distinguished  by  silver  trimmings,  yet  ornamented  in 
the  Lapland  fashion.    The  bonnets  in  common  use  among  the  Laplanders  are  trimmed 


ACCOL'NT  OF  DANISH  LAI'LAND  l»Y  LKKMS. 


•U3 


with  a  border  from  the  skin  of  the  otter ;  but  the  cup  of  this  youth  was  ortuimcntcd  with 
ii  fringe  of  silk  velvet,  of  black  colour,  with  a  facing  of  the  same,  illustrated  with  the 
name  of  Christian  the  Sixth,  in  silver  ornament.  But  this  pros|KTity  was  not  durable  ;  for 
on  the  approaching  autumn,  and  the  fall  of  the  year,  he  fell  sick,  and  died  on  the  begin- 
ning of  the  following  year.  The  cause  of  so  sudden  a  death  without  doubt  is  to  be 
sought  for  in  so  sudden  a  change  of  air  and  food :  for  he  who  at  home  was  used  to  drink 
of  one  spring,  and  that  cold,  and  subsist  on  the  congealed  milk  of  rein-deer  and  such 
food,  now  regiUed  abroad  with  wine  and  dainties,  could  not  bear  this  unusual  and  sudden 
change  without  danger  of  life  ;  according  to  that  very  melancholy  saying,  every  sudden 
change  is  hurtful.  The  body  was  honourably  interred  at  the  king's  expence,  and  the 
clothes  his  majesty  ordered  him  to  be  dressed  in  were  sent  to  Lapland  to  his  parents, 
that  under  their  wretchedness  they  should  recall  the  memory  and  once  happy  condition 
of  their  deceased  son  to  their  consolation. 

When,  as  above  mentioned,  I  had  to  pay  my  profound  respects  to  his  majesty,  at  the 
time  he  happened  to  come  to  the  gulf  of  Aalesund,  in  the  province  of  Sundmoer,  I  had 
arrived  there,  for  the  purpose;  of  miurying  Sophia  Aletha  Uuberg,  three  weeks  before 
his  majesty.  I  had  at  that  time  in  my  family  a  Lapland  young  man,  of  the  name  of  Pe- 
ter Jonsen,  who  had  so  recommended  himself  to  the  attention  of  the  high  admiral,  Ros- 
enpalm,  that  he  was  disposed  to  take  him  to  Copenhagen  and  put  him  among  his  rowers: 
and  as  the  youth  had  capacity,  his  highness  took  care  that  he  should  be  taught  writing 
and  arithmetic:  when  taught,  he  sent  him  to  the  East  Indies,  to  acquire,  under  a  skilfiil 
seaman,  a  knowledge  of  nautical  affairs ;  but  returning  from  India  he  fell  sick,  and  died 
at  Copenhagen. 

CHAP.  XII OF  THE  WILD  BEASTS  AND  BIRDS  OF  FINMARK,  AND  OF  THE 

MODES  OF  CATCHING  THEM,  USED  AMONG  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

AS  many  writers,  versed  in  natural  histoiy,  have  long  since  employed  their  time  as 
diligently  as  successfully  in  investigating  and  describing  the  properties  of  the  nature  of 

?uadrupeds  and  birds,  it  would  appear  superfluous  here  to  resume  the  same  subject, 
'ostponing  that  consideration,  I  propose  to  mention  some  of  the  modes  and  arts  which 
the  Laplanders  use  in  taking  them,  and  also  something  of  the  singular  qualities  of  certain 
quadrupeds  and  birds,  and  other  matters  belonging  to  them. 

Most  of  the  kinds  of  quadrupeds,  of  a  wild  nature,  which  arc  found  up  and  down 
through  Norway,  Finmark  produces  in  no  small  number ;  which  advantage  of  their 
country  the  Laplanders  know  well  to  turn  to  their  own  use.  But  it  is  to  be  particularly 
noticed,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  mountains,  abounding  above  the  rest  in  a  great  quan- 
tity of  rein-deer,  have  very  seldom  leisure  for  the  chace,  nor  is  there  need  they  should, 
when  they  are  so  very  much  occupied  in  watching  and  pasturing  their  herds ;  and  they 
can  well  forego  this  laborious  and  unquiet  mode  of  life,  furnished  as  they  are  besides 
with  an  abundance  of  those  things  they  have  use  of. 

Finmark  both  produces  and  breeds  a  great  number  of  wild  rein-deer :  these,  called 
Godde  by  the  inhabitants,  by  far  exceed  the  tame  ones  in  the  bulk  of  the  body.  The 
Laplander  going  out  to  hunt,  in  summer  and  autumn,  the  rein-deer,  takes  with  him  hi 
well  scented  and  sagacious  dog,  ^  -hom,  as  a  guide  'hat  will  not  deceive  him,  he  follows, 
hunting  by  the  scent,  until  he  cc  mes  up  in  view  to  the  wild  rein-deer.  On  the  sight 
of  the  animal  he  muzzles  the  dog,  lest  he  should  frighten  him  by  barking.  Should 
the  bullets  he  uses,  when  first  shot,  not  kill  him,  but  only  mortally  wound  him,  he  drives 
the  dog,  now  fi*eed  from  the  chf 'n  and  muzzle,  on  him  as  he  flies,  who  stopping  now 
and  then  in  his  speed,  in  order  tc  defend  himself  with  his  horns  against  the  dog,  is  shot 
at  and  killed  by  the  Laplander,  who  makes  good  use  of  the  opportunity.     During  au- 


i. 

S 


1\ 


414 


AfX'nUM   0¥  DANIHII  LAI'I.^NU  RY  LKIMI> 


1^ 


tiimn,  when  the  rein.dccr  meet  r)r  th<*  purpose  ol" procixatioii,  the  i^nplaiuiir  pfocs  with 
some  of  his  ri  ill  (IccT,  tanu-d  for  that  ioti-iit,  when-  Ik  known  that  thi-  wild  ones  nu  it, 
und  there  faslcnin};  sonic  to  trvcs  with  halt(  rs,  sufl'i  rinjr  others  to  stray  ut  hirj^e,  he  pla- 
CCH  himself  in  anihnsh.  The  wild  rein.dccr,  sccntinj;  tlu-  lemulcs,  instantly  Hies  tothtm, 
hut  falls  a  prey  to  the  Laplander  lying  in  wait  for  him.  it  hap|Kns  sometimes  that  two 
at  once  come  :  these,  sharply  contendin^jr  for  the  iemale,  rush  in  on  each  other  with  their 
horns,  with  commonly  no  other  termination  of  (heir  contcbt,  than  that  each  of  the  cum- 
pctitors  should  fall  under  the  arms  of  (he  Laplander. 

The  Laplander,  when  h(mtinf(  the  wild  rein-deer  in  winter,  closely  follows  the  traces 
of  the  straying;  animal  until  he  comes  up  in  view  of  her  :  on  seeing  her,  he  fastens  the 
rein-deer  of  his  sledge  to  the  next  trt'c,  instantly  on  foot  to  pursue.  In  sonie  parts  of 
Lapland  wild  rein-deer  arc  taken  in  the  following  manner ;  the  snows  being  collected  in 
such  heaps  that  the  rein-deer  cannot  get  over  them,  and  the  outside  of  these  heaps  so 
incrustcd  with  ice  as  to  hreak  under  the  tread  of  one  of  tliem,  but  yet  able  to  bear  the 
weight  of  a  man  with  wocxlen  shoes,  the  Laplander,  furnished  with  such  shoes,  goes  out 
to  hunt  the  rein-deer,  who,  while  running  over  '.he  snow  lightly  incrustcd,  and  disappoint- 
ing his  Hte|)s,  gets  entangled.  In  this  state  he  cannot  escape  the  hunter,  coming  swiftly 
in  his  wooden  shoes  upon  him  by  his  accustomed  celerity,  but,  transfixed  with  the  hunt- 
ing  sjxjar,  Ixicomes  his  prey.  The  taking  of  the  rein-deer  is  eflccted  in  other  places  by 
the  following  method  :  in  places  where  the  said  l)easts  usually  range,  a  certain  o|x;ning, 
like  a  gate,  is  made,  in  which  a  loop  is  hung,  made  of  the  thicker  Hbres  taken  from  the 
sinewy  parts  of  the  rein-deer ;  this  the  animal,  straying  without  caution,  and  fearing  no- 
thing, enters  by  chance,  and  instantly  falls  into  tJie  snare.  In  certain  tracts  of  Lapland 
the  rein-deer  were  taken  wild  formerly,  in  this  manner :  a  very  high  inclosurc  was  erect- 
ed from  a  piling  of  a  great  deal  of  wood,  two  greater  arms  or  horns  alternately  projecting 
themselves,  so  that  a  great  space  should  be  open  between  the  extremities  of  cacn  arm, 
but  l)ehind  so  gradually  coming  together,  as  to  terminate  in  n  narrow  aperture,  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  narrow  gate.  VVhen  this  inclosurc  was  ready,  the  hunting,  when  an  op. 
portunity  offered,  was  proposed,  and  in  this  very  manner  :  the  wild  rein-deer  were  com- 
pelled into  the  inclosurc  by  a  space  lying  open  between  the  two  arms  that  were  separated, 
who,  the  farther  they  went  in  by  flight,  the  nearer  were  they  to  the  inwarc'  extremities  of 
the  said  inclosurc,  where  these  separated  arms  again  united  in  the  form  of  a  narrow  gate, 
from  whence  they  neither  would  nor  could  easily  get  back,  lest  pressed  fri  m  behind  they 
should  tall  among  the  hunters.  A  way  out  through  the  said  narrow  open  ig  was  thei-e- 
forc  to  be  sought  by  them  in  this  miserable  plight,  which,  when  found  with  difficulty,  a 
stooping  hill  soon  presented  itself,  along  which  tney  ran  in  a  precipitate  manner,  when  a 
new  inclosurc  again  presented  itself,  which  seeing  they  could  not  get  over,  nor,  by  reason 
of  the  steepness  of  the  hill,  pass  without  difficulty,  were  forced  to  surrender.  This  mode 
of  catching  rein-deer  was  formerly  in  use  among  the  Varangriens,  who  even  from  that 
kind  of  chace  arc  held  to  pay  a  tribute  of  nine  rein-deers,  or,  in  defect  of  rein-deer,  as 
many  fox  skins,  to  the  king's  governor  of  the  castle  of  VVardhuis.  It  was  usual  also 
among  the  Laplanders,  formerly,  that  they  should  tVive  the  rein-deer  they  proposed  to 
take  into  the  next  nearest  lake,  having  placed  men  on  the  farther  bank  to  attack  them 
when  swimming  over.  It  is  related  by  some  one,  that  the  women  of  Lapland  are  not 
less  addicted  to  hunting  Uian  die  men  ;  this  I  never  observed,  and  never  even  heard  a 
word  of. 

There  are  no  deer  nor  elks  in  Finmark.  That  an  elk,  as  a  certain  writer  lays  down, 
much  J  ields  to  the  rein-deer  in  size  is  very  false ;  for  it  is  sufficiently  well  known  that 
one  elk,  of  just  size,  at  least  equals  three  full  grown  reiu'deer,  and  those  the  largest  of 
their  kind,  in  the  bulk  of  the  body. 


Accmrsr  or  dani.hii  lai'i.wii  iiv  i.ki;m« 


a 

1  a 

(on 

de 

liat 

as 

ISO 

to 
im 

lOt 

a 

I'n, 
at 
of 


415 


Hnrcs  arc  bred  in  p;r<;it  rumihrrH  in  Finm;irk.  TIiIh  wild  animal  is  nillod  by  snww 
of  the-  inhabitants  of  Norway  Tasc,  but  b)  tlu  Liiplandris  Njaanul.  H.iivs  ff)uiiil  in 
this  tract  of  country  during  winter,  are  of  a  wlult-  colour,  but  in  snininir  of  a  gn»y,  us 
they  un*  chcwhoa-.  HcsidcH  the  gini,  ihc most  iibtial  instrmutnt  of  killing;  wild  animil.s, 
other  mctluKls  and  arts  arc  in  use  for  catchinji;  hares.  In  those  places  where  hurcs 
usually  haunt,  snares,  constnictcd  from  small  sticks  and  cords  artificially  ^xit  toj^lhcr, 
ore  fixed  in  ttic  (ground,  in  which  the  hares,  straying  without  caution  and  ireely  amonj; 
the  trees,  fre*iuently  run  into  the  trap,  and  arc  tuken.  'I'hey  arc  cmii^ht  too  by  u  certain 
iron  machine,  ticscribed  in  another  place.  'I'he  Russians  pay  for  each  harcV*  skin 
eight  iK'ncc      The  Swedes  arc  said  to  make  co\crlets  from  these  kinds  of  skins. 

In  Finmark,  not  less  than  through  the  remaining  tmcts  of  Norway,  are  found  Ixars. 
The  l)car  in  Lapland  is  called  Guouzhia,  the  word  denoting  the  male  and  female  of  this 
animal.  But  the  Laplanders  also  distinguish  the  niidc  and  female  ;  the  male  is  Acnak,  the 
fcmale  is  Acste ;  the  Norwegians  generally  say  Bingse.  The  rein-deer  easily  escape  the 
Jjcars  by  thcfleetncss  of  running  ;  cows,  goats  and  sheep  are  much  moir  cx|)osed  to  their 
cruelty  and  rapacity.  That  the  Laplanders  of  Indragria,  in  Sweden,  were  compelled  to  bury 
the  Ixxlies  of  their  deceased  frie'ids  in  certain  little  islands,  scattered  in  the  lake  of  Indra- 
fjria,  lest  they  should  be  a  prey  to  the  voracity  of  lx?ars,  has  been  handed  down  to  us,  but 
lor  the  truth  of  th#;  relation  I  cannot  answer,  relating  only  what  I  have  heard.  'I'he  bear  is 
wonderfully  delighted  with  certain  blue  iK-rries,  in  Norwegian  called  Blaabaer,  a  great 
abundance  of  which  is  found  in  this  country :  but  he  uho  feeds  on  grass.  The 
Laplanders  in  common  shoot  their  Ixars  with  grooved  guns,  which  art  only  in  use 
among  them.  If  the  bear  does  not  fall  with  the  first  bullet,  but  is  only  wounded,  he  in- 
stantly returns,  to  take  vengeance  for  himself,  and  often  not  without  eiiect.  But  these 
wild  beasts  arc  taken  not  with  shooting  alone,  but  by  other  modes  and  stratagems.  It 
is  a  matter  well  known  and  ascertained  through  the  regions  of  the  north,  that  the  bear, 
during  the  winter,  lies  concealed  in  his  den,  and  that  he  is  there  sustained  by  no  other 
aliment  than  a  certain  milky  juice,  which  he  sucks  from  his  fore  paws  with  a  growling. 
It  not  seldom  occurs,  that  the  Laplander  going  to  hunt  birds,  squirrels,  and  other  g-ame 
in  the  woods,  accidentally  falls  on  the  haunt  of  a  bear  laid  up  for  the  winter,  by  the  assist- 
ance and  guidance  of  his  hunting  dog,  standing  and  barking  at  the  den  he  has  found 
out  by  the  scent.  The  Laplander  observing  this,  puts  in  the  bow  with  which  he  de- 
signs to  kill  birds  (for  bows,  it  appears,  are  in  use  as  vet  in  some  of  the  countries 
ofLapland)  to  the  ajx^rture  or  door  of  the  den,  while  the  bear  is  still  carelessly  at  rest, 
and  not  attempting  to  come  out.  He  then  cuts  off  branches  from  the  fir-tree,  if  at 
hand,  if  not,  from  any  others  in  lis  way,  by  which  he  shuts  up  the  mouth  of  the  den, 
drawing  out  first  his  bow  with  cai  tion,  yet  in  such  a  manner  that  it  should  not  be  alto- 
gether closed  up,  as  there  must  be  a  small  aperture  for  the  bear  to  nut  his  head  through. 
Things  thus  arranged,  the  Laplander,  armed  with  an  axe,  plants  himself  before  the  door 
of  the  den,  in  order  to  irritate  the  bear  by  every  means  and  threat  in  his  power,  until 
he,  provoked  in  the  extreme,  shall  rise,  prepared  to  attack  the  enemy,  so  wantonly 
challenging  him  and  provoking  him.  The  bear  then  thrusting  his  head  fiercely  through 
the  narrow  aperture  that  is  made,  is  hit,  or,  in  plain  terms,  receives  a  mortal  blow 
from  the  Laplander  with  the  axe,  which,  if  it  has  struck  the  upper  part  of  the  face,  is 
almost  harmless,  but  if  the  lower  part,  and  next  the  eyes,  the  blow  immediately  cuts  off 
the  head  of  the  wild  beast.  The  Laplanders  pursue  a  different  method  in  other  parts 
of  the  country,  and  in  the  following  manner :  When  they  have  found  the  place  where 
a  bear  has  perhaps  killed  a  wild  beast,  but,  having  killed  it,  has  soon  quitted,  they  sur- 
round, by  a  certain  inclosure  furnished  with  two  doors,  made  in  the  form  of  an  opening 


I 
I 


I 


!: 


] 
I 


416 


VCCOl'NT  0\  IIVMHU  I.Al'LA.NU  OY  LKRMn 


\i) 


J 


J 


5?; 


tr,  and  directly  opposite  to  tlicni,  thi*  carcavt  tlutt  1m  killed  and  just  UW  t)ehind  hitn. 
car  liuh  apirtiin:  or  ^ati  of  tlu  iitcloMirc-  arc  laid  \unoiib  buw^,  Mrctihcd,  uiid  lur. 


nialicd  with  arrow«,  the  height  ot  the  hear,  a<t  well  at  can  Ik:  conjectured,  u»  uccurately 
entering  hy  tlu  door  ol  the  incluhure  to  his  prey.     A  roiM-  is  extended  near  the  gn)und, 


obscTVcdt  with  this  v 


lie  lieight 
iew,  that 


they  may  direcrtly  strike  to  the  heart  of  the  wild  beast. 


on  the  touch  of  which  tlu.  arrows  are  .shot.  'I'hc  near  rt  turning  to  his  prey,  en- 
ters the  enclosure  by  one  of  the  said  gate  >,  and  treading  on  the  ro|)es,  falls,  pierced 
by  the  arrows,  provided  they  strike  with  exactness.  That  the  said  inclohure  is  fur- 
nished with  two  doorh  they  assign  as  a  reason,  partly,  that  a  free  iMSittigc  should  iK 
open  to  the  bear,  on  each  hide,  wheit  he  returns  to  hiii  prey,  partly,  tliat  if  bv  chance  Ik* 
should  escape  the  arrow:*  placed  at  the  gate  by  which  he  entered,  he  should  more 
certainly  fall  '>y  those  which  were  placed  at  the  otlnT.  'I'hey  also  extend  a  rope  with 
drawn  bows  on  each  side  in  anibusli,  on  the  walks  and  paths  where  they  know  Ixars 
stray  up  and  down,  with  the  view  that,  treading  on  the  ro|K*,  und  the  arrows  being  shot, 
he  n\ay  receive  a  death  wound.  The  Laplander  makes  use  of  tiK*  assistance  of  dogs  in 
the  hunting  of  bears,  as  well  as  rein-deer.  He  thoroughly  rubs  his  limbs,  when  they 
exceedingly  ache,  with  bear's  grease,  which  is  I . Id  up ;  the  inUstines  of  the  animal  that 
is  killed  are  anxiously  preserved,  with  this  due  observance,  that  tlie  fat  of  the  male  bear 
may  be  used  for  the  cua-  of  the  males  alon**,  and  what  is  token  from  the  she  bear  for 
the  females. 

The  lynxes,  called  by  die  Norweg^ians  Cioupc,  and  by  the  Laplanders  Albns,  arc  not 
to  Ix"  met  with  in  Flnmark ;  this  detect  however  is  supplied  by  the  great  number  of 
wolves.  Of  these  some  are  yellow,  some  of  u  colour  inclining  to  white.  This  wild  ani. 
mal,  according  to  th'  diflferent  dialects  of  places,  gets  ditTerenr  names,  such  as  Barg, 
Graabeen,  Sfrob,  Sfrog;  ttv^  Laplanders  call  them  Kumpi,  Staipe,  SeilK-k,  Gainc,  Oigo- 
butzh.  The  Laplanders  most  usually  kill  wolves  with  guns;  they  take  them  also  with  a  c  r. 
tain  iron  machine,  of  which  we  shall  below  give  a  description.  The  most  useful  of  these 
traps  hold  a  wild  beast  so  closely,  that  should  they  only  catch  the  nail,  yet  they  can  re- 
tain him,  which  from  the  following  account  will  be  manifest :  A  certain  mountain  Lap- 
lander from  the  bay  of  Posanger,  called  Andrew  lonsen,  once  caught  a  wolf  in  one  of 
those  approved  machines,  wnich,  though  only  held  by  a  single  nail,  and  running  be- 
iaides  with  so  great  swiftness,  with  the  machine  that  he  carried  with  him,  that  the  Lap- 
lander,  though  carried  by  his  rein-deer,  a  very  swift  animal,  could  scarcely  overtake  himi 
as  he  fled,  yet  so  closely  did  the  trap  hold  him,  that  he  could  by  no  means  extricate  him- 
self and  escape.  But  whatever  more  of  the  nature  and  habits  of  this  animal  could  be 
mentioned  occurs  in  chapter  the  ninth,  on  the  rein-deer.  Wolfskins  are  stretched  on 
wooden  tenter-hooks,  called  in  Lapland  Ratzh. 

Foxes  arc  found  in  great  numbers  through  Finmark.  Of  these  many  are  red,  called  in 
Lapland  Ruopsok  ;  others  are  red,  marked  with  a  black  cross,  whence  they  are  called  by 
the  Norwegians  Kors-Roeve,  that  is,  red  foxes,  but  by  the  Laplanders  Raude  :  others  are 
altogether  black  ;  others  black,  with  the  extremity  of  the  hair  on  the  back  shining  with  a 
colour  like  silver.  Foxes  of  this  sort,  called  in  Lapland  Zhjaeppok,  whose  skins,  as  being 
the  best  of  dieir  kind,  were  reserved  under,  the  injunction  of  an  edict  published  on  the 
twenty -fifth  of  May,  in  the  fifty-second  year  of  the  seventeenth  century,  for  his  majesty 
alone  ;  they  are  now  sold  without  restraint  to  the  Muscovites,  who  make  garments  of 
them  for  men  filling  the  highest  dignities.  The  Russian  women  of  inferior  condition 
are  &iid  to  wear  caps  or  hoods  trimmed  with  red  fox-skins.  Besides  the  said  species, 
there  are  white  foxes  found  in  Finmark,  with  black  ears  and  legs,  and  black  hairs  in 
their  tail.  These  in  Lapland  are  called  Vjelgok,  and  arc  very  rarely  met  vyritli.  There  are 


r 


ACCOimT  OK  DANISM  l,\l'l,ANr)  tlY  l.r.VMS. 


41: 


)k*^!<U-h  litilf  white  foxes,  less  tlmn  thoac  just  mtntiomd,  cnllcd  hy  the  NorMc giiiu* 
Mill  Uaili  r,  bnl  hy  (he  l^apLiiitU  is  NJ.il,  whose-  sWmh  arc  the  W(;rst  of  all.  Foxi-s  iiid 
uti  the  I'KKs  of  |)tal^li^:;tll!i  and  otiu  r  birds  lakiti  hy  htrata^tm,  on  tuior,  slull-fish 
round  mar  the  shore,  and  siicii  like  {'(kkIs.  The  Laplander,  hunting  the  fox  in  winttr, 
follows  the  track  of  him,  until  he  finds  him  <  ither  siet  pin(<  in  the  open  field,  or  has  traced 
him  to  his  dcii,  where  he  has  concealed  himself.  Hi  re  the  hunter  halts  a  little,  wait- 
ing the  opportunity  of  killing  him  with  a  Inillct  when  (omin}j;  out  of  his  hiding  place. 
He  hides  also  pieces  of  meat  in  dilVerent  places  under  the  snow,  to  the  intent  tliat  the 
foxes  should  come  lo  them.  When  he  has  once  smell  the  meat,  he  eagerly  Hies  to  it, 
but,  while  striving  to  disperse  the  snow  with  his  feet,  in  order  to  get  at  the  meat  that  is 
under  it,  he  is  shot  by  the  Liplunder  lyin;;^  in  wait  for  him.  This  kind  of  hunting  is 
exercised  by  night,  by  moonshine,  or,  in  defect  of  that,  by  the  glimmering  light  which 
they  call  Horeul ;  for  it  is  suiHciently  kiK)vvn,  I  diink,  that  Uuit  which  they  call  the 
Aurora  Borealis  is  ap[)arent  in  so  great  u  dcgn.e  in  this  cpiarter  of  the  sky,  that  it  can 
supply  the  place  of  tlic  absi'nt  moon.  Foxes  arc  sometimes  killed  ruiuung,  but  thcv 
are  most  usually  caught  in  u  machine  of  iron,  which,  iK-iore  it  is  laid,  reseml)les  a  semi- 
circle, when  laid,  theshuneof  a  complete  circle.  They  fix  this,  rublx'd  with  rosin,  fut 
of  the  dolphin,  or  uny  otlier  unctuous  mutter,  lest  the  wily  fox  should  smell  the  rust, 
and  lay  it  in  the  snow,  in  the  sai  .  near  the  .shore,  or  some  other  commodious  place, 
baited  with  die  flesh  of  the  lanu;i,  which  the  Norwegians  call  Haae-Ki(jerring.  The 
fox,  smelling  the  bait,  instantly  flies  to  it,  but,  while  he  is  endeavouring  to  remove  the 
snow  or  the  sand  with  his  feet,  to  reach  the  hidden  f(K)d,  he  incautiously  touches  the  trap, 
which  touched,  instantly  seizes  the  neck,  the  feet,  or  some  other  nart  of  the  body,  and 
closely  holds  it.  If  the  snare  or  trap,  which  frequently  happens,  should  lay  hold  of  one 
foot  only,  the  fox,  sooner  than  become  a  pay  to  his  enemy,  eats  away  his  own  foot,  if 
there  is  time  for  it,  and  takes  to  flight  with  the  three  remaining  ones.  This  machine 
is  used  in  other  places  in  Norway,  and  besides  it  there  is  another,  called  Ritta,  in 
which  the  Laplanders  are  used  to  catch  foxes.  The  Ritta  is  made  in  the  form  of  an 
oblong  and  low  chest,  and  open  at  one  of  its  ends.  Near  that  end  that  is  open  arc  two 
stakes,  overtopping  the  chest  itself  in  height,  on  which  is  put  a  beam  across.  Before 
the  said  stakes,  at  the  extremity  of  the  cover  (for  the  machine  has  a  cover,  no  less  than 
other  necessary  parts  of  a  chest)  is  a  small  pole,  to  the  extremity  of  which  above  is  a 
hook  with  a  button  affixed,  another  pole  being  put  over  the  beam,  whose  fore  point  just 
touches  the  button,  while  a  rope  is  fixed  to  the  other  point,  passing  through  the  aperture 
made  in  the  cover  of  the  chest,  and  drawn  to  the  bait  concealed  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
machine.  The  snare  thus  constructed,  the  fox,  invited  and  allured  by  the  odour  of  the 
bait,  creeps  in  through  the  open  pan  of  the  trap,  where,  while  he  is  digging  the  earth, 
he  touches  the  rope,  which  loosens  the  button,  and  that  being  undone,  the  cover  of  the 
chest  instantly  falls  in,  and  kills  the  fox  by  its  weight.  And  since  the  said  machine  can 
contain  only  the  fore  part  of  the  fox  who  has  got  in,  while  all  the  hinder  part  is  out- 
side,  it  often  happens  that  a  wolf  falls  upon  a  fox  so  caught,  and  tears  the  part  in  his 
own  way,  that  the  hunter  shall  be  deprived  of  the  skin,  the  reward  and  fruit  of  all  his 
labour,  and  which  he  only  looks  after,  now  torn  to  pieces  and  broken  up.  They  re- 
late that  the  Swedes  catch  bears  by  a  like  machine,  where  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the 
trap  which  is  constructed  for  the  destroying  of  bears  is  much  larger,  in  proportion  to  the 
strength  and  size  of  this  beiist,  composed  of  stronger  lx:ams  and  rafters,  and  laden  with 
heavy  stones,  that  the  cover  in  its  fall,  when  the  button  is  undone,  may  fall  with  the 
greater  weight,  and  crush  him.  Foxes  are  killed  too  by  certain  po"sened  cakes,  which 
the  Laplanders  call  in  their  tongue,  Saeljok.     The  fox,  when  going  to  build  his  subtcr- 

VOL.    I.  3   H 


I 


f- 


1^ 


1 


418 


ACCOUNT  01>DAVI.SH  LAPLAND  DY  LREMfi. 


Ill 


rancaii  reces:,  digs  a  way  to  it,  not  in  a  direct  line,  but  in  one  curved  and  winding, 
with  a  variety  of  turnings,  with  the  intent,  it  seems,  that  no  one  with  cither  spear  or 
any  other  noxious  instrument  should  reach  it;  and  as  it  necessarily  follows  that  this  den, 
and  the  windings  to  it,  cannot  be  dug  without  throwing  up  a  great  quantity  of  earth, 
you  will  not  without  reason  be  surprised,  that,  in  such  a  den,  sometimes  of  no  middling 
i'lic,  no  heaps  J  earth  dujr  up  are  to  be  seen,  but  that  every  thing  is  found  plain  and 
level.  The  ^apiander,  when  going  to  catch  a  fox  in  his  den,  shuts  up  the  entrance 
through  which  it  appears  he  piisecs,  having  made  a  new  one  in  its  place,  by  the  help  of 
wh:  'i  he  strives  to  find  out  »hose  which  lead  to  the  den  ;  which,  when  he  has  found  out 
and  laid  opf:n,  he  attacks  the  den  itself  of  the  fox,  where,  when  he  has  aru;'ed,  he  drags 
him  out  froia  it,  and  kills  him  It  happens  but  very  seldom,  t!i;tt  two  foxes  are  fc^nd 
together  in  the  same  den.  Fox-skins  are  stretched  on  a  certain  machini'!  called  Ratz,  as 
was  mentioned  above  of  wolf-skins. 

The  marten,  called  by  the  Laplanders  J>Iaette,  is  found  too  in  Finmark.  There  are 
tliree  species  of  this  animal ;  the  first  comprehends  thoac,  which  it^  the  Danish  language 
are  called  Steen-Maar,  th  it  is,  marten  found  among  the  rocks.  The  marten  of  this 
species  is  darkish,  short  hairs,  and  brownish  tail,  with  ash-coloured  spots,  sometimes  in- 
clining to  a  black  and  blue  colour,  marked  under  the  neck.  It  takes  its  name  from  the 
mountains  and  stony  grounds  it  most  usually  haunts.  The  second  species  is  the  mar- 
ten, called  Birfe-Maar,  that  is,  the  marten  that  delights  in  places  planted  with  the  birch- 
tree  ;  th:a  is  of  a  dark  colour,  with  a  purple  coloured  tail,  and  marked  with  white  spots 
under  the  neck.  To  the  third  class  belongs  the  .pecies  of  m.r.  ten  called  Furr-Marr, 
used  to  the  haunts  of  fir-trees.  This  is  of  a  dark  m  \d  colour,  with  a  yellow  tail,  and  a 
mud  coloured  sp  it  under  the  neck,  somewhat  white.  The  martens  are  caught  in  a 
trap  or  i^on  maclune,  which  I  described  above. 

The  glutton,  called  Bielfras,  in  Lapland  Gjeed'k,  is  found  in  Finmark,  but  rare  and 
seldom.  He  is  strongly  furnished  with  teeth,  aa  well  as  the  sharpest  nails.  Those  of 
Lapland,  who  have  explored  the  nature  of  this  animal,  and  thoroughly  examined  it, 
assert,  that  the  glutton,  thougl:  small  in  the  body,  is  certainly  not  to  be  compared  to  the 
rein-deer,  yet  that  it  is  able  to  kill  one  of  full  age  and  growth,  but  not  without  stratagem, 
as  appears  from  the  following  statement :  In  the  woods,  where  the  rein-deer  usually 
stray,  die  wily  glutton  gets  up  a  tree  ;  from  it  he  leaps  down  on  the  head  of  the  rein- 
deer as  he  passes,  and  so  mangles  his  neck  v/ith  his  greedy  bites,  that  he  drops  at  length 
lifeless  under  him.  The  sk"ns  of  the  glutton,  on  account  of  the  white  shining  streak 
with  which  tliis  nnimal  '■«  marked  along  the  neck,  and  which  they  call  in  common  a 
look'ng-glass,  are  in  great  estimation.  From  that  part  of  the  skin  which  is  taken  from 
the  feet  of  this  animal,  the  Laplanders  make  gloves,  elegantly  adorned  and  diversified 
Avith  threads  of  tin  interspersed,  as  is  the  custom  of  the  nation.  With  so  great,  so  in- 
satiable a  voracity  does  this  animal  hunger,  that  he  is  said  not  sooner  to  quit  the  carcass 
than  he  has  consumed  it  all.  But  if  he  cannot  contain  the  whole  of  it,  he  searches 
out  two  trees  very  close  to  each  other,  between  which  he  squeezes  himself,  and  by 
pressing  and  constraining  himself  violently,  relieves  his  belly  ;  when  he  has  done  this, 
he  hastens  again  to  the  carcass,  and  devours  the  remainder  of  it.  Impelled  by  the 
„;.r^p  p^rpediness,  it  is  usual  with  him  to  go  to  the  cupboards  of  the  Laplanders  built  on 
the  ways,  ao  said,  and  gnawing  and  digging  through  the  coverings,  giites,  andfioors  of 
then.,  the  greedy  guest,  getting  in,  destroys  the  meats  and  whatever  foods  are  there  to 
be  found. 

The  beaver,  in  Lapland  Majeg,  is  also  met  with  in  some  districts  of  Finmark,  no 
whe^s  more  frequently  than  in  Indiager,  a  district  of  Swedish  Lapland,  and  on  the  banks 


41 


ACCOL'NT  OF  DANISH  LVPL WD  HY  I.F.RMS 


41«J 


of  a  very  larpfc  and  famous  hike,  which  is  said  to  be  twelve  miles  in  circuit.  The  same 
lake,  as  reporkd,  is  of  an  immense  and  almost  ui  "ithomable  depth,  a.id  in  it  arc  many 
lesser  islands.  Tlicy  say  the  tooth  of  thir,  animiil  is  reddish,  crooked,  and  almost 
squared.  His  tail,  by  the  aid  of  which  he  is  said  to  make  a  house  for  himself,  is  broad, 
rough,  and  full  of  scales.  The  wool,  or  rather  hairs,  are  sold  to  the  Russians  in  common, 
and  at  a  eood  price  ;  they  purchase  also  the  skin  for  the  covering  their  imder  garment 
with,  llie  royal  governor  of  this  tract  of  Sweden,  the  illustrious  Claudius  Gaggc,  or- 
dered,  by  his  majesty's  command.  Christian  the  Fourth,  of  glorious  memor) ,  that  as  many 
beavers'  skins  as  could  be  got  should  be  boi\ght  for  the  use  of  his  majesty.  The  royal 
mandate,  proclaimed  on  this  business,  is  dated  the  twenty-eighth  of  June  1609.  The  force 
and  efficacy  of  the  beaver  or  castor  oil  in  wirious  symptoms  is  wonderful,  too  well  known 
to  practitioners  in  medicine  to  be  mentioned  by  me.  It  is  said  to  be  medicinal  for  the 
internal  diseases  of  cattle ;  it  is  said  to  be  of  service  in  frightening  aad  driving  away 
whales,  to  whom  its  very  smell  alone  is  insufferable  ;  for  which  reason  fishermen,  ap- 

Erehensive  of  harm  from  this  great  fish,  are  ever  provided  with  the  oil  of  castor.  The 
eaver,  for  this  reason,  is  instinctively  led  to  build  his  house  near  the  banks  of  lakes  and 
rivers.  They  saw  with  their  teeth  birch-trees,  with  which  the  building  is  constructed. 
Whichever  of  the  beavers  supplies  the  place  of  the  sledge  lies  upon  his  back,  with  his 
feet  upwards,  whilst  his  companions  put  the  wood  between  his  feet  as  he  lies  down, 
and  holding  it  with  his  teeth,  he  drags  it  along  to  the  place  destined  for  building  his 
habitation,  together  with  the  wood  laid  upon  it.  In  this  manner  one  piece  of  timber  is 
carried  after  another,  where  they  choose.  Those  who  supply  the  place  of  the  sledge 
are  easily  known  from  the  rest  by  the  defect  of  hair,  which  is  rubbed  off  by  constant 
action  all  along  the  back.  At  the  lake  or  river,  where  their  house  is  to  be  built,  they 
lay  birch  stocks  or  trunks  covered  with  their  bork  in  the  bottom  itself,  and,  forming  a 
foundation,  they  complete  the  rest  of  the  building  with  so  much  art  and  ingenuity,  as  to 
excite  the  admiration  of  the  beholders.  The  house  itself  is  of  a  round  and  arched  figure, 
equalling  in  its  circumference  the  ordinary  hut  of  a  Laplander.  In  this  house  the  floor  is, 
for  a  bed,  covered  with  brandies  of  trees,  not  in  the  very  bottom,  but  a  little  above,  near 
to  the  edge  of  the  river  or  lake  ;  so  that  between  the  foundation  and  the  flooring,  on 
Which  the  dwelling  is  supported,  there  is  formed  as  it  were  a  cell,  filled  with  water,  in 
which  the  stocks  of  the  birch-tree  are  put  up  ;  on  the  bark  of  this  the  beaver  family 
who  inhabit  this  mansion  feed.  If  there  are  more  families  under  one  roof,  besides  the 
said  flooring  another  resembling  the  former  is  built  a  little  above,  which  you  may  not 
improperly  name  a  scccikI  ^.tory  in  the  building.  The  roof  of  the  dwelling  consists  of 
branches  vfy  closely  compacted,  and  projects  out  far  over  the  water.  You  have  now, 
reader,  a  house,  consisting  and  laid  out  in  a  cellar,  a  flooring,  a  hypocaust,  a  ceiling,  and 
a  roof,  raised  by  a  brute  animal,  altogether  destitute  of  reason  and  also  of  the  builder's 
art,  with  no  less  ingenuity  than  commodiousness.  This  too  is  an  extraordinary  instance 
of  the  Divine  wisdom  und  goodness,  which,  in  addition  to  the  other  instinctive  actions  of 
brute  animals,  straying  through  their  haunts,  should  more  excite  and  actuate  us  to  the 
admiration,  praise,  and  adoration  of  the  Divine  Being.  In  the  said  cell  is  an  aperture, 
which  serves  for  a  door,  through  which  the  beavers  go  in  and  out.  When  they  are  all 
abroad,  the  hunters  put  a  kind  of  a  little  fastening  on  that  opening  or  door,  in  such  a 
manner,  that,  on  the  entrance  of  the  first  beaver,  it  should  fall  and  close  up  the  whole 
aperture,  as  far  as  it  goes.  Thus  shut  up,  the  lieaver  which  is  within  is  hindered  from 
goinf-  out,  and  is  taken.  But  as  to  what  is  hitherto  related  concerning  the  beaver  and 
hip  Pii'nners,  I  have  not  attained  by  my  own  experience,  nor  could  I  learn,  because 
througn  that  whole  district  where  my  duty  as  a  missionary  lay,  this  animal  never  once 

3  H  3 


!'■ 


t>-' 

,1* 

i. 
I 


420 


\CCOUNT  OF  DANlf?H  LAPLAND  nV  LKKMS 


I 


came  in  my  way ;  but  what  I  have  heard  from  Laplanders  inhabiting  those  places  re- 
sorted by  bciivcrs,  I  faithfuliy  relate. 

Otters  are  found  in  great  quantities  through  Finmark  :  this  animal  is  called  by  some 
Nonvegians  Slcnter ;  by  Laplanders  Zlijevres,  a  word  denoting  each  sex  cf  this  crea- 
ture. But  the  male  otter,  of  full  age  and  stature,  is  called  Goaaige  ;  the  male  young  of 
the  otter  in  his  first  'cu:,  Farro  Goaaige;  the  female  of  full  age  and  stature,  Snaka;  a 
female  young  just  come  out  of  its  first  year,  Farm  Snaka;  and  those  that  have  not  at- 
tained  this  t'nider  age,  the  Laplanders  call  Varlagges.  The  otters  getting  their  subsistence 
in  the  lakes  surpass  those  that  live  in  the  salt  wiiter  by  far,  in  the  sleekness  and  jeauty 
of  their  hair.  The  otters  Cun  be  as  easily  made  tame  as  dogs,  cats,  and  other  domestic 
animals ;  besides,  it  can  make  itself  agreeable  and  useful  to  its  master,  fetching  lish  from 
the  sea,  and  having  discharged  that  duty  returns  home.  There  is  a  kind  of  otter,  an 
animal  of  small  body,  yet  can  catch  the  cod  and  other  larger  fish :  when  it  catches  one, 
it  dnigs  it  out  to  the  next  shore  and  eats  it :  while  eating  its  eyes  are  iJways  shut,  at  least 
very  seldom  does  it  open  them,  which  the  hunter  chiefly  attends  to ;  for  he  couies 
nearer  while  the  otter's  eyes  are  shut,  and  halts  when  o|)en,  which  he  does  by  turns, 
until  he  can  conveniently  reach  him  with  a  ball,  and  thus  commodiously  kill  him. 
On  every  maritime  excursion  the  Laplander  is  furnished  with  his  gun.  If  the  time 
permits,  he  determines  his  course,  not  directly  where  he  is  going,  but  approaching  the 
shore,  he  examines  all  its  bays  and  creeks,  to  find  out  wild  animals  of  all  sorts,  but  chiefly 
otters,  which  frequently  are  found  there.  This  is  the  nature  of  the  otter  kind ;  that 
from  its  amphibious  nature  it  employs  one  part,  resembling  a  fish,  swimming  through 
the  sea,  through  lakes  and  rivers,  in  getting  its  food ;  the  others  assigned  to  rest,  which 
it  takes  on  the  dry  ground,  and  in  caverns,  not  such  as  foxes  build  for  themselves,  but 
choose  such  as  by  their  very  nature  are  formed  from  heaps  of  large  stones,  disposed  in 
a  certain  order.  The  Norwegians  call  a  heap  of  stones  of  this  kmd  Uur.  When  the 
cavern  is  found,  the  hunter  lays  his  snare,  from  beams  and  poles  artificially  joined  and 
laid  together,  and  furnished  with  very  sharp  points,  in  which  the  otter,  either  seeking  or 
quitting  his  den,  falls  into  the  snare.  Otters  are  taken  in  that  well  known  machine 
spoken  of  before.  The  skins  are  stretched  on  two  poles  fit  for  this  purpose :  that  which 
is  applied  to  the  longer  part  of  the  skin  is  called  in  Lapland  Gidne ;  the  other,  which  is 
applied  to  the  shorter,  is  called  Buoggnamor.  The  Russians  sometimes  wear  clothes 
trimmed  with  otters'  skins ;  laesides,  they  export  them  into  Tartary,  to  be  sold,  re- 
purchased dear  enough  by  the  Laplanders  ;  for  a  skin,  which  stands  a  Danish  trader  in 
but  one  thaler,  is  bought  back  from  the  Russian  at  not  less  than  two  or  three  thalers. 

The  seas  around  Finmark  abound  in  great  plenty  of  seals,  of  which  some  are  larger, 
and  marked  with  white  spots ;  of  these,  such  as  are  male  are  called  in  Lapland  D»vok ; 
the  females  are  called  Aine.  Some  are  of  huge  bulk,  of  white  c^>.our,  which  the  Lap- 
landeic  call  Jaegees;  others  of  moderate  size,  marked  with  black  spots,  called  by  the 
Norwegians  SteenRobbe,  by  the  Laplanders  Nuorrosh,  the  Lapland  word  expressing  each 
sex.  But  die  male  is  called  in  Lapland  Rokka,  the  female  Afzhio.  Others  are  white, 
with  large  black  spots,  which  the  Laplanders  call  Daeija  ;  others  also  white,  with  black 
small  spots,  called  Oaaido ;  others  small,  with  a  long  bent  beak,  in  Lapland  called  Fatne 
Viudne ;  others  with  other  colours  and  other  names.  Besides  the  said  species  of  seals, 
the  Morse  is  sometimes  found  in  some  parts  of  the  seas  around  Finmark.  This  marine 
beast  the  Norwegians  call  Hual  Ros,  the  Laplanders  Morsh.  The  morse  has  broad  nos- 
trils, thick  tongue,  hug"  crooked  teeth,  especially  two,  which  project  far  beyond  the 
rest,  and  with  which  it  is  said  to  lay  hold  of  rocks  under  wat^r  in  the  sea,  at  no  great 
distance  from  the  shore,  and  to  keep  himself  fast  by  them.    The  Russians  usually  make 


r 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  DV  LEEMS. 


421 


balls  and  other  artificial  things  rrom  the  teeth  of  this  fish,  as  equalling  ivory  in  whiteness, 
as  almost  to  surpass  it,  though  dearer  and  more  valuable  by  faf.  The  feet  of  the  morse 
are  covered  with  a  very  thick  hide,  almost  five  fingers  in  thickness.  King  Christian  the 
Fourth,  of  glorious  memory,  by  a  decree  published  at  the  castle  of  Bergen  on  the  sixth 
of  July,  1622,  ordered  that  fifteen  hides  of  seals  should  be  yearly  bought  for  him.  But  the 
iiea-horses  that  are  found  in  this  part  of  the  ocean  are  short-haired,  yet  with  a  maned 
neck,  of  an  ash  colour,  diflferent  from  those  found  in  Iceland  of  a  carnation  colour.  The 
morse  when  attacked  makes  a  furious  resistance.  The  Laplanders  generally  kill  them 
by  muskets  that  are  grooved ;  sometimes  tliey  attack  them  by  clubs  or  battoons,  the 
blow  being  inHicted  on  the  muzzle  or  front  of  the  anim:il ;  and  winter  is  the  time  when 
this  mode  of  hunting  is  practised,  when  the  seals  get  together  for  the  purpose  of  coup- 
ling. The  young  (which  when  first  boni  are  almost  white,  yet  gradually  take  the  colour 
of  the  dam)  as  weaker,  nor  able  io  fly,  are  in  such  a  contest  in  the  greatest  danger.  I'hc 
same  fate  generally  befalls  the  dams,  yet  resisting,  and  with  all  their  migiit  attacking  their 
assailant;  whence  it  oftentimes  hap|)ens  that  they  fall  not  unrtvenged.  In  a  calm  sea  one 
may  see  the  seals  sleeping,  the  head  whh  the  lower  part  of  the  body  being  under  water, 
with  the  back  above.  I'he  Laplander  observing  this,  on  the  discharge  of  his  gun,  rouses 
him  from  his  sleep,  but  so  as  to  overwhelm  him  with  a  perpetual  sleep,  or  in  plain  terms, 
hits  him  when  sleeping  with  a  ball,  and  kills  him.  The  seal  is  among  the  amphibious, 
swimming  sometimes  m  the  sea,  sometimes  on  dry  land  resting  among  the  rocks,  where, 
whilst  he  negligently  lies,  puts  out  one  of  his  fore-feet,  exhibiting  to  those  who  come  to 
see  him  the  appearance  of  a  man  stretched  on  his  back,  calliiig  some  body  with  his  hand 
to  his  assistance.  When  many  of  them  are  swimming  at  the  same  time  in  a  troop,  in 
order  to  get  possession  of  the  same  rock,  iht;  one  striving  to  get  liefore  the  other,  by  which 
means  tossing  and  rolling  themselves  they  lash  the  sea  with  such  violence,  that  their  shouts, 
while  contending,  and  the  noise  >  ie  waters,  can  be  heard  far  off*.  Those  who  happen 
to  gain  the  rock  have  no  slight  coi.  >i  u^ith  their  associates,  who,  y«  swimming  in  the 
sea,  endeavour  by  every  exertion  to  get  to  the  same  rock.  If  the  contest  is  with  an  in- 
ferior, he  who  holds  the  rock  easily  defends  the  place ;  but  if  with  a  superior,  he  at 
length  is  compelled  to  yield.  In  such  a  conflic  they  mutually  miserably  mangle  c;xh 
other,  setting  up  at  the  time  a  rude  and  savage  kind  of  noise.  Sc  als  are  usually  eaiight 
by  the  following  artifice :  the  sea,  by  means  of  the  tide,  increasen  to  its  greatest  height, 
the  seals  climb  the  rocks,  as  was  said,  to  remain  on  them  until  the  sea  shall  ebb :  mean 
time  a  strong  piece  of  wood,  planted  and  furnished  v,  ith  very  strong  hooks  and  Ix  nt 
irons,  is  put  at  the  bottom  of  the  rock,  to  the  intent  that  the  seals,  rushing  down  from  the 
rock  into  the  sea,  should  get  entangled  in  these  hooks,  which .  to  succeed  the  better,  a 
sudden  shout  is  raised  by  their  aggressors ;  on  hearing  w'^i  .»  the  seals  with  all  their 
might  rush  into  the  sea,  and  by  that  excessive  haste,  grea  than  at  any  other  time,  arc 
caught  on  the  hooks  set  for  them.  The  skins  of  this  animal  are  stretched  usually  in  the 
manner  in  which  salmon  are  dried,  except  that  the  tenter-hooks  are  more  in  number, 
longer,  and  thicker. 

The  squirrel,  in  "NTorwegian,  Ifom,  in  Lapland,  Orre,  is  found  in  some  parts  of  Fin- 
mark.  Among  the  squirrels  some  are  of  a  gray  colour;  but  in  summer  all,  without 
distinction,  are  red.  In  the  woods,  where  they  live,  they  spring  from  the  top  of  one  tree 
to  another  whh  amazing  agility.  When  passing  lakes  or  rivers,  they  seat  themselves  on 
Utde  pieces  of  wood  or  bark,  and  erecting  their  tails  for  sails,  they  reach  the  place  they 
intend  very  commodiously.  There  were  two  kinds  of  bows  in  use  among  the  Laplan- 
ders ;  the  one,  called  Gietdaugie,  or  the  hand-bow,  because  it  was  stretched  by  the  hand 
9lone.    This  instrument  ^vas  very  simple,  consisting  of  one  arch,  properly  so  called,  and 


I 

i 


V 


1! 


122 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAl'LAND  BY  LKKMS. 


a  String.  Tlie  arrow,  ^vhich  was  fitted  to  the  hand-bow,  was  rather  long,  with  a  very 
sharp  point,  n>adc  of  bonc^r  iron.  The  other  was  called  Juolgc-daugic,  or  foot-bow. 
This,  bcsidi  s  the  bow  and  string,  was  furnished  witV  a  wooden  handle  and  button,  made 
from  the  horn  of  the  rein-deer,  on  which  the  string  ntld  when  the  bow  was  bent.  The 
arrows  placed  in  this  bow  were  without  point ;  but  the  Giet-daugie  was  stretched  no 
less  by  the  aid  of  the  feet  than  the  hands,  whence  it  had  its  name.  After  the  inv^r  ion 
of  muskets,  the  use  of  bows  was  rarer,  though  the  Giet-daugie,  or  that  bow  wh  ich  is 
called  from  the  feet,  has  not  grown  altogether  into  disuse  among  the  Indagrians  in  Swe< 
den ;  for  as  there  is  in  that  tract  of  country  a  great  number  of  squirrels,  the  hunters  are 
said  to  make  use  of  bows  'nstead  of  muskets,  lest  the  skin  of  this  beast  should  be  injured 
by  bullets.  Forty  skins  (which  number,  when  speaking  of  squirrel  skins,  is  called  Tom- 
mtr)  are  sold  by  the  Laplanders  at  the  price  of  one  thaler. 

There  is  avast  numlx,*r  of  weasels  also  in  Finmark.  This  little  animal  in  Lapland  is 
called  Boaaid,  which  word  expresses  each  sex  ;  but  the  male  is  called  Goaaige,  the  fe- 
male G.idfe.  VVeasles  during  the  winter  are  gray,  unless  that  on  the  extremity  of  the 
tails  they  have  very  black  hairs,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  of  them,  whose  tails  as  well 
as  the  rest  of  the  body  is  all  white ;  these  are  called  by  the  Laplanders  Seibush.  On  their 
haunches  is  found  a  kernel,  or  small  piece  of  flesh,  when  the  skin  is  removed,  of  a  very 
bad  and  almost  insufferable  smell,  which  they  call  themselves  Zhjiavra  Kuatte.  The 
weasel  is  most  greedy  and  most  eager  after  eggs.  If  you  fasten  a  clue  of  thread  to  a  fish, 
or  any  thing  else  of  which  the  weasel  is  fond,  he  will,  after  dragging  the  food  to  his  hole, 
immediately  bring  back  the  clue  of  thread.  I  relate  what  I  have  heard,  but  from  those 
who  have  testified  that  they  had  often  seen  the  matter  themselves.  The  Alpine  weasel 
is  called  by  Pliny  the  winter  mouse ;  more  truly  and  fitly  named  Royse  Kat,  that  is,  liv- 
ing among  heaps  of  stones,  as  it  is  commonly  called  by  the  Norwegians,  because  it  hunts 
mice  no  less  actively  than  the  tame  domestic  cat.  Weasels  are  caught  in  a  certain  trap, 
which  the  Laplanders  call  Gillar  :  it  is  made  from  a  piece  of  wood  of  the  birch-tree,  cleft  in 
two  parts,  of  which  the  one,  which  is  propped  on  a  stake,  falls  down  on  the  weasel  creep- 
ing to  the  bait  through  the  aperture,  which  is  open  in  the  trap  for  this  purpose,  and  crush- 
es him  to  deith  by  its  weight.  The  whole  machine  is  raised.by  a  prop  from  the  ground, 
lest  field  mice  should  get  in  and  destroy  the  bait.  Before  the  trap  is  a  stump  equalling  the 
elevation,  which  the  weasel,  on  smelling  the  bait,  ascends,  that  he  should  creep  into  the 
trap  more  commodiously.  When  caught  in  the  trap  he  make^  water  through  fear,  which, 
should  it  touch  the  skin,  superinduces  a  yellowish  colour,  after  spoiling  the  former 
whiteness  of  it. 

Certain  mice,  called  by  the  Norwegians  Lemaenner,  by  the  Laplanders  Godde-Sae- 
pan,  infest  Finmark  also.  These  mice  usually  lie  under  stones,  and  in  smaii  cavities,  and 
there  have  their  nests  and  their  young :  the  young  in  the  beginning  are  blind,  and  varie- 
gated. Mice  of  this  sort  in  reality  drop  from  the  sky,  which  I  relate  on  my  own  authority. 
Daring  by  nature,  at  least  they  are  little  afraid ;  for  should  any  one  attack  them  with  a 
stick,  they  inst»*Hly  turn  about  in  a  hostile  mar  ler,  and  gnaw  it.  Whenever  they 
drop  from  the  sky,  the  Laplanders  then  augur  to  themselves,  as  a  rema.  kable  year  for 
the  taking  of  foxes,  the  following  one  ;  for  as  they  are  very  fond  of  these  creatures, 
they  find  them  in  a  great  abundance  on  the  mountains  in  the  year  there  !s  such  a  pleu- 
tiful  shower  of  them  ;  but  on  the  next,  when  there  is  as  great  a  diarth,  they  betake 
themselves  to  the  shores,  with  the  hope  of  finding  there  what  they  ovjught  in  vain  for  on 
the  mountains.  The  Laplanders,  making  the  best  use  of  the  opportunity,  strive  to  catch, 
by  all  arts  and  means  in  their  power,  their  visitors.  But  these  mice  are  no  less  exposed 
TO  the  attacks  of  foxes,  than  they  are  liable  to  be  devoured  by  the  crows  and  rooks. 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  DY  LIEMS. 


42b 


In  some  parts  of  Finmark  they  proceed  in  troops,  an  almost  innumerable  croud  ;  nor 
do  they,  should  they  on  their  march  arrive  at  a  lake  or  river,  turn  out  of  iIk:  way,  or 
the  course  they  began,  but  committing  themselves  boldly  to  the  water,  pass  dneclly 
over  the  obstructing  lake  or  river  ;  which  I  find  too,  not  by  experience,  for  I  have 
not  seen  it,  but  from  report,  is  the  custom  also  of  dormice. 

The  knowledge,  such  as  it  is,  of  the  wild  animals  of  Finmark,  and  the  methods  ol' 
taking  them,  being  laid  down  agreeably  to  the  plan  of  the  work,  I  shall  beg  leave  to 
mention,  with  the  reader's  permission,  that  in  these  countries  itdoes  not  seldoni  happen, 
that  the  ewes  produce  twins  twice  a  year,  and  the  goats  not  only  twins,  Ijut  sometimes 
yean  three  kids  at  once.  The  he-goats  usually  rut,  elsewhere,  about  the  time  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  as  it  is  called  in  the  kalendar  ;  here  later  ;  about  the  festival  of  St  Mi- 
clviel,  they  are  known  to  couple.  Finmark  produces  likewise  most  other  wild  birds 
which  are  found  elsewhere  throughout  Norway.  Of  these,  some  are  stationary,  and 
some  are  constant,  as  the  eagle,  the  falcon,  the  hawk,  the  owl,  the  crow,  and  raven,  the 
ptarmigan,  the  cormorant,  a  peculiar  kind  of  bird,  in  Norwegian  called  Aderfuglen, 
the  sea  crow,  and  many  others,  which  are  cor  stant  here  as  elsewhere.  Others  foreign 
and  migrating,  which  come,  in  the  beginning  of  spring,  to  depart  again  in  autumn, 
which  seasons  of  the  year  they  as  well  know,  and  as  accurately  observe,  that  men  by 
the  aid  of  stars  and  kalenders  scarce  know  them  better.  Among  the  emigra  ing  are 
classed  the  wild  goose,  in  Norwegian  Graagaasen  ;  the  pigeon,  a  bird  in  Nor\\  egian 
called  Bruus  Koppen,  i.  e.  crested  or  tufted,  the  fig  pecker,  the  field  ouzel.  This  cus- 
tom of  coming  and  then  migrating  at  a  stated  season,  is  observed  not  only  in  Finmark, 
but  in  other  places  through  Norway,  in  the  said  birds. 

Fiimiark  abounds  in  plenty  of  birds,  as  well  aquatic  as  terrestrial.  White  falcons 
are  seldom  found.  They  exceed  somewhat  the  vulgar  gray  coloured  in  the  bulk  of 
the  body  :  under  the  belly  and  wings  they  are  white,  on  the  back  gray,  with  yellow 
feet  and  beak.  In  high  and  inaccessible  rocks,  and  clifts  of  quarries,  they  build,  and 
hatch  their  young.  Of  the  common  kind  of  falcons,  of  a  gray  colour,  there  is  by  fiu* 
the  greatest  number  in  these  parts,  who,  of  a  disposition  neither  perverse  nor  in- 
tractable,  were  found  with  those  foreigners  who  purchased  formerly  on  certain  con- 
ditions  the  licence  of  catching  them,  from  their  serene  sovereigns  the  kings  of  Den- 
mark  and  Norway. 

In  the  wild  haunts  of  Finmark  it  has  been  said,  that  white  owls  are  found.  This 
bird,  they  say,  is  a  little  larger  than  common  owls,  the  feathers  are  white,  marked 
With  black  spots,  the  hinder  part  of  the  head  short,  the  beak  broad,  brisk  eyes,  and 
hairy  feet.     It  is  said  to  build  its  nest  on  high  rocks,  and  there  to  hatch  its  young. 

A  certain  bird,  in  Lapland  calkd  Skaite,  very  much  like  that  sea-bird  which  is  call- 
ed Rive,  to  be  soon  descrihe-i  below,  is  to  be  met  with  on  the  mountains,  seeking  its 
subsistence  by  the  carrying  away  the  eggs  which  other  birds  have  oy  chance  left  in 
Its  way. 

Here  too  is  found  the  greatest  number  of  rooks  through  all  Norway,  yet  no  where 
more  numerous  to  be  seen  than  about  the  shore,  flying  and  perching  in  troops.  The 
colds  of  winter,  that  chiefly  pinch  this  part  of  the  world,  so  subdues  them,  that  they  not 
only  gather  thick  about  the  houses,  but  even  boldly  fly  into  the  porches  and  court- 
yards. Whenever  any  servant  going  to  clean  vessels  from  the  kitchen  shall  east  any 
scourings  into  the  snow,  they  instantly  fly  famished  to  devour  the  scraps,  if  any  can  be 
found  among  the  cleansings  that  are  thrown  out.  The  linen  clothes  which  in  summer 
are  usually  washed  and  cleansed  in  the  sun,  unless  carefully  guarded,  they  tear  with- 
their  beaks  under  the  compulsion  of  hunger,  nor  would  they  spare  the  stalks  in  autumn 


t' 


4 


i24 


ACCOUN  r  OF  DANISH  LAI'LANU  HY  LEOfS 


I   I 


M' 


provided  the  keepers  would  let  them  devour  them  ;  such,  indeed,  voracity  and  malig. 
nity  is  obbervable  in  this  kind  of  bird,  us  is  no  where  else  observed  throughout  Nor. 
way. 

A  great  number  of  crows  is  found  in  this  tract  also.  Birds  of  this  kind,  which  by 
their  nature  deserve  to  be  called  rapacious  and  plundering  creatures,  carry  off  the  very 
fi:^h,  which,  according  to  the  custom  of '.his  people,  is  suspended  to  dry  in  fish<houses, 
and  also  the  ptarmigans  taken  in  nets. 

'J'he  magpye,  called  in  Lapland  Rnosh  Karanas,  in  Norwegian,  according  to  the  dif- 
ferent di:;''xts  of  the  plnccs,  Stiuur,  Siiuul,  Stivor,  and  Stieer,  is  seen  sometimes  in  Fin- 
mark,  yet  very  .^cldom  Ixyond  the  parishes  of  Alten  and  Hammcrfest,  in  the  western 
Fiiimark.  If  it  happens,  as  in  Waixloea,  an  island  situated  in  the  eastern  Finmark, 
this  garrulous  bird  should  be  seen  near  the  place  of  worship,  is  taken  as  an  omen,  either 
portending  death  to  the  pastor  of  the  congregation,  or  certainly  some  change ;  but  if  it 
should  appear  on  the  castle,  it  wa->  thought  to  presage  instant  death,  or  the  hopes  of  a 
new  appointment,  to  the  ro}al  governor  resident  there. 

In  Finmark,  as  in  most  oilu  r  tracts  of  Norway,  is  a  certain  wild  bird,  the  male  of  which 
is  named  in  Norwegian  Tiuur  or  Tedder,  in  Lapland  Zhiufzia,  in  Latin  the  Urogallus 
major.  It  is  about  the  size  of  the  eagle,  a  hoarse  and  screaching;  voice,  of  a  pale  ash 
colour,  with  black  and  white  feathers  on  the  breast  and  under  the  belly.  It  usually 
swells  and  struts,  with  its  feathers  proudly  expanded,  like  a  peacock.  The  female  of 
this  bird,  in  Norwegian  Roy,  in  Lapland  called  Goaappel,  is  less  than  the  male,  of  a  dark, 
colour,  interspersed  with  spots.  The  flesh  of  these  birds  very  much  resembles  the  flesh  of 
birds  in  common,  as  well  in  colour  as  in  taste. 

A  certain  bird  of  extraordinary  size,  neck  and  feet  of  an  ell  long,  called  by  the  Lap- 
landers Guorga,  is  met  with  in  Finmark  ;  very  seldom  it  is  seen. 

Finmark  abounds  in  a  groat  number  of  ptarmigans.  Birds  of  this  kind  are  gray  in 
summer,  mixed  with  a  pale  yellow,  white  in  the  winter,  when  they  sometimes  so  bury 
and  cover  themselves  with  the  snows,  that  they  cannot  be  seen  by  the  passengers  in  the 
place,  where  for  a  time  they  were  hid  under  the  snow,  which  after  their  departure 
is  yet  sufficiently  visible.  But  there  are  two  kinds  of  the  ptarmigan,  one  of 
^vhich  comprehends  those  which  in  Lapland  are  called  Ricusak,  in  Norwegian  Stov  Ryper 
or  h\c  R\per,  because  they  frequent  the  woods  and  hills ;  to  the  other  class  belong 
those  called  in  Lapland  Giron,  in  Norwegian  Field  Ryper  or  Stare  Ryper,  that  is  moun* 
tain  ptarmigan,  because  they  are  found  on  the  summits  of  the  loftiest  mountains. 
These  differ  a  little  from  the  fomier  in  the  size  of  the  body,  which  is  a  little  less,  and 
also  in  the  voice.  The  Laplanders  catch  the  ptarmigan  in  the  following  manner ;  they 
cut  down  birch  trees,  and  dispose  them  when  cut  h\  the  shape  of  an  inclosure  through 
the  plain,  different  doors  opening  on  this  side  and  that,  by  which  birds  of  a  moderate 
size  can  creep  in  commodiously.  At  each  opening  is  a  loop,  in  the  form  of  the  fingers 
extended,  fixed  at  each  end  in  the  ground.  The  ptarmigan  alighting  accidentally  on 
tlie  said  inclosure,  whilst  fleeting  freely  up  and  down,  they  come  to  the  tops  of  the 
birch  tree'j,  of  which  this  hedge  is  made  for  catching  them,  to  the  openings  where  the 
loops  are  put,  through  which,  when  wishing  to  get  to  the  nearer  side  of  the  inclosure, 
they  are  entrapped. 

The  wood- pigeon  is  sometimes  seen  in  the  eastern  Finmark  ;  in  the  Russiaiyerri- 
tories,  if  report  is  true,  much  more  frequently.  t\. 

There  is  a  certain  bird,  which,  from  the  crest  it  carries,  is  called  in  the  Nor\^gian 
Bruus  Kopper,  to  be  met  with  in  some  of  the  tracts  of  this  region.  Such  of  these  kind 
of  birds,  as  are  to  be  found  in  these  countries,  are  either  gray,  with  white  neck,  or  dark, 


ACCOUNT  OV  DANISM  LAl'LAN'i)  HY  LKEMS. 


4i.'i 


wth  a  red  one,  or  variegated  with  a  dark  neck  ;  ihey  equal  in  siisc  the  licld  ouzel  or 
black  bird,  but  with  larger  feet,  they  have  a  sharp  beak,  of  a  pale  yellow  colour. 
That  which  is  male  is  red  from  the  beak  on  to  the  crown,  without  feathers  ;  it  is 
adorned  with  two  crests  or  combs,  which  form  as  many  flaps,  rising  on  each  side  of  the 
flesh,  without  feathers.  The  male,  when  going  to  couple  for  young,  seats  himself  on 
some  rising  hillock  by  land,  and  gaily  expanding  all  his  plumes,  wonderfully  displays 
them,  and  exhibits  such  gestures  as  we  before  observed  in  the  bird  called  in  Latin 
Urogallus. 

The  ouzel  or  field  black-bird,  from  its  elegant  colour,  and  delicious  tlavour,  is  much 
in  esteem,  known  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Denmark,  and  is  to  be  met  with  in  Fin- 
mark.  These  birds  come  in  spring  and  go  in  summer.  When  the  time  of  their  flight 
is  approaching,  they  fly  together,  and  coalesce  in  a  variety  of  greater  flocks.  Thej 
inhabit  marshy  grounds,  where  on  the  higher  hillocks,  ^vhIch  arc  found  in  the  marsh, 
they  build  their  nests,  and  lay  their  varicgiUcd  eggs  luulcr  the  open  air,  whence,  in  some 
parts  of  Norway,  they  are  called  Heisoncr,  as  if  Hedesoner,  that  is,  birds  inhabiting 
marshy  grounds.  This  same  bird  elsewhere  in  Norway  is  called  Agerloc,  that  is  hus- 
bandman, but  in  Lapland  Bizhiutzh. 

To  the  class  of  ouzels  or  field  black-bird  is  referred  a  bird  called  in  Norway  Spove  ;  in 
Lapland  Gusgastak.  There  are  two  kinds  of  this  bird,  which  is  not  uncommon  any  more 
in  Finma.!c  than  elsewhere  through  Norway,  diflering  from  each  other  but  in  the 
size  of  the  body  alone,  some  surpassing  others  in  magnitude  ;  but  all  almost  agree  in  their 
ash  colour,  inclining  somewhat  to  a  dark  one,  in  their  feet  rather  long,  long  beak, 
crooked  and  slender.  They  are  frequently  seen  on  large  stones  by  the  sea  shore.  They 
lay  their  eggs  in  marshy  grounds,  and  the  flesh  is  of  a  most  delicious  flavour. 

In  Finmark,  as  elsewhere  through  Norway,  a  certain  bird  is  to  be  met  with,  called  in 
Lapland  Maekkastak,  but  in  Norwegiaiv>  from  the  varying  dialect  of  each  province, 
one  time  is  called  Rysse  Giog,  another  time  MaefTer  Giog,  luid  also  Myre-hest.  It  has 
dark  wings,  variegated  with  spots,  a  beak  rather  long,  a  voice  not  unlike  the  bleating 
of  a  he-goat ;  it  yields  a  little  in  the  size  of  die  body  to  the  field  black-bird,  and  lives  in 
marshy  grounds,  As  far  as  I  know,  this  bird  is  found  in  Denmark,  here  known  under 
the  nam?  of  Myrebut. 

There  is  a  certain  bird  to  be  met  with  in  Finmark,  called  in  Lapland  Sagan,  in  Nor- 
wegian Kield,  or  Rone  Kalv,  in  Latin  Pica  Marina,  and  frequently  met  with  in  Fin- 
mark. The  Pica  Marina,  or  Sea  Magpye,  is  a  little  larger  than  the  black-bird  of 
the  fields,  of  a  safiron  beak,  the  belly  and  feet  somewhat  yellow,  the  breast  and  part  of 
the  wings  white,  the  rest  of  a  very  black  colour.  It  is  seen  in  common  on  the  shore, 
where  it  lays  its  eggs,  and  brings  forth  its  young  in  a  nest  which  is  negligently  made 
among  the  sea-weeds  or  bare  sea-stones.  It  is  no  ungrateful  object  to  the  curious  eye 
to  observe  this  bird  on  the  sea-shore,  closely  treading  on  the  water  receding  along 
the  sand,  and  yielding  to  it  on  its  return :  but  its  ill-timed  and  extremely  unpleasant 
vociferation,  which  frightens  away  the  other  birds,  is  not  so  agreeable  to  the  hunters. 

That  species  too  as  reckoned  among  the  aquatic  birds  of  Finmark,  which  tJie  Lap- 
landers,  in  their  language,  call  Buvudak,  but  in  Nonvegian,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
district  of  Finmark  call  Strog  Kjeld,  that  is,  the  chattering  magpye.  This  does  not  differ 
from  that  i  have  described,  but  in  the  stature,  which  is  a  little  less,  and  colour,  which  all 
over  the  body  is  gray.  But  this  bird  is  known  and  hated  for  its  clamour  and  noise, 
with  which  it  fills  the  whole  neighbourhood,  and  from  this  it  has  its  name.  In  other 
parts  cf  Norway  it  is  called  Strand  Kield,  from  the  shore  where  it  lives. 


> 


* 

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VOL.  I. 


3  I 


i; 


426 


ACCOUNT  01"  D.VNrSII   T.Al'LAN'D  OY  LEEMS 


h 


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There  is  met  with  also  in  this  tract  a  certain  bird,  called  in  Lapland  Gaddcvicmish, 
in  Norwegian  Fjdcrcptit.  This  bird,  which  elsewhere  is  little  known  through  Norway, 
exceeds  in  i>'uc  the  tame  sparrow,  it  has  gray  feathers  on  the  back,  varied  by  specks  of 
a  diftlrent  colour,  white  under  the  belly,  breast,  and  wings,  a  sharpened  beak,  a  pining 
voice,  and  feet  rather  long.  It  inhabits  that  part  of  the  shore,  next  to  the  sea,  where 
it  Hies  from  one  stone  covered  with  weed  to  another.  It  is  seldom  seen  alone,  but  often 
accompanied  with  ten  or  more  companions.  The  flesh  of  this  bird  is  very  delicate  and 
savory. 

A  certain  bird  is  also  found,  by  the  Norwegian  inhabitants  of  this  place,  called  Sand- 
muling.  This  bird,  whose  voice  is  also  piping,  is  seen  sometimes  on  the  shore,  some- 
times on  land,  a  little  removed  from  the  shore,  and  where  v'^r  it  goes,  it  makes  use  not 
of  its  wings,  l)ut  its  fett. 

There  arc  found  besides  in  Finmark  certain  birds,  called  by  the  Norwegians  of  the 
coinitry  Sncclugic,  that  is,  snow-birds,  elsewhere  through  Norway,  according  to  the  va- 
riety of  that  dialect,  Ficldstacr  one  time,  at  another  Sneefugle,  but  in  the  Lapland  language 
called  Alpe.  Their  colour  almost  white,  dark  wings,  short  beak,  their  flesh  of  an  ex- 
(luisite  flavour.  What  is  observable  in  this  birtl  and  truly  singular  and  unusual  is,  that 
they  fatten  at  the  coming  in  of  the  tide,  and  grow  lean  again  on  its  recess.  They  are 
taken  in  the  following  manner  by  the  Laplanders ;  some  little  sticks  are  set  up  on  the 
snow,  to  which  nooses,  made  from  the  tails  of  cows,  after  the  manner  of  loops  by  which 
thrushes  arc  taken,  are  suspended.  The  birds,  meaning  to  get  through,  are  caught  in 
the  1001)8  in  their  way.  The  said  birds  are  visible  in  certain  tracts  of  Norway,  in  the 
beginning  of  spring,  forming  themselves  into  a  large  troop,  but  at  the  end  of  three 
weeks,  especially  in  the  islands,  again  disappear,  to  return,  as  usual,  in  the  next  spring. 

The  goldfinch  of  Finmark  is  of  a  very  elegant  colour,  and  of  a  most  musical  note. 

The  gray  linnet  is,  under  the  neck,  of  a  pigeon  colour,  and  furnishes  no  small  degree 
of  delight  to  those  who  walk  through  the  groves  for  relaxation,  from  its  verj'  sweet  har- 
mony. 

Among  the  singing  birds  which  the  groves  of  Finmark  possess  is  sometimes  observed 
a  certain  bird,  of  very  sweet  song,  short  beak,  black  head,  ornamented  with  a  variety  of 
.spots,  green  belly,  and  a  tail  embellished  with  red  and  yellow  feathers.  It  usually  lays 
its  eggs  in  subterraneous  places. 

Besides  the  enumerated  birds,  more  kinds  of  singing  birds  are  found  in  Finua'^^k, 
among  which  is  a  small  bird,  of  a  gray  colour,  in  Lapland  called  Veige-Zizatzh ;  others 
also,  of  a  black  colour,  distinguished  by  a  white  collar  round  the  neck,  called  in  Lap- 
land Gjelavaelgo ;  another  kind  also  called  Lafhol,  equalling  in  size  the  field  black-bird 
or  ouzel,  not  unlike  the  colour  of  the  lark,  all  of  which  delight  the  passengers  by  their 
delightful  melody. 

A  certain  bird,  in  Norwegian  called  Laxe-Titing,  is  sometimes  seen  near  the  banks  of 
rivers.  In  this  tract,  as  elsewhere  through  Norway,  a  little  bird  is  found  near  the  cata- 
racts of  rivers,  of  a  black  colour,  with  a  white  collar  round  its  neck,  called  in  Norwe- 
gian Elvekald,  '.    the  Lapland  language  Kuoikgarheek. 

Among  the  sea  birds  of  this  country  the  swan  too  shews  itself  in  certain  places.  The 
Laplanders  take  swans  by  a  certain  trap. 

Geese,  which  they  call  wild,  or  gray,  it  appears,  fly  from  the  warmer  countries  in 
the  beginning  of  spring  every  year  to  Nor\vay,  and,  dwelling  there  in  the  little  islands 
in  the  sea  through  the  whole  of  summer,  hatch  their  young,  but  on  the  torn  of  the 
year,  when  inclining  to  autumn,  and  their  young  are  grown  up,  they  return  to  the 


ACCOUNT  OF  DAMSM  LAl'LAM)  HV  l.l'KMrt, 


427 


place  they  came  from.  1  grant  tfiat  sonic  of  tlu-  siiic!  WmU  in  this  jcn my  do  not  pro. 
cccd  further  than  Norland,  others  scarcely  hi yond  the  islands  of  the  dioce^c  of  Bergen, 
towards  the  north;  yet  equally  true  and  etrtain  is  it,  that  a  great  numi/'t  of  tlum  do 
not  cease  until  they  have  penetrated  into  Fintnark  in  their  flight,  ulure  they  hatch 
their  young  in  the  islands  well  known  to  them,  namely,  Serden,  Ingdcn,  and  Uolfsden, 
in  Western  Finmark,  and  Hen-der»  in  the  eastern,  and  procure  subsistmcc  for  thomselves 
and  young  as  they  can,  until  on  the  return  of  autumn  they  regain,  with  their  young,  now 

fprown  up,  the  warmer  regions  of  the  south.  It  is  pleasant  to  vibscrvc  in  this  kind  of 
)ird,  that  coming  from  wmtcr  quarters  into  Norway,  at  u  stated  season  of  the  year, 
they  discharge  by  turns  the  duties  of  a  captain  or  leader;  for  they  ily  in  Hocks,  the  one 
following  the  other  in  order,  when  he,  who  was  for  some  lime  lei'der  or  standard  bear- 
er, passmg  his  office  over  to  him  who  is  next  in  order,  retires  into  t'.K"  rear,  ai-.d  closes 
the  troop.  It  is  still  further  to  be  noticed,  that  on  this  jour:.,.y  they  h;;vc  certain 
stations,  especially  in  the  narrow  angles  of  the  narrow  bny.«,  where  thiy  put  up  to- 
gether at  night,  and  where  they  remain  for  man}'  days ;  and  \vhat  chiefly  r.iises  admi- 
ration is,  that  this  bird,  which  in  other  respects  's  accounted  an  animal  so  stupid,  that 
the  greatest  fools,  destitute  of  almost  all  power  judging,  are  called  by  way  of  re- 
proach stupid  geese,  yet  should  find  his  way  so  5  ccurately  through  such  an  immense 
tract  of  country,  not  only  to  the  same  region,  but  even  to  the  siime  island,  wlurc, 
after  the  lapse  of  a  year,  he  had  dwelt,  and  should  recognize  and  claim  the  nest  he  had 
built  there.  The  pilot,  who  has  learned  his  art  by  the  continued  industry  of  many 
years,  and  established  it  by  long  practice,  scarcely  directs  his  course  bettor  to  the  des- 
tined shores,  provided  with  his  nautical  compass,  his  hydrographic  charts,  and  other  in- 
struments and  aids,  than  do  these  birds  complete  their  course,  aided  by  instinct  alone, 
to  countries  hindered  by  an  immense  distance,  from  the  cold  climates  they  come  out  of. 
One  of  their  number  keeps  watch  while  the  rest  are  asleep,  which  puts  the  hunter,  if 
he  means  to  kill  one  of  them,  on  his  art  and  all  his  circumspection;  yet  some  of  them 
must  fall  under  the  rifle  barrel  guns  of  the  Laplanders.  They  are  caught  also  with 
traps  covered  with  turf,  instead  of  a  bait  A  part  also  is  killed,  when  they  are  weak 
ana  infirm,  on  account  of  their  feathers,  which  fall  annually  off;  at  this  time  they 
withdraw  from  the  traces  and  intercourse  of  men,  to  places  more  remote,  and  therefore 
more  secure. 

In  eastern  Finmark  it  is  said  that  a  certain  kind  of  wild  goose  is  found,  different  from 
the  rest  of  his  kind,  both  in  the  bulk  of  the  body,  which  is  less  in  these,  and  in  colour. 
For  they  are  dark  on  the  back,  with  a  white  belly,  with  black  spots  interspersed  be- 
tween, with  a  white  circle  round  the  eyes,  with  yellow  feet  and  beak.  The  flesh  of  this 
goose  is  not  of  an  ungrateful  relish,  nor  do  the  eg^  differ  much  in  goodness  from  those 
which  tame  geese  lay. 

Ducks  are  very  good  in  colour  and  flavour  in  Finmark ;  there  is  seen  there  a  bird  of 
the  size  of  the  small  duck,  of  a  black  colour,  inhabiting  the  salt  water,  as  well  as  the 
lakes.    The  Laplanders  call  it  Skoaarra. 

Of  the  birds  which  in  the  Norwegian  language  are  called  Aderfugle,  an  immense 
number  is  found  through  Finmark.  So  immense,  that  flocks,  even  of  a  thousand  of 
these  kinds  of  birds  together,  may  be  seen  in  some  places,  chiefly  in  the  bay  of  Porsan- 
ger.  That  of  the  male,  and  which  is  called  in  Lapland  Likka,  has  a  broad  beak,  of  a  green 
colour ;  the  feathers  of  the  head,  breast,  and  wings,  are  elegantly  diversified  witli 
white,  black,  sky  blue,  green,  and  brown.  The  female  is  of  a  dark  colour,  with  a  few 
specks  of  a  different  colour.  The  feathers  are  of  inestimable  value,  and  serve  for  the 
stuffing  of  pillows,  instead  of  wool ;  this  feather  being  in  its  nature  most  excellent  and 

3  I  2 


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I'  > 


428 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAFLAND  BY  LKEMI. 


sort,  is  esteemed  no  Ions  by  foreigners  than  natives ;  it  is  also  know.i,  and  very  much  in 
vogtie,  in  the  courts  of  princes.  This  bird  iuva  eggs  the  size  of  small  goose  eggs,  of  a 
ffray  colour,  turning  to  u  bluish,  the  yolks  of  which,  though  reddish,  arc  not  ill-flavoured. 
It  builds  its  ncht  in  common  among  the  twigs,  sometimes  among  the  sca-wecds  that  are 
dry  on  the  shorc.  So  carefully  and  faithfully  does  it  sit  upon  its  eggs,  that  at  the  ap- 
pruich  uf  man  it  will  scarcely  desert  them ;  and  thoueh  it  surpasses  the  crow  in  size, 
yet  it  is  not  a  match  for  the  crow,  when  plimdering  the  nest  and  eggs.  The  flesh  of 
ilicsc  birds  is  of  a  very  unsavory  taste. 

On  the  shores  of  Finmark,  as  on  the  rest  of  the  Norwegian  coast,  extending  into  the 
sea,  is  fuund  u  bird,  which  is  called  in  Norwegian  Imber,  black  feathers,  with  some  white, 
a  long  and  sharj)  beak,  feet  turned  in,  a  dismal  and  terrific  voice,  by  which  the  vulgar 
believe  that  a  violent  storm  of  die  south  wind  immediately  coming  on  is  portended  :  it 
is  of  u  very  large  size,  as  weighing  eleven  pounds,  but  not  of  equal  goodness  and  flavour. 
One  may  always  see  this  bird,  never  flv'iig,  but  swimming  on  the  water,  and  indeed  so 
deeply  sunk,  that  no  part,  except  the  head  and  neck,  appears  above  it :  and  as  the 
wings  do  not  corresi)ond  to  the  size  of  the  body,  it  raises  itself  with  difUculty  ;  whence, 
at  the  voice  and  apix\irance  of  man,  it  secures  itself,  not  by  flying,  but  by  divinp^.  You 
may  meet  one  frctiuenlly ;  seldom  or  ever  sec  two  together.  Such  is  its  voracity,  diat 
it  can  devour  at  once  a  whole  fish  of  no  moderate  size. 

A  bird  known  through  all  Norway  as  flir  as  it  extends,  called  in  Norwegian  Ian* 
^uage  Loom,  in  Lapland  Gakkor,  or  Gakatte,  is  found  also  in  Finmark.  It  is  a 
little  larger  than  a  duck,  less  than  a  goose  ;  it  has  a  long  and  sharp  beak, ";  strange  but 
strong  voice ;  the  neck,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  body,  is  long  ana  graceh  ;  it  has  not 
much  power  in  running,  but  is  very  strong  on  the  wing :  it  brings  forth  its  eggs  in  the  lit' 
tic  islands  and  rocks,  situated  in  lakes  and  on  mountains. 

The  bird  which  is  called  in  the  Norwegian  Starv,  is  called  in  Latin  Corvus  Marinus, 
sea-crow,  here,  as  elsewhere,  is  seen  about  the  Norwegian  coast.  It  resembles  the 
pigeon,  which  it  surpasses  in  size,  by  a  long,  and  sharp  beak.  The  colour  of  this  kind  of 
birds  is  mostly  the  same,  being  black  all  over  the  body,  with  some  white  spots  under  the 
belly,  the  rest  being  all  black.  The  nature  of  sea-crows  is  this,  that  they  swim  by  turns 
in  the  sea,  and  take  up  their  rest  on  the  rocks  in  great  numbers,  with  their  wings  ex- 
panded, that  they  may  be  the  sooner  dried  in  the  sun.  When  going  to  fly  from  the 
rock  where  they  were,  they  all  precipitate  themselves  into  the  sea,  with  a  great  noise  of 
the  water,  to  the  purpose  that  when  their  wings  are  made  wet,  they  may  become  fitter 
for  flying.  They  are  incredibly  voracious,  for  they  easily  swallow  down  whole  fishes, 
and  those  of  no  moderate  size,  by  which  the  flesh  of  this  bird  always  tastes  of  the  fish, 
that  is  its  constant  food,  and  on  that  account  less  delicate  ;  for  which  reason,  if  it  is  boiled 
with  peas,  remitting  a  great  deal  of  that  bad  taste,  it  is  tolerable  food.  These  birds  lay 
their  eggs  and  hatch  their  young  among  heaps  of  stones. 

In  the  sea  about  Finmark  is  a  bird,  called  in  Norwegian  Hav-hest,  that  is,  the  sea- ' 
horse.  It  is  discerned  at  a  distance  from  the  shore,  usually  in  the  open  sea  ;  nor  does  it 
come  to  shore  but  in  a  cloudy  sky,  arising  in  conjunction  with  a  horrid  tempest.  It 
is  supposed  to  lay  its  eggs  on  the  coast  of  Iceiind  ;  in  colour  and  size  it  resembles  a  cor- 
morant, except  that  the  colour  inclines  a  litde  to  white,  with  certain  dark  feathers  in- 
terspersed here  and  there.  The  beak  is  divided  into  certain  departments,  eacii  depart- 
ment distinguished  by  a  diff;:rent  colour.  The  voice  is  shrill,  and  is  brought  out  with 
a  certain  snorting.  It  smells  of  the  oil  got  from  the  fat  of  fish.  It  has  its  wings  dis- 
tended and  stifl',  when  flying.  It  sleeps  in  the  waters,  and  is  seen  sometimes  moving 
through  them  \vith  an  ambling  pace,  a  sign  that  a  storm  is  shorUy  coming  on ;  on  the 


ACCOUNT  or  DAMISII  LA1>L.\NU  UY  Liu£M». 


429 


t 


Other  hand,  if  the  sen  is  tranquil,  it  is  thought  to  be  a  Hign  of  n  cnhn  nnd  stiHness  of  the 
air.     licyotid  the  buy  ofDruntlieim,  towards  the  south,  this  bird  is  not  seen. 

In  this  part  of  the  nortliern  pecan  a  certain  bird  hkewise  is  seen,  culled  in  Norwegian 
Hav-Orrc,  the  murine  heath-cock.     Tluit  which  ia  male  cqnuh  in  size  the  bird  Aedcr, 
nst  described  ;  on  the  head  it  is  a  gruyisli  colour,  i^een  about  the  eyes,  bluish  on  the 

ak,  distinguislied  by  red,  yellow,  and  black  ;  on  the  neck  white  ;  the  feet  yellow,  but 
black  almost  in  the  piurts ;  but  the  female  is  usually'  of  a  Ijrownisti  colour. 

A  certain  kind  of  bird,  of  the  size  of  a  duck,  of  a  tLirk  colour,  is  found  also  in  Fin- 
mark.  They  are  to  be  met  with  in  flocks,  and  are  not  much  afraid  of  the  presence  of 
mfn  who  approach  them.  The  Russians  arc  said  to  bring  up  at  home  birds  of  this  kind 
tame. 

The  birds  the  Norwegians  call  Hav- Adder  are  found  no  less  in  this  tract  of  coimtr)- 
than  elsewlierc,  near  the  Nonvegian  shore.  The  male  of  these  is  usu;illy  of  a  red  neck, 
mingled  with  white,  rather  long  feadiers,  of  a  white  colour,  coming  out  from  the  tail. 
Many  of  them  are  seen  toj^ther,  with  a  constant  vociferation,  rivaling  an  articulate  voice, 
redoubling  the  sound  of  Kiopangla ;  hence  they  are  called  by  tltc  Laplanders  Anggalug- 
g;cs,  and  by  tlie  inhabitants  of  the  south  of  Norway,  by  way  of  joke,  Angle  Magere,  that 
18,  hook-smiths*  from  the  vernacular  force  of  the  word  signifying  some  such  thin^.  They 
are  said  to  assemble  near  lakes,  on  the  mountains,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  forth 
their  young,  and  to  hatch  their  young.  The  flesh  of  this  sort  of  bird  is  neither  very  sa- 
vory, rtor  altogether  without  relish. 

The  birds  which  in  Norwegian  are  called  Allfer  here  too  arc  to  \ye  seen  up  d  down 
on  the  Norwegian  coast ;  as  also  the  Klub-Allfer,  which  bring  forth  their  young  in  the 
clefts  of  rocks. 

This  region  abounds  with  great  numbers  of  birds,  which  the  Norwegians  call  Lundcr, 
and  which  too  are  to  be  met  with  through  Norway.  This  bird  is  somewhat  less  than  a 
duckj  has  a  hooked  beak,  not  much  varying  from  an  eagle's,  except  where  it  is  marked 
with  various  specks,  different  from  an  eagle's,  which  is  all  of  one  colour.  These  birds 
lay  their  eggs  m  high  and  inaccessible  rocks,  whence  they  are  taken  out  with  long  poles. 
In  certtun  tracts  of  Norland,  dogs  are  ri'arwl  and  instruci*  d  to  get  into  the  rocks  and  bring 
out  the  birds  themselves.  The  feathers  and  down  of  these  buxls,  above  all  which  Nor. 
way  produces,  are  most  excellent,  and  useful  in  the  stuffing  of  beds  and  pillows. 

In  some  ti-acts  of  this  country,  such  as  the  island  Aefler  Den  Sylteviigcn,  and  Sver- 
holts  Klub,  in  the  eastern  Finmark,  in  the  western,  and  elsewhere,  is  a  bird,  known  here 
and  there  in  different  places  through  Norway,  in  the  common  language  called  Tiestc,  but 
in  the  Lapland  Zhiaelkes,  a  little  l^low  the  size  of  a  duck,  of  a  chicken  voice,  black  eyes, 
with  a  white  speck  ofi  each  wing,  the  feet  being  elegantly  red.  Its  eggs  arc  streaked, 
contain  a  very  full  yolk,  and  red  in  comparison  of  that  which  is  found  in  the  eggs  of 
hens ;  it  lays  among  heaps  of  stones,  or  in  the  cleHs  of  rocks  ;  its  nest  is  negligently 
[MPepared  on  tlic  bare  ground,  but  yet  sufficiently  adapted  for  the  hatching  and  nou- 
rishing its  young.  Tne  young  in  the  first  year  are  gray,  when,  in  Lapland,  they  are 
called  Borgek.  This  bird,  swimming  on  the  water,  on  the  discharge  of  the  gun,  plunges 
itself  in  the  sea,  swifter  than  thought,  the  instant.  Finmark  produces  cormorants  in 
numbers  almost  incalculable.  Of  this  kind  of  bird  arc  various  kinds,  among  which  are 
numbered  cormorants  of  a  gray  colour,  called  in  Norwegian  Sild  Maager,  that  is,  cor- 
morants  that  feed  on  herrings,  the  largest  of  their  kind :  the  greater  cormorants,  with 
black  wings,  yellow  feet  and  beak,  in  Nor^vegian  called  Sortbag,  in  Lapland  Gairo :  and 
the  lesser  cormorant,  of  the  same  colour,  in  the  Lapland  called  Sobmer ;  a  larger  kind, 
white,  with  gray  eyes,  yellow  beak  and  feet,  in  Norwegian  Blaa  Mauger,  in  Lapland 


r 


i 


!l 


^^  ACCOUNT  or  nANIKM  LAri.ANn  IIY  l.r.KMI. 

called  Uulvck.  DmtluM:  lesser  cormorantH chit-fly  arc  to  be  met  with  in  greut  numtjcn, 
or  the  same  colour  with  thoncjiiiit  mentioned,  which  arc  named  in  Norwegian  Sueing,  in 
the  Lapland  Ciainke,  and  which  Huroafisall  the  utlier  siKcicH  in  mimlxT,  uiv  those  lesiHer 
cormorants,  which,  with  die  exception  of  black  (eet,  an-  like  the  ibrnur  in  colour,  called 
in  Norwegian  Krofl'e,  in  Lapland  Skjerro.  Ofthcsic  whole  troops  are  to  be  seen  in  pla- 
ces where  they  assemble  for  laying  their  eggs,  and  hatching  their  young.  They  lay  tfjcir 
eggs  un  high  rocks,  whence  the  y  ily  in  tr()op^  at  the  anproach  of  man,  darkening  the 
wnole  air  us  with  u  thick  cloud,  and  iill  all  pbces  witn  their  un:>easonal)le  clamours. 
Near  the  proniontory  of  Svcrholt,  in  eastern  Finmark,  is  seen  a  high  and  lofty  rock, 
called  in  common  Sverholts  Klub,  on  the  side  of  which,  next  to  the  sea,  the  Omnipotent 
Architect  of  natua*  has  formed  in  the  rock  itiielf  certain  natural  recesses,  covered  with 
moss,  disposed  in  a  certain  beautiful  order,  and  separated  from  each  other  by  due  dis- 
tances, where  the  said  birds  meet  every  year  in  flocks,  for  laying  their  eggs,  and  hutching 
their  yoiuig.  The  eggs  which  are  laid  in  the  lower  recesses  (for  of  these  one  is  aix)vc 
the  other)  urc  easily  taken  by  a  spoon  fastened  un  a  reed  ;  those  which  lie  above  arc  al- 
together inaccessible.  The  eagles  usuully  build  their  nests  in  dte  neighlx)urhood,  the 
hiconvenience  und  injury  of  which  die  yoimg  cormorants,  to  dicir  loss,  often  feel.  The 
eggs  of  cormorants  tnat  build  in  the  reck  arc  variegated ;  the  yolks,  though  surpassing 
in  vellowness  hens*  eggs,  yet  liavc  a  flavour  not  altogether  disagreeable.  But  it  is  well 
to  be  noticed  what  (luaiitics,  irom  the  colour  and  names  assigned  to  each  species  of  cor- 
morant, have  been  mentioned  above,  should  be  understood  of  the  adult  alone  ;  for  the 
young  arc  all  of  one  ash  colour  at  first,  marked  with  various  specks,  which  colour 
as  long  as  they  keep  they  ttfc  called  by  the  Norwegians  Sfaur  Unger,  but  by  the  Lap- 
landers Skavle ;  but  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  grow  white  (they  begin  in  the  autumn  of 
the  year  they  arc  hatched)  in  Lapland  they  are  called  Zhjuormulas.  The  Laplanders, 
intent  on  catching  cormorants,  put  down  a  rope  into  the  sea,  to  the  end  of  which  is  fix- 
ed a  hooked  stick  ;  the  cormorant,  thinking  it  food,  flies  to  it  eagerly,  and  devouring 
hook  and  all,  is  caught  by  the  wily  Laplander,  who  draws  in  the  rope.  By  this  artifice 
they  take  usually  great  numbers  of  them,  strip  their  skins  ofl*,  and  expose  them  for 
sale. 

Certain  birds,  in  Norwegian  Tacnner,  in  Lapland  called  Zhjerrek,  are  to  be  met  with 
in  Finmark,  and  these  not  only  common,  and  to  be  met  with  up  and  down  in  Norway, 
but  well  known  by  a  black  head,  gray  ulon^  the  back  and  wings,  white  under  the  belly, 
and  a  cleft  tail ;  but  there  are  others  too,  if  fame  is  to  be  credited,  more  uncommon, 
black  all  over  the  body,  stunning  the  ears  of  the  passengers  by  their  perpetual  clamours 
und  noise.  Their  early  coming  to  the  shores  is  thought  to  presage  the  early  coming  of 
salmon,  and  their  entering  the  rivers. 

The  bird,  called  in  Norwegian  Kive,  or  Kive  Joen,  in  Lapland  called  Haskel,  is  num- 
bered with  the  rest :  it  is  the  same  bird  that  is  white  under  the  belly,  the  rest  of  the  body 
Ixingdark,  u  feather  rather  long  cominp-  out  from  the  tail,  with  sharp  talons ;  in  other 
respects  like  the  lesser  cormorants.  This  bird  stays  sometimes  on  shore,  and  in  the 
marshy  grounds,  yet  adjoining  the  sea,  lays  her  eggs,  and  hatches  her  young.  As  long 
;is  it  remains  on  land,  it  so  shuns  the  face  of  man,  that  it  flies  way  waitUy  when  passing 
before  his  eyes.  At  other  times  it  is  seen  at  sea,  where  its  aversion  to  him  is  not  so 
great,  where  it  rather  fearlessly  flies  to  the  fishermens'  boats,  gaping  at  the  pieces  of  cast 
away  liver  and  other  offals  of  this  sort.  Flying  through  the  air,  it  pursues  and  presses 
the  said  cormorants,  and  also  birds  called  Taenner,  mentioned  before,  until  it  compels 
them  to  discharge  themselves,  and  then,  by  an  amazing  agility  while  flying,  receives  and 
devours  what  it  takes. 


AMOmuT  or  DANISH  LwiANn  nv  u\vm%. 


43  J 


A  little  hud  bcM(lc«i  is  J'ouinl  ii»  Finmark,  c;ulcd  ii\  NorwcKJiin  Smacllc  Hot,  or  Nord 
Best  Fufflcii,  but  by  the  Lii|)laiKlcpi  Niu^'tc  Loddc,  or  Hje^^UHli.  The  Norwcguui  name, 
Smacllc  Hot,  it  t;ikc«i  f.r  n  as  arrival  happnunj^  at  thf  scajtoti  of  the  year  when  the  in- 
hubitunts  of  Norland,  called  in  Norwegian  Smaellcr,  uinally  come  for  the  sake  of  fithin^ , 
but  it  is  culled  Nord  vest  Fuf^lcn,  from  the  «marter  of  the  world  Httuuted  tovi*  irds  tlu* 
north.cast,  whence  it  come-i  ')y  sea  to  FinmarV.  ThiH  little  bird  somewhat  exceeds  In 
Hize  the  tnme  sparrow ;  it  in  white  under  the  belly,  dark  alon^  the  back,  marked  with 
various  specks,  utiharp  beak,  black  ("lour,  rather  lonf(  feet,  of  gray  colour,  in  great 
part  clefl ;  whence  it  can  live  us  well  on  land  as  it  can  at  sea.  The  fishermen,  on  the 
sight  of  this  bird,  little  doubt  of  a  nordi-east  wind  shortly  coming  on.  The  Laplanders, 
in  huntin(f  them,  use  grooved  gtms,  by  which  they  not  only  usually  kill  greater  birds, 
such  OS  wild  geese,  he.  but  even  small  ones,  such  as  these. 

Besides  the  above-mentioned  birds,  in  Finmark  arc  seen  the  cuckoo,  the  woodpecker, 
the  black-bird  of  the  field,  the  swallow,  the  wagtail,  a  little  biixl,  called  in  Norwegian 
Rcndesteens-Snagerc,  and  Ring- Erkr.  and  many  others ;  but  the  starling,  the  tame  spar- 
row, and  some  otners,  very  frequent  in  other  places,  arc  not  to  be  foimd  in  Fitmiurk. 
The  magi)ic,  as  I  mentioned  alx)vc,  is  very  nirc  in  this  country. 

CHAP.  XIII....OI"  Tin-:  riSIIKRY. 

THE  shorc3  of  Finmark,  all  along  the  coast  of  Norway,  alK)und  in  fish.  The  great 
number  of  whales  that  were  taken  by  the  fishcniu  ti  formerlvt  us  well  as  the  cpiantity  of 
salmon  taken  at  this  day,  in  that  very  celebrnted  river  1  hana,  may  be  Adduced  as 
proof.  Of  these  not  u  few  are  exported,  by  rcason  of  their  very  extjuisite  flavour,  in 
comparison  of  others,  so  highly  esteemed ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  great  quantity  of  the 
various  kinds  of  cod-fish,  and  of  every  kind  offish,  the  seas  of  Finmark  abound  in,  and 
for  the  catching  of  which  the  inhabitants  of  Norland  flock  to  tlum  in  the  very  middle  of 
winter,  not  without  imminent  |x.ril  of  their  lives.  But  the  good  subjects  of  this  country 
arc  not  only  permitted  securely  and  quietly  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  fishery  and  hunting 
on  their  annual  return,  that  if  a  war  should  break  out  ever  so  extensively,  between  the 
Danes  and  neighbouring  Swedes,  they  may  pursue  in  safety,  and  at  their  leisure,  the 
usual  business  of  fishing  and  hunting ;  but  it  is  further  provided,  that  they  should  excr> 
ciae  them  with  that  degree  of  liberty,  tliat  each  may  have  full  freedom,  no  one  opposing, 
or  presuming  to  oppose,  of  going  to  get  wood,  of  cutting  down  trees,  of  stripping  bark 
from  birch-trees,  for  eiUier  burning  as  fire,  or  building  houses  (they  usually  cover  the 
tops  of  houses  with  bark)  of  cutting  grass  with  a  bill,  of  hunting  fish,  bird  or  wild  beast. 
For  though  a  certain  'tvriter  has  thought  fit  to  describe  Finmark  us  a  cou>^try  deprived 
of  all  the  gifts  of  a  kinder  nature,  and  its  inhabitants  as  men  more  than  barbarous,  and 
destitute  ol  all  intercourse  widi  other  men  ;  and  though  Saxo  himself  seems  to  deplore 
that  vague  and  unsettled  life  to  which  the  Laplanders  are  addicted  and  exposed  ;  though 
he  writes,  among  other  things,  t'.ic  Finni  are  the  last  inhabitants  of  the  north,  having 
embraced  a  quarter  of  the  world  scarcely  inhabitable,  from  either  culture  or  dwelling, 
an  uncertain  habitation,  and  wiindcring  home;  yet  the  Laplanders' fish,  venison,  and 
other  delicacies,  are  delightful,  which  may  be  sought  for  in  vain  in  more  cultivated  parts 
of  the  world. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  write  on  the  fishes  of  the  sea  about  Finmark,  tediously 
to  describe  the  external  and  internal  form  of  ev^ry  fish,  which  by  others  has  been 
already  done.  It  is  sufficient  for  me,  after  a  description,  such  as  it  is,  of  the  external 
figure  of  certain  fishes,  to  shew  somewhat  more  fully  the  method,  in  part,  by  which  the 
Laplanders  catch  them,  in  part  how  tliey  are  used  to  manage  and  turn  them  to  their 


432 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  DY  LEEMS. 


use,  adding,  as  the  occasion  may  reqjuire,  certain  circumstances  that  should  be  known, 
and  would  casf  a  light  over  natural  hjstory.  About  the  festival  of  the  purification  of  the 
Vii^in,  rnd  therefore  about  the  middle  of  winter,  a  great  quantity  of  whales  is  seen,  not 
only  near  the  shores  extending  far  into  the  sea,  but  even  in  the  recesses  themseivesof  the 
inner  bays,  which,  as  if  by  the  express  command  of  Heaven,  drive  into  those  places  the 
larger  codfish,  and  other  fi'/a  u)  great  quantities,  where  they  can  be  conveniently  caught 
by  the  fishermen  ;  so  that  these  animals,  altogether  without  the  use  and  guidance  of  rea- 
son, are  to  be  consij^ered  as  instruments  by  which  the  benign  goodness  of  Him  adminis- 
ters food  to  his  people,  inhabiting  a  country  where  they  neither  sow  nor  reap.  While  these 
whales  are  driving  the  iish  into  the  bay»  <>:•<!  on  shoals,  they  usually  set  up  at  the  same 
time  a  horrid  noise,  whilst  a  vapour  like  sinoke  rises  on  each  side  of  them.  The  inhabit 
tants  usually  call  troops  or  close  bodies  of  whales  of  tliis  kind  Hval  Grin.  Experience 
has  shewn  it  is  by  no  means  safe  to  approach  too  near  a  troop  of  whales  driving  and  hun- 
tini^  the  lesser  iish,  when  fishing  boats  have  been  not  unfrequendy  overset  by  their  being 
in  the  way.  Under  the  canicular  heats,  when  whales  meet  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
creation, it  is  also  equally  dangerous  to  come  rear  them,  who  take,  as  it  seems,  any 
fishing  boat  for  a  mate.  To  avoid  this  danger,  caster-oil,  which  is  very  hateful  and  in- 
tolerable to  the  whale  kind,  is  thrown  into  the  sea,  and,  in  defect  of  this,  benches,  emp- 
^y  tubs,  and  such  things  as  are  at  hand  and  the  occasion  supplies,  with  which,  while 
the  whale  is  playing,  the  fishennen  exposed  to  the  danger  make  good  use  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  getting  off.  At  the  time  when  the  whales  meet  for  the  purpose  of  procreating^, 
the  spermaceti  is  found  here  and  there,  either  floating  on  the  water,  or  cast  upon  tiie 
shore. 

Among  the  whales  wLch  are  to  be  met  mth  in  the  sea  about  Finmark  the  following 
are  the  principal :  1st,  The  v'lale,  which  by  the  niktives  is  called  Ror-Hval ;  2d,  the 
whale,  f'-om  the  very  great  size  of  its  body.,  called  Stor-Hval.  There  are  whales  of  this 
kind,  which  drive  the  fish  into  the  bays  and  on  the  shoals.  3dly,  The  whale,  Trold- 
Hval,  a  beast  of  imnunse  bulk,  covered  with  scales.  This  monster  is  said  to  raise  a 
horrid  noise  from  the  waters ;  to  him  is  assigned  at  the  same  time  a  ^disposition  to  over- 
.turn  the  boats  of  the  fishermen,  wherever  he  f  nds  them,  and  the  more  to  be  dreaded  by  the 
smlors,  as  he  nses  ^Idom  from  the  deep,  where  he  lies  hid.  4thly,  The  whale  which  is 
commonly  called  Nord  Kaperen,  accustomed  to  come  from  the  icy  mountain;)  at  Cape 
Nord,  the  last  promontory,  whence  its  name  i>lso.  Whales  of  this  species  are  incredi- 
bly  ferocious  and  untamable,  very  dreadful  and  dangerous  to  fishermen ;  but  they  are 
short  in  stature,  »vith  a  thick  and  short  head,  whence,  in  the  Norwegian  language,  they 
are  called  Stubben. 

There  are  various  figures  of  whales  that  present  themselves  to  be  found  a.:iong  the 
writers  of  natural  history,  and  in  a  late  description  of  Greenland,  engraven  on  copper 
so  neatly  and  accurately,  that  it  would  be  superfluous  altogether  to  repeat  them  here. 
As  soon  as  large  bodies  of  whales,  as  just  stated,  at  a  certain  season  of  the  year,  gather 
round  the  promontory  of  Cape  Nord,  strangers  then  frequent  for  fishing  these  shores. 
For  pressinn*  the  oil  from  the  fat  of  whales  they  took  up  their  residence  in  Kielvigia  find 
the  island  Sor-Den,  in  Western  Finmark.  In  process  of  time  the  Spaniards  also  from  the 
province  of  Biscay  made  the  experiment  of  fishing  in  these  countries,  differing  from 
former  fishermen  in  this  respect,  that  they  used  to  press  the  oil  from  the  fat,  not  on  the 
land,  but  in  their  ships ;  whereas  the  Laplanders  formerly,  inhabitants  of  the  bay  of 
Porsanger,  applied  themselves  to  the  taking  of  whales  by  instruments  of  their  own  in- 
vention. It  sometime?  happens  that  whales,  either  mortally  wounded  by  the  Green- 
land fishermen,  or  killed  by  marine  dogs,  arc  cast  on  the  shores  of  Finmark.    The  kings 


'<i--  m 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANtSIl  LAPLAND  BY  LF.EM*. 


433 


of  Denmark  and  Norway  formerly  claimed  piirt  of  this  prize,  until  Christian  the  Fifth,  of 
glorious  memory,  most  humanely  granted  the  whole  to  the  people  of  Finmark,  by  a 
royal  edict,  bearing  date  the  eleventh  of  August  1688.  History  suggests  to  me,  writing  on 
whales  thrown  by  accident  on  the  coast,  an  cxtraorduiary  and  pretty  talc,  yet  true, 
which  I  shall  beg  leave  to  relate.  Certain  fishermen  of  finmark  fell  by  chance  on  a 
dead  whale  floating  near  the  shore,  which,  as  they  were  not  able  to  get  to  the  nearest 
coast  on  account  of  their  being  few  in  number,  one  of  the  society  attempting  an  unusual 
and  memorable  act,  descended  alone  from  the  boat  on  the  whale,  tossed  and  almost  over- 
wheln)ed  by  the  waves,  whilst  his  friends  ran  home  to  call  for  further  assistance. 
Meantime  this  bold  fisherman,  prodigal  of  life,  was  sitting  regardless  of  danger  on  the 
floating  whale ;  and,  lest  he  should  be  shaken  ofl*  by  the  constant  beating  of  the  waves, 
into  the  sea,  he  scoo{)ed  a  cavity  to  fix  his  feet  in,  with  a  knife,  in  the  back  of  the  beast, 
hoisting  at  the  same  time  an  oar,  that  his  returning  friends  might  have  a  signal  by  which 
they  should  recognize  their  companion  in  ihe  open  sea.  The  matter  answered  expec- 
tation ;  those  that  departed  now  returned,  and  brought  safely  to  the  shore  their  com> 
panion  with  his  spoil. 

The  marine  dog,  in  Norwegian  Staalhenning,  in  Lapland  Fakan,  is  seen  also  on 
these  shores.  It  U  not  very  unlike  the  lesser  whale,  nine  or  twelve  cubits  long ;  he 
has  a  nose  ending  in  a  sharp  point,  tusks  in  each  jaw  a  finger's  length,  and  a  long  fin 
on  the  back,  representing  a  kind  of  spear  placed  on  end.  Whales  have  no  enemies  more 
destructive  to  them  than  these  very  dogs,  by  whose  savage  and  saw  teeth  they  are  often 
struck  at  and  killed.  For  no  whale  of  whatever  size  or  strength  ever  existed,  but  must 
fall  shortly  a  prey  to  even  a  few  of  these  dogs ;  and,  though  it  should  make  for  the 
shore,  to  avoid  their  hostile  attacks,  vet  will  these  dogs  not  only  follow,  but  even  effect, 
by  repeated  blows  of  the  teeth,  that  it  should  return  and  become  their  prey.  A  whale, 
when  beset  around  by  the  said  dogs,  is  said  to  set  up  a  horrid  savage  noise. 

A  certiun  kind  of  fish  is  also  found  about  Norway  and  in  the  sea  about  Finmark,  known 
under  the  name  of  Springere,  that  isj  the  leaping  fish ;  they  are  of  a  black  colour  along 
the  back,  whitening  under  the  belly,  four  or  five  cubits  long,  and  are  seen  springing 
up  from  the  sea  with  a  great  noise  of  the  waves ;  from  these  frequent  springs  or  bounds 
they  have  taken  their  name ;  nor  is  it  indeed  unpleasant  to  see  many  nf  them  sporting 
tc^ther  in  the  water.  They  are  commonly  to  be  met  with  at  a  distance  from  the  shore 
in  the  vast  ocean ;  it  sometimes  happens,  especially  in  the  spring  time,  that  they  pene. 
trate  into  the  veiy  recesses  cf  the  inner  bays,  where  usually  they  are  taken  with  casting 
nets.  They  diirer  from  other  fish  in  this,  that,  when  shut  in  by  the  net,  they  not  only 
try  to  escape  by  getting  away,  but  make  towards  the  shore  with  all  their  speed ;  the  con. 
sequence  is,  that  they  are  taken  with  the  greater  ease  and  certainty.* 

A  certain  fish,  or  rather  marine  monster,  called  in  Norwegian  Brugden,  is  sometimes 
seen  also  in  thb  ocean.  It  is  equal  in  size  to  the  common  whale,  has  a  very  dark  skin, 
and  a  hunch  on  the  back,  with  which  it  is  said  to  overturn  fishing  boats.  It  presents  it. 
self  to  the  view  sometimes  in  a  veiy  calm  sea,  but  on  the  gentlest  aspiration  of  wind  re- 
gains as  ^uick  as  possible  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  whence  it  is  plain  that  even  the  slight, 
est  blast  is  intolerable  to  it 

All  the  seas  here  and  bays  are  full  of  the  dolphin  fish,  called  in  the  Norwe^an 
Niser.  The  manner  of  this  fish,  which  is  to  be  met  with  in  Denmark  as  well  as 
Norway,  rolling  itself  on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  is  too  well  known  to  all  to  need  a  mi- 


m 


*  This  seems  the  Delphinus  Oelphls  of  Linnxus,  according  to  Gunner,  in  his  note  in  this  passage^ 
VOL.   I.  3   K 


■V 


43'i 


ACCOUNT  01'  DANISH  KAVLANl)  BY  LRKMS. 


nute  description  from  me.  The  dolphin  is  not  unlike  the  mackerel,  certainly  not  tri- 
angular, as  it  appears,  when  swimmmg,  to  the  spectators  on  first  view.  Yet  it  differs 
from  it,  as  well  in  the  colour  as  in  the  size  of  the  body  ;  but  the  reason  of  its  appear- 
ing triangular  to  the  spectators  is,  that  gamboling  in  the  sea,  it  can  turn  itself  so  into 
folds,  one  part  being  under  the  water  and  the  other  above.  The  Laplanders  usually 
kill  them  with  muskets,  where  it  is  to  be  well  observed  by  the  hunter  that  the 
bullets  should  be  shot  a  little  before  the  dolphin  rises  from  the  water,  otherwise  it 
would  from  its  gambols  and  turnings  easily  escape  the  gun.  This  fish  is  frequently 
met  with  reposing  carelessly  on  the  waters  when  the  sea  is  calm.  The  Laplanders, 
as  well  as  the  inhabitants  of  Norwegian  Finmark,  arc  very  fond  of  the  flesh  and  fat  of 
the  dolphin. 

The  lai'ge  skate  ( lamia )  in  Norwegian Haa  Skjerding,  in  Lapland  Akkalagges,  are  not 
found  in  any  great  numbers  in  this  sea.  This  skate  is  of  an  ash-colour  along  the  back, 
inclining  yet  to  a  dark  and  black  ;  white  belly  :  it  is  covered  with  a  hard  skin,  usually 
has  dark  round  eyes,  wide  mouth  turned  downwards,  yet  it  is  without  bone,  in  the 
place  of  which  are  cartilages  or  gristles  easy  to  be  dissected,  it  has  a  very  fat  liv.  :, 
from  which  is  squeezed  an  abundance  of  oil,  and  besides  so  large  that  one  liver  is 
thought  suflicient  to  fill  a  whole  tun.  In  some  of  them  are  found  young ;  but  so  great 
and  insatiable  is  the  gullet  of  this  fish,  that  the  larger  devour  the  sm«Uer  kind, 
as  it  appears  from  the  following  narrative.  A  certain  Laplander  from  thr  bay  of 
Altan  had  once  taken  some  skates  of  different  sizes,  and  ha'J  gutted  and  fastened  them 
by  a  rope  to  the  stern  of  the  vessel,  with  a  view  that,  agreeably  to  the  custom  of  the 
country,  he  should  prepare  from  them  some  pieces,  called  in  Norwegian  RavRekling; 
it  so  happened  that,  of  those  he  caught  and  that  were  floating  at  the  stern,  he  missed 
one,  but  could  not  account  for  it ;  soon  after  he  took  one  much  larger,  in  whose  sto« 
mach  he  found  the  one  he  had  lately  lost.  These  fish  are  not  only  of  an  immense  and 
insatiable  appetite,  but  even  very  injurious  tofishing  nets,  and  all  other  piscatory  instru- 
ments which  are  used  for  the  taking  of  the  larger  flounders,  and  the  various  kinds  of 
codfish,  and  all  other  fish.  They  bruise  and  tear  with  their  rough  skin  and  sharp 
teeth  not  less  the  machines  for  taking  them,  than  the  fish  entangled  and  caught  in 
them.  Yet  it  frequently  happens,  that  these  plunderers,  the  lesser  particularly,  become 
themselves,  by  this  means,  the  booty  of  the  fishermen,  entangled  in  the  very  nets  which 
they  endeavour  to  tear  asunder.  The  Laplanders  catch  them  by  a  strong  rope  of  twisted 
hemp,  to  the  end  of  which  is  fastened  not  only  a  stone  of  no  small  weight,  but  even 
an  iron  chain  two  cubits  long,  from  which  is  suspended  also  an  iron  hook  of  extra- 
ordinary size,  with  the  bait  prepared  from  the  putrid  carcasses  of  dolphins.  The  fisher- 
men, perceiving  the  skate  has  swallowed  thehookand  bait,  suddenly  drav's  in  tlie  rope, 
with  his  prey  that  is  fast  to  it,  with  all  his  might,  which  if  he  did  not  immediately,  the 
skate  would  first  devour  the  hook,  then  the  iron  chain,  soon  after  the  stone,  and  at 
length  part  of  the  rope  also  when  slackened,  and,  cutting  through  the  very  thick  rope 
witli  the  sha-pness  of  his  teeth,  having  deluded  the  fisherman,  he  would  make  off. 
But  getting  him  near  the  boat,  they  either  beat  him  with  a  wooden  cudgel,  or, 
having  a  knife  at  hand,  adapted  for  the  purpose,  they  stab  him,  or  pierce  and  pull 
him  to  death  with  an  iron  hook.  They  then  extract  the  liver,  and  throw  the  carcass 
into  the  sea  or  into  the  boat,  and  tarry  it  home  to  be  cut  up  into  pieces.  In  those  places 
where  fishing  is  carried  on,  the  fishermen  take  care  that  certain  oblong  vesselsshould  be 
let  down  into  the  sea,  filled  with  the  putrid  entrails  of  salmon  or  dolphins,  and  covered 
with  the  branches  of  trees,  which,  lest  they  should  be  washed  away  by  the  ebband  flow 
©f  the  tide  and  waves,  are  pressed  down  with  stones.    But  by  reason  of  these  said 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LjVPLAND  UVLEEM8 


435 


vessels  being  without  cover,  it  is  said,  that  the  bait  heaped  up  in  them  more  easily  draws 
the  fishes  by  its  scent.  This  method  of  taking  the  skate  iij  also  in  use  in  the  other  parts 
oi' Norway.  The  Laplanders  arc  used  to  take  the  same  fish  ^vith  a  certain  fishing  in- 
£itrumcr.t,  called  Stang-Bad,  formed  of  a  long  pole,  to  tlie  end  of  which  are  appended 
thongs,  chains,  and  iron  hooks,  furnished  with  bait,  and  as  the  mouth  of  the  skate  is  un- 
der the  iavv,  tncy  cannot  swallow  but  on  their  backs,  so  the  fisherman  must  take  care 
that  the  hook  that  is  to  catch  them  is  to  be  raised  a  little  above  the  bottom  of  the  wa- 
ter. 

The  fish,  which  in  Norwegian  is  called  Haabrand,  is  also  to  be  met  with  in  this  sea. 
The  skate,  if  you  look  to  the  bulk  of  the  body,  is  less,  but  in  the  colour  and  roughness 
of  the  skin  it  is  jiot  much  unlike  it.  It  carries  on  its  back  certain  fins  raised  up,  which  the 
water,  while  swimming,  draws  out  like  a  sword.  It  frequently  gnaws  through  the 
ropes  of  the  fishermen,  yet  such  is  its  boldness  and  greediness,  itself  fre(iuently  is  made 
a  prey. 

The  fish  which  the  Norwegians  call  Haiimer  is  found  here  too.  It  is  about  three  cu- 
bits long,  while  under  the  belly  green,  along  the  back  inclining  to  black,  not  unlike  the 
fish  which  in  Norwegian  is  called  Springer,  in  shape  and  habit  of  body.  The  liver  with 
which  it  abounds  is  very  (lit,  round  in  shape ;  the  flesh  is  tasteless,  and  altogether  use- 
less. 

In  the  sea  about  '^inmark  is  also  found  the  fish,  called  in  Norwegian  Haa.  Fish  of  this 
sort  are  generally  white  under  the  belly,  and  have  a  small  horn  (after  the  manner  of  the 
Lamia,  of  which  we  spoke  above)  near  each  fin  of  the  back,  which  is  brought  into  a 
point  and  raised  upwards.  But  this  fish  is  much  less  than  the  Lamia,  being  about  one 
ell  in  length.  The  tail  as  die  whole  skin  is  rough,  and  used  for  various  purposes :  the 
liver  fat  and  abounding  with  oil ;  it  has  spawn  in  the  belly  with  which  the  natives  make 
cakes.  In  the  southern  parts  of  the  kingdom  of  Norway  the  peasants  make  pottage  from 
the  eggs  of  the  Haa,  in  Norwe^in  called  Haae  Dravle,  but  as  the  e^gs  are  ill  tasted,  so 
are  the  messes  prepared  from  them.  And  though  this  very  fish  itself  tastes  ill,  yet  it 
can  be  eat,  if  it  is  well  dried  in  the  air,  or  laid  up  in  salt.  The  manner  of  catching  this 
fish  is  the  same  through  all  Ndrway. 

There  is  an  abundance  of  large  flounders  in  the  northern  seas.  The  large  as  well  as 
small  of  this  fish  is  called  in  the  Norwegian  by  the  common  name  Ovejte,  but  in  Lap. 
land  Baldes.  But  the  Laplanders  assign  to  this  fish  different  names  from  the  difierencc 
of  its  size.  The  least  of  all  of  its  kind  is  called  Raejhjek,  small,  though  a  litde  larger 
than  tlie  former,  Gad ;  next  in  size  to  this  Rad'ke-Guelle,  in  Norwegian  Sty  ving ;  larger 
than  this  Leppadak,  and  that  of  a  size  sufl^ient  to  fill  up  a  whole  tun  or  larger  vessel 
they  call  Oaaivadak.  The  larger  kind  bears  a  very  near  resemblance,  in  the  smoothness 
of  its  skin  and  fins  on  each  side  and  all  over  the  body,  to  the  common  flounder,  but  in 
size,  the  wider  ojwning  of  its  mouth  and  in  the  shape  of  its  tail,  is  very  different  from 
it.  The  greater  flounder  is  generally  of  a  black  colour  nearly  along  the  back  without 
specks,  and  white  under  the  belly ;  the  liver  is  of  no  use,  but  the  spawn  is  the  more  va- 
luable as  the  natives  usually  put  it  on  their  bread,  and,  mixing  it  with  flour,  make  it 
into  cakes,  called  Fladbred.  They  frequently  cut  the  said  fish  into  long  pieces,  and 
cut  off"  the  fins  with  a  very  fat  part,  calling  the  one  Rav  the  other  Refling  or  Staarree- 
Oveite.  These  pieces  are  in  great  esteem,  not  only  through  all  Norway,  but  are  ex- 
ported to  Denmark,  and  no  doubt  to  foreign  parts,  highly  valued  for  their  excellent 
relish.  When  the  Laplander  jierceives  the  larger  floonder  fastened  on  the  hook,  he 
instantly  draws  in  the  line,  but,  finding  him  violently  resisting,  he  relaxes,  which  he 
does  by  turns,  until  the  fish  by  yielding  and  resisting  is  entirely  worn  out  and  weakened, 

3  K  2 


i 


436 


ACCOUNT  OP  DAKISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEBMS. 


I , 


: 


on  which  he  at  once  draws  in  the  line  and  fish  upon  it,  now  no  longer  9tni{^gling,  and 
striking  it  with  an  iron  liook  (which  the  Norwegians  call  Klaepp)  throws  it  into  the 
boat;  this  mode  of  taking  Houndcrs  is  in  use  through  Norway,  and  made  use  of  par. 
ticularly  in  the  spring  by  the  Laplanders ;  but  in  summer  there  is  another  mode, 
called  in  Norwegian  Can^-Bad,  by  a  line  and  many  hooks  placed  at  due  distances  from 
each  other.  The  greater  iloundcrs  usually  keep  in  the  sea,  especially  where  the  bottom  is 
covered  with  a  white  sand.  Near  to  the  island  Bug- Den,  in  Eastern  Finmark,  flounders 
arc  to  lie  met  with  ao  difTcriiig  from  the  rest  of  the  kind,  that  not  only  along  the  back,  but 
even  under  the  belly  and  all  over  they  are  black,  and  exoeed  them  far  in  fatness  and 
taste. 

The  sea  about  Finmark  produces  the  lesser  species,  Flyndrer,  excellent  in  coloiir  and 
flavour,  white  under  the  belly,  dark  along  the  back,  and  interspersed  with  reddish 
specks.  Flounders  of  this  sort  are  usually  caught  with  a  rope  line  with  many  hooks, 
baited  with  certain  small  black  worms  dug  out  of  the  sand,  that  is  covered  and  extended 
to  the  bottom  of  the  sea ;  or  with  a  plummet  line  furnished  with  an  iron  hook,  let  down 
by  its  own  weight  on  the  flounder  lymg  carelessly  on  the  sandy  bottom.  Besides  there 
are  many  species  of  flounders,  of  whom  some  are  called  Culd  Flyndrer ;  others  rough 
skinned,  called  in  Norwegian  Siindskraa,  in  Lapland  Guormak. 

The  speckled  cod,  or  the  greater,  and  its  various  species,  all  most  excellent  in  their 
kind,  and  a  considerable  part  of  the  trade  of  which  the  commerce  of  Finmark  consists, 
and  by  which  it  flourishes,  are  found  in  great  abundance  in  ^his  ocean ;  certainly  no 
other  seas  produce  better.  A  certain  species  come  from  the  open  sea  into  the  inner 
bays  in  summer,  short  and  round  headed,  by  which  they  are  distinguished  from  others 
of  their  kind,  who  remain  there  the  whole  year,  and  are  leaner.  About  Chrbtmas,  an- 
other species  of  codfish,  full  of  most  excellent  spawn,  approaches  the  shores ;  the  in- 
habitants call  them  Soelhovve-Torsk ;  there  is  besides  another  smaller  species,  which 
come  from  the  weedy  places  they  frequent,  called  in  Norwegian  Tare-Torsk.  These 
assume,  from  the  place  they  keep  in,  one  time  a  dark  colour,  another  time  a  colour 
inclining  to  white.  But  the  Norwegians  usually  call  the  cod  that  is  speckled,  small, 
and  not  full  grown,  Modd,  or  Kropping,  but  the  Laplanders  Gakran  and  Rudnok.  The 
time  of  catching  the  speckled  cod,  considering  the  various  situations  of  Finmark,  varies 
very  much.  But  notwithstanding  the  said  fish  come  in  greater  numbers  at  certain  times  of 
the  year  than  others  to  the  shores,  yet  they  never  fail  altogether.  They  are  caught 
partly  bj'  a  rope  line  and  hook,  furnished  with  bait,  and  let  down  from  the  side  of  the 
boat  to  the  bottom ;  partly  by  a  rope  line  set  with  many  hooks,  and  extended  along  the 
bottom  of  the  sea.  Nets,  which  are  very  much  used  elsewhere,  particularly  by  the 
Southern  inhabitants  of  Norway,  as  instruments  of  fishing,  are  not  in  use  among  the 
Laplanders.  The  larger  cod,  which  are  caught  in  winter,  are  laid  up  in  certain  fish- 
houses,  so  constructed  with  lattice- work,  in  layers,  fresh  and  raw,  so  as  to  be  venti'ited. 
Fish  frozen  by  the  intenseness  of  the  cold  in  these  houses,  which  the  natives  call  Skiaae, 
keep  until  spring,  when  the  air  begins  to  soften,  at  which  time,  lest  giving  way  they  should 
begin  to  putrify,  they  are  taken  out,  and  are  hung  to  dry  in  the  wind  in  other  houses, 
called  Fiske  Cield.  Cod,  also  taken  in  the  spring,  when  the  entrails  are  taken  out,  are  also 
hung  to  dr}'  in  the  wind  in  the  house  called  Fiske  Cield.  Fish  of  this  sort,  from  the  shape 
they  take  from  being  so  managed,  are  usually  called  Rundfisk  or  Stokfisk ;  those  taken  in 
summer,  unless  they  are  cleft  down  along  the  middle,  and  the  entrails  and  back-bone 
taken  out,  by  reason  of  the  heat  at  that  time,  as  also  little  worms  which  the  flies  lay  in 
them,  could  be  by  no  means  preserved  from  putrefaction.  Fish  managed  so  is  called 
Rot^ler.     But  it  is  to  be  observed  by  those  unaoqusunted  with  these  matters,  that  the 


we**  .  ■li"*'^"^'^  * 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEXfS. 


437 


codfish  called  Stokfisk,  if  it  should  harden  from  cold,  becomes  spongy,  anddiat  if  a  mis- 
tv  air  should  lay  hold  of  it  while  drying,  it  contracts  a  certain  colour  less  grateful  to  the 
(Liters  iitcodfisli. 

A  Fish  comes  also  to  the  shores  of  Finmark,  which  the  natives  call  the  king  of  the  speck- 
led codfish.  It  usually  has  a  sort  of  chubbed  head,  rising  in  the  shape  of  a  crown,  broad 
forehead,  the  tower  jawbone  a  litde  projecting,  but  resembling  the  rest  of  his  kind  in 
every  other  particular.  And  as  the  bees  have  their  king,  the  leader  of  the  wliole  swarm,  so 
also  is  this  said  king  of  the  codfisti  said  to  go  before  them,  and  pdnt  out  the  way,  under 
the  guidance  of  Providence,  tending  from  the  deep  to  the  shores.  Hence  does  it  happen 
very  rarely  that  he  is  taken  but  among  thick  shouls  of  speckled  codfish,  which  the  natives 
from  the  number  and  density  call  Fiske^Bierg.  The  fishermen  assert,  from  the  worn  and 
battered  skin  of  this  fish,  that  it  easily  appears  that  he  has  been  very  much  vexed  and 
harassed  among  many.  The  king  of  the  codfish  is  dried  whole  in  the  air,  differently  from 
the  rest,  the  heads  of  whfch  are  usually  cut  off  before  they  are  hung  up  in  the  wind.  The 
su|)erstitic*is  common  people  believe  that  the  fisherman  who  happens  to  take  the  king 
codfish  will  be  very  fortunate  from  that  time,  and  that  he  will  afterwards  enjoy  the  best 
and  greatest  success  in  fishing. 

The  long  cod  arc  also  in  Finmark,  the  best  of  those  are  they  that  are  taken  near  Kia- 
elvig,  and  the.island  Ing-Den.  The  black  cod,  commonly  called  Craasey,  the  greater  as 
well  as  the  lesser  lish  very  well  known  through  Norway,  is  very  frequent  in  the  sea  of 
Finmark.  The  larger  of  this  kind  of  fish  is  called  in  Norwegian  Seyobs.  Besides  the 
common  and  usual  way  of  catehing  the  black  cod  elsewhere  through  Norway,  the  Lap- 
landers have  contrived  the  following  method.  Whilst  these  fish  are  sporting  and  rustling 
in  great  numbers,  as  in  a  troop,  in  the  sea,  the  wily  fisherman  stands  at  the  prow  of  the 
boat,  furnished  with  a  hooked  pole,  with  which  he  strikes,  one  aHer  the  other,  down,  and 
flings  them  into  his  smack.  It  frequendy  happens,  which  I  myself  saw,  that  a  great  num> 
ber  fly  snorting  to  the  very  shore,  when  the  fishermen,  who  are  standing  there,  not  miss- 
in|^  the  opportunity,  and  furnished  with  their  hooked  poles,  kill  many,  and  fling  them 
asnore. 

A  certain  fish,  called  by  the  natives  Soborting,  of  a  reddish  colour  under  the  belly,  but 
silvery  through  the  rest  of  the  body,  red  flesh,  but  very  delicate,  is  found  too  in  this 


sea. 


Among  other  fish  of  the  seas  of  Finmark  is  to  be  found  one,  known  here  and  there 
through  Norway  called,  agreeably  to  the  varying  dialects  of  places,  one  time,  Rogn- 
Kiolse  ;  another  time,  Ro^-Kiaefse  ;  but  in  the  Lapland,  Akkazinzo.  This  fish  is  of  a 
dark  colour,  short  and  thick  in  the  shape  of  its  body,  sharp  fins  standing  out  on  each  side, 
and  exceedingly  abundant  in  spawn.  The  flesh,  the  L»ss  agreeable  to  the  palate  of  men, 
is  the  more  grateful  to  the  other  kind,  which  prefer  diis  fish  to  all  others. 

Herrings,  and  these  the  most  excellent  of  their  kind,  are  here  in  immense  numbers, 
which  the  Laplanders  through  ignorance  neglect  catching,  unprovided  with  any  means 
for  that  purpose.  They  take  just  enough,  as  necessity  may  require  for  bait  for  cod-fish 
and  other  fish ;  for  which  purpose  they  usually  draw  with  a  boat  such  as  are  driven  by 
the  birds,  or  playing  carelessly  on  the  tranquil  sea. 

A  certain  fish,  called  by  the  natives  Lodde,  is  also  to  be  met  with,  of  which  there  are 
two  kinds,  called  in  Norwegian  the  one  lern  Lodde,  the  other  Sild-Lodde.  Those  of  the 
kind  called  lem  Lodde  are  of  a  triangular  form  on  the  back,  green  colour,  inclining  to  dark, 
and  under  a  white  belly.  These  said  fishes  usually  come  in  immense  squadrons  to  the 
shoresofFinmark,  but  not  annually.  On  their  approaching,  they  are  accompcinied  by 
other  fish,  or  they  are  alone.    Afler  some  time  elapsed,  they  return  to  the  sandy  bottoms 


r 


43« 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LERMS- 


of  the  sea  near  the  shore,  with  all  the  fish  they  collected  round  them,  to  the  no 
small  injury  of  the  &ihermcn.  Those  called  Sild  Lodder  are  less  than  the  others. 
These  as  well  as  the  former  are  seen  at  the  same  time  in  almost  incalculable 
numbers,  accompanied  not  only  by  great  quantities  of  fish,  but  even  vast  crowds  of  cor- 
morants, and  others  birds  of  the  sea,  filling  all  places  round  with  their  harsh  and  disagree- 
able noises  and  clamdurs.  When  they  first  come,  they  remain  quiet,  a  little  time,  in  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  which  thcv  chance  to  find,  in  order  to  spawn;  of  which,  the  greater 
cod-fish,  as  well  as  other  Bsf)  being  remarkably  greedy,  swim  in  crowds  to  it,  ana  though 
the  suid  Sild  Lodder  departs  again  when  it  has  spawned,  yet  the  other  fish  stay,  kept  by 
the  fondness  of  the  spawn.  Never  is  the  alertness  of  the  hsherman  called  more  into  ac- 
tion, for  so  great  is  the  )plv  by  this  event,  that  fishing  baits,  provided  fishermen  are 
not  wanting  on  the  press  oi  tt.e  occasion,  can  load  and  unload  even  seven  times  the  fish 
that  is  taken  in  a  short  time.  There  is  no  better  or  moiv  desirable  bait  for  catching  fish 
than  what  is  prepared  from  the  Sild  Lodder ;  yet  the  same  is  so  injurious  to  the  rein-deer 
and  swine,  that  even  the  least  portion  occasions  the  falling  off  of  the  hair,  and  sometimes 
even  death  itself. 

On  the  coasts  of  Finmark,  under  the  sea  weed,  is  found  a  certain  small  and  rather  long 
ish,  not  unlike  the  conger  eel,  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  place,  Norwegians,  call  Tang- 
spracl,  but  the  Laplanders  Stag-gosh,  signifying  in  Lapland  a  staff  or  stick. 

Besides  the  above-mentioned  fish,  there  is  to  be  found  in  Finmark,  as  elsewhere,  near 
the  Norwegian  shore,  the  sturgeon ;  the  ray,  in  Norwegian  Skade ;  the  Rcdfisk,  that  is 
red  fish,  in  Norwegian  Uer ;  Lyi,  me  lesser  cod-fish,  m  Norwegian  Hyse,  in  Lapland 
Djukso ;  the  lesser,  or  white  cod-fish  Brosmer,  and  innumerable  otners.  But  it  is  to  be  ob- 
served, that  th  mackerel,  congers,  or  eels,  &c.  fishes  very  well  known  and  very  numer- 
ous along  the  Norwegian  shores,  yet  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  seas  of  Finmark ;  crabs  of 
the  rough  and  testaceous  kind,  in  Lapland  Suobbo,  and  shell-fish  are  also  here ;  lobsters 
are  found,  but  no  oysters. 

The  Lapland  women  on  the  coast  employ  themselves,  together  with  their  husbands, 
willingly  and  faithfully  in  the  fisheries,  differing  from  the  peasant  women  of  Norway,  to 
whom  these  occupations  seem  too  burthensome  and  tiresome^  The  mountain  Laplanders 
coming  to  the  coasts,  together  with  their  fumilies  and  herds  of  rein-deer  at  a  certain  pe- 
riod of  the  year,  now  and  then  usually  employ  themselves  in  fishing. 

And  as  tne  above-mentioned  kinds  of  various  fish  are  found  in  the  seas  of  Finmark, 
of  which  each  species  has  been  destined  to  its  own  proper  use  by  the  all-wise  Creator, 
giving  some  to  man  for  his  nounshment,  others  for  their  oil ;  and  to  serve  the  pur. 
poses  of  commerce,  and  the  carrying  on  of  trade ;  some  also  are  turned  to  bait,  with 
which  fish  is  caught ;  so  also  in  the  same  ocean,  are  to  be  met  various  monsters,  pro- 
digious in  their  form  and  size,  wonderful  to  view,  and  so  furnished,  that  tliey  seem  to 
give  more  ample  materials  for  writing,  than  benefit  to  mankind.  Among  those  mon- 
sters of  the  deep,  which  are  seen  now  and  then  in  this  part  of  the  Northern  Ocean,  one 
in  particular,  an  immense  fish,  called  the  Kraken,  by  the  inhabitants  of  Nordland  and 
Finmark,  holds  the  first  rank  by  right,  whose  form  and  magnitude  of  body  is  so  un- 
usual, that  the  sea  docs  not  produce  a  similar  prodigy.  The  said  fish  is  very  seldom 
seen  above  water,  as  delighting  in  the  depths,  where  quiet  and  almost  immoveable  it 
is  said  to  hide  itself,  environed  with  an  incalculable  number  of  every  kind  of  fish. 
When  the  fisherman,  searching  the  sea  in  order  to  find  a  fishy  bottom,  arrives  by 
accident  at  the  place  where  this  monster  is  skulking  in  the  bottom  below,  he  thinks 
from  the  great  number  offish  he  has  met  there,  that  he  has  found  a  place  that  is  the 
most  fit  for  fishing ;  but  when  the   monster  that  lies  hid,  touched  with  the  plummet 


I 


ACCOUNT  or  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEMS. 


43S> 


that  is  let  down,  begins  to  move  and  gradually  get  up,  which  is  easily  ascertained  from 
the  space,  that  is  between  the  bottom  and  the  boat,  Incoming  gradually  less,  he  finds 
that  it  was  not  a  bottom  as  he  believed, but  an  immense  fish  that  was  hid  below.  Mean* 
time  the  fisherman  is  not  solicitous  about  getting  away,  knowing  that  this  monster  is 
very  slow  in  moving,  and  advances  so  slowly,  tnat  scarcely  within  the  space  ol'  two 
hours  he  can  rise  from  the  bottom  to  the  surllice  of  the  sea.  Yet  is  he  not  altogether 
negligent  of  his  situation,  finding  by  the  plummet  that  the  monster,  gradually  emerg- 
ing, is  now  at  no  great  distance  from  the  boat.  And  without  delay,  the  fisherman 
having  just  got  away,  he  begins  to  appear  above  the  water  with  huge  and  monstrous 
claws,  of  a  variety  of  sizes  and  shapes,  giving  the  idea  of  a  wood,  thick,  with  diftcrent 
trees,  stripped  of  their  bark  ;  at  first  erect  m  the  air,  but  soon  after  complicated. 
The  species  of  this  monster,  how  horrid  it  is  and  deformed,  scarcely  can  those  who 
have  seen  it  express  with  words.  The  inhabitants  of  Finmark  and  Nordland  call 
this  monster  Kraken  ;  elsewhere  through  Norway,  especially  among  those  of  Car- 
mesund,  in  t"ie  diocese  of  Christiansand,  it  is  called  Brygden,  yet  from  another  ma- 
rine monster  of  the  same  name,  described  by  us,  it  must  be  carefully  distinguished. 

The  sea  of  Finmark  also  generates  the  snake,  or  marine  serpent,  forty  paces  long, 
equalling  in  the  size  of  its  head  the  whale,  in  form  the  serpent  This  monster  has  a 
muned  neck,  resembling  a  horse,  u  back  of  a  gray  colour,  the  belly  inclining  to  white. 
On  the  canicular  days,  when  the  sea  is  calm,  the  marine  serpent  usually  comes  up,  wind- 
ing into  various  spirals,  of  which  some  are  above,  others  below  the  water.  The  seamen 
very  much  dread  this  monster ;  nor,  while  he  is  coming  up,  do  they  easily  entrust  them- 
selves to  the  dangers  of  the  deep. 

That  monster,  which  the  Norwegians  commonly  call  Hav-Mand,  and  Hav-Fruc, 
many  affirm,  to  whom  credit  is  due,  to  have  been  often  seen  in  this  ocean.  The  male, 
which  is  called  in  Norwegian  Hav-Mandcn,  is  described  as  a  monster  resembling  a  very 
robust  man,  of  full  stature,  brown  skin,  long  beard,  hair  over  the  shoulders.  The  fe- 
male, or  Hav-Frue,  is  said  to  appear  in  human  shape,  long  hair,  ghastly  visage ;  some- 
times they  say  she  is  seen  under  a  different  likeness.  But  the  inhabitants  affirm  that 
these  monsters  are  never  accustomed  to  appear  but  in  a  horrid  tempest,  not  only 
dreadful  to  seamen,  but  often  fatal,  which  instantly  follows. 

And  as  all  seas  and  bays  abound  in  various  kinds  of  fish,  so  no  lake  nor  river,  how- 
ever small  or  ignoble,  but  in  proportion  to  its  capacity,  contains  fish,  eit'^er  natives  of 
the  stream,  or  brought  by  rivers  from  the  sea  into  them,  all  subservient  to  the  use  of 
man. 

Among  the  fish  in  the  lakes  of  Finmark  is  found  also  the  pike,  the  genus  being  called 
in  the  Lapland,  Haug,  the  species,  if  a  little  lai^r,  Golees.  It  feeds  on  frogs  and  toads 
in  common ;  and  devours  other  fish  also,  as  is  well  known  ;  nor  does  it  spare  its  own 
kind.  The  perch  alone  is  excepted  in  the  number  of  those  in  danger,  protected  by  the 
benefit  of  its  ^'ery  sharp  fins,  with  which  it  is  armed.  The  Laplanders  kill  the  pike  in 
summer,  then  accustomed  to  come  to  the  shores,  and  when  basking  at  its  security,  to 
omit  other  methods,  by  which  this  fish  is  usually  taken. 

In  the  lakes  of  Finmark  a  certain  fish  is  found,  in  Norwegian  called  Lafe,  in  Lapland 
Njak ;  nor  unlike  the  sea-fish  Brosmer,  described  above  by  us,  in  shape  as  well  as 
colour. 

In  the  same  place,  that  kind  of  fish  is  to  be  found  in  great  plenty,  called  in  Lapland 
Raudo.  Fish  of  this  kind  are  usually  red  under  the  belly,  dark  on  the  back,  and  are 
much  recommended  by  their  delicate  flavour. 


440 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LRRMI- 


A  certain  species  offish,  of  mobt  excellent  Havour,  called  in  the  Norwepfian  Blegc,  Is 
to  be  found  in  the  same  lakes ;  its  skin  is  very  smooth,  reddish  colour  under  the  belly, 
the  rest  of  the  body  white,  inclining  to  a  silvery  hue. 

The  perch  belong  also  to  the  lake  fish  of  Finmark,  which  the  Laplanders  call  Vuskon ; 
also  a  certain  small  fish,  white  skin,  of  excellent  flavour,  culled  in  Norwegian  Siik,  the 
fish  called  by  the  Laplanders  Haerre  ;  as  also  another  furnished  with  sharp  fins,  in  other 
respects  not  unlike  the  herring ;  the  Laplanders  call  it  Zhjofzhja ;  to  which  is  also 
added  another,  called  in  Lupland  Ruoudc-Golnick,  smulU  but  furnished  with  very 
sharp  fins. 

Trout,  and  their  various  species,  all  the  test  of  their  kind,  here  arc  to  be  met  with. 
The  Laplanders  usually  give  them  dilfercnt  names,  such  as  Damok,  Vaalas,  Guuvzhja ; 
and  all  these  the  most  excellent.     I  never  tasted  any  equal  to  them. 

In  the  lakes  of  Finmark,  bordering  on  Russia,  a  certain  fish  is  said  to  be  found,  not 
veiy  unlike  the  carp,  cither  in  shape  or  taste. 

In  summer  the  Laplanders  fish  in  the  lakes  with  casting  nets,  as  well  as  wove  nets. 
Yet  in  some  parts  of  Lapland  it  is  a  custom  to  fasten  various  beams  at  the  bottom  of 
lakes,  to  which  rope  lines  are  fixed,  furnished  with  hooks,  made  from  the  juniper-tree, 
on  which  the  bait  is  put ;  by  which  method  of  fishing  they  sometimes  take  a  large  num- 
ber offish. 

In  the  winter,  when  all  places  ar  j  bound  with  frost,  they  catch  fish  by  letting  down 
nets  in  the  ice,  and  in  this  manner :  they  join  certain  long  poles  together,  connecting 
the  one  with  the  end  of  the  other ;  nets  are  fastened  to  these  poles  so  joined,  and  a  rope 
fixed  at  each  end  of  the  whole  order.  Thus  prepared,  they  break  the  ice  with  an  axe, 
and  o|)ening  a  way,  let  down  the  nets  into  the  lake,  to  be  carried  on  to  another  opening 
formed  in  the  ice  from  the  opposite  side,  observing  this  order,  that  the  lower  edge  of  the 
nets  so  extended  should  touch  the  very  bottom,  the  upper  being  turned  to  the  ice ;  and 
lest  the  line  of  nets  may  be  broken  by  the  continual  motion  of  the  waters,  they  take  care 
that  each  end  of  the  whole  chain  of  them  should  be  fastened  with  a  strong  rope  to  cer. 
tain  stakes  erected  in  the  ice,  and  driven  down  as  far  as  possible.  Fishing  nets  are 
commonly  done  round  with  a  rope  from  twisted  hemp ;  but  the  Laplanders,  as  wanting 
hemp  very  much,  make  use  of,  m  its  place,  the  very  thin  fibres  of  trees.  In  the  place  dt 
cork,  which  other  fishermen  fix  to  the  up\xr  part  of  their  nets,  that  they  should  more 
easily  arise,  the  Laplanders  not  unusually  fix  the  outward  bark  of  the  birchen-tree ;  with 
which  bark  also  it  is  their  custom  to  join  little  stones  to  the  lower  part  of  the  nets,  that 
they  may  go  down  to  the  bottom. 

If  that  part  only  of  the  lake  adjoining  the  land  is  frozen  up  and  covered  with  ice,  the 
Laplander  leans  down  over  the  bank  to  see  what  fish  may  be  at  the  bottom,  where,  should 
he  see  any,  he  rolls  down  a  piece  of  ice,  cut  with  an  axe  from  the  edge  of  the  frozen 
part,  on  the  fish,  with  great  dexterity,  to  crush  him  by  the  weight  of  it :  this  mode  of 
fishing  the  Laplander  can  only  practice  in  the  shallows  of  the  lakes. 

Amon^  the  fresh- water  fish  of  Finmark  the  salmon  is  by  right  to  be  first  mentioned. 
This  fish  IS  called  by  the  Laplanders  in  general  Luoos ;  but  the  male,  Goaaigyem ;  female 
X)uovve.  The  salmon  with  a  rough  skin  is  called  in  Lapland  Koms.  The  Norwe- 
^ans  call  the  small  salmon,  in  their  language,  Tart 

The  river  Thana,  flowing  through  eastern  Finmark,  is  the  most  distinguished  river  of 
those  that  are  abounding  in  fish,  of  which  there  are  many.  This  river  takes  its  rise  in 
the  most  remote  mountains  of  Lapland,  rushing  through  plains,  vallies,  and  mountains, 
in  a  full  and  free  channel,  until,  increased  by  various  torrents  and  smaller  rivers*  it  emp. 


ii 


ACGUUKl'  OF  DANIAII  LAPLAND  BY  LREII8.  441 

ties  itself  into  the  sea,  rrom  the  bay  of  I'huiin,  witli  a  Great  noise  of  waters.  Among 
the  Hmaller  rivers,  by  whose  course  it  is  increased,  that  is  conspicuous,  which  flo\vs  be* 
twecn  Thana  and  VVaranger,  formerly  al)oundii)g  in  beavers  and  pearls,  as  ap|K*ars  ft-oin 
the  protocol  of  a  judicial  meeting  held  on  the  tenth  of  February  ol  the  year  1652,  where 
the  speci;d  aire  of  this  river  is  specified,  iis  enjoined  on  the  Laplanders.  But  this  river 
Thana,  which  you  may  properly  call  the  principal  river  of  eastern  Finmark.  though  it 
a  distant  some  miles  from  the  ocean,  yet  the  marks  of  that  great  tide,  and  rapidity  with 
which  it  flows,  especially  in  spring,  when  it  is  swelled  with  :ui  uncommon  thaw,  c;in 
easily  be  remarked  in  the  sea  at  a  distance  from  the  shore.  The  salmon  taken  in  this 
river  diflcr  much  from  those  that  come  into  other  rivers,  in  breadth,  shortness,  and  fat. 
ness,  and  are  accounted  the  very  best  of  their  kind.  The  fishing  for  them  begins  in  this 
river  in  the  beginning  of  spring,  and  ends  again  two  weeks  af\er  the  festival  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist. 

The  river  Alten  is  the  most  celebrated  river  of  all  those  that  run  through  the  western 
Finmark.  It  also  has  its  rise  in  the  remotest  mountains  of  Lapland,  running  down 
through  woods  and  mountains  in  a  chaimel,  until  getting  into  the  interior  recess  of  the 
bay  of  Alten,  it  rolls  itself  into  the  sea.  This  river  carries  along  its  waters  so  calmly 
and  gently,  that  from  its  very  mouth,  where  it  empties  itself  into  tne  sea,  to  a  high  ana 
steep  rock,  over  which  rolling  itself  with  the  great  noise  of  its  waters,  it  makes  an  im- 
mense cataract,  it  is  navigable  for  a  space  of  six  miles  for  fishing  boats  and  small  crafl. 
In  this  fishy  river  so  large  a  quantity  of  most  excellent  salmon  is  taken,  as  would  be 
sufficient  for  filling  a  huixlred,  sometimes  two  hundred  tuns.  The  salmon  which  are 
caught  about  the  festival  of  St.  John,  at  which  time  we  stated  that  fishing  beg^an  in  this 
river,  are  very  fat,  and  besides  of  such  a  size,  that  a  full  tun  can  scarce  hold  sixteen  of 
them ;  but  those  which  enter  this  river  when  the  autumn  is  approaching  are  much  less 
than  the  former,  and  at  the  same  time  lean.  Dolphins  are  sometimes  seen  in  this  river, 
lying  in  wait  for  the  salmon  stru^ling  along  the  stream.  The  royal  governor  of  this 
province,  the  illustrious  Claudius  Gagge,  is  said  to  be  the  first  who  undertook  to  build 
weirs  on  this  river,  for  the  catching  of  salmon.  This  example  was  afterwards  followed 
with  the  greatest  success.  This  happened,  it  is  said,  on  the  eleventh  year  of  the  seven* 
teenth  century,  when  the  royal  house,  as  it  is  called,  Aar  Den»  was  built  on  an  island 
of  the  bay  of  Alten,  on  account  of  the  war  then  carrying  on  between  the  Danes  and  the 
neighbouring  Swedes.  There  was  then,  as  well  as  now,  an  entire  firee  right  of  fishery 
on  the  same  river,  and  free  permission  granted  to  each,  without  any  tribute  being  im- 
posed ;  but  afterwards  it  was  let  out  on  certain  condidons,  at  a  yearly  return  of  two 
hundred  thxders ;  first  to  the  Dutch,  then  to  a  society  of  merchants  at  Copenhagen ; 
afterwards  to  certain  merchants  of  Bergen,  in  Norway,  who  untertook  to  erect  and 
preserve  weirs  on  the  river  at  their  own  expence.  Among  '"^•ise  th>  ".  lief  were  citizens 
of  Bergen,  who  shut  up  the  river  Alten  with  an  expensiv  sid  su  : /uous  work,  a 
number  of  workmen  being  hired  at  a  daily  stipend,  who  at  a  stated  time  Jiould  evt^ry 
year  diligently  work  for  fifteen  days  together.  Besides  sixteen  pounds  of  fish  (valued 
at  fifteen  pence  of  our  money)  which  together  with  board,  and  a  quandty  of  brandy, 
were  distributed  to  each  workman  as  his  daily  hire,  so  many  pounds  of  fish  being 
added  at  the  end  of  each  week.  Two  tons  of  beer,  of  Bergen,  when  the  work  was 
finished,  were  collected  for  the  whole  body  of  the  workmen ;  two  quantities  of  eighteen 
hundred  pounds  weight  of  fish,  worth  fifly  thalers.  So  great  was  the  expence  at  which 
the  inhabitants  of  Ber^n  stood  to  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
at  which  time  laying  aside  all  further  expence,  they  thought  it  better  to  purchase  salmon 
from  the  Laplanders  themselvesj  who  dwell  by  the  »de  of  the  river.    The  fishery  then 


VOL.   X. 


3l 


442 


ACCOUNT  OP  nANIRII  I.AFI-AND  BY  LKRM« 


devolving  to  the  Laplanders,  who  by  degrees  got  the  hubil  of  erecting  weirs  on  the 
rivLi,  each  clainud  thut  part  of  the  stream  which  he  had  from  the  iKgiiming  a.s  hiit 
lawful  |M)ssi.ssion,  for  him  and  his  own  for  the  future,  belonging  by  full  right  and  just 
title,  to  the  total  exclusion  of  all  others  from  that  place.  The  siiid  fishery  isut  this  day 
carried  on  by  peculiar  regulations,  so  that  it  is  not  iK-rmitted  to  every  one  to  exercise  it 
at  will.  Thirty-six  men  are  annually  chosen,  who  have  the  hojc  right,  all  others  being 
that  year  excluded  o(  fishery.  The  iktsous  chosen  are  from  the  conunon  ikoijIc,  Lap- 
landers ecjually  and  peasants  of  the  Finnish  nation,  dwellers  on  the  river.  These  on 
each  b;ink  of  the  river  throw  up  moimds,  from  Ixams  and  boughs  of  trees,  fit  for  the 
keeping  in  and  taking  salmon.  These  mounds  are  at  due  distances  from  e.ich  other ; 
four  nien>  neither  more  nor  less,  being  appointed  to  fish  within  the  limits  of  the  said 
moinul.  They  run  out  as  far  as  about  the  middle  of  the  river,  to  Uic  purpose  thut  the 
salmon  should  have  full  liberty  of  passing  and  re-passing  the  stream;  and  that  those 
whose  moinuls  are  farther  oft'  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  should  not  l)e  defrauded  of 
their  just  benefit ;  for  if  the  river  was  laid  over  with  mounds  us  with  bridges,  those 
only  whose  moimds  were  built  on  the  lower  jwrt  of  the  stream  doubtlessly  would  enjoy 
the  whole  benefit,  to  the  total  exclusion  of  their  associates  from  all  hope  of  gain.  The 
mounds  raised  and  dis|)osed  in  this  manner  arc  at  length  shut  up  bv  i  (lam,  passing  from 
the  further  to  the  hither  side  of  the  bank,   within  which  what  salmon  is  taken  is 

common  to  the  whole  society  of  fishermen.  When,  on  the  chan^v  of  the  year  towards 
nu"^mn,  all  opportunity  of  fishing  has  passed  by,  the  fishermen  to  a  man  approach  the 
said  cataract  against  the  stream,  where  the  salmon  that  have  escaped  the  lower  mounds 
have  penetrated,  but  who,  on  account  of  the  cataract  being  in  their  way,  cannot  get 
further.  Here  they  let  down  their  nets  in  the  river,  and  drag  them  slowly  all  over  the 
bottom  of  it,  as  it  were  by  sweeping,  to  the  mouth,  where,  loaden  with  a  great  quantity 
of  salmon,  they  draw  them  on  shore,  to  the  great  amusement  of  those  who  are  pleased 
with  this  kind  of  fishing.  The  salmon  which  arc  taken  in  each  river,  the  Thana  and 
Alten,  ufe  managed  usually  in  the  following  manner :  when  cut  through  the  middle 
into  two  equal  parts,  well  washed,  they  lie  sprinkled  with  a  suflicient  quantity  of  salt  for 
some  days,  afterward  they  are  packed  up  m  oak  casks,  of  a  lar^  size,  rammed  down 
closely  and  firmly  with  certain  machines ;  brine  is  poured  in  through  an  orifice  on  the 
cask  thus  stuftcd,  fresh  and  fresh  ever}'  day,  until  all  the  mustiness  that  floats  above  is 
removed  entirely,  which  is  the  duty  enjoined  chiefly  on  the  cask-maker.  Salt  of  the  very 
best  quality  must  be  used  in  the  salting  and  preserving  salmon,  which,  unless  attended  to, 
foreigners,  who  usually  purchase  the  greatest  part  from  them,  will  not  buy  of  them. 
The  Kings  of  Denmark  and  Norway  have  given  the  greatest  attention  to  the  promoting 
of  the  fishery  of  Finmark.  Christian  the  Fourth,  of  most  glorious  memory,  by  a  royal  de- 
cree,  signed  May  fourth,  1638,  ordered  money  to  be  sent  into  Finmark  to  promote  the 
fishery.  Christian  the  Fifth,  by  a  decree,  April  sixteenth,  1687,  most  humanely  decreed, 
that  no  one  should  purchase  salmon  from  the  fishermen  but  in  specie.  At  the  close  of 
autumn,  when  the  salmon  becomes  lean,  and  is  no  more  saleable  to  merchants,  the  ma- 
ritime Laplanders  are  accustomed  to  row  out  a  little  from  the  shore  into  the  deep,  to  take 
the  salmon  who  at  this  time  of  the  year  remain  immoveable  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  with 
an  iron-headed  spear,  called  in  Lapland  Harses.  The  fishermen  employed  in  this  busi- 
ness, lest  they  should  be  obstructed  by  the  darkness  of  the  night,  keep  a  light  in  the  prow 
of  the  vessel,  from  pieces  of  fir-tree  and  the  bark  of  the  birch-tree,  which  they  call  Baral. 
The  Laplanders  keep  the  salmon  taken  in  this  manner  as  food  for  themselves,  and  lay  it 
up  in  chests  that  are  arched,  and  of  a  larger  size,  which,  if  they  stand  on  legs,  are  called 
in  Lapland  Njal,  but  if  not,  Buorna. 


«  Hi-LL»-'-.»^-.-'g 


ACCOUNT  or  UANlSil  i.AI'LA.MI  li\  UXMM. 


44S 

Tlic  Swedes  formerly  cotitciulcd  that  tlity  hail  a  claim  to  a  certain  part  of  the  olkn 
m(  ntioiu  d  rivers  the  Alteii  and  Tiuuia ;  lor  a*i  they  imposed  a  tribute  un  the  maritime 
Laphmdcrs,  as  f'-  a^i  the  i)cacc  of  Kiiorod,  iu  the  year  KUJ,    Kolemnly    matle   be. 


twi.en  eaeh  kinf^om,  l)y  Mlilch  it  wusblipulated,  ihaUill  kind  of  tribute  and  demand  on 

ol' 
that  tuo  thirds  of  every  f»->hery  were*  equally  their  right,  ai  plaiitiv  appears  from  letters 
Charles  ofSwi  clen  to  the  royal  treasurer  of  Fiiunark,  dated  October  diirtiith,  1596. 


the  jjart  of  the  erown  of  Sweden  should  cease  in    future;  so  they  further  demanded 


ofkin({Ch 

Meantime  the  Swedes,  by  the  fone  oftlu?»  pretensitMi  on  the  s;»id  fisheries,  sent  often 
fishermen  into  Finmark,  who,  obstructed  by  the  inhabitants,  were  compi  lied,  without  ef. 
fectin^  any  tiling,  to  return  :  hence  the  matter  broke  out  into  publii;  complaints.  The 
commissaries  of  the  erown  of  Sweden  ivnioiistrattd  much  on  this  busncss;  and  the 
gtjvernor  of  Swedish  Lapland,  the  illustrious  Ballhasar  Ueeh,  in  the  mould  of  Novemljcr 
1607,  received  not  only  an  order  from  his  soveaign  that  he  >lK)uld  iiupiiri',  from  the 
governor  of  Finmark  residing  at  VVardhuis,  the  cause,  as  also  true  information  of  the  re. 
hisal  which  the  fishermen  who  were  sent  out  from  Sweden  to  Finmark  had  so  impro. 
perly  met  with  ;  but  he  himself  went  into  Varanger,  with  lalxjurers  ami  fishermen  nc- 
cessai)  for  the  manajii^i  nient  and  dispatch  of  this  business,  that  he  brou^^ht  with  him: 
he  had  also  a  treasurer  with  him,  who  was  to  collect  the  tribute,  and  who  was  to  reside 
in  Vasoe,  for  the  purpose  ul  coUtciing  the  revenue  I'rom  the  Laplanders  of  Finmark ; 
and  also  a  priest,  who  was  to  reside  there  mid  manage  the  holy  affair^  of  that  place,  to 
whom,  in  consideration  of  hisi  labour,  two  thirds  of  ihe  salary  which  annually  was  paid 
hitherto  to  the  Danish  clergyman  should  be  paid  to  him  in  future  ;  and  all  other  dues  of 
the  district  which  the  trcitsurcr  of  the  province,  i.  atholomew  Henricson,  had  remitted  to 
the  governor  of  the  king,  Glaus  Petei-son,  by  letters  dated  February  twenty-third,  1608. 
At  the  same  time,  the  said- mentioned  Balthasar  B«  i  h  informs  the  governor  of  Finmark 
by  letters,  grievously  compLiining  of  the  injury  that  was  committed,  as  it  seemed  to  him, 
that  when  the  Swedish  labourers  were  going  to  erect  weirs  on  the  rivers,  they  were  vio- 
kntly  hindered  by  the  inhabitants.  To  this  was  added  a  serious  remonstrance,  exacting 
that  a  free  right  of  fishery  should  be  granted,  without  any  tergiversation,  to  the  fishermen 
daily  sent  from  Sweden  into  Finmark.  On  these  remonstrances  being  made  by  the 
crown  of  Sweden,  and  transmitted  most  humbly  by  the  governor  of  the  province  to  the 
Danish  court,  a  decree  of  Christian  the  Fourth,  datixl  December  twentieth,  1609,  was 
published,  in  which  it  is  stricUy  declared  that  all  Swedes,  as  many  as  were  to  Ix;  found  in 
Finmark,  must  readily  depart  from  the  country  ;  that  the  crow  ia  of  Sweden  had  no  right 
over  the  fisheries,  or  the  other  prerogatives  and  rights  of  the  kings  of  Denmark  and  Nor- 
way, by  any  claim  whatever ;  that  no  Swedish  maritime  Laplander  had  a  right  to  fish 
in  the  seas  of  Finmark  without  permission  from  the  governor,  and  even  then,  not  unless 
he  would  p.iy  a  yearly  tribute  for  said  licence  to  the  king  of  Denmark  and  Norway, 
as  the  rightful  master  of  the  sea.  The  Swedes  did  not  even  then  desist ;  the  said  Bal- 
thasar Bcch  sent  again  other  workmen  and  fishermen,  by  an  order,  bearing  date  April 
fourteenth,  1609,  into  Finmark,  to  follow  up  the  work  so  strenuously  and  actively  begun, 
and  to  build  a  place  of  worship  on  the  bay  of  Alten.  But  this  attempt  too  of  the 
Swedes  was  disappointed,  the  new  workmen  bein^  hindered,  as  one  may  suppose,  by  the 
governor  of  the  province,  who  stript  them  of  their  axes,  their  other  tools  and  working 
mstruments,  with  which  they  came  to  work,  as  appears  by  the  acts  of  the  judicial  assem- 
bly, dated  May  ninth,  held  in  the  same  year.  After  a  variety  of  skirmishing,  this  whole 
contention  was  at  length  adjusted,  and  terminated  by  the  peace  of  Knorodske,  by  which 
the  Swedes  renounced  all  claims  upon  Finmark.  Besides  the  said  named  river  of  Thana, 
there  are  also  others  in  the  eastern  Finmark,  distinguished  for  the  abundance  and  fishery  of 

3  L  2 


*i 


M 


_ 


mm 


*  * 

I, 


444 


ACCOUHT  OP  DANTIII  LAPLAND  DY  LF.KMI. 


wUmon ;  luch  as  nbovc  others  the  river  Ncida,  running  by  ttic  western  uidc  of  the  bay 
of  Vurangriii.  Its  spring  is  to  be  looked  fur  in  the  mountains  of  Russia,  but  its  moutn 
in  the  l)uy  of  Kiofiordcn,  where  the  isluml  of  Kio  is  situated,  in  which  the  Laplanders  who 
dwell  on  (he  river  Neida  usually  take  up  their  stations  when  fishing  in  the  seu,  while  the 
time  that  is  fit  for  talking  salmon  is  approaching.  Kuch  bank  of  this  river  is  shaded 
with  birch-trees,  Juxuriunt  with  branches.  In  the  upper  part  is  a  cataract,  nigh  which 
the  Laplandent  approaching  tiike  salmon  with  a  net,  and  a  little  higher,  in  wt-irs.  To 
keep  these  weirs  in  repair,  they  must  not  only  crms  the  water,  but  also  go  uiKler  it 
as  divers.  Ten  salmon  formerly  cost  one  thaler ;  what  they  sell  for  to«duy  I  cannot 
say. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  the  same  bay  i*»  a  river,  commonly  called  Jacobs- Elven,  that  is, 
Jacob's  river.  It  is  the  same  which  flows  from  the  very  celebrated  lake  Indiagcr,  at^l 
contains  no  small  quantity  of  salmon.  The  monks,  to  whom  the  fishery  formerly  belong- 
ed,  took  care  the  salmon  should  be  transported  to  Colu,  a  town  in  Russia,  and  sold  to  the 
Dutch  trading  there.  There  are  mon:  rivers  that  flow  on  the  same  side  of  the  said  bay« 
not  without  note  for  their  salmon  fishery. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  bay  of  Voranger  a  variety  of  rivers  flow,  which  the  salmon 
enter  at  a  stated  season  of  the  year,  such  as,  1.  Jacobs  Elven,  that  is,  the  river  of  Jacob* 
near  the  promontory  Finne  Naes,  which  is  said  to  run  along  the  valley,  delightful  and 
shaded  with  an  abundance  of  herbage  and  branching  trees,  and  to  contain  a  great 
quantity  of  salmon.  The  governors  of  Finmark  formerly  shut  up  this  river  with  weirs, 
having  brought  builders  fit  for  this  work  from  Malmis,  a  city  of  Russia.  3.  Komag 
Elven,  that  is,  the  river  Kumag,  which  is  said  to  he  at  the  distance  of  one  mile  from 
Kivcrgiu.  3.  Sylteviig- Elven,  large  and  very  fishy ;  also  Kongsfiord- Elven,  Bersfiord* 
Elven,  Bosfiord- Elven,  Sandfiords-Elven,  and  Langfiord- Elven,  all  of  which,  though 
with  some  difference,  are  said  to  contain  salmon.  On  the  same  side  of  Porsangcr  bar 
are  rivers  abounding  with  a  great  quantity  of  trout,  as  the  Bester  Botnens  Elv,  which 
salmon  also  visit,  but  usually  small ;  Biergebnc  Elven,  Thomas  Elven,  Jabus  Elven, 
Kalnaes  Elven,  and  others,  abounding  in  trout,  gilt  heads,  and  other  small  fish,  which 
the  Laplanders  call  Vaejek.  They  catch  fish  of  this  sort  living  in  streams,  in  a  small  loop 
of  slender  twisted  osier.  Besides  the  river  Alten,  the  principal  of  western  Finmark, 
other  lesser  ones  are  found  in  the  bay  of  Alten  ;  such  as  Borse-Jok,  Fumaes-Jok, 
Dakko-Jok,  Dalme-Jok,  Gnidish-Jok,  Gavouna-Jok,  H^-Jok,  Rain-Jok,  Skirve-Jok, 
andFalle-Jok;  the  last  six  of  these  rivers  contain  trout  and  salmon,  but  they  are  small 
and  few.  On  the  first  of  the  said  rivers,  called  Borse-Jok,  are  two  mills  built,  the  one 
for  sawing,  the  other  for  grinding  corn ;  on  the  second  also  is  one,  and  on  the  last 
there  are  two.  But  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  use  of  mills  is  new  in  this  part  of  Fin- 
mark ;  certainly  it  was  altogether  unknown  a  few  years  back.  Wood  was  cleft  in  Fin- 
mark into  pieces  or  beams  formerly,  not  by  sawing  mills,  but  by  hatchets  only,  by  which 
mode  of  cutting  only  two  pieces  or  beams  were  made  from  any  piece  of  timber,  however 
large  and  strong,  when,  by  the  aid  of  the  saw,  even  six  may  be  made  Grom  the  same 
piece  of  timber.  Almost  all  corn  provision  ground  into  flour  was  formerly  imported 
by  the  inhabitants,  and  is  partly  obtained  so  even  to  this  day,  yet  in  such  a  manner, 
that  no  small  portion  of  com  to  be  ground  on  the  above  mills  is  yearly  at  the  same  time 
brought  in.  In  the  bay  of  western  Finmark,  commonly  called  Repper  Fiorden,  b  a 
river  remarkable  for  salmon ;  and  another  in  the  bay  of  Porsanger  flowing  Srom  the  very 
celebrated  lake  Leuneje-Jauvre,  of  which  we  shall  speak  hereafter.  In  this  river  many 
salmon  are  taken,  yet  more  could  be  taken,  if  greater  care  and  dexterity  were  ap* 
plied. 


i 


accoi;nt  0¥  DAXinii  i.APLANU  nv  lckmh. 


445 


The  knowlaigc,  such  us  it  is,  ofriHh,  unci  the  mcthtxl  of  catching  and  manaf^inp^  them, 
being coninuinicati'tl  to  the  rcudcr,  I  wish  to  add  Honicthing  of  the  nnaniUT  in  which  the 
tythcs  fron»  the  finhcricH  urc  collected  in  Finrnark.  'I'hat  tythcs  were  in  prarlioe  from  the 
eurlieitt  times  among  the  NorvvcgianN,  I  um  ofopiiuon,  in  a  thing  well  known.  It  appears 
from  the  records  ofthe  remotest  times,  that  the  great  Lugebetter,  king  of  Norway,  had 
levied  tythcs  on  his  suhjectH  fn)m  corn  and  other  prcKluce  of  the  country,  from  the  year 
of  Christ  1268  ;  that  king  Christo|)her,  by  n  decree  published  in  the  year  of  Christ  1448, 
hadorduined,  that  tythes  shcjiild  be  divided  into  three  equal  ports  between  the  church,  the 
bishon,  und  the  nustor  of  the  parish ;  that  king  Fn.deric  the  First  had  ordained  and  hud  dis> 
posed  of  tythcs  by  various  decrees,  is  well  known.  And  as  to  what  Ix'longs  to  Fininark,  it 
IS  to  be  observed,  that  tything  was  introduced  there  later  than  elsewhere  through  Nor- 
way ;  vet  in  progress  ot  time  tlicy  were  ordained,  given,  and  accepted,  until  by  royul 
autnonty  ond  care  they  were  brought  into  that  order,  that  no  where  through  all  Norway 
were  they  more  justly  und  equally  puid.  The  payment  of  tythcs  from  the  fisheries,  in 
what  manner  they  were  first  instituted,  ond  then  brought  into  exact  order,  may  easily  be 
seen  from  the  following  decrees. 

Since  it  has  been  known  that  certain  fuctors  trading  through  Finmark  and  Norland 
exchanged  fish,  which  the  peasants  had  exposed  for  side,  for  injurious  and  useless  wurcs, 
such  OS  brandy,  basbir,  rommenuu,  und,  before  a  decimation  was  made,  had  trunsferred 
fraudulcnUy  to  themselves  the  advuntigcs.king  Frederic  the  Second,  by  on  edict,  published 
at  Esscrom,  bearing  date  the  seventeenth  of  April  1562,  has  forbid  such  fraud  for  the  future. 

Certain  Laplanders  of  the  mountains,  of  die  Russian  nnc  Swedish  territories,  having 
had  the  boldness  to  fish  in  the  sea  of  Finmark,  without  having  either  asked  or  obtained 
permission,  king  Christian  the  Fourth,  of  glorious  memory,  has  forbid  the  same,  by  a  de> 
crce  published  at  Scandcrburg  in  Jutland,  that  it  should  not  be  lawful  for  the  said  Lap. 
landers  to  fish  on  the  shores  of  Finmark  by  any  other  condition  Uian  that  obtained  with 
respect  from  the  royul  governor,  and  paying  tythcs  from  the  quantity  of  fish  that  may 
be  tiken. 

Charles  king  of  Sweden,  at  the  time  when  he  exacted  tribute  from  the  maritime 
Laplanders  of  Finmark,  granted  permission  of  fishing  in  the  sea  of  Finmark  to  the  citizens 
of  Gottenburg,  on  the  condition  of  duly  paying  the  tenths  from  the  quantity  taken. 

The  Swedes  being  compelled  to  yield,  by  the  peace  of  Knorodskc,  1613,  all  pre- 
tensions on  the  maritime  Laplandcs  of  Finmark,  the  governor  was  commandea  to 
exact  tythes,  by  a  decree  of  Christian  the  Fourth,  dated  the  tenth  of  June  of  the  next 
year,  from  the  maritime  inhabitants  of  the  district,  Laplanders  as  well  us  Norwegians, 
over  which  he  presided,  exercising  the  right  of  fishery  in  the  sea. 

The  inhabitants  of  Finmark  petitioning  the  king,  on  the  iniquity  of  the  governor,  on 
the  exaction  of  tenths,  selecting  none  but  the  best  and  largest  fish,  and  rejecting  the 
small,  his  royal  majesty  by  a  rescript  to  his  governor,  dated  twenty-second  April  1617,  de- 
dares  of  his  goodness,  that  it  is  his  royal  pleasure,  iiiat  Laplanders  as  well  as  Norwegians 
should  contribute  for  the  future,  from  the  first  hun«lred  of  fishes  taken,  eight,  from  the 
second  hundred,  nine,  without  any  regard  whatever  to  their  size. 

Though,  from  the  tenor  of  the  royal  decree  at  Esserom,  in  the  year  1562,  tythes 
were  to  oe  paid  from  fish  fresh  taken,  as  well  as  those  that  were  cured  in  the  wind ; 
yet  there  were  persons  who  were  daring  enough  to  resist  the  law.  Hence  it  was  ap. 
pointed,  that  a  royal  governor,  a  lawyer,  a  treasurer,  and  a  secretary  or  inferior  judge, 
should  solemnly  meet  in  1620,  in  Skiotnins-bierg,  to  determine  by  law,  that  the  por. 
tion  of  tythes  due  to  the  king  in  fish,  at  the  time  of  the  year  when  they  are  liuble  to  be 
spoiled  by  insects,  should  be  salted;  and  to  make  an  order,  that  no  one  from  tliat  time 


mm 


446 


ACCOUNT  01  OANTSII  LAPLAND  \\\  LEEMS. 


should  buy  or  sell  fish  before  they  had  duly  paid  the  tythe,  cpjoininfj  a  fine  of  eljjht  or- 
tungi  (the  ortungus  is  a  kind  of  nioney)  and  thi' teen  marks  of  bilver  to  those  who 
should  do  otherwise. 

In  the  year  1646,  the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  an  (-diet  of  Christian  the  Fo'-th  was  pub- 
lished, by  which  those  who  exercised  the  trade  of  li^hing  in  larger  boats,  commonly 
called  Dogger  Skuder  or  Dogger  Bauder,  on  the  shores  of  Fiiimark,  were  ordered  lo 
pay  the  tenth  part  of  the  fish  taken  to  the  king,  on  the  treasurer's  returninjr  the  price  of 
the  salt,  that  was  expended  on  the  fish  so  tyihcd,  to  tl»e  fishermen.  VVi»en  the  same 
edict  came  cut  on  the  seventeenth  of  July  of  the  same  \  c  ir,  those  were  exempted  from 
ihe  obligation  of  the  tythe,  who  exercise  the  business  in  smaller  boats,  or  for  the  sake  of 
d.omestic  support  alone. 

The  people,  as  usual,  requiring  a  certain  return  «r  bounty  out  of  the  tythes  they  paid, 
commonly  called  Tiende  Kande,  and  the  peti'ion  being  judged  and  rejected  by  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  district,  the  king,  by  an  edict,  dated  the  eighth  of  February,  1639,  most 
humarely  transmitted  the  complaints  and  requt:its  of  the  people  to  the  lawful  decision  of 
the  juridical  assembly.  AH  matte;  a  then  a;.>pertaiiiingto  this  question,  duly  and  agreea- 
bly to  law  being  considered  and  discussed,  a  sentence  was  passed  in  the  public  assembly 
held  in  1650,  by  the  judge  ;  by  which  a  certain  measure  of  beer  was  adjudged  for  ever^ 
hundred  weight  of  tythed  fish.  In  the  juridical  assembly  held  in  1653,  in  Wardoe,  it 
was  determined  by  the  judge,  that  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  fish  ten  should  be  paid  as 
tythe ;  of  which,  in  the  place  of  the  said  Tiende  Kande,  that  is,  a  decimal  measure, 
three  pounds  were  to  be  returned  to  the  person  who  paid  the  tythes. 

With  respect  of  jiersons  receiving  tythes,  and  also  of  the  time  and  place  when  and 
where  diey  were  to  be  paid,  it  was  determined  in  the  juridical  assembly,  in  the  year 
1661,  that  tythes,  which  hitherto  were  paid  at  no  stated  times,  and  only  in  small  portions, 
as  the  parties  willed,  should  henceforth  be  paid  at  a  stated  time  yearly,  namely,  at  the 
time  of  king  Canute  the  Martyr,  and  on  the  festival  of  All  Saints,  and  also  should  be  col- 
lected in  greater  sums. 

But  as  with  reapcct  to  tythes,  other  greater  difhculties  might  yet  arise,  and  really  had 
arisen,  a  new  decree  from  royal  authority  was  published  in  1685,  on  this  business,  con- 
taining many  regulations,  in  which  tyithing.  '  '"h  respect  as  well  of  persons  as  of  places 
and  things,  was  most  justly  arranged  and  c!  rided  on;  but  it  was  s,^cially  determined, 
that  when  tythes  were  to  be  paid,  lest  any  J.  ..-J  should  be  committed  on  the  part  of  the 
person  who  paid,  the  pastor  of  the  place,  *  t » tiiin  men  in  office,  as  also  some  selected  and 
sworn  from  the  people  themselves,  bhoi.'^b   i/^fsent. 

Christian  the  Fiftii,  oi*  glorious  memory,  at  lengtl^  put  an  end  to  this  whole  business 
by  a  decree  of  April  second,  1687,  in  which  it  was  constituted  and  e-ommanded  that  from 
every  hundred  of  fish,  ten  should  be  contributed,  the  decimal  measure  (Tiende  Kande) 
above- ment'oned  being  laul  aside.  Besides,  that  the  decimation  should  be  made  in  the 
very  place  where  the  fishes  are  put  on  board,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  ihem  into  three 
equal  parts,  between  the  king,  the  church,  and  the  clergyman.  For  which  business  it 
was  expressly  given  in  command  to  the  governor  of  the  district  by  his  sacred  majesty,  on 
the  ninth  of  April  of  the  same  3  ear,  that  an  exact  account  should  be  taken  of  the  fish  put 
on  board,  as  also  the  tons  of  oil,  called  by  the  natives  Tran,  according  to  we'ght  and 
measure,  and  that  he  should  exact  from  every  seaman  an  account  of  the  same,  that  when 
an  estimate  was  made  of  the  tenths,  a  certain  rule  of  lything  might  be  made.  Tythes 
having  passed  through  various  regulations  and  modifications  were  at  last,  by  several  de- 
crees, brought  to  a  fixed  and  settled  rule. 


t.^ 


k^ 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEMS. 


447 


CHAP.  XIV OF  THE  WORKMANSHIP  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

IT  belongs  to  the  women  in  Lapland  to  dress  skins  of  various  animals,  such  as  foxes, 
young  rein.deer,  otters,  and  other  skins,  scraping  off  a  membrane  that  goes  round 
skins  of  this  kind,  with  a  certain  iron  instrument,  which  they  call  Jekko,  they  thoroughly 
oil  the  skin,  with  oil  from  the  liver  of  fish,  and  by  means  of  a  certain  iron,  which  is 
sharp  and  not  unlike  a  sickle,  and  fastened  to  the  vyall  of  the  habitation,  they  cut  it  by 
moving  it  up  and  down.  An  instrument  of  this  kind  is  called  in  Lapland  Spierko. 
The  fibres  cut  out  of  the  feet  of  the  rein-deer  they  bake,  and  when  done  they  beat  and 
pound  it  into  various  small  pieces,  until  they  attain  the  softness  of  wool,  and  when 
done  by  rubbing  them  with  *he  palm  of  the  hand  to  the  cheek,  twist  them  into  very 
small  threads.  They  curioi  "y  embellish  the  belts  and  head-pieces,  with  which  they 
usually  adorn  their  rein-deer  of  carriage,  purses  and  the  borders  of  garments  with  fila- 
ments of  tin.  The  manner  thej'  use  in  the  making  of  elegant  works  of  this  sort  is  curious 
and  much  used  by  the  Laplanders  in  common ;  though  there  are  not  wanting  among 
them  women  to  know  and  carry  this  art  to  greater  perfection. 

They  ai-e  acquainted  with  the  art  of  dyin^  cloth  of  a  yellow  and  saffron  colour,  by 
means  of  certain  herbs,  called  Idne  and  Livdnjo.  From  various  party-coloured  threads 
they  make  knots,  whence  thongs  are  afterwards  made  with  an  instrument  adapted  to  this 
purpose  from  the  rein-deer's  horn,  called  in  Lai)land  Njijkom.  On  this  sr.e  more  in 
chapter  the  fourth,  on  the  garments  of  the  Laphuiders. 

From  the  unshorn  but  cleaned  skins  of  sheep  they  make  coverlets,  some  of  which  aie 
in  the  shape  of  a  sack,  in  which  the  feet  of  the  person  who  reposes  can  be  put ;  othere 
are  differently  formed.  On  these  see  chapter  the  sixth,  on  the  beds  and  couches  of  the 
Laplanders.  The  said  coverlets  when  laid  on  a  bed  are  turned  with  the  hairy  side  to  the 
body  of  the  person  ^vho  uses  them. 

They  weave  also  sheeting,  which  is  so  worked,  that  after  it  has  been  in  use  a  little 
time  in  covering  them,  when  the  bed  becomes  worn,  it  is  converted  to  the  use  of 
covering  for  the  wintef-'s  hut.  A  great  number  of  these  is  wove  from  thick  white 
thread,  with  dark  fringes  of  black  or  ash-colour.  The  loom  in  which  are  woven  the 
said  sheets  is  made  from  out  of  two  thick  beams  raised  an  end,  on  the  ex  remity 
of  which  is  fixed  a  loose  weaver's  beam,  extended  from  the  one  column  to  the  other :  to 
this  they  fasten  the  upper  end  of  the  thread,  which  comes  down  from  the  weaving  beam 
straight  to  the  ground ;  and  as  the  thread  is  neither  thrown  with  a  shutde,  nor  pressed 
together,  but  worked  with  the  hand  whilst  it  is  knocked  together  with  a  little  beetle  on 
coming  back,  the  other  part  of  the  thread  is  brought  together  by  the  flat  part  of  the 
hand,  so  that  a  space  should  be  open  for  putting  in  the  hand,  through  the  littde  fork, 
which  is  sustained  from  the  ends  of  the  two  little  arms  that  project  out  from  the  co- 
lumns. Hence  it  falls  first  obliquely  before  it  gets  directly  down.  To  the  lower  ex- 
tremity of  the  woof  are  fastened  stones,  lest,  loosened,  it  may  entangle  the  body  of 
the  thread,  but  by  being  kept  stiff  and  extended  by  i^s  weight,  it  should  preserve  the 
whole  together.  The  woof  is  thus  conveyed,  and  in  the  above  manner,  first  to  the 
upper  part  of  the  beam,  and  is  woven  with  the  hand,  whence  it  is  clear  that  in  making 
sheeting  or  covering  one  must  begin  from  the  upper  end.  As  weavers  cover  round, 
in  a  weaving  machine,  the  beam  at  the  end  gradually  with  linen,  by  turning  it  round,  so 
also  the  beam  of  the  aforesaid  weaving  machine  is  gradually  covered  over,  while  turn- 
ing, with  the  stuff  that  is  made.  They  weave  gloves  from  the  wool  of  sheep,  mixed 
with  that  of  hares.     This  is  the  manufacture  of  the  women  alone. 


ip 


448 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEMS. 


T^ 


Tlic  men  are  acquainted  with  thi  manufacture  of  cups,  plates,  of  various  kinds  for 
various  uses,  some  of  which  contajn  a  quarter  of  a  ton,  serving  for  the  purpose  of  keep- 
ing the  milk  of  the  rein-deer,  from  the  wood  of  birch-knots,  not  unlike  to  the  maple-tree. 
From  the  plates  of  horn  which  project  from  the  end  of  the  horns  of  the  rein-deer  they 
form  spoons,  from  their  own  fancy,  yet  artificial  enough.  The  aforesaid  plates,  some 
more,  some  letis,  contain  a  certain  marrow  of  an  ash-colour,  those  that  contain  the  least 
are  the  smoother,  more  beautiful,  and  fitter  for  use.  On  utensils  of  this  kind  may  be 
seen,  variety  of  forms,  representations  of  flowers  of  a  dark  colour,  interspersed,  made 
with  charcoal,  enchased  and  inlaid,  'i  hose  which  are,  in  comparison  of  others,  a  little 
more  elegantly  formed,  and  figured,  are  sometimes  sent  into  cities  to  goldsmiths,  that 
silver  spoons  may  be  made  to  their  form. 

They  have  acquired  the  art  of  fabricating  the  handles  of  knives,  artificially  adorned 
with  tin,  as  alsotlie  heads  of  sticks  from  the  thicker  part  of  the  rein-deer's  horn.  They 
form  oval  cases  with  great  attention  to  neatness.  Little  Batons  are  made  from  the 
small  roots  of  trees,  or  from  those  called  Taeger,  which  they  close  together  in  a  singu- 
lar manner.  The  shape  of  a  big  bellied  vessel  was  usually  added  to  a  round  flaggon 
with  a  short  neck,  and  served  for  keeping  salt.  They  are  skilled  sufficiently  in  the  con- 
struction of  sledges  of  various  use  and  form,  and  distinguished  by  various  names»  as 
Giet.r.ierres,  Raido-Kierres,  Lok-Kierres,  Pulke.  On  sledges,  see  chapter  the  tenth, 
on  the  machines  of  conveyance  among  the  Laplandere.  They  get  glue  from  the  skins 
of  fish,  .  y  boiling  especially  that  part  which  covers  the  head ;  they  get  it  also  from  the 
horns  of  the  rein-deer,  far  more  excellent  than  the  former ;  the  skm  lies  boiling  for  a 
long  lime  in  hot  water,  from  which,  when  taken  out,  whatever  remains  thickened  at  the 
bottom  is  made  into  glue. 

They  do  not  use  tongs  when  for  gingiron,  but  in  the  place  of  them  a  certain  wooden 
instrument  called  in  Lapland  Aasser.  The  Laplanders  as  well  as  the  Norwegians,  in- 
habitants of  Finmark,  called  by  our  countrymen,  Nordmoend,  buy  Nordland  boats, 
yet  some  of  the  Laplanders  themselves  make  them  as  well  for  their  own  use,  as  for  the 
use  of  others.     These  belong  to  the  marine  affairs. 


CHAP.  XV....ON  THE  VARIOUS  MANNERS  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THE  Laplanders,  from  the  time  of  Saxo,  who  flourished  about  the  year  1190, 
and  therefore  not  as  yet  known  by  this  name,  for  six  whole  ages,  called  before  that 
time  Skrit  Fins,  use  various  manners  peculiar  to  themselve^^. 

It  is  a  custom  received  among  the  eastern  nations,  to  present  each  other  with  gifts, 
especially  superiors.  The  same  obtains  among  the  Laplanders.  For  conung  into  the 
presence  of  the  magistrate,  the  clergyman,  or  consul,  they  each  bring  some  Jung  with 
them,  a  cheese,  a  hare,  a  ptarmigan,  salt  or  fresh  wdXer  fish,  a  killed  lamb,  venison 
of  rein  deer,  the  tongue  of  the  same,  a  round  lump  of  butter,  a  quantity  of  down  feathers, 
and  other  presents  of  such  nature.  Neither  is  the  gift  received,  without  a  due  return ; 
for  they  are  presented  vrith  a  piece  of  tobacco,  a  glass  of  water  and  honey,  a  pot  of  beer, 
a  little  pepper  and  ginger,  and  other  little  things  at  hand,  and  which  we  find  to  be 
very  acceptable  to  them.  The  same  custom  is  to  be  found  among  the  Russians,  for  on 
their  arrival  in  any  place,  they  distinguish  him,  who  is  in  any  degree  of  dignity,  and 
whom  they  hold  in  honour,  by  a  present,  which  usually  consists  in  brown  bread  made 
in  a  cake,  which  is  brought  on  a  wooden  trencher,  coloured  red,  in  certain  wooden 
spoons,  coloured  with  a  resinous  matter  from  the  juniper  tree,  or  gilt  ornaments,  some- 
times in  hens'  e^,  salt  salmon,  linen,  and  such  like  things. 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LSEMS. 


449 


That  they  should  distinguish  the  seasons,  and  festivals,  and  otlier  periods  of  time, 
the  Laplanders  formerly  made  use  of  certain  wooden  calendars  commonly  called 
Priunatave. 

The  husband  frequently  discharges  the  duty  of  the  midwife. 

The  Laplanders  very  ofben  take  the  clergyman  of  the  place,  the  missionary,  the  pub. 
tic  iniitructor,  and  church,  warden,  aswimesses  of  the  baptism  of  their  infants. 

As  often  as  the  occasion  demands  that  the  whde  family,  who  inhabit  the  cot,  should 
20  out,  either  to  look  after  the  rein-deer  that  is  lost,  or  to  attend  to  any  other  business, 
tney  tie  the  children,  who  by  reason  of  their  tender  age  cannot  follow,  for  their  better 
security,  in  the  cot,  lest  they  sliould  fall  into  some  miscliief  or  the  lire  when  left  to  them, 
selves.  When  going  over  the  mountains  I  usually  carried  with  me,  among  other  bag. 
gage,  a  trunk  in^e  fast  and  secured,  to  which  they  often  tied  the  children,  lest  they 
should  too  freely  run  up  and  down. 

There  is  no  use  made  of  stools  among  this  people ;  for  the  Laplander  sits  on  the  ground 
with  hb  feet  across  under  his  seat.  Should  he  happen  to  visit  other  inhabitants  of  Nor. 
wav,  in  whose  habitations  there  is  either  a  stool  or  benches,  he  refuses  to  fse  one  when 
o£fered  to  him,  thinking  he  can  sit  more  commodiously  on  the  bare  ground. 

The  Laplanders,  saluting  each  other,  rush  into  each  others  arms  in  mutual  saluta- 
tion, repeating  Buurist,  that  is,  God  save  you,  by  this  form  the  little  Laplanders  saluted 
me  also,  taking  me  for  a  native,  on  account  of  the  language  and  habit  of  Lapland,  which 
during  my  sresidence  among  them  I  always  used. 

The  Lapland  women  shave  their  heads  even  to  baldness.  They  kill  the  vermin  that 
infest  the  head  with  a  knife. 

Should  the  foot  or  arm  be  in  extreme  pab,  diey  bind  that  part  of  the  limb  where  the 
force  of  the  pain  principally  is  felt;  with  two  ligaments,  as  tight  as  they  cau<  and  apply 
to  it  a  burning  hot  coal,  under  a  persuasion  that  the  pain,  as  if  getting  an  opportunity  ^rom 
the  bursting  and  opening  of  the  flesh  byHhe  force  of  fire,  would  break  out  and  go  away. 

In  the  whole  tract  of  western  Finmark,  for  I  resided  there  for  a  whole  ten  years,  two 
horses  were  only  to  be  found,  one  oi'  wliich  belonged  to  Peter  And,  the  provincial 
juc^ ;  the  other  was  the  property  of  Cliristian  And,  prefect  of  merchandibe  in  the 
parisdi  of  Alten.  Hence  the  peasants  of  the  Norwegian  nation,  who  inhabit  this  tract, 
as  also  the  maritime  Laplanders,  are  compelled  of  themselves  to  discharge  the  labour  of 
horses,  by  carrying  hay  on  their  backs  in  summer,  in  winter  in  little  carts,  and  such 
tilings,  as  elsewhere  are  carried  by  horses.  The  condition  of  the  mountain  Laplanders 
is,  on  this  account,  the  more  desirable  as  abounding  in  rein-deer,  and  who  make  use  of 
doeir  assistance  for  their  own  purposes,  and  for  the  carrying  of  burthens.  And  on  ac« 
count  of  the  great  scarcity  of  horses,  all  over  the  part  of  this  country,  most  of  the 
inhalMtants  lode  with  astonisliment  at  this  animal,  as  they  do  at  any  thing  foreign  and 
irery  strange.  One  Matthias  Peterson  furnishes  an  instance  of  this :  he  was  a  mountain 
Laplander  from  Porsanger  Bay,  who,  as  he  told  me  himself,  came  to  And,  the  judge  of 
the  place,  for  the  purpose  of  adjusting  some  business ;  in  his  house  he  used  to  sleep, 
when  happening  one  night  to  come  out  from  his  bedroom,  he  unexpectedly  saw  a  horse 
Standing  at  die  door,  at  the  sight  of  virhich  he  was  as  terrified,  as  if  he  liad  seen  a  l\uge 
spectre :  he  hastily  returned  to  his  chamber,  where  he  :hut  himself  close  up,  after  well 
securing  the  door. 

.  And  as  it  is  well  known,  in  this  tract  d*  country  there  is  neither  sowing,  nor  h.arvest, 
so  does  it  necessarily  follow,  the  inhabitants  want  im  manure.  Hence  the  dung  that  is 
gathered  from  cows,  sheep,  goats,  as  being  in  itself  a  thin^  of  no  value,  they  usually  on 
uie  approach  of  summer  are  wont  to  burn.     But  certain  rusticb  of  Finland,  who  live  on 

VOL.  I.  3  m 


450 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LERMS. 


the  river  Alten,  accustomed  to  agriculture  at  home,  cultivate  a  few  acres  of  ground, 
whence  they  have,  on  some  years,  no  despicable  crop. 

It  is  the  custom  of  certain  Laplanders,  whose  condition  is  superior  to  the  rest,  to 
bury  their  wealth,  especially  money,  so  cautiously  in  the  ground,  that  their  heirs  should 
not  have  the  least  hope  of  enjoying  it.  That  these  people  should  do  so  I  am  not  sur- 
prised, if  having  no  lockers,  no  inclosures  to  secure  it,  and  where  in  safety,  and  without 
the  fear  of  thieves,  they  could  lay  up  what  treasures  they  have ;  but  for  the  maritime  Lap- 
lander, who  has  but  his  hut,  and  the  mountain  Laplander  but  his  cot,  which  he  puts  up 
and  takes  down  according  to  the  season,  I  confess  that  the  reason  altogether  escapes  me, 
why  at  the  hour  of  death  he  does  not  choose  to  tell  where  he  has  hidden  his  riches,  that 
the  heirs  should  convert  them  to  their  use  after  the  death  of  their  parents.  It  has  been 
related  that  a  certain  very  rich  Laplander,  of  the  name  of  Henry  Jonson,  living  in  Ozejok, 
being  asked  the  reason,  when  near  his  death,  why  he  so  studiously  concealed  his  riches, 
that  his  survivors  should  have  no  hope  of  finding  them  ?  his  answer  was,  that  unless 
he  did  so,  that  he  would  stand  in  need  of  the  necessary  means  of  supporting  himself  after 
death. 

They  suspend  dogs  for  the  purpose  of  killing  them  from  a  tree,  and  when  strangled, 
take  their  skins,  from  which,  if  they  are  black,  they  make  borders  and  fillets,  to  be  sewn 
on  garments  and  gloves. 

It  is  a  custom  with  the  Lapland  peasants  of  the  Finland  people,  some  of  whom  dwell 
on  the  river  Alten,  to  wash  themselves  often  vrith  warm  water,  and  to  sprinkle  themselves 
with  water  tinged  with  the  boughs  of  trees. 

And  this  is  enough  for  the  present  on  the  manners  of  the  nation.  To  those  who  wish 
to  know  more  on  this  subject,  I  refer  them  to  the  various  chapters  of  thb  book,  where 
these  things  are  expressly  treated  of. 


CHAP.  XVI....OF  THE  MARRIAGES  OF  THE  LAPLANJERS. 

IT  very  seldom  happens  that  a  young  man  of  the  Norwegian  provinces  marries  a  Lap- 
land young  woman,  and  a  young  Laplander  a  Norwegian  young  woman :  in  the  district 
I  have  been  mis^onavy  in,  this  never  happened  while  I  was  engaged  in  the  holy  office. 

The  Laplander,  when  going  to  pay  his  addresses  to  the  ^rl,  takes  certain  of  his  rela- 
tives united  in  the  next  degree  to  him,  one  of  whom  b  to  be  his  advocate  wirh  the  lady 
for  him :  the  lover  provides  for  himself  brandy,  to  drink  to  the  health  of  his  future 
spouse,  and  her  parents  and  friends ;  besides,  he  brings  a  small  present  for  the  lady 
herself,  which  is  a  silver  belt,  a  ring,  or  other  things  of  this  kind,  as  his  ability  can 
furnish.  When  they  come  to  the  house  in  which  the  lady  lives,  all  come  in  except  the 
lover,  who  stays  out  until  invited  in.  When  all  are  within,  the  advocate  of  the  young 
man  offers  a  cup  of  spirits  to  the  father,  which  if  he  refuses,  it  is  a  sign  that  he 
rejects  the  terms ;  but  if  he  accepts  it  and  drinks,  that  the  nuptial  condition  ih  not 
displeasing  to  him.  Then  the  above-named  advocate  drinks  to  the  health  not  only  of 
the  father  and  mother,  but  of  the  future  spouse,  and  her  friends  who  are  {ursent ;  whicli 
drinking  bout  goes  on  step  by  step,  with  a  request  of  courtship.  This  prelude  bein^ 
closed,  he  approaches  the  business  a  little  nearer,  and  courttt  her  under  the  bnape  of  a 
lover  conceahng  it  yet  from  the  eyes  of  t'  e  world ;  he  now  draws  out  his  long  formal 
phrases,  especially  those  of  the  finest  quality.  Some  time  after  the  lover  himself  is 
introduced,  and  placed  in  a  space  which  is  inside  the  door,  between  the  two  birchen 
stocks  that  lie  on  the  floor,  and  «^)f  which  we  made  mention  in  chapter  the  fifth.  If  he  ob- 
tains the  consent  of  the  girl,  and  of  her  parents  and  friends,  he  gives  the  present  which 


ACCOUNT  OF  UAMSII  LAPLAN'U  UY  LEEMS. 


451 


he  has  brought,  called  Gilhe,  to  her,  and  promises  new  clothes  to  her  parents  as  a  prc« 
sent,  which  the  Laplanders  call  Biejutas.  When  this  business  is  completed,  the  lover, 
bidding  good-bye,  dejxirts  with  his  friends.  All  these  ceremonies  in  the  business  of 
courtship,  as  described,  are  in  use,  though  not  always  everywhere,  and  by  all,  esjjecially 
ttt  this  day,  with  the  exception  of  o..  «  two  sometimes.  If  the  parents  have  betrothed 
their  daughter  to  a  lover,  but  afterwards  broke  their  faith,  they  must  make  good  the  ex- 
pfjnces  contracted  on  the  nuptials  as  far  as  they  proceede  J,  according  to  a  regulation 
among  the  Laplanders ;  so  that  not  only  he  should  receive  the  fortune  and  odd-money, 
but  the  cxpence  also  made  in  brandy  should  he  restored  to  him.  During  the  espousals 
between  two  who  have  pledged  their  mutual  faith  to  eacii  other,  yet  goiug  on,  the  bride 
vbits  sometimes  the  bridegroom  :  on  a  journey  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  meeting 
her,  he  delights  himself  by  singing  her  praises ;  to  this  purpose  he  throws  out  such  ex- 
pressions as  present  themselves  unpremeditated  to  his  thoughts,  and  such  as  his  poetic  vein 
may  furnish  to  him.  But  this  custom,  that  of  a  lover  visiting  his  mistress,  and  celebrat- 
ing her  in  song,  is  not  observed  at  this  day  by  all.  W^hen  they  have  met  at  the  appoint- 
ed place,  and  come  into  her  presence,  he  p.'esents  her  with  brandy,  and  a  little  tobacc ),  if 
agreeable  to  her :  she  is  clothed  in  that  neat  nuptial  garment,  usually  for  ornament, 
which  is  in  use  among  the  Lapland  women  on  festival  days,  with  this  only  exception, 
that  whilst  women,  miuried  as  well  as  unmarried,  at  other  times  almost  go  with  their 
head  covered,  she  only  wears  bare  curls  of  hair,  which  are  bound  up  with  party-coloured 
fillets ;  yet,  if  my  memory  does  iK)t  deceive  me,  in  certain  parts  of  Finmark  a  girl  on  the 
nuptial  days  wears  fillets,  between  which  and  the  common  fillets  that  bind  the  hair  of  the 
Lapland  women  then  is  no  diBerence.  When  the  nuptial  ceremony  is  finished,  the  wed- 
ding-day is  celebrated  with  fi'ugality  ;  the  nuptial  guests  of  better  fortunes  honour  the 
fair  bride  with  sot\ie  present,  some  with  mon  y,  others  with  rein-deer  skins,  and  such 
like  things.  The  nupuals  arc  thus  celebrated,  without  any  pomp  or  ostenta- 
tion. 

Among  the  people  of  Alten,  among  whom  I  discharged  the  duties  of  public  instructor, 
they  were  celebrated  in  the  following  manner :  when  the  union  was  completed,  the  bride- 
gnx>m  with  his  spouse,  and  a  few  of  his  relations,  withdrew  to  the  solicitor  of  Talvig, 
whose  house  was  adjoining  to  the  church,  where  (he  is  called  in  Norwegian  Bonde  Lehn- 
smand)  also  is  held  a  yeai  1/  meeting  of  the  juridical  assembly  by  the  governor.  Hither 
the  guests  being  invited,  were  received  at  a  nuptial  feast  prepared  at  the  expence  of  the 
husband.  The  dishes  that  were  prepared  were  few  and  simple,  namely,  roast  mutton, 
with  a  small  portion  of  water  and  honey,  which  when  taken,  the  new  married  pair  and  the 
guests  retired  to  their  own  houses.  I  myself,  by  invitation,  was  present  at  a  nuptial  en- 
tenainment  gaven  by  one  ci  these  Laplanders,  celebrating  the  nuptv^ls  of  his  son,  where 
there  were  no  delicacies,  nor  any  thing  laid  but  the  above-named  rishes.  The  sordid 
guest&,  accustomed  to  no  luxuiies,  were  so  satisfied  mth  the  bare  pottage  put  before 
tnem,  that  without  doubt  they  would  have  forgot  the  roast  meat,  had  not  the  father  of  the 
bride,  noticing  this,  called  out  loudly,  *  Roast  meat,  roast  meat !  put  it  before  us,*  and 
this  placed  belhre  them,  hu  himself  carved,  yet  in  such  a  manner,  as  openly  to  discover 
his  ignorance  in  the  art  of  cat  ving. 

The  nupdul  preparaUons  which  are  in  the  parish  of  Kielvig,  at  the  bay  of  Porsanger, 
in  western  Finniark,  are  vet  nrtore  simple  and  frugal.  After  the  usual  union,  the  married 
pair,  with  a  few  of  their  nieiids,  wllhdraw  to  certain  small  huts  scattered  in  the  field,  at 
no  great  distance  from  the  church  of  Kistrand,  to  eat  a  sheep  which  is  bronght  for  this 
purpose.  W^hen  this  to  cat  the  company  breaks  up,  and  the  inarried  pair  find  ttueir  friends 
return  straight  home.      '  ' 

3  u  2 


452 


AOCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEM8. 


From  the  nuptials  and  banquets  of  the  Laplanders  every  kind  of  entertainment,  the 
dance,  and  sports  of  such  a  kind,  incitements  to  ill,  unknown  to  these  people,  are  banish- 
ed :  and  hence  neither  morrice-dancers,  pipers,  nor  even  an  instrument  of  music,  is  to 
be  found  among  them. 

And  as  they  are  altogether  unacquainted  with  instrumental  music,  so  are  they  equally 
ignorant  of  vocal,  and  not  only  ignorant,  but  invincibly  so :  for  during  the  intervals  that 
I  had  Iciiiure  I  tried  their  docility,  which  afler  various  experiments  I  ^up.d  so  great,  and 
to  ispeak  as  really  is,  none  at  all,  that  they  were  incapable  of  learning  the  very  rudi- 
ments of  the  measures  of  the  psalms,  or  of  adapting  them  to  any  harmony.  The  cause 
of  this  evil  is  not  in  the  Luplandcrs  themselves,  but  is  inherent  in  the  very  character  and 
genius  of  their  language ;  for  the  Laplanders  bring  out  most  words,  and  each  syllable  of 
tne  word,  and  the  pauses,  with  the  acute  accent ;  and  hence,  it  happens  that  either  speak- 
ing or  singing  in  Norwegian,  they  encumber  all  the  words  and  syllables  of  their  speech 
with  one  and  the  same  accent,  and  thereby  utter  a  hissing  and  altogether  confused  sound. 
And  this  is  the  reason  that  the  modulation  of  the  Laplanders  is  more  like  to  an  indigested 
kind  of  clamour  or  howling,  than  to  any  thing  like  singing. 

When  the  nuptial  festival  is  over,  the  bridegroom  often  stays  with  his  father-in-law 
for  the  space  of  a  whole  year,  which  when  ended,  he  is  dismissed  with  his  wife,  to  find  n 
habitation.  Before  his  departure,  if  circumstances  admit  of  it,  he  presents  him  with 
rein-deer,  with  kettles,  with  pots,  furniture  for  beds,  and  other  domestic  utensils. 


CHAP.  XVn...-ON  THE  HOLIDAYS  AND  AMUSEMENTS  OF  THB  LAPLANDERS,  AND  VARIOUS 

STORIES,  PARTLY  ENTERTAINING,  YET  TRUE. 

TfTAT  festival-holidays,  as  they  are  called,  are  usually  instituted  and  kept  during  the 
NatUit}  of  the  Saviour,  die  Laplanders  are  altogether  ignorant. 

Some,  but  a  few,  among  them  play  at  cards,  and  that  very  seldom.  ' 

They  contend  among  each  other  who  can  most  exactiy  hit  a  mark.  They  maii:  the 
target,  on  a  white  ground,  with  a  black ;  on  a  black  ground,  with  a  white  spot.  He  who 
best  hits  the  mark  is  presented  with  money,  tobacco,  and  whatever  is  agreed  upon. 

They  play  at  ball  in  this  manner :  part  stand  on  this  side,  part  on  tliat  oppoiute  to 
them ;  then  one  on  one  side  lets  off  the  ball,  covered  with  leather  and  stuflfed  with  straw, 
cloth,  and  other  rags,  which  his  next  man  throws  up  in  the  air  with  a  stick  ot  battledore, 
and  then  one  from  the  opposite  number  springs  forward  to  catch  it  before  it  falls  to  the 
ground ;  when  at  the  very  same  time  he  who  struck  it  up  in  the  air  runs  to  the  opposite 
side,  to  take  the  place  of  him  who  came  from  it  to  catch  the  ball.  If  he  who  aimed  at  ihe 
ball  lays  hold  of  it,  and  with  it  shall  hit  him  who  is  striving  to  resume  hisplace  before  he 
has  reached  it,  he  is  the  conqueror.    .;'' 

A  certain  kind  of  amusement,  cafled  the  Goose  (Gaaae-spi!)  is  in  practice  among 
them.  On  a  tablet  are  drawn  certain  lines,  on  which  they  move  up  and  down  counters, 
to  the  number  of  thirteen,  to  designate  so  many  geese ;  one  of  these,  a  thief,  representing 
the  fox  lyinp  in  wail  for  the  geese  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  board.  In  this  game  there 
aie  two,  as  U  were,  champions  ready  for  fight :  the  one  leads  on  the  chess-man,  that  is, 
the  fox ;  the  other  manages  the  geese.  He  who  is  fox  does  every  thing  to  way-lay  and 
take  the  geese,  which  if  he  succeeds  in  he  comes  off  conqueror  ;  the  other,  who  under- 
takes to  defend  them,  stretches  the  whole  force  of  his  genius  to  avoid  cautiously  the 
snares  of  tlie  wily  fox,  and  when  the  enemy  is  on  tdl  sides  surrounded  by  the  geese,  and 
reduced  to  an  extremity,  he  carries  off  the  victory. 


11^"^ 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  UY  LEEMU. 


453 


As  a  pastime  this  exercise  is  received  among  them :  two  men  hold  a  stick  raised  above 
the  ground  no  great  distance,  a  third  on  a  stan  flies  up  to  tliem,  and  when  he  has  come 
as  near  as  posi>ible  to  tliem,  supported  on  the  staff',  he  springs  over  the  barrier. 

The  Laplanders  arc  great  wrestlers,  this  exercise  they  use  partly  for  amusement, 
partly  for  keeping  oft'  the  cold.  I  have  been  an  eye. witness  more  than  once  of  this  kind 
of  exercise,  especially  on  journeys  which  I  had  to  make  in  their  company  over  the 
mountains.  It  then  frequently  hai  i)ened  that,  when  the  rcin-deer  stopped  and  fed  on 
the  moss  that  grew  under  the  i,:iow,  their  drivers  in  amusement  would  repel  the  force  of 
the  cold  from  them  by  wrestling. 

Two  men  hold  a  rope  extended  on  two  sticks  at  a  small  distance  asunder ;  one  of 
these  holds  with  each  hand  on  one  side,  both  of  the  ends  of  the  one  stick;  the 
other,  on  the  other  side,  does  exactly  the  same.  Each  then  strives  with  his  whole  force 
to  take  the  stick  from  the  other,  and  that  he  should  the  m.ore  easily  master  his  wish, 
he  has  one  or  more  friends  at  hand  behind  him,  who  assist  him,  by  plying  their  shoulders 
to  his  exertions.  Whoever  of  these  twists  the  stick  from  the  other  carries  off  the  prize, 
and  yields  to  him  what  has  been  agreed  upon  between  them. 

They  put  two  sticks  into  a  ball  of  thread  and  lay  hold  of  them  when  in,  and  in  op- 
position to  each  other,  each  drags  with  all  his  might  to  himself,  until  the  ball  is  broken 
up  in  their  wrestling.  This  exen.ise,  which  they  call  Bolokiit  Kiaesset,  is  made  as  a 
trial  ofstren^,  to  ascertain  which  is  stronger  than  the  other. 

An  exercise  has  been  received  among  the  Laplanders,  that  two  men  standing 
opposite  to  each  other,  the  one  puttii^g  his  hand  on  the  girdle  of  the  other  in 
order  to  supplant  him,  should  try  their  strength.  He  that  oversets  tlie  other  is  the 
concxieror. 

Tne  young  men  play  by  throwing  sticks  with  amazbg  agility  from  hand  to  hand ;  this 
kbd  of  amusement  is  called  in  Lapland  Baettom. 

They  even  suS'er  themselves,  after  the  manner  of  rein-deer,  to  be  girt  and  driven  for 
amusement. 

Here  I  shall  ask  pardon  of  the  benevolent  reader  for  mentioning  certain  incidents  which 
befel  me  an^  others ;  these  are  of  no  ^eat  moment,  yet,  as  bemg  uncommon  and  not 
knowH)  I  shsUl  mention  them. 

I  paid  a  vbit  on  a  certain  time  to  the  clergyman  of  the  living  of  Koudekein,  John 
Junell.  That  venerable  man  received  me  with  all  imaginable  politeness,  laying  before  me 
what  he  had  at  hand,  namely,  broth  made  from  fresh  rein-deer,  fish  fresh  from  the 
river,  and,  what  ^ou  may  perhaps  be  surprised  at,  rein-deer  cheese,  boiled  whole  in  a 
pot,  sprinkled  with  much  sugar,  and  placed  on  a  plate  in  the  manner  of  a  tart  But 
of  this  clergyman  tMs  is  remarkable,  he  being  the  whole  summer  almost  destitute 
of  cattle ;  as  it  appears,  that  almost  all  the  Laplanders  who  make  up  that  church,  in  the 
parishes  t^  Skiervoe  and  Carlsoe,  situated  in  the  parts  of  Norland,  are  accustomed  to 
emig^te  in  thesummer  season  to  the  coasts. 

It  happened,  when  on  the  Chrismas-eve  I  was  lodged  in  a  certain  house  appointed 
for  receiving  the  dergj^man,  going  to  do  duty  on  the  next  festival  in  the  church  of 
Kistrand,  built  at  the  nrst  time  of  the  mission,  that  a  small  portion  of  fresh  milk  was 
given  me  as  a  present.  From  this  I  was  inclined  to  make  some  frumety,  but  was  ex- 
ceed'mgly  disappointed ;  for  the  cook  to  whom  I  had  given  this  in  charge  mingled  such 
a  quantity  of  s^t  in  this  gruel  for  me,  so  imprudenUy,  that  I  was  little  inclined  to  taste  it, 
much  less  to  eat  the  whole  of  the  mess.  The  man  did  it  in  the  simplicity  of  his  mind, 
but  he  was  attentive  even  to  a  fault  Mean  time  I  went  to  bed,  having  nothing  at  hand  to 
appease  a  hungry  appetite  with.       •   '^-^     ^"   -     .    :  ...  _^-^ 


■(jfT   71  i 


I 


454 


\CCOVNT  OP  DANISH  LAl'LAND  BY  LEF.^rS. 


During  the  whole  time  I  was  among  the  Laphuulers  it  always  was  a  duty  with  me, 
from  the  lestival  of  the  new  year  to  thattimeu  liich  is  l)etween  Lastcr  and  Whitsuntide, 
to  traverse  the  mountains  in  the  discharge  of  the  duty  of  a  preacher,  first  among  the 
mountain  Laplanders  of  Porsangcr  bay,  then  among  those  who  inhabit  Laxfiord  bay. 
When  I  performed  thistroublesome  journey,  and  was  prej)aring  to  descend  again  to  the 
bay  of  Laxfiord,  to  initiate  the  maritime  Laplanders  of  this  place  also,  it  happened,  that 
the  Laplander  I  first  came  to  (his  name  was  OlufF  Krichsen  Karsnes)  presented  mc 
with  a  small  port!  '  of  ow's  milk,  which  was  fresh,  from  which  I  had  a  mind  to 
make  a  ptisan,  to  i  k'd  into  two  equal  parts,  one  for  myself,  the  other  for  the 

host.     How  grca:  t  irc  was  for  it  may  be  inferred  from  my  not  either  seeing  or 

tasting  a  drop  of  new  milk  for  the  whole  of  the  winter.  But  since  in  this,  as  in  other 
huts,  the  sheep  occupied  a  small  place  for  themselves,  and  that  sheepfold  was  next  to 
me,  it  so  happened,  that  the  sheep,  allured  by  the  smell  of  the  fresh  milk,  jumped 
through  the  door,  which  the  Laplander's  wife  had  opened,  and  overturned  my  bowl 
of  drink.  The  host,  who  had  the  half  of  it,  had  that  politeness  that  he  wished  to  re- 
pair my  loss  by  kindly  giving  me  part  of  his  own,  which  1  refused  with  equal  polite- 
ness, knowing  that  ptisan  was  as  grateful  to  him  as  new  milk  was  to  me. 

When  going  a  joinney  over  the  mountains,  among  other  vessels  for  travelling,  I 
carried  with  me  a  liquor  case  filled  with  brandy,  with  this  intent,  that,  when  seized  with 
cold,  I  should  have  the  means  of  restoration.  But  neither  did  this  succeed  to  my  wishes. 
For,  when  walking  out  in  the  wood,  not  far  from  the  cot,  the  wife  of  the  Laplander 
where  I  resided  went  out  to  fetch  some  calf-skins  from  the  storehouse  near  the  cot. 
It  so  happened,  that,  whilst  she  was  taking  down  the  skins,  the  liquor  case,  which  lay 
upon  them,  fell  to  the  ground  and  was  broke  in  pieces  ;  the  brandy  also  all  flowed  out 
on  the  snow.  The  master  of  the  cot,  by  name  Juks  Anodsten,  on  scenting  the  brandy, 
eagerly  fled  to  it,  and,  sucking  up  the  very  snow  which  had  absorbed  the  liquor,  drank 
till  he  was  even  drunk.  On  my  return  from  the  wood,  I  found  him  in  a  state  of  in- 
ebriation, which  excited  in  me  the  greater  wonder,  as  I  knew  the  great  penury  or  scar- 
city of  brandy  orany  strong  drink  that  was  inthisdesart.  I  felt  uneasy  too,  as  theking's 
mandate  had  forbidden,  under  severe  penalties^  the  giving  a  drop  of  strong  intoxicat- 
ing liquor  to  any  Laplander  whatever.  The  Laplander  then  ingenuously  confessed 
the  fact  to  me  on  my  coming  home,  in  the  following  words  :  Odne  ednak  vahag  lae  shi- 
addam ;  that  is,  a  great  misfortune  has  happened  this  day  !  At  which  I  was  much 
moved,  fearing  lest  some  ill  had  befallen  his  family  ;  but,  informed  of  the  misfortune, 
the  weight  of  which  he  had  so  aggravated  with  words,  I  collected  myself,  having 
little  regard  for  the  liquor  case,  which  I  never  had  before  nor  afterwards  on  my  jour- 
ney. The  whole  time  I  was  among  the  Laplanders  I  drank  nothing  but  cold  water, 
which  was  more  grateful  and  delicious  to  me  than  any  wine  or  any  other  liquor  what- 
ever. And  whenever  among  the  clergy,  or  men  of  better  condition  in  life,  where  beer 
was  drunk,  I  found  the  thirst  was  rather  excited  than  quenched  by  it,  certainly  that  it 
could  not  be  allayed  without  water  from  the  spring.  But  now  for  my  host,  who,  as  he 
was  a  man  in  good  circumstances,  so  was  he  also  a  man  of  courtesy,  and  made  me  a 
full  restitution  of  almost  the  whole  I  had  lost. 

A  certain  merchant  of  Bergen,  by  name  Daniel  Ravnsberg,  of  the  society  who  pur- 
chased the  Finmark  trade  from  the  king,  came  into  Finmark  while  I  was  discharging 
the  duties  of  my  mission  there,  in  order  to  attend  to  some  business  he  had  the  dispatch 
of.  I  travelled  with  hhn  from  Porsanger  bay,  where  he  had  some  little  delay.  On  the 
voyage  the  seamen  killed  an  otter,  and  made  for  shore  as  usual  to  dress  it.  When 
dressed,  andeat  up  greedily  in  our  presence,  Ravnsberg  asked  ataste  of  the  boiled  part, 


\ 


»', 


ACCOUNT  OP  F)ANISII  LAPLAND  nV  LKEM8. 


455 


which  had  so  much  recommended  itself  by  its  whiteness.  When  he  had  tasted  it,  and 
found  no  illness  from  it,  following  the  example  of  my  associate,  I  ate  likewise  myself  u 
small  part  without  the  least  injury,  and  found  the  flesh  of  this  uninuil,  with  the  excei)tion 
of  the  fishy  flavour,  sufficiently  delicate. 

A  certain  Laplander  resided  at  Porsanger  hay,  by  name  Simon  Kbcs,  so  notorious 
for  magic,  his  fame  is  yet  among  his  countrymen,  and  will  endure,  I  think,  for  ever. 
His  son  Simon  Peter  was  in  the  family  of  the  illustrious  Knagenhielm,  counsellor  of 
state,  and  judge  of  the  territory  of  Bergen.  This  Simon  had  once  come  into  the  village 
of  Kielvig,  wnich  the  governor  of  western  Finmak,  Trude  Nitter,  then  presided  over. 
The  governor  was  then  drinking  a  cup  of  tea,  but  handed  to  his  guest  one  min< 
gled  with  much  salt  in  the  place  of  sugar,  which  he  politely  received,  and  artfully  con- 
cealing his  indignation  withdrew.  Aiier  some  time  the  governor  came  accidental!}' 
to  the  house  of  the  said  Laplander.  And  as  in  that  part  of  the  country  where  our 
Simon  lived  there  grew  no  small  quantity  of  Norwegi  »  blackberries,  the  governor 
asked  for  a  quantity  of  the  berries,  if  convenient  to  nim.  The  Laplander  obeyed, 
bringing  the  berries  respectfully,  but  sprinkled  with  such  a  quantity  of  salt,  as  to  yield 
a  most  ungrateful  taste.  The  governor,  on  tasting  the  berries,  disgusting,  from  their 
bad  taste,  reproved  the  Laplander  in  severe  terms,  reproaching  him  seriously,  that  the 
berries,  good  of  themselves,  were  s))oilcd  by  his  sprinkling  them  with  two  much  salt, 
by  which  they  had  lost  their  natural  flavour.  The  Laplander's  excuse  was  smart, 
that  he  thought  his  highness  must  be  exceedingly  fond  of  saltness,  as  he  hud  put  into 
the  tea  which  he  had  given  him  to  drink  such  an  abundance  of  salt,  in  the  place  of 
sugar. 

Another  Laplander  of  the  same  place  was  asked,  by  way  of  joke,  by  a  sailor  of  Ber- 
cen,  whether  he  could  let  out  the  hell  fly,  or  play  such  other  hellish  tricks,  answered 
that  he  would  immediately.  He  no  sooner  said  so,  than  he  brandished  a  burning 
log  of  wood,  snatched  from  the  fire,  all  ovi  i  (In  litaiHe  in  which  they  were,  running 
up  and  down  like  a  maniac;  that  die  sailor,  ff.iiliig  Itif  in  whould  be  burnt  from 
the  sparks,  fled  instantly  with  his  friends,  ceasing  t(j  tcaze  the  Lapkinder  any  fur- 
That  the  LapHidcrs  are  easily  alarmf-d  and  M  "Ifi'^'t,  Ofl  ine  ajjpreriension  of  danger 
or  war,  the  following  is  an  instance.  At  llir  Inij  id  ),f)K(lui(l  H  a  place  called  Laes- 
besby.  A  Laplander's  wife  who  lives  then  iVilii  Kill  fiiiu  day  to  bring  home  her 
sheep  who  were  at  pastijre.  It  li<||ij|' /I' d  on  thnf  (In  there  was  a  great  fall  of  snow 
that  covered  the  face  of  things,  so  that  tin-  wniriHIl  •  f  '  '  '"H  ^^li'^tinf^uish  one  object 
from  another,  and  took  the  parts  of  the  fp^H  Miat  i  I         h  for  men;  and 

as  it  is  the  nature  of  persons  in  feai,  II  '  (mk      ,  what  they  most 

dread,  she  fancied  that  these  men  moved  auU  taiiu.  n.  >  i;-.  Uu:  Seduced  by  these 
phantoms  and  out  of  her  senses,  she  had  no  |ongei diHilit  but  (hey  were  Russians  com- 
mg  on  for  plunder  and  booty.  Without  a  nirilhejM's  <1(  lay  she  returned  home,  and  filled 
all  places  with  terror.  Credit  was  given  to  her  rcMHii  I  Tnei-e  happened  at  this  very  time 
to  be  no  small  number  of  persons  aSHcmbled,  for  tin  jjiii  pose  of  divine  worship.  On  this 
sorrowful  news,  all  are  armed  for  (|i  ft  nee  j  fires  iiK  lighted  up  through  the  pLiins ;  guns 
let  off,  and  yells  raised,  that  the  enemy,  deceived  by  signs  such  as  these  that  conveyed 
the  idea  of  numbers,  should  in  alarm  run  off.  At  the  approach  of  night  three  young 
men  were  dispatched  as  scouts,  to  explore  and  report  ;  these  delaying  beyond  the  usud 
time  are  succeeded  by  three  others,  who  return  and  report  that  the  enemy  is  coming 
up.  In  this  general  trepidation  each  prepares  for  fight.  One  from  this  brave  cohort 
snatches  up,  for  his  gloves,  which  the  pinching  cold  and  the  ardour  of  the  action 


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45G 


ACCOUNT  OV  UAM8II  LAPLAND  BY  LKEMS. 


sermed,  forsooth,  to  require,  a  pair  of  breeches,  which  lay  in  his  way.  And  now  the 
whole  is  drawn  out,  some  armed  with  mubkcts,  othcrii  with  hutchetii,  and  .some  had 
bills.  A  woman  of  the  troop  1  conversed  with  on  this  imaginary  fray,  had  a  child  on 
one  arm,  and  a  bill  hook  in  the  other.  And  as  the  numbers  thickened  through  con- 
stematiun,  ignorant  of  the  way,  and  confuted  by  the  darkness  of  the  night,  on  their 
march  they  mistook  the  path,  and  fell,  fortunately  without  any  harm,  into  a  pit-fall,  and 
when  extricated  by  the  next  morning  exhibited  a  striking  and  ridiculous  spectacle  of  the 
effects  of  fear  on  the  imagination. 

A  Laplander  of  Alten  in  western  F  inmark,  whose  name  was  Peter  Nelson,  wagered 
with  a  s;ulor  of  Bergen,  that  he  would  hit  with  a  grooved  gun,  standing  in  the  hatches  of 
the  vessel,  the  top  of  the  mast  with  exactness  ;  and  performed  his  engagement. 

CHAP.  XVIII ON  THE  DISEASES  AND  DK ATHS  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THE  small  pox,  a  terrible  and  contagious  kind  of  disease,  is  seldom  in  Finmark,  and 
scarcely  once  makes  its  attack  within  thirty  or  forty  years.  Some  years  back  this  dis* 
order  raged  in  these  countries  with  such  malignity,  as  to  carry  oflf  an  incalculable  num- 
ber of  every  age  and  sex.  A  young  Scotchman  brought  it  to  Bergen,  whence,  the  con- 
tagion  spreading  extensively,  as  it  usually  does,  scattered  itself  about  in  all  quarters,  and 
tainted  with  its  venom  certain  persons,  residing  at  Bergen  on  business,  during  the  sum- 
mer, from  the  extremity  of  Nordland.  But  from  the  nature  and  eflects  of  this  disease, 
epidemically  spreading  itself,  we  may  know  in  part,  and  estimate  the  inscrutible  ways  and 
methods  by  which  the  Divine  justice  proceeds  to  vindicate  itself.  And  as  it  is  cus- 
tomary among  the  Norwegian  peasants,  to  count  their  years  from  the  last  war  between 
the  Danes  and  Swedes,  so  are  the  Laplanders  accustomed  to  count  from  the  time  of  this 
raging  malady,  reckoning  in  this  maimer  usually  :  "  I  am  so  many  years  of  age  from  the 
last  visitation  of  the  smallpox." 

The  Laplanders  are  afflicted  at  times  with  the  head-ache,  and  a  few  other  common 
Ulnesses ;  in  other  respects,  they  are  a  sound  and  robust  people. 

They  get  rid  of  internal  diseases,  as  they  call  them,  by  drinking  seal's  blood,  yet  tepid, 
or  the  blcod  of  the  rein-deer.  They  cure  the  tooth-ache,  elsewhere  a  nwst  sharp  and 
almost  incurable  pain,  in  like  manner  by  a  draught  of  seal's  blood.  Formerly,  and  in 
timesof  ignorance,  they  thought  of  no  remedy  against  this  more  immediate  than  the  rub- 
bing the  teeth  with  a  stake  from  a  tree  struck  with  lightning.  Besides  an  unusual 
species  of  tooth-ache  prevails  among  the  Laplanders,  if  you  look  especially  to  the  cause 
of  it  arising  from  the  bite  of  a  certain  kind  of  worm  of  a  yellowish  colour,  with  a  black 
head,  as  large  as  a  grain  of  barley,  which  gets  into  the  teeth  of  the  Laplanders,  and  gnaws 
them  with  the  acutest  pain. 

They  usually  cure  tne  eyes,  darkened  by  a  film  drawn  over  them,  by  putting  in  a 
small  vermin,  the  louse,  to  eat  through  the  membrane  by  its  subtle  t  ibbing.  Delicacy 
would  have  prevented  my  mentioning  this  kind  of  cure,  but  as  it  is.  so  uncommon  and 
unusual,  that  it  may  be  sought  for  in  vain  among  the  medical  tribe,  you  will  indulge 
me  in  the  bare  mentioning  it.  For  a  kibe  on  the  heel,  and  other  ills  contracted  from 
extreme  cold,  they  use  oil  of  rein-deer,  with  which  they  rub  over  the  part  aifected. 
They  soften  the  sores  of  wounds  by  gum  from  the  fir-tree.  I  have  known  some  Lap- 
landers, who,  on  fracturing  a  limb,  before  they  would  restore  the  limb,  put  out  of 
Joint  and  bruised,  by  bandaging  it  up  when  set  right,  to  have  drunk  silver,  or  if  they 
had  none,  brass  when  pulverised,  affirming  solemnly  that  they  had  received  iio  small 
relief  from  the  use  of  this  potable  metal. 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANtSfl  LAPLAND  RY  LBBM&.  45^ 

How  they  expel  pain  from  the  foot  or  arm,  by  the  meun^  of  a  hot  hurnin^;  application, 
ban  been  shewn  before. 

The  nerve  which  is  extended  throngh  the  hinder  feet  of  the  rein-deer  to  the  \uyofs, 
serves  foi  the  mi rpotic  of  binding  up  the  iKrvrs  and  olhtr  pajts  bruisted,  and  put  out 
of  joint,  and  ol  restoring  them  to  their  former  state  and  i><ucc,  with  thi«  ditfercnce,  thai 
those  of  the  female  serve  for  the  men,  those  of  the  male  lor  the  women. 

Tlie  b'xiy  ul'  a  Laplander,  when  dead,  is  placed  naked  on  a  bier  on  sonie  tthavingh. 
The  funeral,  conducted  with  little  ceremony,  accompanied  by  a  very  few  of  his  friendit, 
is  conducted  to  the  place  of  interment.  The  surviving  relatives,  if  in  circumstances,  re- 
ceive the  .utendants  at  a  supjier  served  up  in  the  simplest  munner,  the  whoU"  <  onsisting 
of  a  snuU  iX)rtion  of  water  and  honey,  8cc.  It  was  ol  old  a  custom  in  this  country,  that 
those  who  were  distinguished  l<>r  their  skill  in  the  bow,  or  the  gun,  sl\uuld  Ur  buried  in 
places  coiAsecxated  to  me  worship  of  their  idoi^,  otiKrs  l)eing  interred  in  the  wild  ways, 
and  such  ignoble  places*.  The  sepulchre  itself  had  no  other  ornament  than  a  connnon 
sledge,  called  in  Lapland  Kierres,  in  tin*  place  of  a  monument.  It  was  a  cuMom  too 
in  time  past,  to  lay  on  the  body  the  outward  biu-k  ol'  the  birch-tree,  which  the  Norwc- 
gians  call,  Naever,  and  use  in  the  place  of  laths,  covered  with  heaps  of  stones  gathered 
and  raised  up  for  this  purpose.  The  tomb  itself,  adiipted  to  the  body,  con<iihted  of 
smooth  and  oblong  stones,  raised  and  put  in  order  on  each  side,  with  a  top  and  bottom 
made  of  stones  of  the  same  sort  and  form,  and  not  unlike  altt^ethcr  the  common  biers 
in  use  among  us.  In  the  funenils  of  the  rustic  Laplanders  inhabiting  Finmark  Proper 
this  singular  custom  is  observed,  that  the  end  of  die  sepulclu-ai  linen,  while  the  procession 
is  moving,  for  greater  solemnity  and  ornament,  projects  a  litUe  from  the  bier. 

Among  the  manners  peculiar  to  tliis  people  it  is  here  deserving  of  notice,  that  the 
Laplanders  usually  make  a  present  to  their  children,  when  born,  of  a  female  rein-deer, 
commonly  called  Simle,  on  the  condition,  that  the  boy  should  possess  it  with  all  its  pro. 
geny,  in  future,  anH  thereby  liecome  in  prf)ces8  d'time  the  lord  of  no  small  herd.  When 
either  part^nt  dies  *he  boy  d^n^nds,  receivs,  and  retains  as  his  legitimate  possessioHi 
due  to  him  by  jusi  .  de,  the  sinri  animal  with  all  its  produce,  separated  from  the  [)iuliuon 
4f  the  efiects  that  mav  be  made  by  the  other  lu  'ts  or  the  effects  of  the  deceased. 

CHAP.  XiX....OF  THE  GODS  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS.  . 

THE  Laplanders  formerly  fashioned  to  themiselves  various  gods,  inhabitants  of  the 
mountains,  lakes,  and  other  places ;  whence  their  frequent  forms  of  exclamation  and 
ejaculation,  as  Gedgr  Olmuthz,  Passe -Gedge  Vaekkiet,  that  is,  O  man  of  stone,  O  holy 
stone,  assist  me  I  conture  lhc«  !  also  Vaekkiet  buorre ,  Passe  Vaerre,  dato  Mudngij  dal 
haette  bodi !  that  is,  holy  and  good  mountain,  assist  me  in  my  affliction,  and  other  nu- 
merous  appellations,  by  which  they  invoke  their  gods,  in  mind  and  manner  altogether 
heathen.  And  as  they  believe  their  gods  could  be  appeased  with  sacrifices  in  those 
places  •  ;^  re  they  presided,  they  frequently  sacrificed  to  them  after  the  manner  of  their 
oouj.'try.     3ut  this  subject  will  be  treated  of  more  diflfusedly  in  the  following  chapter. 

Tiu".  acv  junt  c^an  uncertain  author,  not  long  since  fell  into  my  hands  hich,  as  contain- 
ing a  hlst>;ry  of  some  of  the  gods  of  this  nadon,  I  shall  transcribe  at  lar^^c  for  the  reader. 

A  SHORT  RELATION  OF  THE  IDOLS  OF  THE  PAGAN  LAPLANDERS,  AND  Tn  'IR  IDOLATRY 

The  Laplanders  fancied  for  themselves  gods  residing  in  various  pkces.         '     • 
1.  They  placed  some  in  the  heavens,  aixl  in  the  siderial  sky. 


VOL.  f* 


an 


■'i 


\ 


418 


ACCOimT  or  uanuii  lapland  nv  lkkmi 


3.  Others  in  the  louir  n'^ion  of  the  air. 

3.  OthcTH  were,  in  their  opinion,  terrestrial. 

4.  Othcm  subterranean,  yet  not  very  far  under  f^ouncl. 

5.  OthiTH  had  their  habitations  in  the  very  Ixjweh  of  the  earth. 

or  the  Ktxis  inhabiting  thr  starry  mansions  the  greatest  is  Hadicn;  yet  it  is  uncertain, 
whether  he  is  over  every  |);irt  of  the  sidereal  sky,  or  whether  he  governs  only  some  part 
of  it.  He  this  as  it  may,  I  hhall  Ik:  bold  to  afnrm,  that  the  Laplanders  never  compre. 
hetuled,  under  the  name  of  this  false  god,  the  true  Ciod  ;  whieh  is  obvious  from  this,  that 
some  have  not  sernpkd  to  put  the  image  or  likeness  of  the  tr\ie  God  by  the  side  of  their 
Hadien,  un  Ktmic  bQxes.  '1  his  Hadien,  when  cspeeially  he  is  characterized  by  the  name  of 
the  Zhioanrve- Hadien,  is  invoked  for  the  prosperity  of  household  affairs,  for  the  increase 
and  the  protection  of  the  herds  of  rein-deer.  The  business  of  this  false  god  was  to 
inspire  a  soul  into  the  fuutus  while  fornung  in  the  womb,  which  they  feign  Maderakko, 
receiving  from  Hadien,  gave  to  his  daughter  Sarakku,  whose  duty  it  was  to  fit  the  body 
to  it,  whence  is  produced,  as  it  were,  a  perfect  fu'tus.  The  same  Ridicn  receives  the 
dead  to  him,  ai\er  they  have  been  some  time  in  the  regions  below ;  but  those  who  for  a 
bad  life  in  this  world,  and  therefore  hateful  to  the  gods,  are  cost  down  into  the  region 
of  torture,  a  place  in  the  depths  of  the  earth,  foul  and  squalid,  never  return  to  the  happy 
mansions  of  Hadicn,  damned  to  eternal  imprisonment  in  the  region  of  torture,  or  of 

PllllO. 

Huona-Nieid  holds  the  next  honours  to  Hadien  in  the  starry  sky,  a  god,  if  you 
believe  the  Pagan  Laplanders,  distinguished  for  virtue  and  power,  the  president  and 
keeper  of  the  mountains,  when  blooming  in  the  spring,  and  producing  fresh  herbage  for 
the  rein-deer.  To  him  they  oifer  sacrifices  in  the  beginning  of  the  spring,  that  their 
rein-deer  may  be  the  sooner  led  out  into  the  fresh  pastures. 

The  gods  who  hiivc  got  mansions  in  the  lower  regions  of  the  air  follow  in  order. 

1.  fieive,  or  the  sun;  for  the  Laplanders  hold  the  sun  for  a  god,  who  with  his  light 
cheers  the  world,  makes  it  fertile,  and  full  of  grass  for  pasturage  for  the  rein-deer. 
They  are  employed  in  rendering  him  propitious  to  them,  by  sacrificing  to  him  on  the  eve 
of  St.  John  the  Baptist ;  that,  as  a  Phoebus,  he  may  frequently  and  cheerfully  scatter  his 
light.  Sacrifices  are  offered  to  him  on  account  of  the  various  ills  they  are  afflicted 
With,  particuliirly  the  inflammation  of  the  brain. 

2.  Horangalis,  or  thunder.  Him  the  Laplanders  dread,  as  a  god  inclined  to  \vrath 
beyond  their  conception,  striking  not  only  mountain  tops  and  trees,  but  men  also,  and 
cattle.     To  divert  his  wrath  from  tliem,  they  endeavour  to  appease  him  by  sacrifices. 

3.  Gisen-Olmai. 

4.  Bieg-Olmai,  the  god  of  rain,  the  ocean,  and  of  winds,  whom  they  worship  as  the 
subduer  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  winds. 

5.  6,  7.  Three  Ailekes  Olmak,  in  whose  honour  the  days  of  the  week,  Friday  and 
Sunday,  are  consecrated ;  though  there  are  among  the  Laplanders,  who  think  some- 
what different  on  this  part  of  theology,  and  contend  that  Friday  is  dedicated  to  Sarakka, 
Saturday  to  Hadien,  and  Sunday  to  the  three  Ailekes-Olmak,  of  whom  mention  is  made 
here.  They  add  besides,  that  should  they  happu  to  violate  these  said  days  by  profane 
labour,  that  they  instanUy  appease  their  deities  bj  sacrifice. 

Of  their  terrestrial  gods  the  principal  are,  Leib-Omai,  who  is  worshipped  as  the 
god  of  hunting,  and  to  that  intent,  that  he  should  deig^  to  favour  the  use  of  guns  and 
arrows  in  the  exercise  of  them.  And  £is  it  was  usual  with  (.he  Laplanders  to  venerate 
their  gods  at  sacrifice,  with  prayer  and  genuflexion,  so  is  the  same  ceremony  used 
morning  and  evening  with  the  greatest  religion  in  the  veneration  of  this  idol.     There 


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^■v 


ACCOUNT  OF  DAN'I6I1  LAl'LAND  BY  LEEMS. 


459 


is  also  and  ode  usually  recited  on  his  anniversary.     Kiose-Olmai  is  the  god  of  fishing, 
who,  to  favour  a  fortunate  and  happy  capture  offish,  re  .eives  divine  honours. 

Maderakko  with  her  three  daughters  is  the  goddess,  who  brings  succours  to  females  : 
her  they  endeavour  to  render  propitious  by  religious  worship,  that  she  may  permit  her 
three  daughters  to  succour  women  when  the  occasion  calls  for  it.  Some  contend  that  she 
herself  gives  the  assistance  ;  others  deny,  and  say  she  does  it  by  promoting  the  endea- 
yours  and  labours  of  her  daughters. 

The  eldest  of  the  daughters  of  the  goddess  Maderakko  is  called  Sarakka;  this  is  she 
who  prepares  the  body  for  the  foetus  in  the  womb  of  its  mother,  when  Radien  has  let 
down  the  spirit  or  soul  from  Heaven,  as  just  mentioned :  she  is  believed  to  be  the  assist- 
ant of  women  in  labour,  and  is  sorely  anected  by  their  pains  as  the  woman  herself.  Tliat 
irreligious  and  abominable  sacrifice,  before  the  use  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  introduced, 
is  said  to  be  instituted  in  honour  of  this  goddess  ;  and  since  the  preparation  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  embryo  in  the  womb  is  ascribed  to  her,  the  body  and  blood  of  Sarakku 
is  said  to  be  eaten  and  drunk,  horrid  to  relate,  in  the  false  sacrament.  Others  contend  that 
in  the  said  sacrament  that  the  body  of  Leib  Olmai  is  eaten,  but  that  the  blood  of  Sarakka 
is  drunk ;  but  in  so  asserting  they  commit  a  manifest  error,  in  a  matter  in  every  other 
respect  foul  and  full  of  blasphemy,  in  cop.founding  Leib  Olmai  with  Radien,  to  whom,  as 
contributing  to  the  foetus  in  its  formation  a  spirit,  this  honour,  such  as  it  is,  is  due ; 
whereas  Leib  Olmai  contributes  not  all  to  the  formation  of  man.  And  so  it  is,  or  as  it 
is  manifest  itself  from  this,  that  there  are  Laplanders  who  confess  that  they  have  eaten  the 
body  of  Radien,  and  drunk  of  the  blood  of  Sarakka,  in  this  abominable  rite.  But  this 
goddess  is  most  religiously  worshipped  by  both  sexes,  chiefly  by  the  women,  and  espe- 
cially when  in  labour,  who,  in  order  to  obtain  an  easy  delivery,  often  drink  to  her  honour 
a  cup  of  brandy,  and  offer,  in  the  hope  and  wish  of  an  easy  and  happy  delivery,  a  libation 
of  meal,  water,  and  honei . 

The  next  in  order  of  the  daughters  of  Maderakko  is  railed  Juks-Akka,  the  goddess 
in  whose  power  it  lay  to  convert  the  female  in  the  womb  into  the  male  offspring.  This 
goddess  they  strive  to  bind  by  sacrifices  to  her,  because  they  prefer  a  male  to  a  female 
child,  by  reason  of  their  life  occupied  so  much  in  fishing  and  hunting,  to  which  they  arc 
addicted,  and  for  the  exercise  of  which  the  males  are  preferable  to  the  females. 

They  call  the  third  daughter  of  this  goddess  Ux-Akka.  She  undertakes  the  care  of 
new-bom  infants,  cherishes  them,  and  protects  them  from  all  those  accidents  to  which  that 
tender  age  b  exposed.  She  attends  to  the  monthly  ills  of  the  sex,  that  they  should  return 
in  good  time,  and  cease  also,  on  account  of  which  she  is  religiously  worshipped. 

To  this  class  belong  also  those  named  Saivo-Olmak,  or  mountain  gods,  who  assist  all 
and  every  one  requiring  their  assistance,  or  are  addicted  to  those  chiefly  who  buy  them 
for  a  consideration  from  other  Noaaids,  that  is,  magicians,  or  procure  them  by  a  certain 
singular  skill  of  the  Noaaids,  that  is,  ma^c  art.  These  are  said  to  give  responses  to  such 
as  consult  Saivo  Olmak,  which  the  Laplanders  contend  lo  be  done  in  various  way  s ;  by 
visions  in  sleep ;  by  Myran,  on  Runic  tabors ;  on  a  girdle  in  a  gun ;  on  stones,  on  hor- 
ses' bones,  &c.  When  the  ma^cian  is  exercising  his  art  that  he  might  get  some  Saivo 
Olmaik,  as  a  tutelary  god  with  him,  he  refreshes  himself  with  a  draught  Saivo-Zhiaze,  that 
is,  of  mountain  water,  as  a  recruit  of  strength,  which  he  repeats  by  intervals,  especially 
when  he  has  to  enter  into  a  trial  of  the  pre-eminence  of  strength  with  other  magicians. 
In  this  contest  these  ma^cians  commit  Uieir  Saivo-Sarva  (by  which  is  understooid  male 
rein-deer)  to  fight.  The  same  issue  as  attends  these  attends  their  masters :  so  that  if 
the  rein-deer  should  lose  his  horn  in  the  contest,  the  master  of  him,  by  a  kind  of 
sympathy,  begins  to  get  ill  and  languish.  •  .'      .   > 

3  N  2 


/■ 


460 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEBMS. 


The  Saivo-Lodde,  or  mountain  bird,  is  numbered  with  them :  its  office  is  to  shew  the 
way  to  a  magician  while  journeying.  The  Laplanders  say  that  this  bird  is  frequently 
sent  out  by  a  rival  and  revengeful  magician,  to  the  destruction  of  magicians  and  other 
men. 

There  is  also  a  certain  Saivo-Guelle,  by  which  is  understood  a  mountain  fish,  destined 
for  preserving  the  life  of  a  magician  when  goin^  to  depart  into  Jabme- Aibmo,  or  the  land 
of  the  dctid,  and  thence  to  bnng  back,  the  spirit  of  the  man  sick  to  death ;  for  an  opi> 
nion  prevailed  among  the  Laplanders  formerly  that  the  spirit  of  sick  men,  leaving  the  sick 
body  on  earth,  passed  to  the  land  of  the  dead,  and  that  the  body  would  quickly  hasten  af. 
ter  it,  unless  the  spirit,  by  the  aid  of  a  magician,  was  brought  back  in  good  time.  From 
this  jocular,  and  at  the  same  time  absurd  opinion,  the  ceremonies  for  bringing 
back  souls  from  Jabme-Aibmo  into  the  body,  made  to  the  gods,  drew  their  ori- 
gin. 

They  even  fabulously  create  a  certain  Namma*Guelle,  or  naming  fish.  They  feign 
that  very  few  can  have  this,  unless  on  the  second  baptism  of  the  infant.  Mention  being 
made  of  a  mode  of  anabaptism,  it  is  proper  to  poin'  out  in  a  few  words  that  that  species 
of  baptism,  which  was  formerly  among  the  Pagan  Laplanders,  was  wicked  and  diabolical; 
that  it  was  a  baptism  often  reiterated,  and  that  as  often  as  a  man  fell  into  any  dire  illness, 
that  he  assumed  a  name  different  from  the  one  he  had  hitherto  used ;  and  that  it  was 
performed  by  the  sprinkling  of  water,  and  in  this  solem  i  form :  "  I  baptise  thee  in  the 
name  N.  N.  ir.  which  henceforth  prosper."  This  newly  acquired  name,  the  former  be- 
ing abolished,  was  the  consequence  of  this  anabaptism,  and  is  altogether  idolatrous,  being 
derived  from  the  grandfather  or  great-grandfather  of  him,  who  happened  to  have  the  luck 
of  a  naming  fish  in  his  family. 

Those  of  the  subterranean  deities,  who  do  not  live  deep  in  the  earth,  are  believed  to  in- 
habit the  region  of  Jabme.  Aibmo,  where  Jabme- Akko,  or  the  mother  of  death,  holds  her 
empire.  Those  who  descend  to  this  region  hold,  wh.*n  dead,  the  same  degree  of  dignity, 
which,  when  living,  they  held  in  this  life,  clothed  in  a  new  body,  in  the  place  (h  that 
which  perished  in  the  grave.  To  these  deities  sacrifices  are  fivquently  made  for  the  life 
and  safety  of  man ;  and  that  the  more  religiously,  as  the  Laplanders  are  thoroughly  per. 
suaded  that  Jabme- Akka,  as  well  as  the  names,  are  incited  by  a  strong  desire  of  summon- 
ing and  dragging  daily  to  their  abodes  living  mortab ;  and  that  nothing  is  more  grateful 
to  the  dead  themselves,  than  to  see  some  of  their  relations  and  children  associated  with 
them  in  these  very  manhions. 

Rota-Aiumo,  or  the  region  of  torture,  is  feigned  to  be  th6  seats  of  the  gods  residing 
in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  Into  this  hell  are  thrust  down  all  those  who  have  led  a  life 
impious,  wicked,  and  hateful  to  the  gods,  deprived  of  all  possible  hope  of  ever  coming 
to  the  happy  mansions  of  Radien*  This  is  the  mansion  of  torture  or  pain,  of  that 
false  god  to  whom  the  Laplanders  address  their  prayers,  when  in  vain  they  have  called 
others  to  their  aid.  The  Laplanders  fable  that  thb  Rota,  or  god  of  torture,  o^  whom 
we  are  discoursing,  infests  men  as  weli,as  cattle  frequently  with  diseases,  and  that  the  ma- 
lady cannot  be  otherwise  averted  than  by  sacrificing  to  tlus  maligntuit  god ;  for  help 
woukl  be  sought  for  in  vain  from  the  other  deities,  as  inefficient  when  opposed  to  him. 
It  has  been  observed  that  the  Laplanders  do  not  use  the  same  rites  in  the  worship  of  this 
god  as  in  their  worship  of  others.  Agreeably  to  the  vulgar  rite  in  their  profane  sacri- 
fices, when  the  animal  desdned  for  the  sacrifice  was  slain,  as  many  of  the  friends  were 
invited  to  the  feast  as  were  sufficient  for  the  eating  of  the  flesh  taken  from  the  head, 
back,  and  feet  of  the  animal  sacrificed.  The  blood  was  sprinkled  on  ^variety  of  trees, 
artificiaUy  cut  and  carved  according  to  the  cuiftom  of  the  nation,  and  cfiiqposedintsder, 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BV  LEEMS. 


461 


in  honour  of  the  gods,  around  altars :  certain  fragments  of  the  bones,  tongue,  lungs, 
heart,  head,  ears,  and  tail,  being  laid  also  on  these  altars.  When  sacrificing  to  this 
deity,  Rota,  they  bury  a  dead  horse  in  the  ground,  to  the  intent  that  pernicious  and 
hateful  god  should  by  its  aid  withdraw  as  last  as  possible  to  his  abode,  and  cease  to 
molest  thein  any  more.  It  happens,  though  very  seldom,  that  they  siicrifice  to  this 
idol  by  a  common  and  usual  rite  ;  in  which  qase  they  fashion  his  image  to  the  form  of 
man,  and  place  the  bones  of  the  animal  they  have  sacrificed  on  the  altar,  yet  without 
any  thing  on  them,  to  Rota ;  as  also  they  usually  do  to  their  other  gods,  for  the  pur|)ose  of 
covering  them  with  flesh.  For  the  Laplanders  have  this  opinion,  that  their  gods  are  as 
equally  satisfied  and  contented  with  the  bare  bones  of  the  animals  sacrifi.Jd  to  them, 
as  ii'  they  were  covered  with  flesh  and  entire.  And  for  the  reason  that  they  ascribe  to 
them  infinite  power  as  to  gods,  and  say  that  nothing  would  be  more  easy  for  them  than 
to  create  flesh,  and  so,  when  created,  to,  put  into  it  bones. 

Hitheno  this  doubtful  relation,  for  the  truth  of  which  in  every  thing  I  dare  not  vouch. 
Certtiinly  Radien,  Ruona>Nicid,  Maderakko,  with  her  three  daughters,  Sarakka,  Juks- 
Akka,  and  Ux-Akka,  of  whom  mention  is  made,  are  names  totally  unknown  to  the 
Laplanders  of  that  tract  of  country  where  my  mission  lay ;  concerning  Saivo-Sarva, 
Jabme- Aibmo,  or  the  land  of  tlie  dead,  when  interrogated  on  these  matters,  and  others 
which  occur  in  this  celebrated  history  of  their  deities,  they  did  confess  that  they  had 
heard  something  by  rumour  of  them.  Yet  in  most  things  I  agree  with  the  author,  who 
ever  he  was,  little  doubting  but  these  things  which  he  related  as  among  the  Laplanders 
of  the  country  of  Drontheim  and  Nordland  were  so  far  formerly  held  as  true,  that  I  need 
but  mention  for  the  presem  this  one  circumstance,  in  confirmation  that  Radien,  Bieve, 
and  Rota,  or  Pluto,  and  some  others,  may  be  seen  pictured  on  their  Runic  boxes,  which 
place  l^tbre  us  a  compendium  of  Lapland  heathen  theology ;  and  even  the  names  given 
to  the  idols  agree  in  part  with  the  offices  by  which  they  are  described.  SchefTer  mentions 
that  the  Laplanders  adored  chiefly  three  idols,  namely,  Thor,  Stoerjunkare,  and  the  sun, 
and  diffusively  lays  down  the  rites  to  be  observed  in  their  sacrifices.  The  two  former 
idols  are  at  this  day  unknown  to  the  Laplanders  of  Finmark. 

Joulo  Gadze  were  well  known  to  the  Laplanders  inhabiting  Finmark.  The  Joulo- 
Gadze,  if  you  believe  the  Laplanders,  were  certain  evil  spirits,  to  whom  formerly  they 
religiously  sacrificed  on  the  eve  of  the  Nativity  of  Christ,  old  style.  The  Noaaide-Gadze, 
or  the  associates  of  the  Noaaids,  or  magician,  were  so  called  from  the  information  and 
aid  which  they  were  believed  to  give  to  the  magician.  These,  together  with  the 
JoulO'Gadze,  were  very  well  known  to  the  Laplanders,  among  whom  those  who  were 
reputed  for  prudence  and  belief  affirmed  with  one  voice  that  the  Noaaide«Gadze,  or  asso- 
ciates of  the  magician,  were  spirits  that  usually  appeared  under  the  form  of  children, 
and  in  the  Lapland  dress,  in  dreams,  and  even  in  clear  day,  to  the  Laplanders.  These 
recommended  their  services  and  attention,  pled^ng  their  faith  that  they  would  effect,  if 
admitted  into  the  family,  that  their  masters  should  become  skilful  and  handy,  and  tliat 
they  shoukl  be  prosperous  in  hunting,  in  fishing,  in  curing  the  diseases  in  men  and  cattle ; 
and  that  they  should  more  easily  obtain  their  admission,  they  added,  that  before  they 
faired  themselves  to  the  parents,  that  nothing  was  more  equitable  than  that  they  should 
perform  for  the  sons  and  grandsons  the  same  kind  offices,  as  appertaining  to  them  by 
liereditaiy  right.  If  the  magician,  of  his  own  free  will  and  kindness,  admitted  these 
spirits,  he  obtained  at-  the  same  time  with  them  also  Torvo>Paike,  or  the  caves  and 
mtountain  abodes,  which  the  NoaaideX^adze  had  hitherto  possessed  as  a  tutelary  retire- 
ment ;  if  not,  they  obtained  even  by  threats  that  they  should  afterwards  be  admitted. 
When  at  length  admitted*  either  graciously  or  without  consent,  they  taught  the  Noaaids 


t 

ti 

i 


'^ 

^f 


462 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAHLANU  UV  LEE.MS. 


their  whole  manner  of  sacrificing,  the  mysteries  of  the  magic  art,  and  thj  Juoige,  that  is, 
the  art  or  manner  of  reHgiously  singinq  magic  hymns.  'J'hese  Noaaidc-Gadze,  who 
Averc,  as  just  mentioned,  assistants  and  coadjutors  of  tlie  Noaaid,  or  magician,  and  vviiom, 
for  the  dispatch  of  business,  he  could  not  do  withot-r,  with  regard  to  the  Laplanders, 
were  separated  into  two  classes :  the  one  formii.g  Buorre-Gadze,  that  is,  good  society  ; 
the  other,  Borram-Gadze,  that  is  gluttonous,  or  bad  company.  Those  who  w  ;re  of 
the  Buorre-Gadze,  or  good  society,  dedicated  their  labours  and  offices  to  the  Noaaid,  or 
magician,  in  curing  distempers,  in  expelling  flies,  if  any  were  stung  or  injured  by  them, 
and  toother  laudable  and  good  works  of  this  nature. 

Others  were  called  Perkel-Gadze,  or  diabolical  society,  for  the  purpose  of  assisting 
the  Noaaid  to  injure  others,  and  by  the  magic  art  destroy  both  men  and  cattle,  both  as 
aiithors  and  as  advisers.  They  called  the  same  Borram-Gadze,  a  gluttonous  and  malig- 
nant society,  because  they  were  believed  to  be  solely  intent  in  calamities  of  every  kind, 
and  in  producing  and  efl'ecting  mischiefs,  like  a  consuming  lire.  Vuokko  is  also  well 
known  to  many  of  the  Laplanders,  and  described  ^s  a  bad  demon,  appearing  in  the  form 
of  a  huge  and  foul  bird,  from  which  the  Noaaid,  or  magician,  is  said  to  receive  those  in- 
famous and  noxious  flies,  the  cause  and  means  of  so  many  bad  eflfects. 

To  these  I  shall  add  such  as  the  Laplanders  hnve  not,  as  it  appears  to  me  plainly, 
counted  among  the  number  of  their  gods,  nor  deigned  H'orthy  of  the  honour  of  religious 
worship  and  sacriflces,  yet  influenced  by  some  superstition  in  their  behalf;  such  as  Stallo, 
a  prodigy  equally  known  to  the  Laplanders,  but  seldom  appearing  -,  in  sable  vest,  but 
elegant  attire,  holding  in  his  hand  a  stick,  and  provoking  to  contest  any  one  he  meets. 

Concerning  this  prodigy  I  shall  relate  what  follows,  but  ask  pardon  from  the  reader 
for  a  very  ridiculous  narration.  They  relate  that  the  said  Simon  Kioes,  whom  we  men- 
tioned before,  had  killed  at  a  time  a  Stallo,  and  some  time  after  that  he  had  killed  another, 
in  attempting  to  revenge  the  death  of  his  associate  that  he  had  slain,  having  used  this 
stratagem  :  he  made  an  aperture  through  the  door  of  his  house  (the  house  and  door  I 
saw)  through  which  he  way-laid  and  shot  him  when  passing,  and  he  remembered  that 
the  Stallo  was  killed  and  privately  buried  by  his  father ;  and  that  the  spoils  taken  from 
the  enemy  were,  namely  a  stick,  in  which  was  a  dagger,  and  a  sabre,  out  of  which  he 
made  knives  for  his  son  Peter,  and  son-in-law  Nicholas  Kioes.  The  authority  of  this 
story  rests  on  them,  the  sons  of  Simon  Kioes,  as  also  several  Laplanders  from  Porsanger, 
from  whom  I  relate  it,  and  leave  it  to  be  examined  by  the  reader.  But  concerning 
Stallo,  of  whom  mention  b  made  so  often  among  the  Laplanders,  what  opinion  to  form 
on  it,  I  confess  myself  at  a  loss  to  say,  and  lea%  e  it  to  the  judicious  reader  to  determine. 

The  Laplanders  feign  also  a  certain  Zhiokkush,  or  cause  of  sudden  illness ;  hence  fre- 
quently among  them,  when  any  one  is  seized  with  a  sudden  disorder,  they  say,  Zhiok- 
kush suu  pazhji,  that  is,  the  Zhiokkush  has  struck  him. 

There  are  besides  a  kind  of  spectres,  in  Norwegian  Udboer,  but  in  Lapland  called 
Epparis,  or  Shjort.  This  kind  of  spectre  is  believed  to  wander  up  and  down  where  any 
infant  who  had  not  received  a  name  had  been  slain.  It  is  feigned  to  cry  out  until  the 
infant  has  a  name  ^vcn  him,  then  to  vanish. 

The  Laplanders  adopt  an  opinion,  in  common  usually  with  the  Norwegians,  concern- 
ing certain  subterraneous  beings,  commonly  called  Goveiter,  fancying  to  themselves,  I 
know  not  how,  certain  inhabitants  who  live  under  ground.  Zhiakkala^ak  are  ac- 
counted by  many  as  spectres,  usually  appearing  in  the  shape  of  infant  children ;  but, 
as  a  certain  Laplander  has  assured  me  (by  name  Henry  Sarreson,  the  grandfather  of  An- 
drew Porsanger,  who,  in  1758,  sent  from  the  school  at  Drontheim  to  the  college,  now 
rector  of  the  church  which  is  .appropriated  to  the  hospital  of  the  said  town,  a  pious  and 


ACCOUNT  OF  UANiSlI  LAPLAND  BY  LREMS. 


463 


honest  man)  there  arc  living  in  deep  springs,  certain  animals  not  very  unlike  to  infants, 
if  you  look  to  their  figure,  yet  smooth,  and  without  hair ;  he  said  that  their  flesh  was 
well  rclislicd  :  that  they  were  to  be  caught  but  seldom,  and  this  only  by  art ;  by  a  plate 
of  butter  put  at  the  side  of  the  spring  where  they  keep.  By  the  scent  of  this,  the 
Zhiakkalaggak,  allured,  immediately  come  up,  and,  when  rising,  are  shot  by  men  who 
lie  in  wait.  If  such  animals  really  exist,  and  that  there  was  an  opportunity  of  getting 
them,  they  would  be  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  king's  museum. 

There  was  a  certain  Laplander  dwelling  in  Porsanger,  of  the  name  of  Andrew  Es- 
kildson,  among  the  Norwegians  called  Andrew  Bredeskalde,  that  is  Andrew  Broad- 
front,  commonly  so  called,  who  died  a  little  before  my  coming  into  this  countrj'.  He, 
as  die  report  says,  usually  prayed  to  Saint  John  for  women  in  child-bearing. 

CHAP.  XX....OF  THE  IDOLATROUS  SACRIFICES  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

THE  names  of  the  Lapland  idols,  as  well  as  the  rites  used  in  their  worship,  so  vary 
from  the  various  situations  inhabited  by  Laplanders,  that  to  give  an  exact  dt;scription  of 
them  would,  in  this  chapter,  be  extremely  difficult ;  meantime,  what  I  have  observed 
whilst  among  them,  or  have  learned  from  the  observations  of  others  who  were  skilled  in 
these  matters,  I  have  determined  to  communicate  to  the  reader. 

Animate  things  chiefly,  and  among  these  principally  rein-deer  and  sheep,  seals  seldom, 
were  sacrificed  to  the  gods.  Inanimate,  as  milk,  rice-milk,  cheese,  and  other  things 
of  this  nature  were  also  sometimes  offered. 

The  rites  used  in  sacrifices  were  various  and  manifold.  In  the  sacrifices  of  living 
things,  either  the  whole  animal,  or  at  least  some  part,  was  oiTered. 

Sometimes  they  boiled  the  whole  animal,  and  when  boiled,  devoured  it,  except  the 
bones,  which  were  left  for  the  god  of  the  place,  whom,  they  little  doubted,  was  able 
and  willing  to  cover  them  with  new  flesh.  It  was  their  practice  to  erect  certain  long 
sticks,  besmeared  with  the  blood  of  the  victim,  in  the  place  where  the  sacrifices  were 
made.  Sticks  of  this  kind  were  called  in  Lapland  Liet  Morak.  Sometimes  they  used 
to  sacrifice  the  animal  at  a  certain  river,  into  which  the  blood  of  the  victim  was  poured ; 
certain  sticks  stained  with  the  blood  being  solemnly  erected  in  the  place  of  sacrifice. 

If  they  happened  to  kill  a  bear,  when  the  skin  was  stripped  o^,  and  some  part  of  the 
meat  was  boiled,  the  liver  'vas  taken  out,  which,  put  on  a  stake  and  roasted  at  the  fire, 
as  a  host  or  kind  of  sac;  omental  sacrifice,  called  in  the  Lapland  Vuodno-bassem. 
The  Laplanders  are  said  to  offer  certain  sacrifices  for  young  children,  in  this  order ; 
for  an  infant  as  yet  in  the  womb,  a  sheep ;  for  the  same,  when  born,  a  dog,  which  was 
buried  alive,  and,  after  birth,  any  animal,  dressed  in  a  linen  hood. 

The  method  of  sacrificing  inanimate  things  was  thus:  they  poured  brandy  and 
lic}uids  of  such  sort  on  the  ground  to  pi  q)itiate  the  Lares,  who  were  believed  to  inha- 
bit the  hearth  or  threshold,  in  that  libation  which  they  called  Seime-Staebmae.  To 
pour  the  beestings  of  a  cow,  the  first  time  she  brings  forth  young,  on  the  floor  of  the 
cow-house,  belonged  also  to  the  sacred  ceremonies.  When  going  to  dwell  in  a  different 
place,  they  had  a  custom  of  pouring  milk  on  the  place  from  whence  they  were 
coming,  in  order  to  declare  a  grateful  and  devoted  mind  towards  the  deity  of  that 
place,  ou  account  of  the  benefits  received  during  the  whole  time  of  their  residence 
It  it. 

The  diseases  with  which  men  as  well  as  cattle  were  at  different  times  affected,  hunt- 
ing and  fishing  that  was  unsuccessful,  and  such  incidents,  furnished  the  Laplanders  with 
opportunity  and  even  necessity  of  appeasing  their  gods  by  sacrifices.     Victims  were 


4«4 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISM  LAPLAND  BY  LEGM«. 


chiefljr  slain  when  they  were  successful  in  fishing  and  hunting.  This  is  apparent  from 
the  description  of  a  very  famous  nluce  of  sacrifice,  Leunje-jauvre  suulo,  given  by  me.  In 
the  places  where  they  had  slain  their  rein-deer,  they  usually  left  behind  tliem  some  small 
parts  of  the  beast  they  hud  taken,  horns,  and  partn  of  the  flesh  which  had  covered  tlie  skull 
and  feet,  in  token  and  signification  of  a  mind  devoted  to  the  gods. 

As  to  the  places  in  which  the  Pagan  Liiplanders  had  formerly  sacrificed,  it  appears* 
that  they  were  various  sacred  high  places,  Passe  Varek,  in  the  bay  of  Varangar,  m  the 
parish  of  Vaso,  in  the  district  of  Phana,  in  the  bay  of  Laxefiord,  in  the  parish  of  Kiolie* 
fiord,  in  the  bay  of  Porsanger,  and  many  others  which  they  held  in  religious  venera« 
tion. 

Passe  Varek,  or  sacred  high  places,  which  they  formerly  held  in  rel^ous  veneration 
in  the  bay  of  Varangar,  are  as  follow  : 

1.  Meiske-Vare  Passe- Aldo,  that  is,  sacred  rein-deer  of  the  mountain  of  Meiske. 
That  which  is  callal  sacred  is  really  so,  or  is  said  to  be,  or  to  have  been  very  little  so. 
The  female  rein-deer  in  the  Norwegian  is  called  Simle.  Hcnoe  whatever  high  places, 
called  from  Passe  Aldo,  or  sacred  rein-deer,  were  formerly  consecrated,  had  their 
name,  no  doubt,  from  the  rein-deer  which  were  sacrificed  there.  The  mountain  men- 
tioned  is  said  to  be  situated  in  the  inner  recess  of  Varangar  bay ;  hither  is  a  great 
concourse  of  Laplanders.  The  upper  part  isalevel,  the  lower  is  covered  with  a  wood 
of  birchen  trees.  There  is  a  report  that  sacrifices  were  formerly  made  to  the  idol  Stor- 
junkare  in  that  place,  and  in  proof  of  the  sacrifices  which  they  made  there,  a  number 
of  the  bones  of  the  rein-deer  a  few  years  hence  were  seen  in  that  place. 

2.  Styren-Aldo,  that  is,  rein-deer  of  the  mountain  Styre.  In  this  place,  the  Lap- 
landers  formerly  worshipped  thunder. 

3.  Nieid-Vare  Passe-Aldo,  holy  rein-deer  of  the  virgin  mountain.  Here  was  a  sacri- 
fice performed  to  the  Joulo  Gadze,  or  to  the  society  of  the  Yules. 

4.  Kalbmen  Baste,  that  is,  the  cold  rock,  or  rock  of  cold. 

5.  A  certain  stone,  called  in  the  Lapland  Zhievres>Ibmel,  that  is,  god  c^  the  otter. 
And  here  the  very  name  is  a  proof  of  the  idolatry  that  was  formerly  exercised  in  that 
place. 

6.  Guuli-Ibmel,  that  is,  god  of  fishes.  For  good  luck  in  fishing,  it  aj^pears,  that 
they  had  formerly  sacrificed  at  this  stone. 

7.  Muorje  Ibmel  Passe-Aldo,  that  is,  sacred  rein-deer  of  the  God  of  berries.  Even 
the  very  name  of  the  divinity  given  to  this  mountain  sufficiently  declares,  that  it  was 
formerly  sacred  and  religiously  worshipped.  * 

8.  Juur-Vuodna  Passe-Aldo,  that  is,  rein-deer  of  the  bay  of  Juuren. 

9.  Raige-Bafte-Aldo,  that  is,  sacred  rein-deer  of  the  perfca-ated  rock. 

10.  A  certain  mountain  of  immense  height,  named  by  the  Laplanders  Balda-Zhiok, 
is  called  the  Great  Flounder's  Head. 

Passe- Varek,  or  sacred  rocks,  \diich  the  Laplanders  have  religiously  adored  on  the 
summit  of  the  mountain  Neiden,  are  as  follow : 

1.  Niaekkem-Karg,  that  is,  the  mountain  of  creeping. 

2.  Ruoude  Zhiold,  that  is,  iron  summit.  ' 

3.  UUo-Vaerre,  that  is,  mountain  of  wod. 

4.  Jergc-Jerge,  that  is,  rocky  stone.  By  the  way,  tt  is  to  be  observed,  that  certain 
Laplanders  call  a  stone  Jerge,  which  others  m  their  dialect  call  Ged'je. 

5.  Zhiuodzhio-Akkom,  that  is,  my  abiding  grandame  ;  meaning  grandmother  by  the 
father  or  mother's  side,  which  in  no  small  number  of  places  of  Norway  is  so  called. 

6.  ZaageeS'Bafle,  that  is,  rock  of  foundation. 


< 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANI«II  LAPLAND  BY  LKBMS. 


465 


7.  Guuli-basti>vaerre,  that  is,  mountain  of  the  rock  of  fishing;. 
Passe- Varck,  or  sacred  mountains  which  the  Laplanders  worshipped  ;  beyond  V.iran- 
gar,  along  the  coast,  are  the  following  celebrated  ones. 

1.  Ruudo.  Vaerre,  that  is,  the  mountain  Raudo ;  Ruudo  is  a  fresh  water  fish,  reddish 
under  the  belly,  aillcd  in  the  Lapland  Raudo,  but  in  the  Norvvegiiin  Ron 

2.  Baclje- Vaerre,  that  is,  mountain  of  the  ear.  The  meaning  of  this  name,  as  far  as  1 
can  conjecture,  is,  that  the  wretches  who  make  their  supplications  to  this  ido!  arc  per- 
suaded that  he  will  graciously  lend  his  car  to  their  su{)plications. 

3.  Ryto-Zhiok,  that  is,  the  top  of  the  Pot  Mountain.     On  this  mountain  is  shewn  a 
stone,  resembling  a  man  in  his  natural  position  and  form,  clothed  in  a  ho(xl.     It  seems 
too  very  probable  that  this  name  was  given  to  the  rock  for  this  reason,  that  the  Laplan- 
ders boiled  there  in  pots  the  meat  of  the  sacrifices,  which  they  ate,  according  to  their 
usual  manner  of  sacrificing,  leaving  the  bones  for  their  gods. 

4.  Einar-Sieide,  that  is,  oracle  of  Einar. 

5.  Sieide  Vaek-Aldo,  that  is,  rein-deer  endowed  with  the  faculty  of  an  oracle,  or  of 
divining. 

Passe  Varek,  or  sacred  mountains  near  the  river  Thana. 

1.  GoUe  Vaerre,  that  is,  mountain  of  gold.  Here  formerly,  on  account  of  the  signal 
success  in  taking  of  wild  rein-deer,  frequent,  and,  considering  the  condition  of  the  nation, 
sumptuous  and  fat  sacrifices  were  usually  offered. 

2.  GaldoOaaive,that  is,  head  of  the  spring  of  water;  a  mountain  so  called. 
Passe  Varek,  or  sacred  mountains  m  the  district  of  Thana,  are  the  following : 

1.  Sieid,  that  is,  the  oracle. 

2.  Giems  Bafte,  that  is,  rock  Giems. 

3.  Stang-Naes. 

4.  Jokkel  Nearg,  that  is,  promontory,  or  little  tongue  of  land,  Jokkel. 

5.  Kolds  Niurg,  that  is,  promontory  Kolds. 

6.  Stoppel  Niarg,  that  is,  promontory  Stoppel. 

7.  Home  Bafte,  that  is,  rock  of  horn. 

Passe  Varek,  or  sacred  mountains,  which  the  Laplanders  have  consecrated  at  Hobs- 
Eidet,  the  isthmus  of  Hobsen,  to  the  worship  of  idols,  are  as  follow : 

1.  Vuoide-Ged'ge,  that  is,  the  stone  of  unction ;  deriving  its  name  from  the  blood  or 
oil  of  the  victim,  with  which,  at  sacrifices,  it  was  anointed. 

2.  Ravos-Niarg,  that  is,  promontory  of  fasting. 

3.  Klem-Niarg,  that  is,  promontory  Klem. 

4.  Sagga-Niarg. 

5.  Loidosh. 

The  sacred  mountains  which  were  formerly  religiously  adored  in  the  bay  of  Laxefiord 
are  the  following : 

1.  Vaddes-Bafte,  that  is,  difficult  mountain. 

2.  Gie-Vuoude-Aldo,  that  ;s,  reindeer  of  the  wood  of  Gien. 

3.  Ailekes- Vaerre,  mountain  of  holiness. 

4.  Lieule-Oaaive,  head  of  vapour. 

Passe  Varek,  or  sacred  mountains  in  Porsanger  bay,  are  mentioned  as  the  following : 

1.  Alek-Bafte,  that  is,  sea-green  rock. 

2.  Solfar-Kapper,  that  is,  hood  of  Solfar.  This  was  the  most  celebrated  of  all  those 
places  devoted  to  sacrifices  and  religious  worship  by  the  Laplanders ;  it  was  situated 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  bay,  half  a  mile  distant  from  the  sea.     The  place  itself, 


^1 


i! 


i 


I 

I 


VOL.    I. 


S  o 


'  1 


466 


ACCOUNT  OV  U.VNISil  LAI'I.AND  DY  I.KKMA 


which  I  remember,  from  curiosity,  to  have  visited,  consisted  of  two  very  high  stuiics 
placed  opposito  each  other,  the  one  of  which  was  covered  over  with  moss.  Near  the 
btoncs  were  Inid  certain  small  spits  or  stakes,  called  Bassem-Morak,  which  the  Laplanders 
formerly  made  use  of,  when,  in  honour  of  their  false  god,  who,  they  believed,  presided 
over  the  place,  they  would  ii«dulge  their  genius  in  feasts,  and  would  throw  to  their 
idol,  as  above  mentioned,  the  bones  of  the  sacrifice  bare  and  alone.  Around  these 
stones  various  sticks,  made  fi"om  dried  fir,  which  is  said  to  preserve  itself  against  putre* 
faction  as  long  as  jxjssible,  were  set  up  crosswise,  like  the  letter  X,  with  the  following 

characters,  mXXXJ'*+  +  +"»XXX,  engraved,  three  being  drawn  in  a  right  line, 
and  as  many  on  the  oblique  line.  Towards  the  south  stood  a  long  beam,  of  a  souare 
form,  marked  with  the  same  characters  as  the  aforesaid  sticks,  with  the  lower  end  nxcd 
in  the  ground,  but  with  the  upper  inclining  towards  the  south,  where  it  was  passed 
through  with  an  iron  spike,  formed  like  that  iron  one  by  which  the  poles  of  boats  and 
other  vessels  of  this  sort  arc  put  together;  whetice  the  conjecture  is  not  unlikely, 
that  they  worshipped  the  idol  Thor,  as  Scheffer  makes  mention,  in  this  place,  though  no 
such  idol  as  Thor,  or  Storjunkare,  is  known  at  this  day  by  the  Laplanders  of  Fitimark. 

3.  Dierge  Niarg. 

4.  Sieide-Bafte,  that  is,  the  rock  of  the  oracle. 

5.  Naiid'd'e-Vaerre,  that  Is,  the  mountain  of  labour  or  burthen. 

6.  MikkoVaerre,  that  is,  the  mountain  of  Michael. 

7.  Niiirkutzh. 

8.  Gviise-Varatzh,  that  is,  the  little  rock  with  a  point. 

9.  Vuotje-Zhiok. 

10.  Leuiye-Jauvre-Suolo,  that  is,  island  in  the  lake  of  Porsanger  river.  This  island 
is  situated  m  a  certain  lake,  called  Leunje-jauvre,  out  of  which  a  river,  very  famous 
for  the  produce  and  catching  of  salmon  of  rorsanger  bay,  flows.  On  the  further  side 
of  the  said  river  a  great  heap  of  rein-deers'  horns  is  seen,  of  which  most  are  corrupted 
and  eat  through,  from  the  irijury  of  the  air,  with  damp  and  rottenness,  some  fallen  into 
the  lake,  others  converted  by  the  Laplanders  themselves  into  spoons  and  such  \'i[^  f*  uten- 
sils. In  this  island  the  Laplanders  had  of  old  time  a  temple,  to  speak  so,  not  without 
celebrity  ;  who,  when  they  formerly  went  out  to  hunt  the  rein-deer  on  this  lake,  in  which 
is  the  island,  white  some  would  compel  on  one  side  t!ie  wild  animal  to  fly  to  the  lake, 
others,  on  the  opposite  side,  would  lay  hold  of  hin»  swimming,  with  their  bows  and  arrows, 
by  which  means  they  now  and  then  enjoyed  no  small  booty.  It  was  their  custom  to 
leave  the  horns  in  the  island,  lest  they  should  seem  ungrateful  towards  the  deity  of  the 
place,  as  a  kind  of  sacramental  offering. 

IL  Vuolla-Niudne,  that  is,  nose  of  Vuolla.  *    " 

12.  Smeer-Vuodna-Noaiid,  that  is,  the  magician  of  the  bay  of  butter. 

13.  Smeer-Vuodna-Niarg,  that  is,  the  promontory  of  the  bay  of  butter. 

14.  Kokko-Giedde-Niarg,  that  is,  the  promontory  of  Kistnand. 

15.  A  certain  rock  not  far  from  the  shore  is  seen,  in  which  there  is  a  figure,  or 
rather  a  certain  white  spot,  bearing  likeness  to  the  shape  of  a  man,  turning  his  feet  up- 
wards and  his  head  to  the  ground.  The  Laplanders  formerly,  before  the  darkness  of 
their  ignorance  was  dispelled,  used  to  offer  sacrifices  to  this  rock,  or  what  is  more  true, 
to  this  likeness  of  a  man  appearing  in  the  rock ;  for  on  sailing  by  the  place,  as  a  proof 
of  their  devotion  to  this  idol,  they  gave  a  f.mall  piece  of  tobacco,  if  there  was  nothing 
else  at  hand. 

16.  Daume-Salo-Sieide,  that  is,  oracle  of  the  island  of  Thamsoe. 

17.  Snoiba-Niudne,  that  b,  noseof  Snoiba. 


ACroiTNT  OF  DANISH  l,API.\N»)  BV  LEl'.MS 


467 


;,  or 


18.  Suolo-Aldo,  that  is,  rcin-dccr  island. 

19.  Sieidc-Niarg,  that  is,  the  promontory  of  tlic  oruclc. 

20.  A  ctTtuiii  stone  culled  in  Lapland  CVameditzh.  A  certain  I^apla^dcr  from  Porsan- 
gcr  Bay,  himself  being  an  eye  witness,  told  me,  that  another  LaplaiuKi  of  the  sannj  place, 
whose  name  was  Peter  Siverson,  as  often  as  he  went  ontto  fish,  Iwi  a  custom  of  calling 
on  the  said  stone  Gameditzh,  and  to  make  offering  in  the  name  of  this  stone,  and  religious- 
ly  to  have  offerL'd  it  a  piece  of  meat,  taken  from  his  provision  chest,  in  hoix;  and  exiKCta- 
tion  of  a  happy  capture. 

21.  In  the  bay  of  Kaafiord,  near  the  parish  of  Kielvig,  is  said  to  be  a  certain  mountain, 
sacred  to  the  worship  of  idols. 

22.  So  also  in  a  certain  island  called  Magcroc,  a  certain  sacred  mountain  in  the  Lap- 
land Serve,  that  is,  community,  is  celebrated  by  fame. 

23.  In  the  gulf  of  Hvulesund  in  the  parish  of  Ilammerfest,  is  said  to  have  been  a  cer- 
tain sacred  mountain  called  Akkiestab. 

24.  A  cw'tain  place,  also  consecrated  to  religious  rites,  is  said  to  have  been  in  the  pa- 
rish of  Alten. 

That  there  have  existed  formerly  in  Finmark  a  still  greater  number  of  holy  places, 
though  not  sufficiently  knov/n  to  me,  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  ;  but  those  already  mention- 
ed abundantly  shew  the  foul  idolatry  of  the  country,  covered  with  the  shades  of  ignor- 
ance. 

The  religious  and  sanctified  places  of  the  Laplanders  were  distinguished  by  a  certain 
singular  and  unusual  form  from  the  rest ;  for  instance,  in  the  sacrificial  place  called  Solfur- 
Kuppcr,  of  which  mention  has  been  lately  made,  two  stones  sharixjned  to  a  |X)int  were 
seen  set  upright,  and  laid  near  to  each  other.  In  the  same  place,  towards  the  sea,  where 
it  was  usual  to  sacrifice  with  small  pieces  of  tobacco,  the  figure  of  a  man  is  to  be  seen 
with  his  face  towards  the  sea. 

On  a  certain  promontory  in  the  parish  of  Kiollefiord,  a  stone  of  unusual  size  is  seen,  so 
formed  by  nature,  as  to  exhibit  to  those  who  see  it  from  a  distance,  the  representation 
of  a  temple,  adorned  with  a  tower,  whence  it  is  named  also  to  this  day  a  Lapland  temple. 
That  the  Laplanders  had  formerly  sacrificed  in  this  place  has  not  been  as  yet  diligently 
examined  into  by  me,  nor  why  they  should  make  this  a  place  of  sacrifice  do  I  see  any  fit 
reason,  especially  when  the  inconvenient  and  inaccessible  situation  of  the  place  seems  to 
oppose  it ;  yet  the  very  name  of  the  place,  namely  a  Lapland  temple,  seems  to  indicate 
that  sacrifices  were  formerly  made  there.  But  th'~  poor  ignorant  inhabitants  hud  taken 
into  their  head,  superstitiously,  that  there  was  something  divine  in  those  places,  which 
were  distinguished  from  others  by  a  certain  unusual  form,  and  that  they  ought  to  be  reli-* 
giously  worshipped. 

But  in  what  a  high  degree  of  estimation  these  mountains  were  held  by  the  Laplanders, 
and  how  religiously  worshipped,  can  be  proved  by  a  variety  of  proofs,  some  of  which  I 
shall  adduce.  They  approached  these  sacrificial  places  clothed  in  festive  garments, 
and  there  rolled  themselves  down  at  the  feet  of  their  idols.  They  visited  them  yearly, 
and  though  they  would  not  offer  fresh  sacrifices  every  time,  yet  they  would  by  no 
means  touch  the  bones  of  the  animals  that  were  sacrificed.  They  would  not  dwell  in 
the  Passe-Varek,  or  sacred  mountains,  lest  they  should  disturb  the  divinity  of  the  place, 
by  the  cry  of  infants  or  any  other  noise  :  it  was  thought  impious  to  sleep  when  mailing 
or  riding  by  the  Passe- Vaerre.  that  is  any  sacred  mountain,  lest  by  this  inattention  they 
should  seem  little  to  regard  their  god,  either  to  raise  the  voice,  to  kill  an  animal,  though 
in  the  way  to  utter  the  least  noise,  were  things  forbidden,  lest  in  any  respect  they 
should  be  disagreeable  and  troublesome  to  their  false  god.     Have  they  on  a  sky  blue 

3  o  2 


5{ 


I 


'it 


ii 


I 


i 


468 


AC'f'OIJMT  OV  UAKflK  LAI'LAND  OY  I.RF.MI. 


garment,  on  |);issinjj;,  they  take  it  off  with  veneration.  Women  pasKcd  by  with  averted 
eyes,  and  iluir  Tacis  covered.  As  often  as  the  men  w<'rf  dis|X)Hcd  to  go  to  the  Paase- 
Vacric  or  s:icn;d  monntuin  for  the  sake  of  worship,  it  was  foil)idden  tnat  ihey  should 
uppro.ich  in  the  garment  the  woman  wore  before,  lest  the  sunctity  of  the  place  should 
be  violated,  and  it  was  further  subjoined  that  they  should  not  wear  the  shoes,  wliieh 
were  nuide  up  together  with  tin*  woman's. 

And  as  the  Laplunders,  during  times  of  ignorance,  worshipped  certain  mountains  as 
the  siiercd  habl'ations  of  their  gods  by  a  pnncipul  ceremony,  so  did  they  perform  the 
simie  honour  also  to  their  riven  and  laki^,  which  from  the  names,  which  arc  annexed 
to  them,  Ailekes  Jauvrc,  that  is,  sacred  lake ;  Passe-Jok,  that  is,  sacred  river;  is  sufficient' 
ly  clear. 

The  sacrifices  u  ere  performed  commonly  in  those  places,  which  the  Noaoid,  that  is, 
the  magi(  ian  or  pricat,  assigned  to  them,  yet  so  that  they  might  be  offered  elsewhere,  if 
the  occasion  called  for  it.  A  certain  Laplander  from  Porsanger  bay,  by  name  Mellc 
Olson,  a  man  of  character,  and  well  deserving  of  belief,  told  nic,  that  u  neighbour  of 
his  in  the  same  place,  very  well  known  to  him,  had  after  hunting  of  seals,  on  nis  return, 
drank  of  n  cold  spring,  and  was  seised  with  so  violent  a  disorder,  as  to  lie  danger- 
ously ill  for  some  weeks,  but  on  his  recovery,  that  he  had  sacriticed  an  ox  in  the 
place  where  he  was  seized  with  illness.  The  Laplander  consumed  himself  the  meat  of 
the  ox  that  was  slain,  and  covering  the  bot:es  with  branches  and  boughs  of  wood,  he 
left  them,  as  the  custom  with  them  is,  caa-lf.shly  about,  for  the  deity  of  the  place. 

In  certain  places  it  was  formerly  received  as  a  custom,  diat  the  priest  who  performed 
the  sacrifice  should  come  to  the  rite,  clothed  in  a  hood,  instead  of  a  fillet,  and  u  chap- 
let  of  leaves,  such  as  was  put  on  the  animal  that  was  sacrificed.  The  same  was  obliged 
to  wear  a  white  apron  let  down  over  his  shoulders,  in  the  act  of  sacrifice.  This  orna' 
ment  differed  but  litde  from  those  used  by  the  ancient  Romans,  as  well  as  the  priests  of 
other  nations :  for  it  is  well  known  that  the  priests  of  the  heathens  had  always  come  to 
the  sacrifices  bound  with  fillets  and  chaplets,  and  that  the  victims,  especially  such  as 
were  sacrificed  to  Saturn  and  Jupiter,  were  crowned  in  the  same  manner. 

Besides  that  foul  and  abominable  idolatry  to  which  the  Laplanders  were  of  old  addict, 
cd,  they  wished  to  seem  to  worship  also  the  true  God  of  the  1  rinity,  in  whose  name  they 
were  baptised,  whose  word  they  heard,  whose  sacraments  they  made  use  of,  not  unlike 
the  Samaritans  of  old,  who  adored  conjointly  and  together  the  God  of  Israel,  and  the 
feigned  gods  of  the  neighbouring  nations. 

But  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Laplanders,  from  the  most  remote  times  back, 
had  at  least  some  knowledge,  though  defective  and  mangled,  of  the  true  God  in  the 
Trinity.  What  earnest  and  solicitous  care  Louis  the  Pious  had  taken  for  propagating 
the  christian  religion  through  die  north  is  clearly  and  fully  manifested,  from  hb  not  only 
biiptising  Harald  Klak,  king  of  Denmark,  together  vriiK  the  queen,  in  the  temple  of 
Muguntia,  but  from  his  sendin[  also  Ansgarius,  a  monk  of  Corbey  of  France,  into 
Denmark,  together  with  Ambertus,  the  associate  of  his  holy  labours,  whence  afterwards 
they  went  into  Sweden,  publicly  to  preach  the  gospel  in  that  kingdom,  with  permission 
granted  by  Biomo  the  king  m  828.  Ansgarius,  on  his  return  from  Denmark,  and 
Sweden,  that  he  should  be  nearer  the  northern  countries,  was  appointed  bishop  of  Ham- 
burgh  by  the  said  emperor  Louis  the  Pious,  with  injimction  that  he  shi.uld  carefully 
see  that  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  was  not  only  carefully  propL<gated  among  the 
people  of  the  north  in  ^neral,  but  also  among  the  SkriuFins,  that  is,  tlie  Laplanders. 
The  patent  bears  date  m  the  year  834.  '  * '   ••-  '  '  ■"    ■  ^         »  *-' 


ACCOUNI  Ol'  DANIMII  LAI'I.ANI)  IIV  l.fP.MN. 


460 


In  succrcdinp^  timcn  iin  opportunity  wuh  oftcrcd  to  the  Liiplandcrsof  ncqiiirinpf  some 
knowlcd^*,  however  iinj)crlect,  of  the  Saviour  of  the  VVorltl,  l)y  the  minHion  of  binhop 
llalvaid,  in  the  year  of  Llirist  1051,  into  Sweden,  to  the  Wurmhindert  and  Skrit-Fins, 
for  the  purtmsc  of  turning;  them  to  the  true  faith,  and  afuTwarcU  into  Norway.     It  np. 

Ecars  from  history,  that  Olaiis  Trigneson,  that  great  founder  of  rluistianity  hi  Norway, 
ad  taken  earc  that  his  Hulgects  should  Ix-  converted  to  ehristianity  from  Wigta,  and 
from  those  to  Helgeland  ni  Norland.  AI\er  him  king  Olaus  Maraklson  commanded 
t\\c  gos|x>l  to  Ik*  preaehed  among  those  living  in  the  inner  recesses  oi'  the  l}ays,  who  were 
Pagans,  and  as  yet  unconverted. 

Jonas  Kumus,  an  historian,  not  without  f  "lebrity,  mentions,  among  other  things, 
in  the  description  of  the  kings  of  Norway  published  by  him,  that  king  Hagen 
Hagen-ten,  who  came  to  the  throne  in  1217,  hud  a  temple  built  in  the  island  IVomsoe 
near  Finmark,  and  that  a  great  number  of  strangers,  who  cumc  from  Biarmeland, 
were  baptised,  and  tliat  habitations  were  assigned  to  this  new  8«^t.  in  the  bay  of 
Malanger. 

Frcaeric  the  First,  of  glorious  memory,  as  soon  as  he  came  to  the  throne,  in  a  council 
of  the  kingdom,  held  at  Odense  in  1527,  gave  in  chiirge  to  the  bishops  then  present, 
that  each  in  his  diocese  sho'jld  take  care  that  the  word  of  God  should  be  preached  in 
clearness  and  purity.  The  same  excellent  monarch  renewed  by  a  decree,  in  1529,  a  full 
indulgence  to  the  gospel  in  his  kingdom  and  realms,  on  the  report  of  the  celebrated 
histonun  baron  Hoi  berg. 

Amas  Berentsen  of  Bergen,  in  a  certain  book,  named  the  Fruitful  Abundance  of 
Denmark  and  Norway,  printed  in  the  year  1656,  mentions  that  the  Laplanders  were 
little  acquainted  with  the  true  religion,  yet  in  his  time,  that  they  were  brought  to  a  bet. 
ter  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  and  were  making  daily  proficiency  in  it. 

There  were  scarcely  any  sacred  places  for  worship  or  clergymen  in  Finmark,  before 
the  Norwegians,  called  Normans,  coming  there,  fixed  their  abodes ;  what  is  more,  nor 
even  before  the  time,  when  the  college  was  established  most  graciously  for  promoting 
the  progress  of  the  gospel,  which  was  begun  in  1714,  was  there  any  place  of  worship 
any  where  in  Finmark,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Laplanders,  as  known  to  mc,  unless 
at  Alten,  in  western  Finmark,  where  the  Norwegians  and  Laplanders  congregate 
in  houses  sufficiently  near.  But  the  Laplanders  would  make  use  of  the  houses  of  wor- 
ship, which  were  in  the  fishing  places,  next  to  tlie  dwellings  of  the  Norwegian  peasants, 
each  in  the  parish  in  which  they  were  allotted. 

Now  praise  be  to  God,  by  the  most  benevolent  establishment  of  the  kingri  of  Den. 
mark  of  blessed  memory,  and  by  the  christian  and  enlightened  disposition  and  care  of 
the  most  liberal  institution  for  promoting  the  gospel,  and  of  the  bishops  of  ihe  diocese 
of  Drontheim,  they  arc  provided  with  suitable  places  of  worship,  in  which,  where  they 
before  bestowed  their  duties  on  male  idols,  whose  altars  were  reeking  with  the  blood  of 
the  victims  they  had  slain,  they  can  worship  the  Lord  God  of  their  fathers,  and  serve  him 
alone. 


7 


H 


n 

It 


i 


CHAP.  XXt.....OF  THE  MAGIC  ARTS  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS,  EXERCISED  BY  MEANS  OF  RUNIC 
SYMBOLS,  FLIES:  IN  THE  CURE  OF  DISORDERS  BY  MEANS  OF  THE  JUOIGEN.  OR  A  CER. 
TAIN  MAGIC  SONG,  AND  IN  THE  RESTITUTION  OF  THINGS  TAKEN  BY  THEFT. 

IT  is  my  intention  in  this  chapter,  agreeably  to  its  tide,  to  speak  of  the  magic  arts 
of  the  Laplanders,  by  means  of  Runic  symbols;  yet  the  reader  kindly  will  pardon  me 


1 


470 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  _APLANn  HY  LEBMS. 


if  I  premise,  before  I  enter  on  it,  the  various  fascinations  that  have  formerly  been 
practised  by  others. 

The  Asii.  \c  Odin  is  said,  first  of  all,  to  have  brought  the  magic  art  into  the  northern 
regions,  which  made  so  rapid  a  progress  afterwards,  that  many  of  the  nobility  are  said 
to  have  reached  a  very  great  degree  in  this  art.  The  annals  of  Norway  tell  us,  that 
the  r.iagic  or  Finnic  art  was  so  exercised  at  king  Huldan's  board,  that  the  meats  at 
table  vanished  from  before  the  eyes  of  the  guests  while  feasting. 

Gunner,  king  of  Norway,  was  so  skilled  in  this  art,  that  whatever  attempts  were 
making  in  Saxony  to  disturb  his  dominions,  lie  would  not  deign  to  prepare  against  them 
in  Norway.  Eric  Vindhuus,  king  of  Sweden,  is  said  to  have  been  a  true  actor  on  this 
scene,  for  to  whatever  quarter  be  turned  his  bonnet  a  prosperous  gale  sprang  up  in  that 
quiu^er.  Sivald,  king  of  Sweden,  who  artfully  attempted  the  kingdom  of  king  Haldan, 
is  said  to  have  had  seven  sons  well  instructed  in  this  art ;  and  the  magic  art  is  attribu- 
ted to  the  fair  sex  of  old  time.  A  various  assortment  of  infernal  spectres  is  said  to  have 
been  shewn  to  king  Haldan  by  a  poor  little  sorry  woman.  A  witch  in  Norway,  byname 
Kraka,  is  said  to  have  prepared  a  broth  for  Roller,  the  little  son,  by  the  virtue  of  which 
he  would  become  very  considerable,  celebrated  and  wise  ;  but  the  son-in-law,  Eric, 
who  afterwards  obtained  the  crown  of  Sweden,  on  tasting  it,  was  endowed  with  great 
wisdom  and  eloquence.  By  the  said  witch,  concealed  under  the  shape  of  a  cow,  for 
t'te  purpose  of  committing  murder,  king  Frotlio  is  said  to  have  been  slain.  The  daugh- 
ter of  king  Hclgeland,  in  order  to  be  instructed  in  the  magic  art,  is  said  to  have  been 
sent  to  Motle,  king  of  Finmark.  To  what  extent  belief  is  to  be  given  to  numerous 
reports  of  this  kind  is  left  to  the  sounder  judgment  of  individuals. 

It  is  known  from  ancient  manuscripts  that  wizards  of  various  descriptions,  especi* 
ally  sorceresses,  had  lived  to  an  advanced  age  in  Norway  ;  and  that  it  should  be  known 
if  any  person  was  guilty  of  the  crime  of  witchcraft  or  not,  that  the  suspected  person, 
according  to  the  cucjtom  received  at  that  time,  was  thrown  into  water.  If  the  person 
did  not  sink,  it  was  a  sure  and  unerring  proof  that  the  culprit  was  guilty  of  this  crime. 
Before  put  into  the  water  he  was  stripped,  shaved,  and  examined,  lest  he  should  have 
any  weight  of  iron  about  him  that  might  occasion  his  sinking. 

Witches  made  various  confessions,  in  themselvesabsurdandridiculous,ofthe  manner 
in  which  they  acquired  the  magic  art.  Some  asserted  that  they  obtained  it  from  a  cer- 
tain charmed  preparation,  brought  to  them  by  another  witch,  made  from  a  piece  of  the 
greater  flounder,  a  piece  of  bread  spread  with  butter,  from  a  draft  of  milk,  a  piece  of 
cheese,  a  salt  herring,  and  bread.  One  confessed  that  she  had  obtained  the  art  of  fasci- 
nation from  stroking  down  a  cat ;  another,  from  putting  three  eggs  into  a  cask,  and 
filling  it  with  water,  said  she  had  got  the  same  magic  art ;  another  added,  on  her  part, 
that  it  was  got  from  a  certain  old  woman,  who  gave  her  a  pipe,  with  this  qualification, 
that  on  filling  it  she  would  bring  infection  on  man  and  beast  of  any  kind  whatever,  and 
that  she  by  this  means  made  herself  witness  of  the  art.  Many  other  absurd  confes- 
sions were  in  like  manner  made  on  witchcraft. 

Women,  practising  these  and  other  such  like  charms,  made  trial  in  various  ways, 
as  they  themselves  confessed,  whether  they  were  qualified  as  witches  for  the  art,  and' 
were  found  capable ;  by  giving  as  a  proof,  that  a  ball  of  thread  when  thrown  into  water 
would  of  itself  continue  to  roll  through  it ;  that  an  animal  by  blowing  and  spitting  on 
it,  in  the  name  of  the  devil,  would  burst.  On  their  actions  they  further  made  daring 
and  prodigiously  wicked  confessions  ;  that  under  the  figure  of  swans,  nrows,  falcons,, 
geese,  ducks,  seals,  dolphins,  whales,  they  had  called  up  tempests  and  had  destroyed 
vessels  at  sea. 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAVD  BY  LEEMS.  47^ 

They  further  confessed,  that  while  they  fastened  three  knots  on  a  linen  towel  in  the  name 
of  the  devil,  and  had  spit  on  them,  8cc.  they  called  the  name  of  him  they  doomed  to  des- 
truction. One  confessed  that  she  had  raised  a  tempest,  by  means  of  wind  she  had  shut  up 
in  a  sack  ;  and  added,  that  she  destroyed  a  vessel  of  Bcrge'n,  for  which  undertaking  an 
immense  wave  came  to  her  assistance  and  sunk  thu  ship.  Another  said  that  she,  with 
other  sorceresses,  had  raised  a  tempest  on  some  sailors  in  this  manner :  they  went  to  the 
sea-side  in  a  human  figure,  and  going  aboard  a  small  bark,  in  which  were  some  men, 
who  had  a  black  heifer  mth  them,  they  trod  down  with  their  united  force  the  vessel 
on  the  way.  Another  told  a  story,  how,  after  she  had  brought,  with  another  witch,  des- 
truction on  a  small  bark  and  its  crew,  they  threw  a  piece  of  spongy  wood  fastened  to  a 
stone  into  the  sea,  and  openly  darted  on  it  Another  added,  on  her  part,  that  she,  blow- 
ing into  a  pipe  in  the  name  of  the  devil,  not  only  overturned  a  boat,  in  which  were  two 
young  men,  but,  accompanied  by  three  other  witches,  had  brought  destruction  on  a  ves- 
sel :  for  which  purpose  the  one  assumed  the  figure  of  an  eagle,  the  second  of  a  swan,  the 
third  of  a  crow,  and  she  herself  of  a  dove,  and  all,  sitting  in  the  bottom  of  a  tub,  were 
carried  over  the  sea  from  Vasoe  to  Domen,  a  rock  so  called,  distant  from  Vasoe  the 
space  of  a  few  miles,  where  leaving  their  ship,  or  rather  the  bottom  of  their  tub,  they 
fied  aloft,  and  then  untying  the  knots  they  exclaimed,  Wind,  in  the  name  of  the  devil : 
when  this  was  done  they  fied  to  the  sea,  and  did  not  stop  until  they  came  up  with  the 
vessel  they  doomed  to  destruction ;  on  which,  in  the  above-mentioned  shape,  they  all 
perched,  one  on  the  helm,  two  on  the  hatches,  and  one  in  the  hold.  Another  confessed 
that  she  had  destroyed  a  vessel  that  loosed  anchor,  and  put  into  a  creek,  on  stress  of 
weather ;  for  that  on  its  putting  out  a  little  to  sea,  she  approached  it  in  the  shape  pf  a  sea- 
dog  and  overset  it.  Another  related  that  she,  by  putdng  two  egg-shells  into  a  cask  filled 
with  water,  could  take  away  the  lives  of  men ;  she  added,  that  a  boat,  .in  which  were 
sailors,  perished  on  twirling  round  the  shells  of  the  said  egg. 

As  these  sorceresses  pretended  by  various  methods  to  call  up  bad  weather,  and  thereby 
destroy  men  at  sea,  so  they  spread  abroad  also  that  by  one  superstitious  spell  or  another, 
instilled  into  them  in  their  commerce  with  Satan,  and  by  some  fatal  contrivance,  they 
could  bring  on  men  disorders,  that  they  could  maim  them,  nay  more,  deprive  them  of 
life ;  one  time  by  a  draft  of  butter-milk  mingled  with  herbs  and  earth,  over  which  they 
repeated  the  Lord's  Prayer ;  another  by  a  draught  of  beer,  in  which  was  an  active  de- 
mon, with  whom  they  were  in  understanding :  now  by  a  charmed  piece  of  cloth  of  linen 
interwoven  with  a  black  piece  of  woollen,  which  they  had  concealed  in  a  hole  in  the 
Mi'all ;  at  another  time,  by  mixing  the  meat  of  die  person  whose  destruction  they  aimed  at 
with  a  certain  matter,  not  unlike  sea- weed;  and  lastly,  by  spitting  three  times  on  a 
knife,  and  anointing  the  victims  with  that  spitde.  A  witch  confessed  that  the  devil, 
with  whom  she  was  leagued,  was  gone  to  Vardoe  in  the  shape  of  a  bird,  called  Strand- 
Erie,  promising  that  he  would  take  her  to  Bergen :  that  she  should  kill  by  her  art  a  man, 
who  Uved  at  Sandvig,  whom  she  hated.  .   . 

Another  woman  was  accused  of  witchcraft,  practised  on  a  poor  ^rl  after  this  manner : 
she  turned  her  son  into  a  cat,  and  made  him  roll  himself  before  the  girl,  drawing  a  sledge 
of  sand.  The  ^rl  struck  him  several  times  when  he  got  in,  and  killed  him  at  last  with 
the  instrument  in  her  hand.  On  her  return  she  passed  by  the  house  of  the  said  woman, 
when  she  came  out  and  addressed  her  in  these  words :  You  have  killed  my  son ;  may  it 
be  ill  with  you.    Soon  after  the  girl  was  distracted,  and  died. 

Witches  related  various  modes  of  tormenting  cattle :  one  time  they  sat  on  the  back 
of  the  poor  animal,  saying,  Go,  get  away :  giving  him  a  Uttle  com,  they  said,  Eat,  and 
be  accursed;  another  dme  they  brought  Uie  poor  animal  what  is  called  the  salt  of  envy. 


it 


% 


mm 


I 


i 


472  ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  OY  LREM8. 

Another  foolishly  related  that  she  had  given  a  litde  wool  to  her  familiar  friend,  mixed 
with  corn,  to  take  to  a  cow,  and  added,  that  the  cow,  on  receiving  this  medicine,  burst 
on  the  laying  on  of  her  hand,  and  that  the  wool  after  her  death  was  found  in  a  large  open* 
ing  in  the  fleshv  part  of  the  thigh,  without  once  hurting  the  flesh.  Another  said,  that 
she  had  got  milk  from  the  cows  of  other  people  by  applying  a  horn  to  their  belly,  and 
by  milking  them  in  another's  name ;  the  effect  of  thb  was  that  the  cow  first  gave  milk, 
then  blood,  and  expired. 

As  sorceresses  have  feigned  that  they  can  injure  roan  and  beast  by  their  magic,  so  also 
have  they  asserted  that  they  can  restore  not  only  man,  by  the  putting  on  of  their  hand 
three  times,  by  fumigating  with  a  lighted  sponge  die  inside  garment  of  a  man,  but  also 
that  they  can  restore  cattle.  And  for  this  puq)Ose,  on  the  Lord's  Day,  they  bring  into 
the  church  with  them  some  salt,  when  the  herds  do  not  fatten,  and  run  over  some  re« 
pronchful  and  verv  ridiculous  lines,  when  the  milk  fails  in  the  catUe,  the  argument  of 
which  is  not  wortn  reciting. 

Witches  have  ascribed  to  themselves,  in  their  traditions,  a  variety  of  other  ridiculous 
facts.  One  has  said,  1.  That  she  gave  a  spongy  piece  of  wood  to  a  young  man,  fasten- 
ed to  a  stone,  with  this  injunction,  that  whenever  a  huge  wave  attacked  him,  casting  that 
into  the  sea,  he  should  invoke  her  three  times  bv  name,  and  that  the  wave  would  bring 
liim  no  harm.  2.  That  she  had  given  to  certain  young  men  a  drink  made  up  of  sea- 
water,  of  small  beer,  of  whey,  of  river  water,  and  of  ginger,  to  prevent  their  dying  at 
sea ;  that  this  was  not  to  be  driink,  but  taken  with  a  spoon,  if  it  was  to  effect  the  pur- 
pose intended.  3.  That  she  had  given  to  a  young  man  a  linen  thread,  to  another  a  wool- 
len thread,  to  be  fastened  to  the  hook,  promising  them  good  fortune  in  fishing.  Another 
feigned  that  she  had  crossed  the  sea  from  Vasoe  to  Kiberg,  carried  on  broomsticks,  tlie 
other  who  accompanied  her  riding  on  a  black  sheep.  Another  said  that  with  other  witches^ 
by  magic  art,  she  had  driven  the  fishes  from  the  shore.  At  this  inhuman  work  one 
exhibited  herself  in  the  form  of  a  great  fish,  called  Storje ;  another,  in  her  own  form, 
was  covered  with  a  black  plate  on  uie  breast,  a  veil  made  out  of  a  certain  sky-coloured 
cloth,  with  a  red  mitre,  adorned  with  golden  tassels,  and.  a  white  collar,  and  seated  oa 
the  sea,  and  covered  with  sea-weed ;  she  held  one  in  her  hand,  called  Taref-leg,  which 
approached  to  the  likeness  of  a  horse-whip,  by  which  she  drove  away  the  fish.  Another 
said  that  she,  in  the  likeness  of  a  whale,  did  the  same.  Another  witch  lyingly  related  that 
she,  walking  on  the  sea,  could  collect  the  liver  of  fish  in  a  bucket,  which  she  held  in  her 
hand.  Another  said  that  she  could  transform  herself  into  a  cat,  for  which  purpose  an 
evil  genius  would  procure  for  her  the  blood  of  that  animal,  with  which  she  would  be- 
smear  herself,  and  her  skin  for  a  covering.  Of  another  it  was  related,  that  she  had 
granted  a  shelter  to  a  cat  at  her  door,  in  a  tub,  who  brought  her  whatever  she  wanted 
from  any  place  she  was  sent  to.  Another  was  accused  of  having  a  green  cat,  called  Smor- 
Kat,  who  fetched  her  from  the  pantry  of  others  whatever  she  was  in  want  of. 

Even  in  our  times  there  is  a  rumour  among  the  common  people,  that  sorceresses  had 
chosen  various  places  destined  for  their  meetings,  which  they  called  Bal-Volde ;  such 
were  Lyderhom,  a  mountain  so  called  at  Bergen ;  the  Bald- Void,  in  Vardoe,  in  eastern 
Finmark ;  the  Bald- Void,  in  a  place  called  Omgang,  in  eastern  Finmark  also,  the  same 
mountain,  situated  in  the  same  region ;  Domen  mountain,  and  D(^rc,  the  southern  part 
extending  to  Christiana,  and  the  northern  to  the  diocese  of  Drontheim,  the  Mount  Hecla, 
in  Iceland.  In  those  places,  at  certain  times  of  the  year,  especially  on  the  feast  of  the  Na- 
tivity of  Christ,  and  the  feast  on  the  eve  of  St  John,  sixty  and  upwards  are  said  to  assemble, 
in  the  shape  of  dogs,  cats,  wolves,  crows,  and  other  animals,  when  drinking  together  strong 
beer,  water,  and  honey,  they  divert  themselves  in  the  dance  and  in  play.    What  more : 


.i, 


4 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLANU  BY  LEEMS. 


473 


having  gone  to  this  degree  of  folly,  they  have  feigned  that  the  evil  genius  has  one  time 
played  upon  a  lute ;  another  time  on  an  instrument  called  in  Norway,  Langspil ;  then 
on  the  flute ;  then  on  a  tabor ;  and  on  an  instrument  commonly  called  Luur,  which  is 
an  instrument  of  nine  inches  in  length,  covered  with  a  thin  bark  of  the  lindcn*trce, 
which  the  peasants,  on  feeding  their  flocks  in  summer,  are  accustomed  to  play  on,  lus 
well  for  their  own  recreation,  as  to  keep  away  from  their  herds  the  bears  and  other 
wild  beasts.  Nor  indeed  have  they  scrupled  to  assert  that  Satan  himself  had  danced 
with  them,  and  played  sometimes  at  cards. 

A  certain  one  told  that  when  she  and  other  witches  were  assembled  on  the  eve  of  the 
fi»tival  of  Christ,  the  evil  spirit  had  danced  with  them  (what  the  dance  was,  Polish 
or  English,  I  know  not)  when  one  of  the  witches  lost  her  shoe,  and  the  master  of  the 
ceremonies,  by  good  fortune,  put  another  in  its  place.  Another  said  that  she,  together 
with  other  witches,  was  in  hell  (a  thin^  horrid  and  ridiculous)  in  order  to  render 
the  scene  flimiliar  to  them,  where  an  immense  boiling  lake  was  to  be  seen,  in 
which  were  many  men ;  she  added  besides,  that  the  'Vvil  had  an  iron  pipe,  from  which 
he  breathed  out  fire,  and  that  he  had  drawn  out  a  pieoe  of  bacon,  put  into  the  same 
lake,  which  was  dressed  in  an  instant ;  she  insinuated  that  the  said  lake  was  in  a  valley. 
Of  her  accompanying  friends  she  related,  that  one  put  on  the  likeness  of  a  cormo- 
rant (commonly  called  Krykke)  another  of  a  marine  bird,  called  Havelde ;  another  of 
a  dove ;  another  of  a  dark  bird,  called  Skarv ;  others  of  jackdaws ;  and  that  she  herself 
put  on  the  form  of  a  crow.  Another  said,  that  being  at  a  certain  place  with  another 
witch,  called  Hildere,  they  drank  from  two  garters,  from  the  one  of  water  and  honey, 
from  the  other  strong  beer. 

As  those  witches  related,  it  seems  they  could  be  in  an  instant  of  time,  from  their  in. 
timate  commerce  with  the  devil,  day  or  night,  one  hundred  miles  distant  from  the  place 
they  were  in,  by  his  ^idance.  As  a  certain  one  said,  that  a  certain  person,  living  at 
Bergen,  came  to  her  m  the  shape  of  a  dog,  and  that  she  took  him  to  the  Bald- Void, 
which  is  in  Vardoe,  in  the  eastern  Finmani,  in  an  instant  of  time. 

As  they  related,  Satan  appeared  to  them  under  a  variety  of  unusual  and  most  Horrible 
appeaninces ;  one  time  like  a  black  man,  without  a  head ;  at  another  like  a  tall  man, 
clothed  in  black,  and  a  homed  forehead ;  now  as  a  rough  and  homed  man,  and  after- 
wards as  a  black  man,  whose  knees  were  homed,  his  hands  and  feet  defended  with 
nails,  and  his  hair  and  beard  black :  another  time  he  took  the  shape  of  a  man  with  large 
and  burning  eyes,  his  hands  black  and  covered  with  hair,  and  with  a  flame  of  fire  com- 
ing from  his  mouth ;  then  in  the  likeness  of  a  cat,  handling  them  from  their  feet  to  their 
mouth,  and  counting  their  teeth ;  and  lastly,  in  the  shape  of  a  dog,  a  little  bird,  and  a 
crow. 

On  their  relation,  the  devil,  when  they  are  dedicating  themselves  to  his  service,  im- 
presses on  them  a  certain  sign,  as  on  his  slaves ;  he  is  said  to  have  laid  hold  of  the  arm 
of  one  In  such  a  manner  that  blood  would  flow  from  it ;  to  have  bitten  die  left  arm  of 
another ;  to  have  marked  the  left  thigh  with  his  nails  of  a  third,  and  to  have  torn  the 
left  knee  of  a  fourth  with  his  talons. 

That  they  should  be  more  ready  and  easy  to  enter  into  league  and  amity  with  him, 
he  asugns  various  innocent  and  agreeable  names,  as  they  say ;  such  as  Christian,  Chris- 
topher, Jacob,  Zacharias,  Peter,  Samuel,  Mark,  Angel  of  Light,  Dominic,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  John,  Martin,  Olaus,  Giermund,  Asmodus,  Frusius,  Peace,  and  Saclumbus. 

It  is  true  that  all  these  and  more  the  witches  had  confessed  on  trial,  and  to  this  con- 
fession they  were  properly  brought  at  the  stake ;  but  their  witchcraft  for  the  greatest 
part  consisted,  in  my  (^inicHi,  in  fancy,  in  ima^nings,  aod  in  dreams.    It  is  even  pro- 

▼01..  I.  3  p 


474 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LEEM8. 


III 

>  I 


ii 


babic  that  their  confession  was  extorted  from  them,  partly  by  violence  and  fear;  for  it 
appears  from  the  ancient  law-books,  or  memoirs  of  r  inmark,  among  which  these  mat- 
ters-are  related  by  the  law-clerks,  that  some  have  been  put  to  the  torture  before  they 
would  confess;  but  that  the  magic  art  was  formerly  exercised  I  am  not  disposed  to  deny, 
when  the  devil  is  so  powerful  among  unbelievers  ;  and  who  would  deny  what  the  sacred 
page  testifies  by  precept  and  example  ?  All  hitherto  related  belongs  to  the  witchcraft  of 
the  Norwegians.  I  shall  now  enter  and  touch  on  certain  rites  of  the  Laplanders  them- 
selves,  which  they  preserve  in  their  practice  of  the  magic  art. 

As  to  what  relates  to  their  tabors  or  drums.  Runic  words,  a  certain  writer  has  im- 
posed  that  name  upon  them,  calling  to  mind  that  they  were  struck  with  a  hammer. 
Runic  drums  of  this  sort,  as  well  as  I  can  recollect,  resemble  a  kind  of  large  box, 
of  an  oval  form,  yet  differing  something  in  that  respect  from  the  shape  of  common  boxes : 
1.  That  underneath  they  are  open,  different  from  those  which  in  the  lower  part  of  them 
are  closed  and  solid ;  besides,  they  have  within  a  various  assortment  of  thongs,  which 
hang  down,  affixed  at  one  of  their  extremities  to  the  upper  part  of  the  drum,  and  laden 
with  brazen  rings  and  other  such  like  baubles,  given  the  owners  by  their  friends,  for 
the  sake  of  greater  ornament,  and  perhaps  that  by  the  sound  and  jingle  of  the  rings  the 
greater  noise  should  be  excited.  2.  That  as  the  common  boxes  are  made  to  open  and 
shut,  and  are  covered  with  lids  that  move  on  hinges,  Runic  drums  are  found  covered 
with  a  very  extended  skin,  afler  the  manner  of  common  drums.  On  the  outside  of  the 
parchment  are  painted  various  characters,  on  the  bark  of  the  alder.tree,  of  which  some 
are  to  signify  the  deity ;  some  Radien,  or  chief  Rod,  Jupiter,  of  the  Pagan  Laplanders ; 
some  the  angels ;  some  evil  spirits ;  some  Noaude-Gadze,  or  the  associates  of  the  magi- 
cian ;  some  the  sun ;  some  Phosphorus,  and  the  evening  star ;  some  temples ;  some  me 
habitations  of  the  Norwegian  people ;  some  Passe- Varek,  or  sacred  mountains,  where 
sacrifices  were  offered ;  some  the  habitations  of  the  Laplanders  themselves ;  some  small 
sheds,  propped  on  pillars,  which  are  usually  erected  at  a  dbtance  from  cottages  in  the 
woods  and  mountains,  adapted  for  putting  up  their  stores ;  some  the  folds,  within  which 
the  rein-deer  in  summer  are  brought  to  the  milk-pail ;  some  birds ;  some  fishes ;  and 
others  to  represent  bears  and  foxes,  yet  with  some  difference.  Some  of  these  characters 
are  of  happy  omen,  others  unlucky  and  inauspicious ;  to  the  one  the  evil  spirit  and  wolf 
are  usually  applied ;  to  the  other  god  the  an^el,  Noaaide-Gadze,  the  bear,  fox,  &c. 

The  Laplanders,  preparing  for  a  longer  journey,  for  hunting,  and  Other  matters  of 
greater  account,  before  they  enter  on  it,  usually  consulted  their  Rqnic  drums,  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner :  A  large  ring  was  put  on  the  skin,  by  which  the  upper  part  of  the  drum 
was  covered,  destined  for  this  very  use :  the  drum  was  then  struck  with  a  small  ham- 
mer, made  from  rein-deer*s  horn,  called  in  the  Lapland  Ballem,  by  which  blow  the  ring 
was  moved  freely,  but  fortuitously,  to  different  characters  drawn  on  the  surface  of  the 
skin,  lucky  or  unlucky ;  whence  an  omen  of  the  event  of  the  undertaking  was  decided 
on.  If  the  ring,  by  the  blow  of  the  wizard,  followed  the  course  of  the  sun,  it  augured 
the  favourable  event  of  wliat  was  taken  in  hand ;  but  if  it  went  against  the  course  of 
the  sun,  a  doubt  then  arose  of  the  prosperous  event  of  it.  Whether  a  sick  man  should 
die  or  recover,  they  even  imagined  they  could  discover  by  Runic  drums :  the  tree  from 
which  they  were  made  should  be  at  a  distance  firom  a  place  never  visited  by  the  rays  of 
the  r>un,  and  removed  from  all  other  trees  as  far  as  possible.  Runic  drums  were  not 
thought  sufficiently  fit  for  their  uses,  unless  got  by  inheritance.  The  wizard  kept  his 
Runic  drum,  as  a  secret  not  to  be  revealed,  covered  and  rolled  up  in  fillets  or  bandages, 
lest  it  should  be  exposed  to  the  eyes  of  every  one  :  the  women  were  not  permitted  to 
touch  them.    Scheffer  has  given  of  these  drums  a  tedious  description. 


! 


.    .«.,    ....»,- 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  UV  LUIi.VU. 


475 


Through  Norland,  and  among  the  Laplanders,  who  inhabit  the  Sneaascii  mountains, 
the  Overhaldens,  the  Meragrians,  the  Tydalens,  and  other  places  in  the  ^vernment  of 
Dronthcim,  Runic  drums  in  great  numbers  have  been  found.  I  have  given  a  kind  of 
one,  which  a  certain  Laplander  of  the  mountain  of  Meragrian,  in  the  pari.sh  of  Stordal, 
possessed,  delineated  and  engraved.  In  Finmark,  especially  in  that  tract  of  country  I  first 
went  into  on  my  mission,  Runic  drums,  as  usually  called,  were  seldom  used,  as  far  as  I 
know,  as  they  substituted  in  their  place  the  covers  of  boxes  and  bowl  dishes,  laid  over 
with  various  colours. 

Yet  traces  of  them  in  that  country  have  been  found ;  with  a  Laplander  of  Finmark 
one  wasdiscovered  of  the  following  kind  :  it  was  made  from  fir-tree,  like  a  large  hollow 
crater  or  bowl ;  the  bottom  was  bored  through  with  two  oval  apertures,  and  at  each  ex- 
tremity a  fox's  claws  were  fixed,  the  upper  part  of  it  being  covered,  like  a  drum, 
with  a  skin,  which  was  distinguished  with  paint  from  the  boiled  bark  of  elm,  the  colour 
of  which  is  a  light  red,  by  four  lines,  into  five  different  compartments,  in  each  of  which, 
between  the  lines,  were  seen  figures  expressive  each  of  their  own  peculiar  omen. 

■'  IN  THE  FIRST  COMPARTMENT, 

1.  Was  the  figure  of  a  man,  called  Illmaris,  who  was  thought  to  excite  bad  weather. 

2.  The  image  of  a  man,  called  Diermes,  which  name  signifies  thunder ;  he,  invoked 
by  prayer,  by  divine  will,  as  the  Laplanders  explained  it,  could  produce  fair  weather  and 
a  serene  sky. 

A  kind  of  animal  called  Godde,  which  signifies  wild  rein-deer.  When  the  Runic  was 
struck  on,  and  the  ring  did  not  go  to  the  image  of  this  animal,  it  was  a  sign,  that  he  who 
consulted  the  instrument  on  his  prosperous  success  in  hunting  the  rein-deer  had  lost  his 
time. 

ON  THE  SECOND  COMPARTMENT, 

1.  The  circle  through  which  the  cross  line  was  drawn,  whose  name  is  Beive,  which 
signifies  the  sun  :  this  was  thought  to  produce  fine  weather. 

2.  The  ima|;e  of  a  man,  Ibmel  Barne,  that  is.  Son  of  God ;  this  was  thought  to  free 
persons  from  sm. 

3.  The  image  Ibmel  Atzhie,  that  is,  God  the  Father ;  this  was  believed  to  punish 
evil  and  to  procure  remission  of  sins :  Christian  death  and  salvation  of  soul. 

4.  The  image  of  the  sacred  place  of  worship,  which  they  called  a  Ci^thedral  temple,  add- 
ing, that  they  tnere  implored  the  good  and  salvation  of  the  soul. 

5.  The  image  of  a  man ,  representing  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  which  the  name  of  angel  was 
put :  he  was  believed  to  free  from  sin,  to  renovate  man,  that  he  should  turn  out  a  new 
creature ;  thus,  by  these  three  figures  were  represented  the  three  persons  of  the  Divinity. 
Bv  each  image,  or  picture,  representing  the  human  form,  a  stick,  Junkar-Sobbe,  that  is, 
the  stick  of  a  noble  youth,  was  seen  painted ;  the  reason  of  this  was,  as  the  rulers  of  the 

'  earth  hold  in  their  hand  a  stick,  so  the  same  was  a  suitable  emblem  for  these. 

.^v  .., *  ^tf     '!,r4i>*-,  Qjj  ^fjg  THIRD  COMPARTMENT, 

^  1.  An  image  of  a  female  was  seen,  representing  the  sister  of  Mary ;  whom,  for  that  opi- 
nion of  her,  was  always  consulted  for  aid  and  succour  by  child-bearing  women. 

2.  The  image  of  a  woman,  Maria  Ibmel  Aedne,  that  is,  Mary  the  mother  of  God ;  she 
was  principally  thought  to  be  subservient  to  child-bearing  women,  and  the  remission  of 
sins. 

3.  Three  images,  Joulo-Beive-Herak,  that  is,  the  lords  of  the  festival  of  the  Nativitj^ 
of  Christ ;  first,  Vuostes  Joulo-Beive  Herra,  that  is,  lord  of  the  first  feast ;  secondly, 
Nubbe  Juolo-Beive  Herra,  that  is,  lord  of  the  second  feast ;  and  thirdly  GoaaUMad 

3  F  2 


I 

i 


I 


476 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLANO  BY  LEEMS,, 


n 


Joule  Beive  Herra,  that  is,  lord  of  the  third  feast.  It  was  a  belief,  that  he  who  profaned 
these  days  was  punished  by  the  Deity  ;  but  if,  these  days  bein^  duly  celebrated,  any  one 
should  ask  any  thing  from  the  Deity,  and  during  their  celebration  should  put  himself  be* 
fore  the  Deity,  that,  moved  by  this  supplication,  he  would  hear  and  assist  him. 

ON  THE  FOURTH  COMPARTMENT, 

1.  Was  seen  the  circle  Mano,  that  is,  the  moon ;  from  it,  it  was  usual  to  implore  fine 
weather  and  serene  nights. 

2.  The  images  of  two  men,  called  Munne  Olmuk,  that  is,  as  to  the  letter  of  the  ex- 
pression, men  travelling ;  but,  as  to  the  sense  or  meaning,  men  going  to  church. 

3.  The  image  of  a  temple,  to  represent  that  which  the  priest  frequents.  To  it  he  is 
represented  as  confessing  that  he  and  others  are  vowing  and  offering  tapers,  money,  and 
other  things,  that  aidand  succour  may  be  given  to  him  on  one  misfortune  and  another; 
and  that  he  dedicates  those  things  to  the  pastor  of  the  said  place,  which  i  expressed  by 
this  painted  building. 

4.  The  image  ofa  man  standing  near  the  temple,  to  signify,  as  it  was  expressed,  a 
man  going  to  the  place  of  worship. 

ON  THE  FIFTH  COMPARTMENT, 

1.  The  image  of  a  woman,  to  denote,  as  it  explains  itself,  the  wife  ofa  bound  demon. 
The  name  is  not  known. 

2.  The  image  of  a  man  a  little  below  the  one  placed  before  it,  to  signify  by  interpreta- 
tion the  devil  killing  men,  and  is  called  Disease. 

3.  The  image  of  another  man,  which  is  said  to  be  tlie  devil  freely  ran^ng  about  in  hell 
and  the  upper  air.  A  foolbh  opinion  is  cherished  that  this  devil  has  escaped  from  the  one 
that  b  bound  fast,  but  the  name  of  him  is  not  known. 

4.  The  fi^re  I  I  I  on  the  skin  of  the  Runic  has  been  interpreted,  Helvet-dola,  that 
is,  liell  fire,  m  which  souls  are  thought  to  be  burnt. 

5.  This  figure  o  Helvet  Tarve-Geune,  is  said  to  signify  the  pitchy  cauldron  of  hdl, 
in  which  it  is  thought  soub  are  boiled. 

6.  This  figure  a  to  signify  Helvet-Haude,  that  b,  the  sepulchre  of  hell,  into  which  aH 
believing  in  Satan  are  said  to  be  thrown. 

7.  The  figure  ofa  man,  from  whose  neck  a  line  was  drawn  to  the  column,  to  signify  a 
bound  devil,  of  whom  mention  was  made  above,  to  signify  that  there  was  an  opinion,  that 
from  the  creation  of  the  world  he  was  held  fast  in  chains  by  the  Deity. 

For  the  purpose  of  this  Runic  drum  the  owner  was  provided  with  two  Runic  ham- 
mers, made  from  the  horns  of  the  rein-deer,  called  Zhioaarve- Vetzhjerak,  horn  ham- 
mers, with  the  one  of  which  he  is  said  to  have  struck  the  drum.  Besides  he  had  a 
small  cover  made  of  brass,  to  the  upper  part  of  which  was  fixed  a  brazen  ring ;  with 
this,  when  going  to  exereise  his  art,  he  covered  the  skin  of  the  drum,  and  proceeded 
thus :  After  raising  up  the  Runic  instrumeitf ,  he  vibrated  it  on  this  side  and  that,  and, 
holding  it  in  one  hand,  he  struck  with  a  hammer  he  held  in  the  other  the  skin  it  was 
covered  with.  He  then  observed  if  thb  cover  of  brass,  when  the  skin  was  struck  with 
the  hammer,  should  turn  ^inst  the  course  of  the  sun,  that  fortune  would  be  un- 
favourable to  him  in  whose  behalf  the  Runic  c}rmbal  was  struck ;  and  if,  in  its  descent, 
it  should  not  stop  until  it  had  touched  one  of  the  figures  which  were  marked  below 
the  third  line  in  the  third  compartment,  that  the  Deity,  excessively  angry  with  him  for 
whom  it  was  struck,  declared  by  this  sign  that  he  was  a  great  sinner,  and  that  the  Deity 
•iliould  be  most  humbly  invoked,  if  he  wished  the  cover  should  recede ;  but  shoukl  it 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAHLAM)  UY  LEEMS. 


477 


follow  the  course  of  the  sun,  it  was  a  sign  that  he,  in  whose  behalf  the  drum  was  struck, 
enjoyed  good  fortune. 

But  he  said  that  he  when  going  to  use  this  drum  marked  himself  and  it  with  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  as  an  earnest  of  good  success,  subjoining  the  Lords  prayer,  and 
these  words  :  Ibmcl  Atzhje  Barnc  jn  Engcl  vaskjet  don,  which  signify,  God  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  assist  mc  (I  never  perceived  that  the  Laplanders  called  the 
Holy  Ghost  angel,  but  in  all  countries  known  to  mc  they  call  it  Passe  Vuoign.)  To  thes(* 
prayers  he  added  more  words,  and  on  striking  with  a  hammer  the  skin  of  the  drum, 
he  set  in  motion  the  brass  cover  on  this  side  and  that.  In  the  midst  of  the  work,  he 
broke  out  into  these  words ;  Thou,  O  God,  who  hast  created  the  heaven  and  the  eartli, 
the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  and  all  men,  the  birds,' and  fishes  of  the  sea,  I  am  u  man 
liable  to  error,  old,  and  unworthy ;  it  is  better  that  I  should  die,  than  that  you  should 
deny  your  help  to  him  in  wlK)6e  behalf  we  intreat  you ;  here  it  is  to  be  observed,  that 
the  Laplanders,  faking  in  the  Danish  language,  use  the  first  person  plural,  we,  for  thr 
first  person  singular,  L 

I  Another  Laplander  of  Finmark  gave  this  explication  of  his  Runic  drum.  The  ta- 
lons of  all  aniinab  which  that  country  produces  were  suspended  from  it  on  every  side ; 
and  on  the  skin  covering  the  upper  part  of  it,  nine  lines  were  painted  from  elm  bark, 
each  having  its  own  omen.  He  also  added,  when  going  to  exhibit,  that  he  placed  a 
copper  bird  surrounded  with  litde  bits  of  brass  on  the  skin  of  it,  and  struck  it  witn  a  horn 
hammer,  covered  with  beaver's  skin.  By  this  impulse,  the  bird  turned  itself  to  the 
lucky  or  unlucky  figures.  He  said,  if  this  copper  bird,  when  the  skin  of  the  Runic  in- 
strument was  struck  with  the  hammer,  fell  from  it  to  the  earth,  that  it  was  a  sign  that 
the  same  person  would  soon  die.  He  further  added,  that  when  two  wizards,  called 
Noaaids,  wished  to  know  which  excelled  the  other  in  the  magic,  that  they  painted  two 
rein-deer  stinking  each  other  with  their  horns  on  a  Runic  drum.  The  signification  was, 
that  he  whose  rem-deer  had  the  victory  was  the  better  wizard. 

Thore  were  among  the  magicians  or  Noaaids,  who  openly  pretended  that  they  were 
both  able  and  willing  to  do  injury  to  men  and  also  to  cattle.  These,  as  we  shall  sup- 
pose, were  dreaded  more  than  dog  or  serpent.  When  such  a  person  was  going  to  prac- 
tise his  art,  he  ate  wolves'  flesh,  or  fox's,  before  he  began,  from  a  persuasion  that  he 
drew  no  small  degree  of  strength  and  power  from  it. 

Others,  on  the  other  hand,  confessed,  that  they  could  cure  various  diseases,  give  theu- 
fishing  and  hunting  parties  signal  success,  and,  of  their  own  free  will,  confer  the 
greatest  posable  benefits  on  those  that  stood  in  need  of  them,  whence  it  is  no  wonder, 
mat  they  were  held  in  high  estimation  by  the  Laplanders,  and  celebrated  by  great 
pruses. 

The  magicum,  whenever  called  to  the  aasistan^x  of  a  uck  person,  conducted  him- 
self in  the  foUowinp^  manner,  as  the  Laplanders  relate :  He  thus  spoke  to  the  Noaaid-> 
Lodde,  or  his  magic  turd,  Haette  dal  Kotzhio  duu  matkai,  that  is,  necessity  compels  you 
to  undertake  a  journey ;  on  which  words  he  solenmly  sent  the  said  bird  to  the  Noaaid<Ga- 
dze,  that  is,  the  partnership  of  the  ma^cian,  or  certain  spirits  addicted  and  bound  to  the 
attendance  of  the  magician,  when  come  to  him.  Two  colleges,  the  one  visible  the  other 
invisible,  were  instituted  for  the  Noaaid-Gadze,  or  society  of  thema^cian,  assembled 
by  the  ministry  of  the  said  bird.  The  council  which  was  called  invbible  consisted  of 
the  magician  and  two  women,  adorned  with  a  linen  hood  and  all  the  rest  of  a  religious 
dress,  except  the  girdle.  These  women  were  called  Shjarak.'  To  these  members  were 
added  others;  a  iimu  without  a  hood  and  girdle,  and  a  ^1  not  as  yet  adult.    The  man 


i^^ 


478 


ACCOl  NT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  RV  LBBMS. 


in  his  office  was  called  Macrro-  Oaave.  The  magician  had  collected  all  these  members 
in  that  place  where  they  tried  the  cure  of  the  sick  man.  At  the  invisible  ashcnibty  (so 
called,  because  visible  to  the  magician  alone)  Aarja  presided,  the  Noaaid-tiadze,  the 
companions  of  the  magician,  as  well  as  the  two  women,  which  the  Auria  added  to  this 
invisible  college,  sitting  together  with  him.  Women  chosen  into  this  mvisible  college 
were  ailled  Rndok. 

Each  college,  visible  and  invisible,  duly  called  and  provided,  the  magician  prepared 
himselffor  his  journey,  that  will  be  described  more  at  large  by  us,  who,  that  he  might 
act  agreeably  to  the  rules  of  his  tut,  after  uncovering  his  head,  and  loosing  his  girdle 
and  latchets,  covered  his  face  with  his  hands,  and  twirled  round  his  whole  frame  mto  n 
variety  of  circles,  with  wondrous  and  Strang  gestures,  adding  these  words,  Valmashstet 
Haerge  !  Satzhja  let  Vaanas  !  Let  th  rem-dcer  be  got  ready,  and  prepare  the  boat, 
he  said,  and  snatching  up  an  axe,  he  u-agged  the  burning  pieces  of  nre  with  his  barc> 
hands  from  the  grate,  asserting,  with  confidence,  that  he  had  nothing  to  fear  in  this 
state  from  raging  flame.  Then,  taking  no  small  draught  of  brandy,  he  struck 
his  knees,  not  slightly,  with  the  said  axe,  and,  raising  it  up  with  both  his  hands, 
he  brandished  it  three  times  around  each  of  the  women  Shjarak.  During  this  time  no 
one  was  permitted  to  touch  him,  not  even  a  fly«  which  they  drove  off  with  the  greatest 
care.  When  he  had  gone  through  these  ridiculous,  and  almost  furious,  gestures  and 
ceremonies,  he  stretched  him  elf,  like  a  dead  man,  on  the  ground,  under  which  deser- 
tion of  mind  or  trance,  as  it  seemed,  made  up  of  body  and  mind,  he  lay  ;  that  while  his 
body  lay  in  the  cot,  to  be  viewed  by  all,  his  mmd,  if  you  believe  the  Laplanders,  through 
some  subterranean  passage,  when  all  sense  for  the  time  was  shut  up,  should  view  the 
Passe- Varek,  or  sacred  mountains,  with  their  inhabiting  gods,  and  hear  the  son^,  called 
in  the  Lapland  Luodiit,  which  were  usually  sun^  in  the  invisible  college  in  this  trance. 
During  this  time  the  aforementioned  women,  Shjarak,  were  seated  in  the  tent,  adorned 
with  all  their  dress,  discoursing  in  a  low  voice  (a  discourse  of  this  kind  was  called  in 
Lapland  Monataebme)  as  asking  each  other  what  part  of  the  world  now  held  our  ma- 

?;ician ;  one  part  or  other  of  the  sacred  mountain  being  constandy  mentioned  by  them, 
fit  happens  that  the  women  in  their  conversation  should  have  fallen  on  the  name  of  the 
mountain  in  which  the  ma^cian,  when  the  extacy  is  over,  has  asserted  he  has  been  taken, 
on  the  hare  mention  of  it  he  seemed  in  the  trance,  to  them,  to  move  his  hand  or  foot. 
Mean  time  continuing  their  discourse,  they  go  on  to  ask,  whether  in  that  place,  in  which 
he  has  been  taken  up,  he  either  sees  or  hears  ?  The  ma^cian,  when  at  length  he  returns 
to  himself,  utters,  in  a  low  voice,  the  words  which  he  boasts  he  heard  uttered  in  the 
sacred  college ;  words  such  as  these  the  Laplanders  call  Zaabme.  The  women,  sitting 
together,  finding  out  that  the  magician  is  returned  to  himself,  began,  with  a  clear  and 
loud  voice,  to  sing.  These  and  other  such  diabolical  rites  and  gestures  beihg  completed, 
the  magician,  returned  to  himself,  signified,  by  clear  and  open  expressions,  that  a  sacri> 
fice  is  to  be  made,  an  animal  to  be  slain,  at  the  same  dme  naming  the  place  where  it  was 
to  be  done,  and  interposing  his  faith  that  the  sick  man  would  recover  within  a  certain 
and  limited  space  of  time :  which  sometimes  did  happen  with  exactness  and  order,  at 
another  time  not.  For  the  whole  day  before  the  magician  entered  on  this  business  he 
refrained  altogether  from  meat  and  drink. 

But  it  appears  among  all  by  whom  the  manners  of  this  nadon  have  been  inspected 
and  examined,  that  the  said  women  Shjarak,  had  ever  been  present  with  the  magician, 
when  exercising  his  art  in  the  college  called  visible,  as  witnesses  of  the  achievement :  it 
appears  also  diat  the  magician  held  used  in  this  act  ceremonies  and  gestures,  such  as  loosen. 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAI'LAND  HY  LKKMS. 


479 


it 


ing  of  his  cinllc  and  latchcts :  his  striking  his  knee  with  the  axe  ;  his  taking  burning 
logH  from  the  fire,  See.  ;  and  lastly,  his  prostrating  himself  on  the  i;round  like  to  a  dead 
man.  It  is  also  beyond  doubt,  that  the  said  women  during  the  act  had  muttered  to  one 
another,  and  that  the  magician  in  his  trance  had  began  to  move  hand  and  foot  a  little  to 
their  discourse,  and  soon  after  the  office  of  his  senses  returning,  that  he  had  uttered  in  a 
sutxlued  tone  of  voice  the  words  Vuolet-Zuabme,  and  that  when  at  length  coming  to 
himself,  he  had  advised  and  commanded  a  victim  for  the  restoration  of  the  sick  man. 
All  this  is  so  correct  and  true  as  to  admit  of  no  doubt ;  but  the  remaining  part  I  submit 
to  the  understandings  and  belief  of  the  judicious  reader. 

Passe  Varek  or  sacred  mountains  will  seem  wonderful  to  no  one  when  mentioned  on  this 
occasion.  That  there  were  such  in  this  country,  honoured  with  divine  worship,  besides 
many  other  places  of  sacrifice,  is  plain  from  the  idolatrous  worship  o*"  the  Laplanders, 
and  from  the  traces  to  be  met  with  at  this  day.  I  myself  have  been  an  eye  witness  of 
Aiem.  That  the  Pagan  Laplanders,  and  especially  their  ministers,  men  inspired,  should 
have  in  their  minds  these  mountains  and  their  inhabiting  ^ods,  is  a  matter  easy  to  be  be. 
lieved.  And  it  may  be  easily  also  inferred  that  the  magician  engaged  in  the  cure  of 
the  sick  should  have  his  mind  fixed  on  these  sacred  heights,  by  a  certain  manner  of 
reason,  suiting  the  thing  itself.  Moreover,  when  the  objects  that  occupy  our  thoughts 
when  we  are  awake  lay  hold  of  them  when  asleep,  it  is  no  wonder,  that  the  magician  in 
this  act,  which  was  all  done  in  a  deep  and  profound  sleep,  procured  by  the  brandy  he  had 
drunk,  placed  beyond  the  power  of  all  external  objects,  should  sec  his  favourite  hills,  their 
gods,  and  other  objects  before  his  senses,  and  hear  them  calling  for  victims  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  sick.  And  as  all  this  is  the  business  of  magic,  and  the  invention  of  the  devil, 
it  follows,  that  the  wicked  spirit  is  the  contriver  and  adviser  of  the  councils,  and  that  he 
has  the  greater  share  in  directing  it 

But  this  has  not  been  the  only  practice  of  medicine  among  them ;  that  others  were 
pract'ised  will  be  manifest  from  the  following  account.  A  certain  Laplander  from  Por- 
Sanger  bay,  by  name  Mellet  Olsen,  an  honest  man,  free  from  guile,  told  me  a  story  of 
two  other  of  his  countrymen,  that,  when  going  to  practise  medicine,  made  use  of  the 
following  method.  On  the  eve  of  Christmas,  they  slew  a  young  rein-deer,  and  boiled 
the  meat,  certain  small  pieces  of  which,  together  with  a  little  butter  and  cheese,  and  a  few 
C9kes,  they  put  in  a  small  skiflf  fabricated  for  that  use.  Having  prepared  in  this  manner 
a  sacrifice,  they  piled  up  a  great  heap  of  wood,  on  which  they  placed  the  said  skiff, 
just  mentioned,  with  the  sacrifice  itself,  in  order  to  remain  there  during  the  festival. 
When  the  feast  was  over  the  skiff  was  looked  for  on  the  pile,  but  no  where  found, 
while  Mellet  seriously  affirmed,  that  no  body  knew  what  had  happened  or  where  it  was 
put ;  yet  there  is  no  doubt  but  the  sacrifices  placed  in  the  skiff  were  offered  to  Joulo- 
Gadze,  or  to  the  company  of  Yules.  The  same  Mellet  Olsen  related  to  me  a  story 
of  anoUier  of  his  countiymen,  an  inhabitant  of  the  same  bay,  that  when  about  to  take 
sick  persons  under  his  care  h':  ^vas  accustomed  to  attempt  the  business  in  this  way. 
Brought  in  his  boat  gradually  and  slowly  near  the  shore,  where  there  was  the  most  con- 
venient landing,  he  put  in,  and  getting  on  the  main  land,  he  brought  a  stone  of  no  mo- 
derate size  to  the  boat,  and  spoke  to  it,  after  turning  it  round  and  ror.nd,  oflen,  in  words 
which  Mellet  apologized  to  me  for  suffering  to  escape  his  memory.  On  his  return 
home  he  brought  the  smd  stone  with  him,  and  placed  it  under  his  pillow,  and  often  ad- 
dressed it,  drawn  from  under  his  head,  in  the  same  form  of  words. 

The  Gan  fly  is  besides  numbered  among  their  magic  instruments  most  remarkable, 
wherever  it  is  known,  as  an  instrument  of  injuring.  The  Laplanders  contend  that  they 
were  flies,  but  you  would  say  that  they  were  evil  spirits,  under  the  name   of  flies. 


■a«*VW»  ^^-'-wi 


% 


i 


480 


ACCOUNT  OFUANIall  LAPf.A.NO  nv  LKi.MA. 


TIkv  add  that  the  sons  receive  them  Iroin  their  wizard  parents,  und  that  the  evil  spirit, 
on  the  failure  of  these,  fumi&hes  new  ones,  under  the  aptieunincc  of  ti  horrid  and  dciorm« 
ed  bird.  They  mention  too,  that  they  ure  kept  in  a  cut.iin  Ixix  commonly  called  Gan* 
Eske,  to  he  forth-coming,  equally  to  injure  man  and  heust,  at  u  seasionable  moment, 
und  thutthc  manner  of  exercising  this  execrable  art  consists  chiefly  in  tliis,  that  wlien 
the  wizard  orders  his  flies  to  fly  out  from  his  box  an  injury  is  done  to  this  or  that 
enemy,  by  whom  he  contend-  an  injury  has  lx.xn  done  at  one  time  or  other  to  him,  yet 
with  this  due  caution,  that  like  be  done  for  like,  and  that  the  revenge  does  not  extend 
a  nail's  breadth  beyond  the  injury  received.  The  flies,  on  receiving  the  order,  instanUy 
fly  out,  and  discharging  their  orders,  return  again  each  into  his  own  box. 

Should  a  swelling  appear,  not  unlike  the  figure  of  a  flounder  (called  in  the  Nor. 
wegian  Flynder)  between  the  flesh  and  skin  as  something  alive,  moving  this  way  and 
that,  it  is  a  sign  of  the  hurt  received  from  the  contact  of  the  flies.  Such  a  symptom 
was  formerly  not  unusual  among  the  Laplanders.  Besides,  did  the  belly  swell,  did 
blood  flow  from  the  mouth  and  nose,  sudden  death  succeeding,  no  doubt  the  re< 
mained  but  that  the  man,  labouring  under  such  symptoms,  was  seized  by  poisoned 
flies.  He  who  was  so  infected,  and  was  ignorant  of  the  magic  art,  so  as  not  to  be 
able  to  recall  his  former  health,  implored  assistance  from  another,  who  was  thought 
able  to  repel  the  malady  by  the  same  means  it  was  brought  on.  There  was  a  mugi> 
clan,  who  was  struck  by  the  ly  of  another,  is  said  to  have  cured  himself.  The  de. 
gree  of  belief  attached  to  these  stories  is  great  with  the  Laplanders,  from  whose  mouth 
1  relate  what  I  have  heard  from  tliem. 

A  certain  writer  mentions  that  the  Laplanders  take  vengeance  on  their  enemies  by 
small  short  leaden  arrows,  which,  infected  with  poison,  they  shoot  very  fiu*,  bringing 
various  and  dangerous  maladies  on  them  by  this  means,  which  turn  in  the  arms  and  legs 
into  cancers  and  other  such  ills. 

The  Juoigen  signifies  song,  which  some  of  the  Laplanders  usually  ^g  by  intervals, 
but  so  confused  and  broken  tnat  it  bears  more  likeness  to  a  howling  than  to  an  artictilate 
voice.  There  are  Laplanders,  who  innocently  and  solely  for  amusement  sing  their 
Juoigen,  these  are  named  Maargos ;  but  the  Juoigen  of  others  is  altogether  supersd- 
tious,  thinking  they  can  keep  off  the  wolves  from  molesting  the  catde  by  such  a  song, 
and  that  they  can  drive  them  away  altogether,  which  can  be  gathered  from  the  tbUow> 
ing  verse,  they  are  used  now  and  then  to  sing.  Kumpi !  don  ednak  vahag  lek  dak- 
kam,  &c.  Wolf  begone,  author  of  many  ills,  here  you  shall  no  longer  stav  :  hence 
begone  to  the  extreme  parts  of  the  world,  or  mean  time  you  shall  be  transfixea  with  ar- 
rows, or  you  shall  perish  by  some  other  means.  Some  magicians  ung  as  well  in  the 
exercise  of  their  art  as  out  of  it ;  others  never.  These  are  called  Judakas  and  Juraak  in 
common. 

The  marician,  when  called  on  to  recover  things  stolen  from  their  owners,  in  said 
to  proceed  m  this  manner.  He  poured  brandy  into  a  bowl ;  and  inspected  the  liquor, 
shewing  the  face  of  the  person  who  looked  into  it ;  cidl*ng  by  name  one  or  another 
whom  he  suspected  of  the  theft  And  as  the  liquor  retumed  the  countenance  as  a 
mirror,  the  very  cunning  ju^er  pretended  that  he  saw  the  image  of  the  thief  in  the 
Uquor,  and  openly  charged  him  with  the  theft,  adding  threats  that  he  himself,  unless 
he  returned  tne  property  stolen,  would  knock  out  his  eye,  or  maim  some  member  of 
his  body.  On  which  the  thief,  dreading  the  eflfects,  lest  he  should  be  deprived  of  au 
eye,  or  mutilated  in  any  of  his  limbs,  restored  what  he  had  stolen  without  delay  to  its 
master.  The  magpician,  intent  (m  the  Uqtiid,  usually  r^)cated  some  solemn  hymn. 


'«  ■ 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANI.4II  LAPLAND  RY  IJf.VMt. 


•131 


Those  of  the  Laplanders,  who  wen  detected  in  these  nefarious  practices,  were  not 
admitted  to  the  church,  and  the  participation  of  sacraments,  without  previous  conliiHsion 
ami  public  ubttulutiun,  while  Von  Wcsten,  the  vicur,  was  living;  u  man  who  merited  the 
(greatest  praise  from  the  church,  but  U'ho  has  immortalized  himself,  from  \\h  instruction 
and  convenioa  of  the  Laplanders. 

CHAP.  XXII....ON  THE  VARIOUS  9UPLR9TITION8  OF  THE  LAPLANDERS. 

That  the  Laplanders  were  formerlv  addicted  to  a  variety  of  superstitions  is  sufficient- 
ty  well  known.  With  some  Thursduy  was  kept  holy,  ut  least  it  was  thought  impious 
to  handle  n-oot  on  that  da;.  Almost  all  held  Saturdav,  some  Friday,  as  holidays,  call, 
ing  this  latter  Fusto-Beive,  that  is,  the  day  of  fasting  above  the  rest. 

A  maritime  Laplander  of  the  name  of  Peter  Peterson,  dwelling  in  one  of  the  bays 
of  west  Finmark,  and  Parish  of  Kiclvig*  commtnonly  called  Smorfiord,  told  me  that 
when  he  once  went  out  to  hunt  hiuvs  on  u  Saturdav,  and  was  from  fatigue  seated  on  the 
ground,  that  a  spectre  with  a  human  visage  and  tlark  garment  ap|H:ared  to  him,  asking 
him  what  he  did  there,  and  on  his  answering  that  he  came  to  hinit  hurcs,  which  he  in- 
tended to  give  to  his  priest,  the  spectre  replied,  what,  do  you  think  that  hares  taken  on 
the  Saturday,  which  snould  be  observed  with  tlie  greatest  veneration,  can  l)e  acceptable 
to  your  priest?  And  then  subjoined  in  caution,  that  he  should  carefully  guard  against 
violating  Saturday,  or  any  other  holy  day  for  the  future,  by  any  profane  exercise.  He 
added  that  from  this  profanation  of  the  ancient  festivals,  that  tne  wild  beasts,  birds, 
and  fishes,  abhorring  and  detesting  the  impiety  of  irreligious  men,  quitting  their  haunts, 
had  fled  away,  and  hastened  into  other  countries.  That  the  same  spectre,  Avhich  hitherto 
presented  itself  in  ragged  garments,  had  soon  after  appeared  to  him  in  a  more  sumptuous 
habit,  addressing  him  in  words  of  this  kind :  you  will  sacrifice  a  cow  to  me ;  when  this 
is  done,  the  sea,  the  uir,  and  earth,  will  bring  forth  again  fishes,  fowl,  and  beasts 
When  this  conversation  was  ended,  the  Laplander,  you  will  suppose  in  consternation  and 
disorder,  returned  home,  sut  a  litde,  but  soon  drew  his  knife  in  a  rage,  and  in  the  midst 
of  these  agitations  of  mind  and  bo<ly  fell  like  a  dying  man  to  the  ground.  His  servants 
fiuthfully  attended  on  him  under  this  loss  of  his  understanding  and  senses,  striving 
now  and  then  to  awaken  him,  by  slight  blows,  but  in  vain.  Meantime  the  apparition 
which  appeared  to  him  in  hunting  presented  itself  to  him  in  his  vision,  using  these 
words :  you  will  never  recover  from  this  disease,  unless  you  sacredly  promise,  when  you 
get  well,  that  you  will,  with  due  rite,  sacrifice  a  cow  to  me.  The  unhappy  man  made 
this  promise,  and  immediately  awoke  fVom  his  trance,  but  so  weak  that  he  could  not 
Mralk;  and  as  he  fancied  even  still  to  see  the  spectre  walking  up  and  down  before  him, 
he  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice  to  those  present  to  help  him,  and  drive  off  the  sjKictre  lest 
he  should  rush  in  upon  him.  Restored  at  last  to  himself,  he  sincerely  laid  open  all  he 
saw  and  heard,  gravely  and  severely  injoining,  that  none  of  bis  people  should  attempt  to 
profane  the  Saturday,  or  any  other  day  that  was  aacred  and  festive.  He  ended  here, 
and  instantly  recited  the  Lonl*s  Prayer,  and  part  of  the  catechism.  On  the  next  day, 
this  said  Laplander  was  visited  by  a  great  many  who  had  accidentally  heard  these  mat- 
ters,  to  whom  he  gave  a  sincere  explanation  of  all  that  happened  to  him,  and  attempted 
to  persuade  them  to  bring  back  and  restore  Saturday,  and  all  the  other  festivals  of  old, 
which  through  time  were  brought  into  disuse,  and  should  for  that  purpose  sacrifice 
lambs  in  order  that  the  former  plenty  with  which  the  coimtry  abounded  should  be  restoft 
ed.  Some  obeyed  his  monitions,  while  others  took  the  whole  vision  for  a  mere  illusion 
and  juggle  of  the  malign  spirit. 

VOL.   I.  3   <^ 


482 


ACCOUNT  OP  DKWnn  LAPl.AND  nV  I.P.KMI. 


For  my  part,  what  to  think  of  this  vision,  whether  it  may  l)c  tnic  or  faUc,  t  leave 
to  {K'niotit  of  ri  flection  to  determine.  This  at  leait  i  can  nufi;^cHt,  that  the  l^unlander 
tu  wiioni  it  ha|)|>ene(l  vvat  a  simple  and  lio.iest  man,  Tree  from  iraiid  of  any  kino.  Ik. 
sides,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  internal  spirit  can  chancre  himself  into  u  thousand 
forms,  it  was  easy  for  him,  who  did  not  scruple  to  tempt  the  Son  of  God,  in  whom  were 
hidden  such  treasures  of  wisdom,  thus  to  attempt  and  circumvent  with  hi?*  wiles  a  poor 
sini|>le  nuui,  incredibly  weak  and  helpless  in  iiimself,  that  he  might  lead  him  with  others 
out  of  t!ic  true  way  to  his  destruction. 

It  was  u  custom  with  them  solemnly  to  keep  the  Nativity  of  Christ,  and  the  sacred  day* 
of  the  holy  virgin.  A  Laplander  of  the  coast  from  a  bay  in  the  parish  of  Alten,  culled 
Lcrrcis-Fiorden,  of  the  name  or  Andrew  Peterson,  related  that  a  certain  object  had  pre- 
sented itself  to  him,  when  once  he  was  bringing  a  load  of  hay  from  the  shed  culled 
Loaawe,  on  which  we  treated  more  at  large  in  another  place,  as  fodder  for  the  cattle,  on 
which  according  to  the  old  style  the  Christmas  was  to  be  celebrated.  The  story  is  thus. 
When  overcome  with  fatigue,  the  Laplander  had  sat  down  on  hia  way,  he  heard  a  hiss- 
ing noise  three  times  repeated,  on  which  in  dismay  he  exclaimed,  O  G<xl,  come  to  my 
nsbistance  1  pray  you  I  He  rose  instantly  on  this,  tmd  laying  aside,  or  dissembling  his  feari, 
he  hastened  home,  but  on  his  way  was  addressed  by  a  clear  shrill  voice  ;  stop  friend,  1  wish 
to  spciik  a  few  words  with  you  ;  on  which  he  stopped,  and  turning  about  he  perceived 
a  figure  opposite  to  him  of  human  shape,  in  a  splendid  dress,  severely  repro\  ing 
him,  because  on  that  day,  on  which  the  festival  of  Christ  had  fallen,  he  was  not 
ashamed  to  undertake  such  a  business,  seriously  affirming  himself  to  be  the  messenger 
of  God,  sent  from  Heaven  for  this  pur|K)sc,  to  instruct  him  and  others,  tliat  the  Na- 
tivity of  Christ,  and  other  holidays  old  style,  were  to  be  kept  holy,  and  that  the  innova- 
tion of  violating  this,  as  well  as  other  festivals,  was  rashly  introduced,  and  that  such  an 
institution  was  merely  human,  and  therefore  of  no  authority  and  obligation :  that 
Thursday  from  twelve  o'clock  to  evening,  and  also  Saturday,  were  to  be  religiously  ob- 
served, and  that  the  reason  of  the  distress  of  grain,  and  other  calamities  with  which 
men  are  afflicted,  is  chiefly  to  be  found  in  that  irreligious  profanation  of  ancient  fes- 
tivals. He  siioke,  and  instantly  disappeared  in  air.  The  Laplander  hastened  home  as 
fast  as  he  could,  but  before  he  came  there  his  speech  failed  him,  and  he  fell  us  if  lifeless 
to  the  ground,  and  no  doubt  would  have  died  in  that  situation,  had  not  some  persons 
been  at  hand,  who,  seeing  the  danger  of  the  man,  took  him  home  to  his  cot,  al^er  lift- 
ing him  up  just  dead  in  their  arms.  After  remaining  some  time  in  this  state  he  awoke, 
related  what  happened,  and  seriously  admonished  his  friends,  according  to  the  mandate 
of  the  angel  who  appeared  to  him,  to  be  observant  of  all  the  old  festivals,  particularly 
Thursdays  and  Saturdays,  all  of  which  should  Ix:  sacredly  and  religiously  revered.  Let 
the  reader  make  his  own  reflections  on  this  story,  as  on  the  former. 

The  day  before  Christmas  the  eating  of  meat  was  forbidden.  A  young:  Laplander 
told  me,  that  on  attempting  to  cat  a  piece  of  meat,  that  he  had  taken  from  off  the  Are,  he 
was  not  only  reproved  by  his  father,  but  th>i  meat  was  taken  even  out  of  his  mouth  by 
him,  after  he  was  severely  chastised  for  atteir  pting  to  eat  it. 

'J'he  evenings  preceding  the  birth  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  feast  of  the  Vii^in  Mary 
old  st^'le,  were  also  fasts ;  the  one  for  the  good  education  of  boys,  the  other  in  honour 
f)f  the  Joulo-Gadze,  or  assembly  of  the  Yules,  of  whom  we  spoke  in  chapter  the  nine- 
teenth, on  the  gods  of  the  Laplanders.  On  the  birth  of  Christ  it  was  a  custom,  that  the 
#bmen  should  pile  up  boiled  meats  of  various  kinds  in  their  aprons,  and  should  carry  them 
to  the  cow-house,  to  be  hung  up  in  it  for  three  days,  and  on  the  third  day  to  return, 
solemnly  to  consume  the  provisions  they  had  laid  up.  It  was  also  a  custom  to  set  food 
on  the  same  day  before  the  crows. 


ACCOUNT  or  DANtttll  LAPI.ANU  IIY  IJRMi, 


483 


For  u  huhhatui  tolic  with  Ii'ih  wife,  under  uccuNioiml  visiu  of  iltncM,  was  accounted 
wicked ;  neiilier  wan  lu  |)cTmitt(d  tu  touch  her  clothes  inuler  such  u  situntion.  It  was 
aiko  interdicted  to  her,  while  under  tiiis  illnc-.<i<t,  tu  walit  over  the  foot  ol'  the  huihand, 
which  was  statched  out,  us  he  niit  on  the  ground  i  nor  wus  it  |)ern)itted  her  either  to  gn 
over  his  gun  thutwanonthr  ground,  or  to  chmb  to  the  top  of  the  hut,  or  to  trcud  on 
that  part  of  the  shoa*  where  tiie  fisliermcn  usually  exnoscd  their  iisheH,  ur  to  r.iilk  the 
kinc.  When  they  recovered,  they  utually  Wiushcd  their  heads  in  water  fn)ni  the  eaul« 
dron ;  which  when  done,  they  took  care  th  r  thecauUhon  should  Ik*  cleansed  with  bran, 
and  that  u  cake  hhould  he  afterwardn  n\adc  lu  it,  which  women  alone  were  pernuited  to 
CMt  of. 

A  wotni'h  when  with  child  h)oks  to  uccrtiiin  sitar  which  is  next  to  the  moon,  judging, 
from  itH  nearness  or  remotnuss,  whether  the  young  nhc  carries  in  her  womb  should 
yield  to  fate,  or  Ix:  born  under  a  hapoy  omen. 

To  put  u  handle  to  an  uxc  in  the  house  of  a  lying-in  woman  was  impious.  The  Lap- 
landers cautiously  provided  against  any  thing  twisted  or  knotty  in  the  garments  of  a  |kt. 
son  muler  such  a  situation,  leu  by  a  vain  imagination  that  such  knots  would  render  the 
birth  of  the  woman  more  difficult.  Tiic  garments  with  which  she  was  clothed  when 
in  her  labour  she  soon  put  aside,  never  to  put  on  or  wear  again.  She  was  ke  )t  to  that 
part  of  die  hut  where  she  lay  in,  nor  was  she  |K-rmitted  to  change  until  she  rose  in  a 
suite  of  health. 

The  Lapland  women,  for  the  most  part,  suckle  their  own  children,  some  two  years  and 
upwards.  They  were  of  opinion,  during  their  ignorance,  that  the  children  would  enjoy 
u  ga*atcr  degree  of  felicity  the  greater  number  of  fasts  they  were  suckled  from  the 
teat. 

It  was  customary  with  the  Laplanders  to  name  their  children  according  to  Uiet»  dreams. 

Besides  the  names  common  to  the  Laplanders  with  the  rest  of  the  people  of  Norway, 
and  given  them  by  the  priest  at  the  time  of  their  baptism,  as  Nicholas,  Oiaus,  Peter,  &c. 
which  according  to  the  genius  of  the  Lapland  language  are  dift'erentlv  written  and  pro- 
nounced ;  us  Anders  in  the  Lapland  sounds  Anda,  or  Adda ;  Svend,  that  is,  Svcno, 
Spein;  Jens,  that  is,  Janus,  Junthc ;  Joseph,  Juks;  Lars,  that  is,  Laurentius,  Lalla; 
Nicolaus,  Nikke,  &c.  Some  had  names  given  them  from  a  kind  of  baptismal  fount  at 
home ;  us  Utze  Beivatzh,  that  is,  Liule  Sun :  Quive,  Mielze,  Akkie,  Guia,  Nokkc, 
and  others  of  this  class.  For  it  has  been  a  custom  formerly,  which  is  even  retained  to  this 
day,  of  which  I  have  been  an  eye-witness,  that  infants,  from  the  day  of  their  birth 
to  a  confirmed  age,  should  be  daily  washed  in  a  warm  cauldron  ;  which  practice,  as  it  is 
undertaken  solely  for  their  health  and  strength  of  body,  has  nothing  hurtful  in  it.  If 
the  child  is  to  have  any  other  name  than  its  first  genuine  one,  that  is  given  in  the  first 
washing,  when  the  navel-string  is  loosed  from  it,  in  this  form  of  words  :  De  mon  baasam 
duu  dam  Nabmi  N.  N.  ja  dam  nabmi  bunurist  kalkak  aellet,  I  wash  thee  in  the  name 
of  N.  N.  in  which  you  will  tlvive.  During  this  time  some  one  name,  either  of  the  afore- 
said, or  taken  from  its  ancestors,  is  given  to  the  infant :  the  holy  water  was  boiled  toge- 
ther with  the  bark  of  the  alder-tree,  and  sprinkled  on  die  infant.  When  afterwards  the 
child  falls  ill,  or  cries  more  than  it  should,  it  is  imputed  to  no  other  cause  than  because  a 
just  and  genuine  name  was  not  given  it ;  and  also  asserted,  that  there  was  an  ancestor  by 
whose  name  he  could  be  more  properly  and  fitly  called.  A  new  washing  was  undertaken 
when  a  new  name  was  acquired,  taken  from  one  of  his  ancestors ;  and  this  is  the  reason 
why  you  meet  with  Laplanders  frequently  that  have  two  or  ihree  names,  one  of  which 
is  given  in  Ixiptism,  the  rest  in  private  washings.  But  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to 
prove  by  instances  that  there  are  Laplanders,  who,  besides  the  family  name  given  by  the 

3  q.2 


i 


484 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BV  LEEMS. 


priest  in  baptism  in  the  usual  manner,  had  also  other  names :  one  example  will  be  sufH- 
cicnt.  When  at  a  place  at  Porsanger  bay,  called  in  the  Norwegian  Horrigen,  in  the 
Lapland  Vucppe,  there  were  two  young  men,  one  named  Nicholas,  the  other  Gunner : 
whe.;cvcr  these  spoke  together,  by  a  custom  received  in  Norway,  they  addressed  each 
other  rs  if  named  alike,  using  this  form,  Gaimazhjam,  that  is,  my  dear  namesake.  This 
seemed  strange  to  me  at  first,  well  knowing  the  one  was  named  Gunner,  and  the  other 
Njcholas.  The  circumstance  explained  itself,  when,  in  addition  to  the  baptismal  name, 
I  learned  that  another,  and  a  different  one  from  it,  was  given  to  each  in  the  domestic 
washing,  namely,  Quive,  by  which  they  were  each  double  named  and  namesakes. 

When  the  ceremony  of  washing  was  over,  a  certain  meat  and  drink,  called  in  Lapland 
Noaaide  BorromusK  and  Noaade-Jukkamush,  that  is,  magic  meat  and  drink,  was  prepar- 
ed for  the  child,  to  the  intent  that  he  should  take  in  with  these  feasts  the  magic  art,  and 
tliat  he  should  be  solemnly  initiated  in  them.  Then  a  solemn  feast  was  made  for  the  sake 
of  him,  which,  ^vhen  it  was  ended,  they  took  care  that  he  should  be  instructed  in  the  Juoi- 
gen,  or  that  very  celebrated  song,  so  familiar  to  and  so  much  used  by  the  Laplanders,  so 
that  the  boy  before  he  could  speak  distinctly  had  mastered  the  elements  of  this  rude  me- 
lody, or,  if  it  pleases  better,  this  howling.  They  further  taught  him,  as  he  advanced  in 
years  and  understanding,  the  mysteries  of  the  nefarious  and  diabolic  art,  and  the  whole 
method  of  idol  sacrifice  and  worship.  It  was  a  custom  with  them  to  put  a  piece  of  steel, 
as  a  charm  against  any  ill,  with  infants  in  the  cradle. 

It  was  customary  too  among  them  to  offer  vows  up  in  the  temples  for  the  recovery  of 
the  sick,  which  act  was  called  in  the  Lapland  Kirkoi  Zhjuorvot,  to  invoke  the  temple. 
Some  Laplanders,  discharging  this  duty,  usually  rowed  out  into  the  open  sea,  and  in  boats, 
which  they  turned  round  three  times  with  the  course  of  the  sun,  made  their  supplications 
on  their  bent  knees.  They  declined  being  numbered  in  tlie  registers,  or  telling  the  amoun^ 
lest  a  computation  of  this  kind  should  portend  and  entail  on  tliem  the  destruction  and 
death  of  their  friends.  In  the  coffins  of  the  deceased  it  was  their  custom  to  put  up  food, 
that  they  may  have  wherewith  to  subsist  on.  A  deceased  person  was  laid  in  the  porch 
(»f  the  temple  of  Alten,on  account  of  the  cold,  which  was  at  the  time  extreme,and  prevented 
it  from  being  then  buried,  in  order  that  it  should  be  taken  to  the  grave,  when  the  weather 
would  admit.  Meantime  it  happened  that  some  curious  person  removing  the  lid,  and 
looking  into  the  coffin,  perceived  a  spoon  and  a  cake  of  meal  baked,  lying  by  the  side  of 
the  corpse.  They  are  also  said  to  put  up  the  bow  and  arrow  they  usually  used  when  hunt- 
ing  in  the  coffin  with  them.  The  rein-dter  which  drew  the  deceased  to  the  grave  was 
slain  as  a  victim,  and,  when  eaten,  the  bones  were  interred.  When  the  body  was  buried, 
it  was  usual  to  cover  with  a  stone  that  part  of  the  cot  where  the  body  lay  before  sepulture : 
and  as  often  as  any  of  the  family  died,  they  instantly  quitted  the  place  and  went  elsewhere 
to  live. 

It  was  a  practice  among  some  to  hang  up  a  sheep's  bone,  wrapt  up  in  hay  and  wool, 
in  a  hay-loft,  to  protect  the  cattle,  as  they  superstitiously  feigned,  against  the  injury  and 
severity  of  a  cold  March.  To  mark  the  cattle  with  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  to  hang  on  a 
cow,  near  die  time  of  parturition,  a  piece  of  steel  to  hit  against,  and  give  good  luck  to 
the  young,  and  to  mark  also  their  front,  when  just  born,  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  after 
sprinkling  equally  the  dam  and  the  young  with  flour,  was  custo;iiary  among  the  Lap. 
landers.  It  was  counted  impious  in  the  males  to  feed  on  the  beestings  of  a  cow  that  had 
just  calved,  unless  they  were  sprinkled  with  meal. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  the  rein-deer  are  suddei>ly  carried  off"  by  death,  for  which 
reason  the  Laplanders,  in  possession  to-day  of  large  herds,  have  in  a  little  time  few  of 
them  left.    They  impute  such  a  calamity  to  the  place,  and  for  that  reason  not  only  quit 


ACCOUNT  OF  IiAMSri  LAl'LANU  «Y  LEEMS. 


485 


so 


it,  going  to  another  at  a  considerable  distance  from  it,  but  burn  all  the  excrement  of  the 
animal  before  they  depart.  Women  are  not  permitted  to  eat  the  flesh  of  the  head  of  the 
reindeer.  It  is  not  permitted  to  males  or  females  to  eat  of  the  limb  of  any  animal, 
when  they  have  felt  a  like  pain  with  it  in  dicir  own  ;  so  that  should  a  Laplander  happen 
to  be  ill  in  his  eyes  or  back,  he  should  rc;Iigiously  abstain  from  the  eating  of  the  eyes  and 
back  of  the  animal. 

The  Laplanders  to  a  man  refrain  most  obstinately  from  eating  swine's  flesh.  If  yot 
inquire  the  cause  of  diis  abstinence,  they  tell  you  that  swine  are  the  magicians'  horses. 
That  they  are  averse  to  it  in  reality  1  am  convinced ;  but  the  true  cause  it  has  not  been 
in  my  power  ever  to  ascertain,  nor  will  any  one  easily  be  led  to  think  that  they  themselves 
assign  the  true  reason.  But  they  call  the  swine  Tazhja-Guouzhja,  that  is,  the  Norman» 
or  Norwegian,  bear,  doubtlessly  for  this  r°ason,  that  this  an'.mal,  whose  flesh  the  Nor- 
wegians so  eagerly  eat,  is  not  much  unlike  the  beiu*  in  form. 

They  have  a  fancy  that  beasts,  birds,  and  fish,  are  averse  to  the  places  where  sacred 
buildings  have  been  raised,  and  for  this  reason  very  seldom  attempt  hunting  in  places 
of  this  kind,  by  reason  of  their  distrust  of  success.  Whenever  any  of  the  family  went 
out  to  fish,  those  who  remained  at  home  thought  it  impious  to  put  a  brand  in  a  vessel 
filled  with  water  to  extinguish  it,  lest  an  injury  should  happen  to  the  fishermen.  On 
their  return  they  did  not  like  to  spread  their  fish  on  that  part  of  the  shore  which  the 
women  frequented,  thinking  if  they  did  that  their  success  would  be  baulked  by  it. 
Whenever  a  Laplander  vOok  a  greater  flounder,  as  called,  he  usually  marked  it  with  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  when  he  took  out  the  hook.  It  was  accounted  impious  to  put  the 
water  in  which  this  fish  was  boiled  before  a  she-goat  to  drink,  lest  the  abundance  and 
catchii^  should  derive  any  detriment  from  it. 

They  are  not  very  willing  to  call  a  bear  by  his  proper  and  genuine  name,  Guouzhja, 
fearing  lest  so  doing  the  savage  beast  would  tear  their  herds  more  mercilessly ;  they  call 
him  then,  suppressing  the  name  Moedda- Aigja,  the  old  man  with  the  fur  garment. 

Bears  when  killed  iave  been  brought  home  in  a  kind  of  triumph.  On  their  return 
they  yrected  a  cot  near  that  in  which  they  lesided,  into  which  they  did  not  enter  until 
they  had  at  first  stript  off*  their  clothes,  considering  it  as  impious  to  enter  it  in  the  clothes 
in  which  they  Iiad  killed  the  bear.  The  males  stayed  three  days  here,  but  the  women 
during  that  time  inhabited  the  cot :  in  die  mean  time  no  one  was  permitted  tvi  enter  the 
dwelling  of  another.  In  the  newly  erected  cot  the  males  cooked  the  bear's  flesh ;  on 
wliich  occasion  they  did  not  use  the  accustomed  term  Vuoshjam,  cook,  but  Guordestam 
in  its  place.  When  cooked  the  men  regaled  themselves  with  it,  giving  part  of  it  to  the 
women,  with  special  care  that  they  should  not  have  any  part  of  die  haunch,  nor  Uiat  it 
should  be  given  them  through  the  usual  door,  but  put  in  through  a  rent  made  in  the 
covcrLio:  of  the  cot,  in  the  place  where  the  pots  and  kettles  were  put,  mentioned  in 
chapter  il^e  fifth.  Through  this  place,  by  which  bear's  as  well  as  rein-deer's  flesh  was 
put  in,  neithci  entrance  nor  outlet  was  permitted  to  the  women.  When  the  bear's  flesh 
was  consumed,  the  bones  were  laid  in  the  earth ;  and  after  three  days  that  they  lived 
separately,  a  mutual  intercourse  was  then  opened  for  them.  He  who  had  the  good  for- 
tune of  killing  the  bear,  from  that  time  took  it  ill  if  any  one  passed  behind  him. 

ScheflTer  tediously  describes  a  great  number  of  sui)erstitious  ceremonies  used  in  bear- 
hunting,  the  truth  of  all  I  cannot  vouch  for,  neither  from  vhat  I  actually  know,  or  hear 
firom  others ;  for  in  that  part  of  the  country  in  which  I  discharged  the  function  of  a 
missionary  a  bear  was  seldom  killed ;  and  to  the  whole  of  this  account  of  his  on  this 
part  of  the  subject  I  agree ;  nor  is  there  any  thing  in  it  that  exceeds  an  ordinary  belief, 
in  my  opinion. 


486 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LF.EMS. 


^ 


When  discharging  leaden  balls  from  their  muskets  they  make  use  of  obscene  ex- 
pressions, and  were  of  an  opinion  that  the  wolf  hud  the  power  of  fasiciiiating  their  pieces, 
and  could  prevent  their  hitting  the  murk. 

A  certain  bird,  of  black  colour,  with  a  white  streak  going  round  the  neck,  a  constant 
inhabitant  of  the  cataracts,  called  in  Lapland  K.ioik-G;irheok,  in  Norwegian  Elvc-Katd, 
was  counted  lucky  ;  could  any  one  catch  sucii  a  bird,  he  kept  it  carefully,  and  hud  it 
in  great  estimation.  A  certain  Laplander  ot  i'.<.-  mountains,  by  name  Juhn  Jonsen,  by 
the  Laplanders  called  Hano,  a  man  of  wealth,  living  at  Ozejok,  a  place  then  belonging 
to  Swedish  Lapland,  wiis  said  to  have  taken  a  t  i  id  of  this  sort,  and  to  have  kept  it  alive 
as  a  thing  of  sacred  and  inestimable  value,  in  a  \\'hite  shoe,  or  Kamug,  and  would  not 
fling  it  away  when  dead,  but  preserved  it  as  an  ubject  of  great  value,  little  doubting  that 
fortune  would  be  propitious  to  him  while  he  kept  chis  bird.  On  this  man  see  more  in 
chapter  the  fifteenth,  on  the  manners  of  the  Lapi:indcrs. 

If  any  man  happened  to  come  under  a  tree  vvhtre  the  cuckoo  kept,  and  it  raised  its 
note  before  it  Red,  he  thought  it  a  happy  omen  for  him.  To  have  found  the  eggs  of 
this  bird  was  regarded  as  a  happy  omen ;  the  head  of  the  person  who  eat  the  eggs  of 
such  a  bird  was  to  be  covered  with  a  kettle.  To  kill  a  cuckoo  was  always  thought  ill 
luck.  And  if  any  one  heard  him  when  fasting,  in  the  beginning  of  spring,  this  was 
deemed  an  unlucky  omen,  that  he  would  be  on  bad  terms  all  the  next  year  with  his 
neighbour.  To  avert  this  bad  omen  he  forthwith  tore  the  bark  from  the  first  tree  that 
presented  itself  to  eat,  after  going  three  times  round  it. 

If  any  one  in  the  beginning  of  spring  had  heard  the  cry  of  tlie  Lom,  a  kind  of  large 
bird,  when  fasting,  he  persuaded  himself  that  all  that  year's  produce  of  milk  could  not 
be  curdled,  or  turned  into  cream,  but  would  be  like  whey.  They  had  a  superstition 
too,  that  if  they  played  with  fire,  even  in  jest,  that  the  young  of  the  rein-deer  would  be 
blind.     It  was  a  custom  also  to  mark  the  doors  with  the  sign  of  the  cross. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  sun  in  Lapland,  in  the  winter,  for  the  space  of  seven  weeks,  is 
below  the  plane  of  the  horizon,  and  ur.*^"*  the  lower  hemisphere ;  and  that  the  same 
does  not  set  in  summer  for  the  said  space  of  time ;  and  hence  a  custom,  that  on  its 
return  after  seven  weeks  darkness  they  anoint  their  doors. 

They  have  a  foolish  belief  that  stones,  which  are  weightier  than  their  size  and  outward 
figure  seem  to  require,  had  in  them  somethi;:^  preternatural  and  uncommon. 

They  believed  that  thunder  struck  their  wizards  with  horror,  even  killed  them. 
With  this  persur.ion  not  a  small  number  of  Norwegians  was  impressed.  Hence  the 
proverb.  That  ii  vunder  did  not  exist,  wizards  would  destroy  the  universe.  They  say, 
that  on  the  sigl'  of  lightning,  they  run  up  and  do^vn  the  woods,  struck  with  horror, 
until  they  fir  ^  a  hollow  tree  to  conceal  themselves  in,  which  was  just  blasted  with 
lightnirq:. 

There  ':,  no  doubt  but  that  the  Laplanders  cherished  many  more  superstitions,  but 
to  dwell  longer  on  them  would  be  tedious,  having  already  adduced  examples  enough 
to  prove  to  demonstration  the  errors  of  this  most  miserable  people. 


CHAP.  XXIII....ON  THE  LAPLAND  MISSION. 

A  certain  distinguished  bishop  of  Drontheim,  named  Eric  Bredal,  who  filled  the 
episcopal  see  from  the  year  1643  to  1672,  exerted  himself  with  the  greatest  industry  in 
the  instruction  of  t!ie  Laplanders  in  divine  knowledge.  He  not  only  made  learned 
mastei-s,  but  even  in  his  own  house  took  care  that  the  children  of  the  Laplanders 
should  be  instructed,  as  also  at  the  houses  of  many  of  the  clergy  in  the  country.  Those 


I 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LFXMS. 


487 


who  had  attained  a  due  knowledge  of  the  divine  truths  were  dispersed  here  and  there 
through  the  mountains,  by  the  connnand  of  the  bishop,  among  the  Lapliindcrs  to  be 
yet  instructed  in  their  duty.  Yet  this  distiibution  did  not  produce,  from  a  variety  of 
obstacles  that  occurred,  that  instruction  and  conversion  of  the  Laplanders  to  the  ex. 
tent  that  was  wished  for.  But  the  royal  mission,  which  was  most  graciously  insti- 
tuted in  the  year  1714,  has  brought  the  Laplanders  to  that  degree  of  Christian  know- 
ledge, surrounded  before  with  thick  clouds  of  error,  that  the  light  of  the  divine  evan- 
gelists and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  now  shines  on  them,  which,  as  being  tae  singular 
blest.ing  of  the  ever  adored  and  Almighty  God,  united  with  the  unwearied  ind  chris- 
tian endeavours  of  the  Danish  kings,  the  whole  band  of  Christian  princes  should  fol- 
low with  gratitude.  This  mission  extended  through  all  the  governments  under  the 
Danish  sceptre,  and  of  course  through  three  provinces,  namely,  Finmark,  Norland, 
and  no  small  part  of  the  province  of  Drontheim. 

This  pious  and  glorious  work  was  begun  in  the  following  manner :  Frederick  the 
Fourth,  of  blessed  memory,  when  he  came  to  the  throne,  sent  a  certain  expert  and  able 
man  (for  he  had  long  before  turned  over  this  mission  in  his  mind)  named  Paul  Resen, 
to  the  northern  countries  and  Finmark ;  who,  on  examining  these  countries,  should 
bring  in  an  exact  report  of  them  to  his  serene  and  royal  majesty.  This  Paul  Resen, 
who  was  afterwards  commissary  and  camp  master  at  Bergen,  reported  his  knowledge 
pn  this  matter  in  the  year  1707.  When  this  was  done,  his  majesty  issued  his  man- 
date to  Doctor  Peter  Krog,  bishop  of  the  diocese  of  Drontheim,  for  the  purpose  of 
selecting  capable  men  for  discharging  the  duty  of  the  mission  in  the  northern  coun- 
tries, and  in  Finmark.  In  the  year  1714  a  strong  hand  was  put  to  this  work,  as  men- 
tioned above,  yet  it  is  as  yet  reserved  for  the  glorious  undertaking  of  their  serene  majes- 
ties of  Denmark.  A  college  was  therefore  erected  at  Copenhagen,  for  promoting  the 
progress  of  evangelical  learning,  by  the  father  of  his  country  and  of  the  church,  in  the 
seat  of  empire,  who,  that  he  might  the  more  easily  compass  his  object,  joined  his  coun- 
sels with  men  of  considerable  knowledge,  and  such  as  were  zealous  for  the  exten- 
sion of  the  church  of  Christ,  natives  as  well  as  foreigners,  concerning  the  comple- 
tion of  this  pious  and  glorious  work.  This  plan  made  tor  the  conversion  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, containing  thirty-one  articles,  he  took  care  should  be  printed  on  the  nineteenth 
of  January  1715,  in  Danish  and  German,  which,  by  a  circular  letter,  signed  on  the 
ninth  of  March  of  the  same  year,  he  sent  not  only  to  all  the  governors  of  the  pro- 
vinces and  the  bishops,  in  Denmark  and  Norway,  commanding  that  they  should  pub- 
lish it  in  their  own  provinces,  but  sent  it  also  to  others,  natives  as  well  as  foreigners, 
particularly,  in  a  letter  written  in  Latin,  to  the  Society  at  London  for  propagating  the 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion.  When  this  was  done,  promises  of  aid  and  coun- 
sels for  supporting  this  work  came  from  all  quarters.  Seven  very  learned  men  and 
divines  of  the  kingdom  peculiarly  zealous  for  the  propagation  in  the  diocese  of  Dron- 
theim composed  this  glorious  counsel :  these  were  Janus  Juul,  pastor  of  the  church 
and  president  ofthcNordmaern  presidency  :  Amund  Barhorv,  pastor  of  the  church  of 
Quernaes,  in  the  same  prefecture.  Thomas  Von  Westen,  then  pastor  of  the  congre- 
gation in  the  presidency  of  Romsdal,  afterwards  reader  of  theology  at  Drontheim, 
and  vicar  of  the  college  of  mission,  &c.  &c.  &c. 

After  these  had  successfully  discharged  the  duties  of  their  trust,  three  pious  and 
worthy  mibsionaries  were  sent  into  Finmark,  in  three  divisions  ;  the  first  into  W^ar- 
anger  and  Thana,  in  the  east ;  the  second  into  Laxefiord  bay,  in  the  east,  and  to  the 
bay  of  Porsanger  %  the  third  to  Halsund,  and  the  district  of  the  bay  of  Alten,  in  the 
western  Finma'-k. 


488 


ACCOUNT  OF  DANISH  LAPLAND  BV  LEE  MS- 


I 


But  the  great  inconveniences  that  the  Lapland  missionary  has  to  stru^e  with  may 
be  easily  judged,  from  the  reception  he  meets  with  in  the  hut  of  the  m»«-itnne  inhabitant 
where  he  puts  up ;  from  his  Uving  among  his  cattle ;  annoyed  with  their  nastincss ; 
the  disagrccuble  and  ofi'cnsivc  smells  excited  from  it.  What  this  is  may  be  easily  in> 
fcrred  by  those,  who,  from  their  early  days,  have  not  been  used  to  this  situation. 

Nor  is  he  better  off  with  the  mountain  Laplander.  His  habitation  is  no  better  than 
a  small  boughed  cot,  full  of  rents,  which  are  not  even  in  the  middle  of  winter  stopped 
up. 

He  is  ever  annoyed  with  thick  black  smoke :  from  the  instant  the  fire  is  lighted  the 
whole  cot  is  filled,  from  the  vent-hole  in  the  roof  to  the  bottom,  with  an  abundance  of 
the  foulest  smoke,  that  the  eyes  can  scarcely  be  opened  without  injury.  As  the  fire 
kindles  up  it  decreases  a  little,  that,  should  a  traveller  sit  even  on  the  ground,  yet  he 
cannot  get  out  of  the  sphere  of  it ;  but  never  is  he  more  plagued  than  when  the  wind 
'ehemently  blows  all  over  the  cot ;  then  it  rages  with  all  its  fury  ;  that,  enveloped  in  a 
thick  mist  of  it,  he  is  surrounded,  not  without  a  signal  injury  to  his  eyes. 

To  this  is  added  the  further  molestation,  equal  to  the  former,  namely,  the  vapour 
that  ascends  from  the  wood  fresh  cut  and  moist,  when  laid  on  the  fire.  The  foul  va> 
pour  of  this  is  sometimes  even  worse  than  the  smoke  itself. 

To  the  other  incommoditics  is  added,  and  with  reason,  that  insufferable  cold,  which 
attacks  this  quarter  of  the  world  beyond  the  conception  of  any  man,  and  even  pene* 
trates  with  ease  into  the  ojien  tents  of  the  Laplanders.  For  it  often  happened  to  myself 
while  among  the  mountaineers,  that,  on  walking  in  the  morning,  I  could  perceive^ 
under  the  blanket  of  skins  that  covered  me,  my  breath  turned  to  a  hoar  frost.  When 
sitting  to  write  on  the  floor  of  the  cot,  on  the  desk  placed  between  my  legs,  though  the 
inkstand  was  placed  near  the  hearth,  heated'  with  a  constant  fire,  yet  it  nas  happened 
more  than  once  that  the  ink  froze,  while  writing,  in  the  pen.  Wlien  I  took  a  place  at 
the  fire  to  warm  myself,  my  feet,  as  turned  to  the  hearth,  were  warmed  even  to  scorching, 
while  my  back,  which  was  from  the  fire,  trembled  almost  through  cold.  But  the  excess 
of  the  cold  in  winlv  > ,  how  great  it  is  in  the  Lapland  mountains  will  appear  from  this  ale. 
count  of  mine  from  experience.  A  fire  is  kept  continually  burning,  as  is  the  custom  of 
this  people,  piled  up  in  the  middle  of  the  tent,  recruited  with  fresh  fuel  perpetually  put  on 
it.  The  covering  is  at  the  distance  of  three  ells  from  the  fire-place.  This  when  stated, 
who  could  imagine  that  a  blazing  fire,  and  bursting  out  into  high  flames,  could  not  pre- 
vent  its  freezing  within,  or  at  least  that  it  would  thaw^  and  prevent  the  cold  from  hard- 
ening  frost  in  the  tent  ?  But  the  very  contrary  is  the  eflfect.  For,  when  sitting  before 
the  tire,  I  well  remember,  what  exceeds  belief,  I  found  that  part  of  the  wall  wliich,  by 
reason  of  the  shade  of  my  body  did  not  receive  the  heat  of  the  fire,  frozen,  and  retain 
on  its  surface  as  it  were  my  likeness  painted  in  white. 

Nor  was  there  a  small  inconvenience  fi"om  the  want  of  good  and  wholesome  beverage : 
for  whether  in  the  tent  of  a  mountain  or  maritime  Laplander,  there  was  nothing  to 
quench  the  thirst  but  cold  water,  sometimes  mingled  with  snow;  and  on  failure  of  this, 
the  snow  alone  was  melted  in  a  kettle  over  the  fire. 

Nor  must  a  missionary  expect,  in  hospitable  receptions  of  this  sort,  a  soft  and  downy 
bed,  in  whose  place  is  substituted  a  rough  rein-deer's  hide,  on  the  bare  ground,  or  at 
least  on  a  few  planed  pieces  of  wood,  with  the  traveller's  clothes  pkiced  under  his  head 
as  a  pillow.  When  kiiddownto  repose,  he  well  nigh  touches  the  snow  with  his  head, 
removed  at  least  from  it  by  a  palm's  space ;  for  he  lies  on  the  ground,  his  feet  toward  the 
fire,  and  his  head  against  the  wall,  which,  as  observed  above,  is  on  the  extremity  sur- 
rounded with  y    ^letual  snows,  and  intrenched  as  if  by  a  rampart. 


• 


ACCOUNT  OP  UAMSII  LAPLAND  Bt  LEEMS. 


481 


In  addition  to  all  these  incommoditicH  which  rather  round  a  missionary  in  this  part 
of  the  world,  that  inquietude,  painrul  enough,  arising  from  being  necessarily  constrained 
to  the  cot  of  the  Laplanders  family,  is  still  iu  the  rear.  When  at  leisure  for  study  and 
meditation,  the  tnind  looks  for  retirement  and  tranquility.  But  the  missionary  must 
meditate  in  the  cot  itself,  in  the  midst  of  the  occupations  and  talk  of  the  servants,  the 
crying  of  infants  in  their  cradle ;  or  he  must  walk  out  in  the  open  air,  where  the  cold 
and  falling  snows  in  no  small  degree  disturb  his  mind,  intent  on  study  and  meditation. 
All  these  evils  1  have  experienced,  not  ignorant  that  you  my  brethren  will  have  to 
struggle,  appointed  to  the  same  office,  as  I  formerly  have  been,  with  all  the  incommo< 
dities  and  molestations  I  have  just  described. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  a  missionary  traversing  the  mountains  in  winter,  in  discharge 
of  his  duty,  comes  to  the  tent  of  a  Laplander,  at  the  time  when  he  is  preparing  to  go  to 
another  quarter,  on  account  of  a  deficiency  of  moss,  which  the  rein-deer  have  eat  up  in 
the  place  he  has.  He  takes  with  him  his  tent,  his  family,  and  his  whole  herd  of  rein-deer, 
now  in  need  of  subsistence.  In  this  case  he  is  obliged  to  follow  the  Laplander,  as  he 
wanders,  regardless  of  air,  of  cold  or  snows,  finding  no  rest  until  the  Laplander,  after 
he  has  found  a  place  fit  for  himself  and  his  rein-deer,  now  wanting  to  be  fed,  has 
pitched  and  fully  furnished  the  cot,  clearing  away  the  snow,  and  fitted  it  up  with  all  its 
props  and  appendages. 

It  happens  also  that  the  missionary  together  with  his  fellow  guide,  which  they  call 
themselves  Oaoppes,  when  travelling  through  the  mountains,  meets  with  a  great  fall  of 
snow  directly  in  his  eyes  and  face,  that  he  is  under  the  necessity  of  veiling  both,  lest  he 
should  be  altogether  overpowered  by  the  excessive  heaps  which  are  whirled  about  by  the 
vrind  in  circles.  He  who  is  in  this  predicament  is  so  buried  by  the  falling  and  agitat- 
ed snow,  as  if  in  an  excessive  thick  mist,  as  scarcely  to  be  able  to  see  the  rein-deer  that 
^ws  him,  a  circumstance  that  often  befel  me  when  passing  over  the  mountains.  And 
since  the  traveller  is  almost  deprived  of  all  use  of  sight  by  this  misfortune,  it  follows, 
that  there  is  danger,  lest  gettingoutof  the  right  path,  on  account  of  th.:  various  and  op- 
posing precipices,  he  should  fall  into  the  ^«atest  risque  of  his  life ;  and  doubtlessly  many 
would  have  perished,  did  not  the  God  of  Israel,  who  governs  the  universe  by  his  Proyi- 
dence,  protect  them  under  the  covering  of  his  wings. 

Another  inconvenience  arises  from  the  ice,  when  the  cold  is  very  severe,  and  much 
snow  b  falling,  fastening  on  the  cheeks  of  the  travellers,  which  like  a  plate  covering  the 
face,  b  aftenimtb  torn  off*,  and  from  icicles  sticking  to  the  eye  brows,  which  occasion 
much  painful  trouble  to  those  who  are  not,  from  their  early  years,  accustomed  to  these 
ilb.  Even  when  you  have  got  over  these  incommodities  and  dangers,  you  are  arrived 
in  a  cot  filled  with  the  foulest  smoke,  a  circumstance  which  creates  no  small  degree  of 
molestation  to  the  traveller,  and  to  pass  over  the  other  ills,  it  is  sufficient  to  mention  this 
one  alone,  that  if  his  stay  is  many  days  in  the  cot,  this  smoke  causes  his  face  to  inflame, 
and  swell  up  with  a  variety  of  pustules. 

Should  it  ever  happen,  which  in  reality  happened  to  a  mbsionary  in  passing  over  the 
mountains,  ehher  that  the  length  of  the  way,  or  the  heap  of  snows  falling,  or  for  any 
other  reason  whatever,  raght  now  pressing  on,  you  cannot  reach  any  one  inn,  you  must 
then  remain  cinder  the  open  sky  without  covering,  keeping  off  the  cold  and  snows,  in 
the  sledge  through  the  whole  night,  or  if  the  place  happens  to  be  woody  you  must  re- 
msdn  under  the  covering  of  some  trees,  cut  down  from  the  highest  wood,  driven  into  the 
ground  and  covered  over  with  a  thick  linen  canopy,  which  the  traveller  takes  with  him 
tor  tliis  purpose,  until  the  break  of  day.  Thb  shelter,  vile  and  broken  as  it  is,  is  better 
than  bemg  m  the  open  air ;  each  mode  of  passing  the  night  firom  experience  is  known 

VOL.    I,  3    R 


'I; 


it 


Hi 


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i 


i  I 


I 


'\ 


^        : 


490 


ACCOUNT  OP  DANISH  LAPLAND  BY  LBEMS. 


to  me.  And  to  comprehend  all  in  a  few  words,  so  many  inconveniences  and  distresses 
surround  and  exercise  a  Lapland  missionary,  so  many  labours  to  undergo,  whether  you 
look  to  the  cold  of  the  climate,  which  in  ita  season  is  almost  iMsufferable,  or  reflect  on  the 
reception  you  meet  with  in  a  small  and  amoky  cot,  or  the  subienance  of  it,  such  as  con- 
gcaicd  rein-deer's  milk,  spring  water,  and  that  sometimes  excessively  cold,  and  mingled 
with  snow,  &c.  with  other  innumerable  ills,  in  recounting  which  I  am  scarce  able  to  con- 
clude, that  it  must  be  attributed  to  the  special  providence  of  God,  and  to  him  alone,  that 
men  not  accustomed  to  the  climate  and  manners  of  this  people,  from  their  earliest  years, 
do  not  sink  under  these  ills ;  and  especially  those  who  do  not  enjoy  a  good  state  of  liealth, 
such  as  myself,  but  are  able  to  encounter  and  conquer  all  these  evils  without  the  loss  of 
their  health  or  their  lives.  But  here,  as  often  elsewhere,  the  Divine  power,  wisely  dis- 
pensing all  things  in  a  manner  that  b  above  the  reach  of  human  capacity,  manifestly  dis* 

plays  itself.  .  , 

During  the  term  of  my  mission,  whatever  seventies  and  distresses  I  had  to  contend 
with  I  bore  with  equanimity  and  cheerfulness,  resigjned  and  happy  in  the  condition 
Providence  had  placed  me ;  should  you  ask  and  inquire  the  reason,  it  is  this  ;  that  the 
Laplanders  are  of  a  disposition  so  gentle,  mild,  and  tractable,  that  in  their  intercourse  with 
other  nations  so  much  more  polished,  in  their  own  opinion  as  well  as  in  the  opinion  of 
others,  they  seldom  offend  a  liberal,  just  or  equitable  mind,  and  provoke  it  to  anger  and 
indignation,  He  who  resides  among  thenr  has  no  cause  of  fear  from  them.  The 
spring  of  fresh  water  has  for  them  a  more  lively  relish  than  wine ;  that  alone  can  allay 
their  thirst. 


M 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  A  VOYAGE  FROM  ARCHANGEL,  IN  RUSSIA,  IN  THE  YEAR 
1697,  BY  THOMAS  ALLISON,  COMMANDER  OF  THE  SHIP.* 

I  SAILED  over  the  bar  of  Archangel  on  the  eighth  of  October  1697,  about  four  in 
the  afternoon,  in  the  ship  culled  the  Ann,  of  Yarmouth  (burthen  250  tons)  and  bound 
for  London  ;  by  that  time  it  grew  dark  I  came  to  an  anchor,  to  get  all  things  fast  for  the 
sea,  the  wind  S.  S.  W.  close  weather. 

The  ninth  (being  Saturday)  by  the  first  li^ht  of  the  morning,  I  weighed  anchor,  and 
made  the  best  of  my  way ;  at  six  in  the  evening  I  got  the  length  of  the  land  of  Catts-nose, 
the  wind  S.  S.  E.  fine  weather. 

Sunday  the  tenth,  at  break  of  day,  we  were  the  length  of  Cross  Island  :  just  as  it  was 
dark  I  got  through  the  narrow  thwart  Cape  Loganness,  the  wind  then  at  S.  S.  W.  and 
good  weather. 

Monday  the  eleventh,  as  soon  as  it  was  light,  I  found  myself  even  with  the  island  of 
Lambasco ;  and  at  four  in  the  afternoon  the  high  land  of  Swetnose  bore  S.  from  us,  dis- 
tance fifteen  miles ;  from  whence  I  took  my  departure  ;  the  wind  was  then  at  S.  E. 
handsome  weather. 

Tuesday  the  twelfth,  proved  very  fair,  and  almost  stark  calm,  so  that  I  made  my  way 
W.  N.  W.  but  twenty -six  miles  distant  from  the  place  whence  I  began  my  reckoning 
the  day  before,  to  lhe,noon-tide  of  this ;  thence  forward  being  computed  as  part  of  the 
day  ensuing. 

Wednesday  the  thirteenth,  continued  so  calm  all  tiie  twenty-four  hours,  that  I  made 
my  way  N.  not  above  thirteen  miles ;  the  breezes  we  had  were  at  N.  W.  and  W. 

Thursday  the  fourteenth,  began  fair,  with  somewhat  more  wind,  fii-st  at  N.  N.  E. 
afterward  at  N.  W.  with  squalls  :t  my  way  was  W.  by  N.  distant  forty  miles. 
xxT^^^^  ^^^  fifteenth,  tlie  whole  twenty  four-hours  the  wind  kept  shifting  from  N.  and 
W.  N.  W.  and  in  the  night  little:  my  way  exceeded  not  sixteen  miles  N.  W. 

Saturday  the  sucteenth,  for  the  first  twelve  hours  the  wind  continued  to  shift  to  and 
fro,  between  the  W.  N.  W.  and  the  N.  N.  E.  with  uncertain  weather.  At  eight  in 
the  morning  it  came  to  the  S.  VV.  and  began  to  blow  hard,  and  we  had  a  very  great  sea 
out  of  the  W. 

Sunday  the  seventeenth,  till  midnight,  we  had  frequent  squalls,  and  in  the  morning  it 
began  to  blow  from  the  S.  W.  so  as  to  oblige  us  to  take  in  two  reefs  of  our  top  sails, 
and  a  great  sea  came  rolling  out  of  the  W.  notwithstanding  I  made  my  way  good  n! 
W.  half  W.  distant  sixty-nine  miles.  This  day  I  had  an  observation,  and  found  mv.* 
self  in  latitude  IQo  15'.  ' 

Monday  the  eighteenth,  towards  night,  it  proved  a  sore  storm,  but  it  came  down 
gradually,  first  putting  us  past  carrying  our  topsails,  then  our  foresail ;  at  lengt'j,  being 
under  a  main  course,  by  four  in  the  morning  our  main-tack  broke.  Afterward  I  lay  un- 
der  a  mizen  during  the  fret  of  wind,  till  it  was  fair  day,  and  then  I  set  my  mainsail.  I 
niade  myway  that  twenty-four  hours  N.  W.  half  W.  fifty  miles,  the  wind  shifting 

Tuesday  tfie  nineteenth,  at  two  in  the  afternoon,  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  E.  by  E 
and  held  calm  all  night :  by  six  in  the  morning  it  was  E.  still  little  wind ;  but  at  ten 

•  London,  1699,  octavo.  This  journal,  which  is  rare,  and  has  escaped  the  collectors,  is  annexed,  as  a 
cunosity,  to  the  account  of  Lapland. 

t  A  itquali  IS  a  sudden  shower  of  rain,  or  fall  of  snow,  attended  with  wind. 

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492 


ALU80N*8  VOYAOi:  FHUM  AltCIIANOBL. 


f 


wc  had  such  a  gale,  that  I  was  forced  to  hand  our  fore- sail,  and  out  of  the  N.  W.  came 
the  fiercest  of  it,  freezing  hard  withal.  Howbeit,  in  the  twenty-four  hours,  I  made  my 
way  W.  N.  W.  twenty. five  miles. 

Wednesday  the  twentieth,  it  continued  very  bad  weather,  the  wind  at  N.  W.  but 
at  six  in  the  morning  the  wind  eased,  and  we  set  our  fore«sail :  th^n  H  came  to  the  N. 
and  to  N.  E.  and  so  to  £.     I  made  my  way  S.  W.  by  VV.  four  miles. 

Thursday  the  twenty-first,  by  twelve  at  noon,  the  wind  \vas  at  S.  S.  K.  handsome  wea- 
ther ;  by  two  I  found  it  in  the  S.  S.  W.  corner,  with  a  sky  so  fair  and  clear,  that  I  plainly 
discerned  Terry-berry,  to  the  S.  S.  E.  eighteen  miles  off.  All  this  twenty-four  hours 
there  came  a  great  sea  out  of  the  W.  against  which  I  made  my  way  fbrty-two  miles. 

Friday  the  twenty-second,  it  continued  a  hard  gale  of  wind  at  W.  which  put  us  under 
cur  main-sail  and  mizen  till  two  in  the  morning ;  then  the  wind  coming  northerly,  I 
tacked,  and  made  way  N.  N,  W.  ten  miles. 

Saturday  the  twenty-third,  at  eight  in  the  morning,  I  saw  the  North  Kyne,  distant 
twenty-one  miles,  to  the  S.  by  W.  and  the  wind  being  S.  I  made  the  best  of  my  way 
to  the  westward. 

At  ten  it  came  to  W.  S.  W.  and  prescnUy  after  to  W.  N.  W.  blowing  so  hard,  as 
to  put  me  under  three  courses  reift,  standing  to  the  northward  till  twelve  at  night.  Then 
I  tacked  to  the  westward,  but  the  wind  in  two  hours  after  came  to  tlic  N.  W.  by  W, 
whereupon  I  tacked  to  the  northward  again,  under  three  courses  reift ;  but  at  ei^t  in 
the  morning  I  went  about  to  the  westward,  having  made  my  way  this  twenty-four  hours 
W.  by  N.  twenty -seven  miles. 

Sunday  the  twenty-fourth,  by  twelve  at  noon,  the  wind  was  at  N.  by  W.  and  N.  N. 
VV.  but  by  three  in  the  afternoon  it  came  to  N.  W.  by  N.  with  so  much  wind,  that  I 
durst  not  tack  the  ship,  for  fear  of  losing  our  main-sail,  and  yet  I  could  carry  none  but 
that  and  a  mizen ;  so  I  charged  a  good  looking  out,  deeming  ourselves  near  land. 

Monday  the  twenty-fifth,  at  four  i .  Uie  morning,  being  moon-light,  we  saw  the  land 
of  the  North  Cape,  two  points  under  our  lee-bow :  then  we  loosed  the  fore-sail,  and 
stood  to  the  eastward,  under  three  courses  reift :  we  likewise  set  our  mizen  stay-sail :  but 
such  was  the  stress  of  wind,  that  it  immediately  flew  out  of  the  bolt-rope.  As  soon  as  it 
was  day,  we  plainly  perceived  we  could  not  weather  the  land  of  North  Kyne,  it  contmu- 
ing  very  squally. 

After  I  had  well  considered  our  condition,  I  called  my  men  together  and  told  them  my 
resolution,  which  was  to  run  up  the  wide  Fuel^  (that  was  then  before  us)  while  the  gale 
lasted ;  reasoning  with  them,  that  to  spend  the  day  in  tacking  before  it  was  to  disable  our- 
selves, and  perhaps  split  our  sails,  and  when  night  came  on,  to  drive  upon  the  rocks, 
would  be  to  the  hazard  of  our  lives,  ship,  and  goods. 

Thereupon,  in  hopes  of  more  securi^  under  some  point,  island,  &c.  or  in  some  bay 
to  anchor,  I  put  the  helm  a- weather,  and  ran  for  the  Fuel,  which  I  judged  might  be  se- 
ven or  eight  miles  uide. 

Accordingly  I  hauled  up  my  fore-sail,  that  I  might  see  before  me  while  the  squalls  of 
snow  fell ;  which  after  they  were  past  I  set  ag^,  using  all  diligence  that  could  be  in 
search  of  some  shelter  from  land,  or  place  of  anchorage. 

At  one  in  the  afternoon  I  discovered  an  island  which  had  a  small  breach  off  it ;  but 
the  men  in  the  tops,  and  on  the  yards,  said  the  opening  next  the  main  was  so  large,  that 
no  security  could  be  under  it.  Then  I  steered  my  course  to  the  east  side  of  die  Fuel 
(for  the  island  aforesaid  lay  on  the  west)  and  running  up  S.  £.  I  saw  something  like  a 

*  Fuel  is  an  opening  between  two  head  lands,  baving  no  bottom  in  sight,  but  a  seeming  inlet  into  land. 


ALLISON'S  VOYAOE  FROM  AKCIIANOEL. 


493 


but 
that 
'uel 
e  a 


bay  ;  but  the  hills  seemed  so  steep  thut  I  wus  loth  to  shoot  myself  into  it,  i'or  fcnr  oi' 
having  no  anchor  ground.  For  it  is  generally  observed  by  us  in  such  countries,  il"  the 
hills  be  very  high  near  the  water,  there  are  commonly  great  depths  at  littie  distance  : 
so  that  looking  further  ahead  I  espied  a  shore,  as  I  thought,  with  a  handsome  descent, 
and  concluding  such  places  more  likely  for  my  purpose,  1  set  my  fore-topsail  and  main- 
sail. Then  came  on  a  sore  squall,  which  forced  me  to  hand  my  fore* topsail,  and  haul 
up  my  mainsail ;  but  before  the  squall  was  over  I  was  got  past  that  bay  :  yet  then  I  saw 
another  point,  and  our  water  smoothed  much.  For  that  I  made  way  and  ran  close  to  it, 
still  finding  no  ground  with  our  lead  ;  but  on  the  other  side  of  the  point  went  in  a  great 
bay.  With  keeping  the  lead  I  came  about  the  point,  and  found  twenty-five  fathoms 
water,  soft  eround :  then  I  let  go  my  anchor,  and  got  my  skiff  out,  to  carry  t\  haulser 
ashore ;  which  was  no  sooner  done,  but  the  eddy  winds  came  off  the  hills  upon  the 
point,  and  swung  the  ship's  stem  somewhat  too  near  the  shore. 

But  the  squall  being  over,  the  wind  eased,  and  blowing  more  into  the  bay  f  which  by 
its  looks  promised  well)  1  hove  up  my  anchor,  and  drove  further  into  the  depth  of  fort) 
fathom,  letting  it  then  drop  again.  By  this  time  it  grew  dark,  so  we  gave  her  a  whole 
cable,  and  ro£  in  sixteen  fathom.  Then  after  all  things  were  stowed,  and  we  thought 
ourselves  very  ^vell,  and  went  to  supper,  I  felt  the  ship  to  rub  on  the  ground.  I  imme- 
diately commanded  the  lead  to  be  heaved  over  the  poop,  and  found  there  was  not  above 
two  fathom  water.  Then  I  caused  two  fakes  of  the  cable  to  be  taken  in,  and  we  rodc 
with  our  stem  in  seven  fathom.  Whereupon  I  got  a  small  anchor  and  haulser  into  my 
boat  and  rowed  into  the  flat  bay,  in  sixteen  fathom ;  by  which  means  I  heaved  the  ship 
further  into  the  depth  aforesaid,  with  very  good  ground.  At  the  same  time  I  ordered 
the  boat  to  sound  round  the  ship,  and  found  the  place  where  I  rubbed  on  the  ground 
to  be  a  point  of  rocks  lying  from  the  main  on  the  south  side,  but  ail  over  the  bay  else  to 
be  good  ground ;  so  we  lay  all  night. 

Tuesday  the  twenty-sixth,  by  day -light,  I  sent  a  boat  with  a  mate  to  see  how  things 
were  about  us ;  who  reported  that  in  the  bottom  of  the  bay  mn  in  a  good  harbour,  and 
likewise  that  some  houses  were  in  sight ;  but  upon  my  re-sending  the  boat,  they  were 
found  without  inhabita;>ts. 

By  that  time  these  searches  had  beenmade,  night  came  on.  (Note  that  we  accounted 
so  much  light  to  make  day  as  was  sufficient  to  read  by,  or  wherewith  we  were  able  to 
discern  a  boat  at  half  a  mile's  distance  ;  for  though  the  sun  might  be  at  that  time  about 
three  degrees  high  upon  the  meridian,  we,  being  under  high  land,  could  not  perceive  his 
whole  body.)  The  rest  of  our  men  on  board  were  fitting  the  ship,  by  mending  the  rig- 
png  and  siub ;  the  wind  at  N.  W.  moderate  weather,  with  some  snow.  That  night  I 
was  much  troubled  with  consideration  of  the  place  where  we  lay  ,  that  if  the  wind  should 
come  to  the  N.  £.  with  any  gale,  we  might  blow  off  the  bank,  and  then  into  more 
hazardous,  because  more  unknown,  pkices. 

Wednesday  the  twenty-seventh,  at  break  of  day,  I  got  my  best  bow-anchor  aboard, 
and  warped  further  into  the  bay,  where  I  rid,  having  withal  two  haulsers  fastened  to  a 
rock  on  shore.  We  continued  to  fit  the  ship  for  the  sea,  when  it  should  please  God  to 
give  us  an  opportunity.  The  wind  was  yet  northerly,  clear  weather,  so  that  we  saw 
und  on  the  M^st  «de  over  against  us,  which  we  saw  not  the  day  of  our  first  coming  in, 
and  I  judged  it  might  be  eight  miles  off. 

Thursday  the  twenty-eighth.  This  day  proved  venr  bad  weather,  with  much  snow, 
and  the  vnnd  shifting,  sometime  at  N.  E.  at  N.  and  N.  W.  so  that  we  could  not  but 
acknowledge  the  Providence  of  God  in  directing  us  to  move  where  we  were ;  for  had  it 
not  been  done,  we  must  have  been  blown  from  our  former  place.    Then  I  went  myself 


1* 


;'- ' 


i: 


» 


\ 


49a 


ALLISON'S  VOYAOFl  FROM  ARCIIANRr.L. 


B 


to  search,  and  sounded  the  bay  and  Imrlwiir  ull  over,  and  made  what  diicovcry  1  could 
of  things  about  us,  findinfr  a  ffxM\  watering- place,  and  plenty  of  wood  near  at  hand. 
At  my  return,  upon  complaint  of  some  of  our  menst'  cml)czzling  and  stealing  our 
bread,  I  ordered  it  to  be  locked  up  ;  for  it  began  to  look  with  litUc  nopes  of  getting  r)ut 
till  the  light  moon  came.  We  got  a  boat's  load  of  wood  and  one  of  water  that  night  on 
board ;  and  began  to  consider  further  as  to  our  safety  in  that  place,  should  the  wind 
wester,  and  break  our  haulser  ashore.- 

Friday  the  twenty.ninth,  at  break  of  day,  I  went  and  sounded  from  my  bow-anchor 
to  the  eastern  shore,  and  found  forty  fathom  a  little  from  it,  still  depthening  towards  the 
said  shore.  Wlitreupon  arguing  with  niyself,  that  after  removal  of  the  ship  further  in 
I  might  set  sail  and  come  out  as  easily,  and  yet  in  the  mean  time  be  secure  in  the  worst 
weather,  I  removed  farther  into  the  harbour,  cvi.n  to  the  place  where  we  lay  all  winter. 
This  we  had  scarce*  done,  and  made  our  ship  fast,  but  it  began  to  blo»v  .  Ight  in,  and  soon 
after  it  proved  such  a  storm  at  N.  VV.  that  hud  we  kept  our  late  station  we  had  in  all 
likelihood  been  lost.  Here  again  our  men  were  made  sensible  of  the  goodness  of  God 
towards  us  by  a  fresh  instance.  Then  having  account  that  our  peas  were  unreasonably 
wasted,  I  ordered  a  barrel  of  them,  with  two  great  bap^sof  bread,  of  two  hundred  and 
a  half  each,  to  be  brought  up  into  the  round-house,  with  all  small  provisions,  as  butter, 
and  cheese,  and  fruit,  to  secure  them  there ;  and  reduced  our  men  to  half  allowance, 
that  we  might  have  sufficient  wherewith  to  go  to  sea;  for  here  we  abode  as  necessity 
drove  us,  and  not  with  any  intent  of  residence  as  yet.  I  observed  at  this  time  the  days 
to  shorten  exceedingly,  being  now  not  above  seven  hours,  according  to  the  explained 
meaning  of  day  in  the  paragraph  aforegoing. 

Saturday  the  thirtieth,  1  moored  the  ship  with  two  bowers  to  the  offen,  along  the 
bank,  that  is  to  say,  one  to  the  S.  E.  and  the  other  to  the  N.  W.  and  carried  botn  the 
kedgc  anchor  and  warp  anchor  ashore,  and  placed  them  together,  each  with  one  flook 
in  the  dry  shore,  burymg  them  with  stones,  for  the  better  holding.  To  one  of  these 
my  kedge  haulser,  to  the  other  my  stream  cable,  was  fastened,  likewise  a  new  tow-line 
to  a  great  stone,  lying  all  as  one  to  the  W.  S.  W.  so  between  all  these  she  swung  by 
the  head.  Take  notice,  the  harbour  was  in  fashion  like  an  oven,  lying  S.  h.  and  N.  \v. 
being  a  mile  from  the  mouth  to  the  bottom,  and  two  cables  length,  viz.  four  hundred 
yards  in  breadth  or  wideness  :  U'ing  thus  we  shut  the  oven's  mouth,  that  is,  we  could 
not,  so  lying,  see  into  the  wide  Fuel.  My  best  bower  lay  in  twenty-one  fathom,  and  my 
small  bower  in  nineteen  ;  the  middle  of  the  harbour  being  of  that  depth,  both  upward 
and  downward,  but  shoaling  toward  either  side,  with  good  clay  ground. 

It  blew  hard  all  day,  with  much  snow,  and  some  small  rain ;  so  I  spread  a  sail 
over  my  main  deck,  the  weather  being  so  sharp,  there  was  no  standing  upon  the  same 
without  it. 

Sunday  the  thirty-first,  it  blew  a  storm  all  day  at  N.  W.  insomuch  that  we  could 
not  continue  the  covering  aforesaid,  but  wrere  forced  to  take  it  down,  and  put  the  sail 
together  again. 

Monday  November  the  first,  I  sent  all  hands  ashore  to  get  firing ;  for  the  snow  in- 
creasing, we  feared  our  wood  would  all  be  buried  under  it.  Our  ordinary  manner  of  wood* 
ing  was  to  go  in  the  long-boat,  with  sixteen  or  eighteen  men,  to  the  shore  upon  which 
ilie  trees  grew  almost  from  the  beach  half  way  up  the  hills :  they  were  birch  mosdy, 
wiih  some  small  trees  like  willows,  the  biggest  of  either  not  exceeding  a  middling  man's 
thigh,  and  the  appearance  of  them  ubove  the  snow  not  above  three  yards.  We  cut 
them  as  the  depth  of  the  snow  suficrtd  us,  some  nearer,  some  further  from  the  root ; 
for  the  plenty  we  had  eased  us  from  digging  much.    Besides,  unlesh  the  snow  was  newly 


AI.LISON'H  VOYAUK  VROM  ARCMANOKL. 


495 


fiillcn,  the  wirfnce  of  It  was  %o  liard  crusliil  by  the  frost  as  to  hear ;  notwithstanding,  s«)mi 
accidciUally  plunged  in  now  and  then,  but  rccovcrably.  The  dragging  of  tl»c  trees 
thereby  was  no  less  easy,  beirig  upon  a  deseent :  and  we  lopjKd  thtni  near  the  shore, 
for  convenient  putting  on  board  and  stowage.  VVe  got  Uiat  day  a  long-boat  full,  that  is, 
about  a  cart  load,  asl  iudgtd,  or  more. 

Tuscday  the  second.  I  got  two  Ixjats  full  of  wood  more.  Much  snow  fell  this  day  in 
squalls,  with  liard  blasts  from  the  N.  W.  till  towards  night. 

Wednesday  the  third,  it  iK-ing  fair  weather,  I  sent  my  skiff  with  hooks  and  lines  to 
take  fish ;  but  in  the  Fuel  thcv  could  find  no  ground  with  a  hundred  fathom  of  line  ;  yet 
they  made  some  trial  nearer  the  shore,  without  |x:rceiving  any  to  bite.  There  were  but 
four  men  employed  in  this  expedition,  the  rest  went  witli  the  long  boat  a  wo<Kling  as  Ix:. 
fore,  but  with  greater  toil  and  labour,  occasioned  from  light  snow  fallen  the  former  night. 
This  night  also  added  more,  it  freezing  hard  wiUial,  and  the  wind  northerly. 

Thursday  the  fourth,  it  proved  fair  over  head,  the  wind  N.  E.  and  moderate.  This 
day  we  got  a  boat's  load  of  water,  consisting  of  four  hognheads  full :  at  the  same  time 
two  of  our  men  got  up  to  the  tops  of  the  hills  to  the  S.  \V.  side,  to  see  what  they  could 
discover;  and  brought  word  thtT  had  met  with  the  prints  of  deers'  hoofs,  producing  a 
piece  of  an  old  horn  thc^  had  found  as  a  testimony ;  likewise  of  bciu^,  wolves,  and 
foxes  :  these  three  are  easily  distinguished ;  the  impression  of  the  Ixiar  being  flat  and  long, 
and  like  that  of  a  human  foot ;  those  of  foxes  and  wolves  are  like  dogs,  the  latter  bigger. 
They  saw  small  creatures  too  running  and  playing,  which  they  believed  were  foxes. 
The  watering  crew  also  said  they  saw  the  steps  of  deer  where  they  had  been. 

Friday  the  fifth,  the  wind  was  at  S.  E.  but  with  such  a  storm,  thai  we  could  not  think 
of  loosing  our  ship  for  the  sea.  However,  I  sent  six  men  armed  ashore,  for  discovery,  or 
what  they  could  get ;  but  the  wind  and  snow  was  so  severe  upon  their  faces,  that  they 
could  not  proceed  farther  than  the  first  hill ;  so  the^  returned,  and  only  reported  they  saw 
a  river  on  the  east  side  of  the  hill  that  was  frozen  fast. 

Saturday  the  sixth,  I  got  a  boat  load  of  wood.  It  froze  extreme  hard,  the  wind  at 
N.  £.  turning  to  the  N.  W.  towards  night,  and  bc^n  to  blow. 

Sunday  the  seventh,  it  proved  a  fresh  of  wind,  at  N.  W.  all  day,  freezing  hard. 

Monday  the  eighth,  it  blew  so  hard  at  S.  S.  W.  that  it  broke  all  our  shore  fasts, 
pulled  home  our  small  bow  anchor,  and  drove  the  ship  on  the  N.  E.  shore,  with  her 
stern  aground ;  but  by  good  hap  our  best  bow  anchor  brought  her  u|),  and  swung  the 
ship  into  deep  water ;  so  we  rode  between  our  bow  anchor,  it  proving  moderate  weather 
towards  midnight. 

Tuesday  the  ninth,  I  got  my  anchor  on  board,  and  moored  the  ship  in  her  old  place, 
by  laying  the  best  bower  to  the  N.  W.  the  sheet  anchor  to  the  S.  £.  and  small  bower 
to  the  N.  E.  and  carried  all  haulscrs  and  tow-lines  to  the  anchors  on  the  dry  shore,  to  the 
W.  S.  W.  of  us.  This  we  did  as  out  of  hopes  of  getting  to  sea  this  light  moon ;  for 
our  rudder-head  was  wrung  in  pieces  by  a  blow  given  against  the  ground  the  day  before, 
and  somewhat  damaged  in  the  lower  part.  I  then  made  the  ship  as  snug  as  I  could,  by 
taking  down  our  mizen-topmast,  crotched-yard,  and  spritsail  yard,  with  our  low  yards, 
fore  and  afl ;  but  our  sails  we  could  not  unbend,  being  so  hard  frozen.  The  wind  came 
N.  W.  which  forwarded  us  in  fastening  our  ship,  and  that  was  both  our  day  and  night's 
work. 

Wednesday  the  tenth,  I  got  two  haulsers  more  ashore,  it  blowing  a  hard  gale  at  S. 
£.  till  ten  at  night.  Then  the  wind  altered  and  became  fair.  About  this  time  the 
hawks  we  had  on  board  all  died,  within  a  few  hours  one  of  another.  We  had  likewise 
three  foxes  to  have  been  brought  over,  one  of  which  our  men  eat  some  days  before 


.  t 


496 


ALIJNUN'M  VOVkUV.  VHOM  AHCHAmiRL 


unknown  to  mc  ;  und  tliitt  duv  they  rouatc'd  another,  which  I  suw,  the  RcaIi  t(M)king  black 
like  u  liurc  ;  but  U|>()ii  U.<ttc,  1  liked  no  such  rank  vciii<>on.  The  third  run  down  into  the 
hold,  und  could  itot  Ix:  |)reM:ntly  hiund  ;  but  a  niuntii  utkr,  having  played  the  thief  with 
a  piece  of  our  bcci',  he  Wii*  knocked  on  tlie  licud,  und  being  too  Icun  for  food  wuh  thrown 
overbourd. 

Thursday  the  eleventh,  it  snowed  much  but  thawed  as  it  fell ;  the  wind  at  N.  W. 
with  u  strong  gule.  I  made  uU  iiastc  |>0!i(iil>lc  to  get  uur  rudder  head  ntcudcd,  by  fixing 
•A  piece  of  plank  on  tlie  one  bide  of  it.  It  being  bud  wciither,  that  wott  all  we  could  do 
in  u  duyS  itpace,  which  exceeded  ■<  ji  six  hours,  and  no  better  tluin  twilight.  Neither 
could  our  men  endure  tlie  air  ut  Huch  work  longer  tliun  a  (juartcr  of  un  hour,  wiUiout 
coming  in  to  warm  thcmiielveti. 

Fritlay  the  twelfth,  I  got  another  piece  of  plunk  on  the  other  »idc  of  tlic  rudder 
head,  it  proving  hand:>ome  wcntlicr,  and  very  clear ;  whereby  ^vc  i)crceived  some- 
Uiing  in  the  lower  part  of  the  rudder  aa  broken,  but  upon  triul  with  otir  polei 
and  boat  hooks  found  only  a  stm.iU  piece  of  the  heud  bruised,  with  damage  incontide* 
rablc. 

Snturcby  the  thirteenth,  it  proved  fair,  but  with  some  snow.  I  took  the  boat  and 
rowed  into  the  bay,  on  the  other  side  of  the  point,  and  at  the  bottom  of  it  I  found  a  river 
running  in,  but  so  frozen  as  to  hinder  furdier  discovery  of  it ;  but  by  sounding  the  cn> 
trance,  we  found  twelve  foot  water  at  half  tide.  Going  ashore  on  the  N.  side,  I  saw  a 
great  run  of  water  falling  into  the  bay  thereby  near  the  shore,  along  a  woody  valley.  Not 
lur  from  this  place,  I  observed  the  snow  to  lie  in  ridges  (such  as  we  make  upon  land, 
where  we  sow  our  winter  corn)  its  surface  being  hard  crusted  with  ice,  whh  something 
appearing  above  it  like  straw.  There  were  little  more  than  the  bare  ears  without  any 
grain  in  them,  four  or  five  inches  long  :  so  that  thereby  I  had  hold  enough  with  my 
hand  to  pull  up  die  whole  stalk,  which  was  about  three  feet  in  length. 

I  was  under  full  belief  that  this  was  barley,  but  I  could  not  satisfy  myself  that  any  had 
Ixien  reaped  off  there,  seeing  the  snow  covered  the  stubble.  To  tne  unbelieving  reader 
I  have  only  this  to  offer,  to  evince  the  possibility  of  it,  viz.  th'At  the  soil  was  good,  as  ap- 
pciuxd  by  the  plenty  of  wood  near  it,  tne  ouzy  shore,  and  chffd  bottom  of  the  bay ;  the 
place  lying  open  to  the  S.  and  defended  against  the  N.  E.  by  the  mountains.  Withal  it 
must  be  considered  that  the  sun  is  here  about  six  weeks  »bo  ve  the  horizon,  and  the  days 
Ijefore  and  after  much  longer  than  with  us  in  England  at  those  times.  That  the  bring- 
ing of  this  grain  to  perfection  requires  not  above  fourteen  weeks  after  seed  time,  m 
more  southern  regions.  At  Narva,  in  Livonia,  I  myself  have  known  the  same  com  in 
the  car,  within  a  month  or  five  weeks  afler  it  appeared  above  ground. 

Hereabout  I  found  an  anchoring  place,  but  so  steep,  that  whoever  uses  it  must  trust 
chiefly  to  the  fusts  he  makes  on  shore.  There  was  another  also  at  the  bottom  of  the 
bay  a  mile  in ;  but  the  hasty  departure  of  light  made  our  discovery  incomplete.  So  we 
returned  all  of  us  on  board  miserably  cold.  I  could  not  but  observe  that  as  we  went  and 
came  by  the  Fuel  tl  wind  was  at  N.  W.  but  where  the  ship  rode,  our  men  on  board 
had  it  all  day  easterly. 

Sunday  the  fourteenth,  it  blew  a  Ijard  storm  at  N.  W.  pulling  home  our  best  bow.an. 
chor,  until  such  time  as  the  small  bower  and  haulsers  ashore  assisted  ;  and  then  by  all 
three  she  rode,  till  the  gale  was  over,  which  was  not  before  nine  at  night. 

Monday  the  fifteenth,  the  wind  was  at  N.  fair ';  and  we  hauled  our  sheet  anchor 
farther  into  the  bay. 

Tuesday  the  sixteenth,  we  had  a  hard  gale  at  E.  N.  E.  so  that  it  pulled  home  our 
sheet  anchor.    There  >vas  much  snow  all  day  and  night;  the  wind  after  some  time 


ALUnON'tl  VOYAOK  KHOM  AllUMANOt.t. 


497 


cumiti)]^  to  the  N.  N.  E.  with  somewhat  more  mtHlcrati*  weather.  At  this  tunc  two  of 
our  company  were  mightily  for  fitting  un  a  house  upou  land,  uiul  putting;  provisions 
thennn  for  hulxsistence,  in  cukc  wc  nhouUl  he  fotced  a»hore  and  WK'ckcd.  Hut  I  could 
not  comply  with  such  advice  ;  knouinj^  the  ship  to  Ix-  warmer  than  any  thins  wc  could 
build  ashore,  with  the  muteriah,  time,  and  light  we  had  to  do  it.  Withal  I  imagined, 
that  if  wc  had  had  a  place  to  our  wish  upon  Terra  Firma,  I  could  not  have  jwrsuaded 
them  to  do  whut  they  did  ;  btit  that  the  only  wav  of  preserving  ourselves,  and  all  wc 
had  about  us,  was  by  keeping  it  together,  and  making  the  ship  the  sole  place  of  retreat 
and  refuge.  Besidcit,  I  ever  spurn-d  them  up  to  action,  expressing  daily  the  hopes  1 
had  of  getting  out ;  foreseeing  that  by  their  sitting  altogether  by  the  lire,  they  mi|;ht 
grow  diseasea  and  unfit  for  service:  on  the  contrary,  that  exercise,  and  the  cx|)osing 
themselves  to  the  air  frequently,  would  render  them  more  liardy  and  healthy, 

Wednchduy  the  scventecntit,  'twas  handsome  weather  of  wind,  and  that  at  N.  W.  but 
with  much  snow,  yet  wc  hauled  out  our  sheet  anchor  agiiin. 

Thursday  the  eighteenth,  for  wind  as  Ix^forc.  1  began  now  to  consider,  that  the  frost 
might  render  our  iron  anchors  so  brittle,  as  to  make  our  dependence  on  them  not  secure. 
Thereupon  taking  with  me  some  men  ashore  with  iron  crows  and  shovels,  I  endeavoured 
to  break  ground ;  which  when  I  found  possible,  I  ordered  the  cariwntcr  to  cut  a  new 
mizen  mast  I  had  on  board,  not  yet  used.  Of  the  biggest  end  I  took  twelve  foot,  nnd 
fafter  a  hole  of  seven  foot  deep  had  been  dig'>;ed,  with  no  smai>  labour)  I  placed  it, 
nlling  the  hole  with  earth,  stones  ai'd  water,  which  being  frozen,  might  the  better  fix  it, 
as  a  post  for  a  cable  to  be  faslentd  ' ).  But  that  night  I  forcbore  using  it,  being  not 
willing  to  shake  it,  before  it  was  fully  established.  Tne  little  light  we  had  was  not  above 
five  hours  continuance. 

Friday  the  nineteenth,  it  blew  strongly  from  the  S.  S.  E.  and  held  very  clear.  As 
soon  as  it  was  light,  I  got  my  best  bower  cable  hauled  up  ;  I  took  also  a  piece  of  a  junk 
cable  aboui  twenty  fathoms  long,  and  made  it  fast  to  the  stake  above-mentioned  (which 
stood  off  to  the  S.  and  by  W.)  and  seiuicd  an  eye  at  the  other  end.  Then  I  took  one 
end  of  my  best  bower  cable  (the  other  being  fast  to  the  anchor)  and  after  I  had  made 
an  eye  on  that  also,  with  two  luff  tackles,  I  brought  both  as  near  as  I  could  together, 
which  was  within  three  fathoms,  and  seased  them. 

This  I  had  scarce  done,  but  there  came  down  so  much  wind  at  S.  S.  E.  that  we  feared 
all  would  have  been  pulled  to  pieces  :  but  every  thing  holding  so  well,  our  men  could 
not  but  acknowledge  the  hand  of  Divine  Providence  in  what  had  been  done  that  day :  for 
hereby  wc  were  preserved,  not  only  then,  but  all  the  winter. 

Saturday  the  twentieth,  by  the  first  light  of  our  slender  day,  we  perceived  our  skiff 
full  of  water  at  our  stem,  which  we  hoisted  on  board  to  mend  again.  You  must  note 
we  could  keep  no  right  watch  :  our  men  not  being  able  to  walk  the  deck  half  an  hour 
for  cold. 

I  now  made  strict  inquiry  into  the  quantity  we  had  of  peas  left,  getiing  a  barrel  out, 
and  measuring  them.  Of  these  afterwards  I  delivered  out  four  quarts  a  day  for  all  our 
ship's  company,  being  twenty -four  men  and  boys,  and  this  I  did  four  days  in  a  week. 
I  likewise  made  search  into  our  other  provisions,  and  found  we  had  five  hundred  and 
thirty  pieces  of  beef,  of  four  pounds  each.  Of  fish  we  had  but  six  days  left ;  allowing 
four  North-sea  cods  a  day  :  nine  daysf  flour  and  cheese  ;  allowing  two  jwunds  of  cheese 
a  day,  for  four  men,  with  a  kettle  of  hasty  pudding,  for  the  whole  ship's  company ; 
that  being  the  best  way  of  using  my  flour.  Seeing  now  little  hopes  of  getting  home 
before  March  at  ihe  soonest,  we  considered,  that  store  must  be  kept  for  the  sea,  when 

VOL.  I.  3  s 


>») 


'tt 


! 


» 
i 

I 


498 


ALLI90N'3  VOYAGE  FROM  ARCHANGEL. 


it  bhould  please  Gotl  to  send  us  thither ;  nor  had  we  reasonable  expectation  of  getting 
relief  in  this  place. 

Sunday  the  twenty. first,  one  of  our  boys  complained  of  his  feet  being  sore;  our 
surgeon,  immediately  viewing  them,  found  the  eftect  of  the  frost  there  up  to  his  ancles  ; 
especially  one  very  dangerously  ;  but  by  his  skill  and  diligence  he  recovered  them  in 
(en  diiys. 

Monday  the  twenty. second,  it  proving  fair,  wc  fetched  a  boat  of  wood,  great  quan- 
tities of  which  we  burnt  every  day.  And  here  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  mention  our 
manner  of  keeping  fire.  I  caused  the  iron  hearth  in  the  f  .re-castle  to  be  brought  into 
the  steerage,  and  ordered  the  carpeiiter  t)  make  a  hearth  as  big  as  conveniently  could 
stand  in  the  fore-casde  .vhich  was  five  *''t  n'  :e  inches  square  every  way.  Then  I  s-^nt 
ashore  for  as  much  clay,  atid  as  many  i  .on;s  as  filled  it  '.p  :  this  was  sufficient  to  accom- 
modate sixteen  men  sitting  close  about  it  at  once.  Pvlureover  I  directed  the  cooper  for 
making  a  chimney  to  the  steerage,  in  the  tnanner  following,  viz.  by  staving  an  empty 
butt,  or  pipi;,  and  reducing  the  staves  at  one  end  to  the  breadth  of  two  inches  each,  so 
that  being  hooped  again,  it  exceeded  not  the  wideness  of  a  lirkin  at  the  top,  keeping  the 
forn)er  breadth  or  capacity  in  the  middle,  still  enlarging  or  standing  inore  open  at  the 
bottom.  The  distances  or  i'lterstices  there  between  th^  slaves  we  filled  with  pieces 
of  wood,  and  made  all  tight  with  clay  and  stonec,  which,  when  we  had  so  fiiiished,  we 
placed  upon  the  grating.  This  made  the  steerage  very  warm  ;  ou.  in  all  the  time  we 
kept  fire  there,  wc  were  obliged  to  keep  the  door  open  for  admittance  of  wind,  to  give 
the  smoke  vent. 

About  eight  this  night  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  S-  E.  with  snow  and  hard  frost ;  but 
at  two  in  the  morning  there  was  clear  good  weather. 

Tuesday  the  twenty  .third,  we  had  no  foul  weather,  but  so  close,  that  we  could  scarce 
call  thit  light  we  had  day.  However  we  made  shift  to  get  a  boat  of  wood,  being  in 
great  fear  of  losinj^che  day  wliolly. 

At  eight  at  nif 'it  it  blew  from  the  S.  S.  E.  but  towards  midnight  the  wind  came  more  to 
the  eastward,  witi  handsome  <"eati»er. 

Wedne-ida)  the  twenty.fourth,  it  proved  fair  and  clear,  the  wind  southerly.  We 
cleared  the  dccL  of  snow  and  ice,  which  was  grown  a  foot  thick  near  the  scuppers. 
*Tw::s  sometimes  squally,  but  at  eventide  I  saw  the  northern  glance:  that  is,  a  stream 
of  light  enlightening  all  the  hemisphere,  so  as  one  may  read  very  well  with  it.  'Tis  of 
a  pale  yellow  or  buff  colour,  like  the  inmost  circle  of  the  rain-bow,  appearing  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  then  vanishing  and  renewing  itself  again,  by  intervals,  during  the 
space  of  five  or  six  hours.  Sometimes  this  meceor  seems  a  bright  nimble-moving  cloud ; 
at  another  time  two  of  them,  rushing  and  encountering  one  another,  like  armies  engaged, 
and  now  and  then  I  have  thought  with  a  grumbling  noise  akin  to  thunder.  We  reckon 
the  frost  to  occasion  them,  and  whatever  reflects  or  emits  the  light  in  that  manner  can- 
not he  far  from  the  eye,  being  so  plainly  to  be  discerned,  and  so  exceeding  swift. 

Thursday  the  twenty-Sfth,  it  being  fair,  I  endeavoured  to  clear  the  hawse,  but  there 
was  so  much  icc  upon  the  cables,  I  could  not  do  it.  This  day  two  of  mi'  men  went  up 
the  hills,  but  wanted  light  to  make  a  discovery. 

Friday  tl^e  tnenty-sixth,  still  fair  and  clear,  and  by  thp  light  we  had,  I  brought  my 
bc3t  bovvei  cable  to  the  slake  on  shore,  and  served  it  well  with  old  ropes,  to  prevent  its 
chafing :  the  wind  at  E.  N.  E.  and  freezing  hard. 

Saturday  the  twenty-seventh,  it  proved  fair  and  oalrm,  with  some  litde  snow.  I  got  a 
boat  load  of  water,  and  served  all  our  cables,  to  prevent  chafing,  both  ashore  and  at  the 
hawse. 


ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FUOM  ARCIIANQKL. 


499 


I  had  complaint  made  me,  that  some  had  stolen  fish  and  broiled  it ;  but,  upon  strict  in- 
quiry, I  found  such  a  thing  could  not  be  done  privately,  by  reason  our  men  sat  constantly 
round  the  hearth  in  the  fore-castle,  fiom  six  or  seven  in  the  morning  till  eight  at  night ; 
at  which  hour,  or  soon  a.'ttr,  I  ever  caused  the  fire  to  be  put  out,  fearing  the  continual 
keeping  it  might  endanger  the  ship,  or  occasion  other  disorders.  Nevertheless  I  caused 
the  fish  that  hung  overbc^ard  for  wa'.ering  to  be  hauled  in,  and  viewing  it  well,  by  the 
manner  of  it,  I  judged  t'nat  the  pieces  diminished  were  not  cut  oft"  with  a  knife,  but  ra- 
ther seemed  bitten  by  some  living  creature,  which  I  supposed  might  be  a  seal,  that  I  hud 
seen  sometimes  about  the  ship.  So  I  put  the  salt  fish  into  a  bag,  and  by  a  line  hung  it 
over  the  ship  for  freshening :  and  in  the  mean  time  I  got  a  great  shark-lujo!'  ■•  baited 
it  with  a  piece  of  the  same  ;  hanging  it  a  foot  under  water,  in  a  place  where  tne  scil  used 
to  show  himself.  I  stood  upon  the  watch ;  and  just  as  it  was  dark  the  seal  came  and 
took  it,  making  a  bustling  at  the  side  of  the  ship.  I  presently  took  hold  of  the  rope,  to 
which  it  was  fastened,  and  found  it  too  heavy  forme,  which  made  me  call  for  help ;  but 
before  it  came  he  got  loose,  and  I  saw  him  set  his  feet  to  the  ship's  side,  and  fling  htlnself 
oft" :  after  this  we  saw  him  no  more  in  the  bay. 

Sunday  the  twenty-eighth,  it  was  still  calm,  but  with  more  snow  and  close  weather. 

Monday  the  twenty -ninth,  I  hauled  my  sheet  anchor  further  out,  the  wind  at  W.  S.  \V. 
blowing  fresh  with  snow,  but  at  four  at  night  it  began  to  thaw  considerably.  I  then 
shared  all  the  bread  in  the  bread-room,  being  but  five  jwunds  and  a  half  for  each  man. 

Tuesday  the  thirtieth,  it  froze  hard  again,  even  our  beer  between  decks ;  so  that  our 
men  could  get  nothing  but  water  to  drink,  which  had  not  stood  above  twelve  hours,  but 
became  all  ice.  I  considered,  th-^t  for  them  to  drink  warm  water  might  not  be  so  good 
for  their  stomachs,  and  to  stave  our  casks  would  be  of  ill  consequence  for  us,  when  we 
should  have  occasion  for  them  at  our  going  to  sea.  I  then  brought  up  a  cask  of  my 
own  honey,  of  which  I  distributed  about  two  |X)unds  and  a  quarter  to  each  man,  for  them 
to  boil  in  their  water,  to  make  a  kind  of  mead  withal.  This  they  drank,  and  were  not 
offended  with  the  ice  in  their  mouths,  us  before.  The  wind  all  this  day  at  S.  S.  £.  and 
the  frost  so  excessive,  that  we  feared  the  spring  heads  would  ere  long  fail  us,  so  that  we 
bestirred  ourselves  for  a  boat-load  of  water. 

Wednesday  December  the  first,  it  proved  fair,  which  encouraged  me  to  send  my  mate 
in  the  boat  up  the  Fuel,  even  before  it  was  Ugh'. ;  chiefly  to  see  if  there  were  any  anchor- 
ing places  for  us  to  make  use  of,  in  case  we  should  put  out  and  not  be  able  to  regain  our 
harbour.  He  returned,  and  brought  word  that  he  saw  only  two  islands  on  the  VV.  side, 
and  that  the  Fuel  ran  up  a  great  way  very  wide,  where  they  had  much  wind ;  but  where 
the  ship  lay  we  found  little  all  day. 

Thursday  the  second,  'twas  fair  weather  of  wind  out  of  the  S.  E.  corner,  but  frozen 
hard  all  day,  with  some  snow.  You  must  know,  our  brightest  time  now  at  noon  ex- 
ceeded not  the  light  that  comes  an  hour  before  sun  rise,  m  an  equinoctial  day  in  Eng- 
land. 

Friday  the  third,  the  wind  as  before,  and  pretty  calm  still,  but  freezing  exceeding  hnrd. 
Howbeit  we  went  ashore  for  wood,  of  which  we  got  not  above  two  thirds  of  a  boat  full ; 
so  short  was  our  d!*y,  and  this  especially  so  very  close,  that  we  could  not  discern  tnc 
tops  of  the  hills  all  that  light. 

Saturday  the  fourth,  the  wind  kept  at  S.  E.  fair,  and  freezing  hard,  but  towards  night 
some  snow.  It  was  light  .o\v  ;ibout  but  three  hours  and  a  half;  as  I  observed  by  my 
watch,  which  in  my  warm  pocket  went  well,  and  (to  my  great  comfort)  kept  its  integrity 
in  the  worst  of  times. 

3  s  2 


S' 


500 


ALUSOirS  VOYAGE  VUONk  ABCIIANGEL. 


Sunday  the  fifth,  we  had  some  weather  of  wind  with  some  snow,  and  about  three  at 
niglit  a  small  ihuw. 

Monday  the  sixth,  being  moderate  weather  (but  close  and  freezing)  we  fetched  a  boat 
of  water.  All  our  men  went  ashore ;  some  with  guns,  and  among  them  they  shot  a  white 
partridge,  which  was  very  good  meat :  the  rest  employed  themselves  in  guthering  mus- 
cles, perriwinkles,  and  dills.  These  dills  are  dark  brown  weeds,  growing  and  hanging 
upon  the  rocks,  and  to  be  come  at  while  low  water :  a  sort  of  sea  plant  or  herb,  common 
enough  in  the  north  of  England,  but  more  frequent  in  Scotland.  There,  I  am  told,  they 
are  eaten  raw ;  but  by  boiling  they  become  soft,  and  look  greener,  tasting  not  much  un- 
like  a  colewort.  Our  way  of  dressing  them  was,  first,  to  boil  them  in  fresh  water,  which 
took  away  the  saltness  natural  'o  them  ;  and  after  that  boiling  them  again  in  our  beef 
broth,  thc-y  supplied  the  place  ot »;  salad,  to  eat  with  our  beef. 

By  some  Scottish  men  on  board  wi  were  happily  instructed  in  the  use  of  these. 

Tuesday  the  seventh,  it  proved  fair  Above  head,  the  wind  S.  S.  £.  but  freezing  very 
bard.  We  got  some  empty  casks  fron  between  decks  to  BH  them,  fearing  more  and 
more  to  depend  upon  the  springs.  For  uur  men  were  lately  at  a  great  loss  for  them,  and 
found  it  difficult  digging  in  the  ice.  Their  way  was,  when  they  went  for  water,  to  observe 
the  drains  upon  the  shore,  and  so  along  the  sunken  or  depressed  places  in  the  snow,  which 
were  formed  from  the  springs  of  the  upper  grounds  joining  in  their  descent,  and  making 
gutters,  some '  'th  streams  large  enough  to  turn  a  little  mUL  The  channels  were  covered 
with  ice  like  a  ceiling,  under  which  the  waters  ran  freely,  but  to  come  at  it,  they  were 
forced  to  dig  through  snow,  and  break  through  ice,  to  dip  in  their  bowls  and  fill  their 
pails ;  which  when  full  they  carried  to  the  boat,  where  the  hogsheads  stood  with  opea 
heads  to  receive  them.  And  nothwithstanding  they  made  all  posiuble  haste  aboard,  and 
had  not  above  a  furlong  to  row,  by  that  time  they  got  to  the  ship,  the  water  wouU  be 
covered  with  a  pretty  thick  ice.  The  pails  too  thereby  were  so  frozen  both  within  and 
V  vithflut,  as  to  weigh  much  more,  and  hold  much  less ;  and  we  were  forced  to  thaw  them 
continually,  for  a  new  day's  service. 

Wednesday  the  eighth,  we  had  it  fair  and  clear,  with  a  small  thaw,  the  wind  wester, 
ly.     We  filled  some  water,  and  put  it  down  into  the  hold. 

Th  ..L>day  the  ninth,  we  had  very  fur  weather,  and  so  warm  as  to  make  a  considerable 
thaw ;  the  wind  W.  S.  W. 

Friday  the  tenth,  it  was  f^r  over  head,  but  froze  exceeding  hard;  we  fetched  a  boat^ 
load  of  water.  Our  men  thought  it  good  news,  when  I  told  them  this  was  the  shortest 
day,  and  now  we  should  make  ourselves  ready  for  the  sea  as  fast  as  possibly  we  could. 
In  order  thereto,  I  gave  my  chief  mate  directions  for  roiiang  up  the  Fuel  on  the  morrow, 
to  take  a  full  view  of  the  first  bay  we  came  by.  Thb  was  matter  of  encouragement  to 
them,  and  kept  them  in  action,  though  I  did  it  with  little  hopes  of  siKlden  benefit  there- 

Saturday  the  eleventh,  it  proving  fair,  I  sent  the  boat  into  the  outeriuost  ba^,  to  view 
it,  and  get  acquainted  with  some  place  of  shelter,  that  we  might  make  use  of,  m  case  we 
should  not  be  able  to  regain  the  harbour,  or  proceed  at  our  first  putting  out.  They  retiu% 
ned,  and  brought  me  word  there  was  a  good  road  within  an  bland  that  lay  in  the  bay ; 
which  made  me  resolve,  if  the  weather  held  open,  that  wo  could  work,  to  make  out  for  the 
sea  by  moonlight. 

Sunday  the  twelfth,  was  a  fair  day,  the  wind  at  S.  W. 

Monday  the  thirteenth,  it  continuing  fair  weather,  we  got  up  our  sprit>sail-3rar4  and 
fore-yard  cros^  again ;  filled  a  boat-load  of  water,  and  got  two  woukieos  oii  our  ruddev^ 
head  ;  the  wind  easterly. 


ALU80N'S  VOYAGB  FROM  AltCHANGKL 


501 


Tuesday  the  fourteenth,  so  close  all  clay  as  to  be  scarce  good  twilight.  A  young 
man  in  our  company  took  a  Bible  of  a  small  print,  to  try  if  he  could  read  in  it,  but  could 
not  discern  his  letters  at  twelve  at  noon.  However  I  got  up  both  my  top-ma&ts  and 
main-yard  cross,  hoisted  ray  mizen-yard,  and  hauled  aboard  one  of  my  hauscrs.  The 
windat  W.S.  W. 

Wednesday  the  fifteenth,  we  had  as  little  light  this  day  as  the  day  before,  with  un- 
certain  weather,  sometimes  blowing  fresh  and  sometimes  calm ;  but  the  scud  came 
very  swift  out  of  the  W.  S.  W.  all  day  :  we  got  but  half  a  boat's  load  of  wood.  At 
nine  at  night  it  blew  a  storm  at  N.  W.  with  much  snow,  that  we  were  forced  to  strike 
our  vards  and  top -masts  as  fast  as  we  could. 

T^hursday  the  sixteenth,  it  continued  blowing  hard  at  W.  N.  W.  snowing  much  and 
freezing  at  so  extravagant  a  rate,  that  every  thing  became  ice  that  was  capable  of  being 
made  so. 

Friday  the  seventeenth,  it  blew  hard  at  S.  S.  E.  with  more  snow ;  and,  at  three  at 
raght,  or  in  the  after  part  of  die  day  (as  you  will  p.^ase  to  call  it)  it  proved  a  storm  out 
of  the  same  point. 

Saturday  the  cighteeenth,  the  wind  was  all  southerly,  blowing  hard,  and  freezing 
severely,  but  dry  o\  er  head.  Bad  as  it  was,  we  fetched  a  boat-load  of  wood,  and  some 
went  ashore  in  the  okifF  and  got  perriwinkles.  It  was  strange  how  these  little  creatures 
could  live  and  endure  so  much  frost :  for  as  soon  as  the  water  was  gone  from  them,  they 
would  soon  be  covered  with  ice,  but  the  returning  tide  melted  it.  These  we  took  ofl' 
the  shore  at  low  water,  and  brought  them  on  board,  where  we  boiled  them  in  the  shells, 
and  picked  out  the  snail,  or  that  part  that  was  meat. 

Sunday  the  nineteenth,  it  blew  hard  at  S.  S.  W.  with  much  snow  and  hard  frost. 

Monday  the  twentieth,  it  blew  desperately  hard  at  N.  E.  with  much  snow  and  severe 
frost.     Our  day  at  this  time  was  not  four  hours  and  a  half  long. 

Tuesday  the  twenty-first,  in  die  morning,  the  wind  was  at  N.  W.  at  noon  all  nor- 
therlv  ;  at  night  N.  E.  with  little  snow,  but  continued  frost.  About  diis  time  I  observ- 
cd  the  scooping  or  emptying  of  the  boat  was  a  thing  of  too  great  labour  for  the  boys 
to  do,  so  I  ordered  the  men  to  take  their  turns ;  this  was  very  grievous  to  them  ;  for 
in  a  night's  time  it  would  be  half  full  of  snow,  and  die  water  in  the  bottom  frozen  pretty 
thick ;  so  that  they  must  first  throw  out  the  snow,  then  break  a  hole  in  the  ic^,  and  by 
that  scoop  out  the  water,  and  at  last  take  away  the  ice  with  shovels.  The  stem  of  the 
boat  too  would  in  that  time  be  covered  four  or  five  inches  thick  with  ice,  and  about  the 
edge  of  the  water  also,  which  we  were  forced  to  break  off  with  mauls  or  wooden  bee- 
ties.  During  thi-.  our  people  suffered  so  exceedingly,  as  to  come  aboard  with  their 
limbs  almost  stiff  with  cold,  and  their  hair  so  frozen  as  to  hang  wiUi  larg^  icicies  in  the 
fashion  of  great  tags. 

Wednesday  the  twenty-second,  close  snowy  weather  all  day,  and  the  wind  westerly ; 
but  by  that  time  it  was  quite  dark  it  came  to  the  N.  E.  blowing  fresh.  Here  I  think  it 
proper  to  set  down  my  constant  observation  of  the  sky  towards  the  north  pole,  which  I  had 
made  daily  for  four  weeks  last  past :  viz.  that  even  during  that  time  of  light  we  called 
day,  it  continued  always  black,  as  if  it  were  a  dark  cloud  forerunning  a  squall.  It 
reached  from  N.  AV.  to  N.  E.  in  the  form  of  a  rainbow,  the  arch  elevated  15«>  or  20**, 
which  made  me  conclude,  that  something  farther  to  the  N.  there  must  be  a  continual 
night  all  that  while. 

Thursday  the  t'venty-third,  the  morning  was  feir,  but  by  noon  the  air  was  tliick,  with 
snow.  I  got  a  boat-load  of  water  and  some  wood,  and  gave  every  man  two  pounds 
and  a  quarter  of  honey  to  make  drink  against  Christmas.    I  find  no  notice  of  wind 


11 


.r1 


i; 


T 


502 


ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FliOM  AUCilANUEl. 


I 


taken  this  day,  and  likewise  of  some  few  before  ;  but  I  am  assured  it  was  too  dark  to 
think  of  stirring.  We  could  not  see  to  eat  our  meat  at  noon  without  candles,  of  which 
we  consumed  plenty,  bringing  about  five  hundred  weight  from  Russia  :  for  though 
we  kept  two  lamps  burning  day  and  night,  we  yet  used  candles  upon  frequent  and 
moving  occasions. 

Friflay  the  twenty-fourth,  it  proved  fair  and  clear,  the  frost  not  excessive  ;  so  that 
we  cleaned  our  decks  from  snow  and  ice.  The  wind  wasnortherly  all  day,  but  towards 
night  it  came  to  the  E.  Our  men  being  very  melancholy,  to  think  of  their  friends  at 
home  providing  good  cheer,  I  told  them  they  should  not  pinch  on  the  day  following ; 
and  accordingly  ordered  every  mess  should  have  full  allowance.  This  put  an  end  to 
that  kind  of  discourse,  and  they  seen  \  pleased  \s  :th  the  expectation  of  such  a  feast ; 
but  though  not  of  hauling  sharp*  for  i        'wards. 

Saturday  the  twenty-fifth,  being  Chriji  s-day,  in  the  former  part  of  the  day  we 
had  good  weather,  the  wind  at  S.  W.  but  for  the  latter  part  it  blowed  and  snowed. 
After  dinner,  1  spared  out  of  my  own  store,  to  every  two  men,  a  bottle  of  strong  beer, 
which  they  took  thankfully,  and  made  their  hearts  truly  glad.  About  six  at  night,  as 
I  was  walking  upon  deck,  I  observed  it  so  bright  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  that  we 
had  it  no  lighter  for  some  days  at  noon,  since  our  being  here.  This  must  be  from 
some  northern  glance  ;  the  more  remarkable  then,  as  unusual  in  close  weather. 

Sunday  the  twenty-sixth,  it  proved  indiftbrcnt  fair,  with  small  snow,  like  rain  ;  that 
is  becoming  drops  of  water,  upon  its  alighting  or  falling  upon  the  deck  ;  the  wind 
at  S.  W. 

Monday  the  twenty-seventh,  I  fetched  a  boat  of  water,  the  weather  being  fair  and 
calm.  This  day  I  took  up  a  hogshead  of  the  merchant's  honey,  and  shared  it  equally, 
givfng  each  man  his  part,  to  make  mead  as  formerly. 

Tuesday  the  twenty-eighth,  the  last  night  was  warm,  and  a  small  thaw  we  had ; 
the  day  held  fair,  and  the  night  ensuing  continued  calm. 

Wednesday  the  twenty-ninth,  still  over  head  fair  enough,  but  it  froze  again  ex- 
cessive  hard ;  the  wind  at  N.  E.  The  day  was  now  five  hours  long,  and  at  noon  time 
we  saw  it  was  perfect  day. 

Thursday  the  thirtieth,  it  blew  hard  at  W.  S.  W.  with  some  snow.  I  sent  the  long- 
boat a- wooding,  and  three  hands  in  the  skiflffor  water  ;  and  the  latter  I  accompanied, 
in  order  to  visit  the  inside  of  those  houses  that  were  just  by  us,  which  our  men  dis- 
covered soon  after  our  coming  into  this  bay  or  cove.  Here  were  dwelling-houses  for 
three  families,  as  near  as  I  could  guess,  each  having  another  for  cattle  adjoining,  and 
one  for  drying  of  fish,  which  was  open  like  a  cage,  with  poles  lying  across.  I  carried 
things  with  me  for  clearing  the  way  to  the  doors  from  snow  ;  and,  approaching  them,  I 
found  the  dwelling-houses  were  built  above  five  feet  from  the  ground,  and  twelve  feet 
broad,  in  form  round.  The  walls  were  made  of  stones  and  moss  between  them,  instead 
of  mortar,  and  roofed  with  the  same,  by  the  help  of  rafters  or  split  trees,  their  lower 
ends  resting  upon  the  wall,  and  their  upper  joining  at  the  top  against  a  hollow  stone, 
which  served  both  for  chimney  and  window.  And  for  a  hearth  there  was  a  flat  stone, 
laid  somewhat  above  the  ground ;  and  on  one  side  a  cabin  big  enough  for  two  people 
to  lie  in,  with  some  straw  in  it  there  left,  which  I  guessed  was  all  their  bedding.  In  one 
of  them  I  found  a  barrel  of  rye-meal,  but  so  bad  as  not  to  be  used  for  food.  We  met 
there  with  a  piece  of  a  printed  book,  with  the  form  of  prayer  therein,  of  the  Danish  lan- 
guage, as  one  of  our  men  told  us,  who  understood  it,  being  by  birth  of  that  nation. 


*  Sea  term  for  pinclung  the  belly. 


ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FROM  ARCIIAVGEL. 


503 


In  the  houses  for  cattle  were  stalls  and  partitions  of  sticks  crossing  one  another,  as  hur- 
dies  are  made,  such  as  are  in  gcntlemens'  stables  to  part  their  stone-horses,  with  hoards 
too  at  the  bottom.  They  were  so  snoall  as  to  contain  nothinjr  bigger  than  sheep  or 
goats ;  the  latter  being  more  frequent  in  the  neighbouring  countries.  The  doors  of  these 
folds  or  houses  were  not  above  three  feet  and  a  half  high,  and  two  in  breadth;  they  were 
half  full  of  snow,  so  that  no  dung  could  be  observed.  To  one  house  was  an  inclosurc 
like  a  yard,  with  a  pond  of  water,  but  frozen.  Likewise  there  wius  a  place  discernible, 
where  they  hauled  their  boat  upon  land,  when  they  had  been  a-fishing. 

Friday  the  thirty-first,  in  the  morning,  it  blew  hard  at  S.  VV.  but  the  latter  part  of  the 
day  was  very  warm,  and  it  fell  a  raining,  and  thawed  very  much.  This  made  us  wish 
for  a  light  moon  to  be  going  with. 

Saturday  January  the  first,  it  blew  hard  at  W.  but  warm  to  admiration,  so  as  to  make 
a  very  great  thaw ;  even  the  tops  of  several  small  hills,  that  laid  under  the  higher  ones, 
became  bare  and  clear  of  snow.  Withal  a  great  deal  of  snow  that  lay  upon  manj' 
parts  of  the  ship  was  melted  off.  At  the  same  time  came  a  great  sea  into  the  bay  where 
we  lay,  breaking  very  high  sX  the  harbour's  mouth  ;  but  towards  night  the  wind  was 
at  W.  N.  W. 

Sunday  the  second,  the  wind  was  at  S.  W.  blowing  hard.  It  continued  still  thaw- 
ing all  this  twenty-four  hours. 

Monday  the  third,  .ve  had  a  warm,  fair,  and  dry  day,  with  little  wind,  and  that  at 
S.  W.  This  was  the  first  day  we  could  ojjen  any  sail  since  we  came  in  here  :  so  we 
opened  our  mainsail  to  air  it,  and  found  no  harm  done  to  it,  notwithstanding  it  had 
continued  so  long  furled  up,  which  we  greatly  feared  before.  We  got  a  boat  of  water 
too. 

Tuesday  the  fourth,  still  fair  over  head,  and  moderate  as  to  wind,  which  was  at  the 
S.  S.  W.  but  the  fi-ost  had  made  its  return.  I  sent  the  boat  into  the  Fuel,  to  see  if  they 
could  take  any  fish ;  but  they  got  none.  One  hogshead  of  water  more  they  got  filled, 
and  put  between  decks. 

Wednesday  the  fifth,  it  blew  fresh  northerly,  with  some  small  snow,  and  froze 
hard  again.  I  sent  my  men  a- wooding,  where  they  could  not  but  observe  what  altera- 
tion the  late  open  weather  had  made  upon  the  trees,  disposing  them  to  flourish,  by  moist- 
ening their  bark,  and  opening  their  buds  considerably  ;  which  the  returning  cold  had 
nipt  again.  Likewise  upon  the  hills  that  were  bare  by  the  thaw,  they  found  plenty 
of  green  juniper,  of  which  they  gathered  and  brought  on  board  a  great  many  branches. 
Withal  they  peeled  off  the  tender  bark  of  the  willow-like  tree,  and  bound  it  up  in 
several  bundles,  to  hang  near  the  fire  and  dry,  for  an  intended  use.  This  over  and 
above  their  load  of  wood,  which  they  made  good. 

Thursday  the  sixth,  it  was  very  fair  ov«r  head,  but  blowing  pretty  hard  at  S.  S.  W. 
the  frost  too  increasing.  Yet  they  made  shift  to  get  a  boat  of  wood,  with  more  juniper, 
and  a  quantity  of  bark,  as  before. 

Friday  the  seventh,  it  proved  very  bad  weather,  the  wind  high  at  N.  W.  and  much 
snow  a^ain.  This  day's  confinement  gave  our  people  leisure  to  advance  a  new  pro- 
ject, and  make  trial  of  what  they  had  got  to  supply  the  want  of  tobacco;  with  wmch, 
had  they  been  sufficiently  stocked,  it  would  have  been  a  great  relief  to  them,  and  a 
choice  entertainment.  For  my  own  part,  I  had  just  enough  to  allow  myself  three  or 
four  pipes  in  a  day,  and  could  not  find  in  my  heart  to  spare  any  :o  my  best  friend : 
though  it  could  not  but  grieve  my  spirits  to  see  one  smoaking,  instead  of  it,  mere  rags 
of  fustian  torn  from  a  coat  pocket.  But  this  was  before  they  found  out  the  use  of  some- 
thing more  like  it,  being  parts  of  dried  plants :  I  mean  the  tops  of  juniper  before  men- 


'1  ■ 

II 


•! 


I 


i 


1!' 


■It  1 


i 


■^\ 


504 


ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FBOM  ARCIIANGKU 


tioned,  and  the  willow-b<irk  dried.  These  they  now  bcgiin  to  shred  small  with  a  knife, 
and  mix  togtthe r  in  proportions  according  to  each  man's  fancy,  and  to  fUt  their  pipes 
therewith.  All  that  take  tobacco  know  these  have  no  agreement  with  the  other  as  to 
virtue  and  effects  ;  nor  yield  the  like  pleasure  nor  benefit :  but  the  smoke,  1  am  sure,  was 
not  ungrateful,  and  possibly  not  unwholesome,  both  for  the  takers  and  company  ;  and, 
in  my  opinion,  it  was  no  mean  invention,  in  such  extreme  necessity. 

Saturday  the  eighth,  the  weather  as  bad  as  the  day  before,  both  of  wind  and  snow, 
and  freezing  hard.  However,  we  cleared  our  decks  of  snow  and  ice,  and  stowed  what 
wood  we  could  spare  out  of  the  forecastle  and  steerage,  to  make  fit  for  the  sea,  having 
hopes  that  it  would  please  God  to  give  us  opportunity  by  this  light  moon. 

Sunday  the  ninth,  the  night  past  was  very  stormy,  blowing  hard  still  in  the  morn- 
ing at  S.  S.  £.  with  excessive  frost  and  some  snow ;  but  towards  nooii  the  weather 
mended  in  all  respects. 

Monday  the  tenth,  we  had  a  storm  out  of  the  N.  W.  violent  and  furious,  and,  I 
think,  with  the  most  wind  that  ever  I  observed  in  my  life,  though  1  have  used  the  sea 
these  thirty-eight  years.  It  snowed  very  hard  withal,  and  froze  at  a  great  rate,  inso- 
much that  the  forepart  of  the  ship,  by  the  dashing  of  the  water  against  her,  and  the 
mounting  of  the  foam  by  the  tempest,  had  nothing  but  what  was  covered  with  ice. 

Tuesday  the  eleventh,  it  continued  blowing  hard  at  N.  W.  with  snow  and  hard  frost. 
The  night  past  we  lost  thirteen  pieces  of  beef,  as  they  hung  a- watering ;  which  was  a 
great  mortification  to  us.  For  our  way  was  to  put  our  beef  into  a  wicker  hamner,  and 
hang  it  by  a  rope  at  the  ship's  side  two  feet  under  water ;  no^v  the  rope  gathering  a 
quantity  of  ice,  and  the  excessive  wind  giving  the  ship  some  motion,  it  was  thereby 
diafed  asunder,  and  the  beef  let  drop.  It  h  to  be  observed,  that  we  could  not  freshen 
our  meat  after  the  usual  manner  at  sea,  by  panting  the  same  into  a  tub  of  sea- water  ;  for 
tb'M  would  have  been  all  ice  in  a  few  hours,  and  the  flesh  still  as  hard  and  salt  as  before  : 
tht  wicker  hamper  too  was  to  preserve  it  from  voracious  fishes,  as  the  seal  More  spoken  of. 

Wednesday  the  twelfth,  it  blew  fresh  at  S.  S.  W.  and  froze  smartly.  We  got  our 
warp  anchor  and  two  hausers  on  board,  and  made  four  pair  of  graplines  or  creepers,  with 
which  we  went  to  try  if  we  could  hank  the  I:"*  nper,  and  recover  the  beef  we  lost  two 
nights  before ;  but  we  were  not  so  lucky  as  to  ii^l:*:  upon  it. 

But  my  mate  in  holding  the  line,  while  he  was  creeping  or  searching  for  the  hamper, 
got  the  frost  in  his  fingers,  insomuch  that  the  next  mwning  he  foupd  blisters  risen 
upon  them,  and  his  thumbs  as  if  they  had  been  scalded.  And  after  the  water  was  let 
out  by  opening  them,  his  hands  were  so  raw,  as  to  make  him  incapable  of  going  a- wood- 
ing. 

Thursday  the  thirteenth,  the  wind  was  at  S.  £.  and  moderate  enough,  but  the  cold 
as  rigorous  as  at  any  time  before,  and  this  day  with  a  considerable  rime  frost.  How- 
ever we  got  a  boat-load  of  wood ;  but  when  our  men  came  aboard,  they  complained 
much  of  the  frost  being  got  into  their  feet  and  hands ;  some  only  blistered,  others 
turned  black,  and  without  feeling.  Our  chirurgeon  opened  the  blisters,  and  by  fo- 
mentations and  other  applications  he  recovered  them  ;  and  where  it  was  turned  black, 
he  cut  off  the  dead  and  senseless  part,  and  healed  them  after  some  time :  wherein  he 
manifested  himself  to  have  a  good  understanding  in  his  business,  by  the  success  he  had ; 
seeing  none  had  any  loss  of  an  entire  part  or  joint,  but  purely  of  what  flesh  or  skin  was 
mollified  before  he  saw  it  :  and  they  all  became  serviceable  by  that  time  I  got  home, 
or  soon  after.  In  justice  and  gratitude  I  am  obliged  to  mention  his  name,  William 
Brown,  of  Great  Yarmouth,  and  educated  there  under  his  father,  of  the  same  pro- 
fession. 


'I 


ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FROM  AKCIIANGKL. 


505 


cold 
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ined 
ers 
fo- 
ck, 
he 
dj 


Friday  the  fourteenth,  fair  and  clear  weather  we  had,  but  it  froze  so  vehemently  that 
I  durst  not  let  uny  man  go  out  of  the  ship,  or  do  any  work  that  day :  cherishing  and 
giving  rest  to  the  disabled,  and  reserving  the  sound. 

Saturday  the  fifteenth,  still  clear  as  the  day  before,  but  freezing  exceeding  hard  :  the 
wind  in  the  morning  at  N.  E.  but  at  night  S.  £.  with  a  violent  storm.  At  noon  we 
reckoned  the  sun  made  his  first  bodily  appearance  in  our  part  of  the  world  for  the  year 
ensuing :  the  day  eight  hours  and  a  half  long. 

Sunday  the  sixteenth,  it  blew  hard  at  N.  W.  in  the  morning :  at  noon  the  wind  wua 
at  N.  N.  £.  and  freezing  ;   but  not  so  hard  as  before. 

Monday  the  seventeenth,  we  had  much  wind  at  N.  W.  with  some  snow ;  the  frosl 
too  we  looked  upon  as  less  vehement  than  formerly. 

Tuesday  the  eighteenth,  the  morning  was  blustering  and  cloudy ;  the  wind  at  N.  W. 
At  noon  it  cleared,  and  we  saw  the  sun-beams  gilding  the  tops  of  several  hills^  to  our 
great  joy  and  comfort ;  for  we  had  not  seen  sun  shine  oefore  in  ten  weeks.  After  noon 
the  wuid  came  to  the  N.  E  ;  fine  weather ;  we  got  a  boat-load  of  wood  and  two  hogs- 
heads of  water.  The  latter  was  difficult  to  come  at,  the  springs  being  all  frozen  up,  only 
the  run  of  the  great  spring  we  found  gliding  under  the  full  sea-mark. 

Wednesday  the  nineteenth,  it  was  calm  and  good  weather :  I  caused  the  decks  and 
scuppers  to  be  cleared  of  ice  and  snow ;  in  doing  which,  we  were  forced  to  heat  crows 
of  iron  red  hot,  and  so  by  degrees  melt  a  way  through  the  scupper-holes,  and  free  them 
from  ice.  And,  with  the  same  instruments  and  axes,  cut  through  and  raise  up  the  ice 
upon  the  decks,  and  to  heave  overboard.  Notwithstanding  it  froze  extremely  hard  at 
tms  time,  yet  we  had  warm  hopes  of  getting  to  sea,  the  wind  being  at  S.  £. 

Thursday  the  twentieth,  the  wind  was  at  W.  S.  W.  and  moderate :  neither  was  it  so 
cold  as  the  day  before ;  freezing  no  harder  than  it  does  in  a  hard  frost  in  England.  We 
hauled  the  ship  about  twice,  to  clear  the  hawse ;  and  in  the  afternoon  went  and  got  perri- 
winkles,  muscles,  and  diUs. 

Friday  the  twenty.first,  it  blew  hard  at  N.  N.  W.  but  was  very  warm,  so  as  to  cause 
a  small  thaw.  We  got  a  boat-load  of  wood  and  another  of  water ;  and  at  the  edge  of 
the  shore  our  men  saw  eggs,  one  of  which  they  pulled  upon  land,  with  a  long  bent  stick, 
and  brought  it  on  board.  These  are  likewise  called  sea-urchins,  having  somewhat  grow- 
ing upon  the  shells  like  thorns,  or  the  brisUe?  upon  the  land  hedge-hog.  The  shape  is 
round  and  flattish,  the  shell  thin,  and  the  bristles  easily  rub  off;  for  a  further  description, 
I  must  refer  the  reader  to  authors  that  treat  of  such  things.  It  was  good  news  for  me 
to  hear  of  them,  knowing  what  benefit  they  might  be  to  us ;  and  therefore  I  caused 
a  piece  of  iron  hoop  to  be  fixed  to  the  end  of  a  pole,  and  made  a  net  like  a  fisherman's 
lead  net  agsunst  the  next  day. 

Saturday  the  twenty-second,  the  wind  was  at  W.  S.  W.  the  weather  fair  too,  and 
indifferent  warm.  We  first  cleared  the  deck  of  die  wood  brought  in  the  day  before, 
and  stowed  it  down  into  the  hold  for  a  sea  store.  Afterward  some  went  ashore  with 
the  pole  and  net  aforesaid,  and  got  store  of  eg^ ;  while  others  went  a  gunning,  who 
shot  only  a  small  fowl,  called  a  Greenland  pigeon.  I  do  not  remember,  for  the  fvrst  two 
months  and  more  after  I  came  in  here,  I  ever  saw  any  but  two  birds  or  fowls  flying, 
and  they  were  two  crows  of  a  dun  colour,  not  different  from  ours  so  called ;  and  by 
some  Royston  crows.  These  flew  often  near  the  ship,  and  at  length  were  so  tame  as 
to  lip;ht  upon  our  deck ;  one  of  which  our  men  shot,  poor  and  lean  as  he  was,  and 
nothing  but  skin,  bone,  and  feathers.  But  before  I  came  away  I  saw  several  of  the 
Greenland  doves  aforesaid,  and  fowls  like  what  we  call  kitties,  pick  up  things  at  low 
water,  which  I  guessed  might  be  pern  winkles,  and  sea  eggs  especially.    For  one  day 

VOL.  I.  3  T 


506 


ALLISON'S  VOYA(.K  FROM  AlUMIAN'i.KL 


i 


(though  I  have  iiot  set  it  down  nunctuully,  I  bear  it  in  mind,  I  wciU  myself  ashore,  and 
u  furlong  up  the  hills  I  found  the  shells  of  sea-eggs,  which  I  judged  might  have  been 
carried  iij)  by  such  birds.  They  are  special  gootl  food,  and  1  doubt  not  but  the  birds 
suck  out  all  tl)eir  inwards,  though  we  cat  only  the  yellow  part  like  an  egg's  yolk,  and 
throw  away  the  other  white  or  jelly  part ;  that  we  take  and  put  into  a  sauce-pun,  and  pour 
toit  some  beef  broth,  which,  with  a  little  pep)|K'r  strewed  u|K)n  it,  and  stewed  together, 
makes  a  very  good  dish. 

Sunda}'  the  twenty-third,  we  had  it  fair  and  clear  all  day,  the  wind  southerly,  and  the 
frost  very  moderate. 

Monday  the  twenty-fourth,  still  fair  and  clear,  the  wind  southerly.  We  got  our  kedgc 
anchor  on  board,  but  much  trouble  had  we  to  come  at  it :  we  were  forced  to  dig  through 
a  great  deal  of  ice,  and  the  ground  itself,  frozen  deep,  under  which  one  flo(jk  had  been 
long  buried.  VVe  shifted  one  of  our  small  huulsers  too,  at  the  stake  where  the  cable 
was  fast ;  got  both  our  top-masts  up,  hoisted  our  mizen-yard,  and  got  our  fore-yards  up, 
with  an  intent  to  be  jogging  ;  but  before  night  it  began  to  blow  at  S.  S.  W. 

Tuesday  the  twenty-fifth,  it  blew  very  hard,  insomuch  that  I  was  forced  to  strike  both 
top-masts,  and  lower  all  down  again ;  besides^  it  froze  extremely  hard  all  this  twenty, 
four  hours.  Thus  were  we  fatally  baulked,  and  our  design  of  stirring  put  a  stop  to,  when 
we  had  provision  enough  left  to  go  to  sea  with ;  I  can't  say  without  great  liazard  of  want, 
and  danger  of  weather,  could  we  have  held  on  our  purpose. 

Wednesday  the  twenty-sixth ,  it  continued  still  blowing,  and  the  wind  all  southerly ; 
so  that  at  certain  times,  when  the  blasts  came  violently  oft'  the  hills,  notwithstanding  the 
hawse  was  very  foul  and  thick  frozen,  yet  the  cable  would  be  pulled  stark  out  of  the 
water.  The  haulser  too  at  the  stake  on  shore,  having  a  great  weight  of  ice  upon  it,  would 
nevertheless  be  stiff  strained  above  the  water,  as  level  as  that  of  a  rope-dancer,  when  it  is 
made  fit  to  walk  u^jon  ;  it  being  to  admiration  that  the  stake,  cable,  and  haulsers,  should 
hold. 

Thursday  the  twenty-seventh,  the  wind  and  weather  still  the  same  as  the  day  before, 
blowing  fiercely,  but  clear  over  head,  and  freezing  at  a  great  rate. 

Friday  the  twenty -eighth,  the  wind  kept  its  place,  but  grew  more  moderate,  the  frost 
still  excessive  :  however  1  got  a  boat-load  of  water,  and  another  of  wood. 

Saturday  the  twenty-ninth,  it  blew  smartly  out  of  the  S.  and  froze  so  extraordinary 
hard,  that  the  water  we  brought  on  board  the  day  before  was  a  solid  body  of  ice.  For 
having  occasion  to  brew  that  morning  (it  being  late  before  the  water  came  on  board  over 
night)  I  caused  one  of  the  hogsheads  to  be  digged  into,  to  see  if  any  water  could  be 
found  in  the  cask ;  and  in  the  midst  there  might  be  the  quantity  of  about  two  gallons  ly- 
ing a  in  hole  of  the  depth  of  fourteen  inches,  and  three  inches  width :  of  that  I  made  mead, 
which,  proved  excellent  good,  and  some  of  the  very  sort  I  brought  with  me  to  England. 

Sunday  the  thirtieth,  it  blew  a  hard  gale  at  S.  by  £.  freezing  withal,  but  not  so  iiard 
as  two  days  before. 

Monday  the  thirty-first,  we  had  as  much  wind  as  the  day  before,  and  from  the  same 
|)oint,  but  dry  over  head,  and  freezing  to  extremity.  There  was  a  hogshead  that  stood 
on  end  upon  the  deck  full  of  water,  with  its  head  open,  which  froze  gradually  down, 
ward,  so  as  to  force  the  bottom  out,  and  raise  the  cask  three  inches  from  the  place  it 
stood  on,  and  became  a  whole  column  or  solid  body  of  ice  :  another,  at  the  same  time, 
that  laid  along  with  its  bung  open,  froze  m  the  like  manner,  bursting  open  the  under- 
most  stave  upon  which  it  rested.  1  leave  the  reader  to  assign  the  natural  reason  of  thb, 
only  taking  along  with  him  this  remark,  that  it  lay  upon  a  pretty  thick  ice  that  covered 


'■..:\h  ;^. 


jVy^ 


\\ 


ALLISON'S  V()YA(iK  lUOM  Aid  IIAMiKI . 


50*; 


the  deck.  How  long  they  had  been  lx)th  filled  I  cannot  s:\y  puiictunlly  :  the  ilrst  might 
be  one  of  them  brought  on  board  the  Friday  before  :  the  other  possibly  had  lain  longer, 
UH  designed  for  u  sea-store.  This  brings  into  consideration  the  daily  toil  our  cook  had, 
with  an  iron  crotv,  to  break  asunder  lamps  of  ice  to  put  into  the  {lot.  In  doing  which 
he  was  obliged  to  arm  his  hands  with  fur  gloves  and  mittens,  otherwise  the  iron  would 
have  cleaved  to  his  fingers,  and  carried  the  skin  along  with  it.  The  same  clothing  or 
defence  our  men  constantly  used,  not  only  abroad  in  wooding  and  watering,  but  alf>o  in 
their  work  aboard,  as  handling  the  ropes,  or  whatever  else  they  touched  or  moved. 
Over  and  above,  when  they  went  in  the  boat  n\Mn  frequent  expeditions,  whether  for 
carrying  out  or  weighing  %'f  anchors,  or  going  ashore  for  the  many  purposes  before  cited, 
they  put  on  their  Russia  boots,  which  were  wide  like  those  worn  by  lisliermen,  and  linetl 
with  bear-skin :  these  they  were  all  furnished  widi,  but  two  or  three,  who  were  glad  to 
supply  the  want  of  them  by  tying  old  pieces  of  canvas  about  their  legs,  and  over  their 
feet. 

Tuesday  the  first  of  February,  it  continued  still  blowing  hard  at  S.  by  E.  clear  widial  ; 
and  about  noon  we  saw  the  sun  shine  into  the  mouth  of  the  harbour :  he  might  shew  the 
whole  of  his  face,  but  little  of  his  power ;  for  it  froze  so  excessively  this  day,  that  die 
ice  hung  upon  the  ship  in  some  places  full  two  feet  thick,  and  at  the  edge  of  the  water  it 
was  of  a  great  breadth ;  so  that  tne  ship,  having  a  small  motion,  made  such  a  noise,  that 
the  night  before  we  could  not  sleep  for  it.  To  prevent  which  we  hauled  the  long  bout 
about  the  sides,  and  with  two  great  beetles  or  mauls  broke  it  off;  and  sometimes  a  piece 
of  half  a  ton  freight  would  drop  at  once. 

Wednesday  the  second,  it  blew  hard  at  S.  with  clear  weather,  but  froze  so  very  hard, 
that  now  all  the  cables  were  past  handling ;  which  mightily  discouraged  us,  and  almost 
stifled  all  thoughts  of  going.  To  mention  all  the  discourses  our  people  had  at  times, 
upon  several  occurrences,  would  fill  u  bigger  volume ;  and  a  great  many  more  I  had 
set  down,  had  it  not  been  so  great  a  trouble  to  wriie.  'Twas  vexatious  enough  to  get 
my  ink  ready  for  use*  and  no  less  to  keep  it  so,  a  boy  being  forced  to  thaw  it  as  oft  as  I 
had  occasion  to  dip  my  pen. 

Thursday  the  mird,  all  the  night  past  stormy,  and  the  wind  southerly,  but  it  frn^c 
not  so  hard  as  the  day  before ;  we  got  a  boatload  of  wood,  and  another  of  water.  As 
moderate  as  the  weather  was  for  cold,  possibly  on  such  a  day  we  might  get  the  water  on 
board  in  the  hogsheads  with  little  or  no  ice  on  the  surface  of  it ;  but  after  standing  half  an 
hour  upon  deck,  we  should  have  it  thick  enough  to  bear  an  empty  pipe.  This  was  a 
warm  day  comparatively,  I  say,  and  cherished  our  dying  hopes  of  getting  from  this  place, 
and  towards  night  we  got  up  our  fore  top-masts,  fore-yard,  and  mizen-yard,  to  be  in 
readiness  for  the  sea. 

Friday  the  fourth,  in  the  morning,  it  blew  a  hard  storm  at  S.  so  that  I  was  com- 
pelled once  more  to  strike  our  yards  and  top-masts ;  but  towards  night  the  wind  eased, 
and  we  got  our  stream  cable  on  board,  leaving  a  piece  of  twenty  famom  behind  us,  so 
deep  buried  under  *he  ice  on  shore  as  not  to  be  got  out. 

Saturday  the  fifih.  This  day  began  with  fine  weather,  the  wind  at  S.  S.  W.  Our 
men  discovered  scallop-shells  near  the  ship,  but  they  lay  in  deep  water.  I  caused  a  bmad 
flat  piece  of  iron  to  be  bent,  like  a  dreu^e  to  fish  for  oysters  with,  and  ordered  a  bug  to  be 
made  to  it  of  rope  yam  ;  and  that  night  we  went  a-dragging  and  got  sixteen  scallops, 
which  were  veiy  good  victuals.  I  brought  home  with  me  some  of  these,  and  several 
other  shells,  which  I  carelessly  disposed  of,  or  lost  the  most  part ;  but  when  I  waited 
iiix)n  that  ingenious  and  worthy  per:  jn,  Mr.  James  Petiyer,  apothecary,  in  Aldersgate- 
street,  and  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  to  present  him  with  those  few  I  had  remaining, 

3  T  2 


508 


ALLISON'S  VOYACK  FROM  ARCHANGEL. 


frum  them,  ancl  others  he  shewed  me,  I  remembered  they  were  almost  all  of  such  kindtt 
an  urc  found  about  Knglund  :  und  by  him  I  was  further  informed,  that  the  general  Kng* 
liiih  names  I  had  given  to  them  were  not  improper ;  more  distinctly  he  told  me  they 
were  perriwinkles,  wilks,  Scarborough  couvins,  lim|)etH,  muscles,  cockles,  sea-eggs,  8(C. 
Ovster-shelb  too  I  saw  here  and  there,  but  not  one  whole,  with  the  inwards  or  meat  in  it. 
I  led  with  him  likewise  a  piece  or  two  of  coral,  got  when  wc  dragged  for  these  shell  anu 
muls,  having  saved  greater  variety  of  the  same,  which  an  unlucky  boy  threw  overboard. 
Moreover  some  slate-like  stones,  and  these  I  observed  there  of  various  colours,  which, 
when  we  held  against  the  grindstone,  tinged  the  water  (it  turned  in)  strongly  of  the  same 
colour.  And  in  some  colour-shops,  where  I  exposed  them  here  in  London,  they  conclu* 
ded  them  fit  for  painters'  use,  and  of  good  value  ;  so  that  this  wretched  country  was  not 
destitute  of  all  human  food  or  commodity ;  and  hud  I  been  there  in  a  season  when  the 
snow  was  gone,  much  more  might  have  been  observed ;  or  even  then,  had  I  made  it 
more  mv  business  to  discover  what  was  odd  or  rare.  Towards  night  the  wind  came  to 
the  N.  N.  W.  blowing  hard,  and  snowing. 

Sunday  the  sixths  it  proved  fair  and  clear  till  three  in  the  afternoon ;  then  the  wind 
shifted  from  the  N.  W.  to  S.  and  began  to  blow  and  overcast. 

Monday  the  seventh,  it  blew  hard  in  the  morning  at  N.  N.  W.  and  from  thettce  the 
wind  shifted  to  W.  S.  W.  I  took  now  into  further  consideration  the  quantity  of  pro- 
vision  1  had  left,  and  finding  not  above  two  hundred  and  three  pieces  of  beef,  and  peas 
proportionable,  and  seeing  no  likelihood  of  getting  any  other  relief  while  we  stayed  nere 
than  what  we  had  met  with,  I  put  my  men  to  straiter  allowance,  viz.  six  men  to  a 
piece  of  beef  a  day,  and  a  pint  of  peas  for  four  men.  And  to  prevent  all  discontent 
and  murmuring,  I  kept  myself,  as  1  had  done  all  along,  upon  the  level  with  them,  giv- 
ing them  leave  to  take  the  first  piece  in  choice,  and  I  the  second  for  my  own  mess. 
Withal  I  encoura^d  them  daily  to  get  what  proviuon  of  sustenance  they  could  from 
shore;  having  finished  our  drag,  and  fixed  two  nets  for  catching  sea-eges,  of  which  we 
got  this  day  three  bushels.  These  were  the  means  of  tempering,  as  well  as  sparing,  our 
salt  flesh,  which  we  should  have  more  need  of  at  sea,  where  we  should  be  bereaved  of 
the  helps  this  harbour  afforded  us.  Alas!  had  we  but  store  of  proper  9  id  cherishing 
food,  our  sufferings  from  the  cold  would  have  been  easily  borne,  by  so  maiv  hardy  and 
lusty  men  as  I  had  then  on  board,  with  the  plenty  of  firing  we  met  with.  Nay,  had  I 
been  so  lucky  as  to  have  brought,  what  I  usually  dkl  in  former  voyages,  quantities  of 
Russia  hams  and  neats'  tongues,  they  would  have  afforded  great  support  under  such 
woeful  distresses.  But  to  heighten  the  misfortune,  I  was  basely  disappointed  at  my  com- 
ing away  of  a  thousand  weight  of  stock-fish,  which  I  had  agreed  for,  to  take  with  me  as 
ship  provision.  Strong  Russia  beer  too  (not  to  mention  high  wines  and  brandy)  had 
been  comfortable  drinks  in  cold  days,  as  I  found  by  that  litde  I  had  in  bottles,  wluch  I 
kept  buried  up  in  straw,  and  preserved  mostly  from  the  frost  thereby  ;  howbeit  now  and 
then  the  boy  fetching  a  bottle  would  bring  the  neck  in  one  hand,  and  the  bottom  in  the 
other,  without  spilling  any,  perhaps  one  of  the  uppermost,  and  not  well  covered.  And  I 
cannot  forget,  what  I  nave  more  than  once  taken  notice  of,  that  a  bottle  of  beer  standing 
behind  us,  while  we  sat  before  the  fire,  would  contract  ice  in  the  time  we  were  drinking 

Tuesday  the  eiglith,  the  weather  was  fair,  and  something  warmer,  the  wind  being 
at  the  S.  \V.  I  got  my  sheet-anchor  and  best  bower  on  board,  and  made  all  cleai*  for 
the  sea,  riding  only  by  our  small  bower  and  one  cable  ashore.  In  the  evening  our  men 
dragged,  and  used  their  nets,  getting  some  scallops  and  two  bushels  of  ep;gs,  to  our  great 
relief.    This  day  >ve  first  pumped  uie  ship,  having  in  her  about  nine  inches  of  water-; 


t 


of 


:ing 
for 


ALUSON'll  VOYACR  FUO:SI  AllCIIANCEL. 

neither  had  we  occaaion  to  do  it  afterward,  which  wuh  a  happiness,  by  reason  we  could 
not  have  kept  our  pumps  clear  without  a  good  supply  of  hot  water ;  ix'siden,  the  doing 
it  oAen  would  have  fatigued  our  men. 

Wednesday  the  ninth,  in  the  morning,  it  blew  u  stout  gale  of  wind  at  W.  by  N.  with 
snow  :  but  at  noon  the  wind  was  at  W.  S.  \V.  with  squalls  of  snow.  We  got  a  bout  of 
wood  and  water,  and  carried  a  shank  of  lines,  with  twenty  hcwks,  out  into  the  Fuel,  and 
left  them  all  night,  to  see  if  we  could  uike  any  fish  therewith. 

Thursday  tlie  tenth,  we  had  fair  weather  in  the  morning,  and  little  wind ;  so  we 
fetched  on  board  our  lines,  with  the  baits  entire,  and  no  fisn.  Before  noon  it  blew  u 
storm  out  of  the  W.  with  abundance  of  snow,  which  obliged  me  to  let  go  my  best 
bower  under  foot :  it  continued  to  blow  till  midnight,  and  then  the  wind  eased. 

Friday  the  eleventh,  in  the  morning,  it  was  fair  and  the  wind  southerly  :  towards 
noon  it  fell  a  snowing,  and  blew  very  hard  at  S.  S.  W. ;  in  the  evening  it  froze  smardy, 
with  abatement  of  wind,  inducing  me  to  heave  up  my  best  bow-anchor  again  ;  but  a  great 
snow  followed,  and  bad  weather  all  night. 

Saturday  the  twelfth,  it  continued  blowing  very  hard  at  W.  with  much  snow  in 
squalls  ;  so  I  was  forced  to  let  drop  my  sheet-anchor  under  foot.  We  had  two  cats  on 
board,  whose  lives  we  endeavoured  to  preserve  by  giving  them  fresh  meat  of  sea-eggs, 
and  muscles,  8ic.  but  they  grew  weaker  as  the  cold  continued,  and  died  of  the  cold, 
starved,  one  now,  and  the  other  a  week  after,  even  at  our  feet,  and  before  the  fire. 

Sunday  the  thirteenth,  ii  continued  blowing  very  hard,  the  wind  at  W.  N.  W.  and 
N.  W.  with  much  snow,  and  violent  gusts  of  wind. 

Monday  the  fourteenth,  we  had  not  so  much  wind  on  this  as  the  last  two  days,  yet  it 
was  far  enough  from  being  calm.  I  heaved  up  my  sheet-anchor  and  brought  it  on  board ; 
got  a  boat-load  of  wood,  and  another  of  water. 

Tuesda}r  the  fifteenth,  the  good  weather  in  the  morning  invited  our  men  ashore  to 
gather  perriwinkles  and  dills ;  out  by  ten  o'clock  it  began  to  blow  a  storm  at  N.  W.  by 
W.  so  that  they  could  scarce  gtt  aboard  again.  At  three  in  the  afternoon  one  of  our 
men  departed  this  life :  he  was  under  thirty  years  of  age,  and  taken  first  sick  at  Arch, 
angel,  of  a  distemper  like  an  ague,  continuing  ill  ever  since  we  came  away  from  thence, 
and  declining  till  this  time.  Neither  can  it  bs  said  he  died  of  the  cold  merely,  such  as 
do  so  (as  I  have  been  told)  going  off  sleeping ;  whereas  he  expired  gradually  and  sen. 
sibly,  as  I  have  seen  others  breathing  tlteir  last ;  could  we  have  got  home  in  good  time, 
he  might  possibly  have  recovered.  7 'he  continuance  of  the  storm  made  us  let  fall  our 
best  bow-anchor. 

Wednesday  the  sixteenth,  the  morning  was  fair,  so  we  heaved  up  our  sheet-anchor, 
and  buried  our  deceased  man  at  low  water  mark ;  for  higher  up  on  the  dry  shore  the 
ground  was  so  hard  frozen,  that  we  could  not  dig  it.  We  got  a  boat  of  wood  and  water, 
and  put  the  dead  man's  clothes  to  sale  at  the  mast ;  so  our  custom  is  at  sea  in  the  like 
case.  In  the  evening  the  wind  came  to  the  S.  blowing  and  freezing  extraordinary  hard, 
with  squalls  of  snow ;  afterwards  it  shifted  to  N.  N.  E.  continumg  stormy  all  night 

Thursday  the  seventeenth,  it  grew  calmer  towards  the  morning,  but  it  snowed  much, 
and  froze  very  hard  all  day,  the  wind  cotinuing  at  N.  N.  £.  dll  midnight,  and  then  came 
to  the  W.  and  in  the  morning  following  to  N.  N.  W. 

Friday  the  eighteenth,  the  weather  moderate  enough  as  to  wind,  but  snowing  and 
freezing  so  prodigiously,  that  our  men,  who  went  ashore  to  get  perriwinkles  and  dills, 
were  forced  aboard  in  a  short  time,  being  not  able  to  endure  the  weather  abroad ;  and 
some  of  them  were  so  benumbed  with  the  cold,  as  to  be  incapable  of  helping  themselves 
to  climb  the  ship's  »de,  so  that  others  were  forced  to  help  or  hand  them  up :  but  soon 


i 

I 


510 


ALUSON'M  YDY.UiK  KIIOM  ARCIIAMiri. 


I 

! 


after  tlu'y  pot  nhrxird  iluy  recovered,  the  ship  heinp;  hot  like  a  stove,  compared  with  the 
ojKn  air.  I  renu'ml)er  lor  several  days  I  could  not  l>ear  the  HharpiiesH  of  the  air,  walking 
U|K]n  the  deck,  Init  was  fi;lad  to  clap  my  luiiulkerchief  double  over  my  mouth  and  nose 
for  u  del'eiux'.  You  must  know  that  for  these  four  months  paKt,  «inec  we  came  in  hea*, 
we  wiHired  our  tuards  to  ^n)w  at  leii^ifth  for  warmness,  which  would  Ik*  often  full  of 
icicles,  from  (uir  hreath  conji^aled,  alter  the  expoj>inf5  ourselves  for  a  little  while  ujmjh 
deck  ;  but  upprr)achin(r  the  fin*  they  came  off  easily,  whereas  to  have  pulled  diem  ofl  Iw- 
fore,  hud  been  to  brini^  hair  and  all. 

Saturday  the  tunetcenth,  we  had  little  wind  this  day,  and  tluit  nt  N.  W.  but  much 
snow,  and  frost  so  excessive,  that  it  was  im|X)ssiblc  for  u  man  tu  look  to  windward.  In 
the  murnings,  after  such  bitter  nights  as  we  had  at  Uiis  time,  the  glass  windows  of  my 
round-house,  where  I  lay,  would  have  ice  upon  them  of  the  thickness  of  a  crown-piecc  ; 
so  that  we  were  forced  to  scrape  it  off  with  a  knife  to  let  in  the  light.  The  jfreat  cabin 
windows  wc  kept  shut  up  with  boiuxis  nailed  wit^/)ut,  as  well  for  tlic  preservation  of 
thenj  against  weather,  as  warmth  for  the  ten  men  I  lodged  there  constatitly.  The  roimd- 
house  I  reserved  to  myself,  though  much  colder ;  but  1  kept  that  in  regard  to  the  pro- 
vision I  had  stowed  therein.  And  to  make  known  to  them  that  I  had  shared  the  suffer- 
ings  with  'em,  I  shewed  them  my  lx:d,  which  was  frozen  to  the  txxirds  on  each  side,  that 
I  durst  not  allow  the  boy  to  stir  it,  for  fear  of  tearing  ;  thus  for  five  months  I  IcA  it,  and 
went  to  it  morning  andniglH,  not  pulling  off  my  clothes  save  for  shifting,  only  putting 
on  my  fur  gown  at  my  arising,  and  plucking  it  off  when  I  laid  down,  to  throw  over  me, 
together  with  the  rugs  and  blankets.  And  long  since  finding  tiic  inconvcniency  of 
gomg  from  the  fire  in  the  steerage,  where  I  resided  by  day,  to  my  lodging  at  niglu,  by 
reason  of  the  snow  that  laid  on  the  quarter-deck,  I  ordered  the  carpenter  to  caulk  up 
tlie  round-house  door ;  so  I  made  my  passage  by  a  scuttle,  or  sally-port,  down  into  the 
great  cabin,  and  by  that  means  observed  the  order  they  kept  below  me.  As  I  lay  in  my 
bed  I  could  distinguish  and  tell  every  nail  in  the  ceiling  or  elsewhere,  either  head  or 
point  having  a  piece  of  ice  like  enamel  upon  it ;  I  suppose  from  my  moist  breath  con> 
densed  and  froze.  My  books  totj,  that  stootl  ui)on  a  shelf  over  my  head,  had  upon  their 
edges  and  corners  the  same  ornament ;  a  sight  I  ciumot  say  whether  more  pleasant  or 
dismal. 

Sunday  the  twentieth,  'twas  calm,  with  much  snow  falling,  and  continued  frost ;  not- 
wilhstiinding  I  got  up  our  fore-yard  and  mizen-yard  in  the  evening,  in  hopes  of  an  E. 
wind  ;   but  oy  night  it  came  to  W.  continuing  fair. 

Mondiiy  the  twenty-first,  this  morning  was  calm  and  fair,  after  a  serene  and  sharp 
freezing-  night ;  so  that  we  could  not  but  observe  the  surface  of  the  water  In  the  bay 
about  us  to  be  covered  with  u  hard  scum  or  thin  ice,  which  made  us  fear  being  locked 
up  ;  but  immediately  the  wind  arising  at  W.  broke  it  all  away.  We  got  a  hogshead 
of  ivater,  and  knocked  off  the  ice  round  the  ship  at  the  edge  of  the  water;  and  in  the 
evening  our  men  went  ashore  for  recruiting  their  fresh  provision  ;  and  towards  night  it 
blew  so  hard,  that  I  was  forced  to  lower  our  yards  down  again. 

Tuesday  the  twenty-second,  the  day  began  with  good  weather  enough  as  to  wind, 
only  we  had  some  s(|ualls  of  snow  ;;it  froze  too,  but  very  moderately.  We  got  a  boat  of 
wood ;  and  our  men  going  up  the  hill  a  great  height  a-wooding,  saw  the  body  of  the 
sun,  rejwrtiiig  it  when  they  came  aboard  with  great  joy  ;  and  indeed  it  was  a  sight  for 
them  to  rejoice  at,  having  never  seen  it  since  they  came  into  this  harbour.  For  it  must 
be  considered  we  lay  low  in  the  water,  that  we  had  less  light  for  that  reason  ;  yet  was 
the  want  of  that  compensated  by  a  more  benign  temperature  of  the  air  as  to  cold,  than 
we  should  have  found  upon  any  part  of  the  shore,     t^or  I  am  persuaded  tliat  no  house 


■ 


■  n.  ^!«»  ^  ' 


I!. 


AI.I.ISON'I  VOVAfiK  IHO\t  AliCIIANdl.l,. 


511 


\vc  miK'it  luivi  m;uK-  tlurc  ttniltl,  uitli  the  sinuc  mantu-r  of  uarmiiiK  it  that  wv  maili'  uhc 
of  in  till"  ship,  Imvi-  prcstrvctl  \\s  so  well.  BiHi'ics  a  coUIiksh  p«  i  !iap>i  from  llu-  i  aitli  itself, 
I  am  Miirc  a  Htiiall  liciglit  in  the-  atiuosplii-rc  nuikiA  a  sciisiUU' variation  as  to  luat  and  cold 
in  the  same  |)la('(  not  to  oiU  r  at  an)  ^la^M)n,  but  our  nu-n  found  it  so  hy  daily  e\pi  ricncc, 
when  thty  made-  but  small  uactntH  in  wcHnlin^  and  watering.  And  the  mountains,  or 
greater  hills  which  lay  about  us,  Inin^,  us  near  as  I  could  ^ucss,  above  three  lunul red  fa* 
tliom  hi^hci  than  the  surface  of  the  water  in  the  bay,  sicmed  to  have  endutvtl  dje  ut- 
n\obt  fori:eof  the  IVost,  havin^^  crowns  or  caps  of  ice,  three  or  four  lalhou\  thick  in  some 
places,  and  uver-han^in;;  like  a  |K;nt-houseor  precipice,  with  a  horrid  prosixct  at  u  did- 
Ciuice. 

Wc  took  two  turns  oft' the  hawse,  cleaned  the  shipNdcckofsnow  and  ice,  and  cleared 
the  scuppers.  At  midnight  it  lienan  to  blow  a  storm  at  S.  \V.  but  towards  niorninfi;  the 
wind  came  to  the  N.  VV.  by  VV.  the  storm  continuing,  ao  that  I  was  forced  to  let  fall 
my  sheet-anchor. 

VVednestlay  the  twei»ty-third,  the  wind  held  hard  at  W.  N.  W.  with  much  snow  ; 
nbout  ten  in  the  forenoon  the  wind  came  to  N.  K.  by  N.  continuing  to  biiow.  At  noon 
we  heaved  up  our  sheet-anchor,  the  wind  ising  ;  but  in  the  evening  it  came  more  out  of 
the  bay.  This  day  as  I  was  walking  up»)n  the  deck,  came  a  fox  ujm)ii  a  small  hill  over 
against  the  ship,  and  stood  awhile  looking  ui)on  us,  but  soon  ran  away  at  u  little  noise 
we  made. 

Thursday  the  twenty-fourth,  we  had  the  wind  at  S.  K.  in  the  morning,  with  a  gentle 

Sale,  but  freezing  extraordinary  hard;  howlxit  we  got  a  boat  of  water,  and  cleared  our 
ecks,  from  snow  and  ice.  At  noon  the  sun  shewed  itself  upon  our  miusts ;  I  got  my 
fore-top-muat  up,  with  my  mizen-yard  and  fore-yard,  and  towards  night  the  wind  southccf. 
I  then  made  a  strict  survey  of  all  our  provision,  shifting  it  out  of  one  cask  into  another, 
that  1  might  Ije  certain  how  much  Uicre  was,  and  found  but  one  hundred  and  lifty-four 
pieces  of  ueef  on  board.  I  gave  to  each  of  our  men  a  pound  and  a  quarter  of  honey,  for 
the  use  so  often  mentioned  before.  Some  of  them  had  Ix^en  ashore  this  afternoon  to  get 
dills  and  perriwinkles ;  but  the  weather  was  too  cold  to  be  endured,  and  they  were  forced 
to  return  on  board  pn-scntly. 

Friday  the  twenty-fifth,  by  break  of  day,  the  wind  being  easterly,  I  got  all  my  yards 
and  top-masts  up,  and  the  men  went  ashore  to  cast  off  the  cable,  with  a  full  resolution 
for  sea  ;  but  before  they  could  clear  the  ice,  and  come  to  cast  it  off,  the  wind  came  to  S. 
W.  and  VV.  S.  W.  beginning  to  blow  and  snow.  Before  night  I  was  force.l  to  strike  both 
my  top-masts,  and  lower  all  down  again  snug  ;  and  at  ten  the  storm  was  so  furious, 
that  our  men  were  contented  to  abide  here,  notwithstanding  their  late  earnestness  to  be 
going,  acknowledging  it  a  mercy  from  heaven  to  be  detained. 

Saturday  the  twenty-sixth,  the  wind  was  grown  moderate  by  the  morning,  and  at  noon 
'twas  quite  calm :  we  took  two  turns  off  our  hawse  ;  and  in  the  afternoon  got  a  boat-load 
of  wood ;  the  skiff  ttx)  went  a-dragging,  getting  but  fifteen  scallops.  This  mild  day  gave 
us  opportunity  to  observe  that  the  sluices  or  drains  of  water  that  fell  into  the  bay  were  so 
considerable,  as  to  make  a  smiUl  motion  toward  the  sea  at  low  water. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  we  had  no  river  running  into  this  harbour,  or  any  which  ^vc  call 
back  waters,  but  the  fore-mentioned  drains,  all  of  them  not  being  sufficient  to  supply  a 
current.  It  flowed  S.  W.  at  a  full  and  new  moon,  rising  and  falling  at  neap-tides 
about  eight  feet,  and  at  spring  tides  about  twelve  or  fourteen.  How  it  was  in  the  Fuel 
we  can  give  no  positive  account ;  but  by  my  observations  upon  some  points,  the  tide 
did  seem  to  move  indifferenUy  strong ;  for  when  I  was  out  with  the  boat,  I  perceived 
some  nplings,  and  our  men  in  searcning  fell  in  with  pretty  strong  tides,  but  could  not 


3 


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ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FROM  ARCHANGEL. 


inform  me  distinctly.  Above  all  things  I  well  remember,  the  whole  Finnish  peop'c, 
when  they  came  aboard  our  ship,  told  me  there  was  never  a  rock  or  dangerous  sho^.i  hi 
thr,  whole  Fuel.  And  I  have  taken  care  to  have  the  depth  of  water  and  anchoring 
plao.s  marked  in  the  chart  faithfully,  according  to  the  several  discoveries  made  by  me 
and  my  mate,  und  the  distances  of  places  computed  with  the  besi:  of  r.iy  judgment ;  to 
which  I  refer  the  reader.  Tc-a^'''Is  night  the  wind  southered,  blowing  iind  freezing 
hard. 

Sunday  the  twenty-seventh,  ;ve  had  a  small  snow  falling  all  day,  but  so  ver^*  mild  withal, 
that  it  melted  ^s  it  feU,  and  likewibc  that  which  laid  before  up  tn  the  ship  ;  anri  to- 
ward night  it  turned  to  rain,  with  the  wind  at  S.  W. 

Monday  the  twenty-eighth,  the  morning  was  stormy,  the  wind  vt  >V  so  that  I  was 
necessitated  to  let  go  my  sheet-anchor ;  but  toward  noon  the  wind  eased>  and  I  heaved 
it  up  again.  I  called  all  my  company  togetlier,  and  told  them  that  the  time  had  spent 
so  much  of  our  provisions,  that  we  could  not  venture  to  sea  with  what  we  had  remtiin- 
ing,  where  we  siiould  be  bereaved  of  all  the  little  comforts  and  helps  we  had  from  the 
shore.  And  therefore,  while  we  had  any  thing  left,  we  must  go  and  make  search  for 
people,  whereby  to  get  provision,  to  carry  us  out  of  this  place,  and  to  our  much  desired 
homes. 

That  siijce  Almighty  God  had  wonderfully  preserved  us  till  this  time,  when  the  weather 
was  grown  more  moderate,  and  the  days  of  a  brave  Ic  gth,  we  ought  not  only  to  express 
our  thanks  in  words  to  that  Being  of  all  goodness,  fc  -  our  preservation  past,  but  to  be 
active  and  industricus  for  the  future,  shewing  ourselves  thereby  more  reasonable  crea- 
tures. 

And  finding  sach  discourse  to  have  some  effect  upon  them,  I  ordered  the  long  boat 
to  be  imnediately  hoisted  in  and  guawked,  and  other  thin^  done,  that  might  be  ^rthe 
safety  and  convenience  of  the  men  in  her.  It  proved  a  fair  day  and  thawed,  whereby 
we  got  one  side  graved  in  a  few  hours,  fitted  her  sails,  and  put  many  things  in  re<tdi- 
ness. 

Tuesday  March  the  first.,  the  month  and  day  began  with  fair  weather ;  and  after  we 
had  made  an  end  of  trimming  the  long  boat,  and  got  her  out,  we  went  all  hands  ashore, 
to  get  what  we  could  for  the  belly  :  and  towards  night  got  our  yards  and  top-masts  up, 
resolving  to  keep  in  a  moving  posture. 

Wednesday  the  second,  it  began  to  blow  hard  at  W.  S.  W.  and  so  came  to  S.  a  vio- 
lent c'.orm;  insomuch,  that  we  were  forced  to;.strike  both  vards  and  top-masts  down  again : 
but  towards  night  the  wind  eased,  and  it  froze  at  an  excessive  rate.  This  day  the  sun 
shined  on  board  the  ship  over  the  hills ;  it  being  the  first  time  of  my  seeing  the  same 
since  I  came  in  heie,  being  seventeen  weeks.  Note,  that  though  the  sun  at  this  time  did 
not  remain  above  the  horizon  quite  so  long  as  it  does  in  England,  and  its  meridian  alti- 
tude but  little,  yet  this  day  was  even  as  long,  considering  the  more  early  day-break,  and 
the  more  lasting  t>vilight  in  the  evening.  And  who  knows  not,  that  upon  the  tenth  of 
Uiis  month,  the  days  and  nights  are  equal  all  the  world  over. 

Thursday  the  third,  it  proved  a  very  fab"  day,  with  much  sun-shine  and  litde  wind  ; 
we  had  not  seen  the  like  before  in  this  place.  This  put  such  life  in  cur  men,  that  they 
got  up  our  top-mast  at  once,  and  loosed  the  sails  for  drying  them,  they  having  continued 
still  folded  up  now  for  some  time  ;  and  accorcUng  to  our  expectation  they  were  found 
we'l,  here  being  no  fear  of  their  getting  heat  to  rot  them.  In  the  afternoon  our  men 
wen .  on  shore  to  get  dills  and  perriwinkles,  some  dragged  in  the  long-boat  and  got 
iicaliops,  and  others  in  the  skiff  with  their  nets  made  good  purchase  of  sea  eggs. 
When  night  came  on,  I  could  not  but  observe  our  people  as  busy  aa  they  are  usually  in 


up, 


ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FROM  ARCHANRBC 


51  ■( 


a  cook's  simp,  about  the  Exchange  of  London,  between  the  hours  of  twelve  and  two ; 
only  with  this  difference,  that  every  man  was  there  both  guest  and  servant.  This  with 
a  kettle,  that  a  saucepan,  and  the  other  a  dish  or  platter ;  some  dressing  dills,  some 
scallops,  muscles,  and  perriwinkles,  and  others  boiling  sea-eggs  in  broth ;  and  some 
were  brewing  of  mead ;  so  that  at  both  hearths  there  was  scarce  room  enough  for  one  to 
get  in  between  to  light  a  pipe,  I  can't  say  of  tobacco,  for  there  was  none  but  what  I  had ; 
what  the  men  smoked  for  such,  they  took  as  muc'i  pains  to  prepare,  as  to  cook  a  dish 
of  meat. 

Friday  the  fourth,  in  the  morning  the  wind  was  at  W.  S.  W.  a  strong  gale,  with  clear 
weather,  but  at  noon  it  snowed :  however,  we  got  a  boat-load  of  wood.  Toward  night 
fell  little  wind,  and  that  at  N.  N.  W. 

Saturday  the  fifth,  it  proved  a  hard  storm  southerly,  so  that  I  was  forced  to  strike  our 
yards  and  top-masts,  and  let  fall  our  sheet-ancho: ;  it  freezing  very  hard  all  day,  with 
clear  weather  over  head. 

Sunday  the  sixth,  we  heaved  up  our  sheet-anchor  again,  the  day  beginning  with  little 
wind,  and  continued  handsome  weather  till  eight  at  night,  when  the  wind  came  to  S.  S. 
W.  and  it  fell  a  snowing. 

Monday  the  seventh,  it  blew  hard  in  the  morning  at  W.  S.  W.  and  a  great  sea  came 
tumbling  in,  which  obliged  us  to  let  fall  our  anchor  again.  At  noon  it  abated,  and  came 
more  westerly ;  at  eight  at  night  we  had  a  storm  at  N.  N.  W.  but  blowing  dry  and  in- 
differently warm. 

Tuesday  the  eighth,  the  day  broke  with  little  wind,  but  that  running  from  E.  to  S.  and 
S.  W.  and  to  W.  S.  W.  and  then  a  fresh  gale,  but  dry  and  warm.  We  got  a  load  of 
wood,  and  filled  a  cask  of  mead,  for  the  men  that  were  to  go  in  the  boat.  At  this  time 
I  found  all  of  our  nen  complaining  of  pains  in  their  bones,  which  my  chirurgeon  did 
conclude  were  the  effects  of  the  frost  in  their  limbs  ;  generally  remarkable  upon  the 
abatement  of  the  weather :  which  we  found  true,  observing  upon  the  return  of  extreme 
frost  we  were  without  ailment,  but  upon  a  thaw  we  felt  the  same  pains  again.  The 
like  indisposition  I  experienced  in  myself,  at  such  times. 

Wednes^^ay  the  nintli,  the  fairness  and  calmness  of  the  weather  gave  us  an  opportuni- 
ty of  getting  two  turns  off  our  hawse,  heaving  up  our  sheet-anchor,  drying  our  top-sails, 
and  fetching  three  hogsheads  of  water ;  we  likewise  fixed  a  fire-hearth  in  our  long  boat, 
which  we  made  two  days  before,  and  fitted  a  sail  to  spread  over  the  same,  if  they  should 
be  forced  to  lie  in  her ;  and  got  a!!  things  re<  iy  to  set  her  forth  at  half  an  hour's  warn- 
ing.    The  wind  a  me  to  S.  S.  W.  the  sky  looking  squally,  but  proved  very  fair. 

Thursday  the  tenth,  we  had  good  weather  in  the  morning,  and  a  southerly  wind.  I 
caused  all  my  men  but  four  (who  were  sick  or  unsound)  to  cast  lots  who  should  go  in  the 
boat,  and  they  fell  to  six  as  able  as  I  could  have  picked  out :  howbeit,  two  of  them  bought 
it  off  with  two  others,  for  ten  shillings  each,  to  be  paid  them,  when  they  should  receive 
their  respective  wages,  at  the  end  of  the  voyage.  My  mates  drew  by  themselves,  and 
the  lot  fell  to  my  second  mate ;  a  man  fit  eno  j^  for  the  business.  I  immediately  sent 
them  away  mth  money,  linen-cloth,  and  other  things  which  I  judged  might  be  fit  for 
traffic  with  the  inhab  tants,  if  they  should  find  any. 

Towards  noon  ti  le  wind  came  westerly  with  much  snow,  withal  fi^ezing  hard,  but 
handsome  weather  of  wind :  and  at  eight  at  night  it  came  to  the  N.  N.  W.  and  brought 
back  our  boat  again,  having  made  little  dbcovery. 

Friday  the  eleventh,  the  wind  was  southerly,  and  the  morning  fair ;  so  I  sent  the 
long  boat  aw9.y  again  on  her  former  errand.     With  those  I  had  on  board,  I  got  a  skiff 

VOL.  X.  3  n 


1, 


1 


1 1 


{! 


514 


ALLISON'S  VOYAGE  FROM  ARCHANGEL. 


of  wood ;  I  mean  the  soundest  of  them,  for  the  rest  had  the  frost  in  their  feet  or  hands. 
The  wind  continued  in  the  same  quarter  iill  the  afternoon,  but  at  nieht  blew  very  hard, 

Saturday  the  twelfth,  it  blew  hard  at  S.  S.  £.  and  froze  sharply  ail  day. 

Sunday  the  thirteenth,  it  blew  fresh  at  S.  by  £.  all  day,  but  dry  over  head,  with  a 
hard  frost. 

Monday  the  fourteenth,  the  weather  was  ver;  jncertain,  sometimes  squally,  now  high 
wind,  and  then  fair  and  clear.  While  it  was  so,  all  tliat  were  aboard  and  able  went  ashore, 
gathering  dills  and  perriv.  inkles,  and  such  as  they  could  get  for  the  belly. 

Tuesday  the  fifteenth,  in  the  morning  it  proved  fair  and  clear,  so  that  some  of  our 
folks  went  ashore  to  seek  for  provision,  and  others  continued  in  the  skiiT,  dragging  for 
shell  fish.  Those  upon  land  happened  to  espy  two  boats  coming  into  the  bay,  and  row- 
ing towards  the  ship.  They  presently  imagined  them  to  be  some  of  their  company  sent 
out  four  days  before,  and  fell  a  hallooing  to  their  fellows  in  the  skiiF:  which  so  afiright- 
ed  the  people  in  the  boats,  that  tliey  immediately  turned  about  and  made  away.  And 
though  I  called  to  the  skiif  with  all  speed  to  come  aboard,  and  sent  a  man  to  the  point 
to  see  for  them,  yet  such  haste  they  made,  as  to  be  out  of  sight  before  he  came.  Soon 
after  some  of  them  appeared  upon  the  point  and  continued  looking  upon  the  ship  a  good 
wiiile.  In  the  mean  time  I  sent  a  man  up  one  of  the  hills,  to  discover  which  way  they 
went,  but  he  returned  without  being  able  to  give  any  account  of  them.  So  we  lost  that 
opportunity  of  commerce  with  them,  who  then,  if  they  had  not  been  unluckily  scared  by 
noise,  would  doubtless  have  come  on  board  us  of  their  own  accord  ;  for  the  ship  lay, 
in  a  manner,  between  them  and  our  men  in  the  skiff  and  ashore  ;  and  I  guessed  they 
were  wholly  taken  up  with  the  sight  of  the  ship,  where,  by  my  order,  we  lay  silent  and 
hid;  and  for  the  future  I  commanded  everyone  to  be  so,  upon  the  like  occasion. 
These  people,  we  suppose,  were  coming  to  take  their  summer  habitation  in  the  houses 
we  described  before :  for  to  me  it  seemed  as  if  there  were  cattle  and  children  in  the  boat, 
but  1  could  not,  by  all  the  inquiry  I  made  of  those  whom  1  saw  afterwards,  learn  who 
they  were,  or  whether  I  guesed  right  of  iheir  intentions.  In  the  afternoon  it  blew  fresh  at 
S.  S.  E.  however  we  filled  three  hogsheads  of  water. 

Wednesday  the  sixteenth,  all  the  forenoon  was  calm  and  fair,  which  our  men  spent 
in  dragging  for  scallops  and  sea  eggs,  and  gathering  dills  and  perriwinkles,  at  low 
water. 

At  noon  I  took  boat  and  rowed  out  to  a  hill,  lying  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  and 
went  up  as  high  as  I  durst  venture,  to  look  about  the  Fuel.  And  S.  of  us  I  thought  I  saw 
several  islands,  but  could  not  discern  the  bottom  of  die  Fuel,  which  ran  in  very  far  and 
wide. 

Thursday  the  seventeenth,  it  continued  fair,  and  our  men  went  on  shore  a-wooding, 
but  had  not  been  gone  above  two  hours,  before  they  discovered  a  yawl  coming  towards 
the  ship  ;  and  according  to  the  order  given  before,  we  let  them  come  aboard  us  very 
silently,  expecting  it  was  one  of  the  boats  we  saw  two  days  before.  But  it  proved  to 
be  a  yawl  that  came  from  the  North  Cape,  with  four  of  our  own  men  in  her,  and  one 
Finlander,  sent  by  my  mate  to  satisfy  me  how  things  stood  there  with  the  long-boat. 
And  indeed  it  was  high  time  to  release  me  from  the  fears  I  was  in  about  them.  He  sent 
in  her  a  barrel  of  beef^  a  barrel  of  rye-meal,  forty  pounds  of  oat-meal,  eighty  pounds  of 
stock-fish,  with  other  provisions  of  fish,  viz.  mutton,  pork,  and  venison,  all  dried  ;  and 
a  small  cask  of  beer.  They  likewise  brought  us  the  news  of  a  peac3  concluded  between 
£ngland,  the  rest  of  the  confederates,  and  France  :  and  ga/e  me  the  following  account 
of  what  happened  to  them  from  the  time  of  their  departure.     **  After  we  had  sailed  to 


ALLISON'S  VOYAOP.  FHOM  ARCriANCiEL. 


515 


:d 


the  other  side  of  the  Fuel,  we  got  sight  of  a  little  yawl,  and  p;ave  her  chace,  having  the 
wind  of  her,  and  it  blowing  fresh.  Thty  made  for  the  shore,  and  just  as  they  landed 
we  fell  in  with  them.  There  were  but  three  men  in  the  boat,  who  got  out  and  run  i'or  il 
upon  the  snow,  two  of  which  our  men  could  in  no  wise  overtake,  but  the  other  they 
caught :  he  was  an  old  man,  and  they  werc  his  sons.  Our  crew  treated  him  civilly,  and 
having  two  Danish  men  bom  in  the  company,  they  fell  to  discourse  him,  and  soon  settled  a 
right  understanding  between  one  another,  that  he  immediately  called  the  young  men, 
that  stood  a  loof  off,  to  see  what  would  become  of  their  father.  They  readily  obeyed,  and 
parlying  with  them  all  together,  our  men  offered  them  two  dollars,  if  tliey  would  conduct 
us  to  a  priest's  house,  or  some  town,  where  we  might  get  provision  for  money  or  goods. 
So  they  came  to  an  agreement ;  the  old  man  and  one  of  his  sons  forthwith  stepping  into 
our  boat.  But  we  having  a  brisk  gale,  in  towing  the  yawl  after  us,  pulled  htr  stern  in 
pieces,  and  so  were  forced  to  cast  her  off;  the  old  man  bidding  his  son  that  was  in  her 
to  go  ashore,  and  directed  us  to  keep  on  our  way.  This  we  did  till  wc  came  to  the  out- 
ermost point,  where  he  went  ashore,  finding  there  some  houses,  and  about  four  families  ; 
the  hamlet  or  village  being  called  by  the  name  of  Swetwel.  In  this  place  we  took  up  our 
lodging  all  night,  and  the  day  following  being  stormy,  we  durst  not  put  to  sea.  All  this 
time  we  received  kind  entertainment  from  the  inhabitants,  and  our  company  likewise 
were  as  free  of  what  they  had  to  them.  The  day  after  being  Sunday,  we  parted  from 
them,  and  with  all  speed  made  for  the  town  of  Colwitch  upon  the  cape,  where  we  arrived 
by  two  in  the  afternoon,  the  jieople  being  at  church.  After  sermon  they  came  all,  and 
made  m"ch  of  us,  hearing  our  story,  and  adsiired  that  we  were  able  to  live  on  board,  in 
so  extraordinary  hard  a  winter ;  for  so  it  was  accounted  with  tlu'm.  They  seemed  very 
kind  to  us,  till  the  minister  and  the  m'  '<:hant  fell  out  about  selling  our  provision.  For 
one  said  it  belonged  to  him,  and  the  c  is  much ;  but  between  them  both,  we  were  fur. 
nished  at  their  own  rates,  twiing  glad  to  g  t  it  any  way.  It  happened  it  tliis  time,  there 
was  one  from  the  governor  of  Wardhouse,  who  ca  aie  to  look  after  the  salvage  of  a  Dutch 
fly-boat,  that  was  lost  in. the  same  storm  that  drove  us  in,"  &c.  md  from  him  they  had 
the  good  news  of  a  peace. 

That  night  I  dispatched  away  the  same  boat  again  (which  was  a  awl  belnging  to 
some  of  the  town,  of  whom  our  people  had  hired  it  for  four  tloUars)  and  sent  lier  to  the 
same  place  upon  the  cape,  with  more  goods  and  money  for  nurchasiiigmore  provision; 
with  order  for  my  own  long-boat  to  return  on  board  with  all  convenient  speed.  Yet  as  I 
understood  afterward,  they  were  in  great  danger  of  being  lost,  had  not  one  of  the  inhabi* 
tants  coming  along  with  them,  and  knowing  the  coasts  well,  happi'  directed  them  to  a 
place  of  safety,  during  the  storm  they  met  with. 

Friday  the  eighteenth,  in  the  morning  it  blew  a  storm  at  S.  S.  E.  but  towards  noon 
it  abated,  yet  snowing  much  till  five  in  the  afternoon ;  becoming  then  fair  and  clear, 
with  littie  wind,  and  that  shifting  to  W.  S.  W 

Saturday  the  nineteenth,  we  got  a  boat's  loading  of  wood,  it  continuing  calm  and  fair 
till  five  in  the  afternoon ;  from  which  time  it  snowed  till  eight  at  night ;  but  all  the 
while  moderate  as  to  wind. 

Sunday  the  twentieth,  in  the  morning  came  a  yawl  from  the  minister's  house,  that 
lived  fifteen  miles  from  us,  towards  the  North  Kyne  ;  and  in  her  a  clerk  or  secretary 
of  the  governor's  that  resides  at  Wardhouse.  This  person  was  the  same  that  our  men 
before  had  told  ni?  of,  who  came  now  on  purpose  to  see  me,  after  he  had  crossed 
over  the  Fuel,  to  make  his  returns  ;  his  way  being  then  all  over  land,  and  that  upon 
the  snow.  He  told  me,  that  he  boggled  neither  at  mountain  or  valley,  but  could  go 
in  foiuteen  hours  time  sixteen  Danish  miles,  wliich  make  sixty-fourof  ours.     And  ac- 

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AlXISON'a  VOYAGE  FHOM  ARCHANGEL. 


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cordinriy  shewed  me  how  he  was  fitted  for  such  a  jo*imey,  having  with  him  a  leathern 
canoe  m  the  fashion  of  a  weaver's  shuttle,  only  turn' .  up  more  at  the  ends.  This  was 
carried  in  his  boat,  when  he  went  by  water,  but  at  land  it  served  as  a  sledge  docs  lr<  Hol- 
land when  the  rivers  are  frozen,  having  three  iron  keels  at  the  bottom,  and  being  drawn 
by  a  rein-deer.  It  had  a  covering  like  a  deck,  with  a  hole  in  the  middle,  coming  ch.ic 
about  his  waist ;  so  that  with  a  fur  coat  over  the  upper  part  of  his  body,  and  other  clo- 
thing beneath,  he  was  well  provided  against  the  worst  of  weather.  In  his  hand  he  car- 
ried a  paddle  or  small  oor,  *o  keep  him  from  overturning.  In  his  way  are  no  inns,  but 
he  makes  his  night's  lodging  at  some  minister's  house,  where  he  still  finds  free  quar- 
ter. 

He  informed  me  of  two  Dutch  ships  that  were  forced  into  the  harbour  of  Wardhouse 
by  the  same  storm  that  forced  me  in  where  I  then  lay  :  that  he  supposed  they  were  now 
going  to  sea,  their  men  having  laid  on  board  in  order  thereto  three  days  before  he  came 
from  thence.  I  thought  that  might  very  well  be,  considering  the  g^eat  advantage  they  had 
of  me,  being  at  the  principal  town  of  the  whole  country,  even  where  the  governor  himself 
lived ;  where  they  could  want  for  little,  but  had  good  Danish  houses  with  stoves  in 
them  to  keep  them  warm.  And  one  thing  this  gentleman  told  me,  too  considerable  to 
omit ;  viz.  that  from  Wardhouse  aforesaid  there  went  a  post  to  Copenhagen  every  fort- 
night. So  that  if  any  ship  be  forced  in  there  or  there  abouts  by  strt:>s  of  weather,  finding 
a  minister's  house,  they  may  send  to  the  town,  and  from  thence  to  any  part  of  £u. 
rope. 

In  this  boat  came  the  minister's  son,  who  brought  both  dry  and  new  fish,  and  pretty 
good  store,  with  several  presents  from  his  father;  as  a  calf  new  killed,  with  cheese  and 
milk  for  my  men ;  also  dried  mutton,  and  hams  of  bacon,  venison,  and  partridge. 

Monday  the  tweuty-first,  it  blew  fresh  at  S.  all  day  ;  notwithstanding,  there  came  a 
Finnish  bout  on  board  me,  and  brought  me  store  of  fish  and  dried  mutton,  with  a  small 
parcel  offrt^'a  butter  and  cheese.  I  bought  all  they  had,  but  some  venison  and  partridge, 
which,  at  thv?lr  going  away,  they  presented  me  with,  I  giving  them  in  gratuity  such 
as  I  had ;  viz.  a  few  raisins  (a  great  rarity  with  them)  and  some  mead.  Their  veni- 
son  was  lean  and  horridly  black,  but  the  partridges  were  dainty,  being  fresh  killed,  and 
fat. 

Tuesday  the  twenty-second,  it  proved  a  storm  ;  the  wind  all  southerly,  withal  freez- 
ing hard,  but  dry  over  head. 

Wednesdciy  the  twenty-third,  it  was  so  fair  and  calm,  that  we  cleared  our  hawse. 
This  day  came  another  boat  on  board,  and  brought  us  fish  of  several  kinds,  both  dry 
and  wet ;  viz.  cod,  ling,  and  turbot ;  some  butter  and  cheese,  with  dried  flesh  of  the 
sorts  aforesaid.  Note.  That  this  meat  was  not  salted,  but  prepared  thus  for  keeping,  by 
being  hung  up  in  their  chimnies.  It  had  little  of  goodness  or  nourishment,  and  scarce 
appeared  to  sweV  by  boiling.  But  I  took  all  they  had,  in  truck  for  cloth,  and  clothes 
made  up  ;  and  some  I  bought  with  money.  The  boat  they  came  in  wn  of  the  fashion 
of  a  Norway  yawl,  big  enough  for  six  rowers,  and  so  many  they  had  :  but  some  others 
had  but  four,'  being  less ;  and  likewise  there  were  for  two  only.  Thi  people  are  low 
of  stature,  of  limbs  well  set,  fresh  coloured  in  the  face,  though  of  a  dirty  hue,  and  an 
ill  smeH  attending  them,  But  whether  it  is  from  their  lying  in  <  'r  clothes,  or  their 
natural  savour,  perhaps  derived  from  their  constant  diet  upon  fish,  I  could  not  deter, 
mine  with  myself.  Their  hair  is  generally  light  coloured  and  lank,  cut  like  the 
Danes:  they  wear  their  beards  of  a  full  growth,  young  and  old;  their  habit  too  is  like 
the  Norwegians,  viz.  close  breeches,  sl^ort  coats,  both  made  of  coarse  cloth,  with 
oaps  of  the  same,  furred.    Their  slioes  are  pulled  up  half  way  on  their  legs  like  boots, 


I» 


ALLISON'S  VU\AI;E  I'UOM  arciianckl. 


517 


with  toes  tuniing  up  like  the  tip  of  a  Iinlf  moon  puinted,  and  furred  within.  One 
thing  peculiar  in  this  peoples*  garb  I  observed,  and  that  was,  they  every  one  carried  a 
sniaU  powder  horn,  hanging  under  their  chins  by  a  string,  about  their  necks,  fur  what 
use  or  purpose  I  could  not  learn,  though  I  asked  them  as  well  as  I  could,  but  could 
not  explain  their  answers ;  for  my  Dane  that  remained  on  boiird  was  then,  as  I 
thought,  at  the  point  of  death ;  that  is,  so  weak  as  not  to  do  the  work  of  an  interpre- 
ter. The  governor's  man  too  could  not  speak  Dutch  enough  to  be  intelligible  to  me, 
when  I  inquired  into  the  same  thing  three  days  before,  though  I  understocNd  he  was  a 
German  born. 

Thursday  the  twenty-fourth,  it  proved  fair,  the  wind  at  S.  W.  We  got  a  boat  of 
wood.  Towards  night  it  westered,  and  about  eight  our  long-boat  returned  on  board, 
and  brought  with  them  a  barrel  of  beef,  a  barrel  of  rye  meal,  and  three  hundred 
weight  ofstock  fish,  with  other  provisions  which  we  wanted ;  viz.  some  dried  mutton, 
pork,  and  some  bread  also,  with  butter  andclic:se,  to  our  great  comfort;  we  being 
therewith  sufficiently  stored  for  the  sea.  And  from  them  I  took  this  following  rela- 
tion: That  the  townofColwitch  onthe  cape  consisted  of  about  fourteen  houses,  with 
as  many  families  and  one  church.  The  houses  are  built  after  the  Norway  fashi(  ,n,  of 
wood,  with  stoves  placed  in  the  middle,  or  so  as  to  warm  the  rooms  without  the  sight 
of  fire ;  they  being  a  kind  of  ovens,  and  are  heated  after  the  same  manner.  Their 
houses  have  windows  of  glass,  but  with  wooden  shutters,  both  inward  and  outward, 
which  they  make  close  in  the  winter,  by  stopping  or  caulking  them  with  moss.  So 
they  keep  up  several  weeks  in  the  dark  and  cold  season,  burning  great  tallow  candles 
continuaUy ;  some  of  which  our  men  saw.  The  church  was  of  the  same  materials 
with  their  houses,  being  one  room,  able  to  contain  about  thirty  persons.  Four  or  five 
of  these  churches  or  chapels  are  served  by  one  teacher  about  three  times  in  the  year ; 
(for  it  is  to  be  supposed  they  only  congregate  in  the  summer.)  They  are  usually 
placed  about  five  or  six  miles  off  each  other,  or  nearer,  according  as  the  country  is 
more  or  less  populous.  But  one  pastor  lives  generally  fifteen  miles  from  another, 
who  is  maintained  by  every  tenth  fish ;  and  where  he  resides  not,  he  empowers  one  to 
gather  the  tithe,  as  they  take  them.  By  this  means  they  are  furnished  with  merchan- 
dise, which  they  sell  or  exchange,  for  other  things  they  want,  with  ships  that  come 
yearly  to  their  port  town  to  fetch  them,  and  bring  goods  accordingly.  Hence  they 
come  to  be  the  most  wealthy  and  considerable  of  the  people.  They  are  lawyers,  jus- 
tices of  the  peace,  and  customarily  sole  in  authority.  For  their  education  is  the  most 
liberal,  being,  as  I  was  informed,  in  a  school  or  petty  university  in  Norway,  near  Dron- 
theim.  They  too  observe  the  greatest  hospitality  ;  all  travellers  being  entertained  by 
them,  and  furnished  with  sleds  or  rein-deer  from  one  to  another :  the  like  also  was  I 
told  by  the  governor's  man  before,  when  he  informed  me  of  their  wa^'  of  travelling. 
They  breed  cattle  of  a  small  kind>  with  goats  and  sheep,  and  swine  also.  The  former 
are  fed  in  the  summer  whh  grass,  of  which  they  have  plenty  at  that  time  ;  but  in  the 
winter  they  gather  rock-weeds  at  low  water,  and  boil  them  in  coppers  made  for  the 
purpose,  to  take  the  salt  out,  and  then  give  them  to  their  beasts  to  eat.  They  have 
horses  too  of  very  mean  stature,  who  have  the  same  food ;  but  the  hogs,  I  guess,  are 
nourished  by  fish,  by  reason  the  dry  pork  they  brought  me  had  a  strong  taste  of  it. 
Their  customs  and  manners  are  much  Uke  those  of  the  Danes,  under  whose  dominion 
they  are ;  and  every  man  from  fifteen  to  sixty  is  taxed  at  two  dollars  each,  which  ihey 
pay  yearly,  eliher  m  fish  or  money,  to  the  king  of  Denmaik's  collectors :  and  for 
that  they  nave  a  seeming  protection,  and  a  liberty  of  living  where  they  please  ;  which 
in  summer  is  up  and  down  the  country ;  but  in  winter  they  retire  to  their  joint  habi- 


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tationsiUtcd  up  buitably.  Their  religion  too  is  Danish,  being  ofthc  Reformed  Lutheran 
church,  in  belief  and  discipline  ;  their  seiiMons  beingpreached,  and  their  divine  services 
performed,  in  the  same  language.  So  thav,  though  they  have  another  language  ancient 
and  native  in  the  country,  yetthey  understand  and  use  the  Danish  r.iuotly .  As  to  their 
uomen  I  can  say  but  little,  not  seeing  any  myself,  nor  did  th,-  men  1  sent  pretend  to  give 
any  account  of  their  behaviour,  or  how  they  managed  their  families.  They  only  told 
me,  that  their  hubh  was  like  the  Danish  vvomens* ;  but  I  could  not  but  believe  the 
better  sort  of  them  love  fine  clothes,  as  well  as  our  English  dames.  For  sending  a 
piece  of  wrought  silk  of  seven  or  eight  yards,  the  minister's  wife  at  the  cape  bought  it 
readily  :  and,  to  shew  how  much  she  was  pleased  with  her  bargain,  over  and  above  the 

^)riee  she  agreed  to  and  paid,  she  sent  me  a  dozen  of  partridges  and  a  cheese.  Her 
msband  too  made  me  a  present  of  a  small  cask  of  beer.  Nor  was  the  merchant  be- 
hind him  in  civility,  sending  me  a  fresh  leg  of  beef,  but  killed  a  month  before,  and  with- 
out any  salt  preserved  by  the  frost ;  and  some  dry  mutton  w  ithal.  And  truly  they 
might  well  enough  afford  it,  considering  how  dearly  I  paid  for  my  provision. 

Friday  the  twenty-fifth,  it  held  fair,  w  ith  little  w  ind  at  S.  S.  E.  betimes  in  the  morn- 
ing I  called  all  hands  up,  and  heaved  up  our  sheet-anchor,  which  we  carried  out  before 
the  long-boat  w  ent  away,  and  got  our  yards  and  top-masts  up,  clearing  our  decks  and 
scuppers  from  snow  and  ice,  and  making,  that  night,  all  fit  for  the  sea  ;  having  a  long- 
ing expectation,  and  great  hopes  it  might  be  on  the  morrow. 

Saturday  the  twenty-sixth,  there  was  but  little  wind  stirringthis  morning,  all  we  had 
was  from  the  S.  E.  notwithstanding,  to  get  out,  we  unmoored,  and  got  a  part  of  our 
small  bower  and  our  cable  aboard,  leaving  only  a  towling  ashore  to  cast  the  ship.  By 
that  time  our  men  had  got  their  breakfast  (which  was  a  high  word  with  us  then,  and 
we  began  to  speak  it  cheerfully)  it  proved  a  fair  gale  at  S.  W.  we  heaved  up  our  an- 
chor, and  cast  off  our  hawse,  and  got  out  to  the  Fuel,  where  wc  found  the  wind  fair  and 
southerly  ;  but  espying  a  boat  rowing  tov  ardsus,  we  laid  to  andtook  her  up.  In  it  was 
the  same  person  that  came  before  with  the  governor's  man,  viz.  the  minister's  son,  a 
young  man  about  thirty  years  of  age.  By  him  his  father  sent  me  tokens  highly  accept- 
able, vhat  is  to  say,  a  whole  calf  ready  roasted,  a  rarity,  but  not  a  wonder,  because  en- 
tire ;  seeing  it  was  not  much  bigger  than  one  of  our  hares  ready  dressed  in  England. 
Also  a  runlet  of  beer,  with  a  kid  or  wooden  vessel  of  milk,  containing  above  three 
gallons  ;  which  was  very  sw  eet  and  good.  A  small  quantity  of  curds  too,  fresh  and 
tender ;  with  a  couple  of  little  thick  cheeses,  well  tasted,  but  a  little  strong  of  the  run- 
net  ;  over  and  above,  a  ham  of  their  choice  bacon.  I  had  much  ado  to  force  a  present 
upon  him,  his  father  having  charged  him  not  to  take  any  thing  of  me,  that  I  should 
w  ant  in  my  passage  home.  At  length  I  persuaded  him  to  carry  his  mother  a  pound 
of  white  sr.gar,  and  a  pot  of  honey,  and  a  parcel  of  raisins,  and  presented  himself  with 
two  silk  handkerchiefs  :  so  we  parted,  he  for  his  home,  and  1  made  the  best  of  my 
way  for  sea. 

We  sailed  in  the  middle  ofthe  Fuel  for  safety,  so  that  we  could  make  no  nice  observa- 
tion of  the  land ;  besides  we  were  mightily  disabled  for  distant  views  by  the  smoke  of 
our  green  wood  fires,  which  we  had  endured  so  long.  Howbeit  we  discerned  the  shore 
toliehighon  either  side,withwooduponitin  some  places  ;  but  in  none  so  much  as  where 
we  lay  ;  as  we  had  been  told  before  by  the  people  ofthe  country.  So  that  we  happened 
well  into  a  place,  so  plentifully  supplied  with  what  we  could  not  have  lived  without. 

At  four  in  the  afternoon  we  got  out  of  the  Fuel ;  by  eight  at  night  wc  were  the 
length  of  the  easternmost  part  ofthe  cape.  It  blew  hard  at  S.  S.  W.  so  that  I  was  for- 
ced to  hand  both  my  sails 


T 


ALMSUN'tJ  V0YA(;K  KUUM  AltCII.WfiEI.. 


519 


Sunday  the  twenty-seventh,  the  wind  shifted  from  S.  W.  to  W.  blowing  so  hard  as 
to  put  me  by  both  my  top-sails.  At  twelve  at  noon  we  reckoned  the  North  Cape  to 
bear  S.  E.  half  E.  distant  forty-two  miles.  I  made  my  way  this  twenty-four  hours  N. 
W.  half  W.  distance  forty-nine  miles. 

Monday  the  twenty-eighth,  by  ten  at  night  the  wind  eased,  and  we  set  our  main-top- 
sail ;  at  two  in  the  morning  we  set  our  forc-top-sail,  it  being  handsome  weather ;  at  six 
in  the  morning  we  set  our  main-stay-sail  and  mizen-stay-sail.  All  this  tinrie  the  wind 
continued  shifting  between  S.  W.  by  S.  and  VV.  I  made  my  way  N.  W.  t'lree  degrees 
W.  distance  forty -seven  miles. 

Tuesday  the  twenty-ninth,  we  had  moderate  weather  as  to  wind,  and  that  shifting  be- 
tween S.  and  S.  VV.  by  W.  I  made  my  way  this  twenty-four  hours  N.  N.  W.  distance 
forty-seven  miles,  it  being  almost  stark  calm  between  times. 

Wednesday  the  thirtieth,  it  blew  a  stout  of  wind  till  five  in  the  morning,  when  it  be- 
gan to  abate,  and  fell  a  snowing,  and  freezing  very  hard  withal.  I  tacked  to  the  south- 
ward. By  twelve  at  noon  it  grew  calm.  I  made  my  way  this  twenty  four  hours  W. 
by  N.  half  northerly,  distance  sixty-ei^'jht  miles.  This  day  I  got  an  observation,  and 
found  myself  to  be  in  latitude  73°  25'. 

Thursday  the  thirty-first,  it  proved  verj  fair  weather,  but  very  cold,  the  wind  holding 
between  the  S.  by  W.  and  S.  E.  with  a  moderait  gale  ;  and  towards  noon  we  had  it 
mighty  calm,  with  a  smooth  sea.  I  madf,  my  way  S.  W.  half  W.  distance  sixty-seven 
miles. 

Friday  the  first  of  April,  it  blew  hard,  the  wind  shifting  between  the  S.  S.  E.  and 
W.  the  sea  going  very  high  :  I  made  my  way  W.  S.  W.  three  degrees  W.  distance  fifty, 
seven  miles. 

Saturday  the  second,  it  continued  to  blow  as  the  day  before,  snowing  at  an  excessive 
rate,  and  froze  so  exceeding  hard,  that  all  the  water  that  flew  into  the  ship  became  ice 
in  a  small  time ;  insomuch  that  the  ship  itself,  both  within  and  without,  was  completely 
lined  and  covered  vAih  ice,  and  nothing  about  us  was  fit  to  be  handled.  The  wind  came 
to  the  N.  so  ;ye  made  shift  to  get  our  main-sail  hauled  up,  and  bound  together  as  well  as 
we  could,  and  sioo  J  away  with  our  fore-sail,  it  looking  dreadfully  a-ster  i  of  us  ;  but  to- 
ward noon  the  face  of  things  was  altered,  and  I  got  another  observatio...  finding  myself 
thereby  in  latitude  71  •>  46'.  "     ^ 

Then  we  set  our  main-sail  again,  but  there  was  no  spreading  it,  it  was  so  hard  frozen  ; 
and  to  pull  it  down,  we  were  forced  to  bring  the  tackle  to  our  tacks  and  sheets,  strain' 
ing  them  as  hard  as  we  durst,  for  fear  of  pulling  the  sail  in  pieces ;  after  all,  we  could  not 
get  it  above  half  spread :  we  set  our  sprit-sail  too,  but  all  the  watch,  which  were  ten  men 
were  two  hours  in  getting  it  loose.  In  the  afternoon  I  went  about  setting  my  fore-top* 
sail,  but  could  not  get  it  out  of  the  top  by  all  the  ways  we  could  devise :  I  made  my 
way  S.  W.  three  degrees  W.  distance  thirty -five  miles. 

Sunday  the  third,  it  was  moderate  enough  as  to  wind,  and  that  between  the  N.  and 
E.  but  it  froze  excessively.  Tliis  day,  with  great  toil  and  labour,  I  got  both  my  top. 
sails  set,  loosing  the  siiils  by  degrees,  and  letting  them  dry,  and  bringing  the  sheets  to  the 
windlass  with  loof  tackles,  I  got  them  spread :  I  made  my  way  S.  W.  by  S.  distance 
seventy-three  miles. 

Monday  the  fourth,  we  had  mild  weather  this  day,  the  wind  shifting  round,  and  now 
and  then  it  snowed :  I  made  my  way  W.  S.  W.  one  degree  W.  distance  fifty -four  miles. 

Tuesday  the  fifth,  the  wind  came  to  S.  and  so  to  W.  blowing  hard,  that  we  were 
forced  to  take  in  our  top-sails,  and  at  last  our  fore-sail.  At  ten  in  the  forenoon  we 
reefed  our  fore-sail  and  mizen,  and  tacked  to  the  southward ;  so  that  I  made  my  way  W. 
by  N.  distance  about  thirty  .four  miles. 


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ALUSON'S  VOTAue  FROM  AKCIIANGEL. 


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Wednesday  the  sixth,  little  wind  had  we  all  this  day,  and  that  running  round  the  com- 

Eass,  but  the  frost  fixed  and  severe :  the  way  I  made  was  S.  S.  £.  one  degree  E.  distance 
ut  nineteen  miles. 

Thursday  the  seventh,  not  much  wind  to>day,  but  shifting  between  the  S.  and  W.  S. 
W.  witli  close  weather  ;  notwithstanding,  I  made  my  way  S.  by  E.  distance  twenty-two 
miles. 

Fridi\y  the  eighth,  the  former  part  of  the  day  it  blew  very  hard,  obliging  us  to  hand 
both  our  top- sails ;  but  in  the  after-part  proved  so  moderate,  that  we  set  them  again,  the 
wind  shifting  from  S.  to  S.  W.  by  S.  we  made  our  way  W.  half  southerly,  distance  sixty, 
tliree  miles. 

Saturda]^  the  ninth,  it  proved  squally,  but  indifferent  as  to  wind.  We  handed  our 
fore-top-sail  twice,  and  set  him  again  as  often  ;  the  wind  shifting  between  S.  and  S.  W.  I 
held  my  course  for  fifty-one  miles  W.  half  southerly. 

Sunday  the  tenth,  we  met  with  hard  gales,  first  at  S.  and  then  coming  to  W.  which 
put  us  under  a  main  course  :  I  held  on  my  way  S.  W.  five  degrees  southerly,  distance 
sixty -five  miles. 

Monday  the  eleventh,  it  remained  stormy  weather,  attended  with  abundance  of  snow 
falling,  and  exceeding  hard  frost.  I  was  forced  to  reef  my  main-sail  as  well  as  we  could, 
but  in  a  sorry  manner,  stubborn  as  it  was,  and  so  much  snow  lodged  in  it :  the  wind  was 
at  S.  E.  so  I  made  my  way  W.  forty -two  miles. 

Tuesday  the  twelfth,  the  wind  came  to  the  E.  S.  E.  and  so  about  to  N.  by  W.  with  a 
great  deal  of  snow,  and  freezing  extraordinary  hard  :  I  made  my  way  good  to  the  S. 
ninety-two  miles. 

Wednesday  the  thirteenth,  good  weather  enough  as  to  wind,  but  the  snow  fell  verj' 
thick.  At  midnight  it  blew  from  the  N.  W.  towards  day  from  the  E.  and  by  S.  little 
wind.  At  break  of  day  it  fell  quite  calm,  freezing  very  hard.  I  made  my  way  S.  dis- 
tance ninety-four  miles. 

Thursday  the  fourteenth,  the  wind  came  to  N.  E.  and  then  to  N.  W.  blowing  so  very- 
hard,  that  I  could  carry  nothing  but  a  fore-course :  we  had  a  great  sea  out  of  the  S. 
but  in  the  morning  I  set  my  main-sail  again,  after  the  best  manner  I  could  ;  so  hard  fro« 
zen  was  it,  that  I  could  not  get  it  above  half  spread,  though  I  lowered  my  mair-yard 
above  three  feet  down  :  I  made  my  way  S.  distance  one  hundred  and  seventeen  mile^. 

Friday  the  fifteenth,  we  had  a  brave  wind  from  the  W.  and  by  N.  which  made  as 
strive  hard  to  bring  our  fore-top-sail  to  be  serviceable,  getting  it  olithe  top,  and  by  mere 
strength  forced  open  some  part  of  it,  and  so  stood  away  with  it  for  four  hours ;  after  which 
time  It  relented,  enlarged,  and  became  more  useful :  by  which  means  I  made  my  way  S. 
distance  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  miles. 

Saturday  the  sixteenth,  it  blew  a  stout  of  wind  at  N.  N.  W.  so  that  I  had  made  my 
way  S.  by  W.  distance  one  hundred  and  forty-two  miles.  By  twelve  at  noon  we  saw 
Fowley  island  to  the  £.  S.  E.  of  us,  distant  eighteen  miles.  We  had  brave  moderate 
weather  at  this  time  ;  and  now  we  heard  rats  about  the  ship,  who  began  to  be  intense  and 
vexatious  to  us,  in  seizing  upon  our  new  stock-fish.  It  is  manifest  they  kept  close  all 
the  cold  season  ;  but  our  sick  men  who  lay  below,  with  my  surgeon  and  carpenter  (who 
was  an  old  man,  and  kept  constantly  a  lamp  burning  by  him)  never  saw  any  of  them,  or 
perceived  them  in  the  least  to  stir :  how  they  lived  so  long  on  board  we  guessed  afterward, 
when  we  found  they  had  eaten  holes  in  our  masts,  and  made  themselves  places  to  lie  in; 
and  for  drink,  they  could  get  none  but  by  licking  the  ice  casks,  though  nobody  saw 
such  a  thing  done  by  them. 


VLLISON'S  VOYAOE  fHOM  ARcMANi.tl.. 


521 


Sunday  the  seventeenth,  it  continued  fair,  the  wind  at  W.  At  sun*i  ibing  ^  saw  Shet- 
land, and  the  isles  of  Fair  aiKl  Fowlcy  all  together,  it  being  vcrj-  clear  no  early.  At  ten 
I  discerned  Orkney  ;  and  at  twelve  at  noon  I  took  my  departure  from  Fair  Isle,  whicli 
then  bore  N.  from  us,  distant  thirty  miles,  being  very  fair  weather. 

Monday  the  eighteenth,  the  weather  held  as  lieforc,  but  the  wind  wai  shifting  between 
the  W.  and  S.  W.     I  made  my  way  S.  S.  E.  distance  eighty-two  miles. 

Tuesday  tlie  nineteenth,  the  day  began  with  a  fresh  wmd  at  VV.  N.  W.  and  n  little 
before  noon  we  saw  three  ships  steering  towards  us  :  whereupn,  as  not  dericnding  upon 
what  the  governor  of  VVardhouse  his  secretary  had  told  us,  or  giving  entive  credit  of  his 
news  of  a  peace  with  France,  I  caused  a  clear  ship  to  be  made,  and  put  our::';lves  in  an 
good  a  posture  of  defence  as  wc  were  able. 

I  furled  my  small  sails  and  main-sail,  and  by  that  time  one  of  thfm  came  within  shot 
of  my  weather-bow :  I  fired  a  shot  for  him  to  come  leeward  of  mt;  which  he  very  ho. 
nestly  did,  and  confirmed  the  news  of  a  peace,  to  »'.:c  great  joy  of  our  hearts ;  for,  God 
knows,  Ave  were  but  in  a  bad  condition  for  managi'  :  our  guns  in  a  way  of  fighting. 
This  sliip  was  a  Flemish  fly-boat,  bound  to  Grecniauu  for  whale-fishing.  We  presently 
afler  saw  more  ships  bound  to  the  same  place,  and  two  fisherboats  also  ;  but  being  now 
out  of  fear  for  ships,  we  took  no  notice  of  tne  rest.  I  mrde  my  way  this  twenty-four  nours 
S.  half  W.  distiince  one  hundred  and  thirteen  miles. 

Wednesday  the  twentieth,  the  wind  turned  to  the  X  W.  by  W.  so  that  I  could  not 
seas  in  with  our  north  course,  but  was  forced  to  stretch  it  away  to  the  southward. 

Thursday  the  twenty-first,  the  wind  returned  to  the  N.  N.  L.  and  to  the  N.  K.  At 
four  in  the  afternoon  we  had  the  sight  of  Fulness  to  the  S.  and  by  £.  oflf  us :  and  no 
small  surprise  was  it  to  us  to  see  all  the  land  covered  with  snow  at  this  time  of  the  year. 
A  prospect  of  one^s  own  country  had  been  agreeable  no  doubt  to  any  of  us  after  so  long 
an  absence  by  constraint  and  misfortune,  but  much  more  had  she  had  the  usual  garb  of 
the  season.  Soon  after  the  wind  came  to  the  £.  and  obliged  me  to  tack  to  the  norward ; 
in  the  night  we  had  much  snow,  and  a  fresh  gale  shiftingr^.  £.  and  by  N.  and  £.  N.  £. 

Friday  the  twenty-second,  in  the  morning,  with  a  N.  N.  £.  wind,  I  came  into  Yar- 
mouth-road, and,  thanks  be  to  God,  gave  iTiy  owners  a  sight  of  their  ship  ;  one  of  them, 
as  I  was  told,  but  three  hours  before,  having  proffered  his  part  for  three  guineas,  which 
\vas  now  worth  one  hundred  and  fifty  por<nds. 

The  wind  holding  in  the  same  poini,  and  a  fair  tide  with  me,  I  made  no  stop,  but  put 
through  the  road,  and  ran  that  nighl  into  Aldborough  bay,  where  the  wind  coming  west- 
erly brought  me  to  an  anchor ;  so  I  rid  all  night. 

Saturday  the  twenty-third,  by  day-light,  perceiving  some  colliers  coming  out  of  the 
Nesse,  I  hoisted  out  my  long  boat,  and  got  some  fresh  provision  among  them,  to  our 
great  comfort :  that  afternoon  I  got  out  sled  way,  the  wind  still  at  W. 

Sunday  the  twenty-fourth,  the  wind  coming  to  the  N.  W.  I  got  up  the  buoy  off 
the  middle  of  Lee.  It  was  calm  and  very  warm,  which  brought  our  men  into  many 
complaints,  as  pmn  in  their  limbs,  &c.  so  that  the  next  day  I  thought  fit  to  send  two  of 
them  up  the  river.  I  took  notice  of  one  of  our  company  that  went  well  to  his  cabin,  but 
when  we  called  him  out  to  heave  up  the  anchor,  he  was  so  swollen,  thai  we  fear- 
ed he  would  burst:  but  then  being  got  above  Gravesend,  I  hired  a  wherry,  and 
sent  him  up  with  three  more ;  supplying  their  places  with  some  fresh  and  able  men 
to  bring  up  the  ship. 

I  ana  all  the  rest  perceived  ourselves  manifestly  the  worse  for  the  warm  weather,  as 
we  called  it ;  but  'tis  well  enough  known  almost  to  every  one  living,  that  such  a 
temper  of  air  in  England,  both  then  and  for  some  time  after,  was  scarce  ever  ob- 
served when  the  year  was  so  far  advanced. 

VOL*  I.  3  X 


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rcCOUNT  OF  SAMOIKDIA,  AND  THK  SAMOIEDES. 


rHOM  Tlir  HIST.  Or.N.  DKN  VOYA<tr.R,  XXIV.  m. 


THK  account  wliich  wc  now  publish,  says  the  author,*  deserves  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  mass  of  wriiiiiirs  which  so  frequently  appear,  for  the  novelty,  the  s>iiij{ularity, 
and  truth,  which  are  united  in  it. 

The  person  to  whom  wc  arc  indebted  for  it  is  very  well  acquainted,  although  a  stran- 
ger, with  the  vast  empire  of  Uushia.  He  is  a  man  of  sense,  for  a  long  time  employed 
in  that  country  ;   formerly  in  military,  and  at  present  in  civil,  affairs. 

To  much  ae(|uired  knowledge  he  joins  all  the  qualities  which  constitute  a  good  ob- 
server ;  an  ardent  curiosity  after  all  the  productions  of  nature,  much  attention,  and  great 
sagacity.  The  reading  of  his  memoirs  will  be  sufficient  for  the  conviction  of  sucn  an 
eulogium  not  being  excessive,  but  a  still  greater  number  of  proofs  may  be  found  in  the 
Supplement  which  the  same  writer  has  composed  for  the  Dictionnaire  dc  Savury,  relative 
to  the  articles  concerning  Russia,  if,  us  it  is  to  \ye  wished,  he  determined  on  presenting 
them  to  the  public.  Tne  truth  and  precision  which  characterize  all  the  works  frpm  his 
pen  give  them  an  incontestible  superiority  over  every  thing  which  has  yet ;  ^jcurcd  on 
the  same  subject.  ,-*'.. 

This  collection  of  observations  formed  a  part  of  the  Memoirs  spnt  to  M.  de  Voltaire, 
for  his  Histoire  dc  PEmpire  dc  la  Russie  sous  Pierre  le  Grand ;  but  that  illustnous  au- 
thor made  only  a  superficial  use  of  it,  any  more  than  of  the  documents  which  his  ex- 
cellency the  chamberlain  Iwan  Iwanowitch  de  Schuvi^atow  had  furnished  him  with,  by 
direction  of  his  court ;  this  is  at  least  what  Dr.  Busching,  so  well  kno^vn  by  the  im- 
portant services  he  has  rendered  to  geography,  reproaches  him  with,  in  the  preface  to 
his  German  translation  of  the  History  of  Peter  the  Great  by  Mr.  Voltaire. 

The  merit  of  this  Memoir  would  induce  us  willingly  to  give  it  purely  and  simply  as 
published ;  but  we  have  thought,  on  one  side,  it  were  our  duty  to  add  some  observations 
to  it  not  foreign  to  the  subject,  and,  on  the  other,  to  retrench  what  relates  to  the  Laplan- 
ders, to  make  use  of  hereafter,  when  we  shall  treat  of  those  people,  in  an  extract  from 
an  excellent  historj'  published  in  German  some  years  ago  by  professor  Hoegstroeng. 

Among  the  number  of  histories  of  voyages  with  which  the  public  h»ve  oeen  deluged, 
few  are  to  be  found,  in  which  the  characters  and  manners  of  the  several  barbarous  na- 
tions dispersed  over  the  different  parts  of  the  globe  have  been  laid  down  in  a  satisfactory 
manner ;  and  where  those  which  we  possess  have  been  sufficiently  explicit  in  res|x:ct  to 
any  nation  of  barbarians,  they  agree  so  ill  the  one  with  the  other  on  facts,  that  the  reader 
who  is  anxious  for  instruction,  after  perusal  of  them,  can  only  doubt,  and  keep  his  judg- 
ment suspended. 

Some  represent  these  people  Jis  a  species  of  animals  of  human  shape,  to  whom  they 
concede  a  favour  in  allowing  them  to  resemble  man  in  figure  :  and  they  are  spared,  when 
the  possession  of  that  good  s';ii:ie  natural  to  mankind  is  not  disputed,  on  account  of  a 
difference  existing  between  their  manners  and  our  own,  from  the  habitude  of  observing 
foreigners  only  through  the  veil  of  those  prejudices,  which  men  have  in  general  in  favour 
of  their  own  nation  and  their  own  particular  customs. 

Other  relations  again  present  these  savages  as  differing  from  us  in  too  slight  a  degree, 
and  disguised  only  by  a  mask  somewhat  whimsical  and  novel  to  us.     From  a  singular 

*  Memoire  sur  le<i  Samoiedes,     Konigsberg  in  Prussia,  1762. 


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A  SMV  ArCOUNT  OKHAM(MKI)IA,  AND  Tllie.  SAMOIF.DKR. 


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attachment  to  that  favourite  ii'u'  continotily  n-ctival  principle,  th.it  men  arc*  cvcrj*  >vhc«; 
tht  iiaiuf  ;  the- i(k us,  the  virtues,  and  the  viecH,  which  are  nn  i 'Aith  in  polished  soi.kti', 
and  which,  hice  speech,  are  couceivitl  inlurent  in  thr  human  specu  ,,  are  granted  ilnni. 
OI)!icrvers  ul' too  shtirt  si^hc  todistin^i^uish  the  distance  hciweeu  man  in  an  uncuUivated 
und  savage  state,  liDrderinj^  on  the  prnnitive  condition  of  nature,  aiul  man  in  a  civilized 
htate,  wl»)  diverj;is  from  the  former  in  proportion  tolhe(  ivilizalion  and  eultivution  which 
he  has  experienced,  they  confound  together  two  various  beings,  and  exhibit  to  us  ut 
the  extremity  of  the  globe,  in  midst  of  the  most  hon  id  deserts,  the  image  of  themselves,  a 
prev"  to  all  the  passions  by  which  they  are  consumed. 

ft  would  nevertheless  be  very  important  for  the  natural  history  of  man,  to  have  some- 
more  precise  information  respecting  all  those  individuals,  who  as  yet  retain  some  origi- 
nal  features  of  man  issuing  from  the  hands  of  nat me  ;  by  examination  it  would  alford  us 
the  means  of  ascertaining  wh.it  has  been  g^iined  or  lost  by  sf)ciety  and  ecln<;ation.  But 
how  can  wc  expect  to  obtain  such  intelligence,  while  all  we  know  of  these  people  is  deriv- 
ed from  the  accounts  of  navigators  and  merchants,  occupied  by  views  of  a  ditriient  na- 
ture, or  by  their  interest  alone  ? 

That  which  remains  then,  as  the  best  wc  can  do  to  supply  this  defalcation,  is  to  fa- 
thom, as  often  as  occasion  m  ly  ofll-r,  the  truth  of  the  narratives  we  meet  with  respecting 
distant  nations,  to  rectify  the  errois  they  m.iy  contain,  and  by  such  means  to  enable  the 
learned  to  form  just  antl  well  groinidid  ideas,  so  as  at  I  -ist  to  snare  them  the  unplea- 
santness of  seeing  their  system  nielt  away,  from  its  U.'ing  founded  on  chimerical  and 
false  circumstances,  taken  from  narratives  tittle  to  be  deix;nded  on,  or  totally  un 
true. 

What  has  been  generally  observed  of  the  imperfect  knowledge  wc  possess  of  the  great- 
er part  of  the  barbarous  nations  is  found  to  be  fully  true  in  respect  of  th<"  Samoiedcsand 
the  Laplanders,  sul.ttectsofthc  empire  of  Russia, 

Scarcely  a  century  has  past  since  the  name  of  a  Samoicde  was  imknown  in  Kiiropc. 
Since  then  Olearius,  Vsbrand  Ydes,  the  celebrated  VVitzen,  and  Cornelius  de  Bruyn, 
have  applied  Uiemselves  to  the  study  of  the  manners  and  genius  of  these  people ;  and 
they  have  given  to  the  public  the  result  of  their  inquiries ;  but  their  accounts  are  very 
defective  and  erroneous,  and  their  errors,  confirmed  by  observations  on  the  Simniedcs, 
published  at  Petersburg  in  1732,  have  become  established,  for  want  of  belter  information. 
It  is  not  then  astonishing,  that  every  thing  which  has  successively  appeared  on  the  same 
subject  should  as  well  be  stamped  with  the  seal  of  ignorance  and  falsehood,  since  it  has 
been  merely  the  copy  of  what  has  appeared  from  travellers  themselves  but  badly  inform- 
ed. 

It  falling  to  my  lot  to  reside  for  some  titne  at  Archangel  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Samoiedes,  I  considered  that  a  part  of  my  leisure  could  not  be  better  emplo\  ed  than  in  a 
close  examination  into  their  customs  u,\\i\  luanncrs.  After  having  perused  wh  itever  has 
been  published  on  this  subject,  I  have  made  an  abridged  collection  of  the  circumstances 
which  I  met  with  that  were  interesting,  taking  care  to  separate  the  true  from  the 
false,  and  adding  the  particular  ideas  which  I  formed  of  the  character  and  nature 
of  these  barbarous  nations,  after  contemplating  them  with  an  impartial  and  attentive 
eye. 

Without  assumption  to  the  title  of  a  skilful  observer,  I  shall  congratulate  myself  upon 
having  accomplished  my  design,  if  I  should  succeed  in  undec  eiving  the  public  for  once 
upon  the  uncertainty  and  falsehood  of  what  has  heretofore  been  related  ;  and  sh  .11  meet 
with  a  most  flattering  reward  in  the  satisfaction  I  shall  experience,  at  having  contributed 
what  was  in  my  power  to  tlie  developing  of  some  historical  truths. 

3x2 


524 


A  NEW  ACCOUNT  01'  SaMOIEDIAi 


When  I  speak  of  the  town  of  Archangel,  rs  of  a  place  in  the  neighbourhood  of  these 
people,  I  do  not  pretend  to  give  credit  tc  what  is  recounted  in  the  greater  part  of  the  rela- 
dons  of  voyages  in  Riisbia ;  that  is  to  say,  that  the  first  establishments  of  the  Samoiede 
colonies  Hi  e  met  with  in  lUe  neighbourhood  of  that  town.  It  is  certain  that  they  are  not 
met  witi;  n^di-er  to  it  than  tl>»^e  or  four  hundred  wersts.  When  at  times  Samciedes  have 
been  met  with  at  Arcliangel  it  h&s  been  in  winter,  and  their  object  in  coming  has  been 
no  otlier  than  to  bring,  by  means  of  their  rein-deer,  fish-oil  and  other  articles  oi  trade,  on 
account  of  certain  merchants  or  country  people,  who  carefully  entertain  both  them  and 
their  rein-deer. 

The  origin  of  this  error  has  been  in  the  circumstance  of  there  having  been  formerly, 
and  even  so  lute  as  the  beginning  of  the  preiient  century,  some  families  of  Samoiedes 
hired  by  the  inhabitants  of  Archangel,  which  according  to  the  custom  of  these  people 
encamped  in  the  environs  of  this  town,  for  finding  pasti're  for  their  deer.  Some  travel- 
lers huvin^  seen  them  on  this  spot,  and  particularly  Cornelius  le  Bru^n,  who  on  this  mat- 
ter has  written  at  large ;  they  have  positively  assured  that  Samoiedia,  and  the  establish- 
mentis  of  the  Samoiedes,  began  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Archangel.  But  for  thirty  years 
back  and  more,  there  has  been  no  family  of  Samoiedes  established  in  that  quarter ;  it  is 
further  a  certain  fact,  that  this  people  have  never  inhabited  the  coasts  of  the  White  Sea, 
r.  .  ever  have  been  employed  by  the  Russians  in  the  fishery  for  !^;ea-dogs,  sea-calves,  and 
other  animals  from  which  oil  is  extracted,  as  has  been  told. 

The  real  spot  where  the  hab'vations  of  the  Samoiedes  begiin,  if  any  case  be  pointed  out 
among  a  people  which  is  continually  changing  residence,  is  in  the  district  of  Mozine,  be- 
yond the  river  of  that  name,  three  or  four  hundred  wersts  from  Archangel. 

The  colony  which  is  actually  met  with  there,  and  which  lives  dispersed  according  to 
the  usage  of  those  people,  ea'^.h  family  by  itself,  without  forming  villages  or  r  immunities, 
does  not  consist  of  more  than  three  hundred  families  or  thereabouts ;  whici;  are  al'.  de- 
scended from  two  different  tribes,  the  one  called  Laghe,  and  the  other  Wanoute ;  distinc- 
tions carefully  regarded  by  them. 

This  colony  is  called  Objciidiu ;  another  cop.tiguous  to  it  nearer  to  Petzora  is  naned 
Tihijondire ;  that  is  i  "^ar  to  Poustozcr,  opposite  to  Weigats  Straits,  commonly  entitled 
Gougorskoi,  is  known  among  themselves  by  the  name  of  Guaritzi. 

This  savage  nation  occupies  the  extent  of  more  than  thirty  degrees  along  the  coasts  of 
the  North  Sea,  and  the  frozen  ocean,  between  sixty -six  and  seventy  degrees  of  northern 
ladtude,  reckoning  fr  3m  the  river  Mozine  towards  the  east,  beyond  the  Oby,  as  far  as 
Jenesu,  and  perhaps  farther,  as  we  are  yet  unacquainted  with  the  limits  of  their  habita- 
tions. 

All  these  Samoiedes  dispersed  through  deserts  of  such  vast  extent  have  indisputably 
a  common  origin,  which  is:  evidently  bhexvn  from  the  resemblance  of  their  physic^omy, 
their  manners,  their  mode  of  living,  and  even  their  language ;  although  divided  into  diif- 
ferent  families  or  tribes,  more  or  less  distant  from  the  Russiaii  dwellings. 

lam  far  from  adopting  the  sentiment  of  those  who  imagine  the  Laplanders  and 
Samoiedes  to  Lo  descended  from  one  and  the  same  nation  :  M.  de  Bufibn,  who  stands 
justly  eminent  in  the  republic  of  letters,  is  evidendy  mistaken,  when  he  affirms  in  so 

g}sitive  a  manner  in  his  Histoire  Naturelle,  that  the  L^tplanders,  the  Zemblians,  the 
orandians,  the  Samoiedes,  and  all  the  Tartars  of  the  North,  are  people  descending 
from  the  same  race.  It  must  however  be  observed  by  the  way,  that  when  he  speaks  of 
Zemblians  he  speaks  of  an  imaginary  people,  since  it  is  a  certain  fact  that  Nova  Zembla 
or  Zemla,  which  signifies  in  the  Russian  language  New  Land,  is  not  inhab!'^^ed.  In 
what  he  states  respecting  the  Borandians  he  is  equally  wrong,  chat  name  b  not  even 


r 


AND  THE  SAMOIEDBS. 


525 


3  of 

em 
as 
ita- 


and. 

mds 

in  so 

the 

iing 

is  of 

ibla 

In 

syeti 


known  throughout  the  North,  and  indeed,  from  the  description  he  gives  of  them,  they 
could  be  recognized  but  with  great  difficulty.  He  even  advances  a  bold  usscrtion, 
when  he  states  the  Laplanders,  the  Samoiedes,  and  the  people  of  Northern  Tartary,  to 
form  but  one  nation ;  since  it  requires  no  more  than  an  attention  to  the  difierence  of 
their  features,  their  manners,  and  their  language,  to  be  convinced  they  are  of  a  different 
race,  as  will  in  the  sequel  be  8he\vn. 

Let  me  be  permitted  to  make  a  short  digression  on  the  subject  of  Nova  Zembla,  of 
which  I  have  mentioned  some  interesting  particulars  will  be  found  in  it,  which  I  have 
received  from  well  informed  persons,  and  which  will  throw  some  light  on  what  may 
have  made  it  be  presumed  to  be  inhabited. 

As  the  Russians  inhabiting  Mozinc  and  the  neighbourhood  of  Archangel  have  for 
many  years  been  accustomed  to  fish  for  wabrases,  or  sea-calves,  on  the  coasts  of  Nova 
Zemia,  and  have  even  passed  the  winter  there,  ah  the  shores  are  well  known  to  them. 
From  the  uniform  account  of  all  those  who  have  landed  on  the  island,  it  is  established 
that  the  strait  of  W?igats  separates  it  from  the  continent ;  that  it  begins  in  latitude  Tl**, 
and  extends  in  a  direct  line  towards  the  north,  as  far  as  latitude  75°  4'  N.  and  that  on 
the  other  hand  it  comprizes  7°  from  west  to  east.  Precisely  in  the  middle  of  i.\  is  island, 
or  to  speak  with  more  exactitude  under  the  73°  of  latitude,  on  the  eastern  side,  a  chan- 
nel or  strait  is  met  with,  which  traversing  the  whole  island,  and  turning  towards  the  N.  W. 
falls  into  the  North  Sea,  on  the  western  side,  in  latitude  73°  3',  cutting  the  island  nearly 
into  two  equal  parts. 

It  is  not  known  whether  this  strait  be  navigable ;  it  has  certainly  been  always  found 
covered  with  ice,  and  on  this  account  it  could  never  be  well  examined. 

The  course  from  Archangel,  or  the  coast  of  Mozine,  to  Nova  Zemla  is  not  attended 
with  much  risque  by  passing  by  Kandanvoes  and  the  island  of  Kalgnew.  Little  informed 
as  the  persons  who  undertake  this  voyage  are  in  the  art  of  navigation,  they  know  enough 
not  to  miss  the  bays,  which  are  upon  the  coasts  of  this  country ;  and  which  already 
they  are  well  acquainted  with.  There  is  as  well  always  to  be  met  with  a  sufficient 
number  of  people  ready  to  undertake  this  fishery,  notwithstanding  the  profit  tl\ui  is  de- 
rived from  It  be  very  moderate. 

These  voyages  are  made  in  small  vessels  built  in  ihc  old  fashion  of  their  country ;  the 
complement  of  which  usually  consists  of  ten  or  twelve  men,  who  receive  no  other  pay 
than  the  portions  of  the  produce  of  the  fishery  which  are  allotted  them,  after  deducting 
the  expences  of  the  equipment,  and  the  major  part  reserved  for  the  proprietor  of  the 
ship. 

This  country',  at  least  as  much  of  it  as  is  at  present  known,  is  a  desert  entirely  barren. 
It  produces  very  little  herbage ;  neither  trees  nor  bushes  are  to  be  met  with,  so  that 
those  who  resort  there  for  the  fishery  are  obliged  to  provide  themselves  with  wood  for 
firing. 

It  is  true  of  all  those  who  have  landed  in  the  island,  none  have  penetrated  further 
than  fifty  or  sixty  wersts  into  the  interior,  which  may  give  room  for  conceiving  that  in 
the  centre  of  the  island  there  may  possibly  be  some  lands  more  fertile,  and  even  some 
inhabitants.  However,  as  the  shores  have  been  frequented  for  a  long  time  all  round 
the  island,  by  a  number  of  people  attracted  thens  by  the  fishery,  without  the  least  ves- 
tige  of  inhabitants  being  discovered ;  and  besides,  as  no  other  animals  have  been  met 
with  but  such  as  feed  on  moss  or  fish,  such  as  white  bears,  white  foxes,  and  rein-deer ; 
and  not  even  one  of  the  description  which  are  supported  by  berries,  herbage,  roots,  or 
shoots  of  shrubs ;  it  is  highly  probable  that  this  island  contains  no  inhabitants,  and  that 
its  interior  is  as  destitute  of  wood  as  the  shores. 


i 


526 


A  NEW  ACCOUNT  OP  8AM0IEDIA, 


As  well  there  is  great  probability  that  those  who  have  been  taken  for  natural  inhabi* 
tants  of  the  country  were  the  crews  of  some  Russian  vessels ;  the  more  so,  from  its 
being  customary  for  the  fishermen  on  these  voyages  to  dress  themselves  in  the  manner 
of  the  Samoiedes.  Nevertheless,  the  cold  here  h  not  so  intense  as  might  be  imagined. 
Navigators  who  have  wintered  several  times  in  Nova  Zcmla,  and  in  Spitzbcrgen,  have 
assured  me  that  the  cold  of  Nova  Zemla  is  very  tolerable  in  comparison  to  that  of  Spitz, 
bergen  ;  which  as  well  is  nearer  to  the  pole  by  several  degrees. 

In  this  last  island  during  the  winter  there  is  no  twilight.  It  is  only  by  the  position  of 
the  stars  which  are  continually  visible  that  the  day  is  distinguishable  from  the  night ; 
whereas  in  Nova  Zemla  the  day  is  always  marked  by  a  feeble  light  which  appears  about 
noon,  even  when  the  sun  is  not  visible. 

The  person  who  related  to  nii,  these  particulars  eight  or  nine  years  ago  lost  twenty- 
four  men,  of  the  crews  of  some  vessels  which  he  had  sent  to  Nova  Zemla  to  pass  the 
winter ;  they  were  all  found  dead  on  the  spot  where  they  had  established  themselves. 
This  misfortune  frequently  befalls  those  who  remain  there  too  late  in  the  season ;  b  : 
we  must  not  be  too  hazardous  in  ascribing  it  to  the  cold.  Their  death  is  to  be  attri- 
buted to  the  thick  and  noxious  fogs,  occasioned  generally  by  the  putrefaction  of  the 
weeds  and  moss  on  the  sea  shore.  When  the  frost  is  late  m  making  its  appearance, 
these  pestilential  vapours  poison  and  suffocate  those  who  breathe  them.  VV  hat  con- 
firms this  fact  is,  the  circumstance  of  a  colony  from  Misin ;  being  there  at  the  same 
time,  composed  of  twenty  men,  who  had  constructed  their  huts  a  hundred  wersts  from 
that  of  the  others  ;  none  of  which  died.  They  all  returned  the  succeeding  years  in  per- 
fect health,  but  declared  that  they  had  suflPered  greatly  from  the  fogs,  and  had  all  of  them 
been  ill. 

The  foul  smell  of  these  fogs,  according  to  the  report  of  those  who  have  frequented 
Nova  Zemla,  is  so  disgusting,  so  insupportable,  as  cannot  be  described.  Their  effect  is 
the  more  dangerous  when  they  happen  at  the  time  of  a  thaw,  with  the  sea  wind  blowing 
towards  the  dwellings  where  the  fishermen  winter. 

From  ancient  tradition  it  is  known,  that  under  the  reign  of  the  Czar  Iwan  Wasilowitz, 
at  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  Nowogerod,  some  Russian  families  took  refuge  and 
established  themselves  in  Nova  Zemla.  A  countrj'man  who  had  withdrawn  himself 
from  the  domination  of  Strogaroff  as  well  retired  there  with  his  wife  and  children.  Many 
Russians  know  as  yet  the  places  iniubited  by  these  fugitives,  and  designate  them  by  their 
names ;  but  the  descendants  of  these  unfortunate  men  perished  altogether,  in  all  proba- 
bility from  these  puiiferous  effluvia. 

A  mine  of  silver  is  stilted  to  have  been  found  in  Nova  Zemla,  and  the  spot  on  that  ac- 
count  was  called  Serebnjnka,  a  name  it  bears  to  this  day.  The  person  who  related  to  me 
the  circumstance  relative  to  the  mine,  and  several  others,  informed  me,  at  the  same  time, 
that  he  had  not  been  able  to  ascertain  if  these  traditions  were  to  be  relied  on,  although 
careful  of  seeking  the  truth  in  all  his  researches  of  this  nature. 

The  existence  of  this  mine  of  silver,  supposing  it  to  be  true,  would  have  nothing  ex- 
traordinary in  it ;  since  it  is  considered  a  fact  in  Russia,  that  under  the  reign  of  the 
empress  Ann,  in  a  little  desert  island  of  the  White  Sea,  some  rocks  were  found  encrust- 
ed almost  entirely  with  silver  ore,  of  the  richest  quality  that  ever  was  seen,  as  was  ac- 
knowledged at  Petersburg ;  to  which  place  large  bars  of  it  were  sent  Considerable . 
riches  were  expected  from  this  fortunate  discovery ;  but  on  piercing  the  rock,  they  per- 
ceived that  the  interior  did  not  contain  the  least  trace  of  the  ore ;  and  that  it  was  simply 
an  incrustation,  possibly  as  ancient  as  the  globe  ;  or  which  may  be  referred  to  the  deluge, 
that  solves  so  many  problems. 


^i'^M'. 


*T= 


AND  THE  8AM0IEUKS.  537 

To  return  to  the  Samoiedes,  from  whom  we  have  somewhat  wandered.  These  men 
arc  of  lower  stature  than  the  middle  size  :  I  never  saw  any  that  were  less  than  four  feet 
high,  although  that  be  the  greatest  heiglu  ascribed  to  them  in  general,  as  a  succession 
of  the  fable  of  the  pygmies,  of  which  some  will  have  that  they  establish  the  reality.  Some 
of  them  were  above  the  middle  size,  nay  even  more  than  six  feet  high.  They  are  sturdy 
and  nervous,  broad  and  square  built,  with  short  legs,  and  small  feet ;  the  neck  very 
short,  and  the  head  large  in  pr0|)ortion  to  the  body,  a  flat  face,  black  and  tolerably  open 
eyes ;  the  nose  so  much  flattened,  that  the  end  is  nearly  upon  the  level  with  the  bone  of 
the  upper  jaw,  which  is  very  strong,  and  greatly  elevated,  a  large  mouth,  and  thin  lips. 
Their  hair,  which  is  as  black  as  jet,  but  extremely  hard  and  strong,  hangs  from  their 
shoulders,  and  is  very  sleek  :  their  complexion  is  of  a  yellow  brown,  their  ears  large,  and 
elevated. 

The  men  have  litde  or  no  beard,  and  their  head,  as  well  as  that  of  the  women,  is  the 
only  part  of  the  body  which  produces  hair.  There  remains  to  examine  if  it  be  a  natural 
defect,  a  particular  quality  incident  to  their  race,  or  only  tueeifcctofa  prejudice,  induc- 
ing them  to  attach  an  idea  of  deformity  to  the  hair  of  the  body,  which  may  cause  them  to 
root  it  out  whenever  it  may  make  its  appearance.  However  it  may  be,  it  becomes  the 
interest  of  the  women,  above  all,  not  to  suffer  hair  to  grow  on  their  body,  should  it  be 
natural  to  them,  since  according  to  the  usage  of  their  people  a  husband  has  a  right  to  re. 
turn  the  girl  to  her  parents  whom  he  might  have  taken  to  wife,  and  cause  whatever  he 
had  purchased  her  for  to  be  returned  him,  provided  any  hair  were  found  about  her,  ex- 
cept upon  her  head.  A  similar  case,  it  is  true,  must  be  very  rare,  even  allowing  them 
to  be  subject  to  this  natural  vegetation,  which  they  apparently  consider  as  a  great  imper- 
fection, seeing  that  a  man  marries  generally  a  girl  when  but  ten  years  of  age.  As  well  it 
is  common  among  these  people  to  see  mothers  of  children  no  more  than  eleven  or 
twelve  years  old ;  but,  in  equivalent,  these  forward  mothers  cease  to  bear  children  after 
thirty  years  of  age.  May  not  this  practice  of  marrying  their  girls  before  the  customary 
period  of  maturity,  as  well  as  the  licence  which  the  men  possess  of  buying  as  many  wives 
as  they  can  pay  for,  be  the  physical  cause  of  the  little  fecundity  of  the  Samoiedes,  and  pro- 
bably of  their  diminutiveness  ? 

The  physiognomy  of  the  women  exactly  resembles  that  of  the  men,  excepting  that 
their  features  are  rather  more  delicate,  with  their  body  more  slender,  the  leg  shorter,  and 
the  foot  still  less ;  otherwise  it  is  difficult  to  dbtinguish  the  sexes  by  the  exterior,  or  by 
their  dress,  which  is  very  nearly  the  same. 

Both  men  and  women,  as  amonp;  all  the  barbarous  nadons  of  the  northern  countries, 
wear  di^sses  made  of  rein-deers'  skms,  with  the  hair  outermost,  and  sewed  together,  which 
makes  them  a  clothing  all  of  one  piece,  and  fits  and  covers  their  body  extremely  well. 
This  dress  is  so  well  calculated  for  their  occasions  in  the  rude  climate  which  they  inhabit, 
that  the  Russians,  and  other  nations  who  are^inder  necessity  of  travelling  in  their  countr)', 
wear  the  same  habiliments.  The  only  distinction  observable  in  the  clothing  of  the 
women  consists  in  some  scraps  of  cloth,  of  different  colours,  with  which  their  skins  are 
trimmed ;  and  the  youngest  among  them  sometimes  take  the  pains  of  separating  their 
hair  in  two  or  three  tresses,  which  hang  down  behind. 

Those  who  have  pretended  that  the  Samoiede  women  were  not  subject  to  periodical 
evacuations  are  mistaken  ;  this  is  a  circumstance  on  which  I  received  very  exact  infor* 
matipn  ;  but  it  is  true  their  pui^tions  of  this  nature  are  very  slight. 

Another  phy  sical  peculiarity  of  the  Samoiede  women,  which  appealed  to  me  very  cu- 
rious, and  of  which  my  inquiries  on  the  subject  as  completely  satisfied  me  of  the  truth, 


ii^ 


• 


528 


A  NEW  ACCOUNT  OP  SAMOIEDIA, 


I 


is  their  having  all  of  them  their  teats  flat,  small,  and  soft  at  all  times,  even  when  vir^ns, 
witli  the  end  of  them  as  bla '  k  as  coal.  It  might  bs  conceived  that  this  accident  were 
the  result  of  their  premature  marriages,  if  it  were  not  certain  that  this  attribute  is  com- 
mon to  the  Laplanders,  notwithstanding  the  latter  never  marry  earlier  than  at  fifteen 
years.  Some  other  reason  therefore  must  be  sought«  either  in  the  natural  constitution^ 
or  the  food  or  these  people. 

Their  tents,  composed  of  pieces  of  the  bark  of  trees  sewed  together,  and  covered  with 
rein-deer  skins,  are  constructed  in  a  pyramidal  shape,  on  poles  of  a  moderate  thickness. 
An  opening  is  contrived  at  the  top  of  thb  tent,  for  the  purpose  of  leaving  a  passage  for 
the  smoke,  which  when  closed  increases  the  warmth.  From  this  it  is  plain  that  the  tales 
of  their  subterranean  dwellings  are  fabulous.  As  the  fblding  up  of  these  tents  is  to  them 
an  easy  matter,  they  transport  them  from  place  to  place  by  means  of  their  rein-deer : 
this  manner  of  constructing  an  habitation  is  incontrovertibly  the  most  suitable  to  the 
wandering  life  which  they  are  obliged  to  follow ;  for  the  ground  producing  absolutely 
nothing  fit  for  their  sus'  :;nance,  they  are  obliged  to  change  their  abode  frequenUy,  in 
search  of  the  wood  they  have  occasion  for,  and  to  find  moss  for  their  rein-deer. 

This  as  well  is  one  of  the  reasons  which,  joined  tc  their  interest  in  hunting,  restrains 
them  from  remaining  together  in  any  great  number ;  for  seldom  will  more  than  two  or 
three  tents  be  found  in  the  same  neighbourhood,  and  as  their  deserts  are  of  an  immense 
extent,  they  can  change  their  residence  as  frequently  as  their  necessities  require,  without 
injuring  one  another. 

In  summer  they  prefer  the  neighbourhood  of  rivers,  to  profit  from  the  fishery  with 
more  facility ;  but  they  always  keep  at  a  great  dbtance  fix)m  each  other,  without  ever 
forming  a  society. 

After  providing  food,  which  b  a  care  the  men  are  charged  with  in  every  family,  white 
the  women  are  employed  in  sewing  clothes  together,  keeping  the  fire,  and  looking  after 
the  children,  there  is  nothing  farther  that  they  feel  interest  in ;  they  vegetate  m  tran- 
quility, amusing  themselves  after  their  manner,  stretched  on  rein-deers*  skins  spread 
round  the  fire  in  their  tents.  The  sweets  of  idleness  supply  the  place  of  thepassdons 
among  these  people,  and  necessity  alone  has  power  to  rouse  them  to  activiur.  Thb  love 
of  idleness  is  one  of  the  principal  features  by  which  tiie  uninformed  man,  left  to  nature 
alone,  is  recognized. 

Hunting  in  winter,  and  in  summer  fishing,  fumbh  them  plenteously  vnth  food.  They 
are  equally  skilled  in  both  these  exercises ;  and  as  the  n<iu-deer  forms  all  their  wealth, 
they  endeavour  to  take  and  keep  as  many  of  them  as  they  can.  These  animals  are  the 
better  suited  to  the  natural  laziness  of  mese  people,  from  their  requiring  no  care  for 
their  fodder,  which  they  find  themselves  in  moss  under  the  snow.  Furuier,  whatever 
animal  they  meet  with  in  hunting  they  deem  proper  for  food,  not  disdaining  even  the  car- 
casses of  such  as  they  find  dead.  However  revolting  this  taste  of  the  ^moiedes  may 
api)ear  to  us,  in  this  matter  they  are  not  much  behindhand  mth  tiie  Chinese,  who, 
civilized  as  they  are,  it  is  well  known  feed  on  carrion. 

The  Samoiedes  hovinever  refrain  from  eating  dogs,  cats,  ermines,  and  the  squirrel, 
without  my  being  able  to  team  the  cause  of  their  exceptions.  As  for  the  flesh  of  the 
rein-deer  they  eat  it  always  raw :  it  is  with  them  a  luxury  to  drink  the  blood  of  tiiese 
animals  quite  warm :  they  even  pretend  that  thb  drink  serves  as  a  preservative  against 
the  scurvy;  but  they  are  unacquainted  with  the  practice  of  milking  them,  as  many 
writers  have  afiirmed,  without  foundation. 

They  eat  their  fish  also  quite  raw,  of  whatever  description  it  may  be,  but  other  kinds 
of  food  they  prefer  cooking ;  and  as  tiiey  have  no  fixed  hours  for  theu'  meab,  they  have 


'is-:: 


■   ,    .  .    ^  Y  /'         "      . 


AND  THE  SAMOIEDES. 


529 


always,  a  boiler  containing  mcnt  on  the  fire,  which  they  keep  in  the  middle  of  their  tents, 
in  onier  that  any  of  them  wl»o  compose  the  family  may  cat  whenever  he  pleases. 

With  respect  to  the  name  of  S.imoicde,  there  is  some  dispute  on  its  etymology.  Some 
imagine  the  name  synonymous  with  anthropophagi,  anciently  given  to  these  people,  on 
account  of  their  having  been  seen  to  cat  raw  flesh,  which  was  taken  for  human  ;  whence 
it  was  inferred  that  they  devoured  the  dead  bodies  of  their  ncij^hbours,  as  well  as  of  their 
enemies,  after  the  fashion  of  the  cannibals.  But  they  have  lx>en  freed  from  any  such 
conception  with  respect  to  them  for  some  time  ;  it  is  even  known  from  the  traditions  of 
tliese  people,  that  no  such  barbarous  custom  ever  existed  among  them. 

Others  pretend  the  word  Samoye  signifies,  in  the  language  of  these  people,  an 
inhabitant  of  the  country,  and  that  their  denomination  is  deduced  therefrom.  This  origin 
would  appear  sufficiently  natural,  if  the  supposition  which  is  the  base  of  it  was  not  desti. 
tutc  of  proof.  But  as  in  their  language  there  is  no  word  to  be  found  resembling  Sa- 
moye, and  as  in  their  dialect  they  give  themselves  the  names  of  Minez  and  Chasowo,  it 
is  clear  this  latter  etymol(^y  is  purely  chimerical,  like  many  other  derivations  adopted 
without  discussion. 

It  will  therefore  be  proper  to  seek  for  a  word  in  the  language  of  the  neighbouring  na- 
tions, which  may  have  affinity  thereto.  Now  as  it  is  well  known  that  the  Fins  formerly 
inhabited  the  greater  part  of  the  countries  of  the  north,  the  word  Sooma,  which  signi- 
fies ia  the  Finnish  language  a  marsh,  may  very  well  have  served  as  an  origin  for  the 
name  Samoiede :  it  is  also  very  likely  the  root  of  the  name  Siimalantsch,  which  the 
Laplanders  give  themselves  in  their  own  tongue,  and  that  of  Somaemayes,  which  the 
Cartlians  call  themselves  by. 

In  the  Russian  chancellary  the  Samoiedes  are  designated  by  the  title  of  Sirogneszi> 
eaters  of  rar  vocsA.     This  is  all  I  have  been  able  to  obtain  of  least  uncertain  respecting 

these  people,  fif.,-  rir.,4..^.1*-r.:.,--/'.7i     >•!»!*■:  .,■V^   .,"-<Y'4      '»•  ■»«  :•' 

As  to  what  regard^  the  period  of  the  Samoiedes  passing  under  the  Russian  dominion, 
almost  all  historains  a^ree  in  fixing  tlie  period  in  the  reign  of  the  Czar  Feodor  Iwano- 
witz.  It  is  in  this  reign  that  the  relations  made  by  a  person  of  the  name  of  Onecko, 
who  carried  on  a  very  lucrative  trade  in  this  country,  as  it  is  said,  gave  birth  to  the  de- 
agn  of  subjugatin|^  it.  It  is  added,  the  conquest  of  the  country  was  not  eompleted 
until  under  the  reign  of  his  successor,  the  Czar  Boris>  and  that  it  was  effected  by  the 
building  of  forts,  and  even  some  towns.  However,  I  am  induced  to  think  there  is  some 
error  in  this ;  for  I  have  2een  the  ordonnances  published  in  the  first  years  of  the  empe- 
ror Peter  the  First,  concerning  the  means  to  be  taken  for  collecting  the  tribute  of  the  Sa- 
moiedes, where  mention  is  expressly  made  of  letters  patent  having  been  granted  to  these 
people  more  than  »xty  years  before  the  reign  of  the  Czar  Feodor  Iwanowitz ;  and  by 
which  permission  was  granted  them  to  collect  of  themselves  the  tribute  in  peltry  which 
they  had  to  pay.  Add  to  which,  it  is  certain  it  never  was  in  contemplation  even  to  build 
any  town  or  fort  among  the  Samoiedes,  for  the  purpose  of  subjugatmg  them ;  and  actu- 
ally there  is  none  in  existence  throughout  their  country.  Their  tribute,  called  jeslak,  is 
received  in  small  towns  situated  in  the  vicinity  of  their  country,  inhabited  by  Russian  colo- 
nists *  it  consists  in  a  skin  of  tlie  value  of  twenty- five  copecs  annually  for  every  man  who 
can  draw  the  bow ;  a^xl  every  species  of  peltry  is  valued  at  a  certain  rate.  But  as  we 
are  now  speaking  of  a  fact,  in  contradiction  to  the  statement  of  all  who  have  written  on 
the  subject,  and  as  the  curious  may  see  with  pleasure  an  original  composition,  i  ^  the 
stile  of  that  time,  I  have  thought  it  right  to  translate  one  of  the  ordonnances  of  which  I 
have  spoken:  the  original  is  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  chancellary  (tfPustoser. 

-     VOL.    I.       ..   .,..   -...    i.,i  .......;,  ^„j.i:  ..     3   Y 


■»*» 


.■*•*'.-;**    iis^j*     'A}i   vi4^*-. 


„-.rf.;..  w 


530 


A  NEW  ACCOUNT  OP  SAMOIBDIA, 


(< 


On  the  part  of  the  czars  and  grand  princes,  John  Alexiowitz  and  Peter  Alexiowitz, 
sovereigns  of  all  the  Russias,  the  great,  the  less,  and  the  white,  to  our  stolnik  and 
governor  of  Pustoser,  John  Matweowitz  Kastire.  A  request  has  been  presented  to 
our  high  lordships  from  the  Samoiedes,  Gongorski  and  Petschcrsky,  in  which  these  pco> 
pie  inform  us  that  they  are  in  possession  of  letters  patent,  granted  to  them  by  our  ances- 
tors at  a  distant  period,  when  these  people  in  7033  (which  corresjxjnd!.  to  the  year  1525 
of  the  common  era)  renucsted  to  be  taken  under  the  dominion  of  chat  great  lordly 
czar  and  grand  prince,  v^' sili  Iwanowitz,  sovereign  of  all  the  Russias,  of  happy  me- 
mory ;  in  which  it  was  .  h!  ^d  that  they  were  to  be  received  by  our  powerful  liand 
in  quality  of  subjects,  and  be  protected  from  any  foreign  insult,  in  corihideration  of 
their  paying  their  tribute  in  peltry  at  Petehora  and  Pustoser.  In  course  of  time, 
namely,  in  7105  (1507)  our  great-grandfather,  the  great  lordly  czar  and  grand 
prince  Feodor  Iwanowitz,  sovereign  of  all  the  Russias,  of  happy  memory,  grunted  to 
them  that  they  should  pay  their  tribute  only  in  conformity  to  the  ancient  registers  at 
Pustoser,  and  that  they  should  have  allowance  to  collect  this  tribute  among  themselves. 
And  whereas,  according  to  the  complaints  they  make,  these  tributes  are  demanded  of 
them  at  Beresowa  and  in  Mesen,  without  giving  them  quittances  for  what  is  received, 
and  are  made  to  pay  this  tribute  again  at  Pustoser  ;  they  intreat  that,  in  conformity  to 
the  letters  patent  in  existence,  it  be  enjoined  that  they  may  be  proceeded  with  in  a 
manner  conformable  to  the  preceding  ordonnances ;  that  they  may  have  the  permis- 
sion of  coHec^'ng  the  tribute  of  skins  among  themselves  at  one  spot,  namely,  Pustoser, 
and  that  it  may  be  forbidden  they  should  be  required  to  pay  a  second  time  at  Beresowa 
and  Mesen,  or  that  any  violence  be  offered  them,  in  order  that  they  may  not  be  obliged 
to  disp^^rse  and  abandon  the  country,  which  would  cause  the  sovereign  to  lose  his 
tribute.  It  has  as  well  been  represented  to  us  that  the  Karatscheskoi  Samoiedes,  and 
the  families  depending  on  themi  in  a  petition  signed  with  the  marks  common  among 
these  people,  every  year  deliver  a  great  number  of  skins  as  their  tribute  to  our  receiver 
at  Beresowa,  and  not  knowing  whether  the  said  tribute  be  forwarded  entire  to  our 
high  lordships  at  Moscow,  they  have  given  a  specification,  signed  with  their' usual 
marks,  of  the  surplus  which  they  annually  pay  to  our  receiver  at  Pustoser,  the  soldier 
Stainka  Wolouquenin.  Now,  in  consequence  of  these  petitions,  we  ordain  that  imme- 
mediutely  after  receiving  these  present  letters,  thou  mayest  take  measures  for  hindering 
the  said  Samoiedes,  Gongorski  and  Petscherski,  from  being  any  longer  obliged  to  pay 
any  other  tribute  than  that  imposed  upon  them  by  our  ancestors ;  and  farther,  that  they 
have  the  permission  of  collecting  this  tribute  by  themselves,  in  conformity  to  their  pe- 
tition,  according  to  the  ancient  registers ;  andf  that  there  be  granted  to  them  for  re. 
ceiver  of  the  said  tribute  whichsoever  of  the  people  in  our  service  they  may  themselves 
select ;  that  thou  take  as  well  especial  care  that  the  said  receivers  of  tribute  offer  no 
violence  to  these  Samoiede  people,  by  requiring;  or  extorting  from  them,  for  their  indi- 
vi^al  advantage,  any  thing  beyond  what  is  imposed  on  them ;  and  that  the  whole 
being  collected  together  be  carried  to  Pustoser,  as  before.  And  after  these  people 
shall  become  accustomed  to  pay  their  tribute  at  Pustoser,  thou  shalt  send  to  us  the 
said  tribute  regularly  every  year,  without  suffering  any  deduction,  ahd  this  by  the  rt< 
ceiver,  accompanied  by  any  Samoiede  which  they  may  choose  for  this  purpose,  and  cause 
him  to  be  brought  direcdy  before  our  high  lordships  at  Moscow,  in  the  chancellary  or 
pricasie  of  Novogorod.  Let  no  tribute  be  a  second  time  required  of  these  Samoiedes, 
Gongorski  and  Petscherski,  at  Beresowa,  or  in  Mesen :  Let  them  be  protected  from 
gU  foreign  insult,  and  have  particular  care  that  no  violence  be  done  them.     And  after 


■  '■y^^W'^h''i^^^0^^-^'^^-':^^-i'':i0§.' 


AND  THE  SAMOIEUeS.  5g| 

having  read  these  present  letters  und  taken  a  copy  thereof  with  thine  own  hand,  thou  hast 
todehver  the  original  of  these  letters  patent  to  these  Samoiedes,  in  order  that  they  may 
be  of  service  to  them,  with  rcsjx'ct  to  the  other  way  wodes  or  officers  who  may  succeed 
thee  in  the  employ  wherewith  thou  art  invested."  Given  at  Moscow,  in  the  year  7192, 
(1684)  the  ninth  of  July.  The  original  is  signed  by  the  hand  of  the  *Diack  Procophei 
Wosnizin,  and  collated  by  the  Sub-diack  Alexci  Ferfanow. 

In  regard  to  f  Pustoscr,  of  which  in  this  ordonnance  mention  is  made,  it  must  be  ob. 
served,  that  in  conformity  to  information  extracted  from  the  archives  of  the  chancellary 
of  that  town,  the  nation,  the  descendants  of  which  inhabit  that  country  at  present,  before 
it  embraced  Christianity  (two  or  three  hundred  years  ago,  according  to  the  tradition  of 
the  country)  bore  the  name  of  Tshudi,  which  in  the  Russian  language  signifies 
Fins. 

The  Samoiedes  who  lived  in  the  marshes  or  neighbouring  deserts  giving  some  in* 
quietude  to  the  Russian  colonies,  they  built  the  small  town  of  Pustoscr,  for  the  purpose 
of  placing  themselves  in  a  state  of  defence  against  strangers  who  might  land  from  the 
sea  on  that  side,  according  to  their  old  traditions.  For  the  same  purpose  in  7156  (that 
is  to  say  1648)  fifty  soldiers  were  established  there  with  their  wives  and  children,  sent  from 
Cholmoger,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Archangel.  At  present  there  is  always  a  company 
of  soldiers  there  from  the  garrison  of  Archangel  itself.  And  in  spite  of  the  barrenness  of 
the  country,  and  the  small  numl^er  and  wretchedness  of  the  inhabitants,  the  industry  of 
these  people  renders  the  post  of  waywode  of  the  Pustoser  a  very  lucrative  appointment 
for  the  oracers  invested  therewith. 

Pustoser,  the  only  place  in  the  country  of  the  Samoiedes  to  which  the  name  of  a  town 
is  given,  although  properly  speaking  it  be  no  more  than  a  village,  is  situated  a  hundred 
wersts  or  thereabouts  from  the  frozen  ocean,  a  short  distance  from  the  straits  of  Wei- 
gatz.  The  air  in  this  quarter  is  so  cold,  and  the  ^ound  so  poor,  that  it  produces  no 
sort  of  grain,  or  fruit ;  but  the  lake  whence  it  takes  its  name  abounds  in  fish.  This  is 
the  sum  of  wliat  in  remarkable  in  this  country,  unknown  to  the  rest  of  the  earth. 

The  religion  of  the  Samoiedes  is  very  simple.  Those  who  pretend  that  the  light  of 
human  reason  is  sufficient  of  itself  tp  form  a  system  of  religion  are  obliged  to  allow,  that 
a  similar  system,  conceived  and  arranged  by  men  in  a  pure  state  of  nature,  such  as  that 
of  the  Samoiedes,  could  be  no  other  than  very  obscure,  and  very  imjierfcct.  Accordingly, 
dieir  belief  is  reducible  to  the  small  number  of  following  articles. 
..  They  admit  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  Creator  of  all  things,  eminently  good 
and  beneficent :  a  quality  which,  according  to  their  mode  of  thinking,  dispenses  them 
from  any  adoration  of  him,  or  addressing  their  prayers  to  him,  because  they  suppose  this 
Bt'ing  takes  nc  interest  in  mundane  affairs,  and  consequently  does  not  exact  nor  need 
the  worship  of  men.  They  join  to  this  idea,  that  of  a  Being  eternal  and  invisible,  very 
powerful,  although  subordinate  to  the  first,  and  disposed  to  evil ;  it  is  to  this  Being  that 
they  ascribe  all  the  misfortunes  which  befall  them  in  this  life.  Nevertheless,  they  do  not 
worship,  ahhough  much  in  fear  of  him.  If  they  place  any  reliance  in  t'le  coun  els  of  Ko^ 
edisnicks  or  Tadebes,  it  is  only  on  account  of  the  connection  which  they  esteem 
these  people  to  have  with  this  evil  Being ;  otherwise,  they  submit  themselves  with  perfect 
apathy  to  all  the  misfortunes  which  can  befall  them,  for  want  of  knowing  the  means  of 
avoidmgthem.  .  ^ 

*  Dignity  which,  accoixling  to  the  usage  of  that  time,  ant.wered  to  that  of  Chaticellor  or  Secretary  o{ 
State.  ' 

t  Pustoser  is  derived  from  the  Russian  word  Pusto  a  desert,  and  Osero  a  lake.  •   -    • 

3  y  2 


533 


A  NEW  ACCOUNT  OP  SAMOIKDIA, 


The  sun  and  moon  as  well  hold  the  place  of  subaltern  Deities ;  it  is  by  their  inter- 
vention  they  imagine  that  the  Supreme  Being  di»|)cnses  his  iavourii ;  but  tl\cy  worship 
them  OS  little  as  the  idols  or  fitches  which  they  carry  about  them,  according  to  the  re- 
commendation  of  tlieir  Koedisnicks.  They  appear  to  care  very  little  about  these  idols, 
and  if  they  wear  them,  it  is  only  ouing  to  the  attachment  which  they  appear  to  have  to 
the  traditions  of  their  ancestors,  of  which  the  Roedisnicks  are  the  depositaries  and  the 
interpreters. 

Among  them  some  ideas  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  prevail,  and  a  state  of  retribution 
in  another  life;  but  all thii rt fers  simply  to  a  sjjccies  of  metempsycosis.  This  sentiment, 
obscure  as  it  is,  seems  to  indicate  that  these  people  descend  irom  some  Asiatic  nation, 
formerly  inhabiting  the  vicinity  of  India. 

It  is  m  consequence  of  their  opinion  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  that  they  are  ac- 
customed to  inter  with  him  the  dresses  of  the  deceased,  his  bow,  his  arrows,  and  what- 
ever belongs  to  him,  because  they  say  the  defunct  may  need  them  in  another  world,  con- 
sidering it  unjust  for  any  individual  to  appropriate  to  himself  what  belongs  to  another. 
By  this  it  is  visible,  that  if  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  form  a  part  of  their 
religion,  it  is  only  as  a  simple  probability,  respecting  which  they  have  their  doubts. 

Lastly,  among  them  none  of  those  religious  ceremonies  in  use  among  other  nations,  in 
particular  circumstances  of  life,  are  met  with.  Their  Koedisnicks  are  not  to  be  consi- 
dered in  this  light,  any  more  than  the  ceremony  of  their  marriage,  the  birth  of  their  chil- 
drcn,  or  burial  of  their  dead :  the  whole  administration  of  this  kind  of  priests  is  limit- 
ed to  their  giving  them  advice,  andidolsof  their  making,  when  they  are  more  than  com- 
monly unfortunate  in  hunting,  or  any  sickness  occurs.  It  would  be  very  difficult  to  intro- 
duce Christianity  among  these  people,  on  account  of  their  understanding  being  too  much 
confined  to  enable  them  to  conceive  things  beyond  the  evidence  of  their  senses ; 
as  well  as  that  they  deem  their  condition  too  happy,  to  be  desirous  of  any 
change. 

The  Samoiedes  are  as  simple  in  their  morals  as  in  their  dogmas.  Unacquainted  with 
any  law,  they  are  without  terms  even  for*  vice  or  virtue.  If  they  abstain  from  wrong,  it 
is  by  a  simple  instinct  of  nature.-j-  It  is  true,  theyi,are  accustomed  to  preserve  their 
wives  each  to  themselves,  and  carefully  to  avoid  all  degrees  of  consanguinity  in  marry- 
ing, to  such  a  degree,  that  a  man  never  marries  a  girl  descended  from  the  same  family 
with  himself,  however  distant  the  affinity.  Although  the  contrary  be  advanced  by  seve- 
ral  writers,  the  fact  may  be  relied  on.  They  provide  for  their  children  till  such  time  as 
they  arrive  at  the  period  of  being  able  to  help  themselves. 

All  these  customs  religiously  observed  among  them  are  no  other  than  the  fruits  of 
tradition  handed  down  to  them  by  their  ancestors,  and  this  tradition  with  some  reason 
may  be  looked  upon  as  law.  But  it  does  not  appear  that  they  are  forbidden  to  assassi- 
nate, to  steal,  or  to  take  possession  by  means  of  violence  of  the  wives,  or  daughters,  be- 
longing toothers.  Notwithstanding,  if  credit  be  given  to  these  good  people,  who  seem 
too  simple  to  disguise  any  thing,  few  indeed  are  the  examples  of  such  crimes  com- 
mitted among  them.  When  the  cause  of  such  forbearance  is  required  of  them,  as, 
from  their  own  confession,  they  know  of  no  principle  which  should  deter  them  from 
such  actions,  they  reply  with  »mplicity :  It  is  very  easy  for  every  one  to  supply  his 

*  All  the  nations  of  the  earth  without  exception  have  very  possibly  been  the  same ;  it  is  thus  Justin  re- 
presents the  Scythians.  Book  II.  Chap.  ii.  ^' The  ignorance  of  vice  effected  more  with  these  people 
than  the  knowledge  of  virtue  among  others." 

\  Justice,  not  law,  was  respected  by  the  people.  Ibid.       ,,  ,    • 


ANDTIIBSAMOIRDKS. 


53:> 


Wiints,  and  it  is  not  right  to  take  what  belongs  to  another.  Ah  for  murder,  they  hnvi* 
no  conception  how  a  man  can  be  induced  to  kill  his  fellow-creature.  With  respect  to 
women,  they  imagine  that  the  one  which  they  arc  enal)led  to  purchase  for  a  trifle  may 
satisfy  their  appcute  as  well  as  another,  more  suitable  to  their  fancy,  but  which  might 
not  be  acquirable  unless  by  violence. 

From  all  that  has  been  siiid,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  know  no  other  wants  than  those 
of  sim|)le  nature  ;  namely,  food,  the  enjoyment  of  woman,  and  rest. 

As  they  arc  of  a  taste  no  ways  delicate,  and  easy  of  satisfaction,  the  perfect  indiffer- 
ence which  they  contract  in  respect  of  their  choice  of  women  stands  instead  of  principle, 
and  makes  them  act  accordingly,  without  attending  to  it. 

Their  senses  and  their  faculties  are  in  iust  relation  to  their  being  and  mode  of  life. 
They  have  a  piercing  eye,  very  delicate  hearing,  and  a  steady  hand ;  they  shoot  an 
arrow  with  the  greatest  exactitude,  and  arc  exceeding  swift  in  running.  All  these  qua- 
lities, which  are  natural  to  them,  and  absolutely  necessary  for  supplying  their  necessities, 
have  been  perfected  by  corttinual  exercise.  They  have,  on  the  other  hand,  a  gross  taste, 
weak  smell,  and  dull  feeling;  arising  from  the  circumstance  of  the  objects  about  them 
not  iK'ing  of  a  quality  to  produce  on  their  senses  any  deliciite  impression. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  ambition  and  interest,  those  two  great  springs  which  put 
mankind  in  motion,  and  which  in  society  are  the  motives  of  all  good  and  bad  actions, 
as  well  as  of  the  vices  which  are  the  consequences  of  them,  such  as  envy,  disiiimula* 
tion,  intrigues,  injuries,  meditated  vengeance,  slander,  calumny,  and  falsehood,  have  no 
admission  in  the  moral  system  of  these  people  :  on  the  contrary,  their  want  of  terms 
to  express  these  different  vices,  which  cause  such  ravages  in  civilized  society,  sufHciently 
shews  their  ignorance  of  them. 

It  will  be  comprehended  without  difficulty,  that  the  manner  of  living  of  these  people 
must  be  in  conformity  to  the  simplicity  of  their  notions,  and  the  sterility  of  their  country. 
Although  many  authors  affirm  that  the  Samoiedes  have  princes,  judges,  or  masters, 
which  they  obey  with  great  submission,  it  is  certain  that  they  never  knew  of  any  such, 
nor  at  present  have  any.  They  pay,  without  repugnance,  the  tribute  Imposed  on  them 
in  peltry,  without  knowing  of  any  other  subjection  towards  the  sovereign  :  they  willingly 
submit  to  this  payment,  because  they  saw  their  fathers  before  them  do  so,  and  because 
they  know  that,  if  refused,  it  could  be  enforced. 

In  other  respects,  they  are  perfectly  independent  one  of  another ;  and  if  they  pay  any 
deference,  it  is  only  to  the  senior  of  every  family,  and  to  the  Koedisnicks,  whose  coun« 
sels  they  sometimes  attend  to,  without  obligation  to  submit  to  them. 

When  it  is  said  that  the  rein-deer  are  the  only  riches  of  the  Samoiedr*,  't  must  needs  be 
conceived  that  they  are  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  money  id  tiit  "'fference  in  the 
price  and  value  of  metals,  with  the  exception  of  some  fewin  the  .ieighbourno»-?d  of  the  Rus- 
sians, from  whom  they  may  have  learot  this  distinction.  They  make  use  of  their  rein-dter 
for  the  purchase  of  girls  for  wives ;  but  although,  upon  agreeing  with  the  fathers  on  the 
price  of  them,  they  may  take  as  many  wives  as  they  will,  they  rarely  take  more  than  five, 
and  the  greater  part  content  themselves  with  two.  There  are  some  girls  for  whom  a  hun- 
dred, or  a  hundred  and  fifty  rein. deer  are  given  ;  but  the  purchaser  is  allowed  to  return 
them  to  their  parents,  and  take  back  what  was  given  for  them,  when  dissatisfied  with  them. 
As  their  wives  are  accustomed  to  produce  children  almost  without  any  pain,  they  are 
suspected  of  infidelity,  and  of  having  had  commerce  with  some  stranger,  when  the  con- 
trary happens.  It  is  on  such  occasions  principally  that  they  beat  and  ill  treat  them,  to 
make  them  confess  their  fault :  if  the  woman  confisses,  she  is  sent  back  to  her  parents, 
and  her  purchase  price  returned.    Although  the  direct  contrary  be  affirmed,  even  by 


4: 


t  ! 


. 


534 


\  NEW  ACCOUNT  OP  SAMOIEDIA.  kc 


recent  authors,  these  facts  are  not  the  less  certain.  M.  cle  Diiffon  declares  an  an  au- 
thenticuted  mutter,  that  not  only  are  the  husbands  not  jealuus,  but  that  they  offer  their 
wives  and  daughters  to  the  first  coiners.  This  skilfid  naturalist  took  information  from 
very  bad  memoirs.  The  women  of  the  Samoiedes  have  sun  inch  modesty,  that  it  is 
necessary  to  make  use  of  artifice  to  induce  tliem  to  expose  any  part  of  their  body  ; 
although  it  be  tlifficult  to  eoniprehend  wherefore  they  should  attach  an  idea  of  shame 
to  the  discovery  of  any  thing  bare.  Both  sexes  are  ignorant  of  the  use  of  baths,  and 
never  wash  their  body  ;  they  are  eonsecjuently  very  dirty,  and  of  very  disagreeable 
savour. 

This  miserable  mode  of  life  would  doubtless  horrify  any  person  born  and  brou)2;ht 
up  in  society  :  notwithstanding,  these  people  are  continually  gay,  exempt  from  gnef, 
and  well  satisfied  with  their  fate.  I  have  known  some  Samoiedes  who  had  seen  the 
towns  of  Moscow  and  Petersburg,  and  who  consccjuently  had  been  enal)lcd  to  remark 
the  advantages  and  convenience  enjoyed  by  civilized  people  ;  but  who  appeared  little 
moved  thereby.  They  have  constantly  preferred  their  mode  of  living  to  all  they  saw 
more  attractive  and  voluptuous  among  the  Russians  ;  so  much  ar  iputhy  have  they  to 
servitude,  dependence,  and  whatsoever  tends  to  disturb  their  i^  t,  or  natural  incli- 
nation for  idleness. 

"ihey  are  fond  of  smoking  tobacco  and  drinking  strong  liquors  when  they  meet 
with  tliem  among  strangers  ;  but  they  readily,  and  without  the  least  mark  of  regret, 
forego  the  use  of  them.  This  stupid  insensibility  is  so  natural  to  them,  that  no  object, 
however  new  to  them,  strikes  them  any  otherwise  than  slightly.  It  may  excite  their 
attention  for  an  instant,  but  to  a  certainty  cannot  inflame  their  desires. 

I  made  an  experiment  on  d>eir  apathy.  I  caused  several  Samoiedes  of  both  sexes  to 
be  assembled  one  day  in  a  chamber,  to  examine  them  the  more  minutely.  But  although 
Heft  on  thetablemoney,  fruit,  strong  liquors,  whichi  had  previously  let  them  taste ;  and 
although  I  used  every  imaginable  expedient  to  irrritate  their  desires;  notwithstanding 
I  hud  sent  all  my  domestics  away,  and  withdrew  myself  to  a  corner,  where  I  could 
see  them  without  being  perceived,  they  did  not  lose  their  indifference ;  they  kept 
quietly  seated  on  the  ground,  with  their  legs  across,  without  touching  any  thing. 
Nothing  but  the  looking-glasses  caused  any  surprise  in  them  for  an  instant ;  again 
a  moment,  and  this  ceased  to  draw  their  attention. 


A  SHORT  JOl'RNAL  OF  SEV'KN  SEAMEN,  VVHO,nr,IN(;  I.KIT  IN  \6U  AT  SFITZ- 
UliRCEN  TO  PASS  THE  WlNTUt  TilLKL,  DILD  THKRt  IN   1035. 

[rROM  CHVRCinLL'l  COLI.RGTION.  VOL.  II,  P.  JIO.l 

IN  the  year  1633  seven  persons  Ijcing  left,  much  at  the  same  time,  a»  xwll  at  Spitz 
bergen  as  in  the  isle  of  St.  Maurice,  the  ships  that  were  sent  thither  in  IG.)4  had  orders 
fruiii  the  Greenland  company  tu  release  those  that  had  staid  there,  and  to  leave  in  their 
room  seven  others,  who  should  oH'er  their  service  for  that  purpose.  A(  cordiuKly  the 
following  seven  were  (with  their  const  nt)  appointed  to  nmain  the  next  following  winter 
at  Spitzbergen  ;  Andrew  Johnson  of  Midulelnirgh,  Cornelius  Thy>sc  of  Rotterdam, 
Jerome  Carcoen  of  Delfts  Haven,  Tiebke  Jellis  of  Friseland,  Nil  liolas  Florison  of  Hoom, 
Adrian  Johnson  of  Delft,  Fettjc  Otters  of  Friseland. 

These  being  provided  with  all  manner  of  necessjiries,  as  meat,  drink,  physical  pre- 
parations, herbs,  &c.  were  left  ashore,  U>  contiiuie  all  the  winter  there  ;  during  which 
time,  they  kept  a  journal  of  all  rt^markable  circumstances  ;  the  chief  heads  whereof  1 
thought  only  At  tc/ insirt  here,  leaving  out  the  more  unnecessary  observations,  such  as 
of  the  wind  and  weather,  8tc.  to  avoid  prolixity.  The  eleventh  of  September  1634,  the 
ships  being  sailed  thence  for  Holland,  U)f-y  got  sight  of  abundance  ot  whales,  at  whom 
they  discharged  their  guns,  but  could  not  take  any  ;  they  went  also  in  search  for  green 
herbs,  foxes  and  bears,  but  met  with  none.  The  i  wentieth  or  twenty -first  of  October  they 
had  no  more  sight  of  the  sun.  The  twenty-fourth  of  November,  the  scurvy  beginning 
to  appear  among  them,  they  searched  very  earnestl)  after  green  herbs,  bears  and  foxes, 
but  to  their  great  grief  could  find  neither  of  them  ;  so  they  comforted  one  another  with 
hopes  that  God  would  provide  for  them  something  or  other  for  their  refreshment.  The 
second  of  December  NichoUis  Florison  took  a  dose  of  a  scorbutic  potion,  and  they  set 
some  traps  to  catch  foxes.  The  eleventh,  Jerome  Carcoen  took  such  another  potion  : 
and  they  resolved  for  the  future  every  one  to  eat  separately  from  the  other,  some  lieing 
not  so  much  afflicted  with  the  scurvy  as  the  rest  They  went  often  in  (jucst  alkr  some 
refreshments,  but  meeting  with  none,  they  recommended  themselves  to  God's  providence. 
The  twelfth,  Cornelius  Thysse  did  likewise  take  a  medicinal  potion  against  the  scur- 
vy. The  twenty-third,  as  the  cook  was  throwing  out  some  water,  he  saw  a  bear  just  by 
the  hut,  but  he  ran  away  at  the  noise,  before  they  could  come  at  their  guns.  The  twenty, 
fourth,  they  discovered  another  bear;  three  of  them  advancing  towards  him,  he  rose 
upon  his  hindermost  legs,  and  being  shot  through  the  body  by  one  of  our  guns,  he  Ixgan 
to  bleed  and  to  roar,  and  to  bite  one  of  ovr  halberts  with  a  great  deal  of  fierceness  ;  but, 
finding  us  too  hard  for  him,  he  betook  to  his  legs  ;  lieing  excessive  eager  after  some  fresh 
meat  (of  which  we  stood  in  great  need  for  the  recf)very  of  our  healtli)  we  pursued  him 
with  lanthorns  and  candles  a  great  way,  but  to  our  sorrow  could  not  overtake  him  ;  which 
made  us  say  to  one  another,  that  in  case  we  were  not  supplied  by  God's  peculiar  provi- 
dence with  some  refreshment  sjK'eclily,  the  pain  we  endured  must  needs  kill  us  before 
the  return  of  our  ships ;  but  God's  will  be  done.  The  twenty. fifth,  Cornelius  Thysse 
took  another  potion  against  the  scurvy,  Ixiivg  in  a  deplorable  conditici.  The  fourteenth  of 
January  Adrian  Johnson  of  Delft  died,  being  the  first  of  the  seven,  though  the  other  six 
were  full  of  pain  and  very  ill.  The  fifteenth,  Fettje  Otters  died  likewise ;  and  on  the  seven, 
teenth,  Cornelius  Thysse,  being  the  man  of  all  the  rest  in  whom  they  had  most  hopes, 
went  to  God.  The  remaining  four  were  ver}'  weak,  and  had  scarcely  strength  left  to  stand 
upon  their  legs,  yet  they  made  shift  to  make  coffins  for  these  three,  and  put  their  bodies 


536 


JUtmNAl,  OK  »K.\V.S  hKAMKN  LKVI   A  I  tiPIT7.IIKR<.RN 


into  them.  The  twcrtty-ei^^hth  they  saw  the  first  fox,  but  eould  not  tukc  him.  The 
wventh  of  F(;l)riKiry  they  had  thegou<l  fortune  to  tukc  u  fox,  to  tlKir  no  snull  ttuti^fuc* 
tion,  though  in  effect  they  were  too  far  gone  to  receive  any  benefit  thereby. 

They  saw  many  bears,  three  or  four,  nay  sometimes  six  or  ten  togi  iher,  but  had  not 
htrengih  enough  to  manage  their  ^nib ;  or  if  they  had  had,  they  could  not  have  pur- 
HU((l  them,  iK'ing  not  in  a  condition  to  set  one  fooit  before  another,  nay  not  even  to 
bite  their  biiicuitH,  for  they  were  hcizid  with  mott  cruel  pains,  esnecially  in  their  loins 
and  belly,  which  generally  inereastd  with  the  cold ;  one  did  spit  blood,  and  another 
was  afflicted  with  the  btocxiy  flux.  Jerome  Careoen  was  still  something  better  than  the 
rest,  being  still  able  to  fetch  them  some  fuel  for  firing.  The  twenty. third,  th^y  tx-gan  to 
be  so  weak,  that  they  kept  close  in  their  cabins, reconunending  dumsclves  to  God's  mercy. 
The  tuenty.fourdi  they  saw  the  sun  again,  which  they  had  not  seen  since  October  twen- 
tieth  or  twenty- first,  in  the  preceding  year.  The  twenty -sixth,  being  the  last  day  (as  we 
guess)  they  were  able  lo  write,  and  lived  not  lonp  after ;  they  left  this  following  memorial 
behind  them  :  "  Four  of  us  that  are  still  alive  lie  flat  uptm  the  ground  in  our  huts  ;  we 
bi  lieve  we  could  still  feed,  were  there  but  one  among  us  that  could  stir  out  of  his  hut  to 
get  us  some  futl,  but  nobody  is  able  to  stir  for  pain  ;  we  spend  our  time  in  constant  pray- 
ers, to  implore  God's  mercy  to  deliver  us  out  of  this  misery,  being  ready  whenever  he 
pleases  to  call  us  ;  we  are  certainly  not  in  a  condition  to  live  thus  long,  without  food  or 
fire,  and  cannot  assist  one  another  in  our  mutual  ufHiclions,  but  every  one  must  Ixar  our 
own  burtht  n." 

When  the  ships  from  Holland  arrived  there  in  1635,  they  found  them  all  dead,  shut 
up  close  in  their  tent,  to  secure  their  dead  bodies  against  the  bears  and  other  ravenous 
creatures.  This  being  the  tent  of  Midleburgh,  a  baker  who  got  ashore  first  hanpcned 
to  come  to  the  back-door,  which  he  broke  open,  and,  running  up  stairs,  founa  there 
upon  the  floor  part  of  a  dead  dog  that  was  laid  there  to  dry  ;  but  mtiking  the  best  of  his 
way  down  again,  he  trod  upon  the  carcass  of  another  dead  dog  ffor  they  had  two)  at 
the  stair  foot  in  the  buttery.  From  hence,  passing  through  anotncr  door  towards  the 
fore-door,  in  order  to  open  it,  he  stumbled  in  the  dark  over  the  dead  bodies  of  the  men, 
whom  they  saw  (after  the  door  was  oixmed)  all  together  in  the  same  place,  viz.  three  in 
coflinsj  Nicholas  Florison,  and  another,  each  in  a  cabin,  the  other  two  upon  some  sails 
spread  upon  the  floor,  with  their  knees  drawn  up  to  their  chins.  Coflins  being  ordered 
to  be  made  for  the  four  that  had  none,  they  were  buried  with  the  other  three  under  the 
snow,  till  the  gix)und  becoming  more  penetrable,  they  were  buried  one  by  another,  and 
certain  stones  laid  upon  their  graves,  to  hinder  the  ravenous  beasts  from  digging  up  their 
carcasses :  these  were  the  last  that  pretended  to  pass  the  winter  at  Spitzbergen. 


(         AUG  13 1890 


A  SHORT  AND  TRUF  ACCOUMT  or  FORTY-TVVO  PFUHONS  WHO  PliUISHlil)  \\\ 
blllFWKKC  K  NliAH  SIM  iSULIUillN,  IN  THIi  YEAR  i«4fl. 

(fROMCHURCHUXtCOtUIOTIOM.  TOL.  IL  f.  Ml.] 

JOHN  CORNKLIUS,  of  Mnniken,  hcinpf  ordered  to  SpitsborKcn  to  catch  whales, 
act  sail  from  the  Tcxcl,  in  u  g.iiliut,  du  bixth  ui  Muy  1646,  and  arrived  the  third 
of  June  following  near  Spitsbergen,  with  an  intention  to  anchor  in  the  biiy,  but  wan  by 
the  vast  floats  of  iccshoals  forced  ?o  keep  out  at  sea.  After  having  in  vain  cruized  up 
and  down  among  the  icc-shoals,  they  got  into  the  bay  ;  but  perceiving  two  whalcH  far. 
ther  at  sea,  they  sent  out  their  itloop  in  pursuit  of  the  whales. 

While  tiiey  were  rowing  upuiuldov/n  to  watch  the  motions  of  these  creatures,  they 
discovered  at  a  distance  a  great  ice-shoal,  with  something  white  upon  it,  which  at  first 
sight  they  imagined  to  be  bears  (they  being  generally  white  here)  but  one  Ellert  John- 
son (who  was  in  the  sloop  to  manage  the  harpcock  or  iron  wherewith  they  strike  the 
whale)  judging  by  the  motion  that  it  was  something  else,  persuaded  them  to  row  that 
way  ;  which  being  done  accordingly,  they  not  long  after  perceived  the  same  to  be  a 
piece  of  a  rope  belonging  to  the  sails  of  a  shi|),  which  Wits  held  up  by  a  man  as  a  signal 
of  their  utmo&t  distress  ;  so  they  rowed  up  to  it  with  all  the  oars  they  had,  and  ou  com- 
ing near  them  found  (to  their  great  surprise)  four  living  men,  and  one  dead  one  (all 
Knglishmen)  upon  the  ice-shoal,  who  upon  their  bended  knees  expressed  their  joy  and 
thankfulness  for  so  unexpected  a  deliverance  from  the  jaws  of  death.  They  wca*  taken 
into  the  sloop,  and  carried  into  the  bay  on  boonl  Uie  ship. 

They  had  cut  a  great  hole,  in  the  nature  of  a  subterraneous  cave,  into  the  ice,  and 
round  the  entrance  thereof  had  placed  the  pieces  of  ice  that  were  cut  out  of  the  con- 
cavity, to  defend  themselves  against  the  violence  of  the  winds  and  waves.  In  this  hole 
they  had  spent  fourteen  days  (it  being  so  long  since  they  had  lost  their  ship.) 

At  first  there  were  in  all  forty-two  of  them,  and  they  had  saved  some  victuab  and 
tools  with  their  sloop.  The  commander,  perceiving  after  a  little  while  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  them  to  tiold  out  long  upon  the  ice-shoal,  resolved  to  go  ashore  in  the  sloop 
with  seventeen  of  his  men,  if  he  could,  and  to  send  them  word  afterwards  how  matters 
stood  there.  This  was  done  accordingly  ;  but  it  blowing  very  hard,  and  they  having 
not  heard  the  least  tidings  of  them  since,  they  were  afraid  that  they  were  drowned  before 
they  reached  the  shore. 

There  were  then  twenty -four  left  upon  the  icc-shoal ;  but  the  want  of  provisions  in< 
creasing  daily  among  them,  and  they  being  reduced  to  a  starving  condition,  and  expect- 
ing nothing  but  present  death,  resolved  to  divide  themselves,  and  to  get  upon  several 
other  ice-shoals,  in  hojjcs  by  some  chance  or  other  to  come  near  to  the  shore  ;  but  whe- 
ther some  of  them  got  ashore,  or  whether  they  wer^  taken  up  by  some  ship  or  other,  or 
whether  they  were  swallowed  up  by  the  merciless  waves,  they  were  not  able  to  tell. 

Certain  it  is  that  we  found  four  of  them  (the  miserable  remnants  of  forty-two)  sitting 
together  upon  this  ice-shoal,  overwhelmed  with  affliction,  without  any  hopes  of  being 
saved,  from  the  last  extremity  they  were  reduced  to  by, frost  and  hunger,  before  we  came 
in  full  sight  of  them  with  our  sloop,  having  had'nothing  to  feed  upon  for  some  time  but 
a  leather  belt  (belonging  to  one  of  them)  which  they4ividednnd  eat,  share  and  share  alike, 
till  all  was  consumed. 

After  they  were  brought  to  our  ship,  our  surgeon  took  all  imaginable  care  for  their 
recovery,  notwithstanding  which  three  of  them  died  in  a  few  days  after ;  so  that  of  forty- 
two  wherewith  their  ship  was  manned,  no  more  than  one  escaped  with  life,  who  arriving 
in  September  1646,  in  the  galliot  the  Delft,  upon  the  Meuse,  from  thence  returned  to 
his  native  country  in  England. 

VOL.  I.  3  z 


536 


JOUKXAL  OF  SEVEN  SEAMEN  LEFT  AT  8PITZDERGEN 


into  them.  The  twenty-eighth  they  saw  ihe  first  fox,  but  could  not  take  him.  The 
seventh  of  February  they  had  the  goo  I  fortune  to  take  a  fox,  to  their  no  small  satisfac- 
tion, though  in  effect  tbey  were  too  far  gone  to  receive  any  benefit  thereby. 

They  saw  many  bears,  three  or  four,  nay  sometimes  six  or  ten  together,  but  had  not 
strength  enough  to  manage  their  guns ;  cr  if  they  had  had,  they  could  not  have  pur- 
sued them,  being  not  in  a  condition  to  set  one  foot  before  another,  nay  not  even  to 
bite  their  biscuits,  for  they  were  seized  with  most  cruel  pains,  especially  in  their  loins 
and  belly,  which  generally  increased  with  the  cold ;  one  did  spit  blood,  and  another 
was  afflicted  with  the  bloody  flux.  Jerome  Carcoen  was  still  something  better  than  the 
rest,  being  still  able  to  fetch  tliem  some  fuel  for  firing.  The  twenty-third,  they  began  to 
be  so  weak,  that  they  kept  close  in  their  cu bins,  recommending  themselves  to  God's  mercy. 
The  twenty-fourth  they  saw  the  sun  again,  v/hich  th'7  had  not  seen  since  October  twen- 
tieth or  twenty-first,  in  the  preceding  year.  The  twenty-sixth,  being  the  last  day  (as  we 
guess)  they  were  able  ro  write,  and  lived  not  long  after ;  they  left  this  following  memorial 
behind  them :  '*  .'^our  of  us  that  are  still  alive  lie  flat  upon  the  ground  in  our  huts  ;  we 
believe  we  could  siill  feed,  were  there  but  one  among  us  that  could  stir  out  of  his  hut  to 
get  us  soirte  fuel,  but  nobody  is  able  to  stir  for  pain ;  we  spend  our  time  in  constant  pray- 
ers, to  ir^iplore  Gwl's  mercy  to  deliver  us  out  of  this  misery,  being  ready  whenever  he 
pleases  to  call  us ;  we  are  certainly  not  in  a  condition  to  live  thus  long,  without  food  or 
fii-e,  and  cannot  assist  one  another  in  our  mutual  afflictions,  but  every  one  must  bear  our 
o\VM  burthen." 

When  the  ships  from  Holland  arrived  there  in  1635,  they  found  them  all  dead,  shut 
up  close  in  their  tent,  to  secure  their  dead  bodies  against  the  bears  and  other  ravenous 
crf-utures.  This  being  the  tent  of  Midieburgh,  a  baker  who  got  ashore  first  happened 
to  come  to  the  back-door,  which  he  broke  open,  and,  running  up  stairs,  found  there 
upon  the  floor  part  of  a  dead  dog  that  was  laid  there  to  dry  ;  Ijut  making  the  best  of  his 
way  down  again,  he  trod  upon  the  carcass  of  another  dead  dog  (for  they  had  two)  at 
the  stair  foot  in  the  buttery.  From  hence,  passing  through  another  door  towards  the 
fore-door,  in  order  to  open  it,  he  stumbled  'n  the  dark  over  the  dead  bodies  of  the  men, 
whom  they  saw  (after  tlie  door  was  open.  ..  j  II  together  in  the  same  place,  viz.  three  in 
coffins,  Nicholas  Florison,  and  anodier,  e.  '.  in  a  cabin,  the  other  two  upon  some  sails 
spread  upon  the  floor,  with  their  knees  diawii  up  to  their  chins.  Coffins  being  ordered 
to  be  made  for  the  fovir  that  had  none,  Cv  y  were  buried  with  the  other  three  under  the 
snow,  till  the  ground  becoming  more  p^n  Usble,  they  were  burie:l  one  by  another,  and 
certain  stones  laid  upon  their  graves,  to  hinder  the  Tiivenous  beasts  from  digging  up  their 
carcasses :  these  were  the  last  that  pretended  to  pass  the  winter  at  Spitzbergen. 


^^tST^^i^**^ 


AUG  13  1890 


^^JL'B' 


<'/ 


A  SHORT  AND  TRUE  ACCOUNT  OF  FORTV-TWO  PERSONS  WHO  PEIUSHKD  UV 
SHIPWRECK  NEAR  SPITSBERGEN,  IN  THE  YEAR  1646. 

(FROM  CHURCHILL'S  COLLKCTtON,  VOL.  11,  P.  301.] 

JOHN  CORNELIUS,  of  Muniken,  being  ordered  to  Spitsbergen  to  catch  whales, 
set  sail  from  'the  Texcl,  in  a  gulliut,  the  sixth  ol  May  1646,  and  arrived  the  third 
of  June  following  near  Spitsbergen,  with  an  intention  to  anchor  in  the  bay,  but  was  by 
the  vast  floats  of  ice-shoals  forced  to  keep  out  at  sea.  After  having  in  vain  cruized  up 
and  down  among  the  ice-shoals,  they  got  into  the  bay  ;  but  perceiving  two  whales  far- 
ther at  sea,  they  sent  out  their  sloop  in  pursuit  of  the  whales. 

While  they  vt^ere  rowing  ;»f  a.iddown  to  watch  the  motions  of  these  creatures,  they 
discovered  at  a  distance  a  great  ice -shoal,  with  something  white  upon  it,  which  at  first 
sight  they  imagined  to  be  bears  (they  bejng  generally  white  here)  but  one  Ellert  John- 
son (who  was  in  the  sloop  to  manage  the  harpcock  or  iron  wherewith  they  strike  the 
wirJe)  judging  by  the  motion  that  it  was  something  else,  persuaded  them  to  row  that 
way  ;  which  being  done  accordingly,  they  not  long  after  perceived  the  same  to  be  a 
piece  of  a  rope  belonging  to  the  sails  of  a  ship,  which  was  held  up  by  a  man  as  a  si|rnal 
of  their  utmost  distress ;  so  they  rowed  up  to  it  with  all  the  oars  they  had,  and  ou  com- 
ing near  them  found  (to  their  great  surprise)  four  living  men,  and  one  dead  one  (all 
Englishmen)  upon  the  ice-shoal,  who  upon  their  bended  knees  expressed  their  joy  and 
thankfulness  for  so  unexpected  a  deliverance  from  the  jaws  of  deatli.  They  were  taken 
into  the  sloop,  and  carried  into  the  bay  on  board  the  ship. 

They  had  cut  a  great  hole,  in  the  nature  of  a  subterraneous  cave,  into  the  ice,  and 
round  the  entrance  thereof  had  placed  the  pieces  of  ice  that  were  cut  out  of  the  con- 
cavity, to  defend  themselves  against  the  violence  of  the  winds  and  waves.  In  this  hole 
they  had  spent  fourteen  days  (it  being  so  long  since  they  had  lost  their  ship.) 

At  first  there  were  in  all  forty-two  of  them,  and  they  had  saved  some  victuals  and 
tools  with  their  sloop.  The  commander,  perceiving  after  a  little  while  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  them  to  hold  out  long  upon  the  ice-shoal,  resolved  to  go  ashore  in  the  sloop 
with  seventeen  of  his  men,  if  he  could,  and  to  send  them  word  afterwards  how  matters 
stood  there.  This  was  done  accordingly ;  but  it  blowing  very  hard,  and  they  having 
not  heard  the  least  tidings  of  them  since,  they  were  afraid  that  they  were  drowned  before 
they  reached  the  shore. 

There  were  then  twenty-four  left  upon  the  ice-shoal ;  but  the  want  of  provisions  in- 
creasing daily  among  them,  and  they  being  reduced  to  a  starving  condition,  and  expect- 
ing nothing  but  present  death,  resolved  to  divide  themselves,  and  to  get  upon  several 
other  ice-shoals,  in  hoi>es  by  some  chance  or  other  to  come  near  to  the  shore  ;  but  whe- 
ther some  of  them  got  ashore,  or  whether  they  were  taken  up  by  some  ship  or  other,  or 
whether  they  were  swallowed  up  by  the  merciless  waves,  they  were  not  able  to  tell. 

Certain  it  is  that  we  found  four  of  them  (the  miserable  remnants  of  forty-two)  sitting 
t(^ther  upon  this  ice-shoal,  overwhelmed  with  aftiction,  without  any  hopes  of  being 
saved,  from  the  last  extremity  they  were  reduced  to  by. frost  and  hunger,  before  we  came 
in  full  sight  of  them  with  our  sloop,  having  had'nothing'  to  feed  upon  for  some  time  but 
a  leather  belt  (belonging  to  one  of  them)  which  they  ^vided  and  eat,  share  and  share  alike, 
till  all  was  consumed. 

After  they  were  brought  to  our  ship,  our  surgeon  took  all  imaginable  care  for  their 
recovery,  notwithstanding  which  three  of  them  died  in  a  few  days  after ;  so  that  of  forty- 
two  wherewith  their  ship  was  manned,  no  more  than  one  escaped  with  life,  who  arriving 
in  September  1646,  in  the  galliot  the  Delft,  upon  the  Meuse,  from  thence  returned  to 
his  native  country  in  England. 

VOL.  I.  3  z 


A  VOYAGE  TOWARDS  THE  NORTH  POLE,  UNDERTAKEN  BY  HIS  MAJESTY'S 
COMMAND,  IN  1773,  BY  CONSTANTINE  JOHN  PHIPPS. 


DJT'-ODUCTION. 


THE  idea  of  a  passage  to  the  East  InJies  by  the  North  Pole  was  suggested  as  early  as 
the  year  1527,  by  Robert  Thorne,  merchant,  of  Bristol,  as  appeal^  from  two  papers  pre- 
served by  Hackluit ;  the  one  addressed  to  king  Henry  the  Eighth ;  the  other  to  Dr.  Ley, 
the  king's  ambassador  to  Charles  the  Fifth,  in  that  addressed  to  the  kine  he  says,  *'  I 
know  it  to  be  my  bounden  duty  to  manifest  this  secret  to  your  grace,  which  hitherto,  I  sup. 
pose,  has  been  hid."  This  secret  appears  to  be  the  honour  and  advantage  which  would  be 
derived  from  the  discovery  of  a  passage  by  the  North  Pole.  He  represents  in  the  strong, 
est  terms  the  glory  which  the  kings  of  Spain  and  Portugal  had  obtained  by  their  disco, 
verieseast  and  west,  and  exhorts  the  king  to  emulate  their  fame  by  undertaking  discove. 
ries  towards  the  north.  He  states  in  a  very  masterly  style  the  reputation  that  must  at- 
tend th-?  attempt,  and  the  great  benefits,  should  it  be  crowned  with  success,  likely  to  accrue 
to  the  subjects  of  this  country,  from  their  advantageous  situation  ;  which,  he  observes, 
seems  to  -nake  the  exploring  this,  the  only  hitherto  undiscovered  part,  the  king's  pecu- 
liar duty. 

To  remove  any  objection  to  the  undertaking  which  might  be  drawn  from  the  supposed 
danger,  he  insists  upon  "the  great  advantages  of  constant  day-light  in  seas,  that,  men 
say,  without  great  danger,  difficulty,  and  peril,  yea,  rather,  it  is  impossible  to  pass ;  for 
they  being  past  this  little  way  which  they  named  so  dangerous  (which  may  oe  two  or 
three  leagues  before  they  come  to  the  pole,  and  as  much  more  after  they  pass  the  pole) 
it  is  clear  from  thenceforth  the  seas  and  lands  are  as  temperate  as  in  these  parts." 

In  the  paper  addressed  to  Dr.  Ley  he  enters  more  minutely  into  the  advantages  and 
practicability  of  the  undertaking.  Amongst  many  other  arguments  to  prove  the  value 
of  the  discovery,  he  urges,  that  by  sailing  northward  and  passing  the  pole  the  navigation 
from  England  to  the  Spice  Islands  would  be  shorter,  by  more  than  two  thousand  leagues, 
than  either  from  S^^ain  by  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  or  Portugal  by  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope ;  and  to  shew  the  likelihood  of  success  in  the  enterprise  he  says,  it  is  as  probable 
that  the  cosmographers  should  be  mistaken  in  the  opinion  they  entertain  of  the  polar 
regions  being  impassable  from  extreme  cold,  as  it  has  been  found  they  were,  in  supposing 
the  countries  under  the  Line  to  be  uninhabitable  from  excessive  heat.  With  all  the  spirit 
of  a  man  convinced  of  the  glory  to  be  gained,  and  the  probability  of  success  in  the  un- 
dertaking, he  adds,  •'  God  knoweth,  that  though  by  it  I  should  have  no  great  interest, 
yet  I  have  had,  and  still  have,  no  little  mind  of  this  business ;  so  that  if  I  had  faculty  to 
my  will,  it  should  be  the  first  thing  that  I  would  understand,  even  to  attempt,  if  our 
seas  northward  be  navigable  to  the  pole  or  no."  Notwithstanding  the  many  good  argu- 
ments  with  which  he  supported  his  proposition,  and  the  offer  of  his  own  services,  it  docs 
not  appear  that  he  prevailed  so  far  as  to  procure  an  attempt  to  be  made. 

Borne,  in  his  Regiment  of  the  Sea,  wntten  about  the  year  1577,  mentions  this  as  one 
of  the  five  ways  to  Cathay,  and  dwells  chiefly  on  the  mildness  of  climate  which  he  ima- 
^nes  must  be  found  near  the  Pole,  from  the  constant  presence  of  the  sun  during  the 
summer.  These  arguments,  however,  were  soon  after  controverted  by  Blundeville,  in 
his  treatise  on  Universal  Maps. 

In  1578,  George  Best,  a  gentleman  who  had  been  with  Sir  Martin  Frobisher  in  all 
his  voyages  for  the  discovery  of  a  north-west  passa^,  wrote  a  very  ingenious  discourse, 
to  prove  all  parts  of  the  world  habitable. 


PHIPI'S'S  JOURNAL. 


539 


No  voyage,  however,  appears  to  have  been  undertaken  to  explore  the  circumpolar 
seas  till  the  year  1607,  when  "  Henry  Hudson  was  sent  forth,  at  the  charge  of  certain 
worshipful  merchants  of  London,  to  discover  a  passage  by  the  North  Pole  to  Japan  and 
China."  He  sailed  from  Gravesend  on  the  first  of  May,  in  a  ship  called  the  Hopewell, 
having  with  him  ten  men  and  a  boy.  I  have  taken  great  pains  to  find  his  original 
journal,  as  well  as  those  of  some  others  of  the  adventurers  who  followed  him,  but  with- 
out success  :  the  only  account  I  have  seen  is  an  imperfect  abridgement  in  Purchas,  by 
which  it  is  not  possible  to  lay  down  his  track  ;  from  which,  however,  I  have  drawn  the 
following  particulars :  He  fell  in  with  the  land  to  the  Westward  in  latitude  73<*,  on  the 
twenty.first  of  June,  which  he  named  Hold-with-Hopc.  The  twenty-seventh,  he  fell  in 
with  Spitsbergen,  and  met  with  much  ice ;  he  got  to  80°  23',  which  was  the  northern- 
most latitude  he  observed  in.  Giving  an  account  of  the  conclusion  of  his  discoveries, 
he  says,  "  On  the  sixteenth  of  August  I  saw  land,  by  reason  of  the  clearness  of  the 
weather,  stretching  far  into  82*,  and,  by  the  bowing  and  shewing  of  the  sky,  much  fur- 
ther; which  when  I  first  saw,  I  hoped  to  have  had  a  free  sea  between  the  .'"^nd  and  the 
ice,  and  meant  to  have  compassed  this  land  by  the  North  ;  but  now  finding  it  was  im- 
ix)ssible,  by  means  of  the  abundance  of  ice  compassing  us  about  by  the  North,  and 
joining  to  the  land,  and  seeing  God  did  bless  us  with  a  wind,  we  returned,  bearing  up 
the  helm."  He  afterwards  adds :  "  And  this  I  can  assure  at  this  present,  that  between 
78°  and  an  half,  an  SS**,  by  this  way  there  is  no  passage."  In  consequence  of  this  opi- 
nion, he  was  the  next  year  employed  on  the  north-east  discovery. 

In  March  1609,  old  style,  "  A  voyage  was  set  forth  by  the  right  worshipful  Sir  T1k>- 
mas  Smith,  and  the  rest  of  the  Muscovy  Company,  to  Cherry  island,  and  for  a  further 
discovery  to  be  made  towards  the  North  Pole,  for  the  likelihood  of  a  trade  or  a  passage 
that  way,  in  the  ship  called  the  Amity,  of  burthen  seventy  tons,  in  which  Jonas  Toole 
was  master,  having  fourteen  men  and  one  boy."  He  weighed  from  Blackwall,  March 
the  first  old  style ;  and  after  great  severity  of  weather,  and  much  difficulty  from  the  ice, 
he  made  the  south  part  of  Spitsbergen  on  the  sixteenth  of  May.  He  sailed  along  and 
sounded  the  coast,  giving  names  to  several  places,  and  m'\king  many  very  accurate  obser- 
vations. On  the  twenty-sixth,  being  near  Fair  Foreland,  he  sent  his  mate  on  shore ;  and 
speaking  of  the  account  he  gave  at  his  return,  says,  "  Moreover,  I  was  certified  that  all 
the  ponds  and  lakes  were  unfrozen,  they  being  fresh  water ;  which  putteth  me  in 
hope  of  a  mild  summer  here,  after  so  sharp  a  beginning  as  I  have  had ;  and  my  opinion 
is  such,  and  I  assure  myself  it  is  so,  that  a  pass:ige  may  be  soon  attained  this  way  by  the 
Pole,  as  any  unknown  way  whatsoever,  by  reason  the  sun  doth  give  a  great  heat  in  this 
climate,  and  the  ice  (I  mean  tliat  freezeth  here)  is  nothing  so  huge  as  f  have  seen  in  se- 
venty-three degrees." 

These  hopes,  however,,  he  was  soon  obliged  to  relinquish  for  that  year,  having  twice 
attempted  in  vain  to  get  beyond  79°  50'.  On  the  twenty -first  of  June,  he  stood  to  the 
southward,  to  get  a  loading  of  fish,  and  arrived  in  London  the  last  of  August.  He 
was  employed  the  following  year  (1611)  in  a  small  bark  called  the  Elizabeth,  of  fifty- 
tons.  The  instructions  for  this  voyage,  which  may  be  found  at  length  in  Purchas,  are 
excellently  drawn  up  :  they  direct  him,  after  having  attended  the  fishery  for  some  time, 
to  attempt  discoveries  to  the  North  Pole  as  long  as  the  season  will  permit ;  with  a  discre- 
tionary clause,  to  act  in  unforeseen  cases  as  shall  appear  to  him  most  for  the  advancement 
of  the  discovery,  and  interest  of  his  employers.  I'his  however  proved  an  unfortunate 
voyage :  for  having  staid  in  Cross  Road  till  the  sixteenth  of  June,  on  account  of  the  bad 
weather,  and  great  quantity  of  ice,  he  sailed  from  thence  on  that  day,  and  steered  W.  by 
N.  fourteen  leagues,  where  he  found  a  bank  of  ice :  he  returned  to  Cross  Road ;  fi*om 

3  z  2 


4i 

in 


J.  •■■ 


!■ 


540 


rUlPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


^vhencc  he  sailed,  he  found  the  ice  to  lie  close  to  the  land  about  the  latitude  of  80*^,  and 
that  it  was  inipossibc  to  pass  that  way  ;  and  the  strong  tides  making  it  dangerous  to  deal 
with  the  ice,  he  determined  to  stand  along  it  to  the  southward,  to  try  if  he  could  find 
the  sea  more  open  that  way,  and  so  get  to  the  westward,  and  proceed  on  his  voyage. 
He  found  the  ice  to  lie  nearest  S.  W.  and  S.  W.  by  S.  and  ran  along  it  about  an 
hundred  and  twenty  leagues.  He  had  no  ground  near  the  ice  at  160,  180,  or  200  fa- 
thoms :  perceiving  the  ice  still  to  trend  to  the  southward,  he  determined  to  return  to 
Spitsbergen  for  the  fishery,  where  he  lost  his  ship. 

In  the  year  1614,  another  voyage  was  undertaken,  in  which  Baffin  and  Fotherby  were 
employed.  With  much  difficulty,  and  after  repeated  attempts  in  vain  with  the  ship, 
they  got  with  their  boats  to  the  firm  ice,  which  joined  to  Red- Beach ;  they  walked  over 
the  ice  to  that  place,  in  hopes  of  finding  whale-fins,  &c.  in  which  tliey  were  disappointed. 
Fotherby  adds,  in  his  account :  "  thus,  as  we  cr)uld  not  find  what  we  desired  to  see,  so 
did  we  behold  that  which  we  wished  had  not  been  there  to  be  seen ;  which  was  great 
abundance  of  ice,  that  lay  close  to  the  shore,  and  also  off  at  sea,  as  far  as  we  could  dis- 
cern." Oi\  the  eleventh  of  August  they  sailed  from  Fair-Haven,  to  try  if  the  ice  would 
let  them  pass  to  the  northward,  or  north-east- ward ;  they  steered  from  Cape-Barren, 
or  Vogcl  Sang,  N.  E.  by  E.  eight  leagues,  where  they  met  with  the  ice,  whifch  lay  E. 
by  S.  andW.  by  N.  The  fifteenth  of  August  they  saw  ice  frozen  in  the  sea  of  above 
the  thickness  of  an  half-crown. 

Fotherby  was  again  fitted  out  the  next  year  in  a  pinnace  of  twenty  tonSj  called  the 
Richard,  with  ten  men.  In  this  voyage  he  was  prevented  by  the  ice  from  getting  far- 
ther than  in  his  last.  He  refers  to  a  chart,  in  which  he  had  traced  the  ship's  course  on 
every  traverse,  to  shew  how  far  the  stpte  of  that  sea  was  discovered  between  80°  and  71° 
of  latitude,  and  for  26°  of  longitude,  from  Hackluit*s  headland.  Pe  concludes  the  ac- 
count of  his  voyuge  in  the  following  manner. 

•*  Now,  if  any  demand  my  opinion  concerning  hope  of  a  {passage  to  be  found  in  those 
seas,  I  answer ;  that  it  is  true,  that  I  both  hoped  and  much  desired  to  have  passed  fur- 
ther than  I  did,  but  was  hindered  with  ice ;  wherein,  although  I  have  not  attained  my 
desire,  yet  forasmuch  as  it  appears  not  yet  to  the  contrary,  bat  that  there  is  a  spacious 
sea  betwixt  Groinland  and  King  James  his  new  land  (Spitsbergen)  although  much  pester- 
ed with  ice,  I  will  not  seem  to  dissuade  this  worshipful  company  from  the  yearly  adven- 
turing of  150  or  200  pounds  at  the  most,  till  some  further  discovery  be  made  of  the  said 
seas  and  lands  adjacent."  It  appears  that  the  Russia  company,  either  satisfied  with  his 
endeavours  and  despairing  of  further  success,  or  tired  of  the  expence  of  the  undertaking, 
never  employed  any  more  ships  on  this  discovery. 

All  these  voyages  having  been  fitted  out  by  private  adventurers,  for  the  double  pur- 
pose of  discovery  and  present  advantage,  it  was  natural  to  suppose,  that  the  attt  ntion  of 
the  navigators  had  been  diverted  from  pursuing  the  more  remote  and  less  profitable  ob- 
ject of  the  two,  with  all  the  attention  that  could  have  been  wished.  I  am  happy,  how- 
ever,  in  an  opportunity  of  doing  justice  to  the  memory  ol  these  men;  which,  without 
having  traced  their  steps,  and  experienced  tlteir  difficulties,  it  would  have  been  impas- 
sible to  have  done.  They  appear  to  havr  encountered  danffers,  which  at  that  period 
must  have  been  particularly  alarming,  from  their  novelty,  wiUi  the  greatest  forutude  and 
perseverance ;  as  well  as  to  have  shewn  a  degree  of  dilig-ence  and  skill,  not  only  in  the 
ordinary  and  practical,  but  more  scientific  parts  of  their  profession,  which  might  have 
done  honour  to  modern  seamtiii,  with  all  their  advantages  of  later  improvements.  This, 
when  compared  with  the  accounts  given  of  the  state  of  navigation,  even  within  these 
forty  years,  by  the  most  eminent  foreign  authors,  affords  the  most  flattering  and  satis- 


PinPPS'3  JOURNAL. 


541 


factory  proof  of  the  very  early  existence  of  that  decided  superiority  in  naval  affairs,  which 
has  earned  the  power  of  this  country  to  the  height  it  has  now  attained. 

This  great  point  of  geography,  pchaps  the  most  important  in  its  consequences  to  a 
commercial  nation  and  maritime  pr  •<-':  but  tiie  only  one  which  had  never  yet  been  the 
object  of  royal  attention,  was  suffered  to  remain  without  fnrcher  investigation,  from  the 
year  1615  till  1773,  when  the  earl  of  Sandwich,  in  consequence  of  an  application  which 
had  been  made  to  him  by  the  Royal  Society,  laid  before  his  majesty,  about  the  be- 
ginning of  February,  a  proposal  for  an  expedition  to  try  how  far  navigation  was  practica- 
ble towards  the  North  Pole ;  which  his  majesty  was  pleased  to  direct  should  be  imme- 
diately undertaken,  with  every  encouragement  that  could  countenance  such  an  enter- 
prize,  and  evenr  assisuince  that  could  contribute  to  its  success. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  of  the  design,  I  offered  myself,  and  had  the  honour  of  being'en- 
trusted  with  the  conduct  ofthis  undertaking.  The  nature  of  the  voyage  requiring  par- 
ticular care  in  the  choice  and  equipment  of  the  ships,  the  Racehorse  and  Carcass  bombs 
were  fixed  upon  as  the  strongest,  and  therefore  properest  for  the  purpose.  The  oro- 
bability  that  such  an  expedition  could  not  be  carried  on  without  meeting  with  much  ice 
made  some  additional  strength  necesisury ;  they  were  therefore  immediately  taken  into 
dock>  and  fitted  in  the  most  complete  manner  for  the  service.  The  complement  for  the 
Racehorse  was  fixed  at  ninety  men,  and  the  ordinary  establishment  departed  from,  by 
appointing  an  additional  number  ot  officers,  and  entering  effective  men  instead  of  the 
usual  number  of  boys. 

I  was  allowed  to  recommend  the  officers ;  and  was  very  happy  to  find,  duri(\g  the 
course  of  the  voyage,  by  tlie  great  assistance  1  received  on  many  occasions  from  their 
abilities  and  exiiericncc.  that  JL  had  not  been  mistaken  in  the  characters  of  those  ujion 
whom  so  much  depended  in  the  performance  of  this  service.  Two  masters  of  Green- 
landmen  were  employed  as  pilots  for  each  ship.  The  Racehorse  was  also  furnished 
with  the  new  chain-pumps  miidc  by  Mr.  Cole,  according  to  captain  Bentinck's  improve- 
ments, which  were  found  to  answer  perfectly  well.  We  also  made  use  of  Dr.  Irving's 
a(^aratus  for  distilling  fresh  water  from  the  sea,  with  the  greatest  success.  Some  small 
but  useful  alterations  were  made  in  the  species  of  provisions  usually  supplied  in  the  navy  ; 
an  additional  quantity  oiT  spirits  was  allowed  for  each  ship,  to  be  issued  at  the  discretion 
of  the  commanders,  whe»i  extraordinary  fatigue  or  severity  of  weather  might  make  it 
expedient.  A  quantity  of  wine  was  also  allotted  for  the  use  of  the  sick.  Additional 
clothing,  adjtptcd  to  the  rigour  of  the  climate,  which  from  the  relations  of  former  navi- 
gators we  war  taiight  to  expect,  was  ordered  to  be  put  on  board,  to  be  given  to  the 
seamen  wten  we  arrived  in  the  high  latitudes.  It  was  foreseen  that  one  cr  both  Of  the 
ships  might  be  sacrificed  m  the  prosecution  of  this  undertaking ;  I'le  boats  for  each  ship 
were  therefore  calculated,  in  number  and  size,  to  be  fit,  on  any  eu2ts  gency,  to  transport 
the  whole  crew.  In  short,  every  thing  which  could  tend  to  promote  the  success  of  the 
\nidertaking,  or  contribute  to  the  security,  health,  and  convenience,  of  the  ship's  compa- 
nies was  granted. 

The  board  of  LongUude  agreed  with  Mr.  Israel  Lyons  to  embark  in  this  voyage,  to 
make  astronomical  observations.  His  reputation  for  mathematical  knowledge  was  too 
'  well  established  to  receive  any  addition,  from  the  few  opportunities  which  a  voyage  in 
such  unfavourable  climaiiH  could  UFord.  The  same  Board  supplied  him  with  such  in- 
struments as  they  imagined  might  be  useful  for  making  observations  and  experiments. 
The  Royal  Society  favoured  me  with  such  information  as  they  judged  might  serve  to 
direct  my  inquirieii,  whenever  the  circumstances  of  the  voyage  should  ufford  me  leisure 
and  oppoitumty  for  making  observations.     Besides  these  learned  bodies,  [  was  obliged 


»npm:n  ..ir^mmmmff'i 


542 


PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


» • . 

M 

Ml 
" 

li. 


to  many  individuals  for  hints ;  amongst  whom  it  is  with  pleasure  I  m  :ntion  Monsieur 
D'Alembcrt,  who  communicated  to  me  a  short  paper,  which,  from  the  conciseness  and 
elegance  with  which  it  was  drawn  up,  as  well  as  from  the  number  of  interesting  objects 
that  it  recommended  to  my  attention,  would  have  done  honour  to  an}'  person,  whose 
reputation  was  not  already  established  upon  so  solid  a  foundation  as  that  learned  philo- 
sopher's. To  Mr.  Banks  I  was  indebted  for  very  full  instructions  in  (he  branch  of  na- 
tural  nistory,  as  I  have  since  Iseen  for  his  assistance  in  drawing  up  the  account  of  the 
productions  of  that  country  ;  which  I  acknowledge  with  peculiar  satisfaction,  as  instances 
of  a  very  long  friendship  which  I  am  happy  in  an  opportunity  of  mentioning. 

As  a  voyage  of  this  kind  would  probably  alTord  many  opportunities  of  making  expe. 
riments  and  observations  in  matters  relative  to  navigation,  jf  took  care  to  provide  myself 
with  all  the  best  instruments  hitherto  in  use,  as  well  as  others  which  had  been  imper. 
fectly,  or  never,  tried. 

The  length  of  the  second  pendulum,  in  so  high  a  latitude  as  I  was  likely  to  reach,  ap- 
pearing to  me  an  experiment  too  interesting  to  be  neglected,  I  desired  Mr.  Gumming 
to  make  me  such  an  mstrument  as  he  thought  would  best  answer  the  purpose.  Thar 
modesty  and  candour  which  always  attend  real  merit  induced  him  to  lend  me  the  idcn 
deal  pendulum  with  which  Mr.  Graham  had  made  his  experiments,  rather  than  furnish 
me  with  one  of  his  own  construction ;  but  the  judgment  as  well  as  skill  with  which  the 
apparatus  joined  to  it  was  contrived  and  executed,  notwithstanding  the  shortness  of  the 
time,  will,  I  am  sure^  do  him  credit. 

The  Board  of  Longitude  sent  two  watch  machines  for  keeping  the  lon^tude  by  differ- 
ence of  time  :  one  constructed  by  Mr.  Kendal,  on  Mr.  Harrison's  principles  ;  the  other 
I  y  Mr.  Arnold.  I  had  also  a  pocket  watch  constructed  by  Mr.  Arnold,  by  which  I  kept 
tiic  ton^tude  to  a  degree  of  exactitude  much  beyond  what  I  could  have  expected ;  the 
^/atch  having  varied  from  its  rate  of  going  only  2'  40"  in  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
days. 

In  the  Journal  which  follows,  I  mean  to  confine  myself  to  the  occurrences  of  the 
vcyage  as  they  succeeded  in  order  of  time,  which,  for  the  convenience  of  the  generality 
of  readers,  I  have  reduced  from  the  nautical  to  the  civil  computation :  to  this  I  shall 
add,  by  way  of  Appendix,  an  account  of  all  the  experiments  and  observations  under  their 
respective  heads,  that  those  who  interest  themselves  in  any  particular  branch  may  find 
whatever  they  want,  unmixed  with  foreign  matters ;  while  those  who  may  wish  only  to 
trace  the  the  whole  progress  of  the  voyage,  as  well  as  those  who  may  be  satisfied  with  the 
general  results  of  the  experiments,  will  find  the  account  unincumbered  with  that  detail 
which  1  wish  to  submit  to  others,  who  may  choose  to  examine  more  minutely,  and  com- 
psu-e  the  facts  with  the  conclusions. 

A  voyage  of  a  few  months  to  an  uninhabited  extremity  of  the  world,  the  great  object  of 
which  was  to  ascertain  a  very  interesting  point  in  geography,  cannot  be  supposed  to  afford 
much  matter  for  the  gratification  of  mere  curiosity.  The  experiments  and  observations 
may  possibly  from  their  novelty,  and  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  climate  in  which 
they  were  made,  afford  some  entertainment  to  philosophers ;  and  might  perhaps  have 
been  more  numerous  and  satisfactory,  if  the  pursuit  of  the  great  object  of  the  voyage  had 
not  rendered  them,  however  interesting  in  themselves,  but  a  secondary  consideration. 

JOURNAL.  > 


April  the  nineteenth,  1773,  I  received  my  commission  for  the  Racehorse,  with  an 
order  lo  get  her  fitted  with  the  greatest  dispa*ch  for  a  voyage  of  discovery  towards  tlie 
North  Pole,  and  to  proceed  to  the  Nore  for  further  orders. 


PIIIPPS'S  JOURNAI4. 


543 


The  twenty-third,  the  ship  was  hauled  out  of  dock. 

May  the  twenty.first,  the  ship  being  manned  and  rig^d,  and  having  got  in  all  the 
provisions  and  stores,  except  l\\c  gunner's,  wc  fell  down  to  Galleons. 

The  twenty-second,  we  received  on  board  the  powder,  with  eight  six-pounders,  and 
all  the  gunner's  stores.  Lord  Sanlwich  gave  us  the  last  mark  of  the  obliging  attention 
he  had  shewn  during  the  whole  progress  of  the  equipment,  by  coming  on  board  to  satisfy 
himself,  before  our  departure,  that  the  whole  had  been  completed  to  the  wish  of  those 
who  were  embarked  in  the  expedition.  The  easterly  winds  prevented  our  going  down 
the  river  till  the  twenty- sixth,  wiien  I  received  my  instructions  for  the  voyage,  dated  the 
twenty-fifth,  directing  mc  to  fall  down  to  the  Nore  in  the  Racehorse,  and  there  taking 
under  my  command  the  Carcass,  to  make  the  best  of  nriy  way  to  the  northward,  and 
proceed  up  to  the  North  Pole,  or  as  far  towards  it  as  possible,  and  as  nearly  upon  a  me 
ridian  as  the  ice  or  other  obstructions  might  admit ;  and,  during  the  course  of  the 
voyage,  to  make  such  observations  of  every  kind  as  might  be  useuil  to  navigation,  or 
tend  to  the  promotion  of  natural  knowledge  :  in  case  of  an  iving  at  the  Pole,  and  even 
finding  free  navigation  on  the  opposite  meridian,  not  to  proceed  any  farther:  and  at  all 
events  to  secure  my  return  to  the  Nore  before  the  winter  should  set  in.  There  was  also 
a  clause  authorising  me  to  proceed,  in  unforeseen  cases,  according  to  my  own  discre- 
tion :  and  another  clause  directing  me  to  prosecute  the  voyage  on  board  the  Carcass,  in 
case  the  Racehorse  should  be  lost  or  disabled. 

The  twcnty-sevcnth,  I  anchored  at  the  Nore,  and  was  joined  by  captain  Lutwidge, 
in  the  Carcass,  on  the  thirtieth  :  her  equipment  was  to  have  betn  in  all  respects  the  same 
as  that  of  the  Racehorse  ;  but  when  fitted,  captain  Lutwidge  finding  her  too  deep  in  the 
water  to  proceed  to  sea  with  safety,  obtained  leave  of  the  admiralty  to  put  six  more 
guns  on  shore,  to  reduce  the  complement  to  eighty  men,  and  return  a  quantity  of  provi- 
sions proportionable  to  that  reduction.  The  officers  were  recommended  by  captain  Lut- 
widge,  and  did  justice  to  his  penetration  by  their  conduct  in  the  course  of  the  voyage. 
During  our  stay  here,  Mr.  Lyons  landed  with  the  astronomical  quadrant  at  Sheerness 
fort,  and  found  the  latitude  to  be  51°  31'  30",  longitude  O*'  30'  east.  The  easterly  winds 
prevented  our  moving  this  day  and  the  follov.'ing. 

The  second  of  June,  having  the  wind  to  the  westward  of  north,  at  five  in  the  morning 
1  made  the  signal  to  weigh ;  but  in  less  than  half  an  hour  the  wind  shifting  to  the  east- 
ward and  blowing  fresh  I  furled  the  topsails.  The  wind  came  in  the  afternoon  to  N.  by 
£.  we  weighed,  but  did  not  get  far,  the  tide  of  flood  making  against  us. 

The  third,  the  wind  blowing  fresh  all  day  easterly,  we  did  not  move. 

The  fourth,  the  wind  coming  round  to  the  westward  at  six  in  the  morning,  I  weighed 
immediately,  and  sent  the  boat  for  captain  Lutwidge,  to  deliver  him  his  orders.  At 
ten  A.  M.  longitude  by  the  watch  56'  E.  At  eight  in  the  evening  we  had  got  as  far  as 
Balsey  cUff,  between  Orford  and  Harwich.     Litde  wind  at  night. 

The  fifth,  anchored  in  Hosely  Bay  at  half  past  seven  in  me  evening,  in  five  and  an 
half  fathom  water.     Orford  castle  N.  E.  by  N.  «*/ 

Angle  between  Aldborough  church  and  Orford  light-house,  .        7^  38' 

Ll^t-house  and  Orford  church,  18     16 

Orford  church  and  castle, 2    20 

Castle  and  Hosely  church 100    59 

Hoselv  and  Balsey  church, 3.5    27 

The  sixdi,  at  five  in  the  morning,  the  wind  at  S.  S.  W.  weighed,  and  stood  out  to 
sea,  finding  I  might  lose  two  tides  by  going  through  Yarmouth  Roads.     Exaimned  the 


I    ! 


I' 


544 


PHIPrS  JOURNAL. 


,« 


i' 


i:' 


f; 

I! 

,i 


log-line,  which  was  marked  forty-nine  feet ;  the  ^lass  was  found,  by  comparing  it  with 
the  time-keeper,  to  run  thirty  seconds :  at  noon  latitude  observed  52^  X6'  54",  longitude 
by  the  watch  !•  30'  15"  E. 

Angle  betweeii  Southwold  and  Walderswick,  -  -  10*  30' 

Walderswicl   '^^f^  Hunwich,  -  *  •  •  20     21 

Dunwicham  >t>ugh,  -  •  •  -  46     53 

Southwold  N.  W.  .  supposed  distance  three  leagues.     We  concluded  the  lati* 

tudc  of  Southwold  lu  be  52"  22',  and  longitude  1*>  18'  15'  E.     The  dip  wbh  73» 

22'. 

The  seventh,  the  wind  was  northerly  all  day,  and  blew  fresh  in  the  morning.  We 
had  stood  far  out  in  the  night  and  the  day  before,  to  clear  the  Lemon  and  Ower. 

The  eighth,  little  wind  most  part  of  the  day,  with  a  very  heavy  swell.  Stood  in  for 
the  land.  At  half  past  ten  longitude  by  the  watch  0^  41'  15'  E.  At  noon  the  latitude 
was  53°  38'  37'.     We  saw  the  high  land  near  the  Spurn,  in  the  evening. 

The  ninth,  about  noon  Flamborough  head  bore  N.  W.  by  N.  distant  about  six  miles : 
we  were  bv  observation  in  latitude  54'*  4'  54',  longitude  0"  27'  15'  E.  which  makes 
Flamborough  Head  in  latitude  54°  9',  longitude  0*  19'  15'  E.  In  the  afternoon  we 
were  off  Scarborough.     Almost  calm  in  the  evening. 

The  tenth,  anchored  in  the  morning  for  the  tide  in  Robin  Hood's  Buy,  with  little  wind 
at  N.  W  :  worked  up  to  Whitby  Road  next  tide,  and  anchored  there  at  four  in  the  af- 
ternoon, in  fifteen  fathom,  with  very  little  wind. 

The  eleventh,  calm  in  the  morning ;  completed  our  water,  live  stock,  and  vegeta- 
bles. At  nine  in  the  morning  lonntude  observed  by  the  watch  1°  55'  30"  W.  Whitby 
abbey  bore  S.  half  W.  Weighed  with  the  wind  at  S.  E.  and  steered  N.  E.  by  N.  to 
get  so  far  into  the  mid-channel  as  to  make  the  wind  fair  easterly  or  westerly,  with- 
out being  too  near  either  shore,  before  we  were  clear  of  Shetland  and  the  coast  of 
Norway. 

The  twelfth,  the  wind  at  S.  E.  and  the  ship  well  advanced,  I  ordered  the  allowance 
of  liquor  to  be  altered,  serving  the  ship's  company  one  fourth  of  their  allowance  in  beer, 
and  the  other  three  fourths  jn  brandy  ;  by  which  means  the  beer  was  made  to  last  the 
whole  voyage,  and  the  water  considerably  saved.  One  half  of  this  allowance  was  served 
immediately  after  dinner  and  the  other  half  in  the  evening.  It  was  now  light  enough  all 
night  to  read  upon  deck. 

The  thirteenth,  the  weather  still  fine,  but  considerably  less  wind  than  the  day  before, 
and  in  the  afternoon  more  northerly.  The  lon^tude  at  ten  in  the  morning  was  found 
by  my  watch  0°  6'  W.  We  took  three  observations  of  the  moon  and  sun  for  the 
longitude ;  the  extremes  differed  from  one  another  near  two  degrees  :  the  mean  of  the 
three  gave  the  longitude  1°  37'  E.  At  noon  the  latitude  observed  was  59  32^  31". 
We  found  a  difference  of  36'  between  the  latitude  by  dead  reckoning  and  observation, 
the  ship  being  so  much  more  northerly  than  the  reckoning.  The  distance  by  this  log 
was  too  sha  "  by  forty-three  miles.  A  log  marked  forty-five  feet,  according  to  the  old 
method,  would  have  agreed  with  the  observation  within  two  miles  in  the  two  days'  rUn. 
The  circumstance  of  steering  upon  a  meridian,  which  afforded  me  such  fretjuent  oppor- 
tunities of  detecting  the  errors  of  the  log,  induced  me  to  observe  with  care  the  compara- 
tive accuracy  of  the  different  methods  of  dividing  the  line,  recommended  by  mathemati- 
cians, or  practised  by  seamen.  In  the  afternoon  I  went  on  board  the  Care  ass, 
to  compare  the  time-keepers  by  my  watch.  At  six  in  the  evening  the  longitude 
by  my  watch  o**  4'  £.     This  evening  the  sun  set  at  twenty- four  minutes  past  nine,  and 


I'iUPPS'S  JOURNAL 


o45 


bore  about  N.  N.  W.  by  the  compass.  The  cloiids  made  a  beautiful  appearance  long 
after  to  the  northward,  from  the  reflection  of  the  sun  below  the  horizon.  It  was  (juite 
light  all  night :  the  Carcass  made  the  signal  for  seeing  the  land  in  the  evening. 

The  fourteenth,  little  wind,  or  calm,  all  day ;  but  very  clear  and  fine  weather.  Made 
several  different  observations  by  the  snn  and  moon,  and  by  my  watch.  The  longitude  of 
the  ship  was  fouiul  by  my  watch,  at  ten  in  the  morning,  to  be  1*  11'  45"  W.  The  loiigi- 
tude  by  the  lunar  observations  differed  near  two  degrees  from  one  another.  By  the  mean 
of  them  the  ship  was  in  longitude  2°  57'  45*  W.  Some  Shetland  boats  came  on  board 
with  fish.  At  noon  the  latitude  by  observation  was  60*>  16'  45".  At  one  in  the  afternoon 
the  dip  was  observed  to  be  73°  30';  and  at  eight,  75'  18'  :  the  evening  calm,  and  very 
fine  ;  the  appearance  of  the  sky  to  the  northward  very  beautiful.  Vuriutiun,  by  the  mean 
of  several  observations,  22<»  25'  W. 

The  fifteenth,  by  an  observation  at  eight  in  tlie  morning,  the  longitude  of  the  ship 
was  by  the  watch  0"  39'  W. :  dip  74°  52'.  At  lialf  past  ten  in  the  morning,  the  lon^tude, 
from  several  observations  of  the  sun  and  moon,  was  O*  17'  W. ;  at  noon,  being  in  lati- 
tude 60"  19'  8',  by  obsej^ation,  I  took  the  distance  between  the  two  ships  by  the  mega- 
meter;  and  from  that  base  determined  the  position  of  Hungcliff*,  which  had  never  before 
been  ascertained,  though  it  is  a  very  remarkable  point,  and  frequently  made  by  ships. 
According  to  these  observations  it  is  in  latitude  60°  9',  and  longitude  O"  56'  30''  W.  In 
the  Appendix  I  shall  give  an  account  of  the  manner  of  taking  surveys  by  this  instrument, 
which  1  believe  never  to  have  been  practised  before.  At  one,  observed  the  dip  to  be  75°. 
A  thick  fog  came  on  in  the  afternoon,  with  a  flat  calm;  we  could^ot  see  the  Carcass, 
but  heard  her  answer  the  signals  for  keeping  company.  Variation,  from  the  mean  of  se- 
veral observations,  25"  1'  W. 

The  sixteenth,  a  very  thick  fog  in  tlie  morning  j  laJifude  observed  at  noon  60°  29' 
17'' ;  the  dip  was  observed  at  nine  in  the  e\eu\u^  Ui  be  76"  45^     In  the  afternoon,  the 
weather  clear,  and  the  wind  fair,  steered  N.  N.  i* :  sent  caprain  Lutwidge  his  further  or 
ders  and  places  of  rendez  vous. 

The  seventeenth,  wind  fair,  and  blowing  frptih  at  $.  1^,  W.  continued  the  course 
N.  N.  E  :  ordered  the  people  a  part  of  the  mmnnmj  '  lolhjng  .'  mw  an  English  sloop, 
but  had  no  opportunity  of  .u-Mfllng  letters  on  boii|(/;  lin  sea  running  high.  At  ten 
in  the  morning,  longitude  by  the  mii  \i  If  19'  45''  W..  ut  noon,  the  latitude  observed 
was  62"  59'  27".  The  ship  h^d  outrun  the  Ifej  boiiiHa  '  "  miles.  I  tried  Bou- 
guer's  log  twice  tMs  day,  and  lbun<l  it  give  mm  tUm  flir  -'tinHHlll  /flf*     Variation 


The  eighteenth,  little  wind  all  day,  but  lair,  I|(jI||  fc|  J|  W.  to  S.  E.  ;  still  steering 
N.  N.  E. :  latitude  observed  at  noon  6R°  Ifl'  il".  A|  three  in  the  afternoon,  sounded 
with  three  hundred  fathom  of  line,  but  got  no  ^tonnfj  Longitude  by  the  watch  1"  0' 
30"  W. 

The  nineteenth,  wind  to  the  N.  W.    Twk  tlie  ni(  lidiim  observation  at  midnight  for 
the  first  time  :  the  sun's  lower  limb  0°  37'  10"  ajjfjve  the  horizon ;  from  which  the  lati 
tude  was  found  66°  64'  39'  N. :  at  four  in  the  afternoon,  longitude  by  the  watch  O*  58' 
45"  W. :  at  six  the  variation  1 9«>  1 1'  W. 

The  twentieth,  almost  calm  all  flay.  The  water  being  perfectly  smooth,  I  took 
this  opportunity  of  trying  to  get  soinuHngs  at  much  greater  depths  than  I  believe  had 
ever  been  attempted  before.  I  sounded  with  a  very  heavy  lead  the  depth  of  seven 
hundred  and  eighty  fathom,  without  getting  ground  ;  and  by  a  thermometer  invented 
by  lord  Charles  Cavendish  for  this  » irpose,  found  the  temperature  of  the  water  at 

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that  depth  to  be  26«  of  Fahrenheit's  thermometer  5  the  temperature  of  the  air  being 
48«  and  a  half. 

We  began  this  day  to  make  use  of  doctor  Irving's  apparatus  for  distilling  fresh 
^vater  from  the  sea  :  repeated  trials  gave  us  the  most  satisfactory  proof  of  its  utility : 
the  water  produced  from  it  was  perU'ctly  free  from  salt,  and  wholesome,  being  used 
for  boiling  the  ship's  provisions;  which  convenience  would  alone  be  a  desirable  object 
in  all  voyages,  independent  of  the  benefit  of  so  useful  a  resource  in  case  of  distress  for 
water.  The  quantity  produced  every  day  varied  from  accidental  circumstances,  but 
was  generally  from  thirty-four  to  forty  gallons,  without  any  great  addition  of  fuel. 
Twice  indeed  the  quantity  produced  was  only  twenty -three  gallonsoneachdistillation: 
this  amounts  to  more  than  a  quart  for  each  man,  which,  though  not  a  plentiful  allow- 
ance, is  much  more  than  what  is  necessary  for  subsistence.  In  cases  of  real  necessity  I 
have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  a  much  greater  quantity  might  be  produced,  without  an 
inconvenient  expcnce  of  fuel. 

The  twenty-nrst,  a  fresh  gale  at  S.  E.  all  day  ;  steered  N.  N.  E.  At  four  in  the 
morning  we  spoke  with  a  snow  from  the  seal  fishery,  bound  to  Hamburg,  by  which  we 
sent  some  letters.  At  six  in  the  morning  the  variation,  by  the  mean  of  several  obser- 
vations,  was  23"  18'  W.  Longitude  by  the  watch  at  nine  was  0"  34'  30"  W.  Lati- 
tude observed  at  noon  68  «>  5'.  ,      ,     ..       .  ..  •, 

The  twenty-second,  calm  most  part  of  the  day  ;  rainy  and  rather  cold  in  the  even- 
ing.    At  noon  obsu-ved  the  dip  to  be  77°  52'. 

The  twenty-thira,  very  foggy  all  day ;  the  wind  fair ;  altered  the  course,  and 
steered  N.  E.  and  E.  N.  E.  to  get  more  into  the  mid  channel,  and  to  avoid  falling  in 
with  the  western  ice,  which,  from  the  increasing  coldness  of  the  weather,  we  con- 
cluded to  be  near.  At  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  being  by  our  reckoning  to  the 
northward  of  72",  we  saw  a  piece  of  drift  wood,  and  a  small  bird  called  a  Red-poll. 
Dip  observed  at  nine  in  the  evening  to  be  81*  30'. 

"The  twenty-fourth,  very  foggy  all  the  morning ;  the  wind  came  round  to  the  north- 
ward.  The  dip  observed  at  noon  was  80*  35'.  In  the  afternoon,  the  air  much  colder 
than  we  had  hitherto  felt  it ;  the  thermometer  at  34".  A  fire  made  in  the  cabin  for 
the  first  time,  in  latitude  73*  40'. 

The  wind  northerly,  with  a  great  swell ;  some  snow,  but  in  general  clear.  At 
eight  in  the  morning,  the  longitude  observed  by  the  watch  was  7°  15'  E.  Made  seve- 
ral observations  on  the  variation,  which  we  found,  by  those  taken  at  seven  in  the  morn- 
ing, to  be  17"  9'  W.  by  others,  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  only  7*>  47'  W.  I  could  not 
account  for  this  very  sudden  and  extraordinary  decrease,  as  there  were  several  different 
observations  taken  both  in  the  morning  and  evening,  which  agreeC  perfectly  well  with 
each  other,  without  any  apparent  cause  which  could  produce  an  error  affecting  all 
the  observations  of  either  set.  At  eight  in  the  evening  the  longitude  by  the  moon 
was  120  57'  50"  E.  which  differed  2*"  35'  fi-om  that  by  the  watch.     Litde  wind  at 

night.  ..^v  :.'-..  ,.,...      ,  ■,<      .:    ..     .;    .■."'., -J. .Vv    1    ,<  .  V:;>'-i,.'-    w.  »    ."J...  ■•••    j;  .. ;  1  1.  ■  :  . 

The  twenty-sixth,  litde  wind  all  day  ;  the  weather  very  fine  and  moderate.  The 
latitude  obserVed  at  noon  was  74°  25'.  The  thermometer  exposed  to  the  sun,  which 
shone  very  bright,  rose  from  41°  to  61°  in  twenty  minutes.  By  each  of  two  lunar 
observations  which  I  took  with  a  sextant  of  four  inches  radius,  at  half  past  one,  the 
longitude  was  9°  7'  30"  E,  which  agreed  within  thirty-seven  minutes  with  an  ob- 
-servation  made  by  the  watch  at  half  an  hour  after  three,  when  the  longitude  was  8° 
52'  50"  E.    Dip  79°  22'. 


I'lllPPS-S  JUIJRNAU  547 

The  twenty-seventh,  at  mtdntffht  the  latitude  obncn'ed  was  74*»  26'.  The  wind  cnmr 
to  the  S.  W.  and  continued  so  all  day,  with  a  little  rain  and  snow.  The  cold  did  not 
increase.  We  steered  N.  by  E.  At  seven  in  the  morning  the  VHriation,  by  a  mean  ol" 
several  observations,  was  found  to  lie  20*'  38'  VV.  We  were  in  the  evening,  by  all  our 
reckonings,  in  the  latitude  of  the  south  part  of  Spitsbergen,  without  any  uppearance  oi 
ice  or  sight  of  land,  and  with  a  fiiir  wind. 

The  twenty-eighth,  less  wind  in  the  morning  than  the  day  before,  \\\t\\  rain  and  sleet : 
continued  steering  to  the  northward.  At  five  in  the  afternoon  picked  up  a  piece  of  drift 
wood,  which  was  ftr,  and  not  worm  eaten  :  sounded  iti  two  hundred  and  ninety  liithom  ; 
no  ground.  At  six  the  longitude  by  the  watch  was  7*  50'  E.  Between  ten  and  eleven  at 
night,  saw  the  land  to  the  eastward,  at  ten  or  twelve  leagues  distance.  At  midnight, 
dip  81*' 7'. 

The  twenty-ninth,  the  wind  northerly  :  stood  close  in  with  the  land.  The  coast  ap- 
peared to  be  neither  habitable  nor  accessible ;  for  it  was  formed  by  high,  barren,  black 
rocks,  without  the  least  marks  of  vegetation ;  in  many  places  bare  and  pointed,  in  other 
parts  covered  with  snow,  appearing  even  above  the  clouds :  Uie  vallies  Ijctween  the 
high  cliffs  were  filled  with  snow  or  ice.  This  pros|x?ct  would  have  suggested  the  idea 
of  perpetual  winter,  had  not  the  mildness  of  the  weather,  the  smooth  water,  bright  sun- 
shine, and  constant  day -light,  given  a  cheerfulness  and  novelty  to  the  whole  of  thb  strik- 
ing and  romantic  scene. 

1  had  an  opportunity  of  making  tnany  observations  near  the  Black  Point.  Latitude 
observed  at  noon  77°  59'  11".  The  difference  of  latitude,  from  the'last  observation  on 
the  twenty -seventh  at  midnight  to  this  day  at  noon,  would,  according  to  the  old  method 
of  marking  the  log,  have  been  two  hundred  and  thirteen  miles ;  which  agret's  exactly 
with  the  observation.  At  three  in  the  afternoon  brought  to,  and  sounded  one  hundred 
and  ten  faUioms;  ift  muddy  ground :  hoisted  the  boat  and  tried  the  stream;  found  it 
Ijoth  by  the  commot  «nd  Bouguer's  log  (which  agreed  exacUy)  to  run  half  a  knot  north, 
Black  Point  bearing  x^.  N.  E.  At  four  the  longitude  by  the  watch  was  9<»3l'E.  at 
eight  the  variation,  by  t\\e  mean  of  nine? een  obsi  rvations,  11'  53'  W.  I  could  not  ac 
count  from  any  apparent  cause  for  r.his  great  change  in  the  variation :  the  weather  was 
fine,  the  water  smooth,  and  every  precaution  we  could  think  of  used,  to  make  the  obser- 
vations  accurate.     The  dip  was  80''  26'.     Plying  to  the  northward. 

The  thirtieth,  at  midnight,  the  lati'-.ude  b)  observation  was  78»  0'  50*.  At  four  in  the 
morning,  by  lord  Charles  Cavendish's  thermometer,  the  temperature  of  the  water  at 
the  depth  of  a  hundred  and  eighteen  fathoms  was  31'  of  Fahrenheit's ;  that  of  the  air 
was  at  the  same  time  40*  and  a  half.  At  nine  in  the  morning  we  saw  a  ship  in  the  N. 
W.  standing  in  for  the  land.  Having  litUe  wind  this  morning,  and  that  northerly,  I 
stood  in  for  me  land,  with  an  intention  to  have  watered  the  ship,  and  got  out  immediate- 
ly, f  mi:  ,t:u  prevented  by  the  calm  which  followed.  At  noon  the  latitude  observed  was 
78»  P>' ;  tl'v  dip  79*>  30'.  At  two  in  the  aflemoon  we  sounded  in  a  mdred  and  fifteen 
fathO'ts;  nuddy  bottom:  at  the  same  time  we  sent  down  lord  Cl  'les  Cavendish's 
thermom'-uer,  by  which  we  found  the  temperature  of  the  water  at  that  d«  pth  to  be  33" ; 
that  of  the  water  at  the  surface  was  at  the  same  time  40°,  and  in  the  air  i4<>  and  three 
fourths.  Fahrenheit's  thermometer  plunged  in  water  brought  up  from  i'>e  same  depth 
stood  at  SS**  and  a  half.  This  evening  the  master  of  a  Greenland  ship  ca  le  on  board, 
who  told  me,  that  he  was  just  come  out  of  the  ice  which  lay  to  the  westward  about  six- 
teen leagues  off,  and  that  three  ships  had  been  lost  this  year,  twq  English,  and  on  Dutch. 
The  weather  fine,  and  rather  warm.  At  six  in  the  evening  the  longitude  by  m,  watch 
Waa  9«>  28' 45' E»';v   .,-..■.     .:-r-v!.^»;^  ^         ^ -.--v;.    -«.f     ■  j^  ■•  ^ 

4  A  2 


1 


548 


I'llli'Prs  JOUHNAI.. 


July  the  first,  little  wintl  northerly,  or  culm,  iill  (luy  :  the  weather  very  fine,  and  so  warm 
that  wc  Hat  without  a  tire,  unci  willi  one  of  the  ports  open  in  the  cabin.  At  noon  the 
latitude  obsirvcd  was  78<'  13'  36"  s  Black  Point  bearing  S.  IH^  E.  which  makes  the 
latitude  of  that  point  nearly  the  same  as  that  of  the  ship,  and  agrees  very  well  with  the 
chart  of  this  coast  in  l'urcna»<. 

The  second,  littU*  wind,  and  culms,  all  day  ;  tlu:  weather  very  fine.  At  six  in  the 
morning  five  sail  of  Grecnlandnien  in  sight,  ^t  noon  the  latitude  observed  was  78*>  22' 
41''.  I  took  a  survey  of  the  coast,  as  far  as  wc  could  sec  :  I  took  also  with  the  meguinetcr 
the  ultitudes  of  several  of  Uic  mountains :  but  as  there  is  nothing  |)articularly  interesting 
to  navigators  in  this  part  of  the  coast,  Ishall  only  mention  the  height  of  one  mountain, 
which  was  fifteen  hundred  and  three  yards.  This  may  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the  ap- 
pearance and  scale  of  the  coast.  At  half  past  six  the  longitude  by  the  watch  was  9^  8' 
30"  K.  variation  14"  55'  VV. 

The  third,  latitude  at  midnight  780  23'  46" ;  dip.  80°  45'.  The  weather  fine,  and 
the  wind  fair  all  day.  Ruiuiing  along  by  the  coiist  of  Spitsbergen  all  day :  several 
Grccniundmen  in  sight.  Between  nine  and  ten  in  the  evening  we  were  abreast  of  the 
North  t'orelund,  bearing  E.  by  S.  half  S.  distance  one  mile  and  a  half.  Sounded  in 
twenty  fiithom ;  rocky  ground. 

The  fourth,  very  little  wind  in  the  morning.  At  noon  the  latitude  by  observation  was 
79"  31',  Mugdulenu  Hook  liore  N.  39**  E.  distant  four  miles  ;  which  gives  the  latitude 
of  thut  place  79^  34' ;  the  same  as  Fotherby  observed  it  to  be  in  1614.  Stood  into  a 
small  bay  to  the  southward  of  Magdalena  and  Hamburgher's  Bay :  anchored  with  the 
stream  anchor,  and  sent  the  boat  for  water.  About  three  in  the  afternoon,  when  the 
boat  was  sent  on  shore,  it  appeiux.'d  to  be  high  water,  and  ebbed  about  three  feet.  This 
makes  high  water  full  and  change  at  half  an  hour  past  one,  or  with  a  S.  S.  W.  moon, 
which  agrees  exactly  with  Baffin's  observation  in  1613.  The  flood  comes  from  the 
southward.  Went  ashore  with  the  astronomer,  and  instruments,  to  observe  the  varia- 
tion. A  thick  fog  came  on  before  we  had  completed  the  observations.  The  ship 
driving,  I  weighed  and  stood  out  to  sea  under  an  easy  sail,  firing  guns  frequently,  to 
shew  the  Carcass  where  we  were ;  and  in  less  than  two  hours  joined  her.  Soon  after 
(about  four  in  the  morning  of  the  fifth)  the  Rockingham  Greenland  Ship  ran  under 
our  stern,  and  the  master  told  me  he  had  just  spoke  with  some  ships,  from  which 
he  learnt  that  the  ice  was  within  ten  leagues  of  Hacluit's  Head  Land,  to  the  north- 
west. In  consequence  of  this  intelligence,  I  gave  orders  for  steering  in  towards  the 
Head  Land ;  and  if  it  should  clear  un,  to  steer  directly  for  it ;  intending  to  go  north 
from  thence,  till  some  circumstance  should  oblige  me  to  alter  my  course. 

The  fifth,  at  five  the  officer  intbrmed  me  that  we  were  very  near  some  islands  off 
Dane's  Gat,  and  that  the  pilot  wished  to  stand  farther  out ;  I  ordered  the  shij)  to  be 
kept  N.  by  W.  and  hauled  farther  in,  when  clear  of  the  islands.  At  noon  1  steered 
North,  seeing  nothing  of  the  land  :  soon  after  I  was,  told  that  they  saw  the  ice  :  I  went 
upon  deck,  and  perceived  something  white  upon  the  bow,  and  heard  a  noise  like  the 
surf  upon  the  shore  :  I  hauled  down  the  studding  sails,  and  hailed  the  Carcass  to  let 
ihcm  know  thiit  I  should  stand  for  it  to  make  what  it  was,  hiiving  all  hands  upon  deck 
ready  to  haul  up  at  a  moment's  warning :  I  desired  that  they  would  keep  close  to  us, 
the  fog  being  so  thick,  and  have  every  body  up  ready  to  follow  our  motions  instantane- 
ously, deV^rmining  to  stand  on  under  such  sail  as  should  enable  us  to  keep  the  ships 
under  command,  and  not  risk  parting  company.  Soon  after  two  smaU  pieces  of  ice 
not  above  three  feet  square  passed  us^  wluch  we  supposed  to  have  ik>ated  from  the 
shore.     It  was  not  long  before  we  saw  something  on  the  bow,  part  black  mid  part 


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PHIPPS'S  JOUItNAI.. 


551 


adowed  for  extraordin&ry  occasions ;  as  well  as  the  additional  cloathing  furnished  by 
the  Adrtiiralty.  Notwithstanding  every  attention,  several  of  the  men  were  confined  with 
colds,  which  affected  them  with  pains  in  thr'r  bones  ;  but,  from  the  careful  attendance 
given  them ,  few  continued  in  the  sick  list  above  two  days  at  a  time.  At  nine  in  the 
morning,  when  it  cleared  a  little,  we  saw  the  Carcass  much  to  the  southward  of  us.  1 
took  the  opportunity  of  the  clear  weather  to  run  to  the  westward,  and  found  the  ice 
quite  solid  there :  1  then  stood  through  every  opening  to  the  northward,  but  there  also 
soon  got  to  the  edge  of  the  solid  ice.  I  was  forced  to  haul  up,  to  weather  a  point 
which  ran  out  from  it.  Afte*-  I  had  weathered  that,  the  ice  closing  fast  upon  me, 
obliged  me  to  set  the  foresail,  which,  with  the  fresh  wind  and  smooth  water,  gave  the 
ship  such  way  as  to  force  through  it  with  a  violent  stroke.  At  one  in  the  afternooon, 
immediately  on  getting  out  into  the  open  sea,  we  found  a  heavy  swell  setting  to  the 
northward  ;  though  amongst  the  ice,  the  minute  before,  the  water  had  been  as  smooth 
as  a  mill-pond.  The  wind  blew  strong  at  S.  S.  W.  The  ice,  as  far  as  we  could 
see  from  the  mast  head,  lay  E.  N.  E.  We  steered  that  course  close  to  it,  to  look 
for  an  opening  to  the  northward.  I  now  began  to  conceive  that  the  ice  was  one  com* 
pact  impenetrable  body,  having  run  along  it  from  east  to  west  above  10°.  I  purposed 
however  to  stand  over  to  the  eastward,  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  the  body  of  ice 
joined  to  Spitsbergen.  This  the  (quantity  of  loose  ice  had  before  rendered  itr  practi- 
cable ;  but  thinking  the  westerly  winds  might  probably  by  this  time  have  packed  it  all 
that  way,  I  flattered  myself  with  the  hopes  oi  meeting  with  no  obstruction  till  I  should 
come  to  where  it  joined  the  land ;  and  in  case  of  an  opening,  however  small,  I  was 
determined  at  all  events  to  push  through  it.  The  weather  clearer,  and  the  land  in 
sight. 

The  eleventh,  at  half  past  four  in  the  morning  the  longitude  by  the  lunar  observation 
was  9*  42'  E.  And  at  the  same  time  by  my  watch  9*  2'  E.  Cloven  Clifi"  S.  S.  F. 
distant  eight  miles.  This  would  make  the  longitude  of  Cloven  Cliff  9®  38'  E.  which 
is  within  twenty  minutes  of  what  it  was  determined  by  the  observations  and  survey  taken 
in  Fair  Haven.  At  noon  the  latitude  observed  was  80**  4' ;  Vogel  Sang  W.  S.  W. 
Little  wind  and  a  great  swell  in  the  morning.     Calm  most  part  of  the  day. 

The  twelfth,  calm  all  day,  with  a  great  swell  from  the  S.  W.  and  the  weather  remarka> 
bly  mild.  At  eight  in  the  evening  longitude  by  the  watch  10°  54'  30"  E.  Cloven  Cliff 
S.  W.  by  S.  The  Carcass  drove  with  the  current  so  near  the  main  body  of  the  ice,  as 
to  be  obliged  to  anchor ;  she  came  to  in  twenty-six  fathom  water. 

The  thirteenth,  calm  till  noon,  tlie  ship  driving  to  the  westward  with  the  current, 
which  we  observed  to  be  very  irregular,  the  Carcass  being  driven  at  the  same  time  to 
the  eastward.  Near  the  main  body  of  the  ice  the  detached  pieces  probably  affect  the 
currents,  and  occasion  the  great  irregularity  which  we  remarked.  We  had  found  an  heavy 
swell  from  the  S.  W.  these  two  days.  At  two  in  the  afternooon  it  came  on  very  sudden. 
ly  to  blow  fresh  from  that  quarter,  with  foggy  weather :  we  worked  into  Vogel  Sang> 
and  anchored  with  the  best  bower  in  eleven  fathonis,  soft  clay. 

The  place  where  we  anchored  is  a  good  road-stead,  open  from  the  N.  E.  to  the  N.  W. 
The  north-eastemmost  point  is  the  Cloven  Cliff,  a  bare  rock,  so  called  from  the'top  of  it 
resembling  a  cloven  hoof,  which  appearance  it  has  always  worn,  having  been  named  by 
some  of  the  first  Dutch  navigators  who  frequented  these  seas.  This  rock  being  entirely 
detached  from  the  other  mountains,  and  joined  to  the  rest  of  the  bland  by  a  low  narrow 
iisthmus,  preserves  in  all  situations  the  same  form ;  and  being  nearly  perpendicular,  it  is  ne< 
ver  disguised  by  snow.  These  circumstances  render  it  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
points  on  the  coast    The  north-westernmost  land  is  an  high  bluff  point,  called  by 


.1 


552 


I'HIPl'8'S  JOURNAL 


the  Dutch,  Vogt^l  Sang.  This  sound,  though  open  to  tlie  northward,  is  not  liable  to 
any  inconvenience  from  that  circ  imstance,  the  main  body  of  the  ice  lying  so  near  as  to 
prevent  any  great  sea  ;  nor  are  ships  in  uny  danger  trom  the  loose  ice  setting  in,  as  this 
road  communicates  with  several  others  forniid  by  different  islands,  between  all  which 
there  are  safe  passiiges.  '1  o  all  the  sounds  and  harbours  formed  by  this  knot  of  islands, 
the  old  English  navigators  had  given  the  general  name  of  Fair  Haven  ;  of  which  Fo. 
therby  took  a  plat  in  1614:  that  in  which  the  Racehorse  and  Carcass  lay  at  this  time 
they  called  the  North  Harbour ;  the  harbour  of  Smeerenberg,  distant  about  eleven  miles 
(in  which  we  anchored  in  August)  they  named  the  South  Harbour.  Besides  these, 
there  are  several  others ;  particularly  two,  called  Cook's  Hole,  and  the  Nonvays,  in 
both  which  several  Dutch  ships  were  lying  at  this  time.  Here  the  shore  being  steep  to, 
we  completed  our  water  with  great  ease,  from  the  streams  which  fall  in  many  places 
down  the  sides  of  the  rocks,  and  are  produced  by  the  melting  of  the  snow.  I  fixed  upon 
a  small  flat  island,  or  rock,  about  three  miles  from  the  ship,  and  almost  in  the  centre  of 
those  islands  which  form  the  many  good  roads  here,  as  the  properest  place  for  erecting 
a  tent,  and  making  observations.  The  fo^y  weather  on  the  fourteenth  prevented  us 
from  using  the  instruments  that  day.  I  regretted  this  circumstance  much,  fearing  it 
would  deprive  me  of  the  only  probable  opportunity  of  making  observations  on  shore  in 
those  high  latitudes,  as  our  water  was  nearly  recruited ;  however,  having  little  wind, 
with  the  weather  very  fair  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  eighteenth  in  the  morning,  I  made 
the  best  use  of  that  time.  Even  in  the  clearest  weather  here,  the  sky  was  never  free 
from  clouds,  which  prevented  our  seeing  the  moon  during  the  whole  of  our  stay,  or 
even  being  sure  of  our  solar  observations,  Mr.  Lyons  never  having  been  able  to  get  equal 
altitudes  for  settling  the  rates  of  going  of  the  time-keepers.  Once  indeed  we  were  fortu- 
nate enough  to  observe  a  revolution  of  the  sun,  of  which  I  availed  myself  to  determine 
the  going  of  the  pendulum  adjusted  to  vibrate  seconds  at  London.  During  the  course  of 
this  experiment,  a  particular  and  constant  attention  was  paid  to  the  state  of  the  thermo- 
meter, which  I  was  surprised  to  find  differ  so  little  about  noon  and  midnight ;  its  greatest 
height  was  £8°  and  a  half,  at  eleven  in  the  forenoon ;  at  midnight  it  was  51?. 

On  the  sixteenth,  at  noon,  the  ^veather  was  remarkably  fine  and  clear.  The  ther-. 
mometer  in  the  shade  being  at  49(>,  when  exposed  to  the  sun  rose  in  a  few  minutes  to 
89^  and  a  half,  and  remained  so  for  some  time,  till  a  small  breeze  springing  up,  made  it 
fall  10"  almost  instandy.  The  weather  at  this  time  was  rather  hot ;  so  that  I  imagine, 
if  a  thermometer  was  to  be  graduated  according  to  the  feelings  of  people  in  these  lati- 
tudes,  the  point  of  temperature  would  be  about  the  forty-fourth  degree  of  Fahrenheit's 
scale.  From  this  island  I  took  a  survey,  to  ascertain  the  situation  of  all  the  points  and 
openings,  and  the  height  of  the  most  remarkable  mountains:  the  longest  base  the  island 
would  afford  was  only  six  hundred  and  eighteen  feet,  which  I  determined  by  a  cross 
base,  as  well  as  actual  measurement,  and  found  the  results  not  to  diflfer  above  three  feet. 
To  try  how  far  the  accuracy  of  this  survey  might  be  depended  upon,  I  took  in  a.  boat, 
with  a  small  Hadley's  sextant,  the  angles  between  seven  objects,  which  intersected  ex- 
actly when  laid  down  upon  the  plan.  I  had  a  farther  proof  of  its  accuracy  some  days 
after,  by  taking  the  bearings  of  Vo^l  Sang  and  Hacluit's  Head  Land  in  one,  which 
corresponded  exactly  with  their  position  on  my  chart. 

On  the  seventeendi,  the  weather  being  veiy  clear,  I  went  up  one  of  the  hills,  from 
which  I  could  see  several  leagues  to  the  N.  £. :  the  ice  appeared  uniRxm  and  compact, 
as  far  as  my  view  extended.  During  our  stay  here,  we  found  the  latitude  of  the  idand 
on  which  the  observations  were  made,  to  be  79*  S(y ;  longitude  10<>  2f  30*  E. ;  varia- 
tion 20°  38'  W. ;  dip  82*  7' :  latitude  of  Cloven  Cliff  79»  53';  longitude  90  59'  30"  E. 


PHIPPS'9  JOURNAL. 


S53 


Hacluit's  Head  Land  79«  47';  longitude  9"  11'  30'  E.  The  tide  rose  about  four  feet, 
ai)d  flowed  at  half  an  hour  after  one,  full  and  change.  The  tide  set  irregularly,  from 
the  number  of  islands  between  which  it  passed ;  but  the  flood  appeared  to  come  from  the 
southward. 

The  eighteenth,  the  calm  weather  since  the  fourteenth  had  given  us  full  time  to  finish 
the  observations,  and  complete  our  water :  a  breeze  springing  up  in  the  morning,  1 
went  ashore  to  get  the  instruments  on  board.  Between  one  and  two  we  weighed,  with 
the  wind  westerly,  and  stood  to  the  northward.  Between  eleven  and  twelve  at  night, 
having  run  about  eight  leagues,  we  were  prevented  by  the  ice  from  getting  farther.  VVc 
stood  along  the  edge  of  it  to  the  southward.  At  two  in  the  morning,  being  embayed 
by  the  ice,  il  tacked,  and  left  orders  to  stand  to  the  eastward  along  the  edge  of  the  ice,  as 
soon  as  we  could  weather  the  point ;  hoping,  if  there  should  be  no  opening  between 
tlie  land  and  the  ice,  that  I  should  at  least  be  able  to  ascertain  where  they  joined,  and 
perhaps  to  discover  from  the  land,  whether  there  was  any  prospect  of  a  passage  that  way  : 
at  that  time  the  ice  was  all  solid  as  far  as  we  could  see,  v/ithout  the  least  appearance  of 
water  to  the  northward. 

'  The  nineteenth,  at  six  in  the  morning,  we  had  got  to  the  eastward  among  the  loose 
ice,  which  lay  very  thick  in  shore,  the  main  body  to  the  northward  and  eastward :  the 
land  near  Deer  Field  not  four  miles  off,  and  the  water  shoaled  to  twenty  fathoms.  Here 
we  found  ourselves  nearly  in  the  same  place  where  we  had  twice  been  stopped,  the  ice 
situated  &s  before,  locked  with  the  land^  without  any  passage  either  to  the  eastward  or 
northward :  I  therefore  stood  back  to  the  westward.  At  noon  the  northernmost  part 
of  Vogel  Sang  bore  S.  W.  by  S.  distant  about  seven  leagues.  The  weather  being  very 
fine,  and  the  wind  to  the  «;astward,  we  were  enabled  to  coast  along  the  ice  to  the  west- 
ward, hauling  into  all  the  bays,  going  round  every  point  of  ice  in  search  of  an  opening, 
and  standing  close  along  by  the  main  body  all  day,  generally  within  a  ship's  length. 

The  twentieth,  at  half  after  three  in  the  morning,  the  land  was  out  of  sight,  and  we  ima- 
gined ourselves  in  rather  more  than  eighty  degrees  and  a  half;  some  of  the  openings  be- 
ing near  two  leagues  deep,  had  flattered  us  with  hopes  of  getting  to  the  northward ;  but 
these  openings  proved  to  be  no  more  than  bays  in  the  main  body  of  the  ice.  About  one 
in  the  aftembon  we  were  by  our  reckoning  in  about  80**  34,',  nearly  in  the  same  place 
where  we  had  been  on  the  ninth.  About  three  we  bore  away,  for  what  appeared  like  an 
opening  to  the  S.  W.  we  found  the  ice  run  far  to  the  southward. 

The  twenty -first  we  still  continued  to  run  along  the  edge  of  the  ice,  which  trended 
tc  the  southward.  At  noon  we  were  in  the  latitude  of  79°  26',  by  observation,  which 
was  twenty-five  miles  to  the  southward  of  our  reckoning.  Finding  that  the  direction  of 
the  ice  led  us  to  the  southward,  and  that  the  current  set  the  same  way,  I  stood  to  the  north- 
ward and  westward  close  along  the  ice«  to  try  whether  the  sea  was  opened  to  the  north- 
ward  by  the  wind  from  that  quarter.  At  nine  in  the  evening  we  had  no  ground  with 
two  hundred  fathoms  of  line.  At  ten  we  got  into  a  stream  of  loose  ice.  The  weather 
fine,  but  cool  all  day,  and  sometimes  foggy. 

The  twenty-second,  at  two  in  the  morning,  we  bore  away  to  the  N.  E.  for  the  main 
body  of  the  ice ;  the  weather  became  foggy  soon  afterwards.  At  six  we  saw  the  ice  : 
and  the  weather  being  still  foggy,  we  hauled  up  to  the  S.  S.  E.  to  avoid  being  embayed 
in  it :  the  air  very  cold. 

The  twenty 'third,  at  midnight,  tacked  for  the  body  of  the  ice.  Latitude  observed 
80°  13'  88".  Rainy  in  the  morning ;  fair  in  the  afternoon :  still  working  up  to  the 
northward  and  eastward,  with  the  wind  easterly.  At  six  in  the  evening,  Uie  Cloven 
Cliff  bearing  south  about  six  leagues,  soimded  in  two  hundred  fathoms,  muddy  ground ; 
the  lead  appeared  to  have  sunk  one  third  of  its  length  in  the  mud.     At  two  in  the  morn- 

VOL.  X.  4  b 


** 


1M» 


554 


pHrpps's  jotmvAL. 


ing,  with  little  wind,  and  u  swell  from  the  south-west,  I  stood  to  the  northward  amongst 
the  loose  ice  :  at  half  past  two  the  main  body  of  the  ice  a  cable's  length  off,  and  the  loose 
ice  so  close  that  we  wore  ship,  not  having  way  or  room  enough  to  tacl: ;  struck  very 
hard  against  the  ice  in  getting  the  ship  round,  and  got  upon  one  piece,  wliich  lifted  her 
In  the  water  for  near  a  minute,  before  her  weight  broke  it.  The  ships  had  been  so  well 
strengthened,  that  they  received  no  damage  from  these  strokes ;  and  i  could  with  the 
more  confidence  push  through  the  loose  ice  to  U-y  for  openings.  Hacluit's  Head  Land 
bore  S.  50"  W.  distant  about  seven  leagues. 

The  twent).  fourth,  by  this  situation  of  the  ice  we  were  disappointed  of  getting  directly 
to  the  northward,  without  any  prospect,  after  so  many  fruitless  attempts,  of  being  able 
to  succeed  to  the  westward ;  nor  indeed  could  I,  with  an  easterly  wind  and  a  heavy  swell, 
attempt  it,  as  the  wind  from  that  quarter  would  not  only  pack  the  loose  ice  close  to  the 
westward,  but  by  setting  the  sea  on  it,  make  it  as  improper  to  be  approached  as  a  rocky 
lec-shore.  To  the  eastward,  on  the  contrary,  it  would  make  smooth  water,  and  detach 
all  the  loose  ice  from  the  edges ;  perhaps  break  a  stream  open,  and  give  us  a  fair  trial 
to  the  northward ;  at  all  events,  with  an  easterly  wind  we  could  run  out  again,  if  we  did 
not  find  it  practicable  to  proceed.  Finding  the  ice  so  fast  to  the  northward  and  west- 
ward, it  became  a  desirable  object  to  ascertain  how  far  it  was  possible  to  get  to  the  east- 
ward, and  by  that  means  pursue  the  voyage  to  the  northward.  These  considerations  de- 
termined me  to  ply  to  the  eastward,  and  make  another  push  to  get  through  where  I  had 
been  three  times  repulsed.  In  working  to  the  eastwanl,  we  kept  as  near  the  body»of  the 
ice  as  possible.  At  noon  the  Cloven  Cliff  bore  S.  W.  by  S.  about  seven  le^^es.  At 
six  we  were  working  to  the  N.  E.  and  at  nine  we  steered  to  the  S.  E.  the  ice  appearing 
more  open  that  way :  we  had  fresh  gales  and  cloudy  weather.  The  ship  struck  very 
hard  in  endeavouring  to  force  through  the  loose  ice.  At  midnight  the  wmd  freshened, 
and  we  double  reefed  the  topsails.  It  was  probably  owing  to  the  fresh  gales  this  day, 
as  well  as  to  the  summer  being  more  advanced,  that  we  were  enabled  to  get  farther  than 
in  any  of  our  former  attempts  this  way.  We  continued  coasting  the  ice,  and  at  two  in 
the  morning  the  north  part  of  Vogel  Sang  and  Hacluit's  Head  Land  in  one  bore  S.  65« 
W.  Cloven  Cliff  S.  52o  W.  the  nearest  part  of  the  shore  about  three  leagues  off.  When 
I  left  the  deck,  at  four  in  the  morning,  we  were  very  near  the  spot  where  the  ships  had 
been  fast  in  the  ice  on  the  seventh  in  the  evening,  but  rather  farther  to  the  eastward ;  we 
had  passed  over  the  same  shoal  water  we  had  met  with  that  day,  and  were  now  in  twen- 
ty tathom,  rocky  ground ;  still  amongst  loose  ice,  but  not  so  close  as  we  had  hitherto 
found  it. 

The  twenty-fifth,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  we  had  deepened  our  water  to  fifty-five 
fathom,  and  were  still  amongst  the  loose  ice.  At  noon  we  had  deepened  our  water  lo 
seventy  fathom,  with  muddy  bottom,  at  the  distance  of  about  three  miles  from  the  nearest 
land.  By  two  in  the  afternoon  we  had  passed  Deer  Field,  which  we  had  so  often  before 
attempted  without  success ;  and  finding  the  sea  open  to  the  N.  £.  had  the  most  flatter- 
ing prospect  of  getting  to  the  northward.  From  this  part,  all  the  way  to  the  eastward,  the 
coast  wears  a  Afferent  hce ;  the  mountains,  though  high,  are  neither  so  steep  or  sharp- 
pointed,  nor  of  so  black  a  colour,  as  to  the  westward.  It  was  probably  owing  to  this  re- 
markable difference  in  the  appearance  of  the  shore,  that  the  old  navigators  gave  to  places 
hereabouts  the  names  of  Red  Beach,  Red  Hill,  and  Red  Cliff.  One  of  them,  speakmg  of 
this  part,  has  described  the  whole  country  in  a  few  words :  "  Here  (says  he)  I  saw  a  more 
natural  earth  and  clay  than  any  that  1  have  seen  in  all  the  country,  but  nothing  growing 
thereupon  more  than  in  other  places.''  At  two  in  the  afternoon  we  had  little  wmd,  and 
were  in  sight  of  Moffen  island,  which  is  very  low  and  flat. 


FHIHPS'S  JUUUNAL. 


555 


The  Carcass  being  becalmed  very  near  the  island  in  the  evening,  captain  Lutwidge 
took  that  opportunity  of  obtaining  the  following  exact  account  of  its  extent,  which  he 
communicated  to  me : 

"  At  ten  P.  M.  the  body  of  MofTen  island  bearing  £.  by  S.  distant  two  miles, 
sounded  thirteen  fathoms,  rocky  ground,  with  light  brown  mud,  and  broken  shells. 
Sent  the  master  on  shore,  who  found  the  island  to  be  nearly  of  a  round  form,  about 
two  miles  in  diameter,  with  a  lake  or  large  pond  of  water  in  tlie  middle,  all  frozen  over, 
except  thirty  or  forty  yards  round  the  edge  of  it,  which  was  water,  with  loose  pieces 
of  broken  ice,  aud  so  shallow,  they  walked  through  it,  and  went  over  upon  the  firm  solid 
ice.  The  ground  between  the  sea  and  the  pond  is  from  half  a  cable's  length  to  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  broad,  and  the  whole  island  covered  with  gravel  and  small  stones,  without  the 
least  verdure  or  vegetation  of  any  kind.  They  saw  only  one  piece  of  drift  wood  (about 
three  fathom  long,  with  a  root  on  it,  and  as  thick  as  the  Carcass's  mizen  mast)  which 
had  been  thrown  up  over  the  high  part  of  the  land,  and  lay  upon  the  declivity  towards 
the  pond.  They  saw  three  bears,  and  a  number  of  wild  ducks,  geese,  and  other  sea* 
fowls,  with  birds'  nests  all  over  the  island.  There  was  an  inscription  over  the  grave  of  a 
Dutchman,  who  was  buried  there  in  July  1771.  It  was  low  water  at  eleven  o'clock  when 
the  boat  landed,  and  the  tide  apiieared  to  flow  eight  or  nine  feet ;  at  that  time  we  found 
a  current  carrying  the  ship  to  the  N.  W.  from  the  island,  which  before  carried  us  to  the 
S.  £.  (at  the  rate  of  a  mile  an  hour)  towards  it  On  the  west  side  is  a  fine  white  sandy 
bottom,  from  two  fathoms,  at  a  ship's  length  from  the  beach,  to  five  fathoms,  at  half  a 
mile's  distance  ofr." 

The  soundings  all  about  this  island,  and  to  the  eastward,  seem  to  partake  of  the  nature 
of  the  coast.  To  the  westward  the  rocks  were  high,  and  the  shores  bold  and  steep  too ; 
here  the  land  shelved  more,  and  the  soundmgs  were  shoal,  from  thirty  to  ten  fathom.  It 
appears  extraordinary  that  none  of  the  old  navigators,  who  are  so  accurate  and  minute 
in  their  descriptions  of  the  coast,  have  taken  any  notice  of  thb  island,  so  remarkable  and 
different  from  every  thing  they  had  seen  on  the  western  coast ;  unless  we  should  sup- 
pose tfiat  it  did  not  then  exist,  and  that  the  streams  from  the  great  ocean  up  the  west  side 
of  Spitsbergen,  and  through  the  Waygat's  Straits,  meeting  here,  have  raised  this  bank, 
and  occasioned  the  quantity  of  ice  that  generally  blocks  up  the  coast  hereabouts.  At 
four  in  the  afternoon  hoisted  out  the  boat,  and  tried  the  current,  wiiich  set  N.  £.  by  £. 
at  the  rate  of  three  quarters  of  a  mile  an  hour.  At  midnight  Moffen  island  bore  from  S. 
E.  by  S.    J  S.  by  W.  distant  about  five  miles. 

The  twenty-sixth,  about  two  in  the  morning,  we  had  little  wind,  with  fo^ ;  made  the 
signals  to  the  Carcass  for  keeping  company.  At  half  an  hour  afler  three  in  the  after- 
noon, we  were  in  longitude  12o  20'  45"  E.  variation,  by  mean  of  five  azimuths,  12® 
47'  W.  At  nine  we  saw  land  to  the  eastward ;  steering  to  the  northward  with  little 
wind,  and  no  ice  in  sight,  except  what  we  had  passed. 

The  twenty-seventh,  working  still  to  the  N.  £.  we  met  with  some  loose  ice :  how- 
ever, from  the  openness  of  the  sea  hitherto,  since  we  had  passed  Deer  Field,  I  had  great 
hopes  of  getting  far  to  the  northward ;  but  about  noon,  bein^  in  the  latitude  of  eighty 
and  forty-eight,  by  our  reckoning,  we  Were  stopped  by  the  main  body  of  the  ice,  which 
we  found  lying  in  a  line,  nearly  east  and  west,  quite  solid.  Having  tacked,  I  brought 
to,  and  sounded  close  to  the  edge  of  the  ice,  in  seventy-nine  fathom,  muddy  bottom. 

The  wind  being  still  easterly,  I  worked  up  close  to  the  edge  of  th*^  ice,  coasting  it  all 
the  way.    At  six  in  the  evening  we  were  in  longitude  14°  59  30"  £.  by  observation. 

The  twenty-eighth,  at  midnight,  the  latitude  observed  was  80°  37'.  The  main  body 
of  the  ice  still  lying  in  the  same  direction,  we  continued  working  to  the  eastward,  and 

4  B  2 


4)1 


u 


n 


556 


I'HIPI»8*8  JOURNAU 


> 


II 


'  I 


found  several  openings  to  the  northward,  of  two  or  three  milca  deep  ;  into  every  one  of 
which  we  ran,  forcing  the  ship,  wherever  we  could,  by  a  press  of  sail,  amongst  the  loose 
ice,  which  wc  found  here  in  much  larger  pieces  than  to  the  westward.  At  six  in  Uk* 
morning  the  variation,  by  the  mean  of  six  azimuths,  was  11**  56' W.  the  horizon  re- 
miu-kably  clear.  At  noon,  being  close  to  the  main  body  of  the  ice,  the  latitude  by  ob- 
servation was  80°  36' :  we  sounded  in  one  hundred  and  one  fathom,  muddy  ground.  In 
the  afternoon  the  wind  blew  fresh  at  N.  £.  with  a  thick  fog ;  the  ice  hung  much  about 
the  rigging.  The  loose  ice  being  thick  and  close,  we  found  ourselves  so  much  engag- 
ed in  It,  as  to  be  obliged  to  run  back  a  considerable  distance  to  the  westward  and  south- 
ward, before  we  could  extricate  ourselves :  we  afterwtuds  had  both  the  sea  and  the 
weather  clear,  and  worked  up  to  the  north-eastward.  At  half  past  five  the  longitude  of 
the  ship  was  IS**  16' 45"  £.  At  seven  the  easternmost  land  bore  £.  halfN.  distant 
about  seven  or  eight  leagues,  appearing  like  d(;cp  bays  and  islands,  probably  those  called 
in  the  Dutch  charts  the  Seven  Islands ;  they  seemed  to  be  surrounded  with  ice.  I  stood 
to  the  southward,  in  hopes  of  getting  to  the  south-east- ward  round  the  ice,  and  between 
it  and  the  land,  where  the  water  appeared  more  open. 

The  twenty-ninth,  at  midnight,  the  latitude  by  observation  was  80**  21'.  At  four 
tacked  close  to  the  ice,  hauled  up  the  foresail,  and  backed  the  mizen-top-sail,  having 
too  much  way  amongst  the  loose  ice.  At  noon,  latitude  observed  80**  24'  56*.  An 
opening,  which  we  supposed  to  be  the  entrance  of  Waygat's  Straits,  bore  south ;  the 
northernmost  land  N.  £.  by  £.  the  nearest  shore  distant  about  four  miles.  In  the  af- 
ternoon the  officer  from  the  deck  came  down,  to  tell  me  we  were  very  near  a  small  rock, 
even  with  the  water's  edge  :  on  going  up,  I  saw  it  within  little  more  than  a  ship's  length 
on  the  lee-bow,  and  put  the  helm  down  :  before  the  ship  got  round  we  were  close  to  it, 
and  perceived  it  to  be  a  very  small  piece  of  ice,  covered  with  gravel.  In  the  evening, 
seeing  the  northern  part  of  the  islands  only  over  the  ice,  I  was  anxious  to  get  round  it, 
in  hopes  of  finding  an  opening  under  the  land.  Being  near  a  low  flat  island,  opposite  the 
Waygat's  Straits,  not  higher,  but  much  larger  than  Mofl'en  island,  we  had  an  heavy  swell 
from  the  southward,  with  little  wind,  and  from  ten  to  twenty  fathoms :  having  got  past 
this  island,  approaching  to  the  high  land  to  the  eastward,  we  deepened  our  water  very 
suddenly  to  one  hundred  and  seventeen  fathoms.  Having  little  wind,  and  the  weather 
very  clear,  two  of  the  officers  went  with  a  boat  in  pursuit  of  some  sea-horses,  and  after- 
wards to  the  low  island.  At  midnight  we  found  by  observation  the  latitude  80°  27'  3', 
and  the  dip  82**  2'  30".  At  four  m  the  morning  I  found,  by  Bouguer's  log,  that  the 
current  set  two  fathom  to  the  eastward.  At  six  in  the  morning  the  ofKcers  returned 
from  the  island;  hi  their  way  back  they  had  fired  at  and  wounded  a  sea-horse,  which 
dived  immediately,  and  brought  up  with  it  a  number  of  others.  They  all  joined  in  an 
attack  u|)on  the  boat,  wrested  an  oar  from  one  of  the  men,  and  were  with  difficulty  pre- 
vented from  staving  or  oversetting  her ;  but  a  boat  from  the  Carcass  joining  ours,  they 
dispersed.  One  of  that  ship's  boats  had  before  been  attacked  in  the  same  manner  off 
Moffen  island.  From  Dr.  Irving,  who  went  on  this  party,  I  had  the  following  account 
of  the  low  island. 

"  We  found  several  lai^  fir-trees  lying  on  the  shore,  sixteen  or  eighteen  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  sea;  some  of  these  trees  were  seventy  feet  long,  and  nad  been  torn  up 
by  the  roots ;  others  cut  down  by  the  axe,  and  notched  for  twelve  feet  lengths :  this 
timber  was  no  ways  decayed,  or  the  strokes  of  the  hatchet  in  the  least  effaced.  There 
were  likewise  some  pipe  staves,  and  wood  fashioned  for  use.  The  beach  was  formed 
of  old  timber,  sand,  and  whale  bones. 


I! 


L 


I'lIIPPil'H  JOURNAL  557 

*'  The  island  is  about  seven  miles  long,  flat«  and  formed  chicAy  of  stones  from  eighteen 
to  thirty  inches  over,  many  of  them  hexagons,  und  commodiously  placed  for  walking 
on  :  the  middle  of  the  island  is  covered  with  moss,  scurvy-grass,  sorrel,  und  a  few  ranun- 
culuses then  in  flower.  Two  reindeer  were  feeding  on  the  moss ;  one  we  killed,  und 
found  it  fat,  and  of  high  fluvour.  We  saw  a  light  gray -coloured  fox  ;  and  a  creature 
somewhat  larger  than  a  weasel,  with  short  ears,  long  tail,  und  skin  spotted  white  and 
black.  The  island  abounds  with  small  snipes,  similar  to  the  jack-snipe  in  England. 
The  ducks  were  now  hatching  their  eggs,  and  many  wild  geese  feeding  by  the  water- 
side." 

When  I  lefl  the  deck  at  six  in  the  morning,  the  weather  was  remarkably  clear,  and 
quite  calm.  To  the  N.  E.  amongst  the  islands,  I  saw  much  ice,  but  also  much  water 
between  the  pieces ;  which  f^dve  me  hopes  that,  when  a  breeze  sprung  up,  I  should  be 
able  to  get  to  the  northward  by  that  way. 

The  thirtieth,  little  winds,  und  calm  all  day  ;  wc  got  something  to  the  northward  and 
eastward.  At  noon  we  were  by  observation  in  latitude  80°  31'.  At  three  in  the  after- 
noon we  were  in  longitude  18°  48'  E.  being  amongst  the  islands,  and  in  the  ice,  with  no 
appearance  of  an  opening  for  the  ship.  Between  eleven  and  twelve  at  night  I  sent  the 
master,  Mr.  Crane,  in  the  four-oared  boat,  amongst  the  ice,  to  try  whether  he  could  get 
the  boat  through,  and  find  any  opening  for  the  ship,  which  might  give  us  a  prospect  of 
getting  farther ;  with  directions,  if  he  could  reach  the  shore,  to  go  up  one  of  the  moun- 
tains, m  order  to  discover  the  state  of  the  ice  to  the  eastward  and  northward.  At  five 
in  the  morning,  the  ice  being  all  round  us,  we  got  out  our  ice-anchors,  und  moored 
along-side  a  field.  The  master  returned  between  seven  and  eight,  and  with  him  captain 
Lutwidge,  who  had  joined  him  on  shore.  They  had  ascended  an  high  mountain,  from 
whence  they  commanded  a  prospect  extending  to  the  east  and  north-east  ten  or  twelve 
leagues,  over  one  continued  pluin  of  smooth  unbroken  ice,  bounded  only  by  the  hori- 
zon :  they  also  saw  land  stretching  to  the  S.  £.  laid  down  in  the  Dutch  charts  as  islands. 
The  main  body  of  the  ice,  which  we  had  traced  from  west  to  east,  they  now  perceived 
to  join  to  these  islands,  and  from  them  to  what  is  called  the  North-East-Land.  In  re. 
turning,  the  ice  having  closed  much  since  they  went,  they  were  frequently  forced  to  haul 
the  boat  over  it  to  other  openings.  The  weather  exceedingly  fine  and  mild,  and  un- 
usually clear.  The  scene  was  beautiful  and  picturesque  ;  the  two  ships  becalmed  in  a 
large  bay,  with  three  apparent  openings  between  the  islands  which  formed  it,  but  every 
where  surrounded  with  ice  as  far  as  we  could  see,  with  some  streams  of  water ;  not  a 
breath  of  air ;  the  water  perfectly  smooth ;  the  ice  covered  with  snow,  low  and  even, 
except  a  few  broken  pieces  near  ^he  edges :  the  pools  of  water  in  the  middle  of  the 
pieces  were  frozen  over  with  young  ice. 

The  thirty-first,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  having  a  light  breeze  to  the  eastward,  we 
cast  off,  and  endeavoured  to  force  through  the  ice.  At  noon  the  ice  was  so  close,  that 
being  unable  to  proceed,  we  moored  again  to  a  field.  In  the  afternoon  we  filled  our 
cask  with  fresh  water  from  the  ice,  which  we  found  very  pure  and  soft.  The  Carcass 
moved,  and  made  fast  to  the  same  field  with  us.  The  ice  measured  eight  yards  ten 
inches  in  thickness  at  one  end,  and  seven  yards  eleven  inches  at  the  other.  At  four  in 
the  afternoon  the  variadon  was  12°  24'  W.  at  the  same  time  the  longitude  19°  0'  kS" 
£.  by  which  we  found  that  we  had  hardly  moved  to  the  eastward  since  the  day  before. 
Calm  most  part  of  the  day ;  the  weather  very  fine ;  the  ice  closed  fast,  and  was  all 
round  the  ships ;  no  openmg  to  be  seen  any  where,  except  an  hole  of  about  a  mile  and 
a  half,  where  the  ships  lay  fast  to  the  ice  with  ice-anchors.    We  completed  the  water, 


558 


PIIIPPH'S  JUUHNAL. 


(, 


i  ! 


ll 


! 


The  ship's  company  were  pluving  on  the  ice  all  day.  The  pilots  bcinfif  much  further 
than  they  had  ever  been,  and  tne  season  advancing,  seemed  abrmcd  at  Ixriug  Ix-sct. 

The  first  of  August,  the  ice  pressed  in  fust ;  tliere  was  not  now  the  sinullest  opening ; 
the  two  ships  were  within  less  than  two  lengths  of  each  other,  separated  by  ice,  and 
neither  having  room  to  turn.  The  ice,  which  had  been  all  flat  the  day  before,  and 
almost  level  with  the  water's  edge,  was  now  in  many  places  forced  higher  than  the 
main-yard,  by  the  pieces  squeezing  together.  Our  latitude  this  day  at  noon,  by  the 
double  altitude,  was  80®  37 . 

The  second,  thick  foggy  wet  weather,  blowing  fresh  to  the  westward ;  the  ice  imme> 
diately  about  the  ships  rather  looser  tlian  the  day  before,  but  vet  hourly  setting  in  so 
fast  upon  us,  that  there  seemed  to  be  no  probability  of  getting  the  ships  out  again  with- 
out a  strong  east  or  north-east  wind.  There  was  not  the  smallest  apix:arance  of  open 
water,  except  a  little  towatds  the  west  point  of  the  north-east  land.  The  seven  islands 
and  north-east  land,  with  the  frozen  sea,  formed  almost  a  baiion,  leaving  but  about  four 
points  opening  for  the  ice  to  drifl  out,  in  case  of  a  change  of  wind. 

The  third,  the  weather  very  fine,  clear,  and  calm  ;  we  perceived  that  the  ships  had 
been  driven  far  to  the  eastward ;  the  ice  was  much  closer  than  before,  and  the  pissage 
by  which  we  had  come  in  from  the  westward  closed  up,  no  o\yen  water  being  in  sight, 
either  in  that  or  any  other  quarter.  The  pilots  having  expressed  a  wish  to  get  if  passible 
farther  out,  the  ships'  companies  were  set  to  work  at  five  in  the  morning,  to  cut  a  pas. 
sage  through  the  ice,  and  warp  through  the  small  openings  to  the  westward.  We  found 
the  ice  very  deep,  having  sawed  sometimes  through  pieces  twelve  feet  thick.  This  la. 
bour  was  continued  the  whole  day,  but  \nthout  any  success ;  our  utmost  eflforts  not 
having  moved  the  ships  above  three  hundred  yards  to  the  westward  through  the  ice,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  had  been  driven  (together  with  the  ice  itself,  to  which  they  were 
fast)  far  to  the  N.  £.  and  eastward  by  the  current ;  which  had  also  forced  the  loose  ice 
from  the  westward  between  the  islands,  where  it  became  packed,  and  as  firm  as  the  main 
body. 

The  fourth,  quite  calm  till  evening,  when  we  were  flattered  with  a  light  air  to  the 
eastward,  which  did  not  last  long,  and  had  no  favourable  effect.  The  wind  was  now 
at  N.  W.  with  a  very  thick  fog,  the  ship  driving  to  the  eastward.  The  pilots  seemed 
to  apprehend  that  the  ice  extended  very  far  to  the  southward  and  westward. 

1  he  fifth,  the  probability  of  getting  the  ships  out  appearing  every  hotr  less,  and 
the  season  being  already  far  advanced,  some  speedy  resolution  became  necessary  as  to 
the  steps  to  be  taken  for  the  preservation  of  the  people.  As  the  situation  of  the  ships 
prevented  us  from  seeing  the  state  of  the  ice  to  the  westward,  by  which  our  future  pro> 
ceedings  must  in  a  great  measure  be  determined,  I  sent  Mr.  Walden,  one  of  the  mid- 
shipmen, with  two  pilots,  to  an  island  about  twelve  miles  oflf,  which  I  have  distinguished 
in  the  charts  by  the  name  of  Walden's  Island,  to  see  where  the  open  water  lay. 

The  sixth,  Mr.  Walden  and  the  pilots,  who  were  sent  the  day  before  to  examine 
the  state  of  the  ice  from  the  island,  returned  thb  morning,  with  an  account  that  the  ice, 
though  close  all  about  us,  was  open  to  the  westward,  round  the  point  by  which  we 
came  in.  They  also  told  me,  that  when  upon  the  island  they  had  the  wind  very  fresh 
to  the  eastward,  though  where  the  ships  lay  it  had  been  almost  calm  all  day.  This  cir. 
cumstance  considerably  lessened  the  hopes  we  had  hitherto  entertained  of  the  immediate 
effect  of  an  easterly  wind  in  clearing  the  bay.  .  We  had  but  one  alternative ;  either 
patiently  to  wait  the  event  of  the  weather  upon  the  ships,  in  hopes  of  getting  them  out, 
or  to  betake  ourselves  to  the  boats.    The  ships  had  driven  into  shoal  water,  having  but 


■>'i 


ill 


PIIIVWS  JOUnXAL. 


559 


fourteen  fathoms.     Should  they,  or  the  ice  to  which  they  were  fast,  take  the  grnuiul, 
thty  must  be  incvitubly  lost,  and  probal)ly  overset.     The  hopes  of  getting  the  ships  out 
wuM  not  hastily  to  be  relinquished,  nor  obstinately  atthered  to,    till  all  other  means 
of  retreat  were  cut  off.     H.tving  no  harbour  to  lodge  them  in,  it  would  Ik;  im|K)hsible 
to  winter  them  here,   with  any  probability  of  their  fx-ing  again  serviceable ;  our  pro- 
visions would  be  very  short  lor  such  an  undertaking,  were  it  otherwise  feasible ;  and 
suppoHing  what  appeared  impossible,  that  wc  could  get  to  the  nearest  rocks,  and  make 
some  conveniences  for  wintering,  being  now  in  aii  unfretmented  part,  where    sliips 
never  even  attempt  to  come,  wc  should  have  the  same  uifficullics  to  encounter  tlie 
next  year,  without  the  same  resources  ;  the  remains  of  the  ship's  company,  in  all  pro- 
bability, not  in  health ;   no  provisions  ;  and  the  sea  not  so  oix:n,  this  3'ear  having  cer- 
tainly been  uncommonly  clear.     Indeed,  it  could  not  have  been  expected  that  inort 
than  a  very  small  part  should  survive  the  hardships  of  such  a  winter  with  every  ad- 
vantage; much  less  in  our  present  situation.     On  the  other  hand,  the  undertaking  to 
move  so  large  a  Ijody  for  so  considerable  a  distance,  by  boats,  was  not  without  very 
serious  dilBcultics.     Should  we  remain  much  longer  here,  the  bad  weather  must  be 
expected  to  set  in.     The  stay  of  the  Dutchmen  to  the  northward  is  very  doubtful :  if 
the  northern  harbours  keep  clear,  they  stay  till  the  beginning  of  September ;  but  when 
the  loose  ice  sets  in,  they  quit  them  immediately.     I  thought  it  proper  to  send  for  the 
officers  of  both  ships,  and  informed  them  of  my  intention  of  preparing  the  boats  for 
going  away.     I  immediately  hoisted  out  the  boats,  and  took  every  precaution  in  my 
power  to  make  them  secure  and  comfortiible :  the  fitting  would  necessarily  take  up 
some  days.     The  water  shoaling,  and  the  ships  driving  fast  towards  (he  rocks  to  the 
N.  E.  I  ordered  canvas  bread-bags  to  be  made,  in  case  it  should  be  necessary  very 
suddenly  to  betake  ourselves  to  the  boats :  I  also  sent  a  man  Avith  a  lead  and  line  to  the 
northward,  and  another  from  the  Carcass  to  the  eastward,  to  soimd  wherever  they  found 
cracks  in  the  ice,  diat  we  might  have  notice  before  either  the  ships,  or  the  ice  to  which 
they  were  fast,  took  the  ground  ;  as  in  that  case,  they  must  instantly  have  been  crushed 
or  overset.     The  weather  bad  ;  most  jxirt  of  the  day  foggy,  and  rather  cold. 

The  seventh,  in  the  morning,  I  set  out  with  the  launch  over  the  ice  ;  she  hauled  much 
easier  than  I  could  have  expected  ;  we  ^t  her  about  two  miles.  I  then  returned  with 
the  people  for  their  dinner.  Finding  the  ice  rather  more  open  near  the  ships,  I  was  en- 
couraged to  attempt  moving  them.  The  wind  being  easterly,  though  but  little  of  it,  we 
set  the  sails,  and  got  the  ships  abo.it  a  mile  to  the  westward.  They  moved,  indeed,  but 
very  slowly,  and  were  not  now  by  a  great  deal  so  far  to  the  westward  as  where  they 
were  beset.  However,  I  kept  all  the  sail  upon  them,  to  force  through  whenever 
the  ice  slacked  the  least.  The  people  behaved  very  well  in  hauling  the  boat ;  they 
seemed  reconciled  to  the  idea  of  quitting  the  ships,  and  to  have  the  fullest  confi. 
dence  in  their  officers.  The  boats  could  not  with  the  greatest  diligence  be  got  to  the 
water-side  before  the  fourteenth  ;  if  the  situation  of  the  ships  did  not  alter  by  that  time, 
I  should  not  be  justified  in  staying  ionger  by  them.  In  the  mean  time  I  resolved  to  cann- 
on both  attempts  together,  moving  the  boats  constantly,  but  without  omitting  any  oppor. 
tunity  of  getting  the  ships  through. 

The  eighth,  at  half  past  four,  sent  two  pilots  with  three  men  to  see  the  state  of  the 
ice  to  the  westward,  that  I  might  judge  of  the  probability  of  getting  the  ships  out.  At 
nine  they  returned,  and  reported  the  ice  to  be  very  heavy  and  close,  consisting  chiefly 
pf  large  fields.  Between  nine  and  ten  this  morning,  I  set  out  with  the  people,  and  got 
the  launch  above  three  miles.  The  weather  t^ing  fo^y,  and  the  people  having 
worked  hard,  I  thought  it  best  to  return  on  boa  d  between  six  and  seven.    The  ships 


(  « 


500 


rinPFii't  joimNAL. 


I      I 
},l 

il    ' 

r 

ill' 

(    : 
1 


'  u 


hod  in  the  mran  time  moved  somrthlttpj  through  the  icc,  and  the  Ice  it'tclfhad  drifted  "^till 
more  to  the  \ve^t^vard.  At  ni^ht  there  was  little  wind,  :tiid  atliick  fo^,  so  that  1  could 
not  jiidf^e  precisely  of  the  advantage  we  had  gained  ;  but  I  »till  Feared  that,  however  flat, 
tering,  it  wan  not  such  us  to  jiistiry  my  givini^  up  the  idea  of  moving  the  lK)at!H,  the  scnson 
advancing  so  fust,  the  pnservution  of  the  sihiph  being  ho  uncertiiin,  and  the  ititiiation  of 
the  people  so  critical. 

''  he  ninth,  u  thick  f«>g  in  the  rnort\ing,  we  moved  the  sliip  a  little  through  some  very 
small  openings.  In  the  afternoon,  upon  its  clearing  up,  wc  were  agreeably  suq)rised  to 
find  the  ships  had  driven  luuch  more  than  we  could  have  expected  to  the  westward.  VVc 
worked  hard  all  da\ ,  and  got  them  something  more  to  the  westward  through  the  ice : 
but  nothing  in  comparison  to  what  the  ice  itself  hud  drifted.  VVc  got  past  the  iaiuiches  : 
I  sent  a  ninnlKT  of  men  for  them,  and  got  them  on  lx)ard.  Between  three  and  four  in 
the  morning  the  wind  was  westerly,  and  it  snowed  fast.  The  |Kople  having  been  much 
fatigued,  we  were  obliged  to  desist  from  working  for  a  few  hours.  The  progress  which 
the  .'•iips  had  made  thn)ugh  the  ice  was,  however,  a  very  favourable  event :  the  drift  of 
the  ice  was  an  advantage  that  might  be  as  suddenly  lost,  as  it  had  been  imcxpectedly 
gained  by  a  change  in  the  current :  we  had  ex|)crienced  the  inefBcacy  of  an  easterly  wind 
wlien  far  in  the  bay,  and  imder  the  high  land ;  but  having  now  got  through  so  much  of  the 
ice,  we  bei^an  again  to  conceive  hopes  that  a  brisk  gale  from  that  quarter  would  soon 
eflcctually  clear  us. 

The  tenth,  the  wind  springing  up  to  the  N.  N.  F„  in  the  morning,  we  set  all  the  sail 
we  could  upon  the  ship,  and  forced  her  through  a  great  deal  of  very  heavy  ice  :  she 
struck  often  very  hard,  and  with  one  stroke  broke  the  shank  of  the  best  bower  anchor. 
About  noon  we  had  got  her  through  all  the  ice,  and  out  to  sea.  I  stood  to  the  N.  W. 
to  make  the  ice,  and.  lound  the  main  body  just  where  wc  left  it.  At  three  in  the  morning, 
with  a  good  breeze  easterly,  we  were  standing  to  the  westward,  between  the  land  and 
the  ice,  both  in  sight,  the  weather  hazy. 

The  eleventh,  came  to  an  anchor  in  the  harbour  of  Smeerenberg,  to  refresh  the  peo- 
ple after  their  fatigues.  We  found  here  four  of  the  Dutch  ships,  which  we  had  left  in 
the  Norways  when  we  sailed  from  Vogel  Sang,  and  upon  which  I  had  depended  for  car- 
rying  the  people  home,  in  case  we  had  been  obliged  to  quit  the  ships.  In  this  sound 
there  is  good  anchorage  in  thirteen  fathom,  sandy  oottom,  not  far  from  the  shore :  it  is 
well  sheltered  from  all  winds.  The  island  close  to  which  we  lay  is  called  Amsterdam 
Island,  the  Westernmost  point  of  which  is  Hacluit's  Head  Land  :  here  the  Dutch  used 
formerly  to  boil  their  whale<oi!,  and  the  remains  of  some  conveniences  erected  by  them 
for  that  purpose  are  still  visible.  Once  they  attempted  to  make  an  establishmetjt,  and  left 
some  people  to  winter  here,  who  all  perished.  1  he  Dutch  ships  still  resort  to  this  place 
for  the  latter  season  of  the  whale  fishery. 

The  twelfth,  got  the  istruments  on  shore,  and  the  tent  pitched ;  but  could  not  make 
any  observations  this  day  or  the  next,  from  the  badness  of  the  weather. 

The  thirteenth,  rain,  and  blowing  hard :  two  of  the  Dutch  ships  sailed  for  Holland. 

The  fourteenth,  the  weather  being  fine,  and  little  wind,  we  began  our  observations. 

The  eighteenth,  completed  the  observations.  Calm  all  the  day.  During  our  t^*^^y, 
I  again  set  up  the  pendulum,  but  was  not  so  fortunate  as  before,  never  having  berii  r'Je 
to  get  an  observation  of  a  revolution  of  the  sun,  or  even  equal  altitudes  for  the  tin' :, 
We  had  an  opportunity  of  determining  the  refraction  at  nadniglit,  which  answend  vvitb5n 
a  few  seconds  to  the  calculation  in  Dr.  Bradley's  table,  allowing  for  the  baromeli  r  avtl 
thermometer.  Being  within  sight  of  Cloven  Cliff,  I  took  a  survey  of  this  part  of  I'nir 
Haven,  to  connect  it  with  the  plan  of  the  other  pan.     Dr.  Irving  climbed  up  a  moun- 


,1 


puiPi»h'«»  JornvAL. 


561 


Uiii),  to  take  its  height  with  the  barometer,  which  I  iletcrmincd  ut  the  «amc  tinu*  i';eome- 
triealty  with  great  care.  By  repeutal  observations  iicre  we  f»jniul  the  l;>titii((e  lo  Ik*  7'>^ 
44,  whieh  by  the  survey  eorrtspoiidcd  exactly  with  the  laiitiide  of  Cloven  CliH,  deter- 
mined kfure;  the  longitude  9"  50'  45''  K. ;  dip  **2*  8'  and  three  foiirdw :  variation 
18"  57'  W. ;  whieh  agrees  also  with  the  observation  made  on  shore  in  July.  The  tide 
flowed  here  halt  past  •);>c,  the  same  as  in  Vogel  Sang  harbour. 

Opposite  to  the  place  where  the  instruments  stootl,  was  one  of  the  most  a'markabit 
iceljtrgs  in  this  coin)try.  Icebt  rgs  are  large  l)odies  of  ice  filling  the  vallies  between  the 
high  ni(>unt;;ins;  the  face  tow.if's  the  sea  is  nearly  periK-nilicular,  and  of  a  very  live, 
ly  light  green  colour.  That  n  presented  in  the  engraving,  from  a  skeleh  bv  Mr. 
D'Auvergne  u|M)n  the  spot,  vv.is  about  three  hui\dred  feet  high,  with  a  cascade  ol  water 
issuing  out  of  it.  The  black  Mountains,  white  snow,  and  '  .Iful  colour  of  the  ice, 
make  u  very  romantic  and  uncommon  picture.  Large  pieces  fre(|nently  break  oft' 
from  the  icebergs,  and  fall  with  great  noise  into  the  water :  we  observed  one  piece 
which  had  floated  out  into  the  bay,  and  groinided  in  twenty-four  fathom ;  it  was 
fifty  feet  high  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  of  the  same  beautiful  colour  as  the 
iceixrg. 

A  particular  description  of  all  the  plants  and  animals  will  have  a  place  in  the  Appcn. 
dix.  I  shall  here  mention  such  general  observation.*  hh  my  short  stay  enabled  me  to 
make.  The  stone  we  found  was  chiefly  a  kind  of  marble,  which  dissolved  easily  in 
the  marine  acid.  We  i)erceive(l  no  marks  of  minerals  of  any  kind,  nor  the  least  a;), 
ptraraiicc  of  present,  or  remains  of  fortner,  volcanoes.  Neuher  did  we  meet  with  in- 
sects,  or  any  species  of  reptilus  ;  not  even  the  common  earth-worm.  We  saw  no  8|)rings 
or  rivers,  the  water,  which  we  found  in  great  plenty,  being  all  produced  by  the  melting 
of  the  snow  from  the  nioiuitains.  During  the  whole  time  we  were  in  these  latitudes, 
there  was  no  thunder  or  lightning.  I  must  also  add,  that  I  never  found  what  is  men> 
tioncd  by  Marten  (who  is  generally  iiccurate  in  his  observations,  and  faithful  in  his  ac 
count)  of  the  sun  at  midnight  resembling  in  api)carance  the  moon ;  I  saw  no  difl'ercnce 
in  clear  weather  between  the  sun  at  midnight  and  any  other  time,  but  what  arose 
from  a  different  degree  of  altitude;  the  brightness  of  the  light  appearing  there,  as  well 
as  elsewhere,  to  depend  upon  the  obliquity  of  his  rays.  I'he  sky  was  in  general  loaded 
with  hard  white  clouds ;  so  that  I  do  not  rememlxjr  to  have  ever  seen  the  sun  and 
the  horizon  both  free  from  them  even  in  the  clearest  weather.  We  could  always  per- 
ceive when  we  were  approaching  die  ice,  long  before  we  saw  it,  by  a  bright  appear- 
ance near  the  horizon,  which  tliC  two  pilots  called  the  blink  of  the  ice.  Hudson  re- 
marked, that  the  sea  where  he  met  with  ice  was  blue  ;  but  the  green  sea  was  free 
from  it.  I  was  particularly  attentive  to  observe  this  difference,  but  could  never  discern 
it. 

The  driftwood  in  these  stas  has  given  rise  to  various  opinions  and  conjectures,  both 
as  to  its  nature  and  the  place  of  its  growth.  All  that  which  wc  saw  (except  the  pipe- 
staves  taken  notice  of  by  Dr.  Irving  on  the  low  island)  was  fir,  and  not  worm-eaten.  The 
place  of  its  growth  I  had  no  opportunity  of  ascertaining. 

The  nature  of  the  ice  was  a  principal  object  of  attention  in  this  climate.  We  found 
always  a  great  swell  near  the  edge  of  it ;  but  whenever  we  got  within  the  loose  ice,  the 
water  was  constantly  smooth.  The  loose  fields  and  flaws,  as  well  as  the  interior  part 
of  the  fixed  ice,  were  flat  and  low  :  with  the  wind  blowing  on  the  ice,  the  loose  parts 
were  always,  to  use  the  phnisc  of  the  Greenlandmen.  picked  ;  the  ice  at  the  edges  ap- 
pearing  nnigh,  and  piled  up ;  this  roughness  and  height  I  imagine  to  proceed  fromihe 
smaller  pieces  being  thrown  up  by  the  force  of  the  sea  on  the  solid  part.     During  ihe 

VOL.    I.  A   c 


1 


I 


iN.i 


&.t 


I'l 


11'^ 


I  III' 


1   11 

Hi 


.1102 


I'KIPrS'S  JOUnNAL. 


time  that  we  were  Hist  nmongst  the  seven  islands^  we  had  frequent  opportunities  of  ob- 
serving the  irresistible  force  of  the  large  bodies  of  floating  ice.  We  have  often  seen  a 
piece  of  several  acres  square  lifted  up  between  two  much  larger  pieces,  and  as  it  were 
becoming  one  with  them ;  and  afterwards  this  piece  so  formed  acting  in  the  same  man- 
ner upon  a  second  and  a  third ;  which  would  probably  have  continued  to  be  the  effect, 
till  the  whole  bay  had  been  so  filled  with  ice  that  die  different  pieces  could  have  had  no 
motion,  had  not  the  stream  taken  an  unexpected  turn,  and  set  the  ice  out  of  the  bay. 

The  nineteenth,  weighed  in  the  morning  with  the  wind  at  N.  N.  E.  Before  we  got 
out  of  the  bay  it  fell  calm.  I  observed  for  these  three  or  four  days,  about  eleven  in  the 
evening,  an  appearance  of  dusk. 

The  twentieth,  at  midnight,  being  exactly  in  the  latitude  of  Cloven  Cliff,  Mr.  Har- 
vey took  an  observation  for  the  refraction ;  which  we  found  agreeable  with  the  tables. 
The  wind  southerly  all  day,  blowing  fresh  in  the  afternoon.  About  noon  fell  in  with  a 
stream  of  loose  ice,  and  about  four  made  the  main  ice  near  us.  We  stood  to  the  W.  N. 
W.  along  it  at  night,  and  found  it  in  the  same  situation  as  when  we  saw  it  before ;  the 
AS  ind  freshened  and  the  weather  grew  thick,  so  that  we  lost  sight  of  it,  and  could  not 
venture  to  stand  nearer,  the  'vind  being  S.  S.  W. 

The  twenty-first,  at  two  in  the  morning  we  were  close  in  with  the  body  of  the  west  ice, 
and  obliged  to  tack  for  it ;  blowing  fresh,  with  a  very  heavy  sea  from  the  southward. 
The  wind  abated  in  the  afternoon,  but  the  swell  continued,  with  a  thick  fog. 

The  twenty,  second,  the  wind  sprung  up  northerly,  with  a  thick  fog ;  about  noon  mo- 
derate and  clearer ;  but  coming  on  to  blow  fresh  again  in  the  evening,  with  a  great  sea, 
and  thick  fog,  I  was  forced  to  haul  more  to  the  eastward,  lest  we  should  be  embayed,  or 
run  upon  lee  ice. 

The  season  was  so  very  far  advanced,  and  fogs  as  well  as  gales  of  wind  so  much  to  be 
expected,  that  nothing  more  could  now  have  been  done,  had  any  thing  been  left  untried. 
Tlie  summer  appears  to  have  been  uncommonly  favourable  for  our  purpose,  and  af- 
forded us  the  fullest  opportunity  of  ascertaining  repeatedly  the  situation  of  that  wall  of 
ice,  extending  for  more  than  20°  between  the  latitudes  of  80*  and  81",  without  the 
smallest  appearance  of  any  opening. 

I  should  here  conclude  the  account  of  the  voyage,  had  not  some  observations  and  ex- 
pcriments  occurred  on  the  passage  hoir  . 

In  steering  to  the  southward  we  soon  found  the  weather  grow  more  mild,  or  rather  to 
our  feelings  warm.  August  the  twenty-fourth  we  saw  Jupiter :  the  sight  of  a  star  was 
now  become  almost  as  extraordinary  a  phenomenon,  as  the  sun  at  midnight  when  we 
first  got  within  the  Arctic  circle.  The  weather  was  very  fine  for  some  part  of  the  voy- 
age ;  on  the  fourth  of  September,  the  water  being  perfecUy  smooth  with  a  dead  calm,  I 
repeated  with  success  the  attempt  I  had  made  to  get  soundings  in  the  main  ocean  at  great 
dejjths,  and  struck  ground  in  six  hundred  and  eighty-three  fathoms,  with  circumstances 
(which  will  be  mentioned  in  the  Appendix)  that  convince  me  I  was  not  mistaken  in  the 
depth  ;  the  bottom  was  a  fine  soft  blue  clyy.  From  the  seventh  of  September,  when  we 
were  off  Shetland,  till  the  twenty-fourth,  when  we  madf  Orfordness,  we  had  very  hard 
gales  of  wind,  with  little  intermission,  which  were  constantly  indicated  several  hours  before 
they  came  on,  by  the  fall  of  the  barometer,  and  rise  of  the  manometer :  this  proved 
to  me  the  utility  of  those  instruments  at  sea.  In  one  of  these  gales,  the  hardest,  I  think, 
I  ever  was  in,  and  with  the  greatest  sea,  we  lost  three  of  our  boats,  and  were  obliged  to 
heave  two  of  our  guns  overboard  and  bear  away  for  some  time,  though  near  a  lee-shore, 
to  clear  the  ship  of  water.  I  cannot  omit  this  opportunity  of  repeating,  that  1  had  the 
greatest  reason  on  this,  as  well  as  every  other  critical  occasion^  to  be  satisfied  with  the 


PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


563 


behaviour  both  of  the  officers  and  seamen.  In  one  of  these  gales,  on  the  twelfth  of  Sep- 
tember,  Dr.  Irving  tried  the  temperature  of  the  sea  in  that  state  of  agitation,  and  found 
it  considerably  warmer  than  that  of  the  atmosphere.  This  observation  is  the  more  in- 
teresting, as  It  agrees  with  a  passage  in  Plutarch's  Natural  Questions,  not,  I  bel'/jvc  be- 
fore taken  notice  cf,  or  confirmed  by  experiment,  in  which  he  remarks,  *'  that  the  sea 
becomes  warmer  by  being  agitated  in  waves." 

The  frequent  and  very  heavy  gales  at  the  latter  end  of  the  year  confirmed  me  in  the 
opinion,  that  the  time  of  our  sailing  from  England  was  the  properest  that  could  have 
been  chosen.  These  gales  are  as  common  in  the  spring  as  in  autumn :  there  is  every 
reason  to  suppose,  therefore,  that  at  an  early  season  we  should  have  met  with  the  same 
bad  weather  m  going  out  as  we  did  on  our  return.  The  unavoidable  necessity  of  car- 
rying a  quantity  of  additional  stores  and  provisions  rendered  the  ships  so  deep  in  the  wa- 
ter, that  m  heavy  gales  the  boats,  with  many  of  the  stores,  must  probably  have  been 
thrown  overboard ;  as  we  experienced  on  our  way  home,  though  the  ships  were  then 
much  lightened  by  the  consumption  of  provisions,  and  expenditure  of  stores.  Such  ac- 
cidents  in  the  outset  must  have  defeated  the  voyage.  At  the  time  we  sailed,  added  to 
the  fine  weather,  we  had  the  further  advantage  of  nearly  reaching  the  latitude  of  cightv 
without  seeing  ice,  which  the  Greenlandmen  generally  fall  in  with  in  the  latitude  of 
seventy-three  or  seventy-four.  There  was  also  most  probability,  if  ever  navigation  should 
be  practicable  to  the  Pole,  of  finding  the  sea  open  to  the  northward  after  the  solstice ; 
the  sun  having  then  exerted  the  full  mfluence  of  his  rays,  though  there  was  enough  of 
the  summer  still  remaining  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  the  seas  to  the  northward  and 
westward  of  Spitsbergen. 


'U 


APPENDIX OBSEHVATIONS  ON  DIFFERENT  METHODS  OF   MEASURING  A  SHIP'S  WAY. 

THE  degree  of  accuracy  with  which  the  distance  run  by  a  ship  can  be  measured  is 
a  thing  of  great  importance,  but  unfortunately  not  easily  to  be  ascertained,  from  the  great 
variety  of  circumstances  which  may  occasion  errors  in  the  reckoning,  and  which,  though 
not  depending  upon  the  measure  of  the  ship's  way,  may  in  voyages  not  nearly  upon  a 
meridian  be  confounded  with  those  diat  do.  The  circumstances  of  the  present  voyage 
gave  me  the  fairest  opportunity  of  trying  this  experiment,  the  weather  being  fine,  and 
the  course  very  nearly  upon  a  meridian  ;  so  that  an  error  of  one  point  could  not  make 
more  than  the  difference  of  one  mile  in  fifty  in  the  distance.  When  the  difference  of 
latitude  is  the  same  as  the  distance,  it  gives  frequent  opjwrtunities  of  comparing  the 
reckoning  with  the  observation,  and  whatever  error  is  found  must  be  attributed  to  the 
imperfections  in  the  maimer  of  measuring  the  distance.  Most  of  the  writers  on  this 
subject  have  attributed  the  errors  to  a  faulty  division  of  the  log  line. 

Before  Norwood  measured  a  degree,  the  length  of  a  minute  had  been  erroneously  sup- 
posed five  thousand  feet :  in  consequence  of  which,  the  log-line,  from  the  first  use  of  that 
instrument  about  the  year  1570,  was  invariably  marked  forty-two  feet  to  thirty  seconds. 
Norwood,  when  he  publishec  his  Seaman's  Practice,  stated  the  true  measure  to  be  fifty- 
one  feet  to  thirty  seconds ;  but  as  the  ship  would  really  run  more  than  is  given  by  the 
log,  and  it  is  right  to  have  the  reckoning  ahead  of  the  ship,  he  recommended  marking 
the  log-line  fifty  three  feet  to  thirty  seconds.  It  does  not  appear  at  what  time  an  alter- 
ation either  in  the  marking  the  log,  or  the  length  of  the  glass,  took  place  in  consequence oi 
these  observations :  Sir  Jonas  Moore  in  hia  navigation  which  was  published  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  Second  mentions,  that  the  seamen,  having  found  the  old  log  not  to  answer. 


had  shortened  the  glass  Co  twenty.five  seconi 


:■? 


wliich  WAS 
c  2 


equal  to  a  line  marked  fiftv 


ill 


564 


I'lIIPPS'S  JOUHNAL. 


feet  with  a  glass  of  thirty  seconds ;  but  he  rather  recommends  restoring  the  half  minute 
glass,  and  making  the  correction  on  the  line.  Since  that  time  the  seamen,  whether  from 
finding  the  allowance  of  one  foot  in  fif\y  not  a  sufficient  compensation  for  the  accidental 
errors  to  which  the  log  is  subject,  or  from  a  preference  of  a  measure  nearly  equal  to  the 
statute  mile,  have  used  a  line  of  forty-five  feet  to  thirty  seconds,  or  a  glass  of  twenty- 
eight  seconds  to  forty. two  feet. 

All  the  writers  1  have  met  with,  who  have  treated  of  the  log,  except  Wilson,  have 
complained  of  the  seamen  not  having  adhered  to  Norwood's  measure.  Norwood  him- 
sell",  however,  seems  to  have  been  aware  of  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  the  test  of  ex- 
periment the  advantages  of  a  new  measurement  derived  from  theory.  In  the  preface  to 
his  Seaman's  Practice  he  says,  **  Because  I  am  persuaded  we  have  at  this  day  as  many 
excellent  navigators  in  this  kingdom,  and  as  great  voyages  performed,  as  from  any  other 
place  in  the  world,  I  should  be  ^lad  to  hear  of  the  experimental  resolution  of  tlus  pro- 
blem by  some  of  them,  though  it  were  but  running  eight  or  ten  degrees  near  the  meri- 
dian :  for  so  I  doubt  not  but  what  I  have  here  written  thereof  would  receive  further 
confirmation  and  better  entertainment  than  haply  it  will  now,  being  so  much  differ- 
ent from  the  common  opinion." 

Had  the  errors  in  the  distance  arrisen  only  from  a  fault  in  marking  the  line,  nothing 
would  have  been  more  easy  than  to  have  removed  that  difficulty,  by  comparing  careful- 
ly the  different  measures  with  the  observations,  and  adhering  to  that  which  nad  been 
found  to  correspond  best  with  them.  But  the  distance  measured  by  the  log  being  ren- 
dered uncertain  by  many  accidental  circumstances,  it  becomes  difficult,  or  rather  impos- 
sible, to  find  any  length  of  line  which  will  shew  invariably  the  distance  run  by  the  ship, 
or  even  to  ascertain  with  precision  that  measure  which  will  at  all  times  come  nearest  the 
truth.     Some  of  these  circumstances  are  : 

1.  The  effects  of  currents. 

2.  The  yawing  of  the  ship  going  with  the  wind  aft,  or  upon  the  quarter,  when  she  is 
seldom  steered  within  a  point  each  way  :  this  I  mention  as  an  error  in  the  distance,  and 
not  in  the  course ;  since,  though  the  ship  by  being  yawed  equally  each  way  may  make 
the  intended  course  good  upon  the  whole,  yet  the  distance  will  be  shortened  as  the  ver- 
sed  sine  of  the  angle  between  the  line  intended  and  that  steered  upon. 

3.  By  the  ship  being  driven  on  by  the  swell,  or  the  log  during  the  time  of  heaving  be- 
ing thrown  up  nearer  the  ship. 

4.  By  the  log  coming  home,  or  being  drawn  after  the  ship,  by  the  friction  of  the 
reel  and  the  lightness  of  the  log.  Norwood  mentions  these  two  last,  and  says,  **  For 
these  causes,  it  is  like,  there  may  sometimes  be^allowed  three  fathoms  or  more  than  is 
veered  out ;  but  this  (as  a  thing  mutable  and  uncertain)  being  sometimes  more,  some- 
times less,  cannot  be  brought  to  any  certain  rule,  but  such  allowance  may  be  made  as  a 
man  in  his  experience  and  discretion  finds  fit." 

5.  By  the  log  being  only  a  mean  taken  every  hour,  and  consequently  liable  to  error 
from  the  variations  in  the  force  of  the  wind  during  the  intervals,  for  which  an  arbitrary 
correction  is  made  by  the  officer  of  the  watch ;  and  though  men  of  skill  and  experience 
come  near  the  truth,  yet  this  allowance  must,  ft>m  its  nature,  be  inaccurate. 

These  circumstances  did  not  escape  M.  Bouguer's  attention,  and  his  ingenuity  sug- 
gested  to  him  an  improvement  of  the  common  log,  which  would  correct  the  errors 
likely  to  arise  from  the  most  material  of  these  circumstances :  a  description  of  this  im- 
provement he  published  at  large  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  for  the 
year  1747 ;  it  has  since  been  abridged  in  the  edition  of  his  Navigation  by  De  la  Caille. 
It  appears  extraordinary  that  this  log  should  never  have  been  made  use  of  by  others ; 


•^l 


PIIIPPS'S  JOUUNAL. 


565 


the  ^at  reputation  of  the  author,  as  well  as  the  very  good  reasons  he  offers  in  favour 
of  his  improvement,  were  sufficient  inducements  to  me  to  try  the  experiment. 

In  the  log  which  I  made  use  of, 

The  length  of  the  cone  was  ....  -         12  inches. 

The  diameter  of  the  base  .....         S^. 

The  weight  of  the  cone  -  -  -  -  -        25   ounces. 

The  diagonal  length  of  the  diver  -  -  -  .14  inches. 

The  length  of  each  side  .....        9|. 

The  weight  of  the  diver  -  -  -  -  -        26  *  ounces. 

The  length  of  line  from  the  diver  to  the  cone,  50  feet :  the  log  line  51  feet  to  a 
knot 

Whether  M.  Bouguer's  log  will  (as  he  expected)  correct  the  errors  arising  from  cur- 
rents in  the  common  log,  I  had  no  opportunity  in  cUscovering  in  this  voyage. 

The  second  error,  which  no  log  will  coTect,  cannot  be  attended  with  any  bad  effect, 
as  it  must  make  the  reckoning,  in  whatevt.  degree  it  takes  place,  ahead  of  the  ship. 

By  observing  M.  Bouguer's  rules  in  comparing  it  with  the  common  log,  which  for 
that  purpose  must  be  reckoned  at  fifty -one  feet,  it  will,  I  think,  very  fully  correct  the 
third  and  fourth,  which  are  the  most  material  errors,  as  the  agitation  of  the  sea  from 
winds  does  not  exceed  the  depth  to  which  the  diver  is  let  down,  and  the  weight  of  the 
whole  machine  nrevents  the  fricdon  of  the  reel  from  having  an  effect  in  any  degree  equal 
to  that  which  it  has  on  the  common  log. 

The  fifth  arises  from  the  imperfection  it  has  in  common  with  the  log  generally  used. 

At  first,  on  the  passage  out,  I  contented  myself  with  heaving  Bouguer's  log  occa- 
sionally, to  observe  what  precautions  were  necessary  to  be  taken  to  prevent  errors,  as 
wdl  as  to  find  whether  its  variations  from  the  common  log  were  on  the  same  side  as  the 
meridian  observation  required.  I  found  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  care  that  the  diver 
should  be  of  such  a  weight  as  to  let  only  the  top  of  the  cone  swim ;  but  not  heavy  enough 
to  sink  it,  as  in  that  case  it  would  be  liable  to  an  error  in  excess,  by  measuring  the  depth 
that  the  diver  would  sink  in  addition  to  the  ship's  way.  It  was  necessary  to  put  a  weight 
of  lead  to  the  bottom  of  the  diver,  to  sink  it  down  to  its  place  before  the  stray  line  was 
out.  The  line  between  the  diver  and  the  cone  should  not  be  more  than  fifty  feet,  that 
being  as  great  a  depth  as  it  will  sink  to  whilst  the  stray  line  is  running  off  the  reel,  when 
the  ship  has  much  way  through  the  water. 

On  the  passage  out,  the  longest  period  of  my  trying  this  log  between  two  observations 
was  from  the  twenty-fifth  to  the  thirtieth ;  in  which  time  the  ship  had  run  four  degrees, 
and  the  rekoning  by  Bouguer's  log  was  eighteen  miles  astern  of  the  ship :  but  as  it  ap- 
pears that  the  ship  on  the  twenty-sixth,  with  the  wind  northerly,  and  making  barely  at) 
east  course,  was  found  by  the  observation  to  be  twenty  miles  to  the  northward  of  her 
reckoning,  that  distance  must  be  attributed  to  a  current ;  therefore,  if  that  current  had 
not  taken  place,  Bouguer's  log  would  have  been,  instead  of  eighteen  miles  astern,  two 
miles  ahead  of  the  ship. 

On  the  passage  home  it  was  tried  from  the  latitude  of  eighty  degrees  eleven  minutes, 
to  sixty-eight  degrees  eleven  minutes ;  in  which  distance,  though  the  ship  was  much 
yawed  from  the  sea  being  frequently  upon  the  quarter,  this  log  was  only  thirty-one  miles 
aiiead  of  the  ship,  which  might  be  owing  entirely  to  that  circumstance,  withouc  any  other 
cause. 

The  state  of  the  common  log  on  the  passage  out,  when  the  weather  was  remarkably 
fine,  and  water  in  general  smooth,  was,  from  the  latitude  of  sixty  degrees  thirty-seven 
minutes  to  seventy-eight  des^rees  eight  minutes,  with  the  line  marked  fifty-one  feet  to 
diirty  seconds,  one  degree  fifty-eight  minutes  astern  .  i' the  ship,  with  the  line  marked  forty- 


\ 


»'■ 

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: 


i|: 


566 


PIIIPI'S'S  JOURNAL. 


five  feet  to  thirty  seconds,  four  miles  ahcud  of  the  ship.  On  the  passage  home  the  log  at 
fifty-one  feet  to  thirty  seconds,  thirty -five  miles  astern  of  the  ship  ;  at  tbrty-five  to  thirty 
seconds,  one  degree  seven  minutes  ahead  of  U»e  sliip.  Ab  far  therefore  as  the  experience 
of  this  voyage  extends,  it  appears  that  the  eriors  of  the  log  marked  forty-five  feet  are  al- 
ways  on  the  safe  side,  and  that  those  of  the  longer  marked  line  are  always  short  of  the 
run ;  but  that  Bouguer's  is  much  more  accurate  than  cither. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  observations  of  a  single  voyage  can  be  sufficient  to 
determine  the  merit  of  any  instrument,  particularly  one  of  so  much  consequence  as  the 
log.  I  thought  it  right,  however,  to  give  an  account  of  the  u'ial  1  made  of  the  different 
methods,  and  of  such  remarks  as  occurred  tome.^ 

I  also  tried  two  perpetual  logs  ;  one  invented  by  Mr.  Russell,  the  other  by  Foxon, 
both  constructed  upon  this  principle,  that  a  spiral,  in  proceeding  its  own  length  in  the 
direction  of  its  axis  through  a  resisting  medium,  makes  one  revolution  round  the  axis ; 
if  therefore  the  revolutions  of  the  spiral  are  registered,  the  number  of  times  it  has  gone 
its  own  length  through  the  water  will  be  known.  In  both  these  the  motion  of  the  spiral 
in  the  water  is  communicated  to  the  clock-work  within  board,  by  means  of  a  small  line 
fastened  at  one  end  to  the  spiral,  which  tows  it  after  the  ship,  and  at  the  other  to  a 
spindle,  which  sets  the  clock-work  in  motion.  That  invented  by  Mr.  Russell  has  a  half 
spiral  of  two  threads,  made  of  copper,  and  a  small  dial  with  clock-work,  to  register  the 
number  of  turns  of  the  spiral.  Foxon's  has  a  whole  spiral  of  wood  with  one  thread, 
and  a  larger  piece  of  clock-work,  with  three  dials,  two  of  them  to  mark  the  distance,  and 
the  other  divided  into  knots  and  fathoms,  to  shew  the  rate  by  the  half-minute  glass,  for 
the  convenience  of  comparing  it  with  the  log. 

This  log,  like  all  others,  is  liable  to  the  first  error,  as  well  as  to  the  second.  The  third 
it  partakes  of  in  a  very  small  degree,  only  affecting  the  reckoning  by  that  quantity  which 
the  spiral  is  thrown  towards  the  ship ;  whereas  in  the  log  the  same  circumstance  affects 
the  whole  rate  for  the  hour.  The  fourth  it  is  entirely  free  from,  as  well  as  the  fifth. 
It  will  have  the  advantage  of  every  other  in  smooth  water  and  moderate  weather,  when 
it  is  necessary'  to  stand  on  one  course  for  any  particular  distance,  especially  in  the  night, 
or  a  fog,  as  it  measures  exactly  the  distance  mn.  It  will  also  be  very  useful  in  finding 
the  trim  of  a  ship  when  alone ;  as  well  as  in  surveying  a  coast  in  a  single  ship,  or  in  mea- 
suring distances  in  a  boat  between  headlands  or  shoals,  when  a  base  is  not  otherwise  to 
Ix;  obtained  ;  both  which  it  will  do  with  the  greatest  accuracy  in  smooth  water,  with  a 
large  wind,  and  no  tide  or  current.  But  notwithstanding  these  advantages,  which  will 
make  it  very  useful  and  worth  having,  I  doubt  much  whether  it  might  ever  be  substi- 
tuted entirety  in  the  room  of  the  common  log.  Machines  easily  repaired  or  replaced 
have  advantages  at  sea,  which  should  not  lighdy  be  given  up  for  others  more  specious. 

OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  USE  OF  THE  MEGAMETEr.  IN  MARINE  SURVEYING. 

The  greatest  difficulty  in  marine  surveying  is  that  of  obtaining  an  accurate  base,  from 
the  extremities  of  which  the  angles  may  be  taken  with  precision,  for  ascertaining  the 
bearings  and  distance  of  headlands  and  shoals,  when  eitlier  want  of  time  or  other  cir- 
cumstances make  it  impracticable  to  land  and  measure  a  base.  The  usual  way  is,  to 
estimate  the  distance  by  the  1^,  and  to  take  the  angles  by  the  compass.  This  method 
is  liable  to  many  errors,  and  affords  no  means  of  correcting  or  discovering  them.  The 
megameter,  constructed  upon  the  principles  of  the  object-glass  micrometer,  described  by 
M.  de  Chaniiere,  and  applied  by  him  to  find  the  longitude  at  sea,  I  thought  might  be 
usefully  applied  to  mr  ine  surveying.     That  which  I  used  was  made  by  Ramsden,  with 

*  The  table  and  others  are  omitted)  as  only  interesting  to  nautical  readers. 


>. 


"T 


PlllPi'S'S  JOUUNAI,. 


567 


some  improvements.  The  adv<nntagC9  I  imagined  might  lie  derived  from  this  instru- 
ment were,  a  more  correct  and  expeditious  manner  of  determining  the  position  of  coasts, 
and  the  distance  of  shoals  or  the  ship  from  headlands.  This  instrument  being  divided 
to  ten  seconds,  an  angle  may  be  taken  by  it  with  great  accuracy  to  five  seconds.  The 
height  of  a  ship's  mast-head  above  the  water  being  known,  it  is  easy  to  find  with  this  in- 
strument, by  a  single  observation,  the  distance  between  two  ships,  and  consequently  to 
determine  a  base.  The  angles  being  taken  with  an  Hadley's  quadrant  from  each  of  the 
ships,  to  the  objects  whose  situations  are  designed  to  be  ascertauied,  the  distance  may  be 
found,  and  consequently  their  relative  situations.  If  there  is  a  megameter  in  each  ship, 
the  altitudes  taken  from  both  ships  at  one  instant,  and  the  angles  of  the  different  parts  of 
the  coast  intended  to  be  surveyed  observed  with  an  Hadley's  quadrant  at  the  same  lime,  ' 
will  give  the  situation  with  more  accuracy  and  expedition  than  any  method  of  survey- 
ing from  ships  hitherto  practised ;  with  the  farther  advanta^  of  the  certain  means  of  de- 
tecting any  error  in  the  observation,  so  as  to  judge  whether  it  is  of  sufficient  importance 
to  be  attended  to.  The  only  precautions  necessary  are  ;  to  make  the  observations  at  the 
same  instant,  to  prevent  their  being  affected  by  any  alteration  in  the  relative  position  of 
the  ships,  as  a  very  small  one  there  would  occasion  a  considerable  error  in  the  distance ; 
and  to  be  careful  in  choosing  objects  sufficiendy  defined  and  remarkable.  This  method 
of  surveying  has  the  further  advantage  of  giving  the  scale  of  a  coast:  seamen,  though 
they  judge  very  accurately  of  their  distance  from  places  upon  coasts  well  known  to  them, 
are  very  often  mistaken  when  they  fall  in  with  land  they  have  never  seen  before ;  of 
which  we  had  at  first  some  instances  in  this  voyage,  the  height  of  the  mountains,  before 
we  knew  the  scale  of  the  coast,  making  us  always  think  ourselves  nearer  the  land  than 
we  really  were.  Where  the  coast  is  at  all  high,  the  megameter  affords  a  very  accurate 
and  expeditious  method  of  determining  the  height  of  all  the  points,  when  their  distances 
are  found;  and  thence,  the  heights  being  known,  of  ascertaining  immediately^  by  a  sin- 
gle observation,  the  situation  of  the  ship,  or  the  latitude  of  any  point  by  the  bearings,  at  # 
the  time  of  a  meridian  observation :  the  direction  and  rate  of  currents  or  tides  may  also 
be  found  in  this  manner  with  great  accuracy.  I  made  several  observations  during  this 
voyage  with  the  megameter,  some  of  which  I  shall  give  as  examples;  they  were  suffi- 
cient to  prove  to  me  the  ^at  accuracy  that  may  be  attained  with  this  instrument  after 
some  practice.  The  utility  of  such  a  method  of  obtaining  a  survey  on  an  enemy's  or 
undescribed  coast,  as  well  as  that  of  being  able  to  prove  the  truth  of  charts  by  a  single 
observation,  is  obvious. 

June  the  fifteenth,  the  ship  being  in  latitude  60°  IQ',  longitude  0°  39'  W.  Hangcliff 
bore  S.  63"  00'  W.  variation  23«  W. 

The  altitude  of  the  Carcass's  mast,  by  the  megameter,  was  35'  48" ;  height  of  the 
mast,  102,  75  feet ;  hence  the  distance  between  the  Racehorse  and  Carcass  was  9861 
feet :  angle  between  the  Carcass  and  Hangcliff,  85*'  48' ;  between  the  Racehorse  and 
Hangcliff,  87°  00' ;  from  whence  the  difference  of  latitude  was  found  10'  S.  difference 
of  longitude  17'  W.  therefore  the  latitude  of  Hangcliff  is  60*  9';  longitude  0°  56  W. 

July  the  second,  to  try  how  far  the  megameter  could  be  depended  upon,  I  observed 
the  altitude  of  the  Carcass's  mast  2°  23'  48"  ;  the  angle  between  the  main-yard  and 
main.topsaiUyard,  0°  44'  26" ;  hence  the  distance  between  the  main-yard  and  main-top- 
sail came  out        -         - 31,  750  feet. 

By  measurement  it  was  found  34,  125  feet. 


Difference 


2,  375  feet. 


I 


ill 


I ' 


h 


5J33  PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL. 

The  distance  between  the  two  ships,  deduced  from  the  altitude  of  the 
mast,  was  -  -  -  -  -  -  2457  feet. 

By   the    angle   of  the   main  and  main  topsail -yard,    the    distance 
between  them  being  34,125  feet  ....  2640  feet. 

Dlflference     183  feet. 

Which  is  not  more  than  the  ships  might  have  changed  therr  position  in  the  time  of  reading 
off*  and  setting  down  the  first  observation,  before  taking  the  second. 

An  error  of  ten  seconds  in  the  observation  of  the  angle  subtended  by  the  mast  at  this 
distance  would  make  an  error  of  two  feet  and  three  quarters  in  the  distance.  At  the 
distance  of  a  nautical  mile  it  would  produce  an  error  of  sixteen  feet.  At  other  distances 
the  error  decreases  as  the  squares  of  the  distances  decrease ;  and  at  other  heights  it  de- 
creases as  the  heights  decrease. 

Whenever  the  distance  of  the  object,  whose  angle  is  taker  by  the  megameter,  does 
not  exceed  that  of  the  visible  horizon,  the  very  small  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  in- 
tercepted between  the  object  and  observer  may  be  considered  as  a  plane,  to  which  the 
object  is  perpendicular,  and  the  distance  may  be  concluded  by  resolving  the  right-angled 
triungic,  formed  by  the  upright  object,  and  lines  drawn  from  the  observer's  station  to  the 
top  and  bottom  of  it. 

OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  VARIATION. 

The  variation  of  the  compass,  always  an  interesting  object  to  navigators  and  phi. 
losophers,  became  peculiarly  so  in  this  voyage  from  the  near  approach  to  the  pole. 
Many  of  the  theories  that  had  been  proposed  on  thb  subject  were  to  be  brought  to 
the  test  of  observation  made  in  high  latitudes,  by  which  alone  their  fallacy  or  udlity 
could  be  discovered.  They  of  course  engaged  much  of  my  attention,  and  gave  me 
the  fullest  opportunity  of  experiencing,  with  regret,  the  many  imperfections  of  what  is 
called  the  Azimuth  compass.  This  instrument,  though  sufficiently  accurate  to  enable 
us  to  observe  the  variations  so  as  to  steer  the  ship  without  any  material  error,  with  the 
pi-ecaution  of  always  using  the  same  compass  by  which  they  are  taken,  is  far  from  being 
of  such  a  construction  as  to  give  the  variation  with  that  degree  of  precision,  which 
should  attend  experiments  on  which  a  theory  is  to  be  founded,  or  by  which  it  is  to  be 
tried.  The  observations  taken  in  this  voyage  will  fully  evince  this  by  their  great  va- 
riations from  one  another  in  very  short  intervals  of  time ;  nor  is  this  disagreement  of 
successive  observations  peculiar  to  the  higher  latitudes,  and  to  be  imputed  to  a  near  ap- 
proach to  the  pole,  as  I  found  it  to  take  place  even  upon  the  English  coast. 

As  to  the  observations  themselves,  they  were  taken  with  the  greatest  care,  and  the 
most  scrupulous  attention  to  remove  every  circumstance  which  might  be  supposed  to 
create  an  accidental  error ;  the  observations  being  taken  sometimes  by  different  people 
with  the  same  compass,  in  the  same  and  different  places ;  sometimes  with  different 
compasses,  changing  the  places  and  the  observers  repeatedly,  to  try  whether  there  was 
error  to  be  imputed  to  local  attraction,  or  the  different  mode  of  observation  by  different 
persons.  I  have  since  my  return  tried  the  compasses  by  a  meridian,  as  well  as  by  taking 
azimuths,  and  find  them  to  agree  with  one  anoUier,  though  the  same  compass  some- 
times differs  from  itself  a  degree  in  successive  observations. 

That  everj'  person  may  (as  far  as  is  possible  without  having  been  present  at  the  time) 
be  enabled  to  judge  of  the  degree  of  accuracy  to  be  expected  in  such  observations,  as 


r 


"^'I't's;  >';»-■{. 


PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


56i» 


well  as  the  degree  of  attention  paid  to  those  made  by  us,  I  have  set  dovvii  every  cir. 
cumstance  that  I  thought  material,  giving  every  part  of  each  observation,  with  each 
separate  result,  and  the  mean  of  every  set,  with  the  weather  at  the  time.  VVhcnever  I 
mention  its  blowing  fresh,  it  was  only  comparatively  with  respect  to  the  rest  of  the  voy- 
age,  no  observation  having  been  made  in  any  weather  which  might  not,  generally  speak, 
ing,  be  called  fine. 

Having  said  so  much  of  the  inaccuracy  of  the  instrument,  I  must  add,  that  I  think 
some  general  and  rather  curious  inferences  may  safely  be  drawn  from  these  observa- 
tions. One  is,  that  the  variation  near  the  latitude  of  eighty,  if  it  alters  at  all  with  time, 
does  not  alter  in  any  degree  as  it  does  in  these  latitudes :  the  variation  having  been 
found  by  Poole  in  1610  to  be  22«>30'  W.  in  latitude  78°  37' ;  18«*  16  W.  in  Cross  Road 
in  latitude  79°  15'  N. ;  and  17«»  00'  within  the  foreland  in  latitude  78°  24'.  By  Biffin 
in  1613,  in  Home  Sound,  latitude  76*  55'^  the  variation  from  the  meridian  was  12^  14' 
W. ;  but  by  his  compass  17** :  his  compass  "  was  touched  5°  and  a  half  easterly,"  that 
being  the  variation  in  London  at  that  time :  in  Green  Harbour,  latitude  77"  40',  he  ob- 
served the  variation  13"  11'  W.  Fotherby  in  1614  made  the  variation  in  Magduiena 
Bay,  latitude  79»  34'  N.  25**  00'  W. ;  and  inlatitnde  79*'  8'  two  points.  Neither  Poole 
nor  Fotherby  mention  whether  their  variations  are  reckoned  from  the  meridian,  or  whe- 
ther their  compasses,  like  Baffin's,  were  fitted  to  the  variation  at  that  time  in  London. 
If  Fotherby 's  were  taken  with  a  compass  in  which  a  correction  was  made  for  the  varia- 
tion  at  London,  his  observation  agrees  exactly  with  those  made  by  me  in  Vogel  Sang 
and  Smeerenberg ;  and  those  of  Poole  and  Baffin  differ  so  little  from  mine,  that  the  diN 
(erence  need  not  be  regarded.  But  the  variation  in  London  now  differs  from  what  it  was 
at  that  time  above  twenty-six  degrees. 

The  other  inference  is,  that  in  ^ing  to  the  eastward,  in  the  latitude  of  eighty,  the  west* 
erly  variation  decreases  very  considerably  from  a  difference  in  the  longitude. 

ACCOinfT  OF  THE  INSTRUMENTS  MADE  USB  OF  FOR  KEEPING  THE  METEOROLOGICAL  JOURNAL. 

The  marine  barometer  was  made  by  Mr.  Naime,  from  whom  I  received  the  follow- 
ing description : 

"  The  bore  of  the  upper  part  of  the  glass  tube  of  this  barometer  is  about  three  tenths 
of  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  four  inches  long.  To  this  is  joined  a  glass  tube,  with  a  bore 
about  one  twentieth  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  The  two  glass  tubes  being  Joined  together 
form  the  tube  of  this  barometer;  and,  being  filled  with  mercury,  and  inverted  into  a 
cistern  of  the  same,  the  mercury  falls  aown  in  the  tube  till  it  is  counterbalanced  by  the  at- 
mosphere. 

'*  In  a  common  barometer,  the  motion  of  the  mercury  up  and  down  in  the  tube  is  so 
great  at  sea,  tliat  it  is  not  possible  to  measure  its  perpendicular  height ;  consequently  can- 
not shew  any  alteration  in  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere :  but  in  this  marine  barometer, 
that  defect  is  remedied.  The  instrument  is  fixed  in  gimmals,  and  kept  in  a  perpendicular 
position  by  a  weight  fastened  to  the  lx>ttom  of  it. 

"  The  perpendicular  rising  or  falling  of  the  mercury  is  measured  by  divisions,  on  a 
plate  divided  into  inches  and  tenths,  and  by  a  vernier  division  into  hundredths  of  an 
inch,  which  is  fixed  to  the  side  of  the  tube." 

THE  HYGROMETER  I  WAS  FAVOURED  WITH  BY  M.  HE  LUC ;  AND  THE  FOLLOV»riNG  ACCOUNT 
ISA  LITERAL  TRANSLATION  OF  THAT  WHICH  HE  GAVE  M£  IN  FRENCH. 

The  part  of  M.  De  Luc*s  Hygrometer,  which  is  affected  bj^  the  impressions  of  the 
moisture  of  the  air,  is  a  hollow  cylinder  of  ivory,  two  inches  eight  lines  long,  and  in- 
VOL.  I.  4  D 


'if 


f  ? 


570 


rillPPS'S  .TUUUNAL. 


i'l 


ternally  two  lines  and  a  half  in  diameter.  It  is  open  only  at  one  end ;  and  the  thickness 
o(  its  sides,  for  the  length  of  two  inches  six  lines  I'rom  the  bottom,  is  but  tliree  sixteenths 
of  a  line.  It  is  this  thin  part  which  docs  the  office  of  an  hydrometer ;  the  remaining 
part  of  the  cylinder  towards  its  orifice  must  be  kept  a  little  thicker,  being  destined  for 
joining  it  to  a  tube  of  glass,  thirteen  or  fourteen  niches  long.  This  junction  is  eflfcct- 
cd  by  means  of  a  piece  of  brass,  and  the  whole  is  cemented  together  with  gum  lac. 

M.  De  Luc's  reason  for  choosing  ivory  as  the  hygrometer  is,  that  this  mstter  ap- 
peared to  him  more  proper  than  any  other  for  receiving  the  impressions  of  the  moisture 
of  the  air,  without  sufTenng  thereby  any  essential  change.  The  cylinder  made  of  it  be* 
comes  more  capacious,  in  proportion  as  it  vrows  moister.  This  is  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  the  instrument.  M.  De  Luc  has  since  found,  that,  upon  letting  this  cylinder  lie 
some  time  in  water  of  an  unifot  .  temperature,  it  swells  to  a  certain  point,  after  which 
it  dilates  no  further.  This  circumstance  furnished  him  with  a  maximum  of  humidity ; 
and,  consequently,  with  one  point  of  comparison  in  the  scale  of  the  hygrometer ;  and 
thb  point  he  has  fixed  at  the  temperature  of  melting  ice.  For  measuring  the  difftTences 
in  the  capacity  of  this  ivory  cylinder,  and  thereby  discovering  its  different  degrees  of 
moisture,  M.  De  Luc  makes  use  of  quicksilver,  with  which  he  fills  the  cyUnder,  and  a 
part  of  the  communicating  glass  tube.  The  more  capacious  this  cylinder  is,  or,  which 
IS  the  same,  the  moister  it  is,  the  lower  does  the  mercury  stand  in  the  glass  tube ;  ana 
vice  versa.  Now  M.  De  Luc  has  found,  that  the  lowest  point  to  which  it  can  sink  is 
that  where  it  stands  when  the  ivory  cylinder  is  soaked  in  melting  ice :  he  therefore 
names  this  point  zero,  in  the  scale  of  his  hygrometer ;  and,  consequently,  the  degrees  of 
this  scale  are  degrees  of  dryness,  counted  from  below  upwards,  as  the  quicksilver  rises 
in  the  glass  tube.  , 

To  give  these  degrees  a  determinate  length,  and  thus  render  the  hygrometers  capable 
of  being  compared  with  each  other,  M.  De  Luc  employs  in  constructing  them  such 
glass  tubes  as  have  been  previously  prepared,  by  being  made  into  thermometers,  and 
filled  with  mercury,  so  as  to  ascertain  upon  them  the  points  of  melting  ice  and  boiUng 
water,  and  to  take  exacdy  the  distance  between  those  points  by  any  scale  at  pleasure. 
That  done,  the  bulb  of  this  preparatory  thermometer  must  be  broken,  and  the  quicksilver 
it  contains  exactly  weighed.  It  is  by  knowing  the  weight  of  this,  together  with  the  dis. 
taoce  between  the  fixed  points  of  the  thermometer,  that  the  scale  of  the  hygrometer  is  de- 
termined.  For  instance,  let  the  weight  of  the  quicksilver  be  one  ounce,  and  the  distance 
between  the  two  above  mentioned  points  one  thousand  parts  of  a  certain  scale  :  then  sup< 
pose  that  the  quicksilver  in  the  hygrometer,  to  which  this  tube  is  to  be  applied,  weighs 
only  half  an  ounce ;  this  will  give  a  fundamental  line,  consisting  of  five  hundred  parts  of 
the  same  scale.  The  fundamental  line  thus  found  is  applied  to  the  scale  of  the  hy. 
grometer,  beginning  at  zero,  and  measuring  it  ofFabout  four  times  over,  that  the  whole 
variation  of  the  instrument  may  be  comprehended.  Each  of  those  spaces  being  after- 
wards  divided  into  forty  equal  parts,  gives  such  degrees  as  M.  De  Luc  has  found  most 
convenient.  In  general  terms,  the  length  of  the  fundamental  line  of  the  hygrometer  must 
be  to  the  interval  lx;tween  the  two  fixed  points  of  the  preparatory  thermometer,  as  the 
weight  of  the  quicksilver  in  the  hygrometer  is  to  the  weight  of  the  quicksilver  in  that  ther- 
mometer. 

This  proportion  between  the  scale  of  the  hygrometer  and  that  of  the  preparatory  ther- 
mometer, furnishes  an  easy  methodof  correcting  in  this  instrument  the  e^ctsof  heat  upon 
the  mercury  it  contains. 

It  will  easily  be  conceived,  from  the  construcdon  of  the  scale  of  this  hygrometer, 
that  if  its  cylinder  of  ivory  was  suddenly  changed  into  glass  the  instrument  would  be- 


'^»'0i  <''V.=.**n»#s*'»^'rwie^'«»-«'C?»-'.Ti'  rfsvi^vnr.'a- 


-:w,'-,,«(i^. 


.7 


I'lllPPS'S  JOURNAL..  571 

come  a  true  thermometer,  in  which  the  interval  liet^.een  the  points,  answcrin)]^  to  melt- 
ing  ice  and  boiling  water,  would  be  divided  into  forty  parts.  If,  therefore,  a  thermometer, 
with  u  scale  similarly  divided  into  forty  parts  Ix-tween  the  fixed  points,  be  placed  near 
the  hygrometer,  it  will  bhew  immediately  the  correction  to  be  made  on  that  instrument 
*br  its  variation  as  u  thermometer ;  with  some  restrictions,  however,  of  which  M.  Dc 
Luc  has  given  an  account  in  the  paper  he  itent  to  the  Royal  Society  on  the  subject  of 
this  hygrometer. 

That  part  of  the  frame  of  the  instrument  on  which  the  scale  is  marked  is  moveable ; 
so  that,  before  observing  the  |x)ints  at  which  the  mercury  stands,  it  may  be  pushed  up- 
wards or  downwards,  according  as  the  thermometer  has  risen  or  fallen  with  respect  to 
the  point  of  melting  ice  :  and  thus  the  indications  of  the  hygrometer  can  at  once  be 
freed  from  the  errors  which  would  arise  from  the  difference  in  the  volume  of  the  quick- 
silver, on  account  of  the  different  degrees  of  heat. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  MANOMETER.  CONSTRUCTED  BY  MR   RAMSDEN. 

Th  e  manometer  used  in  this  voyage  was  composed  of  a  tube  of  a  small  bore,  with  a 
ball  at  the  end ;  the  barometer  being  at  29,  7,  a  smalt  quantity  of  quicksilver  was  put 
into  the  tube,  to  take  off  the  communication  between  the  external  air  and  that  confined 
in  the  ball  and  the  part  of  the  tube  below  this  quicksilver.  A  scale  is  placed  on  the 
ude  of  the  tube,  which  marks  the  degrees  of  dilatation  arising  from  the  increase  of  heat 
in  this  state  of  the  weight  of  the  air,  and  has  the  same  graduation  as  that  of  Fahren- 
heit's thermometer,  the  point  of  freezing  being  marked  32.  In  this  state  therefore  it 
will  shew  the  degrees  of  heat  in  the  same  manner  as  a  thermometer.  But  if  the  air  be- 
comes lighter,  the  bubble  inclosed  in  the  ball,  being  less  compressed,  will  dilate  itself,  and 
take  up  a  space  as  much  larger  as  the  compressing  force  is  less ;  therefore  the  changes 
aristing  from  the  increase  of  heat  will  be  proportionably  larger ;  and  the  instrument  will 
shew  the  differences  in  the  density  of  the  air,  arising  from  the  changes  in  its  weight  and 
heat  Mr.  Ramsden  found,  that  a  heat,  equal  to  that  of  boiling  water,  increased  the  mag- 
nitude of  die  air  from  what  it  was  at  the  freezing  point  ^  of  the  whole.  From  this 
it  follows,  that  the  ball  and  the  part  of  the  tube  oelow  the  beginning  of  the  scale  is  of  a 
magnitude  equal  to  almost  4 14  degrees  of  the  scale. 

if  we  have  the  height  of  both  the  manometer  and  thermometer,  the  height  of  the  ba- 
rometer may  be  thence  deduced  by  this  rule ;  as  the  height  of  the  manometer  increased 
by  414  is  to  the  height  of  the  thermometer  increased  by  414  ;  so  is  29,7  to  the  height 
of  the  barometer. 

This  instrument,  though  far  from  complete,  having  been  constructed  in  p.  hurry  for 
the  purpose  of  a  fint  experiment,  and  liable  to  some  inaccuracies  in  the  observations, 
from  not  having  the  thermometer  with  which  it  was  compared  attitched  to  it,  seldom 
differed  from  the  marine  barometer  ,V  of  an  inch.  Should  it  be  improved  to  that  degree 
of  accuracy  of  which  it  seems  capable,  it  will  be  of  great  use  in  determining  refractions 
for  astronomical  observations,  as  well  as  indicating  u.i  approaching  gale  of  wind  at 
sea. 

4  D  2 


^i 


t 


^mim^m^fmiit  »mm  »  i^^a 


I 


(■ 


'M 


I'" 


I 


ii3 


572 


flUrFS'S  JOUllNAI. 


MISCELLANEOUS    OBSERVATIONS. 

OB8I1RVAT10N8  FOR  DETRRMININO  THB  REfRACTION  IN  HIGH  LATITUDM. 

June  the  thirtieth,  at  midnight,  the  distance  of  the  two  opposite  horizons,  taken  by 
e  with  Ramsdcn\  sextant,  was  179«  54';  the  height  of  the  eye  bcinir  sixteen  feet 

above  the  level  of  the  sea.  '  o 

August  the  fifteenth,  at  midnight,  by  the  astronomical   quadrant,  the  altitude  of  the 

sun's  upjxrhnib  40     1^'     55"  lower  limb  3°     46'      0 

Error  ol  the  (juadrant 


me 


—    —     32 


--      32 


Semidiameter  , 

App.  Alt.  Sun's  center 
Co.  Declin. 

App.  Lat. 
True  Lat. 

RefractioQ 

By  Dr.  Bradley's  tabTes 
Allowing  for  the  therm. 
Barometer,  29,  6 


4 

16 

23 

— 

15 

51 

4 

0 

32 

75 

56 

13 

79 

56 

45 

79 

44 

3 

12     42 

11     18 

11     53 

Thermometer,  37" 


3 

+ 

45 
15 

28 
51 

4 
75 

1 
56 

19 
13 

79 
79 

57 
44 

32 
3 

13 
12 
13 


29 

27 

2 


August  the  twentieth,  at  midnight,  the  sun's  meridian  altitude  by 
Mr.  Harvey,  .  . 

Dip 


20     25'    00» 
—       3       49 


Semidiameter        -        -  •  .... 

Altitude  of  the  Sun's  center         -  .  .  .        . 

Co.  Declin.  ....  .  , 

App.  Latitude        -  .  -  .  ... 

Ren*,  by  the  tables        -         .         .         . 

True  Latitude        - .     . 

Hacluit's  Head-land          -                ....            .  S   by  E 

Cloven  Cliff  .  E.  by  *S.  I  s! 

Variation  -  .  .  jg©  ^q'  g 

It  may  not  be  improper  to  mention  here  that  Baffin,  in  1613,  made  an  observation  of 
the  refraction  when  the  sun  was  in  the  horizon,  in  latitude  78°  46' ,  which  also  agrees 
exactly  with  Dr.  Bradley's  tables.  It  may  therefore  be  presumed  that  tfie  refractions  in 
the  higher  latitudes  follow  the  same  law  as  in  these.     - 


2 

+ 

21 
15 

11 

52 

2 

77 

37 
31 

3 
26 

80 

8 
16 

29 

44 

79 

51 

45 

.  .■■  l»^iiw«»!!SS'!-rr.»rv..i»;i 


'WHWtr' 


piiippn'n  JOuRNAr.. 


57J 


SPECIFIC  GRAVITY  OF  ICE,  TIUEI)  DY  DR.  IRVINO. 


A  PI  EC  I  or  the  most  clcn«e  ice  tic  could  find  being  immersed  in  snow  water,  thermo- 
meter thirtv.four  degrees,  fourteen  fiftecntli  parts  sunk  under  the  surface  of  the  wat|;r. 

In  brandy  just  proof  it  barely  flouted :  in  rectified  spirits  of  wine  it  fell  to  the  bottom 
at  once,  and  dissolved  immediately. 

^  September  the  fourth,  at  two  in  the  afternoon,  wc  souhded  with  all  the  lines,  above 
eight  hundred  fathoms.  Some  time  before  the  last  line  was  out,  we  perceived  a  slack,  and 
that  it  did  not  run  off  near  so  quick  as  before.  When  we  got  the  lines  in  again,  the  first 
coil  came  in  very  easily,  and  twenty  fathoms  of  the  next,  after  which  it  took  a  great 
strain  to  move  the  lead ;  a  mark  was  put  on  at  the  place  where  the  weight  was  per- 
ceived, and  the  line  measured,  by  which  the  depth  was  found  to  be  six  hundred  and 
eighty-three  fathoms.  The  lead  weighed  above  one  hundred  and  fiftv  pounds,  and  had 
sunk,  as  appeared  by  the  line,  near  ten  feet  into  the  ground,  which  was  a  very  fine  blue 
soft  clay.  A  bottle  fitted  properly  by  Dr.  Irving  (none  of  those  sent  out  having  given 
satisfaction)  was  let  down,  fastened  to  the  line,  alwut  two  fathoms  from  the  lead.  A 
thermometer  plunged  into  the  water  from  the  bottom  stood  at  forty  degrees  ;  in  wat.r 
from  the  surface  at  fifty -five  degrees ;  in  the  shade,  the  heat  of  the  air  was  sixty-six  dc- 
grees. 

Experiments  to  find  the  Temperature  of  the  Water  at  different  Depths,  made  with 

lord  Charles  Cavendish's  Thermometer. 


"Uoiui"" 

Ofpih    In     Fmboni, 
lo    whkh   it  wu 
■unk 

Temprnilun) 
the     Wiicr, 
<hc«n     hy 
Inturumcnt. 

of 

M 

Concctkin   Ibr  Com. 
preakin  mhI    uiv 
n»»i    Exiwinian 
of  apiriu. 

Trmp«ni«un)   of  the 

eit       Urpth       10 
whkb        it      wu 
•iiiiJc,       cormuil 
I'ur      Compn'tpmn 
■lid  Kipaiiilon. 

HMt  of  the  Air. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

June       90 

780 

15 

11 

36 

48* 
59| 

30  A.  M. 

118 

30 

1 

31 

P.  M. 

lis 

33 

0 

33 

Au^it    3 1 

673 

23 

10 

32 

It  appears  from  the  experiment  of  the  first  of  July,  in  which  the  Instrument  was  com- 
Dared  with  Fahrenheit's  thermometer  at  different  heats,  that  the  experiment  cannot  be 
depended  on  to  less  than  two  or  three  degrees,  as  the  results  drawn  from  Uie  difierent 
comparisons  would  differ  by  about  five  degrees. 


■ 


574  Piiiprvs  joi'iiHAL. 

Exncrimcnts  to  determine  the  Tcm|»tratnrc  ol'  the  Water  at  diflcrent  Depths  of  tlie 
8e<,  and  qnaniity  oC  milt  it  coniuiiiH  ;  in;idc  uith  (he  Bottle  fitted  by  lit.  Irviii({. 
A  mi*j»nri>,  containing  twenty- nine  onuco  fifty. nine  gr.iint  of  pure  iino\v< water,  was 
used  as  a  Standard ;  Thermometer  5 U**,  Uaometer  30,06. 


<l'l 


I 


i:» 


l)«i  M  iIm 

W,i| 

kl      of    1 

ilrplll     Ul 

1  ■#rlfMIMtflVf 

IttrmHHnrur  In 

WrKr 

LmUJ..  c: 

MuHlh. 

k« 

r*ihiiim 

■llbr 

Wairr  ty».i> 

Utoik. 

WilOT. 

HurfWr. 

IW  HOIUMM, 

UK 

0 

4 

0 

»     ' 

1773 

Ot. 

Grt. 

C.n. 

June     1 

39 

404 

99 

399 

J  31     31  Nore. 
194      M  OfTFIambo. 
roU|{h  Head. 

9 

30 

3 

900 

11 

33 

91 

49 

93 

„:: 

a9 

39 

440 
443 

Surface 
fl9 

90 

44 

40 

490 
49U 

\  60  Off  Shetland. 

3fl 

39 

403 

36 

496 

74  At  Sea. 

July      3 

39 

434 

40 

44 

900 

78 

Itf 

39 

3f9 

44 

476 

80  Near  the  ice. 

Aug.    4 

30 

19 

fiO 

36 

39 

33 

910 

80    30  Under  the  ice. 

SI 

13 

3A0 

80 

91 

AH 

3  JO 

Sept.  4   j 

13 
IS 

3rt9 
369 

083 

99 

40 

664 

193 
316 

79  At  S«a. 

7 

56 

97 

90 

60 

60     14 

Sea*  water,  taken  up  at  the  back  of  Yarmouth  Sands,  was  in  the  following  ratio  to  dis- 
tilled water : 

OK.     dwta.    gra. 

Sea-water        -  -  •  -  21     16     13,7  ^rp.^ ,      _^« 

Distilled  water  -  -  -  21      4     16    ]  Thermometer  53o ; 

which  is,  as  10192:  10477,7;  or,  as  1 :   1,02803. 

The  quantity  of  dry  salt  produced  from  the  above  water  was  13  dwts.  IS  grs. ;  it 
appears,  therefore,  that  sea-water  contains  more  air  than  distilled  water. 

The  results  of  the  experiments  made  with  lord  Charles  Cavendish's  thermometer, 
and  those  with  the  bottle  fitted  by  Dr.  Irving,  differ  materially  as  to  the  temperature  of 
the  sea  at  great  depths ;  I  shall  give  an  account,  therefore,  of  the  precautions  used  by 
Dr.  Irving  to  prevent  the  temperature  from  being  altered,  as  well  as  of  tlie  allowance 
made  by  Mr.  Cavendish  for  compression,  as  they  communicated  them  to  me. 

The  following  is  the  account  of  the  precautions  taken  by  Dr.  Irving  to  prevent  the 
temperature  of  the  water  being  changed  in  bringing  up  from  the  bottom  : 

•'  The  bottle  had  a  coating  of  wool,  three  inches  thick,  which  was  wrapped  up  in 
an  oiled  skin,  and  let  into  a  leather  purse,  and  the  whole  inclosed  in  a  well-pitched  can- 
vas-bag, firmly  tied  to  the  mouth  of  the  bottle,  so  that  not  a  drop  of  water  could 
penetrate  to  its  surface.  A  bit  of  lead  shaped  like  a  cone,  with  its  base  downwards 
and  a  cord  fixed  to  its  small  end,  was  put  into  the  bottle  ;  and  a  piece  of  valve  leather, 
\\\\h  half  a  dozen  slips  of  thin  bladder,  were  strung  on  the  cord,  which,  when  pulled* 
effectually  corked  the  botde  in  the  inside." 


miV^*'»  JUUMNAU 


575 


The  following  is  Mr.  Cuvcndish'n  account  of  the  corrections  to  be  made  for  loni  Charles 
CavcndithS  tlKrinomttcr : 

••  The  ihcrmontcu-r  used  in  the?»e  ex|K'rimentH  in  fully  described  in  the  IMiilosophical 
Tr.ui<uictioi)»,  vol.  I.  p.  308  ;  ho  that  I  iina|{iue  it  \>%  uiinc  ;!t»ury  to  mention  it  here.  But 
since  the  piililication  of  that  volume,  the  late  Mr.  Canton  discovered  that  Npirits  of  wine 
and  other  lluidn  art  comprctniblc  ;  which  mutt  make  the  ihcTn/)meter  apixrar  to  have 
been  colder  than  it  really  wan,  and  renders  a  correction  necfiHHary  on  that  account. 
There  is  another  Hmallcr  correction  neccHnar)',  owing  to  the  expansion  (»f  spirits  of  wine 
by  any  given  numl)er  of  degrees  of  lahrenheit's  thermometer  being  greater  in  the  higher 
degrees  than  the  lower.  As  the  method  of  computing  these  two  corrections  is  not  ex* 
plained  in  tliat  pa[x:r,  it  may  be  proper  just  to  mcntioti  the  rule  which  was  made  use  of  in 
doing  it. 

**  In  adjusting  the  degrees  on  the  scale  of  this  thermometer,  the  tube  was  entirely  full 
of  mercury,  or  the  mercury  stooil  at  no  degrees  on  the  scale,  when  its  real  heat  was  65" 
of  Fahrenheit.  Let  the  bulk  of  the  mercury  contained  at  that  time  in  the  cylinder  be 
called  M,  and  that  of  the  spirits  8  ;  let  the  expansion  of  sniritii  of  wine  by  1"  of  Fahren« 
heit,  about  the  heat  of  65*^,  be  to  its  whole  bulk  at  that  heat,  as  ^  lo  I ;  and  let  its  ex- 
pansion by  one  degree  at  any  other  heat,  as  65** — j:,  be  to  its  bulk  at  65°,  as  s+  i—flx 
to  I  ;  let  tlie  exi)ansion  of  mercury  by  one  degree  of  heat  be  to  its  bulk ;  at  65**,  us  m  to  1 

and  let  — ^-g be  called  G  ;  let  the  compression  of  spirits  of  wine  by  the  pressure  of 

an  hundred  fathom  of  sea- water,  when  the  heat  of  the  spirits  is  nearly  the  same  as  diat 
of  the  sea  at  the  depth  to  which  the  thermometer  was  let  down,  be  to  its  bidk  at  65**,  as 
C  to  1 ;  the  comprcssioti  of  the  mercury  is  so  small  that  it  may  be  neglected ;  let  the 
thermometer  be  let  down  N  hundred  fathom,  and  when  brought  up  and  put  into  water 
of  65" — F  degrees  of  htnU,  let  the  mercury  in  the  tube  stand  at  E  degrees  ;  consequently 
the  heat,  as  shewn  by  the  thermometer,  is  65" — F — E  :  and  let  the  real  heat  of  the  sea 
at  the  depth  to  which  it  was  sunk  be  65 — x  degrees ;  then  65'*"-;c«  65° — F — E+ 


CN 


vG 


V.dxV.+V+x    CSdxF+x 
2(i         "^        2*G2   ' 


In  this  thermometer  S—1160;    M--07;   the  ex- 

pansion  of  the  spirits  used  in  making  it  by  1**  at  the  heat  of  65°,  was  found  to  be 

— —  of  their  bulk  at  that  heat ;   that  is  «  —  j— ;  m  -j-j^ '»    therefore   G  -   1,013. 

From  M.  De  Luc's  exi)eriments*  it  appears,  that  the  expansion  of  spirits  of  wine  by 
1**  at  any  degree  of  heat,  as  65*' — x,  is  to  its  expansion  by  1"  at  65",  nearly  as  1 — 

-»—  to  1 :  therefore,  d  ■■  -— .     The  compressibility  of  the  spirits  used  for  thisthermo* 

meter,  at  the  heat  of  58*,  was  found  to  be  exactly  the  same  as  Mr.  Canton  determines 
it  to  be  at  that  heat ;  and  therefore  its  compressibility  at  all  other  degrees  of  heat  is 
supposed  to  be  the  same  as  he  makes  it.  According  to  his  experiments,!  the  compres* 
sion  of  spirits  of  wine  by  the  pressure  of  291  inches  of  mercury  at  the  heat  of  32°,  idestt 
nearly  the  heat  of  the  sea  in  these  experiments,  is  59'^  millionth  parts  of  its  bulk  at  that 

heat;  therefore  -^^-1, 9  and  65  — ic  -  65  F  —  E  +  N  x  1,  9 ?  x  E  +  F  +  v 

.  Nxl,9xr+ y.» 
**"'  638. 


638 


! 


*  Modifications  de  rAtmospherei  vol.  i.  page  253.  t  Philosophical  Transactions,  vol.  liv.  page  261. 


-'»»*-»• 


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PIUPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


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OBSERVATIONS  MADE  BY  DR.  IRVING  OF  THE  HEAT  OF  THE  SF  \  AGITATED  BY  A  GALE  OF 

WIND,   AND  THAT  OF  THE  A'lMOSPHLKE. 

September,  the  twelfth  the  thermometer  plunged  hito  a  wave  of  the  sea  rose  to 
62";  thchcatof  the  atmosphere  50°. 

This  experiment  was  frequently  repeated  during  the  gale,  and  it  gave  nearly  the 
same  diffcrenee.  At  night,  when  the  weather  became  modciatt,  ihe  heat  of  waier 
thirty  fathoms  below  the  surface  was  55°  ;  the  surface  and  the  aiuiosphcre  were  54'. 

September  the  twenty- second,  the  sea- water  was  60* ;  the  atmosphere  59"  :  the 
wind  at  S.  VV.  a  fresh  gale. 

OBSERVATIONS  FOR  DETERMINING  THE  HEIGHT  OF   A   MOUNTAIN  IN   LATITUDE   79  DE- 
GREES  44  MINUTES,  BY  THE  BAROMETER,  AND  GEOMETRICAL  MEASUREMENT. 


OBSERVATIONS  TAKEN  BY  THE  BAROMETER  BY  DR.  IRVING. 

August  the  eighteenth,  the  day  remarkably  clear. 

At  six  in  the  morning,  the  barometer  by  the  seaside  stood  at        -        - 

The  thermon»eter  50°. 

On  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  about  an  hour  and  three  quarters 

later  than  the  first  observation  below, 

Thermometer  42°. 

At  about  an  hour  later  at  the  same  place, 

Thermometer  42°. 

By  the  sea-side,  where  the  first  observation  was  made,  and  about 

three  hours  later,  ...... 

Thermometer  44°. 

Height  of  the  mountain,  calculated  by  M.  De  Luc  from  the 

first  observation  -  -  .... 

From  the  second  observation  -  ..... 

Mean  ........ 


30,040 

28,266 
28,258 

30,032 

feet. 

1585 
1592 


15884 


MEANS  USED  TO  ASCERTAIN  THE    HEIGHT  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN  GEOMETRICALLY: 

A  POINT  Vvas  fixed  upon,  in  the  most  convenient  place  the  ground  would  admit  of 
between  the  summit  of  the  mountain  (a  well- defined  object)  and  the  seu-sidc  ;  from 
hence,  in  a  right  line  from  the  mountain,  a  staiF  was  placed  at  the  sea-:)icle,  by  a  the- 
odolite  made  by  Ramsden,  with  two  telescopes  and  double  Vernier  divisions.  The 
instrument  was  carefully  adjusted  ;  first,  by  levelling  the  stand  with  a  circular  level,  and 
afterwards  thexvhole  instrument  by  the  cross  levels.  From  hence  (A)  at  right  angles 
to  the  station  at  the  sea-side  (C)  and  the  top  of  the  mountain  (E )  a  base  was  measuied 
each  way  to  (B)  and  (D)  of  eight  lines  of  seventeen  fathom  each  ;  in  all,  five  hundred 
and  forty-four  yards.  The  divisions  of  both  the  Verniers  were  carefully  examined,  both 
at  setting  off  the  station  by  the  sea-side,  and  those  at  the  extremities  of  each  base,  the 
fixed  telescope  being  kept  directed  to  the-summit  of  the  mountain,  and  the  moveable 
one  directed  at  right  angles  each  way,  both  divisions  of  the  Vernier  coinciding  exactly. 
Station  staves  were  fixed  perpendicular  by  the  vertical  /lair  of  the  telescope.     The 


^T" 


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PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL 


577 


altitude  of  the  mountain  was  then  taken  with  the  vertical  arch,  as  a  means  of  detecting  any 
error  in  the  observation,  and  was  fuuiid  to  be  8"  50'.  The  distance  not  enabling  ui-^  to 
take  the  depression  of  any  particular  part  of  the  staff  by  the  sea-side  under  the  land  on 
the  othek  side  accurately,  I  sent  a  man  to  stand  close  before  it,  and  took  the  depression 
nearly  to  his  eye,  which  was  found  to  be  1"  54'.  The  instrument  was  then  removed  to 
the  station  on  the  right  (B).  The  instrument  being  adjusted  with  the  same  precaution': 
as  before,  and  the  fixed  telescope  pointing  to  the  center  station  (A) ;  the  ;  gle  to  the 
mountain  was  84*  58',  the  angle  to  the  suuion  by  the  water-side  (C)  294°  44'.  The 
instrument  was  then  removed  to  the  station  by  the  sea-side  (C)  the  same  precautions 
used  in  adjusting,  and  the  fixed  telesco|x:  pointing  to  the  center  (A)  in  one  with  the 
mountain,  the  angle  to  the  staff  on  the  right  (B)  was  24*'  44'.  Intending  to  make  the 
triangle  BCD  isosceles,  and  imagining  there  migh  be  some  little  error  from  the  uneven- 
ness  of  the  ground,  I  set  off  on  the  theodolite  an  r^ngle  equal  to  the  last,  having  a  {lerson 
ready  with  a  staff  on  the  base  line  to  fix  it  wher  j  that  angle  should  intersect,  on  looking 
through  the  telescope ;  I  found  it  cut  exactly  at  the  staff  D  335°  16',  and  from  thence  con- 
cluded the  measure  of  the  base  to  be  exact.  I  then  took  the  altitude  of  the  mountain 
by  the  vertical  arch  7^  44'.  I  then  removed  the  instrument  to  the  station  (D)  to  take 
the  third  angle ;  but  from  the  badness  of  the  ground,  I  could  not  place  the  instrument 
exactly  over  the  spot  where  the  staff  stood ;  from  hence  I  took  the  third  angle  of  the  tri- 
angle ;  the  fixed  telescope  pointing  to  (A)  and  the  same  precautions  of  adjustment  being 
observed,  th  angle  to  C  came  out  65^  15' ;  less  by  one  minute  than  it  should  have  been. 
I  then  took  from  the  same  place  the  angle  to  the  mountain  (£)  275*  1' ;  more  by  one  mi- 
nute than  the  corresponding  angle  at  the  opposite  station  (B) :  but  the  errors  correcting 
each  other,  the  whole  angle  CDE  «■  150*>  14' «» the  whole  angle  CBE. 

By  the  triangle  ABC,  AC  comes  out  1771,4  feet. 

By  the  triangle  ABE,  AE  comes  out  9265,0  feet : 

Therefore  the  distance  CE  is     -     11036,4  feet. 

Angle  of  the  mountain's  elevation  seen  from  C  7°  44' : 

Height  of  the  mountain  above  C    -     1498,8  feet : 

+  height  of  C  above  the  water's  edge  5 : 

Height  of  the  mountain  above  the  water's  edge  1503,8  feet. 

I  prefer  this  observation  to  the  others,  because  the  three  angles  of  the  triangle  ABC 
came  out  exactly  180  degrees  by  the  observation.  The  distance  AC,  found  by  the  com- 
putation, differed  only  four  feet  from  that  by  the  measure ;  but,  the  ground  l)eing  uneven, 
I  did  not  depend  upon  the  measure,  but  took  it  merely  as  a  check  upon  the  operation,  to 
detect  an  error,  in  case  of  any  great  difference. 

The  distance  found  by  the  similar  triangles  BCE  and  CDE  comes  out    11037  5eet ; 

The  angle  of  the  mountain's  elevation  seen  from  A  was  8**  50'; 

Hence  me  height  of  the  mountain  above  A  was  found 


1°  54' i 


1439,8  feet: 


58,7  feet; 
1498,5  feet : 

5 ; 
1503,5  feet; 


Depression  of  C  seen  from  A  was 

Hence  the  height  of  A  above  C  is  «  .  • 

Height  of  the  mountain  above  C  -  -  -  - 

+  height  of  C  above  water's  edge  .... 

Height  of  mountain  above  the  level  of  the  sea 
which  differs  from  that  found  by  the  sii^le  angle  three-tenths  of  a  foot. 

I  cannot  account  for  the  great  ^fference  be'iween  the  geometrical  measm  e  and  the 
barometrical  one,  according  toM.  De  Luc's  calculation,  which  amounts  to  84>7  feet.  I 
have  no  reason  to  doubt  the  accm'acy  of  Dr.  Irvine's  observations,  which  were  taken 
with  great  care.    As  to  the  geometrical  measure,  the  ^reement  of  so  many  triangles, 

VOL.    I.  4   £ 


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l>rill*l'S'S  JOURNAL. 


each  of  which  must  have  delcclcd  even  the  smallest  error,  is  the  most  satisfactory  proof 
of  its  correctness.  Since  my  return,  I  have  tried  both  the  theodolite  and  barometer,  to 
discover  whcihcr  there  was  any  fault  in  either,  and  find  them  upon  trial,  as  I  had  always 
done  before,  very  accurate. 


Ill- 


NATURAL  HISTORY. 

THOUGH  the  shortness  of  my  stay  at  Spitsbergen,  and  the  multiplicity  of  occupations 
in  which  I  was  necessarily  employed,  during  the  greatest  part  of  that  time,  rendered  it 
impossible  for  me  to  make  many  observations  on  its  natural  productions ;  yet  as  there 
are  among  those  lew  some  which  have  not  before  been  made  public,  I  am  in  hopes  that 
this  article  will  not  be  found  wholly  unprofitable.  The  following  catalogue,  imperfect 
as  it  is,  may  serve  t^*  give  a  general  idea  of  the  sparing  productions  of  that  inhospitable 
climate. 

As  modem  naturalists  have  formed  the  technical  terms  of  their  science  out  of  the  La- 
tin,  it  becomes  necessary  to  make  some  use  of  that  language,  in  order  to  render  the  de- 
scriptions of  such  things  as  are  new  intelligible  to  those  for  whose  use  they  are  intended : 
I  shall  always,  however,  annex  English  names  to  the  scientifick  ones,  when  such  are  to 
be  found. 

MAMMALiA....Trichechus  Rosmarus.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  49. 1. 

Arctick  Walrus.     Penn.  Syn.  Quadr.  p.  335. 

This  animal,  which  is  called  by  the  Russians  Morse,  from  thence  by  our  seamen  cor. 
ruptly  Sea-Horse,  and  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  Sea-Cow,  is  found  ever)^where 
about  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen,  and  generally  wherever  there  is  ice,  though  at  a  distance 
from  the  land.  It  is  a  gagarious  animal,  not  inclined  to  attack,  but  dangerous,  if  at- 
tacked,  as  the  whole  herd  join  their  forces  to  revenge  any  injury  received  by  an  indivi- 
dual. 

Phoca  Vitulina.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  56.  3. 

Common  Seal.     Penn.  Syn.  Quadr.  p.  339. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Canis  Lagopus.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  95.  63. 

Arctick  Fox.     Penn.  Syn.  Quadr  j).  155. 

Found :  .  the  main  land  of  Spitsbei^n  and  islands  adjacent,  though  not  in  any  abun- 
dance. It ''  ifers  from  our  fox,  besides  its  colour,  in  havmg  its  ears  much  more  rounded. 
It  smel'    very  little.    We  ate  of  the  flesh  of  one,  and  found  it  good  meat. 

Ur  js  Maritimus.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  70.  L 

Polar  Btar.     Penn.  Syn.  Quadr.  p.  192.  t.  20.  f.  1. 

l*'oimd  in  great  numbers  on  the  main  land  of  Spitsbergen ;  as  also  on  the  islands  and 
ice  fields  adjacent.  We  killed  several  with  our  muskets,  and  the  seamen  ate  of  their 
flesh,  though  exceeding  coarse.  This  animal  is  much  lai^r  than  the  black  bear ;  the 
dimensions  of  one  were  asfollowc  : 

Feec  Inchct. 


if; 


Length  from  the  snout  to  the  tail, 

Length  from  the  snout  to  the  shoulder-bone 

Ht  ight  at  the  shoulder,       .  -  -  -  . 

Circumference  near  the  fore-legs,  ... 

Circumference  of  the  neck  close  to  the  ear, 

Breadth  of  the  fore  paw,  .... 

Weight  of  the  carcass,  without  head,  skin,  or  tntrails,  610  lb. 


7 
2 
4 
7 
2 
0 


1 
3 
3 
0 
1 
7 


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PICIPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


571) 


Cervus  Tarandus.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  93.  4. 

Rein-Deer.     Penn.  Syn.  Quadr.  p.  46.  t.  8.  t'.   1. 
Found  everywhere  on  Spitsbergen.    We  ate  the  flesh  of  one  which  we  killed,  and 
found  it  excellent  venison. 

Balsenu  Mysticetus.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  105.  1. 

Common  Whale.     Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  p.  85. 
This  species,  which  is  sought  after  by  the  fishermen  in  preference  to  all  other  whales, 
' .  generally  found  near  the  ice.     We  saw  but  few  of  them  during  our  stay. 
Bulaena  Physalus.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  106.  2. 
Fin  Fish.     Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  p.  41. 
Found  in  the  ocean  near  Spitsbergen. 

AvEs....Anas  mollissima.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  198.  15. 
Eider  Duck.     Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  p.  454. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Alca  arctica.     Linn.  Syst  Nat.  211.  4. 

The  Puffin.    Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  p.  405. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

AicaAUe.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  211.  5. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen  in  great  abundance. 

Procellaria  glaciufis.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  213.  3. 

The  Fulmar.     Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  p.  431. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Colymbus  Grylle.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  220.  1. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Colymbus  Troile.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  220.  2. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Colymbus  glacialis.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  221.  5. 

The  great  Northern  Diver.     Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  p.  41S. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

LarusRissa.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  224.  1. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Larus  Parasiticus.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat. 
The  Arctick  Gull.     Penn.  Brit. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Larus  Eburneus,  niveus,  immaculatus,  pedibus  plumbeo-cinereis. 
Found  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

This  beautiful  bird  is  not  described  by  Linnaeus,  nor,  I  believe,  by  any  other  author ; 
it  is  nearly  related  indeed  to  the  rathsher,  described  by  Marten  in  his  voyage  to  Spitsber- 
gen (see  pa^e  77  of  the  English  translation)  but,  unless  that  author  is  much  mistaken 
in  his  descnption,  differs  essentially  from  it.  Its  place  in  the  Systema  Naturae  seems  to 
be  next  after  the  Larus  naevius,  where  the  specifick  difference  given  above,  which  will 
distinguish  it  from  all  ihe  species  described  by  Linnaeus,  may  be  inserted. 

Description....Tota  avis  (quoad  peni.as)niveaj  immaculata. 

Rostrum  plumbeum. 

Orbitae  oculorum  croceae. 

Pedes  cinereo«plumbei.     Ungues  nigri.  " 

Digitus  Posticus  articulatus,  unguiculatus.  ..    ;  } 

Alr^  Cauda  longiores. 

4  E  2 


226.  10. 
Zool.  p. 


420. 


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PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


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Cauda  aequalis,  pedibus  '.ongior. 

Longitudo  totiiis  avis,  ab  apice  rustri  ad  finem  caudae 

Longitude  inter  apices  alarum  expansarum 

Rostri 

Sterna  Hirundo.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  227.  2. 

The  greater  Tern.    Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  p. 


Uncias  16 

37 

8 


428. 


I'ound  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Embcriza  nivalis.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  308.  L 

The  greater  firambling.  Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  321. 
Found  not  only  on  the  land  of  Spitsber^n,  but  also  upon  the  ice  adjacent  to  it,  in 
large  flocks :  what  its  food  can  be  h  difficult  to  determine ;  to  all  appearance  it  is  a 
granivorous  bird,  and  the  only  one  of  that  kind  found  in  these  climates,  but  how  that 
one  can  procure  food,  in  a  country  which  produces  so  few  vegetables,  is  not  easy  to 
guess. 

AMPHiBiA....Cyclopterusliparis.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  414.  3. 

SeaSpail.     Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  iii.  p.  105. 
Two  only  of  these  were  taken  in  a  trawl  near  Seven  Island  Bay. 

PiscES....Gadus  Carbonarius.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  438.  9. 

The  Coal  Fish.     Penn.  Brit.  Zool.  iii.  p.  152. 
Though  we  trawled  several  times  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbei^n,  and  the  seamen  fre- 
qnintly  tried  their  hooks  and  lines,  yet  nothing  was  taken,  except  a  few  individuals  of 
this  and  the  foregoing  species. 

In  SECT  A. ...Cancer  Squilla.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1051.  66. 

The  Prawn.     Merr.  Pinn.  192. 

Found  in  the  stomach  of  a  seal,  caught  near  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen. 

Cancer  Boreas,  macrourus,  thoracc  carinato  aculeato,  manibus  laevibus,  pollice  8ub> 

ulato  incurvo. 

This  singular  species  of  crab,  which  has  not  before  been  described,  was  found  with 
the  former  in  the  stomach  of  a  seal ;  its  place  in  the  Systema  Naturae  seems  to  be  next 
after  Cancer  Norwegici's. 

Description....Thorax  ovatus,  tricarinatus :  carinae  laterales  tuberculosae,  antice  spi- 
na acuta  terminatos ;  carina  dorsalis  spinis  tribus  vel  quatuor  validis  armata ;  antice  pro- 
ducta  in  rostrum  porrectum,  acutum,  breve,  thorace  quintuple  brevius ;  prseter  spinas 
oarinarum,  anguli  laterales  thoracis  antice  in  spinas  terminantur. 

Antennse  duae,  thorace  fere  triplo  breviores,  bifiJae :  ramulus  superior  crassiusculus, 
filiformis,  obtusus  ;  inferior  gracilis,  subulatus. 

Palpi  duo,  dujdicati ;  ramus  superior  foliatus,  seu  explanatus  in  laminam  ovalem,  ob- 
tusam,  longitudine  antennarum,  intus  et  andce  viUis  ciliatam  ;  ramus  interior  anteimi- 
formis,  subulatus,  multiarticulatus,  antennis  triplo  longior. 

Purastatides  decern,  anteriores  parvi ;  postremi  mngni,  pediformes  articulo  ultimo  ex- 
planato  in  laminam  ovali-oblongam. 

Pedes  decem,  duo  primores  cheliferi,  carpis  incrassatis,  rcliqui  simplices ;  pares  se- 
cundi  at  tertii  filiformes,  graciles ;  quarti  et  quinti  crassiusculi. 

Cauda  th(N^ce  longior,  sexarticulata ;  articulis  quinque  anterioribus  carinatis,  carinis 
spina  antrorsum  vergente  armatis ;  articulus  sextus  supra  bicarinatus,  muticus,  termi- 
uatus  foliolis  quinque,  articulis  cauda;  loi^ionbus ;  intermedio  lanceolato,  acuto,  porrec- 
to,  crasHTo  supra  planiusculo,  quadricarinato  carinis  interioribus  obsofetb,  subtus  conca- 
vo  ;  latei.iibus  ovali-obiongis,  obtusis. 


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Neusteri  decern  (nulli  sub  articulo  ultimo)  duplicati ;  foliolis  lanceolatis,  ciliatis. 

Obs....Spccimina  magnitudine  variant,  alia  triuncialia,  alia  septem  uncias  longa. 

Cancer  Ampulla,  macrourus,  articularis,  corpora  ovali,  pedibus  quatuordecim  sinv 
plicibus,  luminis  femorum  postici  paris  ovato-subrotundis. 

This  siiin;ular  animal  was  also  taken  out  of  the  stomach  of  the  same  seal  in  which 
the  two  former  were  found.  Its  place  in  the  Systema  Naturae  is  next  to  Canccf 
Pulex. 

Description.... Insectum  ex  ovali-oblongum,  glabrum,  punctulatum,  articulis  qua- 
tuordecim compositum,  quorum  primus  capitis  est,  septem  thoracem  mentiuntur,  et  sex 
caudam  tegunt. 

Capitis  dypeus  antice  inter  antennas  in  processum  conicum,  acutum  descendit. 

Antennae  quatuor,  subulatae,  articulatae,  simplices,  corpore  decuplo  brcviores. 

Pedes  quatuordecim,  simplices,  unguiculau ;  femora  postremi  paris  |)ostice  acuta, 
lamina  dimidiato-subrotunda,  inte^,  magna,  quatuor  lineas  longa. 

Cauda  foliata,  foliolo  unico  brevi  bifido  :  laciniae  lanceolatae,  acutae. 

Neusteri  duodecim,  duplicati,  subulati,  pilis  longis  ciliati,  posteriores  retrorsum  por- 
rccti. 

Obs....Specimina  magnitudine  variant,  uncialia  et  biuncialia  erant. 

Cancer  nugax,  macrourus,  articularis,  pedibus  quatuordecim  simplicibus,  laminis 
femorum  sex  posteriorum  dilatatis  subrotundo-cordatis. 

This  animal,  which  has  not  before  been  described,  should  be  inserted  in  the  Systema 
Naturae  near  Cancer  Pulex ;  it  was  taken  in  the  trawl  near  Moffen  Island. 

Description.. ..Insectum  oblongum,  compressum,  dorso  rotundatum,  glabrum,  ses- 
quiunciale,  articulis  quatuordecim  compositum,  quorum  primus  capitis  est,  septem  tho- 
racem mentiuntur,  et  sex  caudam  efficiunt. 

Capitis  clypeus  sinu  obtuso  antice  pro  antennis  emarginatus. 

Antennae  quatuor,  subulatae,  multiarticulatoe ;  superiores  corpore  sextuplo  breviores, 
bifidae  :  articulo  baseos  communi,  magno ;  ramulus  interior  exteriori  duplo  brevior. 

Inferiores  simplices,  superioribus  duplo  longiores. 

Pedes  quatuordecim,  simplices,  unguiculati,  unguibus  parum  incurvis.  Femora  sex 
posteriora  postice  aucta. 

Lamina  foliacea,  subrotundo-cordata,  dimidiata,  margine  integra,  magna  (tres  lineas 
longa.) 

Cauda  apice  foliata.     Foli  Jis  duobus,  oblongis,  obtusis,  parvis. 

Neusteri  duodecim,  duplicati,  lineari-lanceolati,  posteriores  retrorsum  porrecti,  ut  fa- 
cile  pro  appendicibus  caudae  sumantur. 

Cancer  Pulex.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat,  p.  1055.  81. 

Taken  up  in  the  trawl  along  with  the  former. 

V£RMS8....Sipunculus  Lendix,  coipore  nudo  cylindraceo,  apertura  subterminali. 

Found  adhering,  by  its  small  snout,  to  the  mside  of  the  intestines  of  an  Eider  duck. 
Mr.  Hunter,  who  at  my  requestdissected  it,  infor.ned  me  that  he  had  seen  the  same 
species  of  animal  adhering  to  the  intestines  of  whales. 

De8cription....Corpu8  croceum,  subcylindraceum,  tres  lineas  longiim,  crassitie  pen. 
nae  passerines,  utracjue  extremitate  parum  attenuatum,  apice  terminatum  in  rostrum  an. 
gustum  corpore  quintuplo  brevius,  quo  tunicis  internis  intestinorum  sese  affigit ;  prope 
ulteram  extremitatem  aperture  simpJex,  pro  lubku  extensibilis. 
Asddia  gvlatinosa.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1087.  2. 

Taken  up  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbei^n. 


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PHIPrS'S  JOl'HNAI, 


Ascidia  rustica.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1087.  5. 
Taken  up  likewise  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbergen. 

Lcrna  branchialis.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  109:2.  1. 
Found  in  the  gills  of  the  sea-snail  mentioned  before. 
Clio  helicina  nuda  corpore  snirali. 

Marten's  Spitsbergen  English,  p.  141.  t.  Q.  fig.  e.  Snail  slime  fish. 
Found  in  innumerable  quantities  throughout  the  arctie  seas. 
Description.. ..Corpus  magnitudine  pisi,  in  spiram  ad  instar  helicis  involutum. 
Ala;  ovatsB,  obtusae  expansae,  corpore  majores. 
Clio  limacina  nuda,  cor)X)re  obconico. 

The  Sea  May  Fly.     Mj^rten's  Sijitsbergen  English,  p.  169.  Tab.  P.  f.  5. 

This  little  animal  is  found  where  the  last  is,  in  equal  abundance,  peopling  as  it  were 

this  almost  uninhabited  ocean.    Marten  says  that  they  are  the  chief  food  of  the  whalebone 

whale  ;  and  our  fishermen,  who  call  them  by  the  name  of  whale  food,  are  of  the  same 

opinion. 

Medusa  capillata.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1097.  6. 
Sea  Blubber. 
Taken  up  on  the  passage  home,  about  the  latitude  65^. 

Asterias  papposa.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1098.  2. 
Taken  up  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbergen. 

Asterias  rubens.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1099.  3. 
Sea  Star. 
Also  taken  up  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbergen. 

Asterias  Ophiura.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1100.11. 
We  likewise  took  this  up  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbergen. 

Asterias  pectinata.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1101.  14. 
This,  as  well  as  all  the  rest  of  this  genus,  was  taken  up  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side 
of  Spitsbergen. 

Chiton  ruber.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1107.  7. 
Coat  of  Mail  Shell. 
Taken  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbergen. 

Lepas  Tintinnabulum.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1168.  12. 
Acorn  Sliell. 
Was  picked  up  on  the  beach  of  Smeerenberg  harbour ;  but  as  it  is  much  worn  and 
broken,  it  is  impossible  to  be  certain,  whether  it  is  a  native  of  those  seas,  or  has  been 
brought  there  by  accident. 

Myatruncata.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1112.26. 
Likewise  found  on  the  beach  in  Smeerenberg  harbour. 
Mytilus  nigosus.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1 156.  249. 
Was  found  with  the  former  on  the  beach  at  Smeerenberg. 

Buccinum  carinatum,  testa  oblongo-conica  transversim  striata ;  anfractibus  superi- 
oribus  oblique  obtuseque  multangulis  ;  inferioribus  unicarinatis. 
Found  on  the  beach  at  Smeerenberg  harbour. 

Turbo  helicinus,  testa  umbilicata   convexa  obtusa:    anfractibus  quatuor 
laevibus. 
.  .  Taken  up  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbergen. 
Serpula  spiroribus.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1265.  794. 
Found  in  plenty  sticking  to  the  stones  and  dead  shells  in  Smeerenberg  harbour. 


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Scrpula  triquetra.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1265.  795. 
Found  with  the  last,  iiclhcring  to  dead  shells. 

Sabeila  frustulosa,  t'.'sta  solitaria  libera  simpliei  curvata :  fragmcntis  conchaceis  sabu- 
losisque. 

Taken  up  in  the  trawl,  on  the  North  side  of  Spitsbergen. 

Dcseript;on....Vaginaspithamea  vel  lonjjfior,  crassilie  pennae  anserinae,  undique  tecta 
fragmentis  conchaceis  saepe  magnitudinc  unguis,  ct  sabulis  magniiudine  seminum  can- 
nabis. 

Millepora  polymorpha.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1285.  53. 
Varietas  rubra. 

Found  thrown  up  on  the  beach  at  Smeerenberg  ha.-'bour. 

Ccllepora  pumicosa.     Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1286.  56. 
Found  on  the  beach  at  Smeerenberg. 

Synoicum  turgens. 
Taken  up  in  the  trawl,  on  the  north  side  of  Spitsbergen. 

This  animal  is  quite  new  to  the  natural  historians,  and  so  different  from  the  zoophytes 
which  have  been  hitherto  described,  that  it  may  be  considered  as  a  distinct  genus,  whose 
characters  are  the  following : 

Animalia  nonnulla,  ex  apice  singuli  stirpis  sese  aperientia. 

Stirpes  plures,  radicatae,  camoso-stuposae,  e  basicommuni  erectae,  cylindraceje,  apice 
regulariter  pro  animalibus  pertusae. 

It  should  be  inserted  next  to  the  alcyonium,  with  which  it  in  some  particulars  agrees, 
but  differs  from  it  materiuUy  in  having  the  openings  for  the  animals  only  at  the  top,  and 
the  animals  themselves  not  exserted  like  polypes  (hydra)  which  is  the  case  in  the  alcyoni- 
um. 

Description.... Stirpes  plures,  radicatae,  camoso-stuposae,  digitiformes  cylindraceje,  su- 
perne  paulo  crassiores,  obtusae,  magnititudine  digiti  infantis,  suberectae,  apice  orificiis 
nonimllis  perforatie,  inferne  dilatatse  sen  explanatae  in  basin  communem  lapidibus  ad- 
haerentem. 

Orificia  sex  ad  novem,  ordine  circular!  plerumque  disposita ;  sub  singulo  orificio  ca- 
vitas  longitudinalis,  forsitan  singulo  animali  propria,  in  qua, 

1.  Faux  angusta,  brcvis. 

2.  Intestinum  instar  stomachi  dilatatum,  oblongo-ovatum,  inferne  foraminibus  duobus 
pertusum ;  inter  ilia  foramina  aliud  descendit  intestinum,  valde  angustum,  filiforme,  ar- 
cum  brevem  formans. 

Cavitas,  quae  per  totam  stirpem  longitudinaliter  pro  singulo  animali  deorsum  tendit, 
superne  ab  mtestinis  vix  distincta,  infra  ilia  autem  cylindrum  exhibet  granulis  parvis 
(forfitan  ovulis)  repletam. 

Flustra  pilosa.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat  1301.  3. 
Found  adhering  to  stones  in  Smeerenberg  harbour. 

Flustra  membranacea.    Linn.  Syst.  Nat.  1301.  5. 
Found  with  the  last  mentioned  species. 

Pl  ANTA....Agrostis  algida  pamcula  mutica  contracta,  calycibus  brevissimis  inaquali- 
bus. 

This  small  grass,  which  has  not  before  been  known  to  botanists,  may  be  inserted 
among  the  i^cies  of  agrostis,  next  to  the  minima. 


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Description. ...Gramcn  in  ciespitibus  nasccns. 

Radix  fibrosa  pcrcnnis. 
Folia  pluriinu  radicalia,  paucissima  caulina,  glabra,  latiuscula,  lonj;i;itudinc  culmi,  pa- 
tula,  basi  dilatata  in  vaginas  laxas. 

Ciilmi  adscendcntts  glabri,  scsquiunciales. 

Panicula  lincari-oblonga,  contracta,  siricta,  multiflora. 

Calycis  GUimae  membranacta,  ulbidse,  glabrae,  muticee,  iniequalcs :  exterior  minu- 
tissiina,  ovata,  obtusa  ;  interior  oblonga,  acuta,  corolla  quintuple  brevior. 

CoroUae  Glumae,  oblongae,  acutae,  carinatae,  muticie,  glabrae,  semilincares  *.  exte- 
rior paulo  longior. 

Stamina  tria. 

Stigmata  duo. 

Semen  unicum,  oblongum,  utrinque  acuminatum,  a  corolla  liberu^i. 

Tillaea  aquatica.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  186.  2. 

Juncus  campestris.  Linn  Spec.  Plant.  468.   17. 

Saxifraga  oppositifolia.  Linn  Spec.  Plant.  575.   18. 

Saxifraga  cernua.  Linn.  Spec,  riant.  577.  26. 

Saxifraga  rivularis.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  577.  28. 

Saxifraga  caespitosa.     Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  578.  34. 

Cerastium  alpinum.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  628.  8. 

Ranunculus*  sulphurcus,  calycibus  hirsutis,  caule  sub-bifloro,  petalis  rotundatis, 
intcgcrrintis,  foliis  inferioribus  sublobatis,  supremis  multipartitis. 

Ranunculus  quartus.  Mart.  Spitz  Engl.  p.  58.  t.  t.  f.  d. 

Obs....Primo intuitu  ranunculo  glaciali  simillimus.diffcrt autem,  quod petala  rotun- 
data,  integerrima,  intense  lutea,  fulgida ;  et  folia  minus  subdivisa  ;  superiora  fissa, 
lacinis  oblongo-lanceolatis  ir  .^gerrimis ;  inferiora  caulina  lata,  plana,  leviter  triloba 
vel  quadriloba. 

This  new  plant  should  be  inserted  next  to  ranunculus  glacialis. 

Cochlearia  Danica.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  903.  3, 

Cochlearia  Groenlandica.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant  904.  4. 

Salix  herbacca.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.   1445.  16. 

Polytrichum  commune.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1573.  1. 

Bryum  Hypnoides.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1584.  21. 

Besides  these,  there  were  two  other  kinds  of  bryum,  the  species  of  which  could  not 
be  determined,  for  want  of  the  fructification  ;  the  one  resembled  bryum  trichoides 
Iwtc  virens,  &c.  Dill.  Muse.  391.  t.  50.  f.  61. ;  and  the  other  bryum  hypnoides  pen* 
dulum.  Dill.  Muse.  394.  t.  SO.  f.  64.  C. 

Hypnum  aduncum.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1592.  23. 

Jungermannia  julacea.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1601  20. 

Another  species  of  jungermannia  was  also  found,  but  without  fructification;  it  is  not 
much  unlike  lichenastrum  ramosius  foliis  trifidis.  Dill.  Muse.  489.  t.  70.  f.  IS. 

Lichen  ericetorum.  Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1608.  12. 

Lichen  Islandicus.     Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1611.  29. 

Lichen  nivalis.     Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1612.  30. 

Lichen  caninus.  Limi.  Spec.  Plant.  1616.  48. 

Lichen  polyrrhizos.     Lmn.  Spec.  Plant.  1618  57. 

Lichen  pyxidatus.    Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1619.  60. 


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PIOTM'g  JOURNAL. 


585 


Lichen  comutus.     Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1620.  64. 
Lichen  rangiferinua.     Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1620.  66. 
Lichen  globiferus.     Linn.  Mant.  133. 
Lichen  paschalis.     Linn.  Sjiec.  Plant.  1621.  69. 
Lichen  chalybeiformis.     Linn.  Spec.  Plant.  1623.  77. 

ACCOUNT  OF  DR.  IRVING'S  METHOD  OF  OBTAINING  FRESH  WATER  FROM  THE  SEA 

BY  DISTILLATION. 

As  the  method  of  rendering  salt  water  fresh  by  distillation,  introduced  by  Docujr 
Irving  into  the  Royal  Navy  in  the  year  1770,  and  pracdscd  in  this  voyage,  is  an  object 
of  the  highest  imnortance  u>  all  navigators,  and  has  not  hitherto  been  generally  known, 
I  have  added  the  roUowi'^ig  very  full  account  of  its  principles,  appamtus,  and  udvantugcs, 
with  which  I  was  fkvoured  by  Doctor  Irving  hiimclf. 

**  Previous  to  an  account  of  this  method  of  rendering  sea  water  fresh  by  distillation, 
It  may  not  be  improper  to  give  a  short  detail  of  the  experiments  which  have  been  former- 
!y  made  by  others  o,t  this  subject ;  pointing  out  at  tne  same  time  the  several  disadvan- 
tages attending  their  processes,  and  the  general  causes  which  obstructed  the  desired  suc- 
cess. 

Without  entering  into  an  account  of  the  earlier  experiments,  it  will  be  suiHcient  to 
take  a  view  of  such  as  have  been  prosecuted  with  most  attention,  for  the  last  forty  years. 

"  The  first  of  these  was  the  process  of  Mr.  Appleby,  published  by  order  of  the  lords 
of  the  admiralty,  in  the  Gazette  of  June  22d,  1734.  By  the  account  ol  that  process 
it  appears,  that  Mr.  Appleby  mixed  with  the  sea  water  to  be  distilled  a  considerable 
quantitv  of  the  lapis  infemalis  and  calcined  bones.  The  highly  unpalatable  taste  of  the 
water,  nowever,  exclusive  of  the  extreme  difficulty,  if  not  impossibility,  of  reducing  the 
process  into  practice,  prevented  the  further  prosecution  of  this  method. 

"Another  process  for  procuring  fresh  water  at  sea  was  afterwards  published  by 
Doctor  Buder.  Instead  of  the  lapis  infemalis  and  calcined  bones,  he  proposed  the 
use  of  soap  leys ;  but  though  the  ingredients  were  somewhat  varied,  the  water  was 
liable  to  the  same  objections  as  in  the  preceding  experiment.  Doctor  Stephen  Hales 
used  powdered  chalk ;  and  introduced  ventilation,  by  blowing  showers  of  air  up  through 
the  disnlling  water,  by  means  of  a  double  pair  of  bellows.  It  was  found  by  this  method 
that  the  quantity  of  fresh  water  obtained  in  a  given  time  was  somewhat  greater  than 
what  had  oeen  procured  by  the  process  of  Mr.  Appleby.  This  invention,  however,  was 
subject  to  several  disadvantages.  The  air  box  which  lay  on  the  bottom  of  the  still,  as  well 
as  the  chalk,  much  obstructed  the  action  of  the  fire  upon  the  water,  at  the  same  time 
that  the  boiling  heat  of  the  latter  was  diminished  by  the  ventilation  :  so  that  more  than 
double  the  usual  quantity  of  fuel  was  necessary  to  produce  the  same  effect.  Besides,  this 
method  by  no  m';ans  improved  the  taste  of  the  water. 

"  The  next  who  attempted  any  improvement  was  the  learned  Doctor  Lind,  of  Ports- 
mouth.  He  dbtilled  sea  water  without  the  addition  of  any  ingredients ;  but  as  the  e.\pcri. 
ment  he  mode  was  performed  in  a  vessel  containing  only  two  quarts,  with  a  gla.ss  re- 
ceiver, in  his  study,  nothing  conclusive  can  be  drawn  from  it  for  the  use  "f  shipping. 
Indeed,  experiments  of  the  like  kind  had  been  made  by  the  chemists  in  their  labumio- 
ries,  for  at  least  a  century  before. 

"  In  the  year  1765,  Mr.  Hoffman  introduced  a  still  of  a  new  construction,  with  a 
secret  ingredient ;  but  the  large  space  which  this  machine  occupied,  being  seven  feet 
five  inches  by  five  feet  eight  inches,  and,  with  its  apparatus,  six  feet  seven  inches  iiigh, 
made  it  extremely  inconvenient :  at  the  same  time  that,  on  account  of  its  shuUoAv  form, 

VOL.    I.  4    F 


.^f:-«s;^ 


;;i,;|SW7V!,«»(iffv!;r?r 


i>i  • 


380 


rillPHS'H  JOUKNAL. 


the  iihc  of  it  wa^  impracticable  duriiifi^  tiny  considerable  motion  of  the  bliii).  The  water 
obtuincd,  liktwiHc.  poiiscHScd  all  the  disadvantages  common  to  the  preceding  methods. 

**  Almiit  the  same  time  experiments  were  nutdc  with  a  still  of  the  common  construe* 
tiot),  and  Mr.  Dove's  ingrc-dicnt.  This  method  was  attended  vvidi  no  advantage  over 
any  that  had  been  formerly  used ;  the  distilled  was  most  unpaLitable  ;  and  the  enormous 
size  of  the  apparatus,  which  occupied  a  space  of  thirteen  feet  scv.-n  inches  by  six  feet  one 
inch,  and  six  feet  five  inches  in  height,  rendered  it  impracticable  on  board  ships.  An 
cx|KTin)cnt  was  immediately  afterwards  made  with  the  same  still  without  any  ingredient ; 
the  a'sult,  however,  was  uniformly  a  most  unpalatable  taste  of  die  water. 

**  About  this  period,  also,  M.  Poissonnier  of  Paris  introduced  into  the  French 
marine  a  still,  three  feet  six  inches  long,  two  feet  wide,  and  eighteen  inches  deep.  A 
portion  of  the  chimney  passed  through  the  up^ier  part  of  i!>c  ^tilU  much  in  the  same 
manner  as  that  of  Mr.  Hoffman :  these  g^nUemen  supposed  that  by  this  means  they 
should  save  fuel.  The  mouth  of  M.  Poissonnier's  still  was  thirteen  inches  wide,  on 
which  he  placed  a  tin  plate,  pierced  like  a  cullender,  with  thirty ^seven  holes  of  six  lines 
diameter  each ;  to  these  were  fixed  tin  pi|)es,  of  the  same  bore,  and  seven  inches  long, 
terminating  within  the  still-head.  The  intention  of  this  contrivance  is  to  prevent  any 
of  the  water  in  the  still  from  passing  over  into  the  worm,  while  the  ship  is  in  considera- 
ble motion. 

*'  In  every  other  respect  M.  Poissonnier  emplojrs  a  still-head,  worm-pipe,  and  worm- 
tub,  with  all  its  usual  apparatus ;  and  he  directs  six  ounces  of  fossil  alkali  to  be  mixed 
with  the  sea  water  at  each  distillation,  to  prevent  the  acid  of  the  magnesia  salt  from 
rising  with  the  vapour,  when  siilt  begins  to  form  on  the  bottom  of  the  still.  It  is  pro* 
bable  that  in  M.  Poissonnier's  still,  which  was  even  more  shallow  in  its  form  than  iMr. 
Hoffman's,  some  of  the  water  might  be  thrown  up  toward  the  worm  ;  in  which  case  the 
pierced  plate  with  pipes  might  be  of  some  service  in  breaking  the  direction  of  the  water. 
But  by  Doctor  Irving's  tube  this  inconvenience  is  entirely  prevented,  as  experience  fully 
evinces,  viz.  in  a  voyage  to  Falkland's  Islands,  where  it  has  been  used  m  distillation 
every  day ;  in  several  voyages  to  the  East  Indies ;  and  in  this  voyage,  as  is  mentioned 
in  the  jounial. 

"  M.  Poissonnier,  in  correcting  this  error  in  the  construction  of  his  still,  has  introduc- 
ed another,  of  the  most  capital  nature  in  distillation.  For  by  means  of  the  pipe-cullender, 
the  vopbur  will  meet  with  the  greatest  resistance  to  its  ascent,  which  will  retard  the  pro- 
gress of  distillation  in  a  very  high  degree,  and  increase  the  Empyreunia. 

From  all  the  experiments  above-mentioned,  it  is  evident  that  no  method  had  hitherto 
been  invented  of  making  sea  water  fresh,  which  was  not  attended  with  such  inconveni. 
cnces  as  rendered  the  several  processes  of  scarce  any  utility.  The  defects  of  the  vari- 
ous methods  above  enumerated  may  be  reduced  to  the  folk>wing  heads : 

"1.  The  small  quantity  of  water  produced  by  the  ordinary  methods  of  distillation  with 
a  still-head,  and  worm,  could  never  be  adequate  to  the  purposes  of  shipping,  thoup;h  the 
apparatus  should  be  kept  in  constant  use ;  and  at  the  same  time,  this  mode  of  distillation 
required  a  quantity  of  fuel,  which  would  occupy  greater  space  than  might  be  sufficient 
for  the  stowage  of  water. 

'*  2.  A  still-burnt  taste,  whicli  always  accompanies  thb  method  of  distillation,  and 
renders  the  water  extremely  unpalatable,  exciting  heat  and  thirst,  if  drank  when  recendy 
distilled. 

'*  3.  A  total  ignorance  with  respect  to  the  proper  time  of  stopping  the  dbtilladon, 
whereby  salt  was  permitted  to  form  on  the  bdttom  of  the  boiler ;  which  burning,  and 
corroding  the  copper,  decomposed  the  seleniuc  and  magnesia  salts,  cauung  their  acids  to 


:<'j7i'.'S'^^^-^i-ii'f/V''\'!v'^!^^>f^'?iW:^^-''^ 


—  f 


PniPPS'l  JOURNAL 


58; 


ascend  with  the  vapour,  and  act  on  the  stiU-hcad  nnd  worm  pipe,  impregnating  the  water 
with  metallic  salts  of  the  must  pernicious  qiiulity. 

**  4.  The  space  occupied  by  the  still,  still  head,  and  worm-tub,  renders  die  u»c  oi 
them  in  most  cases  totally  impracticable  on  txjurd  shins.  Add  to  this,  their  wearing  out 
so  fast  on  account  of  the  cunsrs  u1k)vc  mentioned,  the  great  cxpcncc  of  the  apparatus, 
with  the  huzurd  of  the  still-heud  lx:ing  blown  oif,  and  the  inconveniences  thence  arising. 

*'  5.  The  use  of  ingredients,  which  though  omitted  in  some  experiments  in  small, 
were  nevertheless  erroneously  considered  as  essential  to  the  making  sea  water  sweet  and 
palatable  by  distillation. 

**  6.  The  inconvenience  of  a  cumbersome  apparatus,  calculated  only  to  be  eventually 
useful  in  unexpected  distress  for  water,  but  constantly  occupying  a  great  deal  of  room 
in  a  ship,  too  necessary  fur  the  ordinary  purposes  to  Ik*  spared  for  that  object. 

**  Having  specified  the  principal  defects  of  the  several  methods  hitherto  pro|)08ed  for 
makinff  sea  water  fresh,  it  will  be  proper,  before  stilting  the  advantages  of  Doctor  Irving's 
method,  to  consider  briefly  the  principles  of  distillation  in  general,  and  the  chemical  ana 
lysb  of  sea  water. 

*'  Water,  in  an  exhausted  receiver,  rises  in  vapour  more  copiously  at  180°  of  Fahren: 
heit*8  thermometer,  than  in  the  o|)en  air  at  212*,  which  may  be  considered  as  its  boiling 
point. 

*'  It  therefore  follows,  that  any  compression  upon  tlie  boiling  fluid  checks  the  vapour 
in  rising,  and  consequently  diminishes  the  quantity  of  water  obtained.  This  is  clearly 
exemplified  in  the  steam-engine,  where  the  consumption  of  water  in  the  boiler  b  very 
inconuderable,  in  comparison  to  what  would  happen,  if  the  compression  arising  from  the 
throat  pipe  and  valve  or  that  machine  was  taken  off,  and  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere 
only  aamitted.  But  by  the  restraii  *:  of  that  valve,  the  vapour  becomes  hotter,  and  in- 
creases  in  rarity  and  elasticity ;  qualities  essential  to  the  purposes  of  the  engine,  although 
the  reverse  of  those  which  ought  to  take  place  in  common  distillation.  For  the  columns 
of  vapour  should  be  removed  from  the  boiling  fluid  as  fast  as  they  ascend,  without  suf- 
fering any  other  resistance  than  that  of  the  atmosphere,  which,  in  the  ordinary  business 
of  distillation,  cannot  be  prevented. 

"  The  impropriety  of  the  common  process  of  distillation  will  appear  evident,  by  com- 
paring it  with  the  above  principles  and  facts. 

**  In  the  common  method  of  distillation,  the  whole  column  of  vapour  from  a  still  of 
whatever  size,  after  ascending  to  the  still-head,  must  not  only  find  its  passage  through  a 
pipe  of  scarce  an  inch  and  a  half  diameter,  but  descend,  contrary  to  its  specific  gravity, 
through  air  which  is  fifteen  times  its  weight,  in  spiral  convolutions :  a  course  so  ex- 
tremely ill  adapted  to  the  progress  of  an  elastic  vapour,  that  frequently  the  still-he;id  is 
blown  off  with  incredible  viofence,  owing;  to  the  increased  heat  and  elasticity  of  the  va- 
pour confined  by  this  construction.  In  the  mean  time  the  external  surface  of  the  pipe 
communicates  heat  to  the  water  in  contact  with  it,  which,  instead  of  being  entirely  car- 
ried off,  mixes  the  surrounding  fluid,  and  heats  the  whole,  rendering  it  unfic  for  condens- 
ing the  vapour  within  ;  especially  when  it  is  considered  that  the  substance  of  the  pipe  is 
at  least  a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick. 

**  From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  plain,  that  the  quantity  of  distilled  water  will  be 
lessened  in  proportion  to  the  resistance  made  to  the  ascent  of  the  vapour,  while  the  dif- 
ficulty  of  condensation  will  be  greaUy  augmented,  in  consequence  of  the  increased  heat 
and  elasticity  of  the  vapour.  But  these  disadvantages,  however  great,  respecting  the  mt  >de 
of  distillation,  give  rise  to  another  evil  of  a  still  more  important  nature,  as  affecting  the 
diidllcd  fluid  with  a  noxious  burnt  taste,  or  empyreuma,  occasioned  by  the  vapour. 

4  F  2 


»l 


588 


fHIPHI'fl  JOUKMAt. 


':r;^' 


fl 


highly  heated,  pnt»Hinf(  over  to  much  surface  of  metal,  vis.  the  stUI-head,  cnmc*neck, 
and  a  i»\rv  of  six  or  wvcn  fctt  in  Icnj^tli,  Ix-foa*  it  reuchcn  the  water  in  the  wonn  tub. 

*'  HuviiiK  tliscuHHcd  the  subject  ol  distillation,  wc  conK  now  to  treat  of  the  chemical 
i«nalyMtt  of  !tcu  water. 

**  S<-a  wntcr  contuinit  chic-fly  a  neutral  salt,  composed  of  foMil  alkali  and  marine  acid. 
It  likewi:^  contuinna  bult  which  ha»  magiK'sia  for  its  bunis,  nod  the  Siimc  acid.  Thene 
two  Hnltii  urc  blended  together  in  our  common  halt  in  Kngland,  which  in  prepared  by 
quick  boiling  down  sea  water.  Dut  when  the  nroccss  is  carried  on  by  the  nun,  or  a  stow 
heal,  tliey  may  Ik*  collected  separately  ;  that  which  has  the  fossil  alkali  for  its  ba^is  crys« 
talizing  first ;  and  this  is  of  u  vastly  superior  quality  for  i)rescrving  meat,  and  for  the 
other  culinary  purposes.  The  mother  li<|uor  now  remainmg,  being  evaporated,  aflbrds 
u  vitriolic  magnesia  sitit,  which  in  England  is  manufactured  in  large  quantities,  under 
the  name  of  l'.|wom  8;ilt. 

"  Besides  tlic  suits,  which  are  objects  of  trade,  sea  water  contains  a  selenitic  salt,  a 
little  true  Glauber's  salt,  often  u  little  nitre,  and  always  a  quantity  of  gyixteous  earth  sus< 
petided  by  means  of  fixed  air. 

'*  The  sfK-cific  gravity  of  tea  water  to  that  of  pure  distilled  water  is,  at  the  Norc,  aa 
1000  to  1024,6 ;  in  the  North  sea,  as  1000  to  1028,02. 

»•  The  (|uuntitv  of  salt  obtained  by  boiling  sea  water  in  different  latitudes,  from  61" 
30'  to  80°  43'  N.  L.  ap|K'ur&  from  a  table  in  the  original  work. 

*'  Sea  water,  when  boiled  down  to  a  strong  brine,  admits  with  diflicultv  the  sepam. 
tion  of  fresh  water  from  it ;  the  distillation  becoming  slower  as  the  strengtn  of  the  brine 
increases,  so  that  a  greater  quantity  of  fuel  is  consumed  in  procuring  a  smaller  portion 
of  water,  and  this  likewise  of  a  bad  quality.  From  this  essential  circumstance  arises 
the  necessity  of  letting  out  the  brine  by  the  cock  of  the  boiler,  when  the  distillation  is 
advanced  to  a  certain  degree  ;  and  of  adding  more  sea  water  to  continue  the  process,  if 
requiretl. 

"  The  defects  of  the  several  schemes  formerly  ^troposed  for  rendering  sea  water  fresh 
being  pointed  out,  the  general  principles  of  d>'4riJli.uon  explained,  and  the  component 
piirts  of  sea  water  anal) tically  examined;  the  uJ.vuntages  of  the  method  invented  by 
Doctor  Irving  remain  to  be  stated,  which  may  be  reduced  to  the  following : 

'*  1.  The  abolishing  all  stills,  still-heads,  worm'pipes,  and  their  tubs,  which  oc> 
cupy  so  much  space  as  to  render  them  totally  incompatible  with  the  necessary  business 
of  the  ship  ;  and  using,  in  the  room  of  these,  the  ship's  kettle  or  boiler,  to  the  top  whereof 
may  occasionally  be  applied  a  simple  tube,  which  can  be  easily  made  on  board  a  vessel 
at  sea,  of  iron  plate,  stove  funnel,  or  tin  sheet  ;  so  that  no  situation  can  prevent  a  ship 
from  Ix  itig  completely  supplied  with  the  means  of  distilling  sea  water. 

"  2.  In  coiibequcnce  of  the  principles  of  distillation  being  fully  ascertained,  the  con* 
trivanc^  of  the  simplest  means  of  obtaining  the  greatest  quantity  of  distilled  water,  by 
making  tl  tube  sufficiently  large  to  receive  the  whole  column  of  vapour,  and  placing 
it  nearly  in  a  horizontal  direction  to  prevent  any  compression  of  the  fluid*  which  takes  place 
so  much  with  the  common  worm. 

"  3.  The  adopting  the  simplest  and  most  efficacious  means  of  condensing  vapour ; 
for  nothing  more  is  required  in  the  distillation  but  keeping  the  surface  of  the  tube  al- 
ways wet ;  which  is  done  by  having  some  sea- water  at  hand,  and  a  person  to  dip  a  mop 
or  swab  into  this  water,  and  pass  it  along  the  upper  surface  of  the  tube.  By  this  opera- 
tion  the  vapour  contained  in  the  tube  will  be  entirely  condensed  with  the  greatest  rapi. 
dity  imaginable ;  for  by  the  application  of  the  wet  mop  thin  sheets  of  water  are  uniformly 
spread,  and  mechanically  pressed  upon  the  surface  of  the  hot  tube ;  which,  being  con* 


PHirrtpa  jouhnal. 


589 


verted  into  vapour,  make  way  for  u  succession  of  fresh  Hhect*  i  and  thus,  both  by  ttur 
eva|)onitiuri  andc'l()<ti'  contact  of  the  cold  wutcr  constantly  repeated,  die  hcut  is  curried 
ott  more  cfiectuully  ttun  by  any  other  method  yet  knuwn. 

"  4.  Tlic  currying  on  the  diHtillution  without  utiy  addition,  a  correct  chemical  ana- 
lysis of  sea  water  having  evinced  the  futility  of  mixnig  ingredients  with  it,  either  to  pre. 
vent  un  acid  from  rising  with  the  vu|K)ur,  or  to  destroy  any  bituminous  oil  sup|K>sed  to 
exist  in  seu  water,  and  to  contaminate  the  dibtillcd  water,  giving  it  that  fiery  un()alatablc 
taste  inseparable  from  the  former  processes. 

*'  5.  'Ihe  ascertaining  the  pro|K:r  (juantity  of  sea  water  that  ought  to  be  distilled, 
whea'by  the  fresh  wutcr  is  prevented  from  contracting  a  noxious  impregnation  of  mc* 
tallic  suits,  and  die  vessel  from  being  corroded  and  otherwise  damaged  by  the  salts  cuk* 
ing  on  the  liottom  of  it. 

•*  6  The  producing  a  quantity  of  sweet  and  wholesome  water,  pcrfccUy  agreeable  to 
the  taste,  and  suiBcient  for  uU  the  purixiscs  of  shipping. 

**  7.  The  taking  advantage  of  tne  dressing  the  ship's  provisions,  so  as  to  distil  a  very 
considerable  quantity  of  water  from  the  vapour,  which  would  otherwise  be  lost,  without 
any  addition  of  fuel. 

"  To  sum  up  the  merits  of  this  method  in  a  few  words  : 

"  The  use  cf  a  simple  tube,  of  the  most  easy  construction,  applicable  to  any  ship's 
kettle.  The  rejecting  all  ingredients ;  ascertaining  the  proportion  of  water  to  be  diS' 
tilled,  with  every  -.ulv  mtage  of  (|uality,  saving  of  fuel,  and  preservation  of  boilers.  The 
obUiining  fash  water,  wholesome,  palatable,  and  in  sulHcient  quantities.  Taking  the 
advantage  of  the  vapour  wliich  ascends  in  the  kettle,  while  the  ship's  provisions  are 
boiling. 

**  All  these  advantages  arc  obtained  by  the  above>mcntioned  simple  addition  to  the 
common  ship's  kettles.  But  Doctor  Irving  proposes  to  introduce  two  further  improve- 
ments. 

'*  The  first  is  a  hearth,  or  stove  so  constructed,  that  the  fire  which  is  kept  up  the 
whole  day  for  the  common  business  of  the  ship  serves  likewise  for  distillation ;  whereby 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  for  all  the  oeconomical  purposes  of  the  ship  may  be  ob- 
tained, with  a  very  incoasiderable  addition  to  the  expence  of  fuel. 

"  The  other  improvement  is  that  of  substituting,  even  in  the  Uirgest  ships,  ciist  iron 
boilers,  of  a  new  construction,  in  the  place  of  copp.'rs." 

o     ..  DIRECTIONS  FOR  DISTILLING  SEA  WATER 

"  As  soon  as  sea  water  is  put  into  the  boiler,  the  tube  is  to  be  fitted  either  into  the  top 
or  lid,  round  which,  if  neccsfiory,  a  bit  of  wet  linen  may  be  applied,  to  make  it  fit  close 
to  the  mouth  of  the  vessel ;  there  will  be  no  occasion  for  luting,  as  the  tube  acts  like  a 
funnel  in  carrying  off  the  vapour. 

'*  When  the  water  begins  to  boiil,  the  vapour  should  be  allowed  to  pass  fVeely  for  a 
minute,  which  will  eficctually  clean  the  tuoe  and  upper  part  of  the  boiler.  The  tube 
is  afterwards  to  be  kept  consbtnUy  wet,  by  passing  a  mop  or  swab,  dipped  in  sea  water, 
along  its  upper  surface.  The  wiste  water  running  from  the  mop  may  oe  carried  off  by 
means  of  a  biiard  rriode  like  a  spoic,  and  placed  beneath  the  tube. 

"  The  distiilaiion  may  be  nontinurd  till  three  fourths  of  the  water  be  drawn  off,  and 
QO  further.  This  may  be  a»tertained  either  by  a  gauge-rod  put  into  the  boiler«  or  by 
measuring  the  water  dbdlled.     The  brine  is  then  to  be  let  out 

"  Water  may  be  distilled  in  the  same  manner  wlule  the  provisions  are  boiluig. 


590 


PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL. 


"  When  the  tube  is  made  on  shore,  the  best  substance  for  tlie  purpose  is  thin  copper 
well  tinned,  this  being  more  durable  in  long  voyages  than  tin  pla<.£;s. 

"  Instead  of  mopping,  the  tube,  if  requu'ed,  may  have  a  case  made  also  of  copper, 
so  much  larger  in  diameter  as  to  admit  a  thin  sheet  of  water  to  circulate  between 
them,  by  means  of  a  spiral  copper  thread,  with  a  pipe  of  an  inch  diameter  at  each  end 
of  the  case  ',  the  lower  for  receiving  cold  water,  and  the  upper  for  carrying  it  oh  when 
heated. 

"  When  only  a  very  small  portion  of  room  can  be  conveniently  allowed  for  distilla- 
tion, the  machine,  which  is  only  twenty-beven  inches  long,  may  be  substituted ;  as  was 
done  in  this  voyage.  The  principal  intention  of  this  machine,  howeve.,  is  to  distil 
rum  and  other  I'quors ;  for  which  purpose  it  has  been  employed,  with  extraordinary  suc- 
cess, in  preventing  an  empyreuma,  or  fiery  taste."  .         -      ...» 


ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ASTRONOMICAL  OBSERVATIONS  AND  TIME-KEEPERS,  BY  MR.  LYONS. 


"  The  observations  for  finding  the  time  at  sea  were  taken  with  a  brass  Hadley's 
sextant  of  eighteen  inches  radius,  made  by  Dollond;  and  sometimes  by  captain 
Phipps,  with  a  smaller  of  four  inches  radius,  n^adc  by  Ramsden,  which  commonly 
agreed  ^^th  the  other  within  a  minute.  The  error  of  the  sextant  was  generally  found 
by  observing  the  diameter  of  the  sun ;  which,  if  the  same  »:>  double  the  semidiameter 
set  down  in  the  Nautical  Almanac,  shewed  that  the  instrument  was  perfectly  adjusted ; 
if  it  difiered,  the  difterence  was  the  error  of  the  sextant.  It  was  necessary  to  know  this 
error  of  adjustment  very  exp.ctly,  and  therefore  I  generally  repeated  the  observation  of 
the  sun's  diameter  several  times,  and  from  the  mean  of  the  result  found  the  erroi'  of  the 
sextant.  This  error  will  equally  affect  all  the  observations  taken  near  the  same  time, 
and  therefore  cannot  be  discovered  from  the  comparison  of  several  observations. 
Under  the  equator,  an  error  of  one  minute  in  altitude,  near  the  prime  vertical,  will 
only  produce  an  error  of  four  seconds  in  the  apparent  time ;  but  in  the  latitude  of 
eighty  4'grees  it  will  cause  an  error  of  twenty-three  seconds.  As  we  generally  took 
several  successive  observations,  any  error  in  the  observation  itself  will  be  ^nerally  inde- 
pendent of  the  rest ;  and  as  I  hav«.  calculated  each  separately,  the  conclusions  will  shew 
which  are  erroneous,  by  their  differing  much  from  the  mean  of  all,  which  cannot  but  be 
very  near  the  truth. 

'*  In  calculating  these  observations,  I  found  by  the  logboard  how  much  we  had 
altered  our  latitude  since  the  last  observation ;  and  sometimes,  when  we  had  an  observa- 
tion the  noon  following  the  observation  for  the  time,  the  latitude  of  the  ship  at  the  time 
the  altitudes  were  taken  was  inferred  from  it.  As  most  of  our  altitudes  were  observed 
when  the  sun  was  near  the  prime  vertical,  a  small  error  in  the  latitude  will  not  produce 
any  considerable  change  in  the  time ;  indeed,  if  it  is  exactly  in  the  prime  vertic^,  it  will 
not  make  any  change  at  all. 

"  To  find  the  longitude  from  these  observations :  to  the  apparent  time  found  by  cal- 
culation, apply  the  equation  of  time  according  to  its  sign,  which  will  give  the  mean  time ; 
the  diffeicnce  between  which  and  that  marked  by  the  wr^cch  vr.'A  shew  how  it  is  too  slow 
or  too  fast  for  mean  time.  "»'   *r  '        an  hu*  mj  > 

*'  Captain  Fhipps's  pocket  watch,  made  by  Mr.  Arnold,  when  compared  with  thie  re- 
gulator at  Greenwich,  May  26th,  was  twenty -four  seconds  too  slow ;  it  was  there  found 
to  lose  tvvelve  seconds  and  a  quarter  a  day  on  mean  time.  From  thb  it  is  easy  to  find 
what  time  it  is  at  Greenwich  at  any  moment  she  vn  by  the  watch. 


1»II1I'1»S'8  JOUKNAl. 


591 


"  The  watch  was  compared  every  day  about  noon  with  the  two  time-keepers  made 
by  Mess.  Arnold  and  Kendal ;  and  from  this  comparison,  and  their  rates  of  ^oing  pre- 
viously settled  at  Greenwich,  together  with  knowing  how  much  they  differed  from  mean 
time  at  Green  ,vich  before  w<j  set  out,  was  calculuied  the  tabic,  which  shews  what  the 
mean  time  is  at  Greenwich  according  to  each  timekeeper,  when  the  watch  is  at  twelve 
hours. 

'•  By  the  help  of  this  table,  we  may  easily  find  the  longitude  cf  the  ship,  as  deduced 
from  the  going  of  each  time-keeper.  Having  found  how  muc!t  the  watch  is  too  fast 
or  too  slow  for  mean  time  at  the  ship,  we  know  what  the  mean  time  is  at  the  ship  when 
the  watch  is  at  twelve  hours  ;  and  by  the  table  we  can  find  whaf  '•-  he  mean  time  at 
Greenwich  at  the  same  time,  supposing  each  time -keeper  had  kept  tt.  'chc  samt  rate  of 
going  as  it  had  before  our  departure  :  the  difference  of  these  mean  dinea  will  give  the 
longitude  of  the  ship. 

*'  For  example,  June  nineteenth,  in  the  afternoon,  the  watch  was  1'  ^4,"  too  slow  for 
mean  time  at  the  place  where  we  observed ;  therefore,  when  the  watch  shews  twelve 
hours,  the  mean  time  at  this  place  was  12"  1'  24".  At  this  time  I  find  by  the  table, 
that,  according  to  Kendal's  time-keeper,  the  mean  time  at  Greenwich  was  12°  2'  7"  : 
from  this  subtracting  12*'  1'  24",  the  mean  time  at  the  ship,  the  remainder,  0'  43',  is 
the  difference  of  meridians ;  which,  converted  into  parts  of  a  degree,  gives  0®  ICV  45" 
for  the  longitude  of  the  ship,  according  to  Kendal,  which  is  to  the  we;  twai^,  because  the 
mean  time  at  the  ship  is  less  than  that  at  Greenwich. 

*'When  we  were  on  shore,  the  observations  were  made  with  an  astronomical 
quadrant,  divided  by  Mr.  Ramsden,  of  eighteen  inches  radius,  which  was  placed  on  a 
solid  rock  of  marble  ;  the  error  of  the  line  of  coHimation  was  found  by  inverting  the 
quadrant,  which  was  adjusted  by  a  spirit  level.  The  weather  dia  not  permit  us  to  take 
corresponding  altitudes  of  the  sun,  so  that  we  determined  the  apparent  time  by  com- 
putation from  altitudes  of  the  sun^s  limb ;  having  before  settled  the  latitude  of  the 
place  of  observation  from  meridian  altitudes  of  the  sun's  limbs,  taken  with  the  same  in- 
strument. 

"  The  latitudes  of  the  ship  were  determined  most  commonly  by  the  meridian  a/ti- 
tude  of  the  sun's  lower  limb ;  in  a  few  instances,  by  that  of  his  upper  limb,  when  the 
lower  was  not  so  distinct,  or  was  hia  by  the  clouds.  The  height  of  the  eye  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  in  all  these  observauons,  was  sixteen  feet.  When  we  could  not  get  a 
meridian  observation,  we  made  use  of  the  method  described  in  the  Nautical  Almanac 
for  1771,  from  two  idtitudes  taken  about  noon,  and  at  a  little  distance  from  it. 

"  It  sometimes  happens  that  we  can  only  take  some  altitudes  very  near  the  time  of 
noon.  If  we  have  observed  any  altitudes  of  the  sun  near  the  prime  vertical,  we  may 
thence  determine  how  much  the  watch  is  too  fast  or  too  slow  for  apparent  time ;  and, 
consequently,  how  much  the  time  when  the  altitudes  were  taken,  is  distant  from  noon; 
it  therefore  remains  now  to  find  how  much  these  dtitudes  are  different  from  the  meri- 
dian  altitude.    This  may  easily  be  found  by  the  following  rule : 

*'  To  the  logarithm  of  the  rising,  taken  out  of  the  tables  in  Nautical  Almanac  for 
1771,  add  the  complement  arithmetical  of  the  Ic^arithmic  cosine  of  tb'^  supposed  meri 
^an  altitude ;  fivm  the  sum  (the  index  being  increased  by  five)  subtract  the  logarillim 
ratio  (found  by  the  rules  in  uie  above  mentioned  Ephemeris)  Uie  remainder  is  the  lo- 
garithmic sine  of  the  change  in  alUtude. 


592 


PHTPPS'S  JOimVAL. 


"  Example  I...June  the  twenty.first,  the  altitude  of  the  sun's  center  was  observed 
to  be  46 *>  6'  at  16'  AS"  after  apparent  noon ;  the  latitude  by  account  was  6V  IT ;  the  sun's 
declination  being  then  23  <>  28'  N.  the  supposed  meridian  altitude  46*^  11'. 

5. 


(I  SuppoBcd  Intitude  67»  17'  Co.  Ar.  Coc.  0,41333. 
Sun's  declination  38  28    Co.  Ar.  Cos.  0,03749. 


Rising  16'  45' 

Supposed  Mer.  Alt.  Ar.  Co.  Cob. 


Log.  ratio 

The  change  in  altitude  is 
Observed  altitude 

Meridian  altitude 
Declination 

Altitude  of  the  Equator 
Latitude   • 


0,45071 


3,42643 
0,15967 

7,58610 
0,45071 


+00 
46 

5' 
6 

46 
-  23 

11 

28 

Sine  7,13530 


22  43 
67  17  N 


"  As  the  altitudes  for  determining  how  much  the  watch  differs  fiora  apparent  time 
were  taken  near  the  prime  vertical,  t  great  error  in  the  supposed  latftude  will  make  a 
very  insensible  change  in  the  apparent  time;  nor  will  it  create  any  gteat  difference  in 
the  vi..«ition  of  altitude  near  noon  in  a  given  time,  as  mil  Sippcax  by  the  foUowii^g  com- 
putation  : 

"  Siippose  the  latitude  by  acco»int  was  68*  17',  a  degree  greater  than  before.         i- 

««SupposedUUtude68^   17'  Cos.  Co.  Ar.0,43J78     Riwng '6'  45"         .        -        ,        •        a,4264J 
Declination      •        33    38  0,03749    Supposed  Mer.  Alt.  45.  11.  Cot.  Co.  Ar.    0,15191 


Log.  ratio  -  « 

The  change  in  the  sun's  altitude  is 
Observed  altitude  •  « 

Meridian  altitude       <•  .        . 

Declination 

Altitude  of  the  Equator 

Latitude         .  -  -  . 

from  the  true  latitude  we  found  before. 


0,46927 


0» 

46 

4'  25" 
6 

46 

33 

10  25 
28 

••       7,57834 
0,46927 

Sine  7,10907 


32  42  25 

67  17  35  which  only  dlfferes  thirty'five  leconds 


,  -i-     r, 


IL...  June  the  twentieth,  the  altitude  of  the  sun's  center  was  observed 
midnight,  to  be  l**  13',  the  httitude  by  account  being  61^  40' N. 


"  Example 
Qo  28' 38"  after  I 

5. 

"  Supposed  latitude  670  40' Cos.  Co.  Ar.  0;42032     Rising  28'  38l  •         -         -         2,89380 

Declination         -    23    38  ■.      0,03749    Supposed  Mer.  Alt.  1"  8'    Cos.  Co.       0,00001 


Log.  ratio 

Change  in  thr  altitude 
Observed  altitude 

Meridian  altitude 
Co*declinatioa 

Latitude 


0,4577 1 


— 0»     9' 
I      13 

1     4 

66  32 

67  36  N. 


7,89381 
0,45771 

Sine  7,43fiie 


;«;  .  !ji«j.' 


•.;nl'; 


PHIPPS'S  JOURNAL.  593 

"  Tliere  were  two  time-keepers  sent  out  for  trial  by  the  Board  of  Longitude  :  one 
made  by  Mr.  Kendal,  after  Mr.  Harrison's  principles ;  the  other,  by  Mr.  Arnold  :  this 
last  was  suspended  in  gimmals,  but  Mr.  Kendal's  vvus  laid  between  two  cushions,  which 
quite  filled  up  the  box.  They  were  both  kept  in  tx>xes  screwed  down  to  the  shelves  of 
the  cabin,  and  had  each  three  locks ;  the  key  of  one  of  which  was  kept  by  the  captain, 
of  another  by  the  first  lieutenant,  and  of  the'  third  by  myself ;  they  were  wound  up  each 
day  soon  after  noon>  and  compared  with  each  other  and  with  captaiti  Phipps's  watch. 
They  stopped  twice  in  the  voyage,  owing  to  their  being  run  down ;  they  were  set 
a-going  again,  and  as  they  had  been  daily  compared  together,  it  was  easy  to  know  how 
long  each  had  stopped,  from  the  others  that  were  still  going ;  this  time  is  allowed  for  in 
the  table  of  the  mean  time  at  Greenwich  by  each  time-keeper. 

"  When  we  were  on  shore  at  the  island  where  we  observed  July  fifteenth,  we  found 
how  much  the  watch  was  too  slow  for  mean  time.  When  we  returned  from  the  ice  to 
Smeerenbei^,  and  again  compared  the  watch  with  the  mean  time,  allowing  the  small  dif- 
ference of  longitude  between  the  island  at.d  Smeerenber^,  we  found  that  it  went  very 
nearly  at  the  same  rate  as  it  did  when  tried  at  Greenwich  :  so  that  its  rate  of  going  was 
nearly  the  same  in  our  run  from  England  to  the  island,  from  thence  to  the  ice  and  back 
again  to  Smeerenberg,  and  in  our  voyage  froni  thence  to  England,  as  we  found  on  our 
return-  By  this  means  we  were  induced  to  give  the  preference  to  the  watch,  and  to  con- 
clude that  the  longitude  found  by  it  was  not  very  different  from  the  truth. 

* '  The  principles  on  which  this  watch  is  constructed,  as  I  am  informed  by  the  maker, 
Mr.  Arnold,  are  these  :  the  balance  is  unconnected  with  the  wheel- work,  except  at  the 
time  it  receives  the  impulse  to  make  it  continue  its  motion,  which  is  only  while  it  vi- 
brates 10*  out  of  380°,  which  is  the  whole  vibration  ;  and  during  this  small  interval  it 
has  little  or  no  friction,  but  what  is  on  the  pivots,  which  work  in  ruby  holes  on  dia- 
monds :  it  has  but  one  pallet,  which  is  a  plane  surface  formed  out  of  a  ruby,  and  has  no 
oil  on  it. 

**  Watches  of  this  construction  go  whilst  they  are  wound  up ;  they  keep  the  same 
rate  of  going  in  every  position,  and  are  not  affected  by  the  different  forces  of  the  spring: 
the  compensation  for  heat  and  cold  is  absolutely  adjustable. 

*♦  Time- keepers  of  this  size  are  more  convenient  than  larger,  on  several  accounts; 
they  are  equally  portable  with  a  pocket  watch,  and,  by  being  kept  nearly  in  the  same  de- 
gree of  heat,  suffer  very  little  or  no  change  from  the  vicissitudes  of  the  weather. 

*'  This  watch  was  exceedingly  useful  to  us  in  our  observations  on  land,  as  the  other 
time-keepers  could  not  safely  be  moved :  and  indeed,  in  the  present  voyage,  where  they 
were  on  ^rial,  it  was  contrary  to  the  intent  for  which  they  were  put  on  board,  and  might 
have  been  attended  with  accidents,  by  which  the  rate  of  their  going  might  have  been 
greatly  affected. 

"  The  longitudes  by  Mr.  Arnold's  larger  time-keeper  are  very  different  from  those 
by  the  watch  in  our  voyage  back  from  Spitsbergen  to  England  ;  owing,  probably,  to  the 
balance-spring  being  rusted,  as  we  found  when  it  was  opened  at  the  royal  observatory  at 
Greenwich,  on  our  return. 

The  longitudes  found  by  the  moon  are  deduced  from  distances  of  the  moon  from  the 
sun's  limbs,  or  from  stars,  taken  with  the  sextant ;  whilst  the  altitudes  of  the  moon  and 
sun,  or  star,  were  taken  by  two  other  observers. 

**  In  one  instance  (June  the  twenty-sixth)  the  observations  were  all  made  by  captain 
Phipps  with  the  small  sextant  successively ;  and  the  altitudes  of  the  moon  and  sun  at  the 
very  instant  the  distances  were  observed  are  deduced  from  the  changes  in  these  altitudes 
during  the  interval  of  observation. 


VOL.    I, 


4  G 


It' 

■I 


o94 


PlilPPS'S  JUUHN  >L. 


<*  I  have  calculated  the  longitude  from  each  set  of  observations  separately,  to  slicw  how 
near  they  ugrt  c  with  each  other,  and  what  degree  of  precision  one  may  expect  in  simi- 
lar cases. 

'*  Observations  of  the  distances  of  the  moon  and  sun,  or  stars,  may  be  useful  to  in>  )rm 
us  if  the  time-keepers  have  suffered  any  considerable  change  in  their  rate  of  going.  For 
if  the  longitude  deduced  from  the  moon  differs  above  two  degrees  from  that  found  by 
the  watches,  it  is  reasonable  to  imagine  that  this  difference  is  owing  to  some  fault  in  the 
watch,  as  the  longitude  found  by  lunar  observations  can  hardly  vary  this  quantity  from 
the  truth ;  but  if  the  difference  is  much  less,  as  about  half  a  degree,  it  is  more  probable 
that  the  watch  is.  right,  since  a  P'nall  einr  in  the  distance  will  pnxluce  this  difference. 

"  The  distances  of  the  moot.  ^  »  'upitei  were  observed,  because  Jupiter  is  a  very 
bright  object ;  and  the  observatic.  easier  and  less  fallacious,  particularly  that  of  the 

altitude,  than  those  of  a  fixed  star,  w.  se  light  is  much  fainter.  This  method,  however. 
re(iuires  a  different  form  of  calculation  from  that  of  the  observed  distance  of  the  moon 
from  a  fixed  star,  whose  distances  are  computed  for  every  three  hours,  in  the  Nautical 
Almanac.  The  principal  difficulty  in  the  calculation  is  to  find  the  moon's  longhude 
from  the  observation  of  the  distance.  This  I  have  endeavoured  to  facilitate  by  the  fol- 
lowing problem,  which  may  be  applied  to  any  zodiacal  star,  and  will  be  of  use  when  the 
star  set  down  in  the  ephcmeris  cannot  be  observed. 

'*  PROBJL£M....Havinggiven  the  distance  of  two  objects  near  the  ecliptic,  with  their 
latitudes,  to  find  their  difference  of  longitude. 

**  SoLurioN....Find  anarc  A,  whose  logarithmic  sine  is  the  sum  of  the  logarithms 
of  the  sines  of  the  two  latitudes  and  the  logarithmic  tangent  of  half  the  distance,  rejecting 
twenty  from  the  index  of  the  sum. 

"  Find  an  arc  B,  whose  logarithmic  sine  is  the  sum  of  the  logarithmic  -ersed  sine  of 
the  diffl-rence  of  latitude,  and  the  logarithmic  cotangent  of  the  distance,  rejecting  ten 
from  the  index  of  the  sum. 

**  Then  A  added  to  the  observed  distance,  and  B  subtracted  from  the  sum,  leaves  the 
difference  of  longitude.  .    -     . 

"if  one  of  the  latitudes  is  south,  and  the  other  north,  the  sum  of  the  two  arcs  A  and 
B,  subtracted  from  the  distance,  leaves  the  difference  of  longitude. 

ExAMPLE....August  the  thirty-first,  the  observed  distance  of  the  moon's  center  from 
Jupiter,  cleared  of  refraction  and  parallax,  was  32''  35'  52",  the  moon's  latitude  being  1** 
47'N.  and  that  of  Jupiter  !•  36' S.  .,  ,  .  •     .       . 

"Latitude  1»  I^  47'    Sine  8,4930    DiRerence  of  latitude,  3*  3S'    Vert.  Sin.  7,3413 
Lnt.  y.  1      36      Sine  8,4459 

Half  Distance  1 6     18  Tang.  9,4660  Distance  32    36        Cotang.  10,1941 


Arc.  A.  0'   521  Sine  26,4049  Arc  B  9'  25"    - 

The  sum  of  these  arcs    —10'  \7^        Subtracted  from 
The  distance         -       33<'  35  52 


Sine  17,435.4 


Leaves  32    35    35      the  difference  of  longitude  between  the  Moon  and  Jupiter. 

••  Knowing  the  longitude  of  Jupiter  from  the  ephemeris,  and  the  difference  between 
it  and  that  of  the  moon,  we  may  infer  the  longitude  of  the  moon  by  ofjservation  :  and 
from  the  longitudes  set  down  for  noon  and  midnight  c^  each  day,  in  the  Nautical  Alma- 
nac, find  the  apparent  time  at  Greenwich  when  the  moon  had  that  longitude,  which, 
compared  with  the  apparent  time  at  the  ship,  will  give  the  difference  of  meridians,'* 


>  r 

}  ■ 

\ 
1 


NARRATIVE  OF  THK  ADVENTURES  OF  FOUR  RUSSIAN  SAILORS,  WHO  WERE 
CAS*  IN  A  STORM  UPON  THE  UNCULTIVATED  ISLAND  OF  EAST  SFITSHER" 
GEN,  ON  WHICH  THEY  LIVED  FOR  SIX  YEARS  AND  THREE  MONTHS. 

[TrantUted  from  the  German  of  Professor  P.  L.  Le  Ror,  Member  of  the  Imperial  Academy  Der  Wis- 

senschallen,  at  Petersburg  *] 

••  invenlris  condlionim  omnium  necfiiitM."    Hbmodorv),  lib.  vii. 

TRAVELS  of  older  standing,  and  particularly  those  by  sea,  have  often  been  the 
source  of  cx»»ggeratcd  relations,  such  sometimes  as  greatly  exceed  the  hounds  of  proba- 
bility. As  highly  us  we  esteem  those  authors  who  have  given  us  just  accounts  of  adven- 
tures of  this  nature,  as  much  do  we  hesitate  to  give  credit  to  those  whose  narratives, 
abandoning  likcliho<Kl,  are  obnoxious  to  our  j^idgment.  Among  those  it  has  more  than 
once  occurred,  that  writers  charged  with  fallacies  have  in  after  time  been  found  to  have 
related  truths  in  what  have  been  looked  upon  as  idle  tales.  It  were  useless  to  instance 
here  examples  of  this  description. 

The  adventures  which  I  purpose  to  relate,  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  may  be  placed 
among  th-^  learned  researches  of  individuals  into  the  globe ;  they  will,  it  is  not  unlikely, 
be  worked  upon  with  little  rtgiird  to  probiibility,  and  the  mutters  related  (in  some  degree 
wonderful  of  themselves)  be  enlarged  with  diffcix  nt  variations.  I  must  certainly  own 
that  I  knew  not  at  first  what  opinion  I  ought  to  form  of  them  myself,  when  M.  Vene- 
zobre,  director  of  the  offices  of  the  pitch  merchants,  gave  me  the  first  information  respect- 
ing them  from  Archangel.  The  sailors,  whose  historj'  I  write,  were  dependants  in  a 
degree  on  Count  Peter  Iwanowitz  Schuwalow,  to  whom  the  empress  Elizabeth  had 
granted  the  privilege  of  fishing  for  whales.  I  begged  this  nobleman  to  give  an  order 
that  these  sailors  should  be  permitted  to  come  over  from  Archangel,  that  1  might  have 
conversation  with  them  as  I  wished.  The  count  had  the  goodness  to  comply  with  my 
request ;  he  was  himself  anxious  to  see  and  speuk  to  them.  Accordingly  they  were 
wrote  for,  and  two  of  them  were  sent  to  Petersburg ;  the  boatswain,  called  Alexis  Him- 
koflf,  fifty  j'cars  of  age,  and  a  sailo ',  who  was  his  godson,  and  who  bore  the  name  of  Iwan 
Himkoff.  The^  arrived  in  this  city  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1750,  and  the  first  dis- 
course I  held  with  them  was  on  the  eighth  of  January.  They  brought  with  them  differ- 
ent  articles  of  their  workmanship,  which  I  shall  notice  as  I  proceed,  to  present  to  count 
Schuwalow.  I  had  full  opportunity  to  question  them  on  every  point  which  I  could  think 
of,  and  reiterated  my  inquiries  at  different  periods ;  from  which  I  had  no  doubt  of  their 
veracity.  I  believe  also  that  I  do  not  assume  too  much  in  saying,  that  nothing  of  what 
I  am  about  to  relate  can  with  any  reason  be  called  in  question. 

Now  a  ground  of  certainty  is  furnished  which  will  establish  the  truth  of  these  adven. 
ture3.  At  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  these  unfortunate  sailors  at  Archangel,  M.  Von 
Klingstadt,  sub-auditor  of  the  admiralty  of  that  town,  caused  them  to  be  brought  before 
him ;  he  was  the  first  to  interrogate  them  on  what  had  befiillen  them,  put  down  their 
answers  in  writing,  and  decided  on  publishing  the  statement.  Shortly  after  he  came  to 
Petersburg,  and  saw  the  narrative  which  1  had  written ;  he  told  me  he  found  it  to 
coincide  exactly  with  that  which  he  had  sketched,  and  gave  up  his  intention  of  publishing 
hiH  own.    He  had  the  civility  to  compare  his  draught  wiiu  mine,  in  order  to  discover  if 


!' 

i: 


i    1   ,'h-   Tf  "■■'  :•  .'i  ■'< 


Riga,  1768,  octavo. 
4  G  2 


II 


1' 


596 


LK  nOY'8  NAUKAliVt: 


I  hnd  omitted  to  questiun  the  men  on  any  wparate  matters  which  he  had  learnt  from 
them.  The  two  accounts  did  not  differ  in  the  smallest  de^e  in  the  answers  given  to 
the  various  questions  put  to  them.  This  is  an  incontestiblc  evidence  of  the  truth  of 
their  narrative,  since  in  different  places,  and  at  different  times,  they  uniformly  stated  the 
same. 

In  the  year  1743  Jeremias  Ottamkoff,  an  inhabitant  of  Mesen,  in  Jcrgovia,  a  part  of 
the  government  of  Archangel,  bethought  himself  of  sending  out  a  vessel  with  fourteen 
hands  to  Spitsbergen,  to  fish  for  whales  and  sea-calves,  called  by  the  Russians  Morgi ; 
in  which  line  he  carried  on  a  considerable  trade.  For  eight  days  together  this  vessel  had 
a  favourable  wind,  but  on  the  ninth  it  changed.  Instead  of  proceeding  to  the  western 
side  of  Spitsbergen,  to  which  the  Dutch  aifd  other  nations  annually  report  for  the  whale 
fishery  ;  they  were  desirous  of  sailing  to  the  eastern  side,  and  shortly  reached  an  island 
which  is  called  East  Spitsbergen,  known  to  the  Russians  by  tlie  name  of  Maloy  Brown, 
which  signifies  Little  Brown ;  Spitsbergen  Pro))er  being  called  by  them  Bolschoy  Brown 
that  is,  Great  Brown.  They  were  within  three  wcrsts  of  shore  (two  English  miles) 
when  suddenly  the  vessel  was  inclosed  by  ice :  this  gave  them  great  uneasiness.  They 
held  a  council  among  themselves  on  what  to  do,  when  the  boatswain  recollected  to  have 
heard  that  some  inhabitants  of  Mesen  had  once  resolved  upon  wintering  on  this  island : 
thev  had  also  taken  wiihthem  the  materials  of  a  hut,  in  ready  fitted  timber,  on  board 
their  ship ;  and  this  hut  had  been  judged  to  be  certainly  at  some  distance  from  the  sea- 
shore. This  information  of  the  boatswain  induced  them  to  resolve  on  spending  the  win- 
ter there  themselves,  should  the  hut  remain  as  they  hoped ;  considering  that  they  should 
run  great  danger  in  any  case,  if  they  hazarded  reinainmg  at  sea.  They  deputed  four  per- 
sons to  seek  for  and  endeavour  tQ  find  the  hut,  and  any  other  medium  of  assbtance ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  boatswain,  Alexis  Himloff,  and  three  sailors,  Iwan  Himkoff*,  Stephen 
Sharapoff,  and  Foedor  Weregin. 

They  had  to  land  on  a  desert  island.  These  unfortunate  men  were  therefore,  of 
course,  to  be  supplied  with  arms,  and  plenty  of  provision.  On  the  other  hand,  they  had 
to  proceed  the  distance  of  a  mile  over  fragments  of  ice,  now  lifted  up  by  the  waves,  and 
now  driven  against  each  other  by  the  winv  ■  which  made  the  way  as  perilous  as  labori- 
ous,  and  consequently  enforced  the  circumspection  of  not  overloading  themselves,  lest 
they  should  sink,  and  not  arrive.  '  ^  '       v   ' 

They  provided  themselves  for  this  cx{)edition  with  a  musquet,  a  powder-horn,  con- 
taining twelve  charges  of  powder,  a  quantity  of  lead,  an  axe,  a  small  kettle,  a  stove,  a 
piece  of  touchwood,  a  knife,  a  tin-box  full  of  tobacco,  and  each  his  pipe  ;  with  these  few 
articles  and  provisions  did  these  four  unfortunate  sailors  reach  the  island.  '     > .   ^r ; 

They  overcame  all  their  difficulties,  and  quickly  discovered  the  hut  they  were  in  search 
of:  it  was  erected  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  sea.  It  was  about  six  fathoms 
long ;  its  breadth  and  its  height  were  each  three  fathoms.  It  had  a  small  entrance, 
hall.  Which  might  be  two  fathoms  broad,  and  consequendy  hadtwodoors,  the  one 
opening  into  the  hall,  the  other  into  the  chamber.  This  served  very  well  to  preserve 
the  warmth  of  the  room  when  it  was  heated.  To  conclude,  there  was  found  in  this 
apartment  a  clay-fire  place,  set  up  in  the  Russian  manner,  i.  e.  a  stove  without  a  chim- 
ney, serving  the  double  purpose  of  cooking  the  victuals  and  heating  the  room,  and  also 
for  men  to  place  themselves  upon :  this  is  a  common  practice  among  the  country  people 
when  they  are  cold. 

I  have  observed  that  they  were  widiout  a  chimney  in  this  room,  and  this  can  excite 
but  litde  astonish  ment :  the  Russian  peasantry  seldom  building  their  houses  in  any  other 
manner.    As  for  the  smoke  with  which  the  whole  chamber  is  filled  when  a  fire  is  made 


^»^'/" 


OF   FOUR  RUSSIAN  SAILORS. 


597 


ill  the  stove,  to  give  it  vent  the  door  is  opened,  and  three  or  four  windows,  which  arc 
a  foot  long,  and  half  a  foot  broad,  made  in  the  planks  of  which  the  house  is  construct- 
ed :  these  windows  can  be  shut  when  desired  very  closely,  in  frames  purposely  contrived, 
in  which  they  are  moved.  When  a  fire  is  kindled,  the  smoke  never  sinks  lower  than 
these  small  windows  which  I  have  noticed,  so  that  a  person  may  remain  seated  without 
being  subject  to  much  inconvenience  from  it,  and  when  the  apartment  has  been  cleansed, 
whether  by  the  door  or  the  windows,  they  can  be  drawn  to.  Without  being  told,  one 
may  easily  conceive  that  the  upper  part  of  the  room  down  to  the  windows  must  be  "as 
black  as  though  built  of  ebony ;  on  the  other  hand,  from  the  windows  to  the  floor  is 
comparatively  clean,  and  preserves  the  appearance  of  the  natural  wood,  of  which  the 
house  was  built. 

Satisfied  with  having  found  this  hut,  which  shortly  they  improved,  by  expelling  from 
it  the  damp  and  necessarily  foul  air,  they  managed  to  pass  the  nieht  in  it  as  well  as  they 
could.  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  following  day,  they  hied  themselves  back  to  the 
sea  shore,  to  inform  tlieir  companions  of  their  good  fortune,  and  bring  from  the  ship 
provisions,  and  necessary  arms ;  in  short,  whatsoever  it  contained  which  could  be  useful 
to  them  for  passing  the  winter  on  this  island. 

It  were  a  more  easy  task  to  conceive  the  anguish  of  these  unfortunate  beiiif:s  than  to 
express  it,  when,  upon  treading  back  their  steps  to  the  place  where  they  landed,  they 
perceived  nothing  but  an  open  sea,  entirely  free  from  the  ice,  with  which  it  was  covered 
on  the  preceding  day,  and  to  their  heavy  misfortune  no  ship  in  sight.  A  terrible  storm 
which  happened  during  the  night  had  occasioned  this  dreadful  calamity.  And  whether 
the  pieces  of  ice  with  which  it  was  enclosed  had  broke,  and  dashing  against  the  vessel 
with  violence  had  crushed  it ;  whether  it  had  foundered  at  sea,  an  accident  which  often 
occurs  in  those  parts ;  or  whatsoever  other  distress  it  had  encountered ;  it  never  more 
was  seen ;  and  as  no  intelligence  respecting  its  company  was  ever  after  obtained,  it  is 
highly  probable  they  met  with  some  mischance.  From  this  circumstance,  these  unfor^ 
tunate  men  saw  plainly  that  they  had  no  hope  remaining  of  getting  from  the  bland ; 
and  with  heavy  hearts  they  returned  to  the  hut  from  which  the^  came. 

Their  first  care  and  attention  turned,  as  may  be  naturally  imagined,  upon  their  support 
and  shelter.  The  twelve  charges  of  powder  which  they  had,  in  a  little  time,  produced 
them  as  many  rein-deer,  which  luckily  for  them  abounded  on  the  island. 

As  the  rein-deer  b  met  with  in  the  North  (^  Europe,  in  Lapland,  and  in  Asia,  in  simi- 
lar latitudes,  I  conceive  I  shall  not  be  departing  widely  from  my  subject  in  giving  a  des- 
cription of  it. 

The  rein-deer  resembles  the  stae,  and  the  eland ;  it  is  for  die  most  part  of  an  ash 
gray,  although  some  are  met  with  of  a  reddish  colour.  It  is  more  stout  and  larger  than 
uie  stag,  but  its  feet  are  shorter,  and  prqrartionably  thicker.  Its  antlers  are  whitish 
and  plun,  and  are  more  branching  than  those  of  the  stag ;  those  of  the  eland  are 
more  like  them.  When  the  rein-deer  runs,  the  joints  of  its  feet  make  a  clicking,  which 
of  itself  is  sufficient  to  distinguish  it  from  the  stag.  The  Laplander,  the  Samoiede,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  a  part  of  1  ungusi,  break  in  the  rein-deer,  which  is  called  by  them  as 
well  as  in  Russia  by  the  name  of  Olen,  and  train  it  to  draw  them  in  their  sledges ;  the 
Tungusians  call  it  Uleni.  The  rein-deer  serves  all  the  purposes  of  a  horse,  is  tolerably 
strong,  and  possesses  an  incredible  swiftness.  Its  food  is  moss,  which  is  found  in  ab  m- 
dance  in  all  the  Northern  Countries.  Its  provender  is  everywhere  to  be  met  with, 
and  costs  its  master  nothing,  it  even  helps  itself,  digging  through  the  snow  with  its  feet 
to  get  to  its  fodder.    It  h^  been  affirmed  that  Uie  rein*deer  cannot  subsbt  away  ftom 


«: 


r. 


698 


LE   ROY'S  NARRATIVE 


I 


its  native  country ;  but  I  can  prove  this  assertion  to  be  groundless.  At  Moscow,  in  the 
year  1731,  I  saw  a  dozen  of  them  which  were  running  by  the  side  of  the  house  of 
count  Von  Gotoskin,  at  that  time  grand  chancellor,  which  were  kept  in  Wit,  grounds : 
they  were  of  a  reddish  white  colour.  In  ihe  year  1752,  count  Peter  Iwanowitch  Von 
Schuwaloff  sent  for  two  from  Archangel ;  a  male,  and  female.  They  were  ft  d  on 
moss.  The  female  was  a  young  one,  which  throve  to  ndininttion,  and  down  to  the 
year  1754  was  in  perfect  health.  These  are  matters  to  which  1  was  an  eye  witness  at 
Moscow.  I  cannot  tell  however  what  length  of  time  she  lived,  as  I  returned  the  same 
year  to  Petersburg.     Having  finished  this  short  digression,  I  return  to  my  narrative. 

The  injuries  wliich  the  hut  so  luckily  discovered  by  the  sailors  had  received  were 
very  trivial :  the  planks  of  which  it  was  built  had  separated  in  different  places,  and  re- 
quiring to  \vAve  the  chinks  filled  with  moss,  the  wind  had  a  free  passage  afforded  it. 
This  however  was  an  evil  easy  to  l)e  remedied,  as  they  had  an  axe,  and  the  planks  were 
not  decayed.  It  is  well  known  that  in  these  cold  climates  wood  keeps  entire  for  many 
years,  and  is  not  subject  to  be  worm  eaten.  It  cost  them  but  little  trouble  to  join  the 
planks  together  again,  and  with  the  moss,  which  was  found  in  abundance  on  the  island, 
they  readily  filled  up  ever)  crevice ;  this  practice  is  generally  followed  in  completing 
houses  constructed  of  wood.  These  men  relieved  themselves  from  this  inconvenience 
without  embarrassment,  the  more  so  from  its  being  the  custom,  us  is  well  known,  for  the 
Russian  peasants  to  build  their  own  dwellings :  they  are  consequently  expert  in  the  use 
of  the  axe. 

The  cold  in  these  climates  is  insupportable,  and  the  earth  itself  produces  no  trees  ; 
not  even  the  smallest  bush.  This  want  of  wood  our  unfortunate  adventurers  had  re- 
marked on  looking  round  the  island  on  their  arrival,  and  they  were  under  apprehen- 
sion of  peiishing  of  cold.  Their  good  fortune  however  favoured  them ;  the  pieces  of  a 
ship  which  had  been  wrecked  were  thrown  on  the  coa^  Is  of  this  island ;  an  accident 
which  furnished  them  with  wood  enough  to  carry  them  through   their  first  winter. 

Nearly  the  same  assistance  was  to  be  sent  them  tiic  following  year,  this  affording  them 
no  more  than  an  advantageous  variation :  the  waves  of  the  sea  continually  throwing  on 
shore  entire  trees  with  their  roots,  without  their  being  able  to  divine  from  what  countr}' 
they  were  brought.  This  circumstance  will  not  appear  incredible  to  those,  who 
have  taken  the  pains  to  inform  themselves  of  what  different  writers  have  related  on 
this  subject ;  who  notice  its  frequency,  whether  on  our  wintering  at  Nova  Zemla« 
(not  Zembia,  as  we  shall  prove)  or  in  lands  of  other  latitudes  farther  towards  the 
North. 

I  break  in  on  my  narrative  to  observe  that  it  should  be  called,  not  Nova  Zembin,  but 
Novoia  or  Nova  Zemla,  which  signifies  new  earth,  or  new  land,  the  Russian  term  con- 
veying both  these  meanings ;  and  under  this  name,  when  spoken  of,  it  is  known  in 
Russia. 

Nodiing  assisted  these  sailors  during  the  first  year  of  their  exile  so  much  as  a  board, 
to  which  was  fixed  a  long  iron  hook,  and  a  nail  four  or  five  inches  long,  and  propor. 
tionately  thick  ;  as  well  another  board,  to  which  was  fastened  different  old  iron  work, 
the  sad  remains  of  some  vessel  which  had  been  lost  in  this  wide  extended  sea.  I'his  iin. 
expected  aid  arrived  at  a  time  when  they  had  nearly  expended  their  powder ;  when  the 
flesh  of  the  rein-deer  which  thev  had  shot  was  almost  all  consumed ;  and  they  hid  no 
other  prospect  than  that  of  perishing  with  hunger.  A  second  piece  of  good  fortune  be- 
fell  them,  little  less  valuable  than  the  first:  they  found  on  the  sea  shore  U)'>  Tootofa  fir 
tree,  which  was  nearly  in  the  shape  of  a  bow.       ., 


1 


I  • 
I 
■  ( 


of  POUIt  UnSSIAN  SAII.OUM. 


599 


Necessity  was  ever  the  mother  of  invention.  They  took  for  granted,  that,  hy  the  meanh 
of  their  knife,  they  should  be  enabled  to  fashion  this  root  into  u  complete  bow  ;  and  ;f> 
fectively  they  compussed  their  puqiose. 

But  the  difficulty  was  to  find  a  cord  to  string  it,  and  arrows  to  shoot  with.  They  de- 
lilxfrated  on  this  circumstiuice,  and  concluded  upon  making  two  iron  headed  spears,  for 
defending  themselves  from  the  white  bears,  which  are  more  fierce  than  the  generality  of 
their  s|x:cies,  an  attack  from  them  Ixing  the  onlv  molestation  they  had  to  apprehend  : 
the  making  of  arrows  and  contriving  a  cord  to  stnng  their  l)ow  were  put  off  to  a  future 
[K'riod.  To  make  a  kimmer  for  working  the  iron  into  lances  and  airrows,  was  no  great 
achievement  for  them ;  every  one  knows  they  might  find  u  way  to  eflfect  this  puq)os(r, 
and  furnish  themselves  with  the  tool. 

The  iron  hook  which  I  have  noticed  they  found  fastened  to  the  board  thrown  on  shore 
had  a  pretty  considerable  hole  in  it,  about  two  or  three  inches  from  the  end  op|)ositc 
to  the  heaa.  The  head  was  round  and  thick,  such  as  in  similar  hooks  is  commonly 
made  for  their  protection.  They  contrived  to  heat  red  hot  the  end  which  had  an  ori- 
fice, and  enlarged  it  by  forcing  into  it  the  nail  which  they  had  met  with  :  this  they  ef- 
fected with  u  lew  strokes  of  the  axe  on  the  part,  about  five  inches  from  the  hole,  which 
was  to  be  made  larger;  by  another  blow  they  drove  in  the  hot  hook  a  piece  of  round- 
ed wood,  which  served  for  a  handle,  and  thus  became  possessed  of  a  hammer.  To  com- 
plete their  forge,  they  pitched  upon  a  large  stone  for  their  anvil,  which  they  had  to  re- 
move from  its  place  :  on  this  occasion,  two  rein-decrs'  horns  or  antlers  served  them  for 
slings.  With  these  tools  they  forged  themselves  two  lances'  heads,  which  they  polished 
and  pointed  sharp  with  stones ;  these  they  boimd  as  firmly  as  possible  by  the  exertion  of 
all  their  might,  with  thongs  made  from  the  skin  of  the  rein-deer,  to  stocks  of  the  thick- 
ness ofone'sarm,  madeofthe  branches  of  trees,  which  they  found  cast  on  shore  by  the 
sea.  When  a  man  has  resolution,  he  may  with  such  a  spear  (you  may  call  it  a  pike  or 
halbertif  you  will)  attack  a  white  bear,  ai^^^hough  he  runs  imminent  danger  of  being  killed. 
As  soon  as  they  had  made  themselves  masters  of  one  of  these  frightful  beasts,  they  made 
its  flesh  serve  them  for  food ;  and  they  found  it  much  more  agreeable  to  the  taste  than 
that  of  the  rein-deer;  the  truth  of  this  circumstance  I  have  been  assured  of  by  niarsy  with 
whom  I  have  spoken  on  thb  subject. 

Upon  examining  the  nerves  and  fibres  of  this  bear  they  remarked,  with  indescribable 
delight,  that  they  were  divisible  with  the  least  trouble  into  threads  as  thick  or  as  fine  as 
they  pleased.  I  have  myself  made  this  experiment,  which  I  shall  hereafter  notice.  This 
discovery  was  one  of  the  most  happy  events  that  could  have  befallen  them  ;  besides  other 
advantages  which  they  might  derive  from  it  at  a  future  period,  it  furnished  them  imme- 
diately with  a  cord  for  their  bow.  With  this  they  killed  iill  the  rein-deer,  and  blue 
and  white  foxes,  they  had  occasion  for  during  tne  whole  time  of  their  stay  upon 
the  island ;  these  served  them  for  food,  for  medicine,  and  for  raiment,  protecting 
them  from  the  insupportable  cold  which  reigns  in  these  latitudes,  so  contiguous  to  the 
pole. 

The  great  success  which  our  islanders  met  with  from  the  use  of  their  lances  en- 
livened  them  much,  an  induced  them  without  delay  to  forge  four  iron  heads  for  ar- 
rows :  these  were  completed,  but  made  smaller  than  the  first :  they  heated  and  sharpened 
them  as  they  had  done  the  former,  and  bound  them  with  thin  threads  made  of  the 
nerves  of  the  bear  to  shafts  of  fir,  through  sUts  in  which  they  inserted  feathers  which 
they  found,  fastening  t!  m  with  very  fine  fibres.  Their  ingenuity  profited  them  so  far, 
that  in  the  course  of  the  time  of  their  remaining  on  the  island,  by  means  of  these  ar- 
rows, they  killed  two  hundred  and  fifty  rein-deer,  besides  a  considerable  number  of 


i; 
ii 


« 


1 


i: 


B 


(; 


t 


i 

I 


}  ■ 


i'.i 


600 


LK  KOY'g  NAItUATIVK 


blue  and  white  foxes.  The  latter  are  called  Pcstzi  in  Russia,  on  account  of  their  strontj; 
rchcmhlancc  lou  kind  of  Iceland  dog,  which  the  German  shepherds  usually  have  lor  guar> 
diner  their  shcip :  the  word  |h-s  signifying;  a  dog,  in  the  Hussiun  tongue. 

When  they  ventured  themselves  uguinst  the  white  L)c.tr,  of  whicl)  in  all  they  killed 
ten,  tliey  ran  great  ri<ik  of  their  life.  These  wild  unimuls  arc  |M)s(icssed  of  uncommon 
strength,  and  defend  themselves  with  extraordinary  obstinacy  ;  so  that,  excepting  tlie 
first  which  I  have  mentioned,  they  never  designedly  encountered  them  :  the  nine  others 
were  killed  in  their  own  defence,  when  attacked  by  iheni :  several  of  tliesc  had  even 
proceeded  as  fur  as  into  the  entrance  of  the  hut,  to  tear  them  in  pieces.  It  is  true,  all 
these  wild  animals  did  not  shew  the  same  courage,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  whether 
from  being  less  excited  by  himger,  or  less  furious  by  nature  ;  some  of  them  running 
away  at  the  cries  which  the  men  made  while  preparing  themselves  to  drive  them  buck. 
Nevertheless,  their  different  attempts  occasioned  thesi;  poof  men  unspeakabk  inquietude  : 
they  never  ventured  to  any  distance  alone,  nor  without  being  armed  with  their  lances, 
to  protect  them  from  the  violence  of  the  bears ;  being  continually  under  apprehension 
of  being  devoured  by  them.  These  three  descriptions  of  wild  aninuUs  were  the  only 
food  of  our  islanders  during  the  whole  of  their  stay  in  that  desert  country. 

Men  do  not  reflect  upon  all  their  means  at  once  :  it  is  commonly  the  need  of  a  thing 
which  opens  their  eyes,  and  impels  them  to  think  of  expedients,  which  otherwise  would 
not  have  been  conceived.  The  justness  of  this  observation  was  more  than  once  ex« 
perienced  by  our  sailors.  During  a  long  period  they  were  under  the  necessity  of  eating 
their  meat  almost  raw,  without  salt,  the  want  of  which  they  felt  severely,  and  without 
bread.  The  immoderate  cold  of  Uiese  climates,  and  the  few  conveniencies  they  possessed, 
did  not  allow  them  to  cook  their  victuaU  in  a  proper  manner :  in  Uieir  hut  they  only 
found  a  stove  of  the  Russian  fasliion,  and  consequently  of  a  description  which  could  not 
serve  for  making  a  kettle  boil.  On  the  other  nand,  wood  was  much  too  precious  to 
them  to  keep  up  two  fires,  and  were  they  to  kindle  one  without  the  house,  it  would 
not  serve  to  warm  them,  a  matter  of  the  highest  importance  in  such  a  rigid  clime. 
Finally,  the  continual  dread  of  exposing  themselves  to  the  white  bears  hindered  them 
from  cooking  in  the  open  air.  I  shall  now  make  one  remark.  Allowing  that  in  spite 
of  the  before  mentioned  impediments  they  should  have  attempted  this  measure,  it  would 
yet  have  been  impracticable  throughout  a  great  part  of  the  year  :  and  certainly  the  ex- 
cessive  cold,  which  almost  always  reigns  in  these  regions,  the  long  absence  of  the  sun, 
which  leaves  them  for  months  enveloped  in  complete  darkness,  the  iiiconceivable  falls 
of  snow,  which  take  place  at  certain  periods,  and  the  long  duration  of  the  rainy  season 
at  others ;  these  circumstances  must  have  soon  obliged  them  to  change  their  intention, 
even  should  they  have  resolved  upon  it. 

How  then  were  they  to  remedy  the  inconvenience  of  being  obliged  to  eat  their  meat 
almost  raw?  Their  ingenuity  pointed  out  the  p!we  to  them  of  suspending  it  from  the 
roof  of  the  hut.  In  the  description  of  it,  I  have  observed  that  ever}'  day  it  was  filled 
with  smoke  from  the  height  of  a  sitting  person  to  the  top.  Now  this  was  actually  a 
smoking  chamber ;  then  tney  liung  their  meat  on  wooden  pegs,  fastened  on  the  outside 
of  the  tipper  part  of  the  roof  of  their  hut,  so  that  their  foes,  the  beai's,  could  not  reach 
them :  there  th'jy  left  it  the  whole  summer  through,  exposed  to  the  fresih  air,  and  the 
wind :  it  dried  extremely  well,  and  served  them  in  lieu  of  bread,  making  them  relish 
their  other  meat  which  was  but  half  cooked.  After  they  had  made  this  experiment, 
and  it  had  succeeded  so  much  to  their  comfort  as  to  satisfy  their  fullest  wishes,  they 
ever  after  continued  the  practice  of  it,  and  increased  their  stock  of  provision  as  much  as 
they  were  able.  •  :  ,•  .    /,.;..:   ,      ,. :  ,i  .  ...  4.,' i  /.u    >•</: 


or  rOUB  BUIUAM  IAI1.0RI. 


601 


It  may  be  inquired  how  ctmc  they  by  tWn  klca  f  The  answer  is  easy.  There  art 
few  couiitrieit  in  which  it  is  not  usual  to  smoke  hams,  and  ((t-csc,  as  wril  iiMdiflfcrcnt  ^ortN 
offiith,  and  in  Russia  the  |)ructice  is  common  of  drying  ludnion,  sturgeon,  and  other 
of  similar  kind,  in  the  sun ;  which  on  fust  days,  and  during  the  great  fust,  ore  served  up 
on  tabic  without  the  least  paparution. 

After  speuking  of  their  meat,  I  must  now  give  a  short  account  of  their  beverage.  Thc 
water  which  they  obtained  from  the  rivulets  that  streamed  picntcuusly  from  the  rocks 
of  this  island  quenclied  their  thirst  in  summer  ;  and  the  ice  and  the  snow,  which  they 
melted  during  the  winter,  served  them  for  drink  through  th^t  part  of  the  year  when 
they  were  confined  to  their  hut.  I  must  not  however  torgct  to  notice,  that  their  little 
kettle  was  the  vessel  in  which  they  fetched  their  water,  and  out  of  which  they  drunk. 

The  scurvy  is  a  muludy  to  which  seamen  arc  commonly  subject,  and  is  more  danger, 
ous  in  proportion  to  an  Jipproximity  to  the  pole,  whether  the  cause  be  uttributuble  to 
the  cold,  or  to  any  other  unknown  circumstance.  Let  that  be  as  it  will :  these  unfortu< 
nute  men,  should  they  be  attacked  by  this  disorder,  were  without  ussisUincc,  they  there- 
fore bethought  themselves  of  u  means,  which  ought  not  to  |)as!i  unnoticed,  reputedly  a 
sovereign  preventative  of  diis  disagreeable  cor  )iuint.  It  wus  Iwun  HinikolT,  who  had 
passed  the  winter  several  times  on  the  western  coust  of  Spitsbergen,  that  mude  his  com- 
panions acquainted  with  this  remedy.  He  instructed  them  to  cut  raw  and  frozen  meat 
cut  into  small  ^licccs,  and  drink  the  warm  Mood  of  the  rein.deer,  extracted  from  the  ani< 
mal  as  soon  as  killed,  and  that  as  often  as  the  carcasses  could  be  obtained ;  and,  lastly,  to 
eat  as  much  as  possible  of  cochlearia  (scurvy  grass)  the  only  g^ass  which  grew  on  the 
island,  and  that  but  sparingly.  It  is  for  the  faculty  to  determine,  if  these  small  pieces  of 
raw  and  froaen  flesh,  and  this  warm  blood  of  the  rein-deer,  be  fit  for  the  cure  of  the  scur> 
vy.  Might  not  exercise  be  concerned,  where  this  prescription  was  followed  by  those 
nho  were  threatened  with  this  disorder,  or  upon  whom  it  had  mude  its  appearance? 
Again,  no  one  is  igpjorant  that  cochlerk  is  a  powerful  antidote  against  the  scurvy.  How- 
ever, be  this  as  it  mav  experience,  in  this  instance,  illustrated  the  powerful  influence 
of  the  prescriptions  administered :  three  of  the  sailors  who  made  use  of  this  regimen 
were  kept  entirely  from  this  complaint.  As  often  as  they  hunted  down  a  rein-deer  or  a 
fox,  as  constandv  they  drank  its  blood.  Iwan  Himkoff,  the  youngest  of  them,  had  ac- 
quired such  swiftness  of  foot  at  this  exercise,  that  he  could  leave  the  fastest  horse  be- 
hind, a  circumstance  to  wliich  I  have  been  an  eye-witness.  The  fourth,  called  Feodor 
Weregin,  had  at  all  times  in  unconquerable  aversion  to  the  blood  of  rein-deer,  he  was 
veiy  heavy  and  very  idle,  and  returning  to  the  hut  as  soon  as  possible  when  obliged  to 
make  excursions.  From  his  first  arrival  upon  this  island  he  was  menaced  with  this 
calamity,  and  in  course  of  time  the  malady  had  made  such  progress,  that  he  was  subject 
to  a  dreaidful  weakness,  accompanied  by  cruel  suflferings.  During  the  last  year  of  his 
life  he  was  bed-ridden,  without  strength  enough  to  raise  himself  up,  and  without  the 
power  of  moving  hb  hand  to  hb  mouth ;  the  companions  of  his  misfortunes  being  oblig- 
to  nurse  him  the  same  as  a  new-born  child.^ 


11 


« I 

1 


{ 


,;>'i 


It, 


*  Although  I  have  my  doubts  ••  to  the  efficacious  operation  of  pieces  of  froaen  and  raw  flrsh  cut  small, 
and  the  drinkingof  the  warm  blood  of  newly  killed  rein-deei't  as  a  remedy  for  the  scurvy,  it  yet  appears 
to  me  that  these  things  are  worthy  of  notice.  I  certainly  have  found  in  the  first  volume  of  a  book,  entitled 
"  Voyages  and  Discoveries  of  the  Russians  along  the  shores  of  the  rroaen  Ocean  and  the  Eastern  Sea,  as 
wrell  as  towards  Japan  and  America,  published  by  Muller,"  that  the  inhabitants  of  northern  Siberia  make 
use  of  frosen  fish,  which  is  eaten  raw,  as  a  remedy  for  that  shockinf^  disorder,  and  that  it  is  effectual." 
Vide  pages  194,  I9S.  "  Our  men  dug  out  their  residence  for  the  winter  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Cho- 
tuschtach.  Here  the  acurry  began  to  affect  our  ship's  crew;  but  they  were  benefitted  by  using  adecor.iior 
VOL.    I.  4  H 


I 


1102 


I.K  nOY'H  NAHHAIIVK 


In  the  iK'Kinnin^  ol  my  narrntivc  I  have  obNcrvcd,  that  our  miiton  brought  u  itmull 
Hack  ol  nicul,  about  twenty  |)uuiids  weight,  with  ihciu  to  liu:  iMuitd,  1  ttluU  now  tiuiicc 
the  use  to  which  it  was  put. 

Soon  alicr  their  arrival  they  ahamlonetl  the  use  of  this  foml,  dcHiHting  when  they  had 
cooked  tlic  flesh  of  the  ic'ii-deer  which  ihey  hiul  killed;  prescrviitg  thus  about  the  lull' 
of  it.  This  remaining  (|uantity  thiy  put  to  u  service  ut  least  as  iiecessuiy  us  that  to  which 
the  former  putt  had  Ix-en  applied.     1  shall  pioceed  to  describe  it. 

They  readily  saw  that,  while  in  so  cold  a  climate,  they  must  continually  keep  up  a 
fire,  they  would  have  very  k\v  meuns  for  kindling  it,  after  those  should  be  consumed 
which  they  (xjsscsscd ;  it  is  true,  they  had  store  of  lu'e<wood,  but  liule  touchwood  or 
tinder.  The  barbarous  nations  in  the  wilds  of  America  have  discoveted  a  metlxxl  of 
lighting  u  fire  whenever  they  will :  it  consists  in  the  friction  of  u  •Kpiarc  piece  of  hard 
wood  against  two  pieces  ol  sofier  wood,  which  ire  fastened  to  it;  while  the  two  soft 
pieces  are  pressed  between  (he  knees,  the  middle  hard  piece  is  milled  l>y  the  hands  with 
great  velocity,  so  that  I))  the  friction  u  heat  is  occasioned,  which  shortly  causes  smoke, 
undcpiickly  succeeding  llanie  is  excited.* 

Our  ingenious  sailors  had  little  knowledge  of  this  American  custom  ;  but  they  knr 
that  when  two  pieces  of  dry  wood,  one  of  which  being  soft,  and  the  other  hard,  ; 

of  cedar  slioott,  which  tree  Rrowt  here  to  a  iimall  height,  and  ttler  the  manner  of  the  country  by  taking 
luw  unl  IV()2cti  fish,  which  they  powdered  und  ute.  l)y  thete  meanii,  ..nd  by  keeping  coiitinuitlly  at  work 
und  in  liuurly  vxcrcUv.  uiont  uf  thcni  ^ot  relieved  and  restored  to  houith. 

•^  I'osiihiy  the  cure  ol  these  sick  men  is  ascribabie  alone  to  their  exercise  und  the  buisum  co  'ained  in 
the  cedur  tthools ;  this  is  nothing  other  than  a  turpentine,  serving  to  purify  the  blood  :  liowever  it  appear* 
front  thin  tliut  these  nations  tnukc  use  of  rftw  and  frozen  fish,  as  a  remedy  for  this  complaint,  and  1  mean 
to  tibsiivcliiis  ulonc." 

Tlic  author  noticed  before  speakit  of  blood  as  an  ontiscorbutic  (see  page  '.lOS  to  306.)  •'  On  such  an 
nccaMion"  (that  of  preventinu;  and  healing  the  scurvy)  he  nuys,  <«  we  muy  take  u  precedent  from  the  Hus* 
siuitA  of  Archangel,  some  of  whom  puss  almost  every  year  the  winter  in  Nova  Zemlu  without  being  in- 
comiuudcd  with  this  disorder  ;  imitatini;  the  Samoiedes  in  drinking  frequently  the  blood  of  the  Iresh 
killed  rein-deer  " 

Now,  one  remark.  Upon  my  reading  this  narrative  to  Mr.  S.  Butigne,  before  I  gave  it  to  the  public,  he 
on  tl<!s  occasion  observed,  that  he  gave  credit  to  the  eiBcucy  of  the  blood  of  animals  being  drunk  while 
wurin,  us  well  for  preventing  as  even  for  remedying  this  disorder ;  itH  volatile  noiure  bein^  calculated  to 
hinder  the  juices  of  the  body  from  becoming  clammy  and  thick,  and  to  correct  iheiu  when  in  that  disposi- 
tion, in  Huch  a^  would  make  the  trial.  This  malady  proceeds  from  a  want  of  due  circulation  of  tlie  fluids, 
which  when  disordered  communicate  their  bane  to  the  whole  mass  of  blood.  He  grounded  his  opinion,  as 
well  as  on  other  circumstances,  u|)on  the  practice  so  common  in  voyages  to  America,  in  whiclu  when  the 
crew  ofa  vessel  is  attocked  by  the  scurvy,  they  make  for  one  ofihe  Turtle  Islands,  culled  so  from  the  num- 
ber of  tlicsc  animals  found  upon  them,  when  the  sick  eat  plcntuously  of  that  food,  which,  from  the  quan- 
tity of  blood  it  contains,  and  that  of  a  balsamic  nature,  is  the  most  preferable  of  all  remedies  1/n  this 
subject  1  shall  myself  remark  a  custom  which  prevails  in  the  neighlxmrhood  of  the  Alps,  and  in  other 
places.  When  persons  are  afflicted  with  pleurisiea.  or  other  complaints  arising  from  the  want  of  tho 
proper  circulation  of  the  fluids,  they  are  occustomed  to  drink  the  blood  of  the  mountain  goats.  Although 
this  blood  be  ofa  hot  nature,  it  yc(  prwIiiceH  favourable  consequences,  from  the  volatility  of  its  parts  ;  ex* 
citiiit,'  remarkable  transpiration,  and  promoting  sweat. 

*  See  what  Father  Labat  says  in  his  new  voyages  to  the  American  Islar.dson  this  subject,  when  treating 
of  the  Caribbecs. 

'« I  must  observe  in  addition,  that  this  is  not  the  only  mode  of  kindling  fire  which  is  practised  by  the 
Americans  :  some  among  them  have  a  particular  instrument  appropriate  to  this  service.  It  is  to  me  an 
object  of  surprise,  that  the  inlubitunts  of  Kamschotka  Vic  the  same  instrument."  (Vide  the  before-cited 
work  of  MUller,  page  257. j  The  learned  author  then  observed  another  place,  where  some  Ame- 
ricans were  taking  theii*  dinner,  but  who  fled  on  his  approach.  He  found,  on  proceeding  to  the  spot,  un 
arrow,  and  an  instrument  for  kindling  fire,  fashioned  in  the  same  manner  as  those  used  in  Kainnchutka. 
In  Itib  remarks,  he  says,  "  It  is  a  board  with  sever'.il  holes,  with  a  &tick,  one  end  of  which  a  man  thrusts  into 
one  uf  these  holes,  while  he  mills  the  other  end  between  his  hands  ;  and  from  the  quickness  of  the  motion 
causes  Are.    They  then  apply  the  sparks  to  any  kind  of  maUer  of  (juick  combustion." 


or  roun  RusstAV  «.\iLnR«. 


60J 


he 
lie 
to 


the 
an 
ited 
me- 
:,  an 
tka. 
into 
lion 


violcnt'y  rubbed  ngaii:8t  each  other,  the  Inttcr  tulccs  fire.  Thii  as  well  iK-ing  the  in<xU- 
\n  whicii  tho  Ull<»^iilll  country  people  prtKluce  fire  when  they  arc  in  the  wo(x1h,  and  -i 
holyccremoj)  pnicti«»e«l  throiij^hout  all  the  villages  wherein  there  is  a  eluitch,  they 
could  not  lonsenuently  Ik-  igiu)rant  of.  IVobably  it  may  not  be  unacceptable  to  thow 
who  havf  ne%cr  hcarti  a  description  of  it,  my  giving  an  account  of  tliis  ceremony. 

The  eighteenth  of  AuguM,  old  stile,  is  called  by  the  Uussians  Frol  y  Lavior;  these 
are  the  names  of  two  martyrs  inserted  in  the  Romish  kalendar,  I'lorus  and  Laurus  ;  ou 
the  twenty. ninth  of  the  snme  month  last  year,  on  which  day  is  ke])t  the  fast  of  the  Ik*. 
heading  of  St.  John  the  Baptist.  On  this  day  the  Russians  lead  their  hordes  round  ihc 
church  o*' their  village,  beside  which  on  the  foregoing  evening  they  dig  u  hole  with  two 
mouths.  Kach  horse  luis  a  bridle  made  of  the  bark  of  the  lindcn-trec.  The  horses 
go  through  this  hole  one  after  the  other,  opposite  to  one  of  the  mouths  of  which  the 
priest  stands  with  a  sprinkler  in  his  hand,  with  which  he  sprinkles  them.  As  soon  as 
the  horses  have  passidby  their  bridles  are  taken  otf,  and  they  are  made  to  go  between 
two  fires  that  they  kindle,  c-M^d  by  the  Russiuiis  Givoy  Agon,  that  is  to  say,  living  fires, 
of  which  I  shall  give  an  account.  I  shall  before  remark,  that  the  Russian  peasantry  throw 
the  bridles  of  their  horses  into  one  of  the:>e  fires  to  be  consumed.  This  is  the  manner  of 
their  fighting  these  givoy  agon,  or  liwing  fires.  Some  men  hold  the  ends  of  a  stick 
made  of  the  plane-tree,  very  dry,  and  about  a  fathom  long.  This  stick  they  hold  firmly 
over  one  of  birch,  perfectly  dry,  and  rub  with  violence  and  (|uickly  against  the  former ; 
the  birch,  which  is  somewhat  softer  than  the  plane,  in  a  short  iinie  iiiHamcs,  and  serves 
tJiem  to  light  both  the  fires  I  have  described. 

•  To  return  to  our  islanders.  It  is  incontestibic  that  they  were  acquainted  with  the 
givoy  agon,  and  of  the  means  for  making  it ;  but  wh\  did  they  not  adopt  the  same  plan  ? 
They  h;td  no  otlv.r  wcxxl  than  fir,  a  moist  wood  of  itself,  and  that  moreover  furnished 
them  by  the  sea.  What  were  they  to  uo,  if  once  their  fire  ^jecainc  extinguished  ?  One 
readily  sees  a  remedy  should  be  provided.  In  walking  through  the  island  they  had  re* 
marked  that  in  the  middle  there  was  some  fat  'arth  or  clay.  They  conceived  the  idea 
of  making  themselves  a  vessel  of  it,  that  might  serve  for  a  lamp,  which  they  might  supply 
with  the  fat  of  the  rein-deer  they  had  killed,  and  wnh  that  of  those  they  should  kill  in 
future.  This  was  certainly  the  most  reasonable  measure  they  could  adopt.  What 
could  they  have  done  without  light  during  the  wirier,  which  in  this  latitude  has  one 
night  of  some  months  duration?  They  procured  therefore  some  clay,  and  made  a  sort 
of  a  lamp  therewith ;  this  they  filled  with  rein-deer's  fat,  an. I  stack  a  piece  of  twisted 
linen  in  it  to  serve  as  a  wick  ;  but  they  perceived  with  grief  that  the  fat  penetrated  the 
vessel  us  soon  as  i:  melted,  and  dropt  from  it  on  every  side.  They  had  now  to  seek  a 
remedy  for  this  misfortune,, arising  from  the  pores  of  the  vessel  being  too  large.  This 
they  quickly  found.  They  made  themselves  lor  this  purpose  a  new  one,  which  first  they 
suffered  to  dry  well  in  the  open  air,  and  afterwards  heating  it  red  hot  in  a  glowing  fire, 
they  cooled  it  in  the  kettle  wherein  was  a  quantity  of  meal  they  were  about  to  cook, 
so  that  it  received  consistency  from  the  thin  starch.  As  soon  as  the  lamp  had  cooled, 
and  they  had  filled  it  with  melted  fat,  to  their  great  joy  they  perceived  that  it  did  not 
leak ;  but  for  their  greater  security  they  dipped  some  rags  of  the  linen  of  their  shirts  in 
the  before- mentioned  soddened  meal,  and  placed  them  round  their  lamp.  From  the 
success  of  this  essay,  they  resolved  on  being  careful  of  the  remainder  of  their  meal.  As 
they  were  very  fearful  lest  some  unlucky  accident  might  befall  their  lamp,  they  had  the 
foresight  to  construct  ut)Ot})tr,  that  at  no  time  they  bhould  be  in  want  from  miy  casually 
happening.  V        .       . 

4  H  2 


(. 


il 


1' 

!i 


^■■^ 


)! 


m 


604 


LB  UOY'S  NARRATIVE 


Possibly  it  may  be  asked,  where  did  they  find  wicks  for  trimming  their  lamps  ?  The 
answer  is  at  hand.  On  the  wreck  of  the  ship,  which  they  had  collected  with  much  la- 
bour for  warming  them  in  winter,  was  some  cordage  found,  and  a  small  quantity  of 
hemp,  the  produce  of  old  ropes,  used  on  board  ship  for  caulking,  or  forcing  with 
strength  between  the  planks,  to  prevent  leakage.  When  thb  was  expended,  they  sub- 
stituted,  ivhat  they  but  seldom  wore,  the  linen  of  their  shirts  and  drawers.  All  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  Russian  costume  know  that  there  are  few  amone  them  but  what 
wear  drawers ;  few  of  ihe  country  people  wear  any  other  hose.  With  this  hemp,  and 
this  {.art  of  their  clothing,  which  among  the  common  people  is  cf  a  very  coarse  quality, 
did  thty  twist  wicks ;  and  from  the  time  of  their  completing  thnr  first  lamp,  to  the  in- 
stant of  their  going  on  ship-board  again,  to  return  to  their  n^Uvf^  land,  they  were  never 
without  this  light  burning  in  their  apartment. 

The  necessity  in  which  they  found  themselves,  of  appropriating  such  an  essential  part 
of  their  clothing  as  their  shirts  and  drawers  to  this  purpose,  was  reparable  by  their  em- 
ploying the  skins  o^  the  deer  which  they  had  killed  in  the  stead,  sufficiently  adequate  in 
Itself  as  a  substttute,  had  they  no  other  clothiiig,  a  case  which  happened  shortly  to  be 
thexrs.  Without  mentioning  other  things  which  they  were  in  need  of,  they  saw  their 
shoes  and  boots  were  worn  out,  and  had  no  more :  they  were  now  but  little  removed  from 
the  violent  cold  of  winter,  and  must  again  have  recourse  to  that  ingenuity,  which  seldom 
leaves  men  when  necessity  calls  for  its  being  "employed.  They  possessed  a  quantity  cf 
skins  of  tht  rein-deer  and  the  fox,  which  sensed  them  2br  bedding  and  clotning,  and 
contrived  to  dress  them.    This  is  the  method  in  which  they  manufactured  them. 

They  soaked  these  skins  in  soft  water,  and  left  them  remaining  in  it  for  a  day  ;  after- 
wards, wuh  very  little  pains,  they  scraped  oflF  the  hair,  and  rubbed  the  leather,  now 
moistened  tlirough,  beltween  their  hands,  until  almost  dry ;  they  then  smeared  this  over 
with  the  melted  fat  of  the  rein-deer :  they  repeated  this,  rubbing  it  as  before.  This 
contrivance  made  the  leather  soft,  pliant,  and,  in  short,  so  flexible,  as  to  be  fit  for  any 
use  to  which  they  might  choose  to  aj^ly  it.  As  for  those  skins  laid  aside  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  themselves  pelisses,  they  were  satisfied  with  letting  them  soften  for  one 
day  only  in  manufacturing  them,  proceeding  afterwards  in  the  same  manner  as  I  have 
before  described,  excepting  their  not  tearing  off  ti.e  hair.  Thus  they  saw  themselves  at 
once  possessed  of  all  the  materials  necessary  for  clothing  themselves  from  top  to  toe. 

Yet,  lioweveri  one  great  difficulty  remained  to  be  overcome.  They  had  neither  awl 
to  make  their  shoes  and  boots  with,  nor  needle  to  sew  their  clothing ;  but  they  had 
iron,  as  v/e  nave  noticed,  and  found  out  means  very  soon  of  remedying  this  need  :  in 
short,  they  forged  as  useful  an  awl  and  needle  as  those  which  are  used  by  workmen  in 
these  lines  of  business.  It  was  in  the  be^ning  difficult  for  them  to  contrive  how  to 
make  the  requisite  hole  in  the  needle,  although  at  last  it  was  compassed  by  the  means  of 
the  point  cf  their  knife,  which  for  this  purpose  they  sharpened  and  made  proper,  after 
having  previously  fbi^d  a  sort  of  wire  for  a  needle,  and  heated  it  red  hot.  I  have  had 
an  opportunity  of  convincing  myself  of  the  truth  of  all  I  have  said  on  this  matter.  I  have 
attentively  examined,  through  a  common  magnifying-glass,  the  eye  of  this  needle.  The 
mods  they  used  of  rounding,  polishing,  and  pointing  it,  so  as  to  be  y^'^ry  sharp,  was  by 
rubbing  it  on  stones,  of  which  there  was  an  abundance:  the  onl^  fault  tha^  it  had  was^ 
in  that  die  eye  not  being  so  uniform  and  even  as  it  should  be,  it  was  liable  to  cut  the 
nerves  with  which  it  was  threaded ;  but  this  was  a  failing  they  could  not  remedy. 

Although  I  nfumished  with  sheers,  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  the  hides,  yet  were  they 
noi  without  a  &  ibstitute,  perfectly  sufficient  for  this  use,  in  the  kmfe  which  they  had  so 


""m^r 


OP  POUR  RUSSIAN  BAILORS- 


605 


well  sharpened.  Thus,  although  they  should  not  have  been  tailors  nor  shotnvikcrs,  it 
appears  that  these  utitbrtunute  men  must  have  lx:come  such  in  this  incomprehensible 
state  of  embarrassment ;  since  they  manufactured  hose,  shirts,  waistcoats,  cloaks,  or  pe- 
lisses, boots,  shoes,  in  short,  every  description  of  clothing  of  which  they  had  occasion, 
whether  for  winter  oi*  for  summer.  Then  they  had,  which  accounts  for  it,  patterns  of 
all  these  things,  the  pelisses  excepted,  before  them :  with  these,  industrious  and  inge- 
nious as  they  Mrere  fwhich  will  easily  be  allowed  of  them  from  what  has  gone  before) 
they  had  little  difficulty  in  sewing  tojF  sther  the  skins  and  hides  according  to  measure  ;  a 
practice  to  which  they  were  accustomed.  Witlk  respect  to  thread  for  sewing  the  skins 
together,  they  had  to  provide  for  this,  and  quickly  accomplished  the  means ;  the  nerves 
or  sinews  of  the  rein-deer  and  bears  were  divided  into  thin  or  thicker  threads,  as  they 
found  most  to  their  advantage ;  and  with  this  last  contrivance  they  completed  all  that 
was  necessary  for  putting  them  in  condition  of  witlistanding  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather. 

In  summer  they  were  clad  in  slight  undressed  skins :  in  winter  they  were  drest  like 
the  Samoiedes  and  Laplanders,  with  long  pelisses  of  the  untanned  skins  of  rein-deer  and 
foxes.  These  pelisses  had  a  hood  somewhat  like  that  of  the  capuchins,  but  protecting 
more  the  neck  and  head :  it  was  all  of  one  piece,  with  an  opening  before  for  the  face, 
I'emaining  uncovered ;  so  that  the  pelisses  mentioned  being  entire,  on  laying  them  aside, 
they  were  obliged  tc  draw  them  over  the  head  like  a  sack.  Separate  from  the  discon- 
tent which  this  loneiome  life  engenders,  and  particularly  when  constrained,  and  were  it 
not  for  the  reflection  which  each  of  them  could  not  refrain  from  making,  of  the  possibili- 
ty of  his  surviving  his  companions,  and  consequently  starving  to  death,  they  possest  com- 
forts sufficient  to  content  them,  the  pilot  or  boatswain  however  excepted,  who  had  a  wife 
and  three  children :  he  thought  ^as  he  himself  has  confessed  to  me)  every  day  on  his  re- 
turr  to  them,  and  bewailed  contmually  the  distance  which  separated  him  from  his  fami- 
ly. It  is  fit,  however,  that  I  should  now  begin  the  description  of  the  isla*id  itself,  and 
recount  what  this  unfortunate  inhabitant  related  to  me  respecting  it. 
'  This  island,  laid  down  by  Gerard  Van  Keulin,  and  by  John  Peter  Stuurman,  in  his 
corrected  chart  of  the  northern  part  of  Europe,  by  reference,  will  be  seen  to  lie  be- 
tween latitude  77**  25'  and  78°  45'  N.  under  the  name  of  East  Spitsbergen,  called  by 
the  Russians,  Maloy  Broun  ;  and,  consequently,  partly  in  the  thirteenth,  and  partly  in 
the  fourteenth*  Climate  :  whence  it  follows  that  the  greatest  length  of  day-light  in  the 
year  will  be  of  four  months  continuance,  that  is  to  say  on  the  side  of  the  island  oppo- 
site? to  that  inhabited  by  ouf  adventurers.  In  the  before  cited  chart  the  island  is  laid 
down  as  describing  a  ^lentagon.  Its  greatest  length  from  East  to  West  being  twenty- 
diree  German  miles,  and  its  breadth  irom  North  to  South  twenty-two.  As  f ' jad  for- 
gotten to  question  our  islanders  themselves  upon  the  size  of  the  island,  I  v/as  obliged  in 

*  The  author  alluded  to  in  any  such  division  of  the  globe,  as  should  make  the  space  ly  lug  between 
latitude  77^25'  and  latitude  78^  4S'  to  fall  in  the  ulterior  part  of  the  thirteenth,  and  beginning  >fthe  four- 
teenth climate,  does  not  appear  The  table  computed  by  Ricciolus,  which  is  that  in  highest  esteem,  divides 
the  globe  into  twenty  climates  N.  and  as  many  S.  that  is  to  say,  seven  from  the  Equator  to  48"  1 5 '  each 
having  the  day  in  northern  latitudes  half  an  hour  longer  thun  the  preceding  ;  seven  from  latitude  48**'  1 5' 
to  65**  54',  each  having  the  day  one  hour  longer  than  the  preceding  (in  this  latitude,  from  the  refractions 
of  its  rays  which  are  computed  in  the  table  of  Ricciolus,  the  sun  is  seen  on  the  twenty-first  of  June  with- 
out setting,  forming  its  circuit  above  the  horizon,  which  circumstance,  but  for  this  refraction,  would  not  be 
visible  more  South  than  latitude  66**  30'  0  and  six  climates,  in  each  the  day  of  one  month's  longer  duration 
than  in  the  preceding,  beginning  at  latitude  6&  '  54',  and  finishing  at  the  pole.  By  this  table  the  ei}>;hteenth 
climate  begins  in  latitude  78"  6',  that  of  the  center  of  the  Island  according  to  the  abov;  noticed  latitudes, 
and  the  longest  day  in  that  latitude  is  composed  by  him  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  days  continuance} 
the  longest  night  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen  days  length.., .7Van«Ai;or. 


■ ; 


li 


ij 


!  1 


li 


I 


■'^m^l'-' 


Gci6 


LE  ROY'S  NAKRATIVE 


order  to  be  able  to  speak  with  certainty  of  it,  to  avail  myself  of  the  chart  which  was  laid 
before  them,  after  their  return  to  their  native  country  :  they  found  out  of  themselves 
their  place  of  exile,  pointed  out  the  spot  on  which  their  hut  had  been  erected,  and  mark- 
ed it  with  a  stroke  of  u  pen  upon  the  map,  which  was  returned  to  me  at  Archangel. 

A  proof  thai  ihey  had  not  deceived  themselves  from  a  knowledge  of  this  island  is 
evident  from  what  Mr.  Vernezobre,  mentioned  already  in  the  beginning  of  my  narrative, 
writes  to  me.  He  says,  in  his  letter  of  fifteenth  of  November,  1750.  "  The  captain  of  a 
galliot  called  the  Nicholas  and  Andrew,  belonging  to  coun*  Peter  Iw.nowitch  Von 
Schuwaloif,  passed  the  winter  of  1749  on  Maloy  Broun.  He  landed  shortly  after 
the  departure  of  our  sailors,  and  discovered  the  hut  which  had  served  them  for  a  dwell- 
ing, and  noticed  on  a  wo(xlen  cross,  erected  before  the  door  by  the  pilot  Alexis 
Himkof,  an  inscription,  giving  the  name  to  the  Island  of  Alexeyievvskoi  Ostrow,  that  is 
to  say,  Alexis  Island."  I  must  now  remark  a  circumstance  contained  in  this  letter,  which 
shews  that  the  island  must  be  of  tolerable  extent :  "  Certain  Samoiedes  hearing  of  the 
adventures  of  our  sailors,  and  this  countr)'  being  suitable  to  them  above  all  others,  re- 
quested to  speak  with  Mr.  Vernezobre  ;  they  wished  to  be  permitted  to  inhabit  it,  and 
to  be  transported  thither  without  reward,  themselves  with  their  wives,  their  children,  and 
their  rein-deer." 

Before  I  enter  into  a  detail  on  the  the  nature  of  this  island,  it  may  perhaps  not  be  out  of 
place  to  make  the  following  remark.  Some  anthers  have  advanced  that  the  country 
known  by  the  name  of  Nova  Zemla  is  not  properly  speaking  an  island,  or,  as  others  main- 
tain, a  part  of  our  continent,  but  only  a  heap  of  ice,  held  up  and  collected  together  in 
the  lapse  of  time,  which  travellers  have  represented  as  an  island.  The  ground  on  which 
they  build  their  assumption  is  this  among  others :  when  (they  say)  men  dig  to  the  depth 
of  one  or  two  feet  through  the  stratum  of  earth,  which  the  wind  has  blown  over  here 
from  the  coast  of  Asia,  nothing  but  ice  is  found  below. 

I  cannot  undertake  to  decide  in  this  matter :  this  has  no  relation  to  my  subject :  I 
have  not  read  the  authors  who  have  published  their  sentiments  in  suppoi  t  of,  or  in  oppo> 
sition  to,  this  hypothesis.  I  am  content  with  observing  simply  that  the  island  East  Spits- 
bergen, of  ivhich  I  am  treating,  must  be  looked  upon  indisputably  as  real  land,  accord- 
ing to  the  representations  made  to  me  by  these  sailors. 

I'hey  found,  as  they  told  me,  many  mountains  and  craggy  rocks  of  an  astonishing 
height,  continually  covered  with  ice  and  snow.  They  did  not  meet  with  the  smallest 
tree,  nor  even  the  most  diminutive  bush,  the  Cochlearia  excepted,  which  was  very 
sparingly  found.  No  grass  grew,  on  the  other  hand  moss  was  seen  in  abundance  every 
where.  In  the  middle  of  the  island  they  discovered  some  fat  earth  or  clay,  whence  it 
is  probable  that  some  persons  have  conceived  that  there  \v€B<i  ice  mines  in  this  place,  or 
that  this  itself  was  formerly  nothing  else :  it  is  not  impossible,  were  they  to  go  and  dig 
there,  that  they  would  shortly  get  to  the  ice.  They  certainly  had  no  rivers,  although 
they  never  wanted  water :  but  a  number  of  streams  flowed  at  all  times  from  the  moun- 
tains  and  rock,  supplied  from  abundant  sources.  Besides  flint  stones,  which  were  com- 
mon, the  island  furnished  a  kind  of  stone  proper  for  burhing  for  lime.  This  stone 
prodiiced  here  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  in  other  countries  is  usually  dug  from 
quarries  :  (it  is  customary  in  Russia  to  burn  lime,  and  lay  the  floors  of  their  houses 
with  it.)  I  should  have  taken  the  stone  to  have  been  hewn,  were  it  not  for  the  circum- 
stance of  its  splitt'  ^g  like  slate  after  long  exposure  to  the  air,  and  being  separable  like  slate 
into  scales.  This  kind  of  stone  is  called,  by  the  Russians,  j.lit.  To  conclude,  at  the  sea  side 
of  the  island  the  shore  is  covered  with  sand  and  gravely  which  continues  some  little  dis- 
tance towards  the  interior. 


OV  FOUli  UU8S1AN  8A1LUU8. 


607 


1  had  the  precaution  to  learn  from  the  sailors  whatever  I  liave  yet  described.  It  was 
natural  as  veil  that  I  should  be  curious  enough  to  question  them  rcs^x^ctin^  the  length 
of  continuance  of  the  shining  of  the  sun,  and  its  absence ;  as  also  concerning  the  tem- 

fcrature  of  the  air,  and  the  difTcrcnt  changes  in  it  which  they  had  remarked  :  in  short, 
inquired  of  them  respecting  all  the  phenomena  observed  by  them,  during  their  un- 
pleasant stay  on  this  island. 

Upon  my  putting  to  them  the  question,  at  what  time  the  sun  began  to  ap^iear  above 
the  horizon?  They  answered  me  :  it  appeareii  the  beginning  of  the  great  fast.*  This 
answer  did  not  however  designate  any  particular  day  :  the  time  of  the  fast  changing 
always  according  to  Easter's  falling  early  or  late.  Simple  country  people,  unacquainted 
with  the  mode  of  computing  for  Easter,  and  who  possibly  had  never  remarked  liic  cir- 
cumstance of  this  feast  happening  sometimes  earlier,  sometimes  later,  such  were  not 
consequently  competent  to  satisfy  me  on  this  point. 

The  day  they  began  to  perceive  the  sun  shew  itself,  revolving  entirely  above  the 
horizon,  was  the  feast  uf  St.  Athanasius,  which  happens  on  the  second  of  May,  old 
stile,  or  the  twenty,  first  of  April,  according  to  the  Gregorian  Kalendar.f  They  told 
me  farther  that  it  circulated  thus  to  their  observation  for  ten  or  eleven  weeks.     If  the 

*  As  it  appears  in  the  course  of  the  narrative,  that  the  sailors  by  some  means  kept  sucli  good  reckon- 
ing of  time  us  to  err  only  in  two  days,  or  owing  to  their  having  omitted  the  additional  ones  in  tiic  two 
leap  years  which  occurred,  sa)  four  days,  is*!!  unreasonable  to  imagine  that  they  would  bear  in  mind  the 
perio<l  at  which  Easter  was  kept  in  the  year  of  their  departure  from  Archangel,  and  consider  it  as  fixed 
on  the  same  day  in  the  succeedin^if  year  ?  If  we  grant  this,  as  Easter-day  in  the  year  1743,  iell  upon  our 
third  of  April,  according  to  the  Juliar.  Computation  for  Easter,  Lent  would  consequently  begin  on  the 
twentieth  of  February,  and  if  that  day  be  the  one  on  which  the  sun  was  seen  to  emerge  first  from  below 
the  horizon,  it  will  differ  from  <hc  tnble  of  Kictiolus,  which  calculates,  for  the  refraction  of  light,  by  only 
two  days  ;  the  time  it  should  ii-st  seen  according  to  that,  in  this  latitude,  being  the  ei^iiteenth  of  l-'e- 
bruary,and  it  may  fairly  be-prt  d  tiiatunaco'uiinted  with  the  leninlt '    which  their  wintry  ni^ht  would 

extend,  and  keeping  in  their  hui  aa  much  as  |>  asible  during  the  .s<  cic  cold  of  that  season,  thty  might 
have  missed  the  first  actual  appearance  uftliO  sun,  and  that  for  the  two  days  which  make  the  whole  dif- 
ference. ..IVamlator. 

t  The  date  here  described,  at  which  the  sun  was  seen  to  d  nplete  its  revolution  above  tlie  horizon,  is 
as  near  correct  as  could  be  expected  By  computation  of  Kicciohis,  before  adverted  to,  it  should  happen 
on  the  twentieth  of  April.  As  to  the  period  of  its  ceasing  to  shme  he  accoui  .  of  its  being  but  ten  or 
eleven  weeks  is  incorrect.  It  would  have  appeared  for  s  great  a  Iciigih  of  lime  above  the  horizon  after 
the  solstitial  day  us  before,  and  consequently  would  havt  ^hone  for  nearly  eighteen  weeks,  instead  of  ten 
or  eleven,  vtx  from  the  twentieth  of  April  until  the  twenty-second  of  Au>{Ust,  N.  S.  The  calculation  of 
the  person  to  whom.Vf.  Le  Roy  referred  for  information  is  also  incorrect.  The  refraction  of  the  rays 
of  the  sun  by  the  atmosphere  causes  it  to  be  visible  aoove  the  horizon  betpre  it  be  actually  risen,  and 
makes  it  appear  some  time  after  its  setting  ;  so  much  so,  its  to  Like  a  material  difference  in  the  length 
of  its  appearance  in  a  latitude  so  much  to  the  north,  a  m  jm  h  calculated  by  him.  The  computation 
afforded  to  M.  Le  Roy,  and  that  of  Ricciolus,  which  is  con  ,,.iered  correct,  I  have  given  below. 

Length  of  appearance.  Length  of  disappearance. 

By  M.  I^  Roy's fiiend      -119  -  •  .  Ill 

By  Ricciolus         -        -  ''24  -         -  -117 

Respecting  the  time  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  sim  alxtve  the  horizon,  it  is  possil>le,  from  its  beiii);  so 
much  desired,  it  would  have  impressed  itself  upon  their  minds.  The  novelty  of  its  revolution  above  the 
horizon,  or  rather  a  curiosity  of  ascertaining  how  long  it  happened  before  the  time  such  an  occurrence 
takes  place  at  Archangel,  might  have  made  them  more  particular  in  noticing  this  date;  the  day  of  its  dis- 
continuing to  revolve  wholly  visible  being  of  minor  interest,  since  it  yet  had  to  shine  for  a  Krcal  part  of  the 
twenty-four  hours  for  a  long  while,  was  not  so  carefully  attended  to.  The  rcat  time  at  which,  from  compu- 
tation, it  would  cease  wholly  to  be  visible,  would  be  the  twenty-fourth  of  October.  They  state  this  to  have 
been  the  case  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  October,  O.  S.  which  is  the  fifteenth,  according  to  our  kalendar. 
May  not  their  ceasing  to  see  the  sun  so  long  as  nine  days  i^efore  the  time  at  which  it  should  have  l>een 
wholly  invisible  to  them  have  been  occasioned  by  the  great  fogs,  which  in  the  autumn  so  constantly  prevail 
in  these  latitudes,  according  to  the  various  accounts  of  all  those  who  have  proceeded  so  high  towards 
the  north  ?  With  these  allowances  made,  and  this  doubt  granted  in  their  favour,  they  will  appear  to  have 
been  as  correct  as  men  in  their  circumstances  of  life  could  possibly  be  expected  to  have  been..!.  Tratmlator. 


} 


I 


11 
4 


~— 


608 


LU  ROY'S  NARRATIVE 


latter  period  of  time  be  taken,  which  irom  the  situation  of  the  island  must  be  the  nearest 
to  truth*  the  time  of  ite  beginning  to  set  will  thus  be  fixed,  according  to  them,  upon  the 
seventh  of  July.  From  these  tlie  sun  began  to  set  every  day',  until  the  feast  of  St. 
Demetrius :   On  that  day  it  ceasied  to  shine  entirely. 

This  account  of  our  Islanders  is  not  correct.  Upon  consulting  a  person  wol'  informed 
on  tlicse  matters,  I  was  |pven  to  understand,  that  provided  the  isliind  upon  vhich  they 
were  had  l)een  situated  in  the  77^**  of  latitude,  as  it  is  described  on  the  char',  the  sun 
would  have  been  seen  for  the  first  time  upon  the  fourth  of  February,  would  revolve 
above  the  horizon  t>om  the  eleventh  of  April  until  the  eighth  of  August,  and  would  en« 
tirely  disappear  upon  the  sixteenth  of  October. 

It  is  possible  these  poor  fellows  may  have  erred,  as  well  with  respect  to  the  duration  of 
the  sun's  appearance  and  disappearing,  as  to  the  time  of  its  revolution  above  our  hori- 
zon, from  their  being  desirous  of  ascertaining  them  by  the  feast  days  of  the  ciiurch ; 
and,  as  will  be  gathered  from  what  follows,  tliey  were  as  well  greatly  in  error  in  regard  to 
the-  date  of  their  return  from  this  island. 

It  was  the  fifteenth  of  August,  old  stile,  the  feast  of  the  Holy  Vir^n  Mary,  when  the 
vessel,  which  brought  them  back  to  their  native  country,  arrived  at  this  island.  But  our 
worthy  sailors,  who  had  made  preparations  in  as  good  a  manner  as  they  were  able  to  keep 
this  high  holiday,  reckoned  the  feast  two  days  later,  and  consequently  esteemed  that  day 
to  be  the  thirteenth  of  August.  A  mistake  of  small.consequence,  which  might  arise  fi-om 
accounti\ble  causes,  seeing  that  they  for  four  months  together  had  the  sun  revolving 
above  the  horizon  during  the  summer,  and  In  winter  s{)ent  nearly  an  equal  time  in  utter 
night  and  darkness  :  besides  the  weather  being  so  gloomy  and  cloudy  at  times ;  and  the 
rainy  and  snowy  seasons  depriving  them  of  the  sight  of  the  stars.  It  is  natural  for  the 
reader  to  inquire,  how  these  men,  who  had  neither  clock  nor  watch,  neither  sun  nor 
moon  dial,  could  reckon  the  natural  days  while  the  sun  continually  shone,  and  more  par> 
ticular'y  at  that  time  when  it  was  no  longer  >'isible  ?  I  did  not  neglect  to  interrogate 
them  on  this  subject.  The  boatswain,  hurt  at  my  question,  answered  me  with  some 
emotion,  "  Wliat  sort  of  a  pilot  should  I  be,  if  I  were  ignorant  of  the  method  of  tak* 
ing  an  altitude  of  the  sun,  when  that  planet  were  visible?  Or  if  I  knew  not  how  to  tell 
by  the  course  of  the  stars,  in  the  absence  oi  the  sun  what  were  the  fit  hours  for  bed 
time,  out  of  the  twenty-four?  I  had  made  mvself  !<  »•  this  use  a  proper  sort  of  staff, 
similar  to  that  which  I  had  left  on  board  our  ship,  and  which  served  me  to  take  my  ob- 
servations by."  I  conceive  the  instrument  which  he  mentioned  to  me  on  tlus  occasion 
was  what  is  called  a  Jacob's  staff,  or  one  somewhat  resembling  it. 

The  moon  is  visible,  as  they  informed  me,  in  this  country  during  the  winter  for  nv^ariy 
two  months  together,  and  rises  higher  in  proportion  to  the  days  becoming  shoiter. 
I  leave  to  astronomers  the  task  of  criticising  this  appearance,  contenting  myself  with 
relating  simply  their  deposition."*  .     ,  ■   .  >■    .  -   ..  v.   •hso  . , 

*  A  similar  example  of  the  revolutions  of  the  moon  above  the  horison  in  the  absence  of  the  sun,  re- 
marked by  the  Dutch  in  1576,  who  wintered  at  Nova  Zeraia,  in  76°  of  latitude,  may  be  seen  in  the  third 
voyage  of  the  Dutch  to  the  North,  pi^es  66,  67. 

'>  On  the  first  of  November,  during  the  twiHght,  we  saw  the  moon  rise  in  the  east,  the  sun  being  yet 
perceived  tolerably  hiti;h  above  the  horizon.  On  the  second,  the  sun  ■  ...  ~  :en  to  rise  in  the  S.  S.  L.  and 
set  nearly  in  the  S.  S.  W. ;  but  the  whole  of  its  globe  did  iwt  show  itself,  being  observed  bnly  in  the  hori- 
zon with  a  part  beneath.  On  the  third,  it  rose  in  the  S.  E.  by  8.  but  rather  nearer  to  the  S. ;  and  de- 
clined 8')mewuat  to  the  S.  of  S.  W.  by  S. ;  the  upper  part  of  its  globe  uppcarin^r  from  the  spot  where 
its  height  was  taken,  about  as  high  as  the  tops  of  the  vessel,  wuich  laid  in  that  direction.  On  the  fourth, 
it  was  seen  no  more,  the  weather  yet  remt  ining  very  fine."  ^    ..  ..     ,.. 


"^^"■^■T^mfr 


OP  FOUR  RUSSIAN  8AIL0US. 


609 


m 


In  winter  they  frequently  were  spectators  of  that  phenomenon  called  by  naturalists 
the  northern  lights.  This  contributed  greatly  for  a  time  to  diminish  the  dismay,  which 
the  thick  darkness  in  which  the  hemisphere  is  enveloped  in  this  climate  during  so  long  a 
night  is  calculated  to  impress  on  the  mind  of  man. 

One  would  ima^ne  a  country  so  near  the  pole,  and  in  which  the  heat  of  summer  is 
very  tolerable,  notwithstanding  the  continual  shining  of  the  sun  for  some  months  to* 
gcther,  would  be  subject  to  excessive  and  insupportable  cold,  as  long  as  winter  lasted  : 
nevertheless,  it  has  a  difTcrent  peculiarity.  For  about  seven  weeks,  namely,  from  the  mid- 
die  of  November  until  the  beginning  of  January,  reckoned  by  these  good  men  according 
to  holidays,  viz.  from  the  beginning  from  that  of  St.  Philip,  which  falls  on  the  fifteenth 
of  November,  until  the  day  of  consecrating  the  water,  called  the  Holy  Three  Kings,  and 
which  is  on  the  sixth  of  January ;  for  these  seven  weeks  it  rained  for  the  most  part  abun- 
dantly, and  without  ceasing,  on  this  island,  the  weather  being  pretty  mild,  and  the  cold 
verv  supportable ;  however,  after  thib  period,  that  is  to  say,  when  the  land  winds  blew, 
and  more  particulurly  the  south,  the  cold  became  insufferable. 

This  may  indeed  occasion  some  surprise,  since  the  south  wind  is  generally  warm  in 
all  countries,  and  the  north  commonly  cold  :  but  we  must  take  into  coisideration,  that 
the  south  wind  in  respect  to  our  islanders  blew  over  all  Europe,  in  winter  covered  with 
snow ;  and  particularly  over  the  northern  part,  where  the  cold  is  extreme :  but  the 
north  wind  sweeping  an  open  sea,  instead  of  cold,  brought  exhalations,  yet  somewhat 
fresh  in  themselves,  as  they  always  bore  along  some  snow  with  them  :  most  men  will 
have  noticed  when  in  hiirbour,  that  the  land  breeze  is  at  all  times  colder  than  that  from 
&ca.  What  confirms  this  account  is,  that  all  those  who  have  been  upon  the  Riphsean 
mountains  or  chain,  called  the  Poias  Semnoy,  and  which  separates  Russia  in  Luropc 
from  Siberia,  give  a  similar  description  with  our  mariners  of  the  quality  of  the  north 
and  south  winds. 

As  for  snow,  such  an  astonishing  quantity  fell  on  this  island,  that  their  hut  in  winter 
was  commonly  entirely  enclosed  by  it,  so  that  they  were  left  without  any  other  means 
of  getting  out,  than  by  an  opening  which  they  contrived  in  the  roof  of  their  entry- 
room.  " 

In  reply  to  my  inquiries  respecting  tempests,  these  sailors  informed  me,  that  they  did 
not  once  near  it  thunder  during  their  residence  on  the  island. 

If  we  except  white  bears,  rein-deer  and  foxes,  which,  as  I  have  before  noticed,  were 
found  in  great  plenty  on  the  island,  it  is  destitute  of  all  four  footed  animals,  as  well  as  of 
men.  It  is  true  some  wild  fowl  were  seen  in  summer ;  but  they  were  only  geese,  ducks, 
and  other  water  fow). 

The  sea  likewise  luund  about  the  island  is  destitute  of  every  kind  offish.  Our  sailors, 
in  other  respects  very  strict  in  their  religion,  contrary  to  the  custom  of  this  description 
of  people,  could  not  therefore  observe  either  the  great  or  the  single  fasts.  Nay,  had  there 
been  a  superabundance  of  fish  upon  the  coast,  these  unfortunate  men  could  have  de- 
rived no  benefit  from  the  circumstance ;  since,  as  they  had  neither  tackle  nor  nets,  they 
could  not  have  caught  them :  the  choice  of  meat  might  in  such  a  case  however  have 
suggested  to  them,  to  employ  their  ingenuity  in  constructing  tackle  ;  this  they  proba- 
bly would  have  effected  in  the  end,  yet  at  any  rate  not  without  great  difficulty. 

Few  whales  were  perceived  nigh  the  shore,  but  sea  dogs  and  sea  calves  in  very  con- 
siderable  numbers.    It  must  not  therefore  be  wondered  at  that  the  Russians  should  have 

"  When  the  sun  left  rising,  the  tnonn  assumed  its  place«  and  shone  day  and  night  without  aetting,  as  it 
was  then  in  its  highest  quarter."  See  Uecut  il  des  Voyages  qui  ont  servi  a  I'ctablissenient  et  aux  prog^r£s 
de  la  ('Ompagnie  des  Indes  Orientales  form^e  dans  les  Pays  Bas. 
VOL.    I.  4  I 


<;' 


a 


610 


LE  KOY'a  NAUU<«.«  IVE 


sometimes  wintered  here  ;  with  the  skins,  the  teeth,  and  the  oil,  of  these  animals,  and 
particularly  of  the  last  mentioned,  they  carry  on  a  considerable  trade :  what  rather 
should  excite  astonishment  is,  the  circumstance  of  no  ship's  arriving  at  the  island  dur- 
ing the  wliule  time  of  our  sailors'  residing  there.  Hence  I  cusiiect  that  the  advantage 
derivable  from  the  fishery  in  this  quarter  is  not  cqunl  to  that  upon  the  western  coast  of 
Spitsbergen,  to  which  ships  commonly  sail. 

'liwy  told  me  it  frequently  happened  that  they  met  with  teeth  of  sea  calves  upon  the 
shore,  and  sometimes  jaws  of  those  animals,  but  never  entire  carcaoses.  This  can  excite 
no  wonder.  It  does  not  admit  a  doubt,  that  if  they  died  on  the  shore,  they  would  be  de- 
voured by  the  white  Iwars,  and  probably  by  the  foxes  as  well. 

The  great  number  of  teeth  and  jaws  with  which  the  shores  are  bestrewed  makes  me 
suspect,  with  great  probability,  that  these  carnivorous  beasts  freciuently  surprise  the  sea 
calves  when  asleep,  and  devour  them.  I  am  led  to  this  suspicion,  from  a  knowledge  oi  its 
being  common  for  the  bears  to  feed  on  the  dead  whales,  which  are  frequently  seen  Hoating 
on  ilie  sc.i,  or  are  cast  upon  the  shores  of  these  islands  contiguous  to  the  pole.  VVe  haye 
before  observed,  that  the  rein-deer  arc  supported  by  the  moss,  which  grows  plenteously 
in  these  uninhabited  and  desart  regions;  but  what  feeds  the  foxes  that  are  met  with?  It  is 
well  kno^v-n  that  this  anima!  is  carnivorous,  and  lives  on  the  continent  upon  fowl,  and 
hares,  which  it  surprises :  it  is  also  probable  that  in  this  country  its  food  is  those  animals 
which  the  bear  has  killed,  and  which,  not  having  power  itself  to  attack,  have  yet  fallen 
an  easy  prey  to  that  stronger  beast. 

Before  I  proceed  to  mention  the  lucky  and  unhoped-for  deliverance  of  our  sailors 
from  their  lonesome  situation,  a  situation  in  which  they  expected  to  pass  their  days,  I 
must  now  relate  an  incident  which  I  had  omitted  before,  and  which  is  well  worthy  of  re- 
mark :  as  long  as  they  remained  upon  this  island,  they  had  been  free  both  from  lice  and 
fleas ;  and  it  was  not  till  their  return  to  their  native  country,  that  these  vermin  made  their 
appearance  again  upon  them. 

Most  writers  of  voyages  have  remarked  that  upon  crossing  the  equinoctial  line,  sailors, 
who  are  much  subject  to  be  lousy,  and  the  clothes  which  they  wear,  that  is  to  say,  their 
checked  shirts,  become  immediately  clear  of  them  :  as  soon  however  as  they  recross  the 
line,  they  are  pestered  with  these  vermin  again  as  much  as  before.  These  two  similar 
incidents  occasion  me  a  reflection  reasonable  enough  in  itself;  it  is,  that  since  the  passing 
of  the  line  and  the  passing  of  the  polar  circle  produces  a  similar  effect,  there  must  needs 
be  between  the  one  and  the  other  a  connection,  into  which  it  would  be  well  that  natu- 
ralists should  examine. 

Ovir  unfortunates  had  now  been  nearly  six  years  in  this  dismal  situation,  when  Feodor 
Werigin  died,  reduced  to  a  skeleton  ;  so  much  had  he  suffered  from  his  dreadful  illness. 
Released  it  is  true  from  the  cares  of  attending  and  feeding  him,  and  from  the  grief  of 
seeing  him  suffer,  without  the  power  of  affording  him  relief,  they  did  not  yet  see  his  death 
without  emotion ;  they  saw  their  number  now  diminished,  and  there  were  but  three  re- 
maining. As  his  decease  took  place  in  the  winter,  they  made  a  hole  in  the  snow  as  deep 
as  possible,  and  laid  his  corpse  m  it,  covering  it  in  the  best  manner  they  could,  that  the 
white  bears  might  not  get  to  and  devour  it. 

To  conclude,  at  a  time  when  every  one  was  reflecting  upon  this  last  duty  paid  to  their 
companion,  and  under  apprehension  that  it  would  be  his  lot  to  lay  by  his  side,  contrary 
to  all  expectation,  a  Russian  vessel  appeared  in  sight,  on  the  fifteenth  of  August 
1749. 


vieva 


On  board  the  ship  was  a  merchant  of  a.  certain  sect,  called  by  its  professors  Stara 
!va,  or  the  ancient  faith,  a  good  and  worthy  character     The  ship  was  orig^ally  in- 


•J-M'^\ 


OF  FOUR  RUSSIAN  SAILORS. 


611 


:ir 


tended  to  winter  in  Nova  Zemla,  by  its  principal ;  however,  fortunately  for  our  sailors, 
M.  Vernezobre  proposed  to  this  merchant,  to  change  that  destination  for  Spitsbergen ; 
which  proposal,  after  many  excuses,  and  much  demurring,  was  complied  with. 

The  wind  being  contrary  on  the  voyage,  the  ship  was  not  able  to  reach  the  intended 
station ;  they  therefore  directed  her  course  towards  East  Spitsbergen,  directly  opposite 
to  the  spot  inhabited  by  our  adventurers.  They  perceived  the  vessel,  and  made  haste 
to  kindle  different  fires  upon  the  hills  in  the  neighbourhood  of  their  dwelling ;  they  hoist- 
ed as  well  as  a  flag  staff*  upon  the  shore,  a  rein-deer's  skin,  which  they  fastened  to  it, 
serving  them  for  a  signal  in  lieu  of  colours.  Those  on  board  the  ship  observed  these  sig- 
nals, and  concluding  that  they  were  made  by  people  who  intreated  their  assistance,  they 
came  to  anchor. 

it  would  be  useless  for  me  to  attempt  to  describe  the  joy  with  which  these  unfortunate 
men  were  filled,  at  seeing  so  nigh  the  instant  of  their  unexpected  deliverance.  They 
treated  with  the  commander  of  the  vessel,  entered  his  service,  and  agreed  with  him  for 
the  transport  of  themselves,  and  all  their  effects,  to  their  native  land,  for  which  they  were 
to  pay  him  eighty  rubles.  Thty  put  on  board  the  vessel  fifty  pood,  or  two  thousand 
pounds  of  rein-deer's  lat,  and  a  number  of  hides  of  these  animals,  as  well  as  blue  and 
wh:^  J  fox  skins,  and  those  of  th'.*  ten  bears  which  they  hud  killed :  they  did  not  forget 
their  bow,  their  arrows,  their  spears,  or  lances,  their  axe,  almost  worn  to  the  handle,  and 
nearly  used  up  knife,  their  awl,  their  needle,  which  were  inclosed  in  a  bone  box 
very  ingeniously  worked  with  their  knife,  the  nerves  or  fibres  of  the  white  bears  and 
rein-deer,  in  short,  whatever  they  possest. 

These  different  articles  which  I  have  described  were  sent  by  M.  Vernezobre  to  count 
Von  Schuwaloff',  and  by  him  were  confided  to  my  care  :  I  had  full  leisure  to  examine 
them,  and  to  lay  them  before  the  unsated  curiosity  of  several  persons;  among  other  dif- 
ferent professors  of  the  Imperial  Academy,  Dr.  Wissenschaften,  in  whom  they  excited 
astonishment.  In  company  of  these  latter  gentlemen,  I  conversed  with  the  pilot  Alexis 
Himkofi*,  and  his  godson  the  sailor,  Iwan  Himkoff",  and  queeUoned  them  at  different 
times  on  (heir  adventures. 

I  must  be  allowed  in  proceeding  to  mention  a  trifling  circumstance,  relative  to  the  lit- 
tle box  which  these  men  had  made  for  holding  their  needle. 

I  shewed  this  box  to  certain  virtuosi,  and  informed  them  that  the  sailors  had  made  it 
with  a  knife,  and  solemnly  assured  me  of  it;  these  gentlemen  did  not  believe  that  they 
told  the  truth ;  they  would  have  that  it  was  turned,  and  that  these  men  hud  deceived 
me,  in  giving  out  that  it  was  their  workmanship  ;  whence  they  concluded,  that,  as  they 
had  told  a  falsity  on  this  occasion,  there  was  left  room  for  doubting  of  what  they  had  re- 
lated respecting  the  events  on  the  island  which  they  had  inhabited. 

By  chance  it  happened  that  while  we  were  in  conversation  on  the  subject  M.  Homann, 
a  very  ingenious  turner,  came  into  my  apartment.  As  soon  as  I  saw  him,  I  observed  to 
the  company,  you  see  that  man,  he  is  certainly  the  fittest  person  that  can  be  to  decide 
this  matter.  1  stept  towards  him,  and  gave  the  question  a  different  turn,  in  order  that  it 
might  not  be  suspected  that  M.  Homann  should  answer  me  with  more  courtesy  than  truth. 
You  must  decide,  sir,  said  I,  on  the  point  I  luive  to  question  you  between  this  gentleman 
and  me :  I  maint;un  that  this  box  is  turned :  this  gcntlem m  the  contrary.  After  Ho- 
mann  had  taken  and  examined  it,  he  answered  me,  this  gentleman  is  in  the  right :  this 
never  was  made  with  a  turning  lathe  :  it  is  a  bone,  which  has  beenxonnded  by  shaving  it. 
This  answer  silenced  the  company.  It  was  now  my  turn  to  speak ;  I  observed,  that 
since  on  this  occasion  these  sailors  had  told  truth,  in  what  we  had  heard  decided,  there  is 
no  room  left  for  doubting  the  remainder  of  what  was  related  by  them. 

4  i2 


612 


LE  nors  NARRATIVE 


I  come  now  to  the  return  of  our  mariners :  they  arrived  safe  at  Archangel  the  twcn. 
ty-eighth  of  September  1749,  after,  as  I  have  before  noticed,  having  passed  six  years  and 
three  months  in  this  drcudful  sechision. 

The  instant  of  meeting  of  the  pilot  and  his  wife  was  threatened  with  a  melancholy  ca- 
tastroplK.  She  was  standing  on  the  bridge  as  the  vessel  arrived  :  she  recognized  her 
husband ;  she  loved  him  most  sincerely  ;  slic  had  so  long  bewailed  him  as  dead ;  but 
now,  inconsiderate,  without  patience  to  wait  till  the  ship  came  to  the  pier,  she  threw  her- 
self forward  to  clasp  him  in  her  arms,  she  fell  into  the  water,  and  with  difficulty  was  8av> 
cd  from  perishing. 

I  must  now  in  conclusion  remark,  that  these  men,  who  had  lived  so  long  without  bread, 
ate  it  now  with  reluctance.  They  complain  of  its  puffing  them  out.  'Fhe  same  objec< 
tion  in  short  they  make  to  all  sorts  of  drink,  and  now  make  rain-water  alone  their  bever- 
age. 

APPENDIX. 


^ 


The  learned  man,  which  I  mentioned  inm^  narrative  I  had  consulted  respecting  the 
reckoning  of  our  islanders,  concerning  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  and  whatever 
related  to  the  course  of  that  planet,  was  Professor  D.  Krazzcnstein,  member  of  the  Im- 
perial Academy  of  Wissencshaften,  at  Petersburg.  This  is  the  translation  of  the  letter 
which  he  wrote  to  me  on  this  subject. 

'*  I  have  to  apologise  to  you  for  having  so  long  delayed  to  send  my  opinion  on  the 
questions  respecting  which  you  wrote  to  me :  the  time  which  the  calculations  required, 
and  tb.e  long  continuance  of  the  rains,  have  prevented  my  doing  so  before. 

*' After  considering  the  matter  with  great  attention,  I  find  that  the  circumstance 
which  Professor  Grischon  adduces  as  a  proof  of  the  exactitude  of  the  reckoning  of  our 
islanders,  namely,  the  two  days  later  reckoning  than  that  of  the  mariners  who  brotjght 
them  from  the  island,  has  a  direct  contrary  tendency. 

"  Let  any  reckon  the  twenty-ninth  of  February  in  a  leap-year,  this  day  will  be  reckon- 
ed by  those  who  have  no  knowledge  of  the  interpolation  of  a  day  as  the  first  of  M.^rch ; 
and  after  two  such  years,  what  by  one  will  be  counted  the  twenty-ninth  of  February,  will 
by  the  other  be  esteemed  the  second  of  March  ;  hence  it  follows,  that  if  our  islanders 
had  neglected  to  attend  to  the  bissextiles,  1744  and  1748,  they  would  conseauendy  have 
reckoned  that  the  seventeenth  of  August,  which  their  deliverers  called  the  fifteenth.  It  is 
also  evident,  that,  if  they  paid  attention  to  the  leap-years,  they  made  a  mistake  of  two  days, 
and  if  they  did  not  allow  for  them,  they  erred  in  computation  by  four  days  :  this  can  ap- 
pear but  triBing,  if  we  consider  the  dark  and  cloudy  season  of  winter,  where  they  were 
without  means  of  estimating  the  rejjular  day.  Furthermore,  in  that  year  when  they  noti- 
ced the  entire  disappearance  of  the  sun  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  October,  they  must  have 
erred  in  their  time,  by  being  ten  days  in  advance,  or  we  must  necessarily  presuppose 
that  they  were  in  latitude  74°  41',  which  can  hardly  be  imagined.  Bears'  Island  is  in 
that  latitude,  where  they  must  in  such  case  have  been,  which  is  not  probable. 

"  If  their  place  of  residence  was  in  latitude  77°  and  a  half,  as  laid  down  upon  the 
chart,  the  sun  would  then  shine  for  the  first  time  the  fourth  of  Febniary  :  from  the  ele- 
venth of  April  to  the  eighth  of  August  it  would  be  continually  above  th6  horizon,  and  fi- 
nally, on  the  sixteenth  of  October  it  would  wholly  disappear. 

"  Had  they  been  on  Bears'  Island,  they  would  have  seen  the  sun  the  first  time  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  January :  the  shining  of  the  sun  above  the  horizon  would  have  continu- 
ed from  the  twentieth  of  April  until  the  thirty.first  of  July,  and  on  the  twenty-tiiird  of 
October  it  would  have  disappeared  entirely. 


r" 


,«^i«-r- 


Uf  POUa  RUSSIAN  SAILORS. 


61S 


"From  the  remarks  of  our  isliuulcrs,  it  would  appear  more  !ikcly  that  they  were  on 
the  lust  mentioned  island  ;  but  the  duskiness  of  the  atmosphere  it  the  horizon,  a  cir- 
cumstance attendant  on  northern  climates,  may  be  the  cause  of  thc'r  having  nerceived 
the  circulation  and  absence  of  the  sun  ahnost  ten  days  later  and  ten  day  ( earlier  than  com- 
putation will  shew. 

"  If  the  beginning  of  the  revolution  of  the  sun  above  the  ho'izon  be  placed  on  the 
second  of  May,  the  end  of  this  revolution  alcove  the  horizon  must  happen  on  the  nine- 
teenth of  July,  and  in  this  case  they  must  have  been  in  71"  and-:*  half  of  latitude  ;  which 
is  not  possible. 

**  I  wish  we  liad  the  relation  in  the  possession  of  M.  Von  Kliugstadt  of  Archangel, 
Uiat  we  might  add  it  to  yours.  Probably,  by  this  means,  what  is  wanting  might  be  sup- 
plied, particularly  the  exact  thne  of  these  sailors  arri'  ing  from  the  island.  I  have  no 
doubt,  were  you  to  communicate  the  wish,  that  he  would  take  a  pleasure  in  grati- 
fying you  ;  he  fills  the  station  of  Sub-aiditor  of  the  Admiralty,  and  dwells  with  M.  ver- 
nezobre.     I  am,  Sir,  8cc." 

At  the  close  of  this  Narrative  I  must  add  two  things  :  the  result  of  the  illustration 
of  M.  Von  Klingstadt,  and  the  reflexir/ns  with  which  M.  Vcmezobrc  terminates  the 
first  letter  he  wrote  to  me  respecting  .hese  sailors,  and  the  account  of  their  adven- 
tures. 

One  of  these  men,  says  M.  Von  Khigstadt,  is  called  Alexis  HimkofT,  and  is  fifty 
years  of  age  ;  another  is  named  Stephen  Scharapoff,  forty-two  years  old  ;  the  third,  by 
name  Iwan  Himkoff,  is  in  his  thirty-sixth  year.  All  these,  on  their  arrival,  were  in  sound 
and  perfect  health  :  1  myself  had  occasion  to  remark  it,  upon  questioning  them  on  the 
particulars  of  such  an  extraordinary  residence,  attended  by  such  a  wonderful  preserva- 
tion. 

These  are  the  reflexions  of  M.  Vemezobre.  The  English  have  a  fabulous  history 
of  Robinson  Crusoe  ;  this  history  however  is  certainly  true.  The  first  is  represented 
in  a  warm  climate ;  but  our  siiilors  were  in  77*^  and  a  half  of  latitude.  The  Englishman 
was  enabled  to  make  a  kind  of  punch  with  the  raisins  which  grew  on  the  island;  but  our 
hardy  and  sturdy  Russians  were  under  the  necessity  of  contenting  themselves  with  water, 
Robinson  had  lost  almost  all  knowledge  of  Christianity  ;  but  our  adventurers  at  all  times, 
as  I  am  assured,  preserved  their  faith,  and  unceasingly  placed  their  confidence  in 
God. 


■  *5!j«^^-)r' 


ACCOUNT  or  A  VOYAGE  TO  SPITSBF.RGKN  IN  TIIF.  YEAR  irso, 

BY  H.  BACSTROM,  M.  D. 


5 


!l 


'9  'I 


I; 


COMMUNICATED   BY  TH£   AUTHUlt. 
(rHIL.  MAO.  JULY  in*.) 
III. 

HAVING  received  fnuch  gratification  from  a  perusal  ofyour  Magazine,  t  send  you 
R  few  particulars  respecting  a  voyage  which  I  made  to  Spitsbergen  m  the  year  1780, 
extracted  from  a  journal  I  kept  at  the  time  ;  which  you  may  lay  iK'fore  vour  readers,  if 
you  think  they  can  contribute  either  to  their  information  or  amusement.  I  am,  8(c. 

To  the  Editor  of  the     ? 
Philosophical  Magazine.    J  S.  BACSTROM. 

A  vovACB  to  Greenland^  as  it  is  called,  though  in  fact  to  the  island  of  Spitsbergen, 
for  the  purpose  of  killing  the  black  whale  fi!>h,  is  one  of  the  healthiest  that  can  be  un- 
dertaken, and  furnishes  so  much  curious  matter  for  amusement  to  persons  of  an  in* 
quisitivc  turn  of  mind,  that  even  a  second  will  hardly  satisfy  such,  if  they  have  been  for- 
tunate enough  to  sail  with  a  good  commander,  and  m  a  vessel  well  appointed.  In  both 
these  respects  I  was  very  fortunate,  which  is  rather  uncommon,  the  masters  or  com- 
manders in  the  Greenland  trade  being  generally  men  of  little  or  no  education,  and  con- 
sequently void  of  those  liberal  sentiments  necessary  to  render  the  sit  .ion  of  those  who 
accompany  them  comfortable.  If  a  regularly  educated  surgeon,  from  a  desire  of  visiting 
such  northern  regions,  goes  in  a  vessel  under  such  a  person  as  I  have  described,  he  is 
generally  sickened  the  first  voyage  ;  a  barlxT  is  perhaps  his  successor,  and  when  any 
illness  or  accident  happens  on  board,  if  the  patient  escapes  with  his  life,  he  is  often  ren- 
dered a  cripple.     I  have  seen  some  instances  of  this  kind. 

The  unsociable  disposition  of  the  master  is  not,  however,  the  only  circumstance  that 
often  deters  from  a  second  voyage.  I  have  known  vessels  well  stored  by  the  owners 
with  every  necessary  and  useful  article,  and  even  a  liberal  supply  of  what  some  would 
call  luxuries,  and  yet  every  comfort  withheld  from  those  on  board  ;  the  master  literally 
starving  himself  and  officers,  and  not  allowing  a  bit  of  fire  in  the  cabin,  in  these  cold 
latitudes,  that  he  might  save  a  few  coals,  some  dozens  of  hams  and  tongur  s,  n  quantity 
of  cheese,  butter,  flour,  wine,  porter,  8tc.  to  send  home  to  his  own  family  at  the  end 
of  the  voyage  :  a  paltry  theft,  at  the  expence  of  the  health  and  frost-bitteu  limbs  of  those 
on  board. 

When  the  reader  is  informed,  that  such  has  been  my  passion  to  visit  foreign  climes 
that  I  have  been  no  less  than  fifteen  voyages,  one  of  them  round  the  'vorld,  he  will  not 
be  surprised  that  I  should  wish  to  gratify  my  curiosity  by  visiting  ihe  frozen  regions, 
even  though  I  knew  something  of  the  inconveniences  before  described,  to  which  those 
who  undertake  the  voyage  are  often  exposed.  My  business  was  to  guard  against  them  as 
well  as  possible,  by  proper  inquiries  respecting  the  character  and  disposition  of  the 
master,  and  I  succeeded  to  my  wish  in  two  voyages  to  these  parts :  the  first  was  in  the 
Sea  Horse,  in  the  year  1779,  which  yielded  me  much  satisfaction ;  but  I  was  more  com- 
pletely gratified  by  the  s-.cui.d,  which  is  the  one  I  mean  to  describe. 

I  engaged  myself  as  surgeon  on  board  the  Rising  Sun,  William  Souter,  master.  A 
well  appointed  stout  ship,  of  four  hundred  tons  burthen,  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Willi- 
am  Ward.  The  vessel  carried  about  ninety  men,  and  had  twenty  nine-pounders  mount- 
ed on  the  main  deck,  with  nine  whale-boats,  some  of  them  hung  in  the  tackles  over  the 
sides,  and  others  stowed  and  lashed  on  the  deck. 


r"^ 


lUrrtTnOM'S  VOYAOf.  TO  SI'ITSnEUnRN 


615 


\Vc  iailccl  from  London  in  the  latitr  end  of  March  1780,  und,  as  is  usual  with  Green. 
Inndmen,  called  at  the  town  of  Larwick,  the  eapital  of  the  Shetland  isles,  where  we  found 
a  most  hospitable  reception.  A  Mr.  Innes,  the  most  opulent  inhabitant  of  that 
country,  kept  an  o[K;n  table  Ibr  every  master  of  a  vessel  and  his  surgeon  ;  and  no  lan- 
guage can  convey  a  pro|K-r  idea  of  the  kind  and  disinterested  manner  in  which  he  re- 
ceived ami  entertained  iiis  guesti.  We  lay  there  fourteen  days  wind  bound.  The 
country  has  a  bleak  Ijura-n  appearance,  the  surface  being  generally  rocky,  or  covered 
with  turf,  which  is  the  fuel  employed  there  ;  but  the  benevolence  and  hospitality  of  the 
more  opulent,  und  the  decency,  sobriety,  and  good  conduct  of  all  the  inhabitants,  even 
those  of  the  lowest  class,  more  than  comixinsate  for  the  barrenness  of  the  soil. 

Provisions  of  every  kind,  the  liner  vegetal)les  and  fruit  exce|)ted,  are  very  abinidant 
here,  and  extremely  reasonable.  The  price  of  a  good  fowl  was  three  |K*nce,  of  a  dozen 
of  new-laid  eggs  one  ixnny  ;  and  as  much  excellent  fish,  cod,  haddock,  hallibut,  mack- 
erel, &.C.  could  be  bought  for  one  shilling,  as  would  cost  at  least  ten  pounds  at  Billings- 
gate,  or  as  used  to  dine  our  whole  ship's  companv  and  the  cabin.  Potatoes,  turnips, 
&c.  arc  not  more  common  there  than  jK'aches  and  apricots  in  I'.ngland.  VVlicat  flour 
is  also  a  rare  article,  but  the  inhabitants  in  general  prefer  bread  maile  of  oatmeal. 

The  town  of  Larwick  consists  of  about  two  hundred  houses,  of  one,  or  at  most  of 
two  stories,  which  form  a  narrow  crooked  lane  on  the  sea  side,  badlj  ^  .«ved  with  flat 
stones.  All  the  houses  arc  built  of  quarry  stone  :  those  of  the  rich  are  roomy,  s^r^ng, 
convenient,  and  well  furnished ;  those  of  the  ixxjr  are  small,  and  very  smoky,  for  want 
of  a  proper  arrangement  of  the  chimnles. 

Though  the  place  lies  in  GO*  north  latitude,  the  winters  are  not  severe ;  they  arc, 
however,  wet  and  stormy.  The  harbour  is  very  capacious  and  safe,  and  the  anchoring 
ground  good.  About  twenty  or  more  English  Greenlandmen  were  lying  here  at  anchor, 
and  several  Dutch  herring  busses.  Having  filled  our  empty  water-casks,  and  laid 
in  a  stock  of  fowls,  eggs,  genevu,  &c.  we  took  h  ave  of  our  kind  friends  on  shore,  and, 
the  wind  being  southerly,  hove  up  our  anchor,  and  set  sail  for  the  ice. 

As  we  advanced  to  the  northward  the  night  became  shorter  till  we  came  near  North 
Cape  in  latitude  71"*  10'  when  we  had  no  night  at  all.  We  were  overtaken  in  that  lati- 
tude by  a  most  tremendous  g-ale  of  wind  from  the  north-east,  which  lasted  three  days 
and  nights.  Our  ship  lay  more  than  once  on  her  beam  ends,  and  every  one  on  board 
thought  she  could  never  right  again ;  but  providentially  we  weathered  the  gale.  A 
storm  in  tlwse  high  latitudes  is  so  intensely  cold,  when  it  blows  from  the  north  and  north, 
east,  that  it  is  impossible  to  look  in  the  wind's  eye,  as  the  cold  is  such  as  literally  to 
tear  the  skin  oflf  the  face. 

In  about  76*  northern  latitude  we  meet  with  ice  floating  in  small  round  cakes,  by  the 
sailors  called  pancakes :  you  sail  through  this  ice  in  peHectly  smooth  water ;  which, 
from  being  of  a  green  colour  in  the  North  Sea,  blue  to  the  Northward  of  Shetland  and 
Ferro,  grows  gradually  of  a  darker  colour,  and  looks  now  of  a  deep  black  dye.  We 
sailed  several  days  through  these  floating  ice-cakes.  When  in  a  still  higher  latitude, 
an  open  black-looking  water  re-appears,  and  when  you  reach  about  77°  or  78*  you 
pass  through  large  masses  of  floating  ice,  twenty  or  thirty  fathoms  thick,  and  some  of  them 
five  or  six  times  bigger  than  your  own  vessel.  Great  care  is  taken  to  avoid  striking 
against  those  masses,  which  sometimes  are  so  close,  that  there  remains  only  a  narrow 
cmmnel  for  the  ship  to  sail  through.  I  have  seen  this  continue  for  twenty-four  hours  or 
longer.  When  this  is  the  case,  the  commander  stands  in  the  main  or  fore-top,  and  some- 
times higher,  and  ciHs  down  to  the  men  at  the  wheel  how  to  steer.  This  navigation  is  at- 
tended with  great  danger,  as  the  ice  projects  under  water  sometimes  two  or  three  fathoms. 


616 


BAMTIIOM'S  VOYAflR  TO  HPITAnmOFN. 


; 


t 


After  iKiviKuting  through  thont*  tlontin^j;  musscH,  wc  saw  the  land  of  Spitslior^ii  cxst 
from  lis.  IlisMTnat  an  almost  incredible  distance,  soimtinus  at  thirty  leagues;  a 
liroofot'  its  immense  hei(rht.  It  grnenilly  appears  amazingly  bright,  ui'  the  colour  of 
(he  ftill  moon,  while  the  sKy  alx)ve  it  looks  wfute  Hiid  cold. 

In  7*.'"  and  80"  you  arc  prevented  from  going  furthi r  to  the  northward  by  a  solid 
continent  of  ice,  or  a  collection  of  ice-fieUU,  as  they  are  called  :  some  of  which  an*  muiy 
miles  in  extent.  You  make  the  ship  fast  there  with  an  ice-unchor,  and  look  out  tor 
whalcH,  having  two  or  three  Iwats  on  the  watch  constantly. 

No  ship  could  uvcr  possibly  navigate  through  the  huge  mo'^iv's  of  ice,  which  must  ne- 
cessarily be  passed  lx.'tore  it  can  reach  this  high  latitude.  t)ut  for  a  circumstunce  which 
would  on  first  view  be  little  expectcd....thc  sea  there  is  .<lw.iy  s  as  perfectly  smooth  as  the 
river  Thames:  the  irregularly  disposed  masses  of  ice  p.event  the  water  from  ever  ac- 
quiring, by  the  impulse  of  the  wind,  those  regular  undulations,  if  I  may  use  the  term, 
which,  by  long  continuance  of  the  same  impulse,  would  otherwise  at  last  raise  it  in  bil- 
lows. 

As  soon  as  wc  got  into  smooth  water,  perhaps  forty  or  fifty  leagues  from  the  land^ 
the  severe  climate  and  intense  cold  we  had  cx|XTienced  on  the  passage  in  a  more  southern 
latitude,  before  we  made  the  ice,  changed  into  a  much  milder  one  ;  aiul  when  it  was  fine 
weather  it  was  quite  warm,  so  that  the  icicles  that  hung  from  the  large  masses  of  ice 
dissolved  and  kept  dropping  till  a  return  of  cold  weather.  Among  the  fields  of  ice, 
but  more  so  in  the  harbours,  it  is  considerably  warmer  than  on  the  passage  near  North 
Cape. 

In  the  month  of  June  we  killed  seven  large  whale  fish,  and  went  with  them  into  Mag. 
dalenabay,  to  cut  the  blubber  up  into  small  bits  to  fill  the  blubber-butts ;  which  business 
is  called  making  off.  As  the  killing  of  the  whales  has  been  very  well  described  by 
Zorgdrager  and  others,  1  need  not  describe  it. 

When  you  approach  a  harbour  on  the  coast  of  Spitsbergen,  and,  judging  by  the  eye, 
expect  to  get  in  and  come  to  anchor  in  three  or  four  hours  time,  you  arc  perhaps  not 
less  than  ten  or  twelve  leagues  from  it.  This  deception  is  owing  to  the  immense  heights 
of  the  rocky  mountains  covered  with  snow,  and  bordered  with  ice  towards  the  sea-sidc, 
which  make  very  large  harbours  appear  like  small  basons,  and  the  largest  ships,  when 
close  under  them,  like  a  boat  on  the  Thames.  Magdalena  Bay,  in  79^  north,  is  capa- 
cious enough  to  hold  the  whole  British  navy ;  but,  on  account  of  the  immense  moun> 
tains  which  surround  it,  appears  like  a  very  small  inlet.  We  came  to  anchor  in  this 
bay,  where  we  lay  three  weeks.  While  the  people  were  making  off,  the  masters,  surge- 
ons, he.  of  the  different  vessels  then  there  visited  each  other,  and  diverted  themselves  in 
the  best  way  they  were  able.  Such  visits  last  sometimes  twenty-four  hours,  for  there  is 
no  night  to  interrupt  the  entertainment. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  a  curious  mind  here  is  that  solemn  silence  which  reigns 
around ;  sometimes  interrupted  with  a  noise,  like  thunder  heard  at  a  distance,  occa> 
sioned  by  huge  fragments  of  ice  and  rocks  rolling  down  from  the  immense  steeps  into 
the  sea. 

I  attempted  to  ascend  one  of  the  s  mountains  called  Roche  Hill.  I  got  up  about  half 
way,  which  took  several  hours  hard  labour.  At  that  height  I  found  the  rocks  covered 
with  birds*  eggs,  of  different  sizes.  ' 

There  are  several  rivulets  and  waterfalls  trf"  excellent  water  supplied  by  the  melting 
of  the  snow.  I  met  firequently  with  scurvy.grass,  wild  celery,  endive,  water-cresses,  and 
a  few  other  plants  and  flowers ;  though  the  general  vegetation  which  covers  the  rocks 
cons'ists  in  various  kinds  of  mosses  and  ferns.     There  are  white  bears,  of  an  enormous 


a. 


'-•tvrf<i  'f- 


n\r^TRnM'«  voyaok,  to  spiTsnr.ncBN 


or 


»izc,  white  foxcx,  deer,  and  elks,  and  ahovc  twenty  ditllrent  NortH  of  tvaicr  and  laitd 
birds  I  audi  an  wild  (^c  *,  wild  ducks,  Ma-|Kirr(4H,  roclicN,  Hca •^uii'>,  mulk  nirx)k>i,  as  tin* 
sailors  cull  them,  whose  r|tiills  nuikr  the  lust  drawing  |k.ms  I  ever  nut  with,  wild  ()iffti)n», 
the  white  duck  with  a  Ixauiilul  scarlet  head  and  yi  How 
note  is  us  picasitig  as  that  of  the  bulllinehor  niKhtingulc. 


the  white  duck  with  a  Ixautiiul  scarlet  head  andyiljovv  legs,  und  the  snow  bird,  whose 


l>'f^' 
d,  wl 


This  Hi  asott  was  the-  finest  ever  reniernlKred  in  those  high  latiuides,  and  wc  had  almost 
constant  fine  we^tlier.  As  we  had  rf)om  yet  on  hoard,  and  the  sia^on  was  not  too  lar 
advanced,  in  hopes  of  killing  a  fish  o.-  two  niort,  we  left  Magdalenu  ll.»y,  and  i.teered 
north.  When  we  arrived  in  80"^  wc  Jound  a  perfecUy  clear  ocean,  lite  from  ice,  but 
saw  no  whales. 

We  continued  pushing  to  the  nortnwnrd  with  fine  southerly  breezes  and  most  beau 
tiful  weather,  und  could,  with  a  good  telescope,  diiicover  no  ice  to  the  northward,  from 
tile  main. top-mast  head,  but  u  solid  continent  of  ice  east  and  west ;  au  that  we  were  in  a 
kind  of  channel  of  jH'rhaps  three  or  four  leagues  wide.     We  kept  pushing  on,  the  cap- 
tain and  I  joking  together  about  passing  through  the  pole. 

Both  captain  Sou'crand  mvself  found  ourselves  at  length  some  minutes  north  of  82'*, 
where  perh.ips  no  man  Ix'lbre  us  had  ever  l)een,  nor  since.  The  high  snowy  inountuins 
of  North  Bank,  or  North  Foreland,  appeared  very  luminous,  and  bore  south  on  the 
compass. 

We  had  a  strong  in':lination  to  push  still  further  north  ;  bur  the  danger  of  the  cast 
and  west  ice,  now  to  the  southward  of  us  as  well  as  to  the  northwunl,  moving  and  lock- 
ing us  in,  in  which  case  wc  must  have  been  beset  and  inevitably  lo.t,  created  a  prudent 
fear,  and  induced  die  master  to  put  about  ship  for  North  Foreland.  The  wind  shifted 
at  the  same  time  to  the  northward,  and  in  a  couple  of  days  we  came  to  anchor  on  North 
Bank,  called  Srnecrenburg's  Harbour.  We  saw  now  plenty  of  (in  lisl'i  or  finners,  \vliite 
whales,  and  unicorns ;  which  is  a  sign  that  the  season  is  over  for  killing  the  black  whale, 
which  then  retires  to  the  northward.  As  all  these  animals  are  well  known  and  describ- 
ed, I  forbear  saying  any  thing  respecting  them. 

One  of  cur  men  having  been  at  the  habitation  of  the  Russians  in  North  Bank  the  year 
before,  and  assuring  us  that  he  could  find  the  wav  to  their  hut,  captain  Souter,  a  man 
of  an  inquisitive  mind,  proposed  to  me  to  pay  them  a  visit.  We  took  ten  or  twelve 
men  with  us,  a  compass,  a  few  bottles  of  wine,  bread,  cheese,  &c.  and  some  good  trade- 
knives,  with  a  small  keg  of  gun-powder,  to  make  a  present  of  to  the  Rusiiaiis. 

We  landed  at  the  bottom  of  the  harbour  to  the  eastward,  where  we  found  a  large  valley, 
several  miles  in  breadth,  surrounded  with  immense  high  mount;iin6,  mostly  covered  widi 
snow  ;  but  as  the  iun  had  melted  a  part,  the  brown  and  black  rock  appeared,  and  rivu- 
lets of  clear  water  ran  down,  forming  little  waterfalls. 

The  ground  was  turf  and  clay,  and  not  bad  to  walk  on  :  we  had  several  small  rivulets 
to  cross,  of  two  or  three  feet  wide,  but  very  shallow  :  near  them  we  found  scurvy-grass, 
water-cresses,  endive,  wiidcclery,  and  a  few  small  flowers,  and  saw  a  number  ol  land 
birds  frying  up  at  our  approach.  We  crossed  a  piece  of  ground  where  the  Dutch  had  for- 
merly  baried  their  dead :  three  or  four  of  the  coffins  were  open,  with  hitman  skeletons 
lying  in  them.  Some  inscriptions  on  boards,  of  which  above  twenty  were  erected  over  the 
graves,  had  the  years  1630,  1640,  &c.  affixed  to  them.  We  also  saw  the  ruins  of  sonic 
brickwork,  which  had  been  a  furnace,  as  the  Dutch  used  to  boil  their  oil  here  in  the  last 
century,  and  for  that  reason  called  it  Smeerenburg's  Haven,  or  the  H^rrbour  of  the  Fat 
Borough.  We  had  above  six  miles  to  walk  to  the  northward,  and  were  very  much 
fatigued,  on  account  of  the  uncvenness  of  the  ground  and  the  hcat^  when  wc  discovered 

VOL.   I.  4  R 


— ^«<v«-F" 


618 


UACSTIIOM'S  VOYAGE  TO  SI'ITfti  EIlfiRN. 


the  hutof  tlie  Russians  at  a  distance.     Tliey  perceived  our  approach,  and  sent  two  or 
three  people  to  meet  and  vvelcoitu*  us. 

The  common  men  made  a  strange  appearance :  they  looked  very  much  like  some  Jews 
in  Rag-fair  or  Rosemary-lane  :  they  wore  long  beards,  fur  caps  on  their  heads,  brown 
sheep-skin  jackets  with  the  wool  outside,  boots,  and  long  knives  at  their  sides,  by  way  of 
hangers.  When  we  arrived  at  the  hut.  we  were  presented  to  the  caravelsk  or  comman- 
der, and  to  the  surgeon,  who  both  received  us  very  politely,  and  invited  us  into  the  house, 
where  we  sat  down  to  rest  and  refresh  ourselves.  Our  people  were  introduced  to  their 
people  in  an  outer  room,  and  were  entertained  with  meat  and  brandy.  It  hapiiened  for- 
tunately thai  the  surgeon  was  a  German,  a  native  of  Berlin,  of  the  name  of  Iderich  Po- 
chenthal,  consequently  1  could  converse  wiih  him  ;  and  we  both  acted  as  interpreters  be- 
tween his  and  our  commander. 

Captain  Souter  began  with  offering  to  the  Russian  commander  (who  w^s  also  dressed 
in  furs,  only  of  a  finer  sort,  and  wore  his  lx;ard  and  whiskers  like  the  common  men)  the 
keg  of  gunpowder,  and  half  a  dozen  of  good  table  knives  and  forks  :  the  Russian  cap- 
tain aectpicd  them  with  a  great  deal  of  joy,  and  made  us  a  present  in  return,  consisting 
of  half  a  dozen  of  white  ibx  skins,  two  brown  loaves  of  rye-bread,  six  smoked  rein-deer 
tongues,  and  two  rib  pieces  of  smoked  deer,  for  which  we  kindly  thanked  him.  They 
turned  out  to  be  most  excellent  eating,  and  of  a  finer  flavour  than  any  English  smoked 
tongues,  or  hung  beef. 

We  placed  our  wine  on  the  table,  our  bread  and  cheese,  and  the  Russian  captain  or- 
dered boiled  smoked  rein-deer  tongues,  new  rye-bread,  and  good  brandy  and  water,  to 
be  brought  in.  W  c  all  made  a  hearty,  sociable  meal ;  the  tongues,  and  the  rye-bread, 
which  was  new  and  savoury,  were  a  rarity  to  us :  the  Russian  officers  relished  our  Che- 
shiie  cheese  and  sliip's  biscuit  as  a  very  high  treat.  We  drank  the  empress  of  Russia's 
and  king  George's  health.  'I'he  Russian  commander  was  an  elderly  man,  of  very  agreea- 
ble manners ;  the  surgeon  extremely  so,  and  very  intelligent. 

Tlie  hut  consisted  of  two  large  rooms,  each  about  thirty  feet  square,  but  so  low,  that 
I  touched  the  ceiling  with  my  fur  cap.  In  the  middle  of  the  front  room  was  a  circular 
ereeiiun  of  biiek-work,  which  served  as  an  oven  to  bake  their  bread,  and  bake  or  boil 
their  meat,  and  at  the  same  time  performed  the  office  of  a  stove  to  warm  the  room.  The 
fuel  employed  was  wood,  which  drives  on  shore  plentifully  in  whole  trees  stripped  of  their 
branches.  A  chimney  carried  the  smoke  out  of  the  roof  of  the  hut ;  but  wlien  they 
wished  it,  they  could,  by  means  of  a  flue,  convey  the  smoke  into  the  back  room,  for  the 
purjxjse  of  smoking  and  curing  iheir  rein-deer  flesh  and  tongues,  bears'  hams,  &c.  Round 
three  sides  of  the  front  room  was  raised  an  elevated  place  of  about  three  feet  wide,  co- 
vered with  white  bear  skins,  which  served  for  bedsteads.  The  captain's  bedclothes  were 
made  of  white  fox  skins  sewed  together ;  the  surgeon's  was  the  same ;  the  boatswain, 
cook,  carpenter,  and  the  men,  had  sheep  skins.  The  walls  inside  the  room  were  very 
smooth,  and  white- washed;  and  the  ceiling  was  made  of  stout  deal-boards  planed  smooth, 
and  white- washed. 

The  rooms  had  a  sufficient  number  of  small  glass  windows,  of  about  two  feet  square, 
to  afford  light :  the  floor  was  hard  clay,  perfectly  smooth  :  the  whole  hut  was  nearly 
sixty  feet  in  length,  and  thirty-four  wide  outside  i  and  was  constructed  of  heavy  beams 
cut  square,  of  about  twelve  inches  thick,  Imd  horizontally  one  upon  the  other,  joined 
at  the  four  corners  by  a  kind  of  dove-tailing,  caulked  with  dry  moss,  and  payed  over 
with  tar  and  pitch,  so  that  not  a  breath  of  air  can  penetrate  :  the  roof  consisted  of  thin 
ribs  laid  across  the  beam-walls,  and  three-inch  deal  nailed  over  them,  so  that  you  could 


BACSTROM'S  VOYAGE  TO  SPITSDEHGEN. 


GIJ» 


co- 


walk  on  the  top  of  the  house  :  the  roof  was  caulked  and  tarred,  and  perfectly  tight.  This 
is  the  manner  of  building  houses  in  the  country  in  Russia,  particularly  about  Archan- 
gel. 

The  surgeon  gave  me  the  following  account  of  this  Russian  colony  in  Smeerenburg's 
Harbour : 

Some  associated  merchants  at  Archangel  fit  out  a  crabbla,  or  vessel,  every  year,  of 
about  one  hundred  tons,  with  a  commander,  mate,  surgeon,  boatswain,  car|)C.iter,  cook, 
and  about  fifteen  hands,  well  provided  with  muskets,  powder  and  shot,  good  large  knives, 
and  all  kinds  of  utensils  for  killing  whales,  unicorns,  rein-deer,  bears,  attd  foxes. 

Witli  a  sufficient  stock  of  rye-flour,  brandy,  clothing,  snow-shoes,  deal-boards,  car- 
penters' tools,  &c.  this  vessel  sails  every  year  in  the  month  of  May  from  Archangel, 
goes  round  the  North  Cape  of  Norway,  and  arrives  in  June  or  July  at  Smeereabuig's 
Harbour,  where  the  new  colony  is  left  on  shore.  The  vessel  stays  two  or  three  weeks 
in  the  harbour  to  refit,  and  carries  the  old  colony  with  their  cargo  (consisting  of  whales 
blubber,  blades  or  so  called  whalebone,  white  bear  skins,  white  fox  skins,  eiderd(jwn, 
and  feathers,  unicorns'  trunks,  which  is  an  ivory  that  never  turns  yellow,  and  smoked 
rein-deers'  tongues)  home  to  Archangel.  The  colonists  have  no  wages,  but  receive 
thousandth  shares  for  what  they  bring  home  :  the  capUiin  has  fifty  shares,  the  mate  and 
surgeon  thirty  each ;  the  carpenter,  boatswain,  and  cook,  ten  each ;  and  each  common 
man  or  boy  has  one  share.  The  surgeon  told  me  that  the  captain  had  above  one  thousand 
rubles  due  to  him,  and  he  himself  about  six  hundred,  and  each  common  man  perhaps 
fifty  or  sixty  :  that  when  they  returned  safe  home,  the  common  men  would  be  able  to 
live  a  whole  year  upon  their  money,  and  the  officers  much  longer,  as  the  necessaries  of 
life  were  very  cheap  at  Archangel ;  and  for  the  company  it  had  hitherto  answered  ex- 
tremely well. 

He  told  me  this  was  his  second  trip,  so  well  had  it  answered  his  expectations.  "  Dur- 
ing  the  so  called  long  nights,"  said  he,  "  it  seldom  or  never  is  so  dark  that  you  cannot 
see  before  you,  nor  is  it  so  dreadfully  cold  as  it  is  at  Petersburg  every  winter.  When 
a  snow  storm  happens,  we  cannot  go  out  of  the  house  ;  but  when  it  is  serene,  and  no 
wind,  it  is  not  too  cold  to  go  out  and  walk  many  miles.  With  the  moonlight,  the  un- 
common brilliancy  of  the  stars  in  these  high  latitudes,  and  the  reflection  of  the  northern 
lights,  or  aurora  borealis,  we  have  so  much  light,  that  we  can  see  to  read  a  book  or  to 
write. 

•'  In  winter  time  the  black  whales  come  into  the  harbour  and  play  close  within  shore, 
where  we  kill  now  and  then  one  with  harpoons  fired  out  of  a  swivel.  We  kill  white 
bears,  foxes,  rein-deer,  and  birds,  as  many  as  we  can  before  the  night  season,  which 
commences  in  September,  when  aU  the  land  animals  leave  us  and  walk  over  the  ice  into 
Nova  Zembla  and  Siberia :  the  land  birds  leave  us  in  the  same  manner.  Unicorns  vvc 
also  kill  in  the  harbour,  for  the  sake  of  their  ivory  trunks,  which  are  afterwards  sent  to 
Germany  and  France." 

The  surgeon  and  I  had  a  race  on  snow  shoes,  which  are  a  kind  of  skates,  of  about 
two  feet  in  length,  fo»"  skating  over  the  snow  and  ice.  As  I  was  in  former  years  a  good 
skater,  I  could  use  them  as  well  as  he  did.  We  ran  six  or  seven  miles  with  tlicm  in  an 
hour  without  fatiguing  ourselves :  they  have  no  irons. 

Before  we  left  our  Russian  host,  he  informed  us  that  a  few  weeks  before  they  had,  com- 
ing  home  from  a  shooting  party,  found  an  English  captain  and  nine  or  ten  men  overhaul- 
ing their  property  in  the  hut.  The  captain,  finding  that  his  chest  had  been  broke  open, 
and  that  his  rubles  were  diminished  considerably,  reproached  the  English  commander 
with  the  robbery,  and  a  battle  ensued.     *•  The  English  fired  upon  us,"  said  the  sur- 

4  K  2 


:fi 


11 


1 


C20 


DACSTROM'S  VOYAGE  TO  SPITSBEnCEN. 


gcon,  who  acted  all  along  as  interpreter,  "  and  killed  one  of  our  men  on  the  spot.  We 
returned  the  fire,  and  wounded  some  of  his  men,  and  caused  them  to  retreat  precipitate- 
ly. When  the  English  were  gone,  our  captain  counted  his  rubles,  and  found  that  there 
were  six  hundred  missing."  He  intended  to  send  a  statement  of  the  affair  to  the  Russian 
government. 

After  having  staid  above  twelve  hours  with  the  Russians,  highly  entertained,  we  invit- 
cd  them  to  come.to  see  us  on  board,  and  took  our  leave,  returning  the  same  way  by  the 
compass,  and  arrived  safe  on  board,  after  having  been  absent  almost  eighteen  hours. 

Wc  now  prepared  for  the  voyage  home  ;  and  after  having  filled  our  empty  casks  with 
good  water  from  the  shore,  and  made  a  clear  ship,  we  set  sail  with  a  fine  north-easterly 
breeze  in  the  middle  of  July  1780.  We  sailed  again  through  a  great  quantity  of 
floating  ice,  and,  our  ship  being  a  good  sailer,  passed  several  full  ships  bound  home- 
wards. 

The  first  pleasing  change  we  experienced  was,  to  have  some  night,  and  to  be  obliged  to 
light  a  candle  in  the  cabin.  O  what  a  luxur)- !  When  you  have  no  darkness  for  a  con- 
siderable  time  (during  May,  June,  and  July)  light  becomes  tedif)us  at  last ;  and  the  first 
time  you  see  a  candle  burning  in  the  cabin,  and  a  dark  night,  the  pleasure  is  indescriba. 
ble.  Before  we  came  into  this  more  southern  latitude,  fused  to  observe  the  setting  of 
the  sun,  resting,  as  it  were,  on  the  horizon,  appearing  of  a  very  large  size,  surrounded 
with  most  beautiful  and  glorious  colours  of  various  tints,  and  then  the  rising  of  it  shortly 
after,  in  full  majesty.     Language  caimot  convey  an  idea  of  the  scene. 

We  came  to  anchor  at  Larwick  towards  the  end  of  July,  and  were  received  in  the  kind- 
est  manner  by  Mr.  Innes  and  all  our  friends  in  the  place. 

After  three  weeks  stiiy  we  took  leave  of  our  Shetland  friends,  and  sailed  in  company 
with  a  number  of  full  ships  for  England.  When  we  came  on  the  coast  of  Northumber- 
land  and  Yorkshire,  the  brcc  ze  and  weather  being  favourable,  we  were  delighted  with 
the  smell  of  the  hay  from  the  shore,  and  the  sight  of  the  pretty  little  towns  and  villages 
built  on  the  sea  side,  and  refreshed  with  excellent  fresh  cod  and  haddock,  which  the 
Yorkshire  cobles  (u  kind  of  fishing  boats)  bring  on  board ;  in  return  for  which  they  pre- 
fer taking  a  piece  of  beef  or  pork  to  money:  they  bring  sometimes  eggs,  potatoes,  &c. 
We  had  an  uncommonly  pleasant  voyage  home,  and  constant  fine  weather,  accompanied 
with  northerly  breezes. 

We  arrived  about  the  latter  end  of  August  safe  in  Greenland-dock,  after  having  been 
out  five  months. 

Captain  Souter  kept  an  excellent  table  in  the  cabin,  and  a  constant  fire  in  the  stove  : 
his  study  was  to  make  every  person  on  board  comfortable.  In  the  fifteen  voyages  I  have 
been  to  sea.  I  have  only  twice  had  the  good  fortune  to  sail  with  men  of  equal  worth  ;  Mr. 
CharU  b  Paterson,  of  the  Sea  Horse,  and  Mr.  William  Alder,  now  a  lieutenant  in  the  Brii 
tish  navy. 


LETTERS  ON  ICELAND, 


CONTAINING  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  CIVIL,  LITERARY,  ECCLESIASTIC AL,  AND  NATURAL  HISTORY  i 
ANTIQUITIES,  VOLCANOES,  BASAL-)  ',S,  HOT  SPRINGS  ;  CUSTOMS,  OHESS,  BANNERS  OF  THE  INHABIT- 
ANTS, 8cc.  8(C.  MAOK  DUHINO  A  VO>  AGE  UNDERTAKEN  IN  THE  YEAR  1772,  BT  JOSEPH  RANKS,  Esq. 
F.  H.  S.  ASSISTED  DV  DH  SOLANDEll,  V.  H.  S  OH.  J.  LIND,  V .  H.  S.  DU.  UNO  VON  TROIL,  AND  SBVBHAL 
OTHER  LITERARY  AND  INGENIOUS   OENTLEMBN. 

WRITTEN  BY  UNO  VON  TROIL,  D.  D. 

Fint  chapbin  to  hb  SwciUili  nuOcity,  almuner  of  the  SwcdUli  onlen  orknighthood,  and  meniber  of  the  leademy  of  icleacet  tl  rto«Uiolffl. 

TO  WHICn  ARE  ADDED, 

The  Letters  of  Dr.  Ihre  anti  Dr.  Bach  to  the  Author,  concerning  the  Eddn  and  the  Elephantiasis  of 
Iceland :  also,  IVoFessor  ncrfrman's  curious  Observations  and  Chemical  Examination  of  the  Lava 
and  other  Substances  produced  on  the  Island. 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  accounts  of  Iceland,  which  have  hitherto  made  their  appearance  in  the  English 
language,  are  of  such  a  nature,  that  it  would  betray  ignorance  or  partiality  to  recom- 
mend them  to  the  public  as  satisfactory  and  faithful. 

The  first  writer  of  any  known  history  of  Iceland  in  the  present  century  was  John  An- 
dersson,  afterwards  burgomaster  of  Hamburgh,  who  undertook  a  voyage  to  this  not  much, 
frequented  island  in  a  Greenland  ship  ;  but  the  authenticity  of  his  performance  is  far 
from  being  such  as  may  be  relied  on  with  confidence. 

Niels  Horrebow,  a  Danish  astronomer,  was  sent  to  Iceland  by  the  court  of  Denmark, 
on  purpose  to  contradict  Andersson's  account :  he  published  some  observations  on  Ice- 
land, but,  from  too  great  a  desire  to  please  his  employers,  he  fell  into  the  opposite  error, 
and  paints  all  his  objects  with  a  glow  of  colouring,  that  does  not  exactly  correspond 
with  the  truth. 

In  Richer's  Continuation  of  Rollings  History  is  a  history  of  Iceland,  a  most  pitiful 
compilation,  and  full  of  the  grossest  errors  that  ever  disgraced  the  historical  page. 

Under  the  authority  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Sciences  at  Copenhagen,  Eggert  Olafsen 
and  Biarne  Povelsen,  two  men  of  learning,  natives  of  Iceland,  and  residing  in  the  country, 
travelled  all  over  that  island,  and  gave,  in  two  volumes  in  quarto,  a  faithful  and  ample 
account  of  all  that  deserves  the  attention  of  the  learned  and  curious,  illustrated  by  nu- 
merous engravings ;  but  though  the  performance  is  accurate  and  circumstantial,  yet  it 
is  unfortunately  clogged  with  repetitions,  and  the  facts  are  recounted  in  so  tedious  and 
uninteresting  a  manner,  that  it  requires  a  most  phlegmatic  temper,  and  a  lat^  fund  of 
patience,  to  go  through  the  whole  of  this  work,  for  it  is  filled  with  a  long  and  dull  re< 
cital  of  events,  methodized  in  the  most  formal  manner  possible.  It  can  therefore  by 
no  means  be  thought  superfluous,  that  Dr.  Von  Troil  has  favoured  the  literary  world 
with  his  interesting  Letters  on  Iceland ;  a  work  which,  on  account  of  its  varied  matter, 
and  the  great  learning  displayed  everywhere,  for  the  instruction  of  the  curious  reader,  de- 
serves the  warmest  approbation  of  the  public. 

Men  of  talents  and  leaniing  will,  we  flatter  ourselves,  think  highly  of  this  present  per- 
formance by  Dr.  Von  Troil,  though  perhaps  it  may  be  sometimes  a  little  deficient  in 
point  of  language. 


'S 


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VOV  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


I. 


Tb''  present  translation  has  been  made  from  the  last  German  edition,  published  by 
Messrs.  Troil  and  Btrgmun,  with  numerous  additions  and  corrections ;  and  though  it 
is  not  ostentatiously  recommended  to  the  public  for  any  elegance  or  accuracy  of  style,  it 
may  however  be  safely  stated  as  a  faithful  translation  from  the  original,  and  a  work  of 
real  merit  and  utility. 

We  leave  it  to  the  unprejudiced  reader  to  form  a  judgment  of  this  performance,  which 
is  replete  with  variety  of  matter,  treated  on  in  an  instructive  and  satisfactory  manner ; 
and  likewise  on  the  great  learning  relative  to  natural  history,  historical,  antiquarian,  and 
philological  subjects,  which  are  everywhere  blended  in  the  context  of  the  following  let- 
ters ;  and  we  arc  of  opinion,  that  in  respect  to  these  points  this  work  requires  no  apolo- 
gy for  offering  it  to  the  impartial  public. 

As  to  its  utility,  it  will  not  be  unnecessary  to  prefix  a  few  observations  on  the  impor- 
tance of  Icelandic  literature. 

The  English  language  was  originally  so  nearly  related  to  that  of  Iceland,  that  we  need 
only  cast  our  eyes  on  a  glossary,  to  see  the  affinity  of  both  languages,  and  the  great  light 
the  one  receives  *ram  the  other. 

The  Normans  and  Danes,  who  were  during  a  considerable  time  masters  of  England, 
introduced  into  it  many  customs,  laws,  and  manners,  which  would  remain  inexplicable ; 
but  the  Icelanders,  being  originally  dci>tended  from  the  sa^e  Normans,  and  living  on  an 
island  which  has  very  little  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  have  preserved  their 
language,  manners,  and  laws,  in  their  primitive  simplicity :  nay,  all  the  historical  ac- 
counts  of  the  North  are  contained  in  the  historical  sayings  (i»agas)  of  the  Icelanders, 
which  are  very  numerous,  and  would  be  of  very  important  service  in  the  invesrigiitioii  of 
the  origin  of  the  language,  manners,  and  laws  of  England.  Nor  can  it  be  advanced  that 
this  khidof  study  could  not  be  pursued  amongst  us,  for  wantof  these  historical  monuments 
of  the  Icelanders;  since,  by  the  known  indefatigable  zeal  for  the  promotion  of  all  branch- 
es  of  literature,  and  the  most  disinterested  generosity  of  Joseph  Banks,  Eaq.  P.  R.  S. 
one  hundred  and  sixty -two  Icelandic  manuscripts  have  been  presented  to  and  are  de- 
posited in  the  British  Museum. 

The  history  of  the  northern  nations,  their  divinities,  religion,  principles,  and  tenets, 
together  with  their  poetry,  present  the  philosophic  reader  with  subjects  worthy  of  his 
speculation  ;  they  at  the  same  time  account  for  many  historical  events,  and  for  many  a 
curious  custom,  preserved  by  some  one  or  other  of  the  nations  descended  from  the  same 
root  with  these  inhabitants  of  the  north. 

The  subject  of  volcanoes,  and  of  the  origin  of  certain  kinds  of  stones  and  fossils,  have 
of  late  attracted  the  attention  of  philosophers;  but,  in  my  opinion,  they  are  no  where 
treated  with  so  much  candour,  truth,  and  philosophical  precision,  as  in  those  remarks 
which  the  Chevalier  Torbern  Bergman  sent  to  our  author  in  form  of  a  letter,  and  which 
he  has  here  communicated  to  the  public. 

The  whole  island  of  Iceland  i^  a  chain  of  volcanoes,  the  soil  almost  everywhere 
formed  of  decayed  cinders,  lava,  and  fli.gs;  and  the  numerous  hot  springs,  especially 
that  called  Geyser,  give  full  scope  to  the  most  curious  remarks  on  these  subjects,  since 
they  are  here  obvious  in  so  many  varied  shapes,  and  for  that  reason  become  instructive. 
Lava  and  sone  other  productions  of  nature  have  not  been  hitherto  subjected  to  chemi- 
cal  processes:  professor  Bergman  therefore  deserves  the  thanks  of  the  public  for  his  ex- 
cellent  letter,  giving  a  very  interesting  accoimt  of  his  experiments  on  all  the  various 
fossils  and  natural  productions  of  Iceland.  The  origin  of  basaltic  pillars,  such  as  form 
the  Giant's  Causeway  in  Ireland,  the  whole  island  of  StafFa,  and  more  especially  FingaPs 
Cave,  has  of  late  been  much  spoken  of  by  travellers  and  learned  mineralogists.     Some 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


623 


ascribe  their  regular  configuration  to  crystalization :  others  pretend  the  subterraneous 
fire  to  Ix:  the  cause  of  their  regular  columnar  shape ;  but  the  ingenious  Chevalier  Tor- 
hern  Bergman  proves,  by  the  most  solid  arguments,  diat  the  basalt  pillars  are  no  lava, 
or  any  ways  related  to  volcanic  substances,  and  that  their  regular  columnar  shape,  he 
suggests,  IS  owing  to  another  cause,  and  by  his  reasoning  renders  it  highly  probable. 

We  are  at  the  same  time  presented  with  a  view  of  the  primitii'e  earths,  that  originally 
com|X)und  all  earthy  and  stony  bodies  hitherto  discovered  on  the  surface  of  our  globe; 
and  their  characters  are  here  also  set  forth  in  the  most  easy  and  obvious  manner  by  ex- 
periments. 

This  great  and  interesting  circumstance  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  recommend  the 
present  ixrformance  to  the  perusal  of  chemists,  mineralogists,  and  philosophers. 

The  letter  of  the  Archiater  Bach  to  Dr.  Troil,  on  the  diseases  of  Iceland,  contains 
the  most  curious  and  interesting  observations  for  the  use  of  medical  gentlemen.  In 
short,  there  is  scarcely  a  class  of  readers,  who  will  not  find  instruction  and  enter- 
tiiinment  in  the  ingenious  performance  of  Dr.  Uno  Von  Troil,  the  author  of  this 
book. 

He  is  a  Swede  liy  birth,  and  descended  of  a  noble  family  :  his  father,  Samuel  Von 
Troil,  was  archbishop  of  Upsal. 

After  having  studied  divinity,  the  oriental  and  northern  languages  and  antiquities, 
together  with  the  various  branches  of  natural  philosophy,  he  travelled,  and  visited  Ger- 
many, France,  England,  and  Holland. 

During  his  stay  in  England  he  was  introduced  to  Mr.  Banks,  who  was  then  returned 
from  his  voyage  round  the  world,  and  preparing  to  go  on  a  second;  but  that  not  taking 
phice,  he  was  prompted  to  make  a  short  excursion  towards  the  Western  Islanf^  and 
Iceland,  and  easily  prevailed  upon  Dr.  Von  Troil  to  accompany  him  on  this  i.  rary 
voyage. 

After  the  return  of  Dr.  Von  Troil,  he  wrote  letters  to  several  learned  men  in  his  own 
country,  eminent  in  the  various  professions  and  branches  of  literature  and  science,  on 
the  different  matters  he  had  observed  in  Iceland  during  his  voyage ;  they  were  at  first 
only  intended  to  satisfy  the  solicitations  and  curiosity  of  his  friends,  who  wished  to  be 
made  acquainted  with  whatever  he  had  discovered  worthy  the  notice  of  a  literary  man, 
and  that  might  likewise  hid  fair  to  afford  amusement. 

The  senator  Charles  Count  Schetfer,  a  man  of  a  benevolent  character,  and  who 
patronizes  learning  in  all  its  branches,  together  with  its  professors,  solicited  our  author 
to  communicate  them  to  the  public  -.  in  compliance  with  which  they  were  published  at 
Upsal  in  1777,  in  octavo;  and  the  next  year  after  they  appeared  at  the  same  place 
translated  into  German,  very  much  enlarged  with  additions  of  the  author,  and  also  of 
Chevalier  Bergman. 

Dr.  Von  Troil  has,  for  his  talents,  learning,  and  character,  been  promoted  in  his  na- 
tive country  to  several  places  of  honour  and  emolument,  so  that  he  may  now  be  con- 
sidered as  the  first  man  in  Sweden  in  point  of  eminence  in  the  ecclesiastical  line,  and  in 
point  of  learning  inferior  to  none  :  he  has  taken  his  degree  of  doctor  of  divinity,  is 
princif'  jhaplain  to  the  king,  president  of  the  consistory,  rector  of  the  great  church 
of  Stockholm,  and  prelate  of  all  the  Swedish  orders  of  knighthood. 

These  cursory  hints  were  thought  necessary  for  ushering  his  letters  on  Iceland  into 
the  literary  world;  the  public  will,  no  doubt,  be  curious  to  know  the  particular  obser- 
vations made  by  a  learned  man  on  an  island,  that  Mr.  Banks,  one  of  the  first  characters 
of  this  country,  thought  deserving  a  nearer  inspection,  by  a  voyage  he  undertook  at  a 
great  expence,  accompanied  by  several  learned  and  ingenious  men. 


624 


rON  TROTL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


Dl 


•  I 


For  the  information  of  those  who  wish  to  be  acquainted  with  all  the  publications  that 
have  appeared,  to  treat  either  at  large  of  Iceland,  or  examine  some  of  its  particular 
objects,  we  have  here  subjoined  a  very  curious  and  complete  catalogue  of  them. 

CATALOGUE  OF  WRITERS  ON  ICELAND. 

1  Joachim  Leo  wrote  some  verses  on  Iceland  in  the  German  language,  full  of  errors 

There  are    four  editions  of  them.    Arngrim  Jonae,  in  his  Commentario   de 
Islandia,  quotes  the  edition  of  1561. 

2  Jacobi  Ziegleri  Scondia  seu  Uescriptio  Groenlundiae,  Islandia,  NorveRiflP,  Sueciae. 

*rancofurti,  1575. 

3  Jonsbogen  (i.  e.  Jonsbook,  an  old  book  of  laws)  Hoolum  (in  Iceland)  1578    oc- 

tavo, and  several  editions  subsequent  to  it.  * 

4  Arngrim  Jonae  brevis  commentarius  de  Islandia.     Hoolum,  1592,  octavo,  and  Hafn 

1593,  octavo. 

5  Ejusd.  Crymogaea  seu  rerum  Islandicarum  libri  tres.  Hambure,  1609,  1610  1614 

1618,  1620,  and  16.30.  ^  '  '  ' 

6  Blefhenii  Islandia  s.  populorum  et  mirabilium,  quae  in  ea  insula  reperiuntur,  accurata 

descriptio.     Ludg.  Batav.  1607,  octavo. 

7  Angrim  Jonae  Anatome  Blefkeniana.    Hoolum,  1612,  octavo,  and  Hamburg  1613 

quarto.  °*  ' 

8  Dan  Fabritius  de  Islandia  et  Groenlandia.  Rostock,  1616,  octavo. 

9  Arngrim  Jonae  epistola  pro  patria  defensoria.     Hamburg,  1618,  quarto,  written  in 

opposition  to  the  preceding  book. 

10  Arngrim  Jonje  Apotribe  caulmniae.    Hamburg,  1622. 

11  De  regno  Daniae  et  Norvcglas  insulisque  adjucentibus,  tractatus  varii  collect!  a  Stc- 

phano  Siephanio.    Ludg.  Batuv.  1629,  duodecimo,  from  whence  the  part  concern- 
ing Iceland  is  taken  out,  and  printed  separately  with  the  title. 

12  Islandicae  Gentis  primordia  et  vetus  republica.     Ludg.  Bat.  1629,  duodecimo. 

13  Arngrim  Jonae  Athanasia  Gudbrandiana.     Hamburgh,  1630. 

14  Pedcr  Clausson's  Norriges  ogomliggende  oars  Beskrifvelsc.     Kiob.  1632,  quarto. 

and  Kiob.  1637,  octavo.  ^ 

15  Arngrim  Jonae  specimen  Islandiae  hist,  et  magna  ex  parte  chorographicum.  Amst. 

1643. 

16  La  Peyrere  Relation  de  I'Islande,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  de  la  Motte  Vayer,  dated  Dec, 

18,  1644.     Is  inserted  in  the  Receuil  des  Voyages  au  Nord,  tom.  i.     Amst.' 
1715,  octavo. 

17  Wolfii  Norrigia  illustrata.     Hafn.  1651,  octavo  and  quarto. 

18  Wolfii  Norriges,  Islands  og  Gronlands  Beskrifvelsc.     Kiobhafn.  1651,  quarto. 

19  Hieronym.  Megisen  Septentrio  Nov-antiquus,  sive  die  neue  Nord-weit  Island 

Groenland,  &.c.  Leipz.  1653,  duodecimo.  * 

20  Edda  Islandorum  A.  C.  1215,  per  Snorronem  Sturlae  Islandice  conscripta,  Islan- 
,,  T,.  M  ^'  Ijanice,  et  Latine  edita,  opcm  P.  J.  Resenii.  Hafn.  1665,  quarto,  together  with 

21  Philosophia  antiquissima  Norvego-danica  dicta  Voluspa,  qua  est  pars  Edda;  Sse 

mundi,  primum  publici  juris  facta  a  P.  J.  Resenio.     Hafn.  1665,  together  with 

22  Ethica  Odini,  pars  Eddae  Saemundi,  vocata  Haaramal,  edita  per  P.  J.  Resenium. 

Hafn.  1665. 

23  Theod.  Thorlacci  diss,  chorographka  historicade  Islandia,  pras.  iEgid.  Strauch; 

Wutent  1666  and  1670,  quarto,  idem,  1690,  quarto.  ^ 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTEHS  ON  ICELAND. 


625 


•» 


24  Erici  Bartholini  experimei)*:a  ChristalU  Islandici  disdiaclastici.  Hafn.  1699,  quarto. 

25  Voluspa.  Kiobenhavn.  1673,  quarto. 

26  Martiniere  neue   Reise  in  die   nordischen  Landschaf^en.     Hamb.  1675,  quarto. 

Translated  from  the  English.     There  is  likewise  a  B'rench  edition.     Paris  1682. 

27  Arae  Multistii  Scheda:.  Skalholt  1688,  quarto,  Oxford  1696.    Kiob.  1733,  quarto. 

28  Landnama  Bok.  Skalholt  1688,  quarto.    Is  likewise  published  at  Copenhagen,  with 

a  Latin  translation,  notes,  and  several  indexes.  Islands  Landnamu-Bok,  h.  e. 
Liber  originum  Islandiae.  Editio  novissima,  ex  manuscriptis  Magnceunis  sumptibus 
pcrill.  Sunmii.  Havn.  1774,  quarto. 

29  Gahm  de  ratione  anni  solans  apud  veteres  Islandos.     This  memoir  is  printed  at  the 

end  of  Arae  Schedae  in  the  Copenhagen  edition. 

30  Thordi  Thorlaks  Diss,  de  ultimn  montis  Hecklae  in  Islandia  incendio.    Hafn.  1694. 

31  Gahm  de  prima  religionis  Islandia  fundatione.     Hafn.  1696. 

32  Description  du  Nora.     1698,  duodecimo. 

33  Niewe  bcschry  vinge  van  Spitsbergen,  Island,  Groenland  end  de  beygelegen  Eylan- 

den. 

34  Einar  Thorst.  vita.     Hafn.  1700. 

35  Reise  nach  Norden,  worinneu  die  sitten,  Lebensarten  and  Aberglauben  der  Norwe- 

gen and  Islander  accurat  bcschrieben  werden.     Leipz.  1711,  duodecimo. 

36  Blefkenii  Hi!>torie  van  Lap-and  Finland,  hier  is  bygevoegt  de  beschryving  van  Isen 

Groenland.    Leuvarden  1716,  octavo. 

37  Vettersten  de  Poesi  Scaldorum  Septentrionalium.    Upsal.  1717,  octavo. 

38  Relation  om  det  foerskrekkelige  Vandfall  og  exundation  af  Bierget  Katlegiaa  paa 

Island  1721.  Copenhagen  1727,  quarto. 

39  Kort  ber.xttelse  on  b^orget  Krabia  paa  Island,  samt  andre  Demess  intil  grantsando 

Berg,  Hwilka  nyli;>;en  begynt  at  inspruta  eld  och  brinna.  This  account  of  the  burn- 
ing of  the  mount  Krabia  was  printed  probably  in  the  year  1727,  at  Stockholm,  in 
four  pages  in  octavo. 

40  Benedict  Thorstenson  efTterrettning  om  den  jordbrand  som  1724  og  folgende  Aar  i 

Bierget  Krafla  og  de  dar  omkring  liggende  Herreder  har  grasseret.  Kiobenhafn 
1726,  octavo. 

41  Olavi  O.  Wording  Diss,  de  Eddis  Islandicis.  Upsal.  1735,  quarto.     Mr.  Oelrichs  at 

Bremen  has  reprinted  this  Diss,  in  his  Opusculis  Daniae  et  Suecioe  litteratae,  torn  i. 
1774. 

42  Joh.  Dav.  Koehler  prolusio  de  Scaldis  seu  poetis  gentium  arctoarum.   Altdorf  1738, 

quarto- 

43  Er.  Jul.  Biomer,  Inledning  til  de  Hfwerboma  Goeters  ^mla  Hafder  sar  deles  go- 

tiska  sprakets  Forman  och  Sagornas  Kanncd  om.  seu,  Introductio  in  Antiquitates 
Hyperboreo-Gothicr^.     Stockholm  1738,  folio. 

44  Ejui^  tractatus  de  Varegis  heroibus  Scandianis.     Stockholm  1743,  quarto.    ' 

45  Lakmannusde  computatione  annorum  per  hyemes  priscis  gentibus  hyi)erboreisusi- 

tata.    Kiel  1744,  quarto. 

46  De  Yfverboma  AUingars  LarH-— — Hyperboreorum  Adandiorum  seu  Sui<^torum 

et  Nordmandorum  Edda,  hoc  est  Atavia,  seu  fons  gentilis  illorum  et  Theologiae  et 
Philosophiae.  Jam  demum  versione  Suinonic<t  donata  accedente  latina — ad  MS. 
quod  (xissidet  Bibliotheca  Upsaliensis — opera  Joh.  Gorsson.  Ups.  1746,  quarto. 
This  edition  of  the  Edda  was  not  finished. 

47  Islanska  taxan.     Hoolum  1746,  quarto.  .      ;  •         -j     .  j-  /  ;        -i'     ^ 

48  John  Andersson  Nachrichten  von  Island,  Groenanland,  und  der  Strasse  David. 

Hamb.  Ji746.>    It  likewise  appeared  translated  into  the  Danish  language.  Copenh. 
VOL.  I.  4  L 


M 


626 


\  ON  TROIL'S  LBTTEHS  <»N  ICiiXANU 


v. 


h  1 
^1 


i; 
'  j 

h 


Jl 


1748.   A  French  tninslatioii  has  likewise  been  puhlibhed  by  Mr.  Sellius,  1751,  diu»- 
ilccimo,  two  vols. 

49  Octroy  focr  dct  Isliindskc  Societct.     Kiob.  1747,  octavo. 

50  Avtrtisscnicntom  Aiidcrssons  I'ractat  om  Island.     Kiob.  1748,  octavo. 

51  Joh.  Thorkclssons  tillgift  til  Aiidorsson  om  Island.     Kiob.  1748,  octavo. 

52  Eggcrhard  Olavius  Knurratiottcs  historicoe  de  Islandiae  natura  et  constituiione.  Hafn. 

1741),  octavo. 
5.3  Ejusil.  Disb.  dc  ortu  ct  progressu  circa  ignein  Islandi.ie  subtcrraneum.    Hafn.  1749, 
ijuarto. 

54  Biurni  Paiili  Obbcrvationcs  de  alga  saccharifcra  maris  Islandici.  Hafn.  1749,  octavoi 

55  Arnac  Oddcs.  vita,  inserted  in  the  Nova  litteraria.  Hafn.  anni  1750. 

56  Dc  Gamla  Normanners  Putriarkalibka  Lara  pa  Swenska  och  Lat.  af  Joh.  Gooransson. 

Stockholm  1750,  quarto. 

57  Olai  Wormii  Kpistoiae.     Hafn.  1751,  two  vols,  octavo. 

58  TiUbrladcligu  eftcireiningar om  Island  med  ett  nytt  Landkort, og 2  Aars  metereologi- 

ska  Observationer  af  Niels  Horrebow.     Kiob.  1750,  octavo.    This  perlbrmance  is 
likewise  tran.<)lati-d  into  Gi-rn\an,  1752,  octavo,  and  into  English. 

59  Specimen  Islandiic  non  barb.uae.  in  nuuvellis  lilerariis  Hafniensibus,  1752. 

60  Nachrichten  von  Island,  a  short  abstract  of  Horrebow's  book  inserted  in  a  periodical 

r;aj>cr,  called  B^traygen  ziim  Nutzen  und  Vergnugen.   Griefswald  1753,  quarto. 

61  Erici  tentamen  de  nominibus  et  cognominibus  Septentrionalium.    Huih.  1753,  oc- 

tavo. 

62  Th.  Nicolai  de  commcatu  Islandonim  navali.  1753,  octavo. 

63  Svein  Solvesen  Tyro  Juris  Islandicus.     Kiob.  1754,  octavo. 

64  Vidaiins  Bref  til  Jon  Arnesen  de  jure  patronatus  Islandorum,  translated  into  Danish, 

and  published  by  Magnus  Ketilson. 

65  Dissertatiuncula  de  montibus  ialaudiae  crystallinis,  auct.  TheodrTorkelH  I.  Vidalino, 

scholae  Skalhokensis  eo  tempore  Rectore.  IVanslated  from  the  Latin  MS.  into  Ger- 
man,  and  published  in  the  Hamburg  Magazine,  vol.  xiii.  nos.  i.  and  ii.  1754.  octavo. 

66  Disquisitiones  dux  historic*  antiquariae.  Prior  de  veterum  Septentrionalium,  im- 

primis Islandorum  peregrinationibus;  posterior  de  Phillippia  seu  arnoris  equini 

apud  priscos  boreales  causis per  Joh.  Erici.  Lips.  1755,  octavo.  The  first  is 

translated  intoGerman,  and  inserted  into  Schlozer's  Northern  History.  1771,  p.  566. 

67  Ejusd.  Specimen  Observationum  ad  antiquitates  Septentrional. 

68  Ejuad.  Cummentarius  de  expositione  infantum  ad  veiores  Septentrionales. 

69  Iiuroduction  a  I'Histoire  de  Dannemark,  par  Mr.  Malkt  a  Copenh.  1755,  quarto,  to 

which  a  translation  of  the  Edda  is  pretixed.     The  same  is  translated  into  English, 
two  vols,  octavo,  and  into  German.    Griefswald  1765,  quarto. 

70  Joh.  Snorronis  de  Agricultura  Islandorum.     Hafn.  1757,  octavo.  '^'' 

71  Hald.  Jacobsens  eftierreningar  om  de  i.  Island  ildsprudende  Bierge.  Kiob,  1757,  oc- 

tavo. 

72  Ol.  Eigilson's  Berettnelse  om  de  tyrkiske  Soerovere  i.  Island.  Kioeb.  1757,  octavo. 

73  Nic.  Pet.  Sibbern  ideahistonae  litteraria  Islandorum  in  Dreyer's  Monument  anec- 

dota.     1  Tom.  Lubecas  1760,  quarto. 

74  Balle  oekonomiska  Tanker  ofwer  Island  til  hoy  ere  betankning.     Kiob.  1760,  1761, 

two  vols,  octavo. 

75  Joh.  Finnaeus  tentamen  historico-philok}gicum  circua  Norvegioe  jus  ecclesiasticum 

priscum,  and 

76  Eiusd.  Cutae  posteriores  in  hoc  jus.     Hafn.  1762,  and  1765,  quarto. 

77  Thorsten  Nicol.  de  commeatu  veterum  Islandorum  restituendo.  Hafn.  1762,  octavo. 


VON  1  noiL'8  fXTTKTlS  ON  ICFLANl). 


627 


78 

79 
80 

81 
82 
83 
84 

85 
86 
87 
88 
89 
90 
91 
92 
93 

94 
95 

93 
97 
98 
99 

100 
101 

102 

103 


104 
105 


;. 

'    106 

>. 

^" 

107 

I, 

108 

n 

109 

3. 

- 

- 

\ 

Joh.  Amcson  Inledniiig  til  den  gamlc  og  nya  Islnndske  Rattcgaang,  udgivcn  nf  I. 

Erichsicn.     Kiob.   1762,  quarto. 

louch.  Stcchau  dc  iiide  historica  monumcntor.  Islandic.  Lund.  176.1. 

Five  pieces  of  Run.ici)octry,  translated  from  the  Icelandic  language.  London  1763, 

octavo. 

M.  Olafsen's  foersoeg  til  Landrasencts  forlKdring  i  Island.     Kiob.   1765,  octavo. 

Ejusd.  Anmarkningar  til  Jonsboks  Danska  ofwcrsattelsc.     Kiob.   1765,  octavo. 

Egil  Thorhalsens  t'orswar  for  sin  ofwcrsattelsc.     Kiob.  1765,  octavo. 

H.  Finnscn  efterettning  om  tilgr  igelserne  vid  Biergct  liekla  udi  IslaHct  i  April  og 

foljende  manader.     Kiocb.   17b7. 

Olavii  Syntugmu  de  Buptismo  vetcnim.     Hafn.  1769,  quarto. 

Breve  om  Agerdyrknings  muelghed  i  Island  fra  Hans  Finnsen,  1769  and  1772. 

Joh.  Pctcrj»en  om  den  saa  Kulladc  Islandske  skiorbiugg.     Sorcc  1769,  octavo. 

Erichsen  om  Islands  up  Konist.     Kiocl^nhliafu  1770,  quarto. 

Skull  Magimsson  urn  tnann  Aslinsku  Gamspuna.     Kiob,  octavo. 

Ol.  Olafsens  Islansk  Urtagaards  bok.     Kiocb  1770,  octavo. 

Thor  Oddesons  tanker  om  akurdyrkin  paa  Island.     Kiob.  1771,  octavo. 

luel  Norrlands  Trompet. 

Martetcid  um  Islands  Huusholding  med  fedhe  vahre  og  Hamborgs  Kiodrogning. 

Kiob.  1771,  octavo. 

Ol.  Olson  um  fiski-veidar  og  fiski-nettan.     Kiob.  1771,  duodecimo. 

Upartiske  tanker  om  det  Islandske  Handels-Kompagnic  og  dets  farende  Kiobmand, 

Kiob.  1771. 

Anmerkningar  oever  Compagniets  Handel  paa  Island.     Kiob.  1771. 

Lud.  Harboe  Tuende  of  handlingar  om  reformationem  i  Island. 

Ejusd.  Histoty  of  the  Islandic  translation  of  the  Bible. 

Finnei  Johannaei  Episcopi  Dioceseos  Skalholtinae  in  Islandia,  Hbtoria  Ecclesiastica 

Islandi*.  T.  i.  ii.  iii.     Hafn.  1772  &  1775. 

Ion  Olsson  om  den  Islandske  Handtl.     Kiob.  1772,  octavo. 

Bref  til  Hr.  Cancellie  Radet  Lagerbring  rorande  then  Islandsk  Edda  (by  Cevallcr 

Ihre.)    Stock.  1772,  octavo. 

Relation  d'un  Voyage  dans  la  Mer  du  Nord  par  de  Ker^uelen  de  Tremarec.  Am- 

sterdam  1772,  quarto. 

Eggert  Olafsens  og  Biame  Povelsens  Reise  igienem  Island,  two  vols.    Soroe  1772. 

quarto.     It  appeared  likewise  translated  into  German.    Leipz.  1774  and  1775, 

quarto,  two  vols. 

Steph.  Thorasens  de  homicidis  secundum  leges  Islandorum  antiquas.  P.  I.  Hafn. 
1773.  * 

Kristni  Saga,  S.  Historia  Religionis  Christianae  in  Islandiam  introductje,  nee  non  : 
Thattr  af  Isleif  Biskupi,  s.  narratio  de  Isleifo  Episcopo — cum  interpretatione  Lati- 
na,  notis,  &c.     Hafn.  1773,  octavo. 
Islandische  Literatur  und  Geschichete.     Erster  Theil.  Goettingen  1773,  octavo. 
The  ingenious  Prof.  Schlozer  at  Gottingen  is  the  author. 
Islandische  Zeitungen.     These  newspapers  were  published  in  Iceland  in  the  year 

Bualagen.     Hrappsej.  1775. 

Biorn  a  Skardzaa  Annalar  Hrappsej.  1774  and  1775,  quarto,  two  vols.  These  an- 
nals contain  the  history  from  1400  to  1645 ;  and  arc  published  with  a  Latin  trans- 

4  L  2 


■V   1 


!(' 


628 


VON  TROIL'S  I.ETTEI13  ON  ICKLANO. 


lation :  Annates  Biornis  u  Skardsa.     Ex  manuscrtptiH  inter  at  coUatis  cum  intcr« 
prctationc  Latiiui,  vurinntibus  lectionibus,  notis  ct  indicc. 

110  kristin-rcttr  hinn  fi^mli — Jus  Kcclesiasticum  vet  us  h.  Thorlacco^Kcttiliunum  con- 
6titutum,A.  C.  1123,  Isiandicc  ct  Latine,  edit  Grimus  Joh.  Thorkclin.  Hufn. 
1775. 

111  Bcrattelsc  om  den  Islandskc  farskiotseln,  upsattnf  Thcod.  Thoroddi.  These  ob- 
servations appeared,  translated  into  Swedish  by  Mr.  Barchaus,  in  the  Journal  of  hus. 
bandry  1776,  the  month  of  Novcmlicr.     Stockh. 

112  Vorlaufender  Bcricht  und  zugleich  die  Vorredc  vonder  alten  und  raren  Islandis- 
chcn  Edda,  so  ubcr  700  Jahr  und  daruber  in  Norden  bisher  unerklarbar  verstcckt 
gckgcM.  Stettin  1776,  quarto.  Its  author  is  Mr.  Schtmmelmann  of  Stettin,  who 
likewise  had  printed,  in  1774,  Abhandiung  abgel'asst  in  eincm  Schrciben  an  einem 
Gclchrten  von  der  alten  Islandischen  Edda,  quarto. 

113  Sven  Solvcscn  Islandiskc  Juscriminale.     Kiob.   1776,  octavo. 

114  Islandische  Mcrkwurdigkeiten,  in  a  periodical  pap' '  illed  Mannichfaltigkeiten, 
first )  ear  second  quarter,  Berlin  1777,  octavo. 

115  Sciagraphia  Historiae  litterariae  Islaiidiae,  auctorum  et  scriptorum  turn  editorum  tum 
ineditorum  indicem  exhibens,  cuivis  delineandx  ixrricuhim  fecit  Haldanus  Einari, 
Ph.  Mag.  et  Rector  Scholae  Cathedr.  Holensis.  Holmise  1777,  octavo. 

116  Modern  History  of  the  Polar  Regions.  The  first  part  is  to  be  met  with  in  Richer's 
Modern  History,  or  Continuation  to  Rollin's  Ancient  histor}',  vol.  xxvii.  Berlin 

1778,  octavo. 

117  Diss,  inauguralis  de  Lichene  Islandico,  Prses.  Trommsdorflf.  Resp.  Reisse.  Er- 
furth.  1778. 

1 18  Die  Islandische  Edda.  Das  ist :  die  gcheime  Gotteslehre  der  leltesten  Hyperbora- 
erim  Jahr.  1070 — 1075,  aus  alten  runisthen  Schrifien  edirt  von  Samund  Froden, 
hiemaechstim  Jahr  1664,  durch  Resen,  und  nun  in  die  hochtsntsche  Spraclie  mit 
cinem  Versuch  zur  rechten  Erklarung  ubersezt  und  edirt  von  J.  Schimmelmann. 
Stettin,  1778,  quarto. 

119  Bref  racrandc  en  Resa  til  Inland  1772.  Upsala,  1777,  octavo,  and  translated  into 
German  by  Joh.  George  Pet.  Moelie.  Upsala  and  Leipz.  1779,  octavo.  The 
work  which  is  now  heit:  appears  translated  into  English. 

120  Joh.  Tbeod.  Phil.  Chi'^st.  Ebcling  de  Quassia  et  Lichene  Islandico.    Glasgose> 

1779,  octavo. 

Thi^  Catalogui!;  contains  all  the  writers  of  any  consequence  on  Iceland,  or  on  mat- 
ters relative  to,  or  concerning,  that  country. 


LETTER  I....TO  PROFESSOR  BERGMAN.*     ' 

on  the  effects  of  fire  in  iceland.  > 

Sir, 

SINCE  I  am  happily  returned  from  a  very  pleasant  summer's  excursion  through  the 
western  islands  of  Scotland,  to  Iceland  and  the  Orkneys,  it  is  with  peculiar  pleasure 
that  1  take  diis  opportunity  of  assuring  you  of  my  esteem  and  fiiendship.     It  is  probably 


*  TbiB  letter  was  first  published  in  the  ye«r  1773,  in  the  UpMla  newspapers,  No.  3, 4,  6,  and  8. 


VOM  TBOn.'g  LKTTEKtl  ON  ICCLANU 


(m 


not  unknown  to  you,  that  Mr.  Banks  and  Dr.  Solandcr  liavc  l)ecn  disagreeably  disap- 
pointed,  when  llvcy  were  an  the  point  of  setting  out  on  a  new  voyage  round  the  world 
I^Ht  summer.  However,  in  or  onier  to  keep  together  and  employ  the  draughtsmen  and 
other  persons  whom  they  had  engaged  for  their  voyage  to  the  South  Sea,  they  ixsolvtd 
upon  another  excursion.  It  was  Irnpossiliic  to  chooHc  a  Ix-ttcr  one  than  that  to  Iceland  ; 
and  you  may  easily  conceive,  sir,  that  though  I  was  ready  to  set  out  on  my  return  to  Swe- 
den, I  did  not  hesitate  a  moment  in  accepting  their  oflfcr  to  accompany  them.  To  say 
the  truth,  I  was  glad  to  visit  a  country,  where  I  could  not  alom  hope  to  fnid  many  re- 
mains of  our  ancient  language,  but  where  I  was  certain  to  see  luturc  in  a  new  point  oi 
view. 

I  have  not  been  disappointed  in  either  of  my  expect ttions ;  and  I  could  never  have 
found  a  happier  opportunity  than  that  of  making  this  voyage  in  the  company  of  Mr. 
Banks  and  Dr.  Solander,  of  whom  it  would  be  unnecessary  to  say  one  word  more,  as 
they  arc  both  known  so  well  to  you,  and  to  the  learned  and  ingenious  throughout 
Europe. 

I  know,  sir,  that  every  information  will  be  welcome  to  you,  which  concerns  those 
objects  that  attracted  my  attention  there  ;  and  there  is  no  one  who  would  communicate 
this  information  to  you  with  more  pleasure  than  myself;  but  as  it  would  require  too 
much  prolixity  to  mention  every  thing,  I  shall  only  in  this  letter  speak  of  the  principal 
operations  of  fire  in  Iceland,  a  subject,  u  iiich,  I  am  convinced,  is  one  of  the  most  impor. 
tant. 

On  our  arrival  in  Iceland  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  August  1772,  we  directly  saw  a  pros- 
pect  before  us,  which,  though  not  pleasing,  was  uncommon  and  surprising.  Whatever 
presented  itself  to  our  view  bore  the  marks  of  devastation  ;  and  our  eyes,  accustomed  to 
behold  the  pleasii^  coasts  of  England,  now  saw  nothing  but  the  vestiges  of  the  opera- 
tion of  a  fire.  Heaven  knows  how  ancient ! 

The  description  of  a  country,  where  quite  close  to  the  sea  you  perceive  almost  nothing 
but  sharp  cliffs  vitrified  by  fire,  and  where  the  eye  loses  itself  in  high  rocky  mountains, 
covered  with  eternal  snow,  cannot  possibly  produce  such  emotions  as  at  first  sight  might 
entirely  prepossess  the  thinking  spectator.  It  b  true,  beauty  is  pleasing  both  to  our  eyes 
and  our  thoughts ;  but  gigantic  nature  often  makes  the  most  lasting  impressions. 

We  cast  anchor  not  far  IromBessestedr,  the  dwelling-place  of  the  celebrated  Steurleson, 
where  we  found  two  tracts  of  lava,  calletl  Gorde  and  Hualeyre-Hraun  (for  what  we  and  the 
Italians  call  Lava  is  called  in  Iceland  Hraun,  from  Hrinna,  to  flow)  oi  which  particularly 
tile  last  was  remarkable,  since  wc  foimd  there  besides  a  whole  field  covered  with  lava, 
which  must  have  been  liquid  in  the  highest  degree,  and  whole  mountains  of  turf.  Chance 
had  directed  us  exactly  to  a  spot  on  which  we  could,  better  than  on  any  other  part  of  Ice- 
land, consider  the  operations  of  a  fire  which  had  laid  waste  a  stretch  of  ten  or  twelve 
miles.*  We  spent  several  days  here,  in  examining  every  thing  with  so  much  the  more 
pleasure,  since  we  found  ourselves,  as  it  were,  in  a  new  world. 

We  had  now  seen  almost  all  the  effects  of  a  volcano,  except  the  crater,  from  which 
the  fire  had  proceeded :  in  order  therefore  to  examine  this  likewise,  we  undertook  a 
journey  of  twelve  days  to  mount  Heckla  itself;  we  travelled  fifty  or  sixty  milesf  over 
an  uninterrupted  track  of  lava,  and  had  at  last  the  pleasure  uf  being  the  first  who  ever 
reached  the  summit  of  this  celebrated  volcano.    The  cause  that  no  one  has  been  there 

*  The  miles  mentioned  by  Dr.  Troil  are  always  Swedish,  ten  and  an  half  of  which  are  equal  to  a  de^rree 
en  one  of  the  great  circles  of  the  (riobe  ;  and  therefore  one  Swedish  mile  is  nearly  equal  to  six  finglish 
statute  miles     1'en  or  twelve  miles  are  sixty  or  seventy -two  English  miles. 

t  Three  hundred  or  three  hundred  and  sixty  English  miles. 


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VOV  THOIL'N  LF.TTKHS  OV  K  r.l.ANU 


before  is  iwrtly  tbuiuicd  in  Hii[NTHtitioii,  and  partly  in  the  extreme  difficulty  of  the 
ascent,  before  the  last  discharge  of  fire.  There  was  not  one  in  our  conipaiiy  who  did 
not  wish  to  have  hin  clothes  a  little  singed,  only  for  the  sake  of  seeing  lieckla  in  a 
blaze  i  and  wc  almost  fluttered  ourselves  with  this  hojK',  since  the  bishop  of  Skaiholt 
Iwid  informed  us  by  letter,  in  the  night  bctwern  the  fifth  and  sixth  of  September,  the 
%lay  before  our  arrival,  flames  had  proceeded  from  it ;  but  now  the  mountain  was  more 
fjuiet  than  we  wished.  Wc  however  passed  our  time  very  agreeably,  from  one  o'clock 
in  the  night  till  two  next  day,  in  visiting  the  mountiiin.  VVe  were  even  so  happy,  that 
the  clouds  which  covered  the  greatest  |)iu'tofit  dispersed  towards  evening,  and  procured 
us  the  most  extensive  prospect  imaginable.  The  mountain  is  somewhat  above  Ave  thou- 
sand feet  high,  and  separates  at  the  top  into  three  points,  of  which  that  in  the  middle  is 
the  higliest.  The  most  inconsiderable  part  of  the  mountain  consists  of  lava,  the  rest  arc 
ashes,  with  hard  solid  stones  throivn  from  the  craters,  together  with  some  pumice-stones, 
of  which  we  found  only  a  small  piece,  with  a  little  native  sulphur.  A  description  of  the 
various  kinds  of  stones  that  are  to  Ix*  found  here  would  be  too  prolix,  and  partly  unin- 
telligible  ;  and  I  so  much  the  more  willingly  omit  it,  as  I  hope  to  satisfy  your  ciiriosity, 
as  soon  as  the  collection  I  made  of  them  arrives  in  Swcdcp. 

Amongst  many  other  openings,  four  were  peculiarly  remarkable  ;  the  first,  the  lava 
of  which  had  taken  the  form  of  chimney. aucks  hi>.if  broken  dow.i ;  another,  from  which 
water  had  streamed  ;  n  third,  all  the  atones  of  v  hich  were  red  as  brick ;  and  lastly,  one 
from  which  the  lava  had  burst  forth  in  a  stream,  which  was  divided  at  some  distance 
into  three  arms.  I  have  sitid  before,  that  we  were  not  so  happy  to  sec  Heckia  throw 
up  fire  ;  but  there  were  sufficient  traces  of  its  burning  inwardly  ;  for  on  the  upper  half 
of  it,  covered  over  with  four  or  five  inches  deep  of  snow,  we  frequently  observed  spots 
without  any  snow ;  and  on  the  highest  point,  where  Fahrenheit's  thermometer  was  at 
24°  in  the  air,  it  rose  (o  153°  when  it  was  set  down  on  the  ground ;  and  in  some  little 
holes  it  was  so  hot,  that  we  could  no  longer  observe  the  heat  with  a  small  pocket  ther- 
mometcr.  It  is  not  known  whether,  since  the  year  1693,  Heckia  has  been  burning 
till  1766,  when  it  began  to  throw  up  flames  on  the  first  of  April,  and  was  burning  for 
a  long  while,  and  destroyed  the  country  many  miles  around.  Last  December  some 
flames  likewise  proceeded  from  it;  and  the  people  in  the  neighbourhood  believe  it 
will  begin  to  burn  again  very  soon,  as  thev  nretend  to  have  observed  that  the  rivers 
thereabouts  are  drying  up.  It  is  believed  that  this  proceeds  from  the  mountain's  at- 
tracting the  water,  and  is  considered  as  a  certain  sign  of  an  imfiending  eruption.  Besides 
this,  the  mountains  of  Mayvatn  and  Kattlegia  are  known  in  this  century,  on  account  of 
the  violent  inflammations  of  the  former  between  the  years  1730  and  1740,  and  the  lat. 
ter  in  1756. 

But  permit  me,  sir,  to  omit  a  farther  account  of  the  volcano  at  this  time,*  in  order 
to  speak  of  another  effijct  of  the  fire,  which  is  much  finer,  and  as  wonderful  as  the  first, 
and  so  must  be  the  more  remarkable,  as  there  is  not  in  any  part  of  the  known  world  any 
thing  which  resembles  it :  I  mean  the  hot  springs  of  water  which  abound  in  Iceland.f 

They  have  diflferent  degrees  of  warmth,  and  are  on  that  account  divided  by  the  inha- 
bitants themselves  into  laugar,  warm  baths,  and  huerer,  or  jets  d'eaux  ;  the  first  are 
found  in  several  other  parts  of  Europe,  though  I  do  not  believe  that  they  are  ever  em- 
ployed to  the  same  purposes  in  any  other  place  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  inhabitants  do  not 

*  Dr.  Trail  treats  more  at  large  of  the  Icelandic  volcanoes  in  his  1 8th  and  1 9th  Letters  ;  and  jn  the  30th 
he  speaks  more  paricularljr  of  Mount  Heckia. 
i  The  2 Ist  Letter  treats  more  fully  of  the  hot  springs  in  Iceland. 


\ 


•^•^t^-tmmt^m 


SOS  ritOll/ii  I.KTIKrtH  UN  ICKLANI) 


631 


bathe  in  them  here  merely  fur  their  healih,  but  they  are  likewise  the  occattion  t'ur  a  Heciie 
of  gallantry.  Poverty  nrevents  here  the  lover  from  making  presents  to  hi*  fair  (jne, 
and  nature  presents  no  Aovvers,  of  whieh  ilsewherc  gnrlaniU  are  made  :  it  is  therefore 
euiitomary,  Uiat,  instead  of  all  tlti",  the  sn  aiu  |K.-rfectly  cleanses  one  of  these  bathsi,  which 
is  afterwards  honouix'd  with  the  visits  of  hiit  bride.  The  other  kind  of  springs  men- 
tioncd  above  deserves  more  attention.  I  have  seen  a  great  nun\ber  of  them  ;  but  will 
only  say  something  of  three  of  the  most  remarkable.  Near  Laugervatn,  a  small  lake  of 
about  a  mile  in  circumference,  which  is  al)out  two  days  journey  distant  from  Ileckla, 
I  saw  the  first  hot  jet  d'eau ;  and  I  must  confess  that  it  was  one  of  the  most  l)eautiful 
sights  I  ever  l)eheld.  The  morning  was  uncommonly  cic.ir,  and  the  sun  had  ahead}' 
begun  to  guild  the  top  of  die  neighbouring  mountains  ;  it  was  so  perfect  a  calm,  thai 
the  lake  on  which  some  swans  were  swimming  was  as  smooth  as  a  looking-glass  ;  and 
round  about  it  arose,  in  eight  different  places,  the  steam  of  the  hot  springs,  which  lost 
itself  high  in  the  air. 

Water  was  spouting  from  all  diese  springs  ;  but  one  in  {Kirticular  continually  threw  up 
a  column  from  eighteen  to  twenty  four  feet  high,  and  from  six  to  eight  feet  diameter,  the 
water  was  extremely  hot.  A  piece  of  mutton  and  some  salmon  trouts  wc-  boiled  in  it ;  as 
likewise  a  ptarmigan,  which  was  almost  boiled  to  pieces  in  six  minutes,  and  tasted  ex- 
cellently. I  wish  it  was  in  my  power,  sir,  to  give  you  such  a  description  of  this  place 
as  it  deserves ;  but  1  fear  miiic  would  always  remain  inferior  in  point  of  expression.  So 
much  is  certain,  at  least,  nature  never  drew  from  any  one  a  more  cheerful  homage  to  her 
great  Creator  than  I  here  paid  him. 

At  Reikum  was  another  simhu  of  the  same  sort,  the  water  of  which,  I  was  assured,  rose 
to  sixty  or  seventy  feet  perpendicular  height  some  years  ago ;  but  a  fall  of  earth  having 
almost  covered  the  whole  o[K-ning,  it  now  only  spouted  between  fifty-four  and  sixty  feet 
sideways.  We  found  a  great  many  petrified  leaves  in  this  place,  as  likewise  some  native 
sulphur,  of  which  too  the  water  had  a  much  stronger  taste  than  any  where  else. 

1  have  reserved  the  most  remarkable  water-spout  for  the  end,  the  description  of 
which  will  appear  as  incredible  to  you  as  it  did  to  me,  could  I  not  assure  you  that  it  is 
all  perfectlv  true,  au  I  would  not  aver  any  thing  but  what  I  have  seen  myself.  At  Gey- 
ser, not  far  from  Skalholt,  one  of  the  episcopal  sees  in  Iceland,  a  most  extraordinary 
large  jet  d'eau  is  to  be  seen,  with  which  the  celebrated  water-works  at  Marly  and  St, 
Cloud,  and  at  Gassel,  and  Herrenhausen,  near  Hanover,  can  hardly  be  compared.  One 
sees  here,  within  the  circumference  of  half  a  mile,*  forty  or  fifty  boiling  springs  together, 
which,  I  believe,  all  proceed  from  one  and  the  same  reservoir.  In  some  the  water  is 
perfectly  clear,  in  others  thick  and  clayey  ;  in  &ome,  where  it  passes  through  a  fine  ochre, 
It  is  tinged  red  as  scarlet ;  and  in  others,  where  it  flows  over  a  paler  clay,  it  is  white  as 
ihilk. 

The  water  spouts  up  from  all,  from  some  continually,  from  others  only  at  intervals. 
Tlie  largest  spring,  which  is  in  the  middle,  enga^  our  attention  particularly  the  whole 
day,  which  we  spent  here  from  six  in  the  morning  till  seven  at  night.  The  aperture 
through  which  the  water  arose,  and  the  depth  of  vmich  I  cannot  determine,  wits  nine- 
teen leet  ip  diameter  ;  round  the  top  of  it  is  a  bason,  which  together  with  the  pipe,  has 
the  form  of  a  cauldron ;  the  margin  of  the  bason  is  upwards  of  nine  feel  one  inch  higher 
than  the  conduit,  and  its  diameter  is  of  fifty-six  feet^  Here  the  water  does  not  spout 
continually,  but  only  by  intervals  several  times  a  day  ;  and  as  I  was  informed  by  the 
people  in  the  neighboiirhood,  in  bad  rainy  weather  higher  than  at  other  times. 

*  About  three  English  miles. 


;i 


ln' 


\m 


.i^'' 


632 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  OK  ICELAND. 


On  the  day  tliat  we  were  there  the  water  spouted  at  ten  different  times,  from  six  in 
the  morning  till  eleven,  A.  M.  each  time,  to  the  height  of  between  five  and  ten  fathoms ; 
till  then  the  water  had  not  risen  above  the  margin  of  the  pipe,  but  .  jw  it  began  by  de- 
grees  to  fill  the  upper  bason,  and  at  last  ran  over.  The  people  who  were  with  us  told 
us,  that  the  water  would  soon  spout  up  much  higlier  than  it  had  till  then  done,  and  this 
appeared  very  credible  to  us.  To  determine  its  iieight,  therefore,  with  the  utmost  ac- 
curacy. Dr.  Lind,  who  had  accompanied  us  on  this  voyage  in  the  capacity  of  an  astron- 
omer, set  up  his  quadrant. 

Soon  afttr  four  o'clock  we  observed  that  die  earth  began  to  tremble  in  three  different 
places,  as  likewise  the  top  of  a  mountain,  which  was  about  three  hundred  fathoms  dis- 
tant from  the  mouth  of  the  spring.  We  also  frequently  heard  a  subterraneous  noise  like 
the  dischai^e  of  a  cannon ;  and  immediately  after  a  column  of  water  spouted  from  the 
opening,  which  at  a  great  height  divided  itself  into  several  rays,  and  .according  to  the  ob- 
servations made  with  the  quadrant  wa&  ninety -two  feet  high.  Our  great  surprise  at  this 
uncommon  force  of  the  air  and  fire  was  yet  increased,  when  many  stones,  which  we  had 
thrown  into  the  aperture,  were  thrown  up  with  the  spoudng  water.  You  can  easily 
conceive,  sir,  with  how  much  pleasure  we  spent  the  day  here  ;  and  indeed  I  am  not 
much  surprised  tliat  a  peopb  b>o  much  inclined  to  superstition  as  the  Icelanders  are 
imagine  this  to  be  the  entrance  of  hell ;  for  thb  reason  they  seldom  pass  one  of  these 
openings  without  spitting  into  it ;  and,  as  they  say,  uti  fandens  mun,  into  the  devil's 
mouth. 

But  I  think  it  is  time  to  finish  my  long  letter,  and  I  will  only  try  your  patience  with  one 
thing  more,  which  likewise  deserves  ^o  be  better  known.  Natural  historians  have  always 
observed  those  large  remarkable  |;)iliai^,  which  the  hand  of  nature  has  prepared  in  Ice- 
land, and  in  some  other  places,  with  the  greatest  attention.  The  Giant's  Causeway  has, 
till  now,  been  considered  as  the  largest  and  most  regular  assemblage  of  these  columns ; 
but  we  have  discovered  one  on  our  expedition  through  the  western  islands  of  Scotlani^ 
which  infinitely  surpasses  it.  The  whole  island  of  Stafia*  c(Mi8ists  almost  entirely  of  these 
pillars,  which  are  as  regular  as  can  be  imagined ;  they  seem  to  be  of  the  same  substance 
i\s  the  Irish  ones,  and  have  from  three  to  seven  sides ;  each  pillar  is  surrounded  by 
others,  that  join  so  closely  to  it  as  to  liave  a  very  small  space  between  them,  which  is 
frequently  filled  up  with  a  crystalized  incrustation.  In  most  places  the  pillars  are 
perpendicular;  in  others  they  lu  u  j  \itiUt  inclined ;  and  yet  in  others  they  have  the  con- 
figuration of  the  timber- work  iv  ihe  umtde  of  a  ship.  The  highest  pillar  was  fifly-five 
feet  one  inch  long,  and  each  joint  irom  one  to  two  feet.  There  is  a  cavern  here  which 
conbists  entirely  of  these  pillars ;  it  is  367  feet  long,  53,7  broad,  and  117,6  high.  There 
are  three  fathoms  of  water  in  it,  so  that  is  easy  to  enter  into  it  with  a  boat. 

It  is  diificult  to  determine  the  question,  how  these  pillars  have  been  formed ;  but  it  is 
more  than  probable,  nay  almost  certain,  that  they  are  the  remains  of  an  ancient  volcano, 
many  indisputable  tracts  of  which  are  found  in  many  parts  of  Scotland.  You  must  not 
in  this  place  apply  to  me  the  story  Helvetius  ielb  of  a  clergyman  and  a  fine  lady,  who 
together  observed  the  spots  in  the  moon,  which  the  fi}nner  took  for  church  steeples,  and 
the  latter  for  a  pair  of  happy  lovers.  I  know  that  we  frequently  imagine  to  have  really 
found  what  we  most  think  of,  or  most  wish  for  ;  but  I  ancerely  assure  you,  that  I  de 

*  See  the  account  of  StafTa,  by  Joseph  Banks,  eiq.  inserted  in  i^cnnant's  Tour  in  Scotlr.nd,  and  Vojrage 
to  the  Hebrid'js,  1772,  pag;e  399, 309,  and  the  fine  representations  of  these  basalts,  executed  after  the 
accurate  drawings  executed  by  Mr.  John  Frederick  Miller,  employed  by  Mr.  Banks,  and  communicat- 
ed by  the  last  mentioned  gentleman,  for  the  adorning  of  Mr.  Pennant's  Scots  Tour.  .,        >      - 


T 


^BH 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTEKS  ON  ICELAND. 


633 


not  speak  of  such  fires  without  the  most  decisive  opinions.  I  will,  however,  reserve  a 
further  account  of  these  extraordinary  productions  till  my  return  home,  when  I  flatter 
myself  I  shall  be  able  tc  give  you  entire  satisfaction. 


LETTER  II....TO  THE  ROYAL  LIBRARIAN  MR.  GJORWELL. 
OF  ICELAND  IN  GENERAL. 

SIR,  Utrecht,  Jan.  22,  1773. 

You  are,  no  doubt,  informed  of  the  voyage  Mr.  Banks  and  Dr.  Sniander  undertook 
last  summer  to  Icelanr't  w  well  as  my  having  accompanied  these  gentlemen  on  that  ex- 
pedition. I  need  not  ttk-  you  what  reasons  determined  me  to  become  one  of  their  com- 
pany. You  can  easily  conceive  how  many  different  circumstances  might  have  per- 
suaded a  curious  Swede  to  visit  a  country  remarkable  in  so  many  respects.  I  am  per- 
fectly satisfied  with  my  voyage,  and  can  easily  convince  you  of  it,  by  communicating  to 
you  some  hide  account  of  what  principally  attracted  our  attention  during  its  course. 

We  set  sail  from  London  on  the  twelfth  of  July  last  in  a  ship,  for  which  one  hundied 
pounds  sterling  were  paid  every  month.  Besides  Mr.  Banks,  Dr.  Solander,  and  my- 
self, we  had  on  board  an  astronomer,*  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy  (a  very  worthy  man, 
his  name  is  Gore,  and  deserves  to  be  mentioned,  as  he  is,  as  far  as  we  know,  the  first 
who  has  sailed  three  ti:Ties  round  the  world)t  together  with  a  lieutenant,  three  draughts- 
men, and  two  writers,  who,  with  the  seamen  and  servants,  made  about  forty  people. 

We  first  landed  on  the  Isle  of  Wight,  which  is  a  little  paradise,  where  we  spent  two 
days.  Nature  seems  to  have  spared  none  of  her  favours  in  embellishing  it ;  and  I  know 
no  place  in  it  which  does  not  present  a  pleasing  view  to  the  observer.  The  inhabitants 
resemble  their  island;  they  live  in  alitde  community  amon^  themselves;  they  are  not 
very  rich,  neither  have  they  any  beggars.  They  are  generally  cheerful,  cleanly,  and  oblig- 
ing ;  and  there  are  but  few  instances  among  them  of  any  one  marrying  a  person  who  did 
not  at  that  time  re  vide  or  afterwards  setde  on  the  island. 

Prom  thence  we  sailed  to  Plymouth,  where  we  saw  the  docks,  magazines,  and  every 
thing  belonging  to  them,  worthy  of  notice,  and  then  proceeded  towards  St.  George's 
Channel. 

We  had  intended  to  land  on  the  Isle  of  Man,  as  it  is  one  of  the  few  places  where  the 
Runic  characters  have  been  brought  by  the  Danes,  and  the  only  one,  except  the  north, 
where  some  of  our  old  Runic  stones  are  found ;  but  at  sea  we- cannot  always  act  accord- 
ing to  our  pleasure  :  the  wind  obliged  us  to  leave  the  Isle  of  Man  on  our  right,  and  to 
continue  our  course  to  the  western  islands  of  Scodand. 

It  is  exceedingly  pleasant  to  sail  among  these  islands,  though  not  very  safe,  without  a 
good  wind  and  expert  pilots  :  for  in  the  first  case  you  must  depend  upon  the  ebb  and 
flood ;  and  in  the  second  you  are  in  continual  danger,  on  account  of  the  great  number  of 
rocks. 

The  nature  of  the  country  is  such,  that  I  do  not  wonder  at  its  having  given  birth 
to  aFingal,  and  an  Ossian.     It  is  not  the  only  place  where  we  have  seen  heroes  pro- 


*  Dr.  James  Lind,  of  Edinburgh, irho  is  well  known  by  many  memoirs  inserted  in  the  Philosophical 
Transactions,  and  other  ingenious  publications. 

t  Captain  Dampiei  did  it  along  time  Itefore  .Mr. Gore,  viz.  Cowley  and  Dampier,  1683,  1681 ;  Dattt- 
pier  and  Funnel,  1689,  1691;  Woodes,  Rogers,  and  Dampier,  1708,  1711.  if  lieutenant  Gore  and  cap- 
tain Charles  ''lark  return  safe  home  from  the  voyage  they  are  now  engaged  >>)>  they  both  will  have 
sailed  four  times  round  the  world. 

VOL.    I.  4  M 


634 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


•J 

I 


duced  among  the  mounUiins ;  and  what  can  be  more  calculated  to  form  a  poet,  than 
wild  romantic  and  enchanting  scenes  of  nature,  which  are  here  so  pleasingly  blended. 

It  would  he  tedious  to  enumerate  all  the  isles  we  have  visited.  The  most  remarkable 
are  Oran^y  and  Columskill,  on  account  of  their  antiquities ;  Scarba,  for  its  known 
water  drain  (Vatta-drag)  and  Staffli,  on  account  of  its  natural  pillars,  which  hitherto 
have  bt-cn  little  known,  and  surpa  ,s  whatever  has  been  observed  lx;fore  of  the  kind. 

You  know,  sir,  that  the  inhabitants  of  these  isles,  as  well  as  in  the  Highlands  of 
Scotland,  have  u  language  of  their  own,  which  they  call  Erse,  and  which  is  a  remiiant 
of  the  Celtic.  In  thii>  language  Ossian  wrote  his  admirable  poems ;  and  though  the  in- 
habitants cannot  at  present  produce  any  thing  comparable  to  them,  yet  I  hope,  on  my 
return  home,  to  give  you  proofs  of  their  being  able  to  write  both  with  elegance  and 
sentimental  feelings.  As  it  is  very  extraordinary  that  this  language  should  have  pre- 
served itself  iiere  so  long,*  it  will  perhaps  not  be  disagreeable  to  you  to  be  more  parti- 
cularly acquainted  of  the  limits  within  which  it  is  confined.  I  will  readily  sketch  them 
out  to  you,  being  able  to  do  it  with  so  much  the  more  certainty,  having  received  my  in- 
formation fiom  Mr.  Macpherson,  the  only  min  in  England  who  has  particularly  studied 
this  language. 

It  begins  to  be  spoken  on  the  eastern  side  at  Nairn,  and  extends  from  thence  through 
the  whole  country,  and  all  the  western  isles.  In  the  north  its  limits  are  at  Caithness, 
where  'j^rse  is  only  spoken  in  four  parishes  out  of  ten ;  in  the  other  six,  better  English 
is  spoken  than  in  any  other  part  of  Scotland.  There  is  in  Ireland  another  dialect  of  it, 
as  well  as  in  Wales  and  Britany  ;  however,  they  are  not  so  different,  but  a  man  born  in 
either  of  these  provinces,  may  make  himself  understood  in  the  others.  Had  I  been  ac- 
quainted with  the  language  of  the  Dalecarlians,  I  should  have  had  an  opportunity  of  exa- 
mining how  far  that  similarity  is  founded,  which,  as  it  appeared  to  my  ear,  subsists  be- 
tween these  two  languages. 

The  country  abounds  with  northern  antiquities,  such  as  castles,  strong-holds,  bury, 
ing  places,  and  monuments,  (Bautasteinar) ;  and  the  people,  who  are  obliging  and  ex- 
tremely hospitable,  have  a  number  of  customs  resembling  those  observed  by  our  coun- 
try.people,  such  as  the  celebration  of  the  first  of  May,t  and  many  others. 

We  novv  'eft  these  islands,  and  continuing  our  voyage  arrived  at  last,  on  the  twenty- 
eighth  of  August,  at  Iceland,  where  we  cast  anchor  at  Bessestedr,  formerly  the  dwelling- 

*  The  very  liule  connection  wliich  the  ancient  inhabitants  oi  the  Scots  Highlands  and  of  the  Hebrid'js 
harJ  with  other  nations  (especially  before  the  Union,  which  has  in  every  respect  been  l)eneficial  tothrm) 
is  the  true  cause  that  the  Erse  language  has  so  long  been  preserved  amonij  them.  Besides  these  reasons, 
there  is  another,  which  accounts  almost  tor  them  all  ;the  poverty  of  the  soil  and  inclemency  of  climate 
admit  of  very  little  cultivation,  so  that  these  parts  have  very  few  natural  productions  which  might  tempt 
foreigners  to  visit  them :  some  few  gifts  of  nature  are,  no  doubt,  lodged  in  the  Ijosom  of  the  Scots  rillh  ; 
but  hitherto  indolence  and  want  of  industr)  in  the  naUves  have  neglected  these  riches:  v/ithiw  .;  uw 
years  only  it  is  that  commerce  has  begun  to  raise  its  head,  which  alone  induces  other  nations  to  frequent 
this  or  any  country.  It  is  therefore  not  so  very  extraordinary,  that  in  a  mountainous  country  the  remains 
of  ancient  nations  should  be  found,  who  long  preserve  their  language.  In  the  Caucasus  are  still  exist- 
ing the  posterity  of  several  nations,  who  crossed  these  mountains  in  their  attempt  to  conquer  Asia  and 
Kurope,  and  within  a  small  compass  more  than  five  or  six  different  languages  are  spoken. 

t  It  is  called  in  Sweden  war  Fruday  ;  le  jour  de  notre  JOamt;  our  Lady's  Day.  The  witches  are  sup- 
posed  to  take,  in  the  night  preceding  that  day,  their  flight  to  BlakuUa,  a  famous  mountain  ;  but  it  was 
formeily  believed  in  Germany,  that  the  witches  travelled  to  the  Bloxberg,  or  Brocken,  a  high  moun- 
tain contiguous  to  the  Hartz  forest.  In  Sweden  the  spring  comes  on  about  this  time,  and  of  consequence 
the  hard  labour  of  ploughing,  mowing,  and  reaping,  follow  one  another  from  thai  time,  and  require  the 
beat  extition  of  the  strength  of  the  husbandmen,  to  which  they  prepare  themselves  on  this  day  by  fre- 
quent libations  of  their  strong  ale,  and  they  usually  say,  Masle  man  dricka  marg  i  benen;  Vou  must- 
drink  marrow  in  your  bones. 


-Tiwa<n.  -rwA-iJ;.  -" 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTEHS  ON  ICELAND. 


635 


place  of  the  famous  Sturleson.  We  seemed  here  to  be  in  another  world;  instead  of  the 
fine  prosfKCts  with  which  we  had  fed  our  eyes,  we  now  only  saw  the  horrid  remains  of 
many  devastations.  Imagine  to  yourself  a  country,  which  from  one  end  to  the  other 
presents  to  your  view  only  barren  mountains,  whose  summits  are  covered  with  eternal 
snow,  and  between  them  fields  divided  by  vitrified  clifts,  whose  high  and  sharp  points 
seem  to  vie  with  each  other,  to  deprive  you  of  the  sight  of  a  little  grass,  which  scantily 
springs  up  among  them.  The  Siime  dreary  rocks  likewise  conceal  the  few  scattered 
habitations  of  the  natives ;  and  no  where  a  single  tree  appears,  which  might  afford  shelter 
to  friendship  and  innocence.  I  sup|X)se,  sir,  this  will  not  inspire  you  with  any  great  in- 
clination of  becoming  an  inhabitant  of  Iceland ;  and  indeed  at  first  sight  of  such  a 
country  one  is  tempted  to  believe  that  it  is  impossible  it  should  be  inhabited  by  any  hu- 
man creature,  if  one  did  not  see  the  sea,  near  the  shores,  everywhere  covered  with 
boats. 

Though  there  is  scarcely  any  country  so  little  favoured  by  nature,  and  where  she  ap- 
pears  throughout  in  so  dreadful  a  form,  yet  Iceland  contains  about  sixty  thousand  people, 
who  cannot  properly  be  called  unhappv,  though  they  are  unacquainted  with  wli  it  in 
other  places  constitutes  happiness.  1  spent  there  above  six  weeks  with  the  greatest  plea- 
sure, partly  in  studying  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  situations  of  nature,  and  partly  in 
collecting  information  from  the  natives,  concerning  their  language,  manners,  &c.  &c. 
As  to  the  former,  I  have  treated  cf  it  in  a  letter  to  professor  Bergman,  which  I  doubt 
not  he  will  communicate  to  you  with  pleasure,  if  you  desire  it.  Of  the  latter  I  will  here 
mention  some  particulars. 

You  know,  sir,  that  Iceland  first  began  to  be  cultivated  in  the  eleventh  century  by  a 
Norwegian  colony,  among  which  were  many  Swedes.  They  remained  perfectly  free 
in  this  corner  of  the  world  for  a  long  time;  but  were,  however,  at  last  obliged  to  sub- 
mit to  the  Norwegian  kings,  and  afterwards  became  subject,  together  with  Norway,  to 
the  kings  of  Denmark.  They  were  at  first  governed  by  an  admiral,  who  was  sent 
thither  every  year  to  make  the  necessary  regulations ;  but  that  mode  has  been  changed 
many  years,  and  a  governor*  appointed,  who  constantly  resides  in  the  country.  This 
post  is,  at  present,  occupied  by  Mr.  Larr  Thodal,  who  has  formerly  been  Danish 
plenipotentiary  in  the  commission  for  settling  the  limits  between  Sweden  and  Norway, 
and  has  spent  several  years  at  Stockholm. 

The  Icelanders  are  of  a  good  honest  disposition;  but  they  are,  at  the  same  time,  so 
serious  and  sullen,  that  I  hardly  remember  to  have  seen  any  one  of  them  laugh  :  they  are 
by  no  means  so  strong  as  might  be  supposed,  and  much  less  handsome.  Their  chief 
amusement,  in  their  leisure  hours,  is  to  recount  to  one  another  the  history  of  former 
times ;  so  thai  to  this  day  you  do  not  meet  with  an  Icelander  who  is  not  well  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  his  own  country  :  they  also  play  at  cards. 

Their  houses  are  built  of  lava,  thatched  with  turf,  and  so  small,  that  you  find  hardly 
room  to  turn  yourself  in  them.  They  have  no  floors ;  and  their  windows,  instead  cf 
glass,  are  composed  of  thin  membranes  of  certain  animals.  They  make  no  use  of  chiinnies, 
as  tney  never  light  a  fire,  except  to  dress  their  victuals,  when  they  only  lay  the  turf  on 
the  ground.  You  will  not  therefore  think  it  strange,  when  I  inform  you  that  we  saw  no 
houses,  except  shops  and  warehouses ;  and  on  our  journey  to  Heckla  we  were  obliged 
to  take  up  our  lodgings  in  the  churches. 

Their  food  principally  consists  of  dried  fish,  sour  butter,  which  they  consider  as  a 
great  dainty,  milk  mixed  with  water  and  whey,   and  a  little  meat.     They  receive  so 


I 


iV 


Stiftsamtmann. 
4  M  2 


636 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  OV  ICELAND 


little  bread  from  the  Danish  company,  that  there  is  hardly  any  peasant  who  eats  it  above 
three  or  four  months  in  the  year.  They  likewise  boil  groats,  of  a  kind  of  moss  (Lichen 
Isl'indicus)  which  has  an  agreeable  taste.  The  principal  occupation  of  the  men  is  fish- 
ing, which  they  follow  both  winter  and  summer.  The  women  take  care  of  the  cattle, 
knit  stockings,  &c.  They  likewise  dress,  gut,  and  dry  the  fishes  brought  home  by  the 
men,  and  otherwise  assist  in  preparing  this  staple  commodity  of  the  country. 

Besides  this,  the  company,  who  yearly  send  fifteen  or  twenty  ships  hither,  and  who 
IKJSsess  a  monopoly  which  is  very  burthensome  to  the  country,  export  from  hence  some 
meat,  eider-down,  and  some  falcons,  which  are  sold  in  the  country  for  seven,  ten,  and 
fifteen  rix-dollars  a-piece.  Money  is  very  rare,  which  is  the  reason  that  all  the  trade  is 
carried  on  by  fishes  and  ells  of  coarse  unshorn  cloth,  called  here  Wadmal ;  one  ell  of 
wadmal  is  worth  two  fishes ;  and  forty-eight  fisiies  are  worth  a  rix-doUar  in  specie.  With 
gold  they  were  better  acquainted  at  our  departure,  than  on  our  arrival. 

They  are  well  provided  with  cattle,  which  are  generally  without  boms :  they  have 
likewise  sheep,  and  very  good  horses  :  both  the  last  are  the  whole  winter  in  the  fields : 
dogs  and  cats  they  have  in  abundance.  Of  wild  and  undomesticated  animals  they  have 
only  rats  and  foxes,  and  some  bears,*  which  come  every  year  from  Greenland  with  the 
floating  ice  :  these,  however,  are  killed  as  soon  as  they  appear,  partly  on  account  of  the 
reward  of  ten  dollars,  which  the  king  pays  for  every  bear,  and  partly  to  prevent  them 
iVom  destroying  their  cattle.  The  present  governor  has  introduced  rein-deer  into  the 
island  ;  but  out  of  thirteen,  ten  died  on  their  passage,  the  other  three  are  alive  with  their 

It  IS  extraordinary  that  no  wood  grows  successfully  in  Iceland ;  nay,  there  is  scarcely 
a  single  tree  to  be  found  on  the  whole  island,  though  there  are  certain  proofs  of  wood 
having  formerly  grown  there  in  great  abundance.  Com  cannot  be  cultivated  here  to 
any  advantage ;  though  I  have  met  with  cabbages,  parsley,  turnips,  peas,  &c.  Sec.  in 
five  or  six  gardens,  which  were  the  only  ones  in  the  whole  island. 

1  must  now  beg  leave  to  add  a  few  words  about  the  Icelandic  literature.  Four  or 
five  centuries  ago  the  Icelanders  were  celebrated  on  account  of  their  poetry  and  know, 
ledge  in  histor;'.  I  could  name  many  of  their  poets,  who  celebrated  in  songs  the  war- 
like deeds  of  the  northern  kings;  and  the  famous  Snqrre  Sturleson  is  the  man,  to 
whom  even  the  Swedes  are  indebted  for  the  first  illustration  of  their  history.  We,  for 
this  reason,  set  so  high  a  value  upon  the  ancient  Icelandic  records  and  writings,  that 
they  have  almost  all  been  drawn  out  of  the  country :  so  exceedingly  scarce  they  are 
become,  that,  notwithstanding  the  pains  I  took  during  the  whole  time  of  my  stay  there, 
I  got  a  sight  of  only  four  or  five  Icelandic  manuscripts.  In  the  inland  partk  of  the 
country,  our  old  language  has  been  preserved  almost  quite  pure ;  but  on  the  coasts, 
where  tlie  natives  have  an  intercourse  with  the  Danish  merchants,  it  has  been  some- 
what altered.  Some  speak  the  Danish  language  veiy  well ;  but  those  who  did  not,  could 
sooner  make  themselves  intelligible  to  us  Swedes,  than  to  the  Danes.  W  c  likewise  found 
three  or  four  Runic  inscriptions,  but  they  were  all  modern,  and  consequently  of  no 
value.  I  have  said  before  that  the  Icelanders  took  pleasure  in  listening  to  their  old 
traditional  sayings  and  stories ;  and  this  is  almost  the  only  thing  that  remains  among 
them  of  the  spirit  of  their  ancestors ;  for  they  have  at  present  but  few  poets ;  and 
their  clergy  know  little  besides  some  Latin,  which  they  pick  up  in  the  schools  established 
in  the  episcopal  sees  at  Skalholt  and  Hoolum.     Some  of  them,  however,  have  studied 

*  The  bears  here  mentioned  are  the  white  polar  or  arctic  carnivorous  bears,  absolutely  forming  a  spe- 
cies widely  distinct  from  our  brown  and  black  bears ;  though  the  celebrated  Linnxus  only  suspected  them 
V  )>ea  new  ipuciei,  nut  having  Heen  and  examineu  any  of  these  animals. 


•Tjy.T- 


■  MIIM.IM  — ■ 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTEnS  OS  ICELAND. 


637 


at  the  university  of  Copenhagen ;  and  I  became  acquainted  with  three  men  of  great 
learning  among  them,  who  were  particularly  well  versed  in  the  northern  antiquities. 
One  ofthemis  the  bishop  of  Skalholt,  Finnur  Jonson,  who  is  compiling  an  ecclesiastical 
history  of  Iceland  ;  tlie  two  others  are  the  provost  Gunnur  Paulson,  and  Halfdun  Ginar- 
son,  rector  at  Hoolum. 

That  there  is  a  printing-office  in  Iceland  cannot  Ije  unknown,  as  wc  are  acquainted 
with  the  rare  editions  of  Olof  Tryggwassons,  Landnama,  Greenland,  and  Christendoms 
Sagas,  or  Traditions,  printed  at  Skalholt ;  but  I  did  not  expect  to  find  the  art  of  print- 
ing 80  ancient  here  as  it  was  represented  to  be.  A  Swede,  whose  name  was  John  Ma- 
thieson,  brought  hither  the  first  printing-press,  between  the  years  1520  and  1530;  and 
published  in  the  year  1531  the  Breviarium  Nidarosiense.  I  have  collected  as  many  Ice- 
landic books  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover ;  among  the  rarest  is  the  Icehuidic  bible, 
printed  in  folio  at  Hoolum  in  the  year  1584.  I  hope,  likewise,  that  fifteen  (till  now  un- 
known) traditional  histories,  or  sagas,  will  be  no  unwelcome  acquisition. 

You  may  judge,  sir,  how  agreeably  I  spent  my  time  here  in  these  occupations,  which 
I  applied  to  with  so  much  the  more  pleasure,  as  they  all  related  to  objects  entirely 
new :  added  to  which,  1  was  in  society  with  Mr.  Banks  and  Dr.  Solander,  the  latter 
of  whom  is  a  most  worthy  disciple  of  our  Linnaeus,  and  unites  a  lively  temper  to  the 
most  exceUent  heart ;  and  the  former  is  a  young  gentleman  of  an  unbounded  thirst  after 
knowledge,  resolute  and  indefatigable  in  all  his  pursuits,  frank,  fond  of  social  conversa- 
tion, and  at  th<  same  time  a  friend  of  the  fine  arts  and  literature :  in  such  company  you 
will  confess  it  was.  impossible  I  should  have  the  least  reason  for  regretting  the  time  spent 
in  this  vo\\»ge. 

I  liad  almosi  flattered  myself  with  the  hopes  of  seeing  Mr.  Banks  and  Dr.  Solander 
in  Sweden  ;  but  I  learn  that  they  will  be  detained  in  England  for  some  time.  I  much 
fear  Dr.  Solander  will  be  for  ever  lost  to  his  native  country,  as  well  on  account  of  the 
universal  esteem  in  which  he  is  held  in  England,  as  of  his  being  preferred  to  a  more  be< 
neficial  place  at  the  British  Museum  than  that  which  he  formerly  possessed. 

Their  voyage  to  the  South  Seas  will  probably  make  its  appearance  in  April  or  May 
next.  They  have  already  l)egun  to  engrave  the  collections  of  animals  and  plants  they 
have  made  on  their  voyage,  which  will  employ  them  several  years,  as  they  must  consist, 
I  should  apprehend,  of  near  two  thousand  plates. 

It  would  be  writing  a  natural  history,  were  I  to  attempt  to  give  a  proper  description  of 
these  aomitabie  collections.  They  have  atone  above  three  thousand  fishes  and  other  ani- 
mals  preserved  in  spirits,  most  of  which  are  new.  Linnaeus  might  find  among  their  plants, 
of  wiuch  they  have  several  sets  (one  of  which,  I  flatter  myself,  will  find  its  way  into 
Sweden)  subjects  for  a  new  mantissa. 

I  propose,  when  I  have  seen  Holland,  to  make  a  litle  excursion  to  Germany,  to  see  Mr. 
Micnaclis,  and  soon  afterwards  return  to  my  native  country,  where  I  shall  have  the  ho- 
nour of  assuring  you  personally  of  the  affectionate  regard,  Sec.  &c. 


I 


LETTER  III....TO  CHEVALIER  HIRE. 
ON  THE  PHYSICAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 


SIRj 


Stockholm,  June  20, 1773. 


Thkrb  Is  no  duty  more  agreeable  to  me,  than  that  of  obeying  your  commands, 
in  transmitting  to  you  some  account  of  Iceland,  its  antiquities,  and  what  else  relates 
to  it.    As  I  Mve  happily  had  an  occasion  of  seeing  the  country  myself,  it  may  with 


II 


I 


638 


^'ON  TBOIL'S  LETTEllS  ON  ICKLANU. 


justice  be  required  of  me,  that  I  «'»ould  willingly  communicate  to  others  the  informa- 
tions I  have  been  able  to  procure ;  and  it  would  give  me  peculiar  pltasun-,  if  they  tiuibkd 
mc  satisfiictorily  to  answer  those  questions  which  you  kindly  pro|)osed  lo  me. 

Iceland  is  justly  reckoned  amongst  the  largest  islands  in  the  known  world.  It  is  six- 
ty miles  in  length,  and  its  breadth  exceeds  forty  Swedish  miles.* 

The  most  useful  among  many  maps  of  this  country  is  that  which  has  been  made  !)y 
Messrs.  Erickssen  and  Schoonning  la  the  year  1771,  tliough  it  might  be  further  im- 
proved. 

Bi'ssestedr,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  island,  not  far  from  Hafiiefioixi,  lies,  according 
to  Horrebow's  account  of  Icelai^d,  in  64  degrees  6  minutes  of  north  latitude,  and  in  41 
degites  of  longiiude,  from  the  meridian  of  Slockholm  ;  so  tliat  it  is  almost  in  the  lati- 
tude ol  Hernosand.f 

The  country  does  not  afford  a  pleasing  prospect  to  the  eye  of  'he  traveller,  though  it 
presents  him  with  objects  worthy  of  attention  in  numy  respects  :  for  besides  innumcral)le 
ridges  of  mountains  that  cross  it  in  several  directions,  and  ^ome  of  which,  on  account  of 
their  height,  are  covtied  with  continual  ice  and  snow,  you  only  see  barren  fields  between 
them,  entirely  dtstiuite  of  wood,  and  covered  with  lava  for  the  space  of  many  miles. 
This  is  certainly  as  incapable  of  giving  the  eye  pleasure,  as  it  is  unlit  for  any  other  use. 
On  the  other  side,  however,  it  causes  the  greatest  surprise  in  the  attentive  spectator,  to 
see  so  many  speaking  proofs  of  the  dreadful  eflects  of  volcanoes. 

Though  the  coasts  are  better  inhabited,  the  inland  parts  of  the  country  do  not  lie  waste 
and  neglected;  and  one  finds  everywhere,  sometimes  glose  together,  and  sometimes  at 
greater  distances,  farms  with  some  land  belonging  to  them,  which  gtiierally  consists  of 
meadow-land,  and  sometimes  of  hills  thick  spread  with  low  shrubs  and  bushes,  and 
which  they  honour  with  the  appellation  of  Woods. 

In  the  whole  island  there  are  no  towns,  nor  even  villages ;  nothing  but  single  farms 
are  to  be  seen,  some  of  which,  however,  consist  of  several  dwelling-houses,  destined  for 
the  owner  of  the  farm  and  his  tenants  (hii  leygumann)  who  procure  from  the  proprietor 
a  house  and  pasture  for  as  many  cows,  horses,  atid  sheep,  as  they  choose  to  agree  for. 
On  the  estates  of  some  peasants  who  are  better  circumstanced,  there  are  even  sometimes 
dwellings  for  labourers  (huusman)  who  work  for  daily  hire.  All  these  farms  belong 
either  to  the  king,  the  church,  or  the  peasants  themselves,  f  I  will  mark  the  price  of 
two  of  these  farms,  which  were  sold  a  litUe  before  our  arrival,  that  you  may  judge  of 
their  value.  The  one  farm,  whereon  ten  cows,  ten  horses,  and  four  hundred  sheep, 
might  be  kept,  was  sold  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  rix-dollars  ;  and  the  other,  which 
had  sufficient  pasture  for  twelve  cows,  eighteen  heads  of  young  cattle,  above  a  year  old, 
that  had  not  yet  calved  (ungnot)  eight  oxen,  fourteen  horses,  and  three  hundred  sheep, 
for  one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars. 

In  some  few  places  they  have  small  fenced  spots  near  their  houses,  in  which  they  cul- 
tivate cabbage,  parsley,  spinach,  turnips,  patientia,  potatoes,  and  some  other  roots  and 
vegetables,  together  with  flax  and  hemp.  Fruit  trees  are  looked  for  in  vain,  which  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at,  since  storms  and  hurricanes  are  here  very  frequent.  These  have 
given  rise  to  the  name  of  (Wedrakista)  Storm-coast,  which  has  been  given  to  some 
places  in  Iceland. 

•  AI)out  360  British  sea  miles  in  length,  and  about  240  in  breadth,    t  A  town  in  Sweden. 
,  \  In  order  to  shew  at  once  in  what  proportion  the  farms  are  distributed  between  the  king,  the  church, 
and  the  Tarmers,!  will  here  annex  an  abstract,  taken  from  the  Icelandic  Villarium,  or  Land-book  of  the  year 
16'Jjj  which  cam«  into  my  poskession. 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND' 


639 


ABSTRACT  FROM  THE  ICELANDIC  LAND-BOOK  OF  1695. 


Of  lhe«<  (htnti 
In  rii''h  lyiKl  be- 
low- 


To  thi'  kiiifl. 


To  Ihr  hiihopS 
K«  of  Slulhnll. 


To  Ihe  bi«hn|i'i 

ul'ltooliini. 


Cbiinh  xli'br. 


Oli'hp  orc'h'i'K) . 


Ok'hi'  ol   »ii|HT- 
Uiiiiiau'tl  clcro- 


For  maiiiuiining 
thu  (Mor. 


For  miiuitauunc 
hoipiub. 


To  fkrniL'n. 


I'otal  aunt. 


T 


10       23 


37 


4 


2 


4      a 


1      1 


.in   ii«     5tf 


e>   i*4   iw 


\ 


la    14 


13,   I4U 


6lll  180 


lA,     (\4      M 


4      10 


1311 




lAl:     AA 

U9\  121 


3» 


4A 


145 


40 


IU« 


133 


II      *S 


4U! 


I 


55      81 

14      3.1 


13 

2        5 


134    187 
30«.  357 


tl      33 


153 

3A8 


01 
347 


n 


9 

8, 

8  8, 


W 


718 
.104 

145 

A40 
140 


41 

10 

184 

47 
404B 


They  have  likewise  prevented  the  growth  of  fir-trees,  and  Norway  pitch-firs,* 
which  governor  Thodal  had  planted  here,  whose  tof^s  seemed  to  wither  as  soon  as 
they  were  about  two  feet  high,  when  they  then  ceased  growing. 

That  wood  has  formerly  grown  in  Iceland  can  be  proved  from  the  Sagas,  or  tradi- 
tion stories  of  Landnama,  Kialnciiinga,  Svafdala,  and  Egill  Skallagrimsonare.  It  is 
likewise  proved  by  pieces  which  are  frequently  dug  up  in  marshes  and  fens,  where 
not  a  single  bush  is  to  be  seen  at  present.  The  substance,  called  by  the  natives 
suturbrand,  is  likewise  a  clear  proof  of  it. 

This  suturbrand  is  evidently  wood,  not  quite  petrified,  but  indurated,  which  drops 
asunder  as  soon  as  it  comes  into  the  air,  but  keeps  well  in  water,  and  never  rots  :  it 
gives  a  bright  though  weak  flame,  and  a  great  deal  of  heat,  and  yields  a  sourish 
though  not  unwiiolesome  smell.  The  smith's  prefer  it  to  sea-coal,  because  it  does 
not  so  soon  waste  the  iron.  The  Icelanders  make  a  powder  of  it,  which  they  make 
use  of  to  preserve  their  clothes  from  moths ;  they  likewise  apply  it  externally  against 
the  cholick.  I  have  seen  tea-cups,  plates,  &c.  in  Copenhagen  made  of  suturbrand, 
which  takes  a  fine  polish.  It  is  found  in  many  parts  of  Iceland,  generally  in  the  moun- 
tains in  horizontal  beds ;  sometimes  more  than  one  is  to  be  met  with,  asinthemoun- 
tain  of  Lack  in  Baicli strand,  where  four  strata  of  suturbrand  are  found  alternately 
with  different  kinds  of  stone. 

I  have  brought  a  large  piece  of  it  with  me  to  Sweden,  in  which  there  are  evident 
marks  of  branches,  the  circles  of  the  annual  growth  of  the  wood,  leaves  and  bark,  in 
the  surrounding  clay  ;  and  there  is  some  reason  to  believe,  that  these  trees  have  been 
mixed  in  the  thrown-up  lava  in  some  eruption  of  fire,  or  an  earthquake. 

I  am  almost  inclined  to  believe  that  some  streams  of  lava,  which  at  the  depth  of 
fifteen  feet,  according  to  observations  that  have  been  made,  can  advance  twelve  thou- 


*  Pinus  picea,  Linn,  and  pinus  abies,  Linn. 


640 


VON  TROU/S  LfcTTfcRS  OS  ICBLANU. 


sand  Swedish  ells,  of  two  feet  each,  in  eight  hour?*,  by  a  declivity  of  forty  five  de- 
grees, have  nwcpt  awav  these  trees,  which  beem  to  have  been  of  a  coniiiilciabli  size, 
and  buried  them  ;  and  this  is  so  much  the  more  probablf,  as  the  sutu.  brand  fre* 
quently  has  the  appearance  of  coal.  But  as  I  do  not  know  whether  this  opinion  has 
ever  been  u  "  d  before,  and  having  had  no  opportiniity  of  making  sumcient  ob. 
servations  U|  conjecture,  and  as  there  is  even  some  reason  to  suppose  that  a 

tree  would  in  .jlent  a  fire  directly  be  consumed  to  ushes,  thimgh  the  contrary  may 

also  be  possible,  when  it  is  in  the  same  instant  overturned,  covered,  and  in  a  moment 
smothered  ;  yet  I  will  not  even  venture  to  offer  this  opinion  as  u  probable  conception. 

There  is  still  another  probable  supposition,  The  trees  may  have  been  overturned 
by  an  earthquake,  and  then  covered  beneath  the  hot  ashes  of  a  volcano,  in  the  same 
manner  us  happened  at  Herculaneum,  and  other  places,  where  whole  towns  have 
shared  the  same  fate. 

That  there  have  been  formerly  considerable  woods  in  Iceland  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  ;  nay,  there  are  at  this  time  some  small  spots  covered  with  trees,  as  at  Hal- 
larntbud,  Hunsefeld,  and  Aa,  and  in  several  other  places.  However,  there  are  no  fir 
nor  pine-trees ;  and  the  birch-trees  now  existing  never  exceed  the  height  of  eight  or 
twelve  feet,  and  arc  not  above  three  or  four  incites  thick,  which  is  partly  oivning  to  bad 
management,  partly  by  the  devastations  caused  by  fire  or  hurricanes,  and  the  Green- 
land  floating  ice ;  the  last  is  the  cause  that  at  Stadar  hrauns,  £yry,  and  Kiolfield, 
whole  spots  of  land  are  seen  covered  with  withered  birch-trees.  But  these  being  found 
insufficient  to  supply  the  inhabitants  with  fuel,  they  likewise  make  use  of  tuHF,  fern, 
juniper,  and  black  crow-berry  bushes  (empetrum  nigrum);  in  other  places  they  bum 
the  Dones  of  cattle  killed  for  butchers-  meat,  and  fishes  moistened  with  tram-oil ; 
also  dried  cow-dung  that  has  been  the  whole  winter  in  the  meadow ;  and  last  of  all 
floating  wood.  This  floating  wood  is  obtained  in  great  abundance  every  year,  par- 
ticularly at  Langanas  on  the  N.  E.  coast,  at  Homstrand  on  the  N.  W.  side,  and  every 
where  on  the  northern  coast  of  the  country.*  There  are  several  different  kinds  of 
wood  among  it,  the  greatest  part  is  Norway  pitch  fir  :t  but  besides  this,  one  finds 
common  fir,  Under,  willow,J  cork-wood,  and  two  sorts  of  red-Wood,  w^hich  are 


*  The  immense  quantity  of  wood  floating  down  the  Mississippi,  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  other  rivers  of 
North  America,  are  probably  those  which  are  carried  to  the  northern  regions.  From  the  gulph  of 
Mexico  a  stroni;  current  sets  across  the  Atlantic  in  a  south-west  to  north-east  direction,  or  nearly,  and 
carries  many  tropical  fruits  on  the  coast  of  Norway,  the  Ferois,  and  Iceland  ;  which  remarkable  circum- 
stance has  been  noticed  by  that  curious  observer  and  delineator  of  nature  George  Edwards.  But  the 
wood  coming  down  tne  Missisaippi  is  remarked  b^  Bossu,  in  his  Travels  through  North  America,  vol. 
i.  p.  19.  The  coast  of  Greenland  is  benefitted  by  dnft-wood,  in  the  same  manner  as  Iceland.  SeeCrantz's 
History  of  Greenland,  vol.  i.  p.  37.  The  northern  coast  of  Siberia  is  often  covered  with  wood  in  a  most 
astonishing  manner.  Sec  John  George  Emelen's  Travels  through  Siberia,  vol.  ii.  p.  415.  Nor  is  the 
coast  of- Kamtschatka  destitute  of  floating  wood.  See  J.  F.  Miller's  Collection  of  KusMun  Transac- 
tions vol.  iti.  p  67.  The  greet  rivers  of  Siberia,  such  as  the  Lena,  Kolyma,  Yenisea,  and  others,  carry 
chiefly  in  spring  many  wood  trees  alon^  with  their  waters  into  the  ocean,  where  it  is  often  floating  in 
various  directions,  set  by  winds  and  currents,  and  checked  by  the  immense  m^tsses  of  ice,  till  after  many 
months  and  years  it  is  thrown  up,  and  left  on  the  coast,  for  the  benefit  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  frigid 
regions,  which  are  too  cold  for  the  growth  of  trees.  Iceland  receives  its  drift-wood  by  strong  westerly 
and  north-westerly  gales,  varying  with  southerly  winds,  which  seems  to  confirm  the  opinion,  that  (he 
drift-wood  cumes  from  North  America ;  it  consists  chiefly  of  pinus.  abies,  picea  limbra,  and  iarix,  tilia, 
curopta,  betula  alba,  and  salix  caprea,  and  some  unknown  kinds  of  wood  :  and  according  to  Catesby's  N  a- 
tural  History  of '  iarolina.  great  quantities  of  these  enumerated  woods  are  floating  down  the  rivers  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Carolina ;  and  another  part  seems  to  come  round  the  north  of  I  urupe  from  the  Siberi^j)  rivers, 
t  Pinus  abies,  Linn.  t  Salix  capre&,  Linn. 


'^ 


r'jyiKE^ 


"gil'V 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTERa  ON  ICELAND- 


641 


called  rauda  jgrtnc  and  staiFalejk  in  Iceland,  and  on  account  of  their  colour  und  hardness 
are  employed  in  v;iriouii  kinds  of  neut  work.  It  comes  most  probably  from  the  north- 
ern pails  of  TartarVi  and  partly  from  Virginia  and  Carolina.  As  to  what  relates  to  agri- 
culture, it  may  be  discovered,  by  many  passages  of  the  ancient  Icelandic  accounts,  that 
corn  formerly  grew  in  Iceland.  In  later  times  several  trials  have  been  made  with  it, 
but  they  have  been  attended  with  little  success. 

Governor  Thodal  sowed  a  little  bariey  in  1772,  which  grew  very  briskly  ;  but  a 
short  time  before  it  was  to  be  reaped,  a  violent  storm  so  utterly  destroyed  it,  that  only 
a  few  grains  were  found  scattered  about. 

If  we  consider,  besides  these  strong  winds,  or  rather  hurricanes,  the  frosts  which 
frequently  set  in  during  May  and  June,  we  shall  di  ^cover  n  number  of  diineulties  which 
check  the  rise  and  growth  of  agriculture  in  Iceland.  If,  notwithstanding  these  obsta< 
cles,  it  can  ever  be  brought  to  a  thriving  condition,  it  must  certuinly  be  under  the  pre. 
sent  indefatigable  governor,  who  has  the  welfare  of  the  country  much  at  heart,  and,  in 
conjunction  with  ihe  government,  studies  every  possible  means  to  promote  it. 

1  consider  these  violent  winds,  and  the  Greenland  floating  ice,  which  every  year  does 
great  damage  to  the  country,  as  the  chief  cause  of  the  diminution  of  the  growth  of  wood, 
as  well  as  of  the  ill  success  in  the  late  attempts  for  introducing  agriculture. 

This  ice  comes  on  by  degrees,  always  with  an  easterly  wind,  and  frequently  in  such 

Quantities  as  to  fill  up  all  the  gulfs  on  the  north-west  side  of  the  island,  and  even  covers 
le  sea  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach ;  it  also  sometimes  drives  to  other  shores.  It  gene, 
rally  comes  in  January,  and  goes  away  in  March.  Sometimes  it  only  reaches  the  land 
in  April,  and,  remaining  there  u  loiijf  tinit ,  dors  an  incredible  deal  of  mischief.  It  con- 
sists partly  of  mountains  of  ice  (flail  i'li")  whlt;li  are  sometimes  sixty  fathoms  high 
above  v/ater,  and  announce  their  arrival  by  a  grciil  iiolse,  and  partly  of  field-ice  (he)lM-is) 
of  the  depth  of  one  or  even  two  fathoms.  OF  this  last  some  parts  nnon  melt,  and  other 
parts  remain  undissolved  maiiy  months^  m^U^II  ^fi^udng  very  dangerous  eflPects  to  the 
country.* 

The  ice  caused  so  violent  a  cold  In  j/^l  (|||lj  ifBi,  that  liorses  and  sheep  drop{}cd 

well  as  ft»r  wiilii  m|  food ;  horses  were  observed  to  feed 


down  dead  on  account  of  it 
upon  dead  cattle,  and  the  bli< 


I.H 
1' 


.11 


of  eueli  oiln  I's 
the  end  of  the  month  of  M'Ay,  in  one  ni({iit  I  lit  ji  t-  . 


wnc. 


Hli- 


1 ,1 


the  year  1756,  on  the  twenty  a) fdli  nf  jfijiii . 

nued  falling  through  the  whole  niontjt;)  i|  |mu 

froze  very  hard  towards  the  end  of  May  and  t1|i   !/•  h'  "'"g  of  June  in  the  south  part  of 

the  island,  which  occasioned  a  gre-  ify  of  grass,  Insomuch  tb:;lthe  inhabitants  ii.id 


In  the  year  1755,  towards 
1    iiid  five  lines  thick.     In 

(  j.ili  of  a  yard,  and  conti- 
ill  the  year  following,  it 


*  The  immense  masses  of  ice.  which  are  so  i|ittdii|i||.  uQectins;  the  climate  of  the  country  along  the 
northern  and  nortli.west  coastot  Iceland,  arrive  coirtijioiliy  withu  N  vV.or  N  N.  W.  wind  from  Green- 
land. Field-ice  is  of  two  or  thiet:  iuthouiji  thickii  ss.  uud  is  separated  by  the  winds,  and  less  dreaded 
than  the  rock  or  mountain-ice,  which  is  oflen  seen  HRy  and  more  feet  above  water,  and  is  at  least  nine 
Umes  the  same  height  helow  water  These  immuiise  masses  of  ice  are  frcquontly  left  in  shoal  wutur, 
fixed,  as  it  were,  tnthe  ground,  antl  in  that  state  remain  many  months,  nay  years,  undissolved,  chilling 
all  the  ambient  part  uf  the  atmospnere  for  many  miles  round.  U  hen  many  such  lofty  and  bulky  ic(^- 
raasses  are  iloatmg  together,  the  wimd,  which  is  (iflen  drifting  along  between  thuin,  is  so  much  chafed,  and 
pressed  witn  such  violence  together,  that  it  takes  fire  ;  which  circunistincu  has  uccahiuiied  fabulous 
accounts  of  the  ice  being  in  flu.ne^:  of  the  bulk  of  such  ice-masses,  see  Forster's  Observations  made 
during  a  voyage  round  the  worW,  patrc  ^^i^,  1773  and  1774. 
VOL.    I.  4  N 


ii; 


r" 


>"^ 


642 


>  ON  TnOIL'8  LKTTBlta  UN  lUBLANU. 


little  or  no  fodder  the  ci-isuing  winter  for  their  cattle  :  these  frosta  arc  gcnr -Tilly  followed 
by  a  famine,  many  examples  of  which  arc  to  he  found  in  the  Icelandic  chronicles.* 

Besides  these  calamities,  a  nuntxr  of  bears  yearly  arrive  with  the  ice,  which  commit 
sprat  ravages,  particularly  among  the  sheep.  The  Icelanders  attempt  to  destroy  these 
intruders  as  soon  an  they  get  sight  of  them ;  and  sometimes  tliey  assemble  together,  and 
drive  them  bacic  to  the  ice,  with  which  they  often  float  oft*  again.  For  want  of  fire- 
arms,  they  are  obliged  to  make  use  of  spears  on  these  occasions.  The  government  itself 
takes  every  possible  method  to  encourage  the  natives  to  destroy  these  animals,  by  pay- 
ing a  premium  of  ten  dollars  for  every  bear  that  is  killed,  and  by  purchasing  the  skin  of 
him  wno  killed  it.  These  skins  are  a  prerogative  of  the  king,  and  are  not  allowed  to  be 
sold  to  any  other  person. 

It  is  as  absurd  to  suppose  that  this  floating;  ice  consists  principally  of  salt-petrc,  as  that 
it  might  l)c  employed  in  making  gun-powder ;  and  yet  there  are  some  persons  who  pre- 
tend to  support  this  opinion,  but  they  are  certainly  undeserving  the  trouble  of  refutation. 

I  must  mention  two  other  inconveniences  to  which  Iceland  is  subject,  the  Skridaand 
Snioflodi :  the  name  of  the  first  im|X}rts  large  pieces  of  a  mountain  tumbling  down,  and 
destroying  the  lands  and  houses  which  lie  at  the  foot  of  it.  This  happened  in  1554, 
when  the  whole  farm  of  Skidestedr  in  Vatndal  was  ruined,  and  thirteen  people  buried 
alive.  The  other  word  signifies  the  efiects  of  a  prodigious  quantity  of  snow,  which  co- 
vers the  tops  of  the  mountains,  rolling  down  in  immense  masses,  and  doing  a  great  deal 
of  damage.  There  was  an  instance  of  this  in  the  year  16D9,  during  the  night,  when 
two  farms,  in  the  syssel  of  Kiosar,  were  buried  in  the  snow,  with  all  their  inhabitants  and 
cattle.f 

The  climate  is  not  unwholesome,  as  the  usual  heat  is  not  extreme,  nor  the  cold  u. 
general  very  rigorous.  However,  there  are  examples  of  the  mercury  in  Fahrenheit's 
thermometer  falling  quite  down  into  the  bulb,  which  is  twenty-four  degrees  under  the 
freezing  point ;  when  at  other  times  it  has  rose  to  one  hundred  and  four  degrees. 

It  cannot  be  determined  with  any  degree  of  certainty  how  much  the  cold  has  increased 
or  decreased  prior  to  1749,  the  year  when  Horrebow  began  his  observations  on  the  wea- 
ther ;  which  were  afterwards  continued  by  the  provost  Gudluug  1'horgeirsson  to  the 
year  1769:  since  which  period  observations  have  been  made  by  Mr.  Eyolfs  Jonson, 
who  was  formerly  assistant  at  the  Round  Tower  at  Copenhagen,  and  receives  a  siilary 
as  first  observer  in  Iceland.!    His  observatory  is  at  Amarhol,  near  Re}  karwick ;  and, 

*  The  cold  seems  to  have  •  ecome  more  intense  in  Iceland  since  the  time  when  these  here-before-men- 
tioned  fir-trees  were  grawinKi  and  before  the  ocean  was  so  very  much  covered  with  fluating  ice. 

These  tacts  seem  to  confirm  very  much  the  opinion  of  count  Buffnn,  in  his  l<  poques  de  la  Nature  ;  in 
consequence  of  which  he  believes  that  the  country  towarilsi  the  poles  was  formerly  more  habitable  than  it  is 
at  present :  he  is  of  opinion,  that  the  skeletons  of  elephants  found  far  north  in  Siberia  arc  almost  irrefra- 
gable proofs  of  the  formerly  miider  temperature  of  the  air ;  since  they  could  scarcely  be  found  in  Siberia 
in  such  numbers,  unless  they  had  existed  there.  Bufibn  Epoques  de  la  Nature*  p.  165,  &  seq.  The  east- 
ern shores  of  Greenland  were  formerly  inhabited  by  a  colony  of  Norwegians,  and  they  hud  there  a  biithop's 
see, called  Gardar,  to  which  belonged  farms,  woods,  pastures  for  cattle,  granges,  and  tillage-land.  See 
Crantz's  History  of  (:•  reenland,  vol.  i.  p.  '245,  which  evideritly  proves  the  mildness  of  these  now  inhospita- 
ble regions.  Ships  sailed  formerly  to  the  eastern  coast;  whereas  for  a  great  number  of  years  past  it  has  been 
inaccessible.on  account  of  the  immense  masses  of  ice  found  there.  Are  Frode  in  Scheda  de  IcIandiu,Oxon. 
17 16,  cap.  3.  p.  10,  says,  that  at  the  first  landing  of  the  Norwegian  colonists,  Iceland  was  covered  with 
woods  and  forests  in  the  spuce  between  the  shores  and  mountains. 

t  Snioflod,  or  Snowflood,  is  a  very  expressive  word  for  this  dreadful  accident,  which  is  not  uncommon 
in  all'alpine  countries,  especially  Switterland.  The  Italians  call  such  a  rolling  down  of  masses  of  snow, 
Lavine  ;  the  French,  Laivaches ;  and  the  Germans,  Lauiimen. 

t  ThiH  ingenious  gentleman  died  in  1775]  not  maiiy  months  since  the  writing  of  this  letter. 


r 


VON  rnOa*8  LETTEnS  om  tcflaxu. 


6in 


what  is  remarkable,  he  makes  use  of  4  telescope  or  his  own  construction,  miule  nf  the 
black  Iceland  a^utc,  inhlead  of  colouix-d  glass. 

Lightning  and  thunder  storms  arc  rare,  and  both  in  summer  and  winter  seldom  hap. 
pen  .my  where  else  but  m  the  neighbourhood  of  volcanoes.  Nortliem  lights  firquently 
apiKEi  uncommonly  stronjj.*  Sometimes  a  kind  of  the  ignis  fatuu»  is  observed  (Snoc- 
lios  and  hraevas-eidur)  which  attaches  itself  txt  men  and  beasts. 

Amongst  otiier  aerial  pliajnomena,  the  lunar  halo  (rosabaugu)  which  prognosticates 
bad  wcittner,  likewise  deserves  a  place  here,  as  well  as  parhclions  (hiasolar)  which  ap- 
pear sometimes  from  one  to  nine  m  luimber.f  Fire-balls  (culkd  Viira  Knottur)  are  like 
wise  observed,  and  when  they  are  oval  are  named  Wiigabrandur ;  and  last  of  all  comets, 
or  Halesticrnor,  which  are  often  mentioned  in  their  chrotiicks. 

The  ebb  and  flood  here,  which  the  Icelanders  call  flod  and  fiara,  arc  perfectly  the 
same  as  at  other  places ;  they  arc  stronger  during  the  new  and  full  moon  than  at  other 
times,  and  strongest  of  all  about  the  equinoxes. 

As  I  am  here  speaking  oi  the  nature  uf  the  country,  I  cannot  pass  over  in  silence  the 
earthquakes,  which  often  happen,  |)articularly  before  volcanic  eruptions.  In  Septem- 
ber, in  the  year  1755,  fifteen  violent  shocks  were  observed  within  afe^rdays;  ana  it  is 
not  uncommon  to  see  whole  farms  overturned  by  them,  and  large  mountains  burst  asun- 
der, as  will  be  remarked  hereafter,  in  the  letter  which  treats  of  tne  conflagrations  in  Ice- 
land. 

In  so  mountainous  a  country,  where  there  is  no  agriculture,  and  no  commerce,  except 
that  carried  on  by  bartering  of  the  various  commodities  on  thf^  arrival  of  the  Danish  ships, 
no  good  ro;>f Is  can  be  expected :  they  therefore  make  use  of  neither  carts  nor  sledges ; 
and  there  at  many  pla'-es  m  which  u  is  both  difficult  and  dangerous  even  to  ride  on 
horseback,  w.  ich  have  caused  the  nanr<es  of  Ofoerur,  Halsavegur,  Hofdabrecka,  Illaxlif, 
to  be  given  to  j»ome  roads.  Their  lengti.  is  not  reckoned  by  the  number  of  miles,  but 
that  of  thingmanna-lcid,  thiM  is,  as  far  as  a  man,  who  is  travelling  to  a  place  where  jus- 
tice is  administered,  can  go  m  one  day,  which  is  about  three  and  a  half  Swedish,  or  four 
Icelandic  rniles.^  Formerly  houses  were  built  in  some  particular  places  for  the  use  of 
travellers,  which  were  called  Thi'^dbrautar-skaala;  but  now  the  churches  are  every 
where  made  use  of  for  this  purpose. 

Wlien  the  Icelanders  travel  to  sea-ports,  to  exchange  their  fish,  8cc.  they  have  twenty, 
thirty,  and  sometimes  a  greater  number  of  horses  with  them,  which  carry  a  load  of 
three  hundred  or  four  hundred  pounds  weight  each ;  but  they  have  always  some  spare 
horses  along  with  ti^iem,  to  relieve  those  that  are  fatigued  :  this  cavalcade  is  called  Lest ; 
..!  J  the  man  who  guides  them  is  called  Lestamadur :  he  rides  on  before,  accompanied 
W'.t?!  a  dog,  that,  by  uttering  a  certain  word,  drives  the  strayed  r  straggling  horses  into 
tN';  right  road.  They  never  carry  any  food  for  their  horses,  ai>  pasture  is  plenty  every 
"wlwre. 


I 


2! 


*  The  northern  lights  appear  in  Iceland  in  all  the  different  quarters  ofthtf  JflljP"^  especially  on  the 
southerly  horizon,  where  a  dark  segment  appears,  from  whence  strong^colunnjfflRi^ht  dart  forth.  They 
are  most  frequently  seen  in  dry  weatber,  though  there  are  instances  of  their  appecii-ance  before,  during, 
and  after  a  shower  of  rain.  The  lights  are  often  seen  tinged  with  yellow,  green,  and  purple.  See  Og- 
gert  Olaf^en's  and  Biam«  Paulsen'^  Travels  through  Iceland,  sec.  855. 

t  The  parhelions  are  observed  in  Iceland  chiefly  at  tiie  approach  of  the  Greenland  ce,  when  an  in- 
tense it^tce  of  cold  is  produced,  and  the  frozen  vapours  fill  the  airf  there  <tre  many  instances,  proving, 
that  under  such  circumstances  the  aun  never  appea.s  without  shewing'  one  or  several  pari>  »lions,  and 
often  a  rainbow  on  the  opposite  side. 

I  About  twenty M^ne  or  twenty  English  miles. 

4  N   2 


il 


M 


644 


YON  TR<HL1  LBTmilS  ON  fCftLANO 


1 


The  number  of  the  inhabitants  it  by  no  meant  adequate  to  the  extent  of  the  country. 
It  has  Ixcn  much  lurjrcr  iu  former  tm»c»j  but  bc»i<le!t  what  is  called  the  Dif^nlcath, 
and  other  contugiouM  divcatcs,  among  which  the  pluguc  carried  ott'  great  numbers  from 
140Q  to  1404,  many  places  have  Ixen  entirety  depopulated  by  famine.  In  the  yeitrn 
1707  und  1708,  the  HmalUpox  diHtrrmd  sixteen  thousand  [icrHons  ;  to  that  the  numfxrr 
nf  inhabitants  cunnot  exceed  sixty  thousaiKl. 

LETTI.R  1V....TO  CHKVAI-IKR  IHRr,. 

or  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  NORWEGIANS,  THE  GOVERNMENT,   AND  LAWS  IN  ICELAND. 

SIR,  Stockholm,  June  13,  1774. 

As  I  have  treated  in  my  former  letter  of  the  nature  of  the  country  in  Iceland,  an  in- 
(]uiry  how,  and  when,  it  was  first  peopled  might  not  perhaps  be  disagreeable  to 
you. 

We  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  first  inhabitants  of  Iceland,  who  possessed  the 
coinitry  when  ihc  Norwegians  first  arrived  there.     We  arc  informed  by  some,  that  they 


the  fifth  centuiy  ;  but  I  look  upon  it  as  the  safest  way  not  to  enter  at  all  upon  an  .  ffuir 
wrapped  up  in  such  ol)scurity.  There  is  notwithstanding  reason  to  suppost  ♦hat  the  Eng- 
lish und  Irish  were  acquainted  with  this  country,  under  another  name,  long  before  the  ar- 
rival  of  the  Norwegians ;  for  the  celebrated  Beda  in  his  time  pretty  accurately  descrilics 
it.  But  I  will  not  dwell  upon  tlicse  ancient  inhabitants  of  Iceland,  but  proceed  to  exa- 
mine how  the  Norwegians  came  to  settle  there.  Of  diis  we  have  several  accounts  in  the 
Icelandic  Sagas.!  I  "l^aH  »ow  particularly  follow  Landnuma  Bok,  which  treats  of  the  ar- 
I'ival  of  these  new  colonists. 

Naddotldr,  a  famous  pirate,  was  driven  by  the  winds  on  the  coast  of  Iceland,  on  his 
ttturn  from  Nonvay  to  the  Ferro  Gales,  in  861,  and  named  the  country  Snio-Iand 
(Snow-lund)  on  account  of  the  great  quantity  of  snow  with  which  he  saw  the  mouo> 
tains  covered.  He  did  not  remain  there  long ;  but  however  extolled  the  country  so 
much  after  his  return,  that  one  Gardtu*  Suafarfon,  an  enterprising  Swede,  was  cncou- 

*  The  ancient  Norwcfrians,  who  fim  landed  in  Iceland,  fovind  there  inhabitants  who  were  Christians, 
and  were  culled  by  the  Norwegians  Papas,  which  is  conjectured  tu  signify  priests.  This  is  confirmed  by 
ilic  prcluce  ofthe  Landnama  Bok,  or  Book  of  Colonization,  written  by  various  authors,  tbo  first  of  whom 
wus  Arc  I' rude,  born  1068  ;  and  he  expressly  says,  in  the  first  chapter  ofthe  book,  that  Iceland  was  set- 
tled l)y  the  Norwegians  in  the  time  of  Alfred  king  of  England,  and  of  Edward  his  son.  The  same  pre- 
face mentions,  that  Beda  "peaks  of  Iceland,  under  the  name  of  I'hyle.  more  than  a  hundred  years  before 
lUeurnvuluf  the  Norwey  ms  in  Iceland  :  andthat  the  Norwegians  found  there  Irish  books,  bells,  and 
crosiers,  which  proved  that  these  people  came  from  the  west  And  it  is  added,  that  the  English  books 
mention  an  intercourse  of  navigation  between  those  lands  about  those  times.  King  Alfred  certainljr 
mt^niions  m  his  translation  of  Urosius  the  utmost  land  to  the  N.  W.  of  Iceland,  callfid  Thiia  ;  and  that  it 
is  known  (o  few  on  account  of  its  great  distance.  See  Alfred's  Orosius,  p.  31.  The  Landnama  Bok 
was  published  at  Copenhagen,  1774,  in  quarto.  The  circumstance  of  the  Irish  bonks  left  in  Iceland  is 
likewise 'nentioned  by  the  same  Are  Frode,  in  Ara  MultisciiShedisdc  Islandia,  Oxoniae,  1716,  octavo, 
cap.  ii.  pag.  10.  who  says  they  chose  not  to  live  with  the  heathens,  and  for  that  reason  went  away,  leav- 
ing behind  Irish  books,  bells,  and  crosiers. 

t  The  word  Saga  signifies  the  ancient  historical  monuments  in  Iceland ;  some  of  them  arc  the  histori- 
t-al  relations,  others  are  fabulous  stories  in  the  style  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  The  distinction  between 
I  hem  requires  a  nice  critical  judgment.     As  the  word  occurs  often,  we  once  for  all  explain  it  here. 


BtiBm 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


1.25 


fm  iiiiM 

' ^^  m 

111     12  0 


•::   IIIIM 


1.4 


6' 


1.8 


1.6 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER.  NY.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  canadien  de  microreproductions  historiques 


T' 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTBHS  ON  ICSLAKD. 


645 


raged  by  his  'account  to  go  in  search  of  it  in  864.  He  sailed  quite  round  the  island, 
and  thei.  called  it  Gardarsholmur  (Gardar's  Island.)  He  remained  the  whole  winter  in 
Iceland,  and  in  spring  returned  to  Norway,  where  he  described  the  new-discovered 
island  as  a  pleasant,  well- wooded  country.  This  excited  a  desire  in  Floke,  another 
Swede,  and  <:he  greatest  navigator  of  his  time,  to  undertake  a  voyage  thither.  As  the 
compass  (in  Icelandic  Leitharstein*)  was  not  then  known,  he  took  three  ravens  on 
board,  to  employ  them  on  the  discovery.  By  the  way  he  visited  his  friends  at  Ferro ; 
and  after  having  sailed  farther  to  the  northward,  he  let  fly  one  of  his  ravens,  which  re- 
turned to  Ferro.  Some  time  ?fter  he  dismissed  the  second,  which  returned  to  the  ship 
again,  as  he  could  find  no  land.  The  last  trial  proved  more  successful,  since  the  third 
raven  took  his  flight  to  Iceland ;  soon  after  thejr  discovered  land,  and  in  a  few  days  really 
arrived  there.  Floke  stayed  here  the  whole  winter  with  his  company ;  and  because  he 
found  a  great  deal  of  floating  ice  on  the  north  side,  he  gave  the  name  of  Iceland  to  the 
country,  which  it  has  ever  since  retained. 

When  they  returned  to  Norway  in  the  following  sprmg,  Floke,  and  those  that  had  been 
with  him,  made  a  very  different  description  of  the  country.  If,  on  the  one  side,  Floke 
described  it  as  a  wretched  place,  Thorulfr  (one  of  his  companions  in  the  voyage)  on  the 
other  side,  so  highly  praised  it,  that  he  affirmed  butter  dropped  from  every  plant,  which 
gained  him  the  nick-name  of  Thorulfr  Smior,  or  Butter  Thorulfr. f 

After  what  I  have  related,  there  are  no  traces  of  luiy  voyage  o  Iceland,  till  Ingolfr 
and  his  friend  Leifr  undertook  one  in  874.  They  found  on  their  arrival  that  the 
country  had  not  been  misrepresented ;  and  resolved,  after  having  spent  the  winter  on 
the  island,  to  settle  there  entirely  for  the  future.  Ingolfr  returned  to  Norway,  to  pro- 
vide whatever  might  be  necessary  to  accomplish  a  new  and  comfortable  establishment  in 
an  unfertilized  and  dreary  country ;  and  Leifr  in  the  meanwhile  went  to  assist  in  the 
war  in  England.  After  an  interval  of  four  years,  they  met  again  in  Iceland,  the  one  briiif^;. 
ing  with  him  a  considerable  number  of  people,  with  the  necessary  tools  and  implements 
for  making  the  country  habitable ;  and  the  other  imported  his  acquired  treasures.  Since 
this  period  many  people  went  there  to  settle,  and  in  sixty  years  time  the  whole  island 
was  inhabited ;  and  king  Harold,  who  did  not  contribute  a  little  towards  it  by  his  ty- 
rannical treatment  of  the  petty  kings  and  lords  in  Normandy,  was  at  last  obliged  to  issue 
an  order,  that  no  one  should  sail  from  Norway  to  Iceland,  without  paying  four  ounces 
of  fine  silver  to  the  king,  in  order  to  put  a  stop,  in  some  measure,  to  those  continual  emi- 
grations, which  weakened  his  kingdom. 

Though  the  greatest  part  of  the  inhabitants  came  from  Norway,  there  are  however 
many  Danes  and  Swedes  among  them.  Of  the  latter  I  will  only  mention  the  follow- 
ing, from  that  edition  of  Landnama  Bok,  which  was  printed  at  Skalholt.  Ingimundur, 
an  earl  in  the  Gothic  empire,  one  of  the  descendants  of  Bore,  Gore's  brother,  p.  90 ; 
with  his  friends  Jorundr,  Ejvindr,  Sorkver,  Asmundr,  and  Hvatefridleifr ;  and  his  slaves 
Fridmundr,  Bodvar,  Thorer  Refskegg,  and  Ulfkell,  p.  90 :  Thordur,  descended  by 
the  father's  side  in  the  fifth  degree  from  Ragnor  Lodbrock,  p.  102 :  Thordur  Knappur, 

*  The  word  Leitharstein  is  certunly  equivalent  to  the  English  word  loadstone,  and  probably  has  the 
same  origin.  The  Anglo-Saxon  word  Lxdan  signifies  to  lead ;  and  the  rnagnet  being  the  leader  of  the 
navigator,  it  is  very  evident  that  the  loadstone  is  the  leading  stone  of  the  ship.  The  history  of  the  three 
ravens  is  most  evidently  copied  from  the  history  of  the  deluge  in  Genesis.  However,  it  proves  an  uncom- 
mon sagacity  in  the  navigator  who  made  use  of  birds  for  the  first  discovery  of  land. 

t  The  expression  which  Thorulfr  made  use  of  in  describing  the  fertility  and  richness  of  the  country 
chantcterizesthe  genius  and  manners  of  the  age  he  lived  in,  and  is  therefore  not  to  be  overlooked  in  this 
account.  These  minute  strokes  paint  the  character  and  simplicity  of  the  age,  and)  when  compared  with 
our  manners,  set  them  off  in  the  fairest  point  of  view* 


i\i 


li 


646 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


natural  son  of  Bioms  of  Haga ;  and  Nafar  Helge,  p.  104 :  Bnini  Hin  Hviti,  son  of  Ha- 
reks,  earl  of  Upland,  p.  104  :  Thormodur  Hin  Rami,  p.  105  ;  Biorn  Rolfsson  of  the 
blood  royal,  p.  105  :  Helgi  Hin  Magri,  p.  107 :  Thorir  Sncpill,  a  son  of  Joruns,  duugh' 
ter  of  the  Lagman  Thorgnys,  p.  117:  and  Gardar  Suafarson.  Besides  these,  Are  Frode 
mentions  one  of  the  name  of  Olafr,  who  was  of  the  same  family  as  king  Harold  ;  another 
of  the  name  of  Hrdlangur,  brother  of  Rolfs,  first  duke  of  Normandy,  who  drew  his  ori- 
gin from  the  Swedish  king  Gore,  grandfather  of  Gylfe. 

Torfpeus  mentions  one  Bodvar,  a  Swede,  who  settled  in  Iceland,  and  was  a  descend- 
ant of  the  princess  Goja,  sister  of  Gore  :  Floke,  who  gave  to  the  island  its  present  name 
of  Iceland,  was  descended  from  the  same  family.  Dalin,  in  his  preface  to  the  first  vo- 
lume of  his  Swedish  history,  likewise  mentions,  out  of  Peringskold  and  Bjorner,  the  fol- 
lowing :  Snobjom,  Bjorn  Ostrane,  Grim,  Orm  Wedorm,  Bjorn,  and  Gri.nkill,  with 
their  mother  Helga,  daughter  of  Harold,  Barder  Snefallsas,  Barder  Wiking,  Brimle^ 
Hjelm,  Gote,  Skolder  Svenske,  Glamer,  Wafur  Helge,  and  Sl^ttubjom. 

As  often  as  a  new  colony  arrived  there,  the  principal  person  in  the  company  appro- 
priated to  himself  as  large  a  part  of  the  country  as  he  was  able  to  occupy,  and  gave  up 
as  much  of  it  as  he  thought  fit  to  his  companions,  whose  chief  he  was,  bearing  the 
title  of  Godi.  But  in  a  {leriod  when  robberies  and  violence,  by  sea  and  land,  were  con- 
sidered as  valour  and  merit,  peace  could  not  long  subsist  between  the  neighbouring 
leaders.  There  are  everywhere  instances  to  be  met  with,  in  the  Icelandic,  Sagas  of 
battles  between  the  new  and  original  settlers.  To  prevent  these  conflicts  in  future,  a  per- 
son was  chosen  in  the  year  928,  with  the  title  of  Laug-saugumadur,  and  great  power 
and  dignity  conferred  upon  him.  This  man  was  the  speaker  in  all  their  public  delibe- 
rations, pronounced  sentence  in  difficult  and  intricate  cases,  decided  all  disputes,  and 
published  new  laws,  after  they  had  been  received  and  approved  of  by  the  people  at  large  : 
but  he  had  no  power  to  make  laws  without  the  approbation  and  consent  of  the  rest, 
He  therefore  assembled  the  chiefs  whenever  the  circumstances  seemed  to  require  it ;  and 
after  they  had  deliberated  among  themselves,  he  represented  the  opinion  of  the  majori- 
ty  to  the  people,  whose  assent  was  necessary  before  it  could  be  considered  as  a  law.  His 
authority  among  the  chiefs  and  leaders  was  however  inconsiderable,  as  he  was  chosen  by 
them,  and  retained  his  place  no  longer  than  whilst  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  preserve 
their  confidence. 

Their  first  form  of  government  was  consequently  a  mixture  of  aristocracy  and  de- 
mocracy :  but  all  the  regulations  made  by  it  were  insufficient  to  maintain  order  among 
so  many  chiefs,  who,  though  all  of  the  same  rank,  were  differently  inclined,  and  unequal 
in  power.  Nothing  was  therefore  more  frequent  than  rapine  and  violation  of  the  laws. 
They  openly  made  war  against  one  another,  examples  of  which  are  to  be  met  with  in 
the  Sturlunga  Saga,  where  it  is  said  twenty  vessels,  carrying  one  thousand  three  hun- 
dred men,  had  a  bloody  engagement,  which  so  weakened  the  contending  parties,  that  their 
whole  power  at  last  became  an  easy  prey  to  a  few  arbitrary  and  enterprising  men,  who, 
as  is  too  generally  the  case,  wantonly  abused  it,  to  the  oppression  of  their  countrymen, 
and  the  disgrace  of  humanity.* 

Notwithstanding  all  these  intestine  troubles,  they  remained  entirely  free  from  the 
Norwegian  yoke ;  though  the  kings  of  that  country,  since  the  time  of  Harold  Harfagcrs, 
viewed  tliis  new  and  powerful  republic  with  envious  eyes,  which,  though  now  separated, 
owed  its  origin  to  them  ;  but  at  last  they  experienced  that  fate,  which  is  almost  always 

*  The  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Icelandic  republic  is  a  curious  and  interesting  circumstance  for  the 
history  of  humanity ;  the  same  must  be  said  of  the  intestine  feuds,  which  gave  an  opportunity  to  the  Nor- 
wegian l&ings  to  establish  their  authority  over  this  once  free  nation. 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


647 


inevitable,  wherever  liberty  degenerates  into  licentiousness,  and  public  spirit  into  selfish 
views ;  that  is,  they  were  obliged  to  submit  to  one  chief.  The  greatest  part  of  the  in- 
habitants, in  1261,  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  king  Kakans,  and  promised  to 
pay  tribute  to  him  on  certain  conditions  agreed  upon  i;etween  tliem,  and  the  rest  followed 
their  example  in  1264.  Afterwards  Iceland,  together  with  Norway,  became  subject  to 
the  crown  of  Denmark,  which  intrusted  the  care  of  it  to  a  governor,  who  commonly 
went  there  only  once  a  year  to  examine  every  thing,  though,  according  to  his  instructions, 
he  ought  to  have  resided  there.  As  the  country  suffered  incredibly  through  the  ab- 
sence of  its  commanders,  it  was  resolved  a  few  years  ago,  that  the  governor  should  re- 
side  there  continually,  and  have  his  seat  at  Bcssestedr,  one  of  the  royal  doinains,  where 
old  Snorre  Sturleson  formerly  dwelt.  He  has  under  him  a  bailiff",  two  laymen,  a  sheriff", 
and  twenty-one  sysselmen.*  Formerly  the  country  was  divided  into  quarters  (Fiordun- 
gar)  each  having  its  own  court  of  justice,  of  which  one  was  formed  of  their  public  as- 
semblies, under  the  denomination  of  Fiordungs-doeme.f  But  as  the  public  security 
seemed  to  require  a  superior  court  of  judicature,  to  which  the  suff"ering  party  might  ap- 
peal, a  Fintar-doeme  was  established,  soon  after  tlie  introduction  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, which  tribunal  consisted  of  the  four  above-mentioned  courts,  and  some  clergymen. 

At  present  all  causes  are  first  decided  at  the  Haerads-thing,  or  county  court,  from 
which  the  parties  concerned  may  appeal  to  the  Al-thing,  or  common  court  of  justice, 
which  is  kept  every  year  on  the  eighth  of  July  at  Thingvalla.  Here  there  are  two 
courts,  the  one,  before  which  the  cause  in  appeal  is  first  brought,  and  consists  entirely  of 
lagmen  •,%  the  other,  to  which  recourse  may  be  had  for  a  new  hearing  the  following  year, 
and  more  accurate  examination ;  and  this  is  composed  of  the  governor,  who  presides, 
and  twelve  assessors,  who  are  the  most  respectable  men  in  the  country,  mostly  lagmen  and 
sysselmen.  From  this  court  the  parties  may  again  appeal  to  the  supreme  court  of  judica- 
ture  at  Copenhagen,  which  is  final. 

The  Norwegians,  on  their  first  arrival  in  Iceland,  made  their  own  laws ;  but  these 
proving  insufficient,  when  the  number  of  people  increased,  Ulfliotr  undertook,  in  the 
year  987,  a  voyage  to  Norway,  and  composed  an  accurate  code  of  laws  from  the  regu- 
lations established  there.  He  made  use  of  the  Gulothing  law  on  this  occasion,  and  re- 
turned to  his  native  countr}'  after  an  absence  of  three  years. 

In  1 1 18,  the  Gragas,  a  famous  ancient  code  of  laws,  was  received  there  ;  and  in 
1280,  that  called  the  Jonbbok,§  according  to  which  sentence  is  still  pronounced  in  some 

'  The  place  of  Amtman  is  here  translated  Bailiff,  and  is  to  be  taken  in  the  sense  in  which  the  French 
receive  the  word  Bailif,  i.  e.the  head  ofa  Bailiwick.  The  word  Lagmann  signifies  properly  a  Lawman  ; 
i.  e  a  person  who  administers  justice,  and  might  be  translated  Judge  or  Justice.  The  Landvogt  is  the 
person  who  administers  the  executive  power  of  justice  and  the  criminal  law ;  and  he  may  be  compared  to 
a  sheriff.  The  Sysselmen  are  the  magistrates  of  the  smaller  districts  in  Iceland  (called  the  Syssel)  who 
not  only  act  as' justices  of  the  peace,  but  also  as  receivers  of  the  land-tax.  The  governor  is  called  in  Ice- 
land Stiitsamtmann,  which  is  the  same  as  a  bailiffof  the  episcopal  diocese  ;  i.  e.  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 
island.  This  place  was  occupied  in  1772  by  Mr.  Thodal,  counsellor  of  justice,  who  had  been  employed 
in  the  final  adjustment  of  the  limits  between  Sweden  and  Norway ;  his  salary  amounts  to  1500  rix-dol. 
lars.  Travellers  praise  his  abilities,  patriotism,  and  hospitality.  The  bailiff,  at  the  time  of  our  arrival  in 
Iceland,  was  Mr.Olafr  Stephansson,  a  native  of  Iceland,  whose  parts  and  abilities  we  admired,  and  whose 
hospitality  we  experienced :  his  salary  is  400  rix-dollars ;  and  the  same  appointment  is  given  to  the  sheriff 
(Landvogt)  Mr.  Skule  Magnusen,  who  is  said  to  deserve  well  of  his  country  by  his  patriotism  and  emi- 
nent services. 

t  The  words  Fiordunpis-doeme  and  Fimtar-doeme  are  still  in  part  preserved  in  the  language.  For 
Dooms-day  is  the  day  of  judgment,  from  the  Gothic  word  Doem,  to  judge,  with  which  the  English  word 
Doom  corresponds. 

\  At  the  same  time  and  at  the  same  place  the  spiritual  court  called  Presta-stefna  is  held,  wherein  the 
governor  and  bishop  preside  :  the  priests  are  the  assessors. 

§  The  Jonsbook  was  received  in  1273,  according  to  an  Icelandic  Chronicle,  publiahcd  by  Langebeck, 
in  the  second  volume  of  the  Scripiores  Hist.  Dan. 


Bfl 


648 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


cases ;  but  at  present  most  matters  are  decided  after  the  Danish  law,  and  some  more  re- 
cent  regulations. 

LETTER  V....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE. 
CONCERNING  ECCLESIASTICAL  AFFAIRS  IN  ICELAND. 

s»R>  Stockholm,  June  22,  1772. 

It  is  known  from  Landnama  Bok,  and  the  Shedae  of  Are,  that  the  Norwegians 
found  some  traces  of  Christianity  on  their  arrival  in  Iceland.  There  were  also  some 
few  Chrbtians  among  these  new  colonists,  who,  however,  soon  apostatised  to  the  heathen 
religion,  so  that  it  became  general  there.  It  is  not  known  whether  any  attempts  had 
been  made  to  introduce  the  Christian  religion  before  the  year  981,  when  a  certain  bishop 
Friedric  arrived  there  from  Saxony,  and  was  obliged  to  return,  after  a  stay  of  five 
years,  without  having  made  any  great  progress. 

However,  a  church  was  built  in  984,  by  Thorvard  Bodvarson,  and  some  persons  re- 
ceived baptism;  but  others,  though  they  had  no  objection  to  the  Christian  doctrine,  could 
not  be  prevailed  uijon  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  baptised,  as  they  pretended  it  would  be 
indecent  to  go  naked  into  the  water  like  little  boys  to  receive  baptism,  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  those  times,  could  only  be  done  by  submersion.  Some,  however 
to  shew  their  detesUition  of  paganism,  suttered  themselves  to  be  signed  with  the  cross* 
which  they  called  Primsigning.  These  were  not  considered  either  as  Christians  or 
heathens  ;  however,  they  were  allowed  to  eat  with  the  former,  and  to  be  buried  close  to 
the  church- yard. 

Olof  Tryggvasson  afterwards  sent  them  Stefr  Thorgilsson,  and  after  him  his  chaplain 
Thangbrand,  a  German  by  birth ;  but  thev  were  both  received  with  stones  and  abusive 
language,  as  they  attempted  to  convert  them,  which  happened  to  be  at  the  very  spot 
where  the  common  court  of  justice  was  held  :  nor  were  they  spared  by  the  poets  of  the 
country,  who,  being  bribed  for  the  purpose,  poured  forth  in  their  poetical  productions 
the  keenest  invectives  and  satire  upon  these  champions  of  the  Christian  religion. 

However,  the  Icelanders  obtained  some  knowledge  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  which 
by  degrees  operated  upon  their  minds.  Some  of  them  refus-^d  to  contribute  any  more 
towards  the  idolatrous  sacrifices,  and  wished  to  enjoy  more  circumstantial  and  certain 
instruction  in  the  Christian  religion ;  so  that  on  the  arrival  of  Gissur  and  Hyalti  in  the 
year  one  thousand,  the  whole  counr-y  was  converted  without  bloodshed,  though  not 
without  opposition.  They  also  obtained  a  jus  canonicum*  from  bishop  Grimkejl,  drawn 
up  by  himself,  which  was  as  valid  as  a  law  till  1 123,  when  it  was  again  revised  by  bishops 
1  horlak  and  Ketill.f 

After  this  time  monks  and  convents  abounded  in  the  country.  Many  monks  of  the 
order  of  St.  Benedict  and  St.  Austin  settled  there,  and  the  people  paid  a  tribute  to  the 
Roman  see,  as  well  as  other  European  nations,  which  consisted  in  one  nagli,  ten  of 
which  were  equal  to  one  ell  of  two  feet.  J 

That  Rome  did  not  lose  sight  of  Iceland,  though  ever  so  distant,  can  be  proved  by  the 
bishop  of  Skalholt,  Arne  Therlakson,  keeping  his  own  agent,  Sighvatr  Lande,  canon  of 
Drontheim,  at  the  second  council  of  Lyons,  which  was  convened  by  Gregory  the  First 

*  See  Klistnis  Saga,  printed  at  Copenhagen,  1776,  in  octavo,  p.  57. 
t  The  canort  law  was  printed  at  Copenhagen,  1776,  in  octavo. 

\  The  value  of  all  things  is  settled  in  Iceland  by  ells  of  watlmal,  which  is  a  coarse  woollen  stuffof  their 
own  manufacturing:  the  see  of  Rome  taxed  every  man  in  Iceland  as  high  as  the  value  often  ells  of  wadmal 


""^f(','r 


VON  TKOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


f)4f» 


in  the  year  1274 ;  and  that  the  Icelanders  did  not  yield  in  zeal  to  their  fellow<r.hristian9, 
appears  by  the  willingness  with  which  they  contributed  both  men  und  money  to  the  cru- 
sades, which  were  then  in  fashion. 

Amongst  other  saints,  the  bishop  of  Hoolum,  John  Ogmundsson,  and  the  bishop  of 
Skalholt,  Thorlax  Thorhallsson,  were  worshipped :  the  last  died  in  1193,  and  though 
he  was  not  canonized  by  any  pope,  yet  he  found  worshippers  in  Icclaiul,*  Denmark, 
Norway,  Kngland,  Scotland,  the  Orkneys,  the  Ferro  Islands,  and  in  Greenland,  and 
even  had  a  church  dedicated  to  him  in  Constantinople.  His  Saga  is  full  of  miracles, 
said  to  have  beeu  wrought  by  him.  It  was  unanimously  agreed  that  the  tendi  of  Janua 
nuary,  the  day  on  which  he  died,  and  the  third  of  July,  when  he  was  elected  bi-ihop, 
should  both  be  annually  celebrated.  His  body  was  taken  out  of  the  grave  on  the  thir- 
teenth of  August  1198,  and  put  into  a  coiHn  plated  with  gold  and  silvvr ;  and  it  was 
resolved  to  keep  this  day  also  as  a  festival.  The  protestant  iSishop  Giflfur  Ejnarsson,  af- 
terwi»rds,  from  a  mistaken  zeal,  caused  the  precious  ornaments  with  which  the  box  was 
adorned  to  be  broken  off,  and  had  it  covered  with  brass,  gilt,  which  is  still  preserved  in 
Ae  church  of  Skalhoh,  as  a  piece  of  antiquity.  In  the  year  1715,  bishop  John  VVidalin 
ordered  the  pretended  relique  to  be  buried,  and  only  a  bit  of  hij  skull  is  shewn,  which, 
however,  if  closely  examined,  will  be  found  to  be  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  piece  of 
cocoa-shell.  Arcimboldus«  so  famous  in  the  north  for  his  sale  of  indulgences,  was  much 
too  attentive  to  his  interest  to  have  neglected  Iceland.  In  1517  he  had  his  own  agent 
there,  who  was,  however,  more  coldly  received  by  bishop  Stephen  Jonsson  than  he  ex- 
pected. 

The  Icelanders  first  received  their  own  bishops  in  the  year  1057  at  Skalholt,  and  at 
Hoolum  in  1107.  They  were  originally  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  archbishop  of 
Bremen  and  Hamborough ;  but  in  the  year  1103  or  4,  they  became  subordinate  to 
Azerus,t  first  archbishop  of  Lund  in  Scania,  and  in  1152  to  the  bishop  of  Drontheim. 
The  Icelanders  preserve  the  memory  of  their  prelates,  both  in  their  annual  registers,  and 
in  their  sagas,  which  particularly  deserve  attention,  since  the  actions  of  many  worthy 
men  are  found  recorded  therein.  I  shall  mention  the  deplorable  end  of  one  of  their 
bishops,  John  Jerechini,t  by  birth  a  Dane,  who  was  provost  and  electus  of  Westeras, 
and  was  appointed  archbishop  of  Upsala,  by  king  Ericus  Pomeranus.  In  this  exalted 
situation  he  beVaved  so  ill,  that  he  was  obliged  to  fly  to  Denmark  in  1419  ;  from  whence, 
according  to  the  account  of  the  Icelandic  i-egisters,  he  made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Eng- 
land, and  from  thence  took  his  passage  for  Iceland,  where  he  did  not  arrive  till  the  year 
1430.  He  was  received  by  the  inhabitants  with  open  arms,  and  appointed  to  the  see 
of  Skalholt,  which  had  been  vacant  eleven  years.  Here  he  discovered  so  much  pride 
and  selfishness,  that  some  of  the  principal  (xirsons  in  the  country  entered  into  a  conspi- 
racy, and  when  he  was  celebrating  mass  in  the  cathedral  church,  on  the  thirteenth  of 
August  1433,  in  commemoration  of  St.  Thorlak,  they  took  him  by  force  from  the  altar, 
stripped  him  of  all  his  episcopal  ornaments,  and  putting  him  into  a  sack,  with  a  large 
stone  round  his  neck,  threw  him  into  the  river  Bruar,  which  flows  past  Skalholt,  from 
whence  his  body  was  afterwards  drawn,  and  buried  in  the  cathedral  churcli.§ 

*  Bishop  Finnsen  in  his  ecclesiastical  history  mentions,  vol  i.  p.  298,  note  b,  that  bishop  Thorlax  had 
been  likewise  worshipped  as  a  saint  in  Swedeni  but  there  are  no  vestiges  of  this  found  in  the  old  Swedish 
Calendaria.  The  tenth  of  January  is  consecrated  to  Paulus  Eremita,  and  August  the  thirteenth  to  IIii> 
politus  und  Lociis  Martii. 

t  In  the  Iscelandic  annuls  he  is  commonly  culled  jluaaur. 

\  The  Icelandic  annals  cull  him  Jon  Gierrecksson.  * 

§  This  account  will  serve  to  correct  what  is  erroneous  in  Rhyzelii  Episcoposcopia,  where  the  typogra- 
phical faults  in  Pcringskold's  MonumW^  Uplandica,  vol.  i.  p.  155,  have  been  copied.    Vide  Finn.  Hist. 
Eccl.  Islan.  vol.  ii.  p.  471.  % 
VOL.    I.  4  o 


i 


■.-■-,.  r 


*  1 


650 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


king  Christian  the  third  began  to  introduce  the  Lutheran  religion  in  the  year  1540 ;  but 
the  zeal  with  which  the  bishops  (who  were  then  very  powerful)  opposed  him,  prevented 
him  from  succeeding  till  the  year  1551. 

Since  that  period,  the  church  of  Iceland  has  enjoyed  a  happy  tranquility,  every  seed 
of  discord  being  suppressed  in  its  rise,  though  some  attempts  were  made  to  disbcminate 
the  evil. 

Iceland  is  divided  into  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine  parishes,  of  which  one  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  belong  to  the  see  of  Skalholt,  and  sixty.two  to  that  of  Hoolum.  All 
the  minbters  are  native  Icelanders,  and  receive  a  yearly  salary  of  four  hundred  or  five 
hundred  rix-dollars  from  the  king,  exclusive  of  what  they  have  from  their  .congregation. 

LETTER  VI....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE. 
OF  THE  CHARACTER  AND  MANNER  OF  LIFE  OF  THE  ICELANDERS. 

Stockolm,  September  1,  1774. 

In  a  former  letter  I  treated  of  the  arrival  of  the  Norwegians  in  Iceland,  of  their  first 
form  of  government,  and  the  changes  they  experienced,  through  their  own  mismanage- 
ment and  the  vicissitudes  of  time :  give  me  leave,  sir,  to  draw  your  attention  to  their 
character  and  way  of  life. 

In  like  manner  as  their  ancestors  only  lived  by  war,  piracy,  the  chace,  and  agricul- 
ture, so  our  new  Icelandic  colonists  were  strangers  to  any  fame  but  that  acquired  by  the 
strength  of  their  arm,  and  knew  no  exercises  but  such  as  a  hardened  body  was  able  to  sup- 
port. 

To  go  to  war,  to  plunder,  burn  and  destroy,  and  surmount  every  obstacle  which  op- 
posed their  designs,  they  deemed  the  surest  path  to  immortaUty ;  even  their  games  gave 
them  an  opportunity  of  exercising  both  their  strength  and  agility  of  body. 

Glimu-list,  or  the  art  of  wrestling,  was  general  among  them  ;  though  it  is  mentioned 
in  their  old  histories,  that  their  heroes  sometimes  made  use  of  an  artifice  which  was  call- 
ed Lause.t6k,  and  is  the  same  as  what  we  call  tripping  up  one's  heels.  Skylmest,  or 
the  art  of  fencing,  was  still  more  common  ;  for  though  they  treated  one  another  pretty 
roughly  on  these  occasions,  yet  those  rules  of  art  were  wanting,  which  a  weaker  arm  may 
at  present  apply  to  his  advantage  upon  occasion.  ' 

The  manjasnadur  was  held  in  the  highest  esteem :  a  man,  dextrous  in  that  exercise, 
was  held  in  the  utmost  veneration  by  them,  and  was  celebrated  even  in  their  songs. 
This  was  a  kind  of  single  combat,  to  which  a  man  might  challenge  any  one  who  was  de- 
sirous to  be  recorded  in  the  annals  of  fame.  Life  or  death  was  alike  mdifierent  to  these 
gladiators  ;  and  it  was  deemed  a  noble  art  to  understand  well  how  to  sharpen  the  instru- 
ments of  death,  as  may  be  seen  by  Rigsthulu. 

The  situation  in  which  the  Icelanders  were  in  regard  to  the  kings  of  Norway,  who  al- 
ways kept  a  watchful  eye  over  them,  and  sought  every  opportunity  to  subjugate  them, 
obliged  them  to  have  recourse  to  other  states  for  a  knowledge  in  government  and  litera- 
ture ;  for  this  purpose  they  often  sailed  to  Norway,  Denmark,  Sweden,  England,  and 
Scotland.  The  travellers,  at  their  ittum,  were  obliged  to  ^ve  an  account  to  their 
chiefs  of  the  state  of  those  kingdoms  through  which  they  passed.  For  this  reason  his- 
tory, and  what  related  to  science,  was  held  in  high  repute,  as  long  as  the  republican  form 
of  government  lasted;  and  the  great  number  of  sagas  and  histories  which  are  to  be  met 
with  in  the  country,  if  not  all  equally  important,  shew  at  least  the  desire  they  had  of 
being  instructed.   • 

During  this  time  Greenland  was  discovered  by  an  Icelander,  Eyrek  Rauda,  in  932 ; 
and  America  in  1001,  by  Bidm  Herjulfsson  and  Leif  Erichs^ 


VON  TKOIL'S  LETTEUS  ON  ICELAND. 


651 


To  secure  themselves,  therefore,  against  their  powerful  neighbours,  they  were  obliged 
to  enlarge  their  historical  knowledge ;  they  likewise  took  great  pains  in  studying  |)cr- 
fectly  thtir  own  laws,  for  the  maintenance  and  protection  of  their  internal  security.  1  hus 
Iceland,  at  a  time  when  ignorance  and  obscurity  pervaded  the  rest  of  ICurone,  was  ena- 
bled to  produce  a  considerable  numlxT  of  poets  and  historians.  When  the  Christian 
religion  was  introduced  there,  more  were  found  conversant  in  the  law  than  could  have 
been  expected,  considering  the  extent  of  the  country,  and  the  number  of  its  inhabitants. 
Fishing  was  followed  among  them  ;  but  they  devoted  their  attention  considerably  more 
to  agriculture,*  which  has  since  entirely  ceased. 

Two  things  liave  principally  contributed  towards  producing  a  great  change  both  in 
their  character  and  way  of  life,  viz.  the  progrcs*)  of  the  Christian  religion  luider  Olof 
Tryggwasson,  and  the  loss  of  their  liberty  under  king  Harold.  For  if  religion,  on  one 
side,  commanded  them  to  desist  from  their  ravages  and  warlike  expeditions ;  the  secular 
power,  on  the  other,  deprived  them  of  the  necessary  forces  for  the  execution  of  them  : 
since  this  time,  we  find  no  farther  traces  of  their  heroic  deeds,  except  those  which  arc 
preserved  in  their  histories.  Our  present  Icelanders  give  the  preference  to  fishing,  and 
the  care  of  their  cattle,  to  war. 

The  Icelanders  are  middle-sized  and  well  made,  though  not  very  strong  ;  and  the 
women  are  in  general  ill-featured.  The  men  have  left  off*  the  custom  of  wearing  Ix'urds 
long  ago,  though  you  find  them  represented  with  them  in  Eggcrt  Olafsen's  travels  through 
Iceland ;  a  drawing,  which,  perhaps,  may  represent  an  inhabitant  of  Sondmoer,  in  Nor> 
way,  but  by  no  means  an  Icelander.f 

Vices  are  indeed  much  less  common  among  them  than  in  other  parts,  where  riches 
and  luxury  have  corrupted  the  morals  of  the  people.  Theft  is  seldom  heard  of;  nor  are 
they  inclined  to  incontinence,  though  there  are  examples  of  persons  having  been  punish- 
ed more  than  oi^ce  on  that  account. 

Though  their  poverty  disables  them  from  imitating  the  hospitality  of  their  ancestors 
in  all  respects,  >  et  the  desire  of  doing  it  still  exists :  thev  cheerfully  give  away  the  little 
they  have  to  sp  ire,  and  express  the  utmost  joy  and  satisfaction,  if  you  are  pleased  with 
their  g^ft.  When  they  want  to  shew  themselves  particularly  affectionate,  they  kiss  one 
another  on  the  mouth  on  their  vi:>its :  they  do  the  same  to  the  husband  and  the  wife,  the 
mother  and  the  daughter ;  tliey  are  uncommonly  obliging  and  faithful,  and  extremely 
attached  to  govemment.l     They  are  very  zealous  in  their  religion,^  and  it  must  be 


*  Hans  Pinnsen,  in  his  letter  on  the  feasibility  of  agriculture  in  Iceland,  Copenhag.  1772,  octavo,  de- 
monstrates this  by  a  written  document  during  the  time  of  Snorre  Sturleson,  page  64,  which  likewise  ap- 
pears from  Landnama  Bok,  chap.  2 1 . 

f  This,  however,  is  subject  to  some  exceptions :  for  the  inhabitants  of  Omund  Fiorden,  and  some  fami- 
lies on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  still  wear  beards;  and  in  Fnioskadu!  lives  a  man  named  Benedict, 
known  on  account  of  his  beard.  Between  1740  and  17S0  it  happened,  between  the  icy  mountains  of 
Sneefaelds  Jokti  e.  that  two  brethren  dividing  between  themselves  the  inheritance  left  them  by  their  fa- 
ther, one  of  them,  called  Helj^e.  gave  his  brother  four  rix-doUars  lor  the  exclusive  right  of  wearing  a 
beard,  which  right  in  their  family,  was  the  sole  prerogative  of  their  lute  father. 

f  To  prevent  smuggling,  there  is  a  severe  penalty  for  piloting  a  strange  ship  into  harbour.  When  the 
philosophic  travellers  made  the  coast,  they  were  under  necessity  to  force  an  Icelander  to  stay  on  board, 
and  to  serve  them  as  a  pilot.  And,  though  appeased  by  good  treatment  and  presents,  he  nevertheless 
carried  the  ship  to  an  unsafe  place,  till  the  govenior  (granted  his  leave  to  bring  the  ship  to  a  safe  anchor- 
age. When  the  reason  of  this  strange  behaviour  was  asked  the  Icelander  answered,  he  would  rather  suffer 
himself  tobe  cut  in  pieces,  than  tp  act  against  the  regulations  of  his  king.  It  is  however  told,  that  the 
inhabitants  on  the  northern  coast  are  not  quite  so  docile,  and  therefore  less  obsequious. 

§  An  Icelander  never  passes  a  river,  or  any  other  dangerous  place,  without  previously  taking  o(f  his 
'hat,  and  imploring  divine  protecUon  ;  and  he  is  always  thankful  for  the  protection  of  God,  w  lien  he  has 
passed  the  danger  in  security.  ,-*,%(- 
-     .                    ..v:-:--  '»*=        4  o  2    ■     '■'   •-■-     -iv.  r?,  .-.    . ,    ,-    ' 


-«?T-" 


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'»» 


%' 


'■^m 


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652 


VON  TR0a.'8  LETTRR8  ON  ICELAND. 


owned  not  entirely  free  from  superstition.  They  have  an  inexpressible  attachment  for 
their  native  country,  and  are  no  where  so  happy.  An  Icelander,  therefore,  rarely  settles 
in  Co|x.>nhu^en,  though  ever  so  advantageous  conditions  should  be  offered  him.* 

On  the  other  hand,  one  cannot  a8cril)e  any  great  industry  to  them  ;  they  work  on  in 
the  niiinncr  they  arc  once  used  to,  without  tluiilcing  of  useful  improvements.  Perhaps 
this  defect  lies  more  with  the  government,  which  being  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of 
the  country,  did  not  make  the  necessary  dispositions  and  regulations  for  creating  and 
encouraging  industry.  They  are  not  cheerful  in  conversation,  but  simple  and  credulous, 
luid  have  no  aversion  to  a  bottle,  if  they  can  find  opportunity  ;  but  it  may  easily  be  con* 
ccived,  that  this  is  not  to  be  understood  of  all  without  exception.  When  they  meet  to< 
gt  ther,  their  chief  pastime  consists  in  reading  their  history  (saugulestur ;)  the  master  of 
the  house  makes  the  beginning,  and  the  rest  continue  in  their  turns,  when  he  is  tired. 
Some  of  them  know  these  stories  by  heart,  others  have  them  in  print,  and  those  that  have 
not,  have  them  in  writing.  One  of  these  pastimes  is  rumulestur,  consisting  in  the  recita- 
tion  of  some  verses,  which  sometimes  are  indifferently  sung.  They  besides  amuse  them> 
selves  in  their  meetings  with  what  they  call  wike-waka,  where  a  man  and  woman  take 
one  another  by  the  hand,  and  by  turns  sing  stanzas,  which  are  a  kind  of  dialogue,  and 
to  which  the  compjun)  sometimes  join  in  chorus.  This  however  affords  little  amuse> 
mcnt  to  a  stranger,  as  they  generally  sing  very  bad,  without  observing  time,  or  any 
other  grace,  particularly  as  they  have  not  the  least  knowledge  of  the  modern  improve- 
ments in  mnsicf 

To  their  diversions  likewise  belongs  that  called  glaeder,  where  one  among  them  is  dis- 
guised ;  ritigbrud,  where  ten  or  twelve  men  join  hands,  and  form  a  ring  in  dancing ;  and 
it  is  reckoned  a  g.eat  dexterity  to  break  through  ttiering,  without  destroying  their  order; 
glimu-list,  whicli  has  been  mentioned  before,  and  means  wrestling  :  hnatt-leikur,  or  play- 
ing with  bowls  on  the  ice ;  lystridin,  or  riding  races  for  a  wager,  8ftc.  &c. 

They  are  famous  at  playing  at  chess,  and  had  formerly  two  sorts  of  thi'=  gamf  ;  one  of 
which  was  culled  jung  frti  schach  (ladies  chess)  and  the  other  riddare  schachit  (knight's 
chess:)  at  present  only  the  last  is  customary.  The^ralso  amuse  themselves  with  kotra 
(a  game  at  taljl*  s)  they  play  on  it  togtadilla  or  olotstafl,  when  the  men  are  rangid  blind- 
fold, without  dice,  according  to  an  old  song,  which  must  be  said  by  heart.  Besides  these 
gpames  they  have  others  called  Mylna  Fanngar-tafl,  and  Goda-tafl.     They  also  play  some 

*  It  seems  that  Providence  wisely  instilled  into  the  human  heart  the  love  of  that  soil  whereon  a  man  is 
born,  and  probably  with  a  view  that  those  placts,  which  are  not  favoured  by  nature  with  her  choicest  bles- 
siiigH,  may  not  be  left  without  inhabitants.  It  may  be  affirmed  with  some  degree  of  certainty,  that  the 
love  of  one's  native  place  increases  in  an  inverse  ratio  of  its  having  received  favours  from  nature.  A 
Frenchman  seldom  or  never  feels  that  longing  desire  for  his  home,  which  all  Swedes  are  sensible  of.  A 
peasant  of  Scania  (a  rich  country  in  a  mild  climate)  eats  his  hasty  pudding  (the  favourite  dish  in  Scania) 
with  equal  pleasure  and  enjoyment  in  whatever  place  it  be  }  but  a  native  of  Elfreduhl  and  Scma  (places 
ill-favourid  by  naturt)  thinks  hitf  bread  made  of  flour, mixed  with  the  bark  of  trees,  in  his  own  country 
fur  preferable  to  the  best  dishes  he  eats  in  the  low  country.  The  chiefest  wish  of  a  Switzer  is  to  die  in 
his  own  country.  When  a  Switzer  in  the  French  army  sung  a  certain  son^  to  his  countiymen  in  the 
last  war,  there  arose  in  the  breasts  of  all  that  heard  him  such  a  disease-like  longing  for  their  native 
country,  that  it  became  absolutely  necessary  to  the  French  generals  to  give  the  strictest  injunctions,  that 
thin  song  should  never  be  heard  again  in  the  camp.  This  will  appear  incredible  to  those,  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  no  other  happiness  than  that  which  is  produced  by  the  enjoyment  of  luxury,  affluence,  and 
voluptuousness.  It  always  recalls  to  the  memory  that  fine  passage  in  Seneca  :  "  l/lyssea  ad  Ithacae  bus 
saxa  sic  properat,  quemadmodum  Agamemnon  ad  Myvenarem  nc^ilesmuros;  neme  enim  patriam 
a  mat,  quia  magna,  sed  quia  sua." 

t  I  observed  two  kinds  of  musical  instruments  in  Iceland,  one  called  Aian^r  »/ul%  with  six  brass  strings ; 
the  other  caMed^clla,  with  two  strings  made  of  horses  hair ;  both  are  played  by  a  bow.  1  likewise  heard 
of  another  instrument  called  aym/ihon,  but  I  never  could  get  a  sight  of  it 

\  Vide  Letter  of  Amus  Magnaua  to  Widalin,  communicated  tome  in  manuscript  by  Mr.  Thorotti. 


VON  TROIL'O  LCTTERB  ON  ICELAND. 


653 


fpmta  at  cards  called  Alkort,  Handknrrcr,  Tni-spill,  and  Pamphile  ;  all  these  games  are 
merely  for  amusement,  since  tl»cy  never  play  for  money,  which  §eems  however  to  have 
been  formerly  customary  among  them,  since  in  one  of  thetr  old  laws  a  fine  is  destined 
for  those  who  should  play  for  money. 

LETTER  VII....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE 
OF  THE  DHESS  OF  THE  ICELANDERS. 

SIR,  Stockholm,  Sept.  6,  1774. 

The  Icelanders  have  made  very  few  alterations,  if  any,  in  their  dress  in  modern 
times.  It  is  not  elegant  or  ornamental,  but  yet  neat,  cleanly,  and  suited  to  the  climate.  The 
men  all  wear  a  linen  shirt  next  to  the  skin,  with  a  short  jacket,  and  wide  pair  of  breeches 
over  it.  When  they  travel  they  wear  another  short  coat  (hempa)  over  it.  All  this  is 
mudc  of  coarse  black  cloth  (wudmal ;)  only  the  inhabitants  on  the  north  side  of  Arnar. 
fiord  wear  white  clothes.  On  the  head  (hey  wear  large  three  cornered  hats,  and  wors- 
ted stockings,  and  Icelandic  shoes  on  their  feet. 

Some  of  them  have  shoes  from  Copenhagen,  but  as  they  are  rather  too  dear  for  them, 
they  generally  make  their  own  shoes,  sometimes  of  ox  hide,  but  mostly  of  sheeps'  lea- 
ther :  the  manner  in  which  they  m:ikc  them  is  this ;  they  cut  a  square  piece  of  leather, 
rather  wider  tluin  the  length  of  the  foot,  this  they  sew  up  at  the  toes,  and  behind  the  heel, 
and  tie  it  on  with  leather  thongs.  These  shoes  are  convenient  enough,  where  the  coun- 
try is  level ;  but  it  would  be  very  difficult  for  us,  who  are  not  used  to  them,  to  go  with 
them  amongst  the  rocks  and  stones,  though  the  Icelanders  do  it  with  great  ease.  I 
shall  speak  of  their  fishing  clothes  afterwards. 

The  women  likewise  are  always  dressed  in  black  wadmal :  they  wear  a  bodice  over 
their  shifts,  which  are  sewed  up  at  the  bosom ;  and  above  this  a  jacket  laced  before, 
with  long  narrow  sleeves  reaching  down  to  the  wrists.  In  the  opening  on  the  side  of 
the  sleeve  they  have  buttons  of  chased  silver,  with  a  plate  fixed  to  each  button,  on 
which  the  lover,  when  he  buys  them  in  order  to  present  them  to  his  mistress,  takes 
care  to  have  his  name  and  her's  engraved  At  the  top  of  the  jacket  a  littie  black  collar 
is  fixed  (struuir)  of  about  three  inches  broad,  of  velvet  or  silk,  and  frequently  trimmed 
with  gold  cord.  The  petticoat  is  likewise  of  wadmal,  and  reaches  down  to  the  ancles. 
Round  the  top  of  it  is  a  girdle  of  s^'ver,  or  some  other  metal,  to  which  they  fasten  the 
apron  (swinte)  which  is  also  of  wadmal,  and  ornamented  at  top  with  buttons  of  chased 
silver.  Over  this  dress  they  wear  a  hempa,  or  upper-dress,  nearlj^  resembling  that  of 
the  peasants  at  Wingaker  in  Sweden,  with  this  difference,  that  it  is  wider  at  bottom ; 
this  is  close  at  the  neck  and  wrists,  and  a  hand's  breadth  shorter  than  the  petticoat.  It 
is  adorned  with  a  facing  down  to  the  very  bottom,  which  looks  like  cut  velvet,  and  is 
ffenerally  wove  by  the  Icelandic  women.  On  their  fingers  they  wear  gold,  silver,  or 
brass  rings.  Their  head-dress  con&rsts  of  several  cloths  wrapped  round  the  head,  al- 
most as  high  again  as  the  face ;  it  is  tied  fast  with  a  handkerchief,  and  serves  more  for 
warmth  than  ornament :  girls  are  not  allowed  to  wear  this  head-dress  before  they  are 
marriageable.  At  their  weddings  they  are  adorned  in  a  very  particular  manner :  the 
bride  wears  close  to  the  face,  round  her  head-dress,  a  crown  of  silver,  gilt.  She  has  two 
chains  round  her  necl:,  one  of  which  hangs  down  very  low  before,  and  the  other  rests  on 
her  shoulders.  Be»<leB  these  she  wears  a  lesser  chain,  from  which  a  little  heart  gene- 
rally hangs,  which  may  be  opened,  to  put  balsam  or  some  other  kind  of  perfume  into  it. 

The  dress  here  described  is  worn  by  all  the  Icelaridic  women,  high  and  low,  without 
excepdon ;  with  this  difierence,  that  the  poorer  sort  have  it  of  coarse  wadmal,  with 


■i 


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654 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTRR8  ON  ICKLAND. 


ornaments  of  brass ;  and  those  that  are  easier  in  their  circumstances,  of  broad  cloth, 
with  silver  ornamcntii,  gilt.  I  m\v  one  of  these  dresses,  which  iK-longed  to  the  buitiH''s 
wife,  and  was  worth  at  Icust  three  hundred  dollars,  l^crhaps  it  would  not  Ix;  disagree- 
able to  peruse  a  listofthedifllrent  articles  which  comnose  an  Icelandic  woman's  dress, 
one  of  which  Mr.  Banks  bought,  in  order  to  take  lo  ilngland,  with  his  other  Icelandic 
collections. 

Hempa  (upjKr  dress)  .... 

Hoettvtf  (travelling  hat)         ... 

Upphlutur  (b(xlice)         ... 

iSvinta  (apron)         ... 

7'reja  (jacket)  ..... 

Mallinaa  (girdle)         ...... 

Fat  (petticoat)        ..... 

Kjeaja  (chain)  ..... 

iMufa  pr'ionar  (bodkins ornamented  with  silver) 
Ao///r  (lillet)  ..... 

Erma  knappar  (sleeve-buttons) 
QM<?n  vctltugar  (rough  gloves) 
Aubreida  (a  cloth  to  wrap  their  clothes  in) 


LETTER  VIII....TO  CHEVALIER  HIRE. 
OF  THE  HOUSES  AND  BUILUINGS  OF  THE  ICELANDERS. 

Stockholm,  September  14, 1774. 
The  houses  of  the  Icelanders  are  not  alike  throughout  the  country.  According  to 
some  descriptions,  they  are  tolerable  on  the  north  side  of  the  island  ;  but  on  that  part 
of  Iceland  which  I  have  seen,  they  were  all  extremely  bad,  excepting  those  of  the  gov. 
ernor  at  Bessestedr,  the  physician's  at  Seltiamarnes,  and  the  sheriff's  at  Wido,  which 
were  built  of  stone,  at  the  king's  expence.  In  some  i}arts  the  dwellings  and  other 
buildings  of  the  Icelanders  are  made  of  drift-wood,  in  others  they  are  raised  of  lava, 
almost  in  the  same  manner  as  the  stone-walls  we  make  for  inclosures,  with  moss  stuffed 
between  the  lava.  In  some  houses  the  walls  are  wainscoted  on  the  inside.  The  roof 
is  covered  with  sods  laid  over  rafting,  or  sometimes  over  ribs  of  whales,  which  is  both 
more  durable  and  more  expensive  than  wood.  The  timber- work  rests  on  many, beams 
laid  lengthways.  Th^-  walb  are  about  three  yards  high,  and  the  entrance  somewhat 
lower.     The  plan  of  one  of  these  houses  is  here  annexed,  to  give  a  better  idea  of  it. 


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— . — J 


VON  TKOIL'S  LKlTCItS  OS  ICKLANO. 


655 


(a)  is  the  door  or  entrance  of  the  long  lobby  ;  (bbb)  is  ulx)ut  six  feet  broad,  and  admits 
the  light  through  some  holes  in  the  roof,  ujKjn  which  a  iioop,  with  a  ikin  stretcht d  over 
it,  is  laid.  At  the  end  of  the  lobby  is  a  room  (c)  where  the  women  do  Uieir  work, 
and  where  the  m;ihter  of  the  house  generally  sleeps  wir'.  his  wife.  The  walls  of  this  room 
are  wainscoted  ;  it  has  u  ceiling  and  floor,  sometimes  even  small  glass  windows,  but  no 
fire-place.  Oa  both  sides  of  this  long  lobby  are  four  rooms,  two  on  each  side,  of  which 
(d)  is  the  kitchen,  (e)  the  r(K)m  made  use  of  to  eat  in  (f)  the  dairy,  and  (g)  the  servant's 
room  :  these  room^  have  neither  ceilings  nor  floors,  and  the  walls  are  seldom  or  never 
lined.  The  windows  are  made  ;}'  the  chorion  (liknaibelgur)  and  amnios  of  sheep 
(vatzbelgur)  or  the  membranes  which  surroimdthe  womb  of  the  ewe.  These  are  stretch- 
ed over  a  hoop,  and  laid  over  an  ojK'niiiir  in  the  roof,  upon  which  a  wooden  shutter  is 
let  down,  if  the  weather  be  stormy.  1  hey  have  not  even  a  ch'  /  in  the  kitchens, 
and  only  lay  their  fuel  between  three  stones,  and  the  smoke  issues  from  a  square  hole  in 
the  roof,  iksides  this  house,  they  have  a  booth  or  shed  to  keep  their  fish  in  (skoemma ) 
sometimes  another  for  their  clothes,  &c.  8ic.  and  not  far  oflf  the  stable  for  their  cattle. 
In  the  poorer  sort  of  houses,  they  employ  for  the  windows  the  inner  membrane  of 
the  stomach  of  ai.imals,  and  which  tliey  call  skoena ;  this  is  not  so  transparent  as  the 
liefore-mentioned  membrane, 

LETTKR  IX....TO  MRS.  CARLSON. 
ON  THE  FOOD  OF  THB  ICELANDERS. 

Gothenburg,  March  20. 

Though  it  cannot  aflford  any  preat  pleasure  to  examine  the  manner  in  which  the 
Icelanders  prepare  their  food,  particularly  after  having  so  lately  tasted  at  your  table  all 
the  dainties  of  the  four  parts  of  th«  globe  ;  I  will,  nevertheless,  perform  my  promise, 
in  communicating  to  you  a  description  of  it.  Methinks  I  see  you  sometimes  disdaining 
their  dishes ;  but,  I  assure  you,  an  Icelander  is  not  less  happy  for  being  unable  to  season 
his  food  with  the  productions  of  a  distant  climate ;  he  is  content  with  what  nature  af- 
fords him,  satisfies  the  cravings  of  his  stomach,  and  enjoys  his  health,  whilst  we  fre- 
quently surfeit  ourselves  by  feasting  on  delicacies,  and  loathe  the  most  wholesome  food. 

The  larders  and  pantries  of  the  Icelanders  are  seldom  so  well  stored  as  to  contain 
every  one  of  the  articles,  at  one  time,  which  I  am  goin^  to  mention ;  some  of  them, 
however,  they  must  be  absolutely  provided  with,  as  their  food  enL -ely  consists  of  the 
following  articles. 

Bread  of  several  sorts,  chiefly  sour  biscuit  *  from  Copenhagen ;  but  they  have  not 
much  of  this,  as  it  is  too  dear  for  them  ;  they  content  themselves  therefore  with  pro- 
viding it  for  weddings,  and  other  entertainments.  Some,  instead  of  it,  bake  themselves 
bread  of  flour  of  rye,  though  they  likewise  get  some  from  Copenhagen.     The  manner 

*  In  most  northern  countries  the  inhabitants  live  on  rye-bread  ;  the  flour  taken  to  prepare  it  is  seldom 
bolted,  and  it  is  commonly  prepared  with  sour  ferment  or  leven,  which  gives  the  bread  an  acidulated  taste, 
disagreeable,  and  resisting  the  stomachs  of  weak  persons,  but  palatable  and  wholesome  to  those  of  a  strong 
constitution.  The  sour  paste  communicates  an  agreeable  acidity  to  this  bread ;  ^nd  as  the  northern  cli- 
mates, on  account  of  iheir  long  winters,  and  the  confinement  ofpeople  in  heated  rooms  lull  of  noxious  ciHu- 
via,  as  well  on  account  of  the  chiefly  salt-meat  diet  of  the  inhabitants,  make  the  people  inclined  to  the 
scurvy,  this  acidulated  bread,  the  sour-crout,  and,  in  Russia,  their  sour  drink  called  Guass,  afford  such 
powerful  antiseptics,  that,  with  the  diet  here  described,  the  scurvy  seldom  or  ever  gains  ground  among 
the  people.  These  sour  biscuits,  no  doubt,  are  likewise  made  of  rye-flour,  or  of  rye  and  wheat  mixed 
together,  ground  without  bolting,  and  acidulated  by  fermentation  with  sour  leven. 


\ 


.i5eii«A«-*.>(WrW_<rf!!ajw*.A«>*w^««;^rr»p-'/f-i;rrr~M»(rfrv-wp-rt-,r'.- 


056 


VC;  TBOIL'8  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


in  which  they  bake  it  is  thus  :  the  flour  is  mixed  with  some  fermented  whey  (syra)  and 
kneaded  into  dough,  of  which  they  make  cakes  one  foot  in  breadth,  and  tlirce  inches 
thick ;  these  are  boiled  in  water  or  whey,  and  then  dried  on  a  hot  stone,  or  an  iron 
I^te. 

Flour  of  Fi&lgr&s  (rock-grass*)  a  cask  of  which  well  cleaned  and  packed  costs  a  rix- 
dollar ;  it  is  first  washed,  and  then  cut  into  small  pieces  by  some,  though  the  greater 
number  dry  it  by  fire  or  the  sun,  then  put  it  into  a  bag,  in  which  it  b  well  beaten,  and 
lastly  worked  into  flour  by  stamping. 

Flour  of  Komsyraf  is  prepared  in  the  same  manner,  as  well  as  the  two  other  sorts  of 
wild  com  melur.j:   by  stparatinP"  it  from  the  chaff,  by  pounding,  and  lastly  grinding  it 

Surt  smoer  (sour  butter).  The  Icelanders  seldom  make  use  of  fresh  or  salt  butter, 
but  let  it  grow  sour  before  the}  eat  it :  in  this  manner  it  may  be  kept  twenty  years,  and 
even  longer ;  and  the  Icelanders  look  upon  it  as  more  wholesome  and  palatable  than  the 
butter  used  amongst  us.  It  is  reckoned  better  the  older  it  grows,  and  one  pound  of  it 
then  is  as  much  valued  as  two  pounds  of  fresh  butter. 

Striug,  or  whey  boiled  tu  the  consistence  of  sour  milk,  and  preserved  for  the  winter. 

Fish  of  all  kinds,  both  dried  in  the  sun  and  in  the  air,  and  either  salted,  or  in  winter 
frozen :  those  prepared  in  the  last  manner  are  preferred  by  many. 

The  flesh  of  bears,  sheep,  and  birds,  which  is  partly  salted,  partly  hung  or  smoked, 
and  some  preserved  in  casks,  with  sour  fermented  whey  poured  over  it. 

Misost,  or  whey  boiled  to  cheese,  which  is  very  good.  But  the  art  of  making  other 
kinds  of  good  cheese  is  lost,  though  some  tolerably  palatable  is  sold  in  the  east  quarter  of 
Iceland. 

Beina  string,  bones  and  cartilages  of  beef  and  mutton,  likewise  bones  of  cod,  boiled 
in  whey>  till  they  are  quite  dissolved ;  they  are  then  left  to  ferment,  and  are  eat  with 
milk. 

Skyr,  the  cUrds  from  which  the  whey  is  squeezed  are  preserved  in  casks,  cr  other 
vessels ;  the^  are  sometimes  mixed  with  black  crow- berries  (empetrum  baccis  nigris)  or 
juniper  hemes,  and  are  likewise  eat  with  new  milk. 

Syra  is  sour  whey,  kept  in  casks,  and  left  to  ferment,  which,  however,  is  not  thought 
fit  for  use  till  it  is  a  year  old. 

Blanda  is  a  liquor  made  of  water,  to  which  a  twelfth  part  of  syra  is  added.  In  winter 
it  is  mixed  with  the  juice  of  thyme,  and  of  the  black  crow-berries,  or  the  empetrum 
nigrum. 

They  likewise  eat  many  vegetables,  §  some  of  which  grow  wild,  and  others  are  cul- 
tivated ;  as  also  shell-fish, ||  and  mushrooms.1F 

•  Lichen  Islandicus,  Fl.  Suec.  1085.     Fl.  Lappon,  U5.  t  Polygonum  Bistorta. 

\  (1)  Atun(luarenai°ai,(2)  arundo  folioruxn  lateribus  convolutis. 

§  The  following  catalogue  of  plants  used  for  food  in  Iceland  is  taken  from  the  journey  of  Eggert  Olaf- 
sen : 

Rumex  acetosa,  in  the  Icelandic  language  called  Sura. 

digynus,  Olafa  Sura. 

■  "  patientia,  Hrimia  mole. 

Taraxacum,  Aetti  ^^U, 

Carex  Lin.  pinguicula,  Lifia  gnu,  used  against  the  dysentery. 

Trifolium  pratense  flore  albo. 

Potentilla  argentea,  Mura. 

Plantago  maritima  Lin.  foliis  linearibus,  Rittartunga, 

Angelica  archangelica, /ft<^n  ;  JSf^f-Autfnn. 

Lichen  Islandicus,  Fialla  graiu.  .    •  . 

■  Lichenoides,  JgoMtmffl<r.  ' 


~ri ^T 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTERS  OK  ICELAND. 


657 


iyra)and 
ce  inches 
>r  an  iron 

>sts  a  rix' 
;  greater 
aten,  and 

r  sorts  of 
inding  it 
It  butter, 
ears,  and 
:  than  the 
)und  of  it 

:  winter, 
in  winter 

:  smoked, 

:ing  other 
quarter  of 

3d,  boiled 
e  eat  with 

,  cr  other 
nigris)  or 

>t  thought 

In  winter 
:mpetrum 

:s  are  ciil- 


ta. 

:ggert  Olaf. 


The  Icelanders  in  general  eat  three  meals  a  day,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  at  two  in  the 
aflemoon,  and  at  nine  in  the  evening. 

In  the  morning  and  evening  they  commonly  eat  curds  mixed  with  new  milk,  and 
sometimes  with  juniper  berries,  and  those  of  empetrum  nigrum.  In  some  parts  they  also 
have  potuge  of  fialgras,  which,  I  assure  you.  is  very  palatable :  vallidrafli,  or  curdled 
milk,  boiled  till  it  becomes  of  a  red  colour  ;^8eiddmijolk,  or  new  milk,  boiled  a  long 
while.  At  dinner,  their  food  consists  of  dried  fish,  with  plenty  of  sour  butter.  They 
also  sometimes  eat  freah  fish,  and,  when  possible,  a  little  bread  and  cheese  with  them.  It 
is  reported  by  some,  that  they  do  not  eat  any  fish  till  it  is  quite  rotten ;  this  report,  per- 
haps, proceeds  from  their  being  fond  of  it  when  a  little  tainted  :  they,  however,  fre- 
Jiuently  eat  fish  which  is  quite  fresh,  though  in  the  same  manner  as  the  rest  of  their 
ood,  often  without  salt. 

On  Sunday,  and  in  harvest-time,  they  have  broth  made  of  meat,  which  is  often  boiled 
in  8\'ra,  instead  of  water ;  and  in  winter  they  eat  hung  or  dried  meat. 

Their  common  beverage  is  milk,  either  warm  from  the  cow,  or  cold,  and  sometimes 
boiled :  they  likewise  maike  buttermilk,  with  or  without  water.  On  the  coasts  they  gene- 
rally drink  blanda,*  and  cour  milk  ;  which  b  sold,  after  it  is  skimmed,  at  two-fifths  of  a 
rix-doUar  a  cask  ;  some  likewise  send  lor  beer  from  Copenhagen,  and  some  others  brew 
their  own.  A  few  of  the  principal  inhabitants  also  have  claret  and  coffee.  The  common 
people  sometimes  drink  a  kind  of  tea,  which  they  make  from  the  leaves  of  Holta-sollygf 
and  Spudwell.l 

This  is  the  usual  manner  of  life  in  Iceland.  la  all  countries  the  living  of  the  poor 
differs  essentially  from  that  of  the  rich ;  and  if  an  Iceland  gentleman  can  afford  to  eat 
meat,  butter,  shark,  and  whale,  the  peasants  are  obliged  to  content  themselves  with  fish, 
blanda,  milk,  pottage  of  rock  grass,  and  beina<striug.  Though  the  Icelanders  cannot 
in  general  be  said  to  be  in  want  of  necessary  aliment,  yet  the  country  has  several  times 
been  visited  by  great  famines :  these,  however,  have  been  chiefly  owing  to  the  Green- 
land floating-ice,  which,  when  it  comes  in  great  quantities,  prevents  the  grass  from  grow- 
ing, and  puts  an  entire  stop  to  their  fishing. 

I  need  not  acquaint  you,  that  we  were  not  necessitated  to  submit  to  their  manner  of 
life  during  our  stay  in  Iceland.    Instead  of  blanda  we  drank  port,  and  several  other 

:    .   ,  ,''t:i     ,   ,^  .        \.  Lichen  Coraloides,  Jrr«(/a 

'■'■(■       '•      -^  H'lVexiSt  Mariu-grat. 

""       ~  Leprosus,  Geitna-akof, 

;•:::'  :;/.;*,;,';-    ,.:  Anindo  Arenaria,  Mf/ur. 

.    '^■-   :     .     »'    •  foliorum lateribas convoluti>. 

'    \        .  Cochlearia,  Skarja-kaal. 

Plantago  angustifolia,  Selgreae 
■■••■!    .  -!  ,  '  Epilobium  tertagonum,  Put^uro-A/om/Iui*. 

Polygonum  bistorta,  Komsura, 
SiBymbrium,  Mn.  Kattar-balaam. 

II  Ventrosa  crassa,  Kuakel,  akelkuakel, 
Domiporta,  Kudungur,  kt{fimgur  kmgur. 
l\^\xA\a^  KrakHngur 
.•  Major,  ^</a. 

1[  Agaricus  caulescens,  pileo  albo,  JEue-roep», 
.    supra  pileo  piano,  Mut'tvelit . 
■  subconvexo,  Reyde-ktUa 

of  an  unknown  sort,  Bleikula. 


»'.  ti7*'.'»'-'..'! 


*  In  the  Elfdalln  of  Wermeland,  in  Sweden,  the  common  beverage  of  the  countrjr  people  is  milk,  mix- 
ed wi  i  h  water,  and  called  b]r  them  Ulanda. 
t  Dryasoctopetala.  \  Veronica  officinaleB. 

VOL.  I.  4  p 


%ii 


658 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTEBS  ON  ICELaNU. 


sorts  of  good  wine ;  and  a  French  cook  prepared  for  us  some  savoury  dishes,  and  ex- 
cellent puddings. 

However,  as  we  wished  to  try  every  thing,  we  prevailed  upon  the  physician  Biame 
Paulsen,  who  had  invited  us  to  dinner,  to  entertain  us  after  the  Icelandic  manner.  We 
did  not  forget  the  good  Swedish  custom  of  taking  a  glass  of  brandy  before  dinner,  which 
was  here  genuine  ;  we  had  only  once  Danlft  distilled  corn-brandy,  which  was  served  up 
with  biscuit,  cheese,  and  sour  butter.  In  the  middle  of  the  table  was  placed  a  dish  with 
dried  fish  cut  small ;  the  other  dishes  were  a  piece  of  good  roast  mutton,  broth  with  syra, 
and  a  dish  of  salmon-trouts,  &c.  &c.  We  eat  with  a  very  good  appetite ;  but  the  sour 
butter  and  dried  fish  were  not  often  applied  to ;  on  the  whole^  we  eat  a  greater  quantity 
of  bread  than  the  Icelanders  generally  do. 

So  elegant  an  entertainment  could  not  be  without  a  desert ;  and  for  this  purpose  some 
flesh  of  whale  and  shark  (huf-kal)  was  served.  This  is  either  boiled  or  dried  in  the 
air,  looks  very  much  like  rusty  bacon,  and  had  so  disagreeable  a  taste,  that  the  small 
quantity  we  took  of  it  drove  us  from  the  table  long  before  our  intention.  Most  pro- 
bably you  already  thank  me  for  my  entertainment,  and  are  happy  to  see  the  end  of  mv 
letter. 


[ 


LETTER  X....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE.  '  ' 

OF  THE  EMPLOYMENT  OF  THE  ICELANDERS,  AND  THEIR  CHRONOLOGY.     .^      , 

Stockholm,  September  6, 1774. 

The  Icelanders  principally  attend  to  fishing,  and  the  care  of  their  cattle. 

On  the  coasts  the  men  employ  their  time  in  fishing  both  summer  and  winter :  on  their 
return  home,  when  they  have  drawn  and  cleaned  their  fish,  they  give  them  to  their 
wives,  whose  care  it  is  to  dry  them.  In  the  winter,  when  the  inclemency  of  the  weather 
prevents  them  from  fishing,  they  are  obliged  to  take  care  of  their  cattle,  and  spin  wool. 
In  summer  they  mow  the  grass,  dig  turf,  provide  fuel,  go  in  search  of  sheep  and  goats  that 
were  gone  astrav,  and  kill  cattle.  They  likewise  full  their  wadmal,  or  coarse  cloth ;  for 
which  purpose  they  make  use  of  urine,  which  they  also  employ  in  washing  and  bucking, 
instead  of  soap  and  pot  ashes.  The  men  likewise  prepare  leather,  for  which  they  use 
muid-urt  (spiraea  ulmaria)  instead  of  birch-rihd.  Some  few  work  in  gold  and  lulver,  and 
others  are  instructed  in  mechanics,  in  which  they  are  tolerable  proficients. 

As  a  proof  of  this,  I  need  only  mention  a  sledge  which  a  peasant  contrived  some 
years  ago  in  the  form  of  a  ship  with  sails,  and  large  enough  to  contain  four  or  five  per- 
sons, that  would  sail  in  the  winter  season,  in  an  even  country.  Unluckily  two  of  hb 
sons,  in  sailing  home  firom  church,  overturned,  and  broke  the  whole  carriage  to 
pieces. 

-  On  the  west  side  of  the  country  they  make  vessels  of  floating  wood,  large  enough  to 
contain  from  three  to  twelve  tons,  and  make  their  charge  according  to  the  size  of  the  ves- 
sel,  from  four  to  six  dollars. 

The  women  prepare  the  fish,  take  care  of  the  canle,  manage  the  milk  and  the  wool^ 
sew,  spin,  and  gather  eggs  and  down.  When  they  work  in  die  evening,  they  use,  in< 
stead  of  an  hour-glass,  a  lamp,  with  a  wick  made  of  fiva  (epilobium)  dipt  in  train-oi], 
which  is  so  condived  as  to  bum  four,  six,  or  eight  hours. 


i-,'  tv 


VON  TROIL'fl  LETT^.RS  ON  ICELAND. 


659 


in- 


Their  work  is  ia  some  measure  determined  by  their  bya-lag,  or  by.laws*'^  of  their  vil. 
lages,  in  which  the  quantity  of  work  they  are  bound  to  perform  in  a  day  is  prescribed  to 
them  :  they  seldom  do  so  much  work  now,  so  that  it  is  called  only  medelmans  vark,  or 
the  work  of  a  man  of  middling  strength.  According  to  this  prescription,  a  man  is  to 
mow  as  much  hay  in  one  day  as  grows  on  thirty  fathoms  square  of  manured  soil,  or 
forty  fathoms  square  of  land  not  manured,  or  he  is  obliged  to  dig  seven  hundred  pieces 
of  turf,  eight  feet  long  and  three  broad.  If  so  much  snow  falls  as  to  reach  to  the  horses 
bellies,  wmch  they  call  quedsnio,  he  is  to  clear  away  daily  the  snow  for  a  hundred  sheep. 
A  woman  is  to  rake  together  as  much  hay  as  three  men  can  mow,  or  to  weave  three 
yards  of  wadmal  a  day. 

The  wages  of  a  man  are  fixed  at  four  dollars,  and  twelve  yards  of  wadmal ;  and 
those  of  a  woman  at  two  dollars,  and  five  yards  of  wadmal.  When  men  are  sent  a 
fishing  out  of  the  country,  there  is  allowed  to  each  man,  by  the  bya-lag,  from  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  September  to  the  fourteenth  of  May,  six  pounds  of  butter,  and  eighteen  pounds 
of  dried  fish,  every  week.  This  may  appear  to  be  too  great  an  allowance ;  but  it  must 
be  remembered,  that  they  have  nothing  besides  to  live  upon.  When  they  are  at  home, 
and  can  get  milk,  &c.  Sec.  every  man  receives  only  five  pounds  of  dried  fish,  and  three 
quarters  of  a  pound  of  butter,  a  week. 

As  the  division  of  time  among  the  Icelanders  is  not  determined  according  to  the 
course  of  the  sun,  but  by  their  work,  this  is  peihaps  the  most  proper  place  to  say 
something  of  it.  Though  they  have,  like  us,  four  different  seasons,  they  only  count 
two;  the  summer,  whicn  begins  the  Thursday  before  the  sixteenth  of  April;  and  the 
winter  commences  on  the  Friday  before  the  eighteenth  of  October.  During  the  first 
season  they  perform  their  summer-work,  and  in  the  latter  attend  to  their  winter  amuse- 
ments. These  two  seasons  are  afterwards  divided  into  twelve  months,  as  with  us,  which 
have  their  common  names;  but  in  ancient  records,  and  among  the  lower  elate  of  people, 
are  called,  1.  Midsvetrar.  2.  Fostugangs  m.  3.  lafiidaegra  m.  4.  Sumar  m.  5.  Far. 
daga  m.  6.  Nottleysu  m*  7.  Midsumar  m.  8.  Heyanna  m.  9.  Adratta  m. 
10.  Slaatrunar  m.  1 1.  Ridtidar  m.  12.  Skammdeigris  m.  Day  and  night  are  not 
divided  into  a  certain  number  of  hours,  but  into  the  following  divisions  :  Otta  is  with 
them  three  o'clock  in  the  morning ;  Midur  morgon  or  Herdis  rismal,  five  o'clock ;  Dag- 
mal,  half  past  eight;  Haadeye,  eleven;  Noon,  three  in  the  afternoon;  Midur  afton,  six 
in  the  morning;  Nattmall,  eight;  and  Midnatt,  twelve  o'clock  at  night. 

When  they  want  to  know  what  o'clock  it  Is,  they  attend  to  the  course  of  the  sun^ 
and  the  flux  and  reflux  of  the  sea ;  but  generally  they  make  use  of  an  art  to  discover 
the  sun  by  their  fingers.  Watches  are  very  rare  among  them ;  every  peasant,  how. 
ever,  has  an  hour-glass. 


.'■». 


*  «  By-laws  are  said  to  be  orders  made  in  court-leets  or  court-barons,  by  common  assent,  for  the  good 
oF  those  that  make  them,  farther  than  the  public  law  binds."  Atterbury.  See  Johnson's  Diet.  Though 
this  may  probably  be  the  present  meaning  of  the  word  By-law,  it  is  not,  however,  ths  original  meaning 
of  the  word ;  for  it  is  derived  from  the  old  Saxon  word  by  or.  bye,  signifying  a  town,  from  the  t  othic 
word  bo,  to  inhabit ;  and  agreeable  to  this  are  many  English  names  of  towns,  viz.  Ash-by,  Whit-by,  Sec. 
ice.  By-law,  therefore,  signified  formerly  laws  made  by  townships,  and  by  districts  belonging  to  a  town, 
or  to  a  leet,  which  amoimted  sometimes  to  a  third  pact  of  a  shire.  These  laws  were  made  by  common 
assent,  and  for  the  good  of  those  that  made  them,  which  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  chief  aim  of  all  laws, 
and  they  extend  farther  than  the  public  law  binds;  because  the  law  of  the  land  must  be  general,  and 
cannot  provide  for  all  particular  rascs  of  single  towns  and  districts.  The  special  regulations  and  restiic- 
Uons,  therefore,  made  by  the  common  assent  of  the  towns-people,  for  the  common  good  of  that  par- 
ticular town,  beyond  the  law  of  the  land,  are  by-laws,  laws  of  the  bye  or  town.  The  Icelandic  word, 
bya  log,  signifies  laws  of  villages  or  townships ;  and  it  confirms  the  signification  we  have  given  to  the 
English  word  by-law. 

4  P  2 


■:'- 


I 


66() 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


LETTER  XI....TO  CHEVALIER  BACH. 
OF   THE  DISEASES  IN  ICELAND. 

Stockholm,  Oct  1,  1776. 

You  require,  sir,  that  I  should  give  you  some  account  of  the  diseases  common  in 
Iceland.  1  will  obey  your  commands,  though  it  is  more  the  province  of  a  physician  to 
undertake  the  subject,  as  it  requires  so  much  exactness  and  penetration. 

As  I  have  been  so  happy  as  to  be  unacquainted  with  any  disease  from  my  own  ex. 
perience,  I  have  as  little  endeavoured  to  gain  any  knowledge  by  reading  such  books  as 
treat  of  them ;  you  will  therefore  pardon  me,,  if  my  account  is  not  very  perfect. 

The  climate  of  the  country,  and  the  purity  of  the  air,  contribute  very  much  to  make 
the  Icelanders  strong  and  healthy,  though  their  food  and  way  of  life  frequently  produce 
the  contrary  effect.  Young  children,  for  example,  are  not  suckled  more  than  two 
or  three  days,  and  afterwards  brought  up  with  cow's  milk,  which,  in  times  of  dearth, 
is  mixed  with  flour  and  water. 

I  remember  to  have  heard,  that  this  is  also  customary  in  some  parts  of  Finland;  but 
a  different  manner  of  living  may  render  that  unwholesome  in  Iceland,  which  is  less 
dangerous  in  another  place :  and  I  think  I  may  safely  venture  to  affirm,  that  the  food 
and  mode  of  living  in  Iceland  do  not  contribute  to  the  strength  of  the  inhabitants.  One 
seldom  meets  with  any  of  them  above  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  age,  and  the  greater  part 
are  attacked  in  their  middle  age  by  many  grievous  complaints. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  among  the  female  sex,  who  there,  as  almost  cvervwhere  else^ 
live  to  a  greater  age  than  the  men,  those  particularly  attain  to  an  advanced  life  who  have 
had  many  children.  There  are  a  great  many  of  this  class,  as  the  women  are  common- 
ly  very  fruitful;  and  it  is  no  rare  thing  to  meet  with  a  mother  who  has  had  twelve  or 
fifteen  children. 

Among  the  diseases  that  are  jnost  prevalent,  the  scurvy  (Skyrbuigar)  is  the  most 
common.  In  some  it  makes  its  appearance  in  the  same  manner  as  with  us,  but  in 
others  it  produces  the  most  dreadful  symptoms,  and  is  then  called  liktraad,  or  leprosy, 
which,  however,  differs  from  that  horrid  disease  so  common  in  the  East.  Its  first  ap- 
pearances are,  swellings  in  the  hands  and  feet,  andsomedmes  also  in  other  parts  of  the 
body  ;  the  skin  becomes  shining  and  of  a  bluish  cast,  the  hair  falls  off,  the  sight,  taste, 
smell,  and  feeling,  are  weakened,  and  often  quite  lost ;  biles  appear  on  the  arms,  legs, 
and  face;  respiration  becomes  difficult,  and  the  breath  foedd;  aching  pains  are  felt  in 
all  the  joints,  a  breaking-out  spreads  over  the  whole  body,  and  is  at  last  converted  into 
wounds,  which  generally  terminate  in  death. 

The  Icelanders  make  use  of  antiscorbutic  decoctions,  likewise  baths,  with  turnips 
boiled  in  them ;  but  chiefly  mercurial  remedies,  by  means  of  which  the  disease  may  be 
removed  in  its  beginning.  This  disease  is  not  contagious,  but  very  obstinate ;  and  it  is 
>  remarkable,  that  two  generations  may  be  endrely  free  from  it,  when  it  shall  appear  in 
the  third.  It  does  not  always  prove  mortal,  though  many  are  tormented  with  it  twenty 
or  thirty  years. 

The  gout  (torv^rk)  most  men  have  in  their  hands  who  go  out  a-fishing  probably  be- 
cau  se  they  are  obliged  to  handle  and  manage  the  wet  fisliing  tackle  in  cold  weather. 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


661 


The  St.  Anthony's  fire,  in  Icelandic  a  ama,  is  pretty  common.  They  make  use  of 
earth-worms  (anumadkur)  to  cure  it,  which  they  bind  alive  on  the  wounded  part ;  and 
when  they  become  dry,  others  are  applied,  till  the  disease  is  removed. 

The  jaundice,  in  Icelandic  guulsot ;  the  fever,  kvefsot ;  the  pleurisy,  tuk,  which  is 
sometimes  infectious,  and  then  is  called  landfarsot,  or  an  infectious  disease,  is  frequently 
got  by  cold  ;  lowness  of  spirits,  carcinoma  infantum,  in  Icelandic  krabbe,  a  atumein,  the 
spleen,  and  obstructions,  are  very  common.  In  later  years  the  rickets  made  their  ap- 
pearance ;  and  the  venereal  disease  was  not  known  amon^  them  till  the  year  1753. 

Besides  the  antiscorbutic  plants,  which  are  to  be  found  m  plenty  in  Iceland,  they  have 
a  numt)er  of  hot  baths,  which  are  of  great  benefit  in  the  cure  of  these  diseases. 

There  is  an  apothecary's  shop  established  on  the  island,  and  four  hospitals  for  the  poor 
and  leprous,  the  care  of  which  is  committed  to  their  most  skilful  physicians,  with  projjer 
assistants. 

L'iTTER  XII....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE. 
OF  FISHING  AND  FOWLING,  AND  THE  BREED  OF  CATTLE  IN  ICELAND. 

Stockholm,  October  3,  1774. 

The  inhabitants  who  live  near  the  coasts  employ  themselves  nearly  all  the  year  in 
fishing ;  and  even  those  who  live  in  the  inland  parts  of  the  country  come  to  the  sea- 
shore at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  Every  master  of  a  family  has  a  particular  fishing- 
dress,  and  is  obliged  to  furnish  one  to  his  servant  as  soon  as  he  puts  out  to  sea.  They 
are  made  of  sheep  or  calves  skins,  which,  in  manufacturing,  are  frequently  rubbed  over 
M'ith  train-oil.  They  consist  of  the  following  articles  :  leistrabrakur,  are  breeches  and 
stockings  all  in  a  piece,  which  come  up  pretty  high  above  the  hips,  and  are  laced  on  very 
tight ;  stackur,  a  wide  jacket  fastened  round  the  neck  and  the  middle  of  the  waist ; 
taatillar,  or  coarse  fulled  stockings,  or  stiff  worsted ;  and  sjoskor,  or  water-shoes,  of  thick 
leather. 

Their  boats  are  commonly  small,  and  only  contain  from  one  to  four  men,  with  these 
they  fish  near  the  shore ;  but  with  their  larger  boats,  which  are  made  to  contain  from 
twelve  to  sixteen  men,  and  are  provided  with  sails,  they  frequently  venture  from  four  to 
eight  miles  from  the  shore. 

In  these  vessels  they  always  carry  a  man  extraordinary,  whom  they  call  formatm.  He 
sits  at  the  helm  ;  and  the  others  who  are  called  huasettt  .s,  obey  his  commands.  At  his 
call  they  all  assemble  at  an  appointed  time  near  the  vessel,  provided  with  knives,  fishing, 
lines,  and  other  proper  tackle :  they  make  use  of  shells,  and  sometimes  the  flesh  of  qua- 
drupeds and  birds,  for  bait. 

As  soon  as  the  boat  is  off  the  shore,  they  all  take  off  their  hats  and  caps,  pray  for  good 
success,  and  recommend  themselves  to  the  divine  protection  by  a  prayer  and  hymn, 
which  they  call  vararsaungur,  and  then  stand  out  to  sea.  As  soon  as  they  are  come  to 
a  place  where  they  expect  a  good  draught,  two  of  them  sit  down  at  the  helm,  to  prevent 
the  boat's  being  moved  out  of  its  place  by  the  current,  and  to  take  care  that  the  fishing- 
lines  are  not  ent;u^gled.  In  this  manner  they  continue  fishing  the  whole  day ;  and 
when  the  boat  will  not  contain  any  more  fish,  they  cut  off  the  heads  of  all  the  fish  they 
have  caught,  which  they  throw  into  the  sea,  together  with  their  entrails.  This  not  only 
enables  them  to  carry  a  greater  number  of  fish  ashore,  but  also  invites  many  insects  to 
the  place,  which  affords  good  bait. 


' 


I; 


662 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICBLANU. 


At  their  return  all  the  fish  are  brought  ashore,  and  divided  into  equal  shares :  one 
share  belongs  to  the  owner  of  the  boat,  though  he  should  not  be  out  at  sea  with  them, 
and  this  is  called  skipleiga  (ships-hire;)  another  is  given  to  him  who  sat  at  the  helm ;  a 
third  to  him  who  governed  the  sails ;  in  a  word,  every  fisher  gets  a  share.  But  this 
equal  division  is  only  made  with  the  smaller  Bsh  ;  for  if  any  one  in  the  boat  is  so  fortu- 
nate as  to  catch  a  turbot  or  other  valuable  fish,  it  is  immediately  cut  into  pieces,  and  the 
three  best  given  to  him  who  caught  it. 

As  soon  as  they  have  thus  shared  them,  every  one  cuts  oflTthe  heads  of  his  fish,  draws 
them,  and  after  cutting  them  up  from  top  to  bottom  on  the  side  of  the  belly,  takes  out 
the  back- bone,  from  that  part  where  it  ^s  fixed  to  the  head  down  to  the  third  joint  below 
the  heart.  If  the  weather  be  such  as  to  give  them  hopes  of  drying  their  fish  next  day, 
they  lay  them  with  the  fleshy  side  facing  one  another  ;  but  if  the  weather  is  unfavour- 
able, they  lay  the  pieces  on  a  heap,  with  the  skinny  side  uppermost,  and  this  they  call 
lagga  i  kase ;  if  they  lie  too  long  m  this  position  (one  abov^  another)  they  spoil,  and  are 
then  sold  to  the  merchants  at  a  lower  price,  under  the  denomination  of  kasud  fisk.  When 
the  weather  is  fair,  these  pieces  aie  spread  sepiu"ately  on  stones,  or  on  the  shore,  and  are 
frequently  turned  by  the  women,  till  they  are  entirely  dry  ;  this  often  requires  a  fort- 
night's time,  and  sometimes  more.  The  fish  prepared  in  this  manner  are  called  flatfis- 
kur  (flat  fish.) 

In  some  parts  they  do  not  dry  the  fish  on  stones  or  on  the  shore  ;  but  after  they  have 
ripped  them  up,  place  them  in  rows  on  stones  which  are  laid  cross-wise  in  a  house  built 
for  that  purpose ;  these  huts  are  called  hiallur  in  Iceland,  and  somewhat  resemble  the 
sheds  in  which  smiths  shoe  horses.     These  fish  are  called  hengi-fiskur,  or  hung-fish. 

The  fish  they  principally  catch  is  cod,  of  which  they  have  several  different  sorts,  under 
the  names  of  thyrsk-liugur,  upse,  isk,  langr,  kerla,  &c.  &c.  Besides  these  they  have  soles, 
flounders,  hernngs,  salmon,  salmon-truut,  trouts>  and  several  others.  Of  the  trouts  it 
has  been  observed,  that  when  they  come  up  the  rivers  and  brooks,  and  approach  the  hot 
springs,  they  are  fond  of  staying  in  the  lukewarm  water,  where  they  grow  so  fat  as  to  be 
scarcely  eatable. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  seas,  as  well  as  the  rivers  and  lakes,  abound  with  fish : 
I  will  therefore  only  mention  the  whale,  of  which  there  are  several  sorts,  divided  by  the 
natives  into  two  classes,  those  with  and  those  without  tusks. 

The  first  are  again  divided  into  skidis  fiskur,  smooth-bellied,  and  reydar  fiskur,  or  wrin- 
kle-bellied.  Among  the  skidis  fiskur,  who  have  whale-bone  instead  of  teeth,  the  slettbakr, 
whose  back  is  flat,  is  the  largest ;  and  some  have  been  caught  one  hundred  yards  in 
length.  The  hnufubakr  has  a  nump  on  his  back,  and  is  next  in  size,  being  from  seventy 
to  eighty  yards  long.  Of  all  the  known  whales  the  steipereidur,  which  belongs  to  the 
class  of  the  reydar  fiskur,  is  thought  to  be  the  largest,  as  there  are  some  one  hundred  and 
twenty  yards  m  length.  Then  follow  the  hrafii  reydur  and  the  andarnefia ;  they  are  all 
considered  as  very  dainty  food ;  and  the  Icelanders  say  the  flesh  has  the  taste  of  beef. 

The  whales  which  have  teeth,  instead  of  whalebone,  are  also  divided  into  two  classes, 
those  that  are  eatable  and  those  that  are  not  To  the  first  class  belong  the  hnysen,  hny. 
dingur,  hundfiskur,  and  haahymingur:  to  the  last,  to  which  the  name  of  illwhale  (bad 
whales)  b  given,  are  reckoned  the  rodkammingur  and  naahvalur.  These  are  forbidden 
as  food  by  some  ancient  regulations,  and  particularly  by  the  church  laws.  The  Iceland- 
ers believe  that  the  first  sort  are  very  fond  of  human  flesh,  and  therefore  avoid  fishing  in 
$uch  places  where  they  appear. 

The  other  kinds  of  whales  are  sometimes  struck  with  harpoons,  and  sometimes  caught 
with  nets.    The  Icelanders,  however,  seldom  venture  to  attack  the  larger  ones,  as  their 


"i 


VON  'IKOIL'S  L&TTERS  0\  ICF.LANI). 


66r> 


boats  are  small,  and  they  unprovided  with  instruments  proper  for  that  purpose.  They 
stand  in  so  great  dread  of  some  of  them,  that  when  out  at  sea  they  are  afraid  to  mention 
even  their  names,  and  carry  dung,  brimstone,  juniper-wo(xl,  and  some  other  articles  of 
the  same  nature  in  their  boats,  in  order  to  terrify  und  prevent  their  too  near  approach. 
Notwithstanding,  it  now  and  then  happens  that  they  cutch  some  of  the  largest  sort, 
which  b  done  when  the  fish  approach  too  neiir  the  shore  at  high  water,  and  are  unable  to 
return  as  fast  as  the  water  ebbs,  where  they  are  killed  with  stones  and  lances.  In  this 
manner  they  had  caught  a  large  whale  the  year  before  our  arrival  at  Hafnefiord. 

To  their  fishery  likewise  may  be  reckoned  the  catching  of  liadogs,  which  is  very  consi- 
derable  in  some  parts.  They  have  four  sorts  of  them,  rostungur,  vade-selur,  blaudu- 
seller,  and  gran-selur.  They  are  fattest  in  winter,  and  yield  three  or  four  pounds  of  fat, 
of  which  each  pound  produces  seven  quarts  of  oil :  in  summer,  on  the  contrary,  they 
are  very  lean.  Their  flesh  is  eaten,  and  their  fat  sold  at  five  yards  a  pound.  The  skin 
IS  sold  by  weight,  at  the  rate  of  sixty  yards  for  twenty  pounds. 

Though  the  situation  of  Iceland  renders  it  extremely  proper  for  fishing,  the  fishery 
has  decreased  very  much  lately  ;  which  is  partly  owing  to  the  many  foreign  ships  wluch 
yearly  come  to  fish  in  those  parts,  and  partly  to  the  want  of  men,  as  the  number  of  peo- 
ple has  decreased  greatly.  But  I  believe  the  chief  cause  is  the  monopoly  of  the  trading 
company,  which  very  much  oppresses  the  country. 

If  the  people  had  more  encouragement,  there  would  be  more  emulation  and  diligence 
amongst  them  than  at  present ;  for  they  ore  obliged  to  sell  a  vaett,  or  five  pounds  of  dried 
fish,  to  the  company,  at  the  rate  of  five-sixths  of  a  dollar,  which  they  sell.in  Hamborough, 
'  where  the  greatest  part  of  what  is  caught  in  Iceland  is  usually  sent,  for  five  banco-dol- 
lars. 

Next  to  fishing,  the  principal  support  of  the  Icelanders  is  the  breeding  of  cattle. 

Their  beeves  are  not  large,  but  very  fat  and  good.  It  has  been  reported  by  some, 
though  without  foundation^  that  there  are  none  among  them  with  horns  :  it  is  true, 
however,  that  they  seldom  have  any. 

They  keep  their  large  cattle  at  home  in  their  yards  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  though 
some  have  places  appropriated  to  them  in  the  mountains,  which  they  call  satr,  where 
they  send  their  cattle  during  the  summer,  till  the  hay  harvest  is  over.  They  have  a 
herdsman  to  attend  them,  and  two  women  to  milk  them,  and  make  butter  and  cheese. 
It  is  common  to  meet  with  oxen  running  wild  about  the  mountains,  which  are  however 
drove  home  in  autumn,  as  every  one  knows  his  own  by  a  particular  mark  put  upon 
them. 

The  principal  food  of  the  cattle  is  hay,  and  they  reckon  a  stack  of  hay  for  a  cow's 
winter  provision  :  one  stack  consists  of  thirty  cocks  of  hay  grown  on  manured  land, 
and  forty  cocks  grown  on  unmanured  land.  When  there  is  a  scarcity  of  fodder,  they 
feed  them  in  some  parts  with  steenLitr,  a  kind  of  fish,  which,  together  with  the  heads 
and  bones  of  cod,  is  beaten  small,  and  mixed  with  one  (quarter  of  chopped  hay.  The 
cattle  are  fond  of  it,  and  yield  a  good  deal  of  milk  after  it ;  but  yet  it  is  said  to  have  a 
bad  taste ;  they  only  make  use  of  this  food  in  time  of  need. 

Their  cows  yield  four  quarts  of  milk  a  day,  though  they  have  some  that  give  from 
eight  to  fourteen  in  twenty -four  hours.  A  cow  that  yields  from  six  quarts  is  reckoned 
2,  good  one,  and  must  not  stand  dry  above  three  weeks  before  she  calves. 

A  young  calf  is  fed  with  milk  for  ten  days  or  a  fortnight,  afterw.ards  the  milk  is 
mixed  with  water  and  chopped  hay,  and  at  last  they  give  it  whey  instead  of  milk. 

The  usual  price  of  a  cow,  as  well  as  of  a  horse,  is  one  hundred  and  twenty  yards, 
thirty  of  which  make  a  dollar.    However,  sometimes  the  better  sort  of  horses  are  sold 


^i 


6C4 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


for  eight  or  ten  dollars.  They  have  yet  less  trouble  wiih  their  horses  than  their  cows ; 
for  though  some  saddle-horses  ure  kept  in  btublcs  during  winter,  the  gretiter  nuniln  r  of 
them  urc  ol)liged  to  provide  for  their  own  subsistencv ,  uiid  uiun  they  e.\miot  find  this  on 
land,  they  go  in  seurch  of  seu-weeds  on  the  coasts ;  but  when  u  gtciit  ({uuntity  of  snow 
has  Killen,  the  natives  are  obliged  to  clear  it  away  for  them. 

There  is  no  breed  of  cattle  so  much  attended  lo  in  Icihiud  as  that  of  sheep.  As  these 
can  easily  find  subsistence  there,  the  Icelanders  look  vipon  it  an  less  troublesome  and  less 
expensive  to  breed  them  ;  and  there  are  man)  peasants  who  have  between  three  and  four 
hundred  sheep.  Before  the  epidemical  disease,  which  raged  among  the  sheep  from 
1740  ^o  1750,  it  was  not  uncommon  to  see  flocks  of  one  thousand  or  twelve  hundred, 
the  sole  pro|)erty  of  one  person. 

I  will  not  venture  to  examine  whether  it  would  be  more  advantageous  to  husbandry 
to  keep  more  cows  than  sheep ;  but  as  the  inhabitants  seem  to  be  more  inclined  to  breecl- 
mg  of  sh«-ep,  it  would  be  well  if  such  regulations  were  made,  as  might  enable  them  to 
cultivate  it  with  more  advantage. 

This  has  really  been  thought  of  by  government;  for  about  twenty  years  ago  they 
sent  Buron  Hastier,  a  Swede  by  birth,  to  Iceland,  for  that  purpose.  He  made  several 
regulations,  and  invented  and  prepared  a  kind  of  powder,  as  a  cure  for  the  diseases 
among  sheep,  which  i>.  very  much  made  use  of  there,  as  well  as  in  Denmark  and  Nor- 
way.  'i'hey  speuk  of  him  ever)- where  in  Iceland,  as  of  a  man  who  had  great  knowledge 
in  this  branch  of  husbandry,  and  a  sincere  desiix*  to  redress  all  defects. 

1  know  not  if  the  report  was  well  founded  which  was  spread  all  over  the  country,  that 
the  trading  company  endeavoured  to  obstruct  him  in  the  execution  of  this  design  ;  so 
much  however  is  certain,  that  the  country  has  reaped  little  or  no  benefit  from  Baron 
Hastfer's  depositions. 

The  Icelandic  sheep  differ  from  ours  in  several  particulars  ;  they  have  straight  ears 
standing  upright,  a  small  tail,  and  it  is  common  to  meet  with  sheep  that  have  four  or  five 
horns  :  m  some  places  they  are  kept  in  stables  during  winter,  but  they  are  generally  left 
to  seek  their  food  themselves  in  the  fields. 

It  is  remarkable  that  they  are  fond  of  hiding  themselves  in  caves  (of  which  there  are 
a  great  many  in  Iceland)  in  stormy,  tempestuous  weather.  But  when  they  cannot  find 
any  retreat  during  a  heavy  fall  of  snow,  they  place  themselves  all  in  a  heap,  with  their 
heads  to  the  middle,  and  bent  towards  the  ground,  which  not  only  prevents  them  from 
being  so  easily  buried  under  the  snow,  but  facilitates  the  owner  findmg  them  again.  In 
this  situation  they  can  remain  several  days ;  and  there  have  been  examples  of  their  hav- 
ing been  forced  by  hunger  to  gnaw  off  each  other's  wool  ;  which  forming  into  balls  in 
their  stomachs,  presently  destroys  them.  They  are  however  generally  soon  sought  fiar 
and  disengaged.  There  are  no  wild  sheep,  as  has  been  pretended  by  some,  for  they  all 
have  their  owners,  who  keep  an  exact  account  of  them ;  and  when  they  are  driven  to 
the  mountains,  they  are  scarcely  ever  without  a  shepherd  to  attend  upon  them. 

Their  food  is  grass  and  herbs,  and  the  scurvy-grass  (cochlearia)  in  particular  makes 
them  so  fat,  that  they  yield  more  than  twenty  pounds  of  fat.  They  reckon  one  cask  of 
dunged  hay,  and  two  not  dunged,  for  a  sheep's  winter  proviaon.  When  there  is  a  bad 
crop,  they  are  obliged  to  put  up  with  fish  bones  chopped,  as  well  as  the  other  cattle. 

Good  sheep  give  from  two  to  six  quarts  of  milk  a  day,  of  which  both  butter  and  cheese 
is  made  ;  it  has  likewise  a  good  taste  when  boiled.  "l* '    "* 

The  principal  profit  they  have  fi"om  their  sheep  arises  from  the  wool ;  this  is  not  shorn 
off  as  among  us,  but  remains  on  till  the  end  of  May,  when  it  loosens  of  itself,  and  is 
stripped  off  at  once  like  a  skin,  and  b  then  called  UUaibell.    The  whole  body  is  by  this 


' 


I 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTRRS  ON  ICKLAND. 


665 


that 


time  covered  a^ain  with  new  wool,  which  is  quite  short  .inH  fine,  and  of  better  qiiulity 
than  the  Sweditth.  It  continue!!  to  grow  the  whole  aummi-i ,  and  becomes  coarser  and 
stifTcr  towards  autumn ;  it  is  likewise  smooth  and  glossy,  somewhat  resembling  cunic-l's 
hair,  but  nioic  shaggy.  This  covering  enables  the  sheep  to  supiiort  the  rigours  ot'  winter ; 
but  after  they  have  lost  their  wool,  if  the  spring  proves  a  wet  one,  they  take  care  to  sew 
a  piece  of  coarse  cloth  round  the  stomach  of  the  weakest,  and  those  diat  have  least  wool. 

A  good  sheep,  against  which  no  exceptions  can  be  made,  must,  according  to  their  bye- 
laws,  at  least  afford  four  pounds  of  wool,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  for  them  to  produce 
more.  ' '  '■•  '♦  '■     '"   .•■■■*'•■.  •'  •••' 

It  is  not  unusual  for  an  ewe  to  have  two  lambs  at  a  time,  and  sometimes  even  three ; 
they  then  take  away  one  lamb  from  the  mother,  and  give  it  to  another  who  has  lost  hers. 
When  the  lambs  are  too  weak  to  follow  the  mother,  they  are  kept  at  home  and  fed  upon 
milk,  which  is  done  by  means  of  a  quill  and  a  wet  piece  of  skin. 

The  price  of  six  ewes,  from  two  to  four  years  old,  together  with  their  lambs  and  wool, 
is  four  dollars  in  autumn,  according  to  the  land-tax :  a  weather  of  four  years  old  is  sold 
for  one  dollar ;  but  it  is  the  custom  for  a  merchant  to  pay  only  five  marks.  If  any  body 
sells  a  lamb  ready  killed,  it  is  valued  according  to  the  c^uantity  of  fat  which  it  has,  at  the 
rate  of  two  marks  for  every  pound.  The  flesh  alone,  without  the  head,  feet,  entrails,  fat, 
skin,  and  wool,  is  valued  at  twenty  yards,  and  the  bye-laws  fix  the  price  of  a  pound  of 
dried  mutton  at  half  a  yard.  The  skin  is  sold  by  weight,  after  the  rate  of  thirty  fish  for 
teiipounds. 

They  have  goats  in  some  places,  but  they  are  few  in  number ;  and,  upon  inquiry,  I 
found  the  reason  to  be  that  they  do  not  thrive  in  a  country  where  there  is  no  wood. 

Besides  these  animals,  they  have  three  kinds  of  dogs  in  Iceland,  fiar  hundar,  or  lumbar, 
shag  dogs ;  and  dyrhandar  and  dverghundar ;  as  also  tame  and  wild  cats,  which  last  are 
called  urdarketter ;  rats,  white  and  brown  foxes,  some  of  which  eat  grass,  and  are  on 
that  account  called  gras  tofur.  To  root  out  these  animals,  the  king  has  set  a  premium 
of -a  rix-doUar  upon  every  ten  fox  skins  that  are  sold  to  a  merchant.  The  natives  have 
likewise  made  an  agreement,  that  whosoever  destroys  a  fox's  hole,  together  with  the  fox, 
the  she  fox,  and  their  young,  is  to  receive  one  rix>dollar,  which  the  neighbours  collect 
amonp^  themselves. 

Rem^deers  were  not  known  here  formeriy ;  but,  by  governor  Thodal's  order,  thirteen 
heads  were  sent  from  Norway  in  1770,  by  M.  Perenson,  merchant :  ten  of  which  died 
before  they  reached  Iceland,  for  want  of  proper  care ;  the  three  remaining  ones  thrive  ex- 
tremely well,  and  had  calved  three  times  before  we  came  there :  they  do  not  want  for 
food,  as  the  country  abounds  with  moss. 

After  having  treated  of  their  fishery,  and  the  breed  of  their  cattle,  1  think  this  a  very 
proper  place  to  sjty  something  of  their  birds,  which,  particularly  in  regard  to  those  of  the 
aquatic  kbd,  are  very  important  to  them. 

They  are  found  in  great  abundance  everywhere  on  the  coast ;  but  the  greatest  number 
by  fiur  are  caught  in  the  few  places  where  they  breed.  The  eggs  the  Icelanders  make 
use  of  themselves,  as  Ukevrise  of  the  flesh,  which  is  eaten  ^y  a  great  many  of  them  ;  but 
with  the  feathers  and  down  they  carry  on  a  very  considerable  trade. 

It  woi'ld  be  unnecessary  to  mendon  all  the  different  sorts  of  birds,  especially  as  there 
is  rcarady  any  country  where  so  many  kinds,  and  such  great  numbers  of  them,  are  to  be 
met  with  as  in  Iceland.  Among  the  great  abundance  of  geese,  water-fowls,  ducks,  &c. 
Sec  I  will  however  say  something  of  the  swan  and  the  eider-bird. 

It  is  kncmn  that  the  swan  belongs  to  the  class  of  birds  of  passage ;  their  numbers  in. 
crease  very  much  towards  winter,  though  there  is  no  scarcity  of  them  at  any  tim^,  as 

VOL.  I.  4  q_ 


666 


VON  TOUiL'H  LBTTKItS  ON  ICELAND. 


^■ 


;l 


ii 


M 


the  floater  pnrt  of  the  young  breed  constantly  remain  there.  In  spring  we  may  often 
(tee  un  hundred  of  them  in  a  flock,  and  frequently  many  more  ;  and  it  is  then  thought 
that  purt  of  them  advance  yet  further  to  the  north,  and  make  but  a  very  short  stay  in 
Iceland.  During  summer  they  resort  to  the  lake ;  but  when  winter  approaches,  and 
they  begin  to  freeze,  thev  remove  to  the  sea-shores.  Their  enrgs  are  gathered  in  the 
l)cginning  of  spring,  which  are  large,  and  said  to  be  very  palatoble.  In  August,  wlicn 
they  lose  their  feathers,  ihey  are  hunted  on  the  lakes,  where  they  are  to  be  found  at  that 
time,  with  d(^s  trained  to  catch  them  alive.  They  are  sakl  to  sing  very  harmoniously 
in  the  cold  dark  winter  nights ;  but  though  it  was  in  the  month  of  September  when  I 
was  upon  the  island,  I  never  once  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  a  si'igle  song.  An  okl  sw4n 
has  a  fishy  taste,  but  the  young  ones  are  reckonied  among  the  best  eatable  fowls. 

The  cider-bird  is  yet  more  useful  to  the  natives,  who  conskler  it  as  a  kind  of  trea* 
and  it  is  seldom  heard  that  a  prudent  house- keeper  shoots  or  kills  any  of  them. 


sure 


The  cider- birds  generally  build  their  nests  on  little  isbtnds  not  far  from  the  shore,  and 
sometimes  even  near  the  dwellings  of  the  natives,  who  treat  them  with  so  much  kindness 
and  circumspection,  as  to  make  them  quite  tame.  In  the  begimin^  of  June  they  lay  five 
or  six  eggi,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  from  ten  to  sixteen  eggs  in  one  nest  together, 
with  two  females,  who  agree  remarkably  well  together.  The  whole  time  of  laying 
continues  six  or  seven  weeks,  and  they  are  fond  of  laying  three  timet  in  diftrent  places : 
in  the  two  first,  both  the  eggs  and  down  arc  taken  away,  iMt  in  the  last  place  thi&is  seldom 
done.    Those  to  whom  one  of  these  places  belong  visit  it  at  least  once  a  week. 

When  they  come  to  the  nest,  they  first  carefully  remove  the  female,  and  then  take 
away  the  superfluous  down  and  eggs,  after  which  they  repkwe  the  female  on  die  remain- 
ing ones,  when  she  begins  to  lay  afresh,  and  covers  her  egga  with  new  down,  which  she 
has  plucked  from  herself:  when  she  has  no  marc  down  left,  the  male  comes  to  her  assis- 
tance, and  covers  the  e^  with  his  down,  which  is  white,  and  easily  distinguished  from 
the  femule's  ;  Nvhere  it  is  left  till  the  young  ones  are  hatched,  who  in  an  hour  afterwards 
quit  the  nest,  together  with  the  mother,  when  it  is  once  more  plundered. 

The  best  down  and  the  most  q^gs  are  got  during  the  first  of  their  lading ;  and  it  has 
in  general  been  observed,  that  they  lay  the  greatest  number  of  eggs  in  rainy  weather. 
As  long  as  the  female  sits,  the  male  is  on  the  watch  near  the  shore ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
young  are  hatched,  he  leaves  them.  But  the  mother  remains  with  them  a  conuderablc 
time  after ;  and  it  is  curious  to  see  how  she  leads  them  out  of  the  nest  as  soon  as  they 
creep  out  of  the  eggs,  and  goes  before  them  to  the  shore,  whilst  they  trip  after  her : 
when  she  comes  to  the  water-side,  she  takes  them  on  her  back,  and  swims  with  them  for 
the  space  of  a  few  yards,  when  slie  dives,  and  the  young  ones,  who  are  left  floating  on 
the  water,  are  obliged  to  take  care  of  diemselves.  One  seldom  sees  these  birds  on  land 
afterwards,  for  they  generally  live  in  the  damp  rocks  in  the  sea,  and  feed, on  insects  and 
sea- weeds.  ■•  '  "^^'"-  -> "»  ;-b  -if  r^!  < 

^  One  female,  during  the  whole  time  of  laying,  generally  gives  half  a  pound  of  down, 
which  is  however  reduced  to  one  half  after  it  is  cleansed.  The  down  is  divided  into 
thangduun  (sea- weed  down)  and  gras-duun  (grass  down.)  The  last  sort  b  thought  to  be 
the  b^st,  and  is  cleansed  in  the  following  manner ;  some  yam  is  streaked  in  a  square 
compartment  round  a  hoop,  on  which  the  down  is  laid.  A  pcnnted  piece  of  wood  is 
then  nu>ved  backwards  and  forwards  on  the  lower  side  of  the  yam  thus  streaked, 
which  causes  the  coarser  feathers  to  fall  throufj^,  while  the  fine  down  remains  on  the 
yarn.  «■•'  i.^  ''>^^'i  fu--i.itm^  •«'; -iwi?  »uw'-u:t:Airm-i-tii'mum  rm: ;mit  to  ^^Uiit  <ti>o. 
.  Down  j^iicked  firom  deAd  eider4xitls  is  of  little  worth,  became  it  has  then  lost  the 
greatest  part  of  its  elasticity ;  for  this  reason  it  is  of  little  value  in  Iceland.    The  other 


VOK  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELANU 


00' 


H, 


sort  is  sold  at  forty-five  fish  a  pound  when  cleansed,  and  at  sixteen  fish  when  not 
cleansed.  There  arc  generally  exported  every  year,  on  the  company's  account,  one 
thousand  five  hundred  or  two  thousand  pounds  of  down  cleansed  and  not  cleansed,  ex- 
elusive  of  what  is  privately  exported  by  foreigners.  In  the  year  1750  tiie  Iceland 
company  sold  as  much  in  quantity  of  this  article,  us  amounted  to  three  thousand  seven 
hunared  and  forty-five  hanuo-dollars,  besides  what  was  sent  directly  to  Gluckstadt. 

Among  the  land  birds  that  are  eatable,  ptarmigans  are  not  to  be  forgotten,  and  are 
caught  in  great  numbers.  Falcons  also  abound  in  the  island,  of  which  there  are  three 
sorts ;  they  are  purchased  by  the  royal  falconers,  who  give  fifteen  duilurs  a-piece  for 
the  white,  ten  for  those  that  are  darker,  and  seven  for  the  gray. 


t^A.U     f    rH,    rf 


LETTER  XIII....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE. 
*       '  OP  THE  TRADE   IM   ICELAND. 

Stockholm,  Nov.  12,  1774. 
The  Iceland  trade  has  been  subject  to  many  revolutions.  Till  tlie  year  1408  the 
Norwegians  were  almost  the  only  nation  who  sailed  to  Iceland,  and  boug^ht  all  the  fiith 
the  Icelanders  did  not  consume,  or  export  in  their  own  ships.  The  English  afterwards 
had  this  trade  till  the  Reformation,  when  it  fi:U  into  the  hanas  of  the  Germans,  and  was 
peculiarly  advantageous  to  the  Hamburgers.  But  Christian  the  Fourth,  who  had  the 
improvement  of  the  whole  Danish  trade  very  much  at  heart,  likewise  directed  his  at- 
tention towards  Iceland.  He  prohibited  the  trade  of  the  Hans-towns  thither  in  the 
year  1602,  and  bestowed  it  on  Copenhagen,  Malmo,  and  some  other  towns  at  that  time 
subject  to  the  crown  of  Denmark. 

The  Iceland  company  at  Copenha^n  was,  however,  not  established  till  the  year  1620, 

after  the  king  had  once  more  prohibited  the  trade  of  the  Hans-towns  to  Iceland  in  1619. 

This  company  continued  till  the  year  1662,  when  it  was  suppressed  by  a  special  order. 

What  contributed  to  this  was  the  great  damage  done  in  Iceland  by  some  pirates  in 

1627,  who  carried  away  great  numbers  of  its  inhabitants ;  the  greater  part  of  who  m 

were,  however,  redeemed  by  the  king  nine  years  alter.      The  king  resented  this  so 

much  the  more^  as  the  Iceland  company  had  not  only  undertaken  to  provide  the  country 

with  all  necessary  articles,  but  likewise  to  protect  it.    This  circumstance  produced  a 

disagreeable  effect  to  the  company,  which  was,  that  those  who  had  shares  in  the  stocLs 

o  f  one  thousand  dollars  only  received  five  hundred ;  and  those  who  had  shares  of  two 

h  undred  dollars  received  not  die  least  consideration.     The  company  paid  a  certain 

sum  to  the  king  for  every  haven,  and  two  rix-dollars  to  the  governor  frr  every  ship. 

It  was  likewise  obliged  to  contribute  something  to  the  king's  magazines  on  the  West- 

mann's  Islands. 

The  trade  of  every  haven  was  afterwards  disposed  of  to  the  highest  bidder  once  in 

■  every  six  years ;  but  unce  1734  it  has  been  in.  the  possession  of  a  trading  company, 

'  who  have  a  grant  of  it,  for  which  they  pay  a  duty  of  six  thousand  dollars  a  year  tr>the 

'^  king.  They  send  from  twenty-four  to  thirty  ships  thither  every  year,  loaded  with  cotn, 

V  broid,  wine,  iron,  and  wood,  &c.  &.c.  and  they  export  in  return  from  twenty-two  ha- 

<'  vens,  fish,  flesh,  butter,  blubber,  skins,  wool,  and  woollen  manufactures,  which  they  ux- 

t  ^change  against  the  merchandise  they  have  brought  thither,  according  to  a  tax  published 

^''  in  the  year  1702.    It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  the  company  gains  much  by 

this  trade  or  not ;  so  much  at  least  is  certain,  that  the  Icelanders  lose  by  it ;    for  the 

'  Dutch,  disregarding  or  evading  the  tax,  import  much  better  goods  than  the  company. 

4  ^2  


668 


VON  TROIL'9  Lr.TITBS  ON  ICCLANU. 


For  Otis  reason  the  Icclandeni  wll  a  considcrublc  qiinntity  of  dnh  to  them  privately, 
though  MCViTul  Dutch  «hipM  have  liceii  contiscutcd  on  account  of  carrying  on  a  &mug- 
(riing  tnuli*.  The  ngcntHof  the  Icciund  comnuny  are  aware  of  thin,  by  the  tiinaU  itock 
thatrcniuinH  for  their  purchaM.*,  with  wliich  they  are  much  diHsntitiiied. 

TIktc  is  a  market  kept  every  year  at  Hraundals-rcttcr,  to  which  those  resort  who 
Uve  up  the  country :  thcv  exchange  butter,  cloth,  and  sheep,  for  Qsh,  blubticr,  and 
other  articles  of  that  k'nd.  At  Ueikavik  there  is  a  woollen  manufactory,  where  ten  or 
twenty  workmen  arc  employed  :  one  likewise  meets  with  a  few  looms  here  and  there; 
and  many  more  might  Ix:  established  amongst  the  peasants,  if  encouragement  was 
given  tiKm. 

Danish  money  is  current  in  the  country,  but  the  whole  stock  of  ready  money  cannot 
amount  to  many  thousand  dollars.  Their  accounts  are  not  all  kept  in  money,  but 
according  to  yards  and  IihIk's  :  forty-eight  fishes,  each  fish  reckoned  at  two  pounds, 
make  one  rix-dollar,  and  twenty-four  yards  make  one  likewise.  You  may  buy  a  horse 
for  one  hundred  and  fif^y  fish,  and  a  farm  for  six  thousand  yards.  A  vatt  is  one  hundred 
pounds  aiul  a  faering  ten.  They  reckon  one  hundred  and  sixty-three  quarts  to  a  tun, 
and  five  to  a  kuttur.  The  Icelandic  ell  is  as  big  as  the  Hamborough  ell,  three  of  which 
make  a  fathom. 


I.KTTER  XIV....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE. 
OF   THE    ICELANDIC  LITERATURE. 


mr 


A,t 


i,-  iti 


*^*f> 


•  •'III 


•u»; 


». ; « 


. i J       •        -M     1 . 


•    «*  '        '..   .      Stockholm,  Dec.  4,  1774. 

The  history  of  ancient  times  shews  us  that  our  ancestors  did  not  despise  arts  and 
sciences,  though  they  peculi'.rly  distinguished  themselves  by  valour  and  heroic  deeds. 
Their  religion,  mixed  with  fables,  was,  however  reduced  to  some  rule,  and  their 
system  of  moralitv,  though  not  the  purest  and  best,  yet  inculcated  certain  virtues, 
which  were  in  vaii\  sought  for  among  the  more  enlightened  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Tiie  long  voyages  they  made  without  knowing  the  use  of  the  compass,  is  a  proof  of  their 
having  been  much  Ijetter  acquainted  with  astronomy  and  geography  than  could  have 
been  cxi)ected.  Physic,  and  particularly  surgery,  must  have  been  held  in  high  esteem 
among  so  warlike  a  nation,  though  I  question  very  much  whether  any  person  could  now 
submit  to  the  manner  of  curing  an  extenuil  hurt,  such  as  was  practised  among  the 
ancients.  Their  invention  exhibits  itself  in  riddles,  history,  and  poetry ;  and  now 
highly  these  were  valued  among  them  may  be  proved  by  many  examples,  of  which  I 
shall  only  mention  EgiPs  poem,  m  praise  of  Erick  Blodoxc  king  of  Nf)rway,  by  which 
he  saved  his  life ;  aira  Hiame's  Epitaph  on  king  Erode,  on  account  of  which  he  is  said 
to  have  been  made  king  of  Denmark. 

Though  it  cannot  be  entirely  ascertained,  that  Odin  brought  the  Runic  characters 
to  the  north,  yet  it  is  proved  almost  beyond  a  doubt,  that  they  were  kuQwn  among 
us  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.  The  art  of  writing  was  also  known  here,  if  not 
certain,  at  least  as  early  as  amohg  the  Franks  and  Germans;  the  former  had  no  let- 
ters before  they  began  to  make  use  of  the  Latin  ones  in  the  sixth  century,  and  the  latter 
were  likewise  unacquainted  with  them  before  the  time  of  Charleniaine.  «€'  • 

Their  taste  for  nddles,  stories,  and  poetry,  the  Icelanders  also  brought  along  with 
them,  from  their  native  country,  to  tlie  island  where  they  are  now  settled  ;  and  whilst 
these  traces  of  science  diminished  in  Norway,  on  account  of  the  troubles  which  shook 
the  whole  north  during  several  centuries,  thev  not  only  preserved  themselves  in  Ice- 
land, which  was  not  exposed  to  so  many  disturbances,  but  the  care  of  their  safety 
likewise  e*  cited  the  inhabitants  to  apply  themselves  to  the  study  of  lustory,  that  they 


VUN  I  HOh.'t  l.n- 1  KlU  ON  KKIAND. 


(ki!) 


might  by  it  be  informed  of  the  dcsigim  of  their  powerful  ncighlxxirn,  and  tukc  the  best 
nnd  most  necessary  mcnsures  to  oppose  those  who  only  wished  for  im  0!?portnnity  of  .sub 
jccting  them  to  their  yoke. 

It  is  true  they  had  no  RchooU  or  public  seminaries  for  !ic  instruction  of  youth  in  the 
iciences,  before  the  intrctluction  of  the  Christian  rtlifrion  ;  but  it  was,  however,  not 
nltogcther  neglected,  for  thev  tcxik  ^reat  pains,  txsides  imiriiiff  the  botlies  of  their 
young  men  to  feats  of  strengtn  and  agility,  and  teaching  them  such  exercises  as  enabled 
them  to  defeixl  themselves  and  their  countrymen,  to  instruct  them  alao  in  history,  n  • 
ligion,  and  law.  Thence  wc  find  in  their  ancient  chronicles  frequent  mention  ofpcr- 
Hons  who  had  made  considerable  progress  in  these  sciences,  and  even  before  they  re- 
ceived the  Christian  religion  there  were  a  number  in  the  country  well  versed  in  the 
laws. 

In  their  frequent  voyages,  before  the  use  of  the  compass  (Leitarstain)  was  known  to 
them,  they  discovered  new  countries,  when  driven  out  of  their  course,  which  were  how- 
ever deserted  almost  as  soon  as  discovered  :  however,  some,  if  not  all  of  them,  have  been 
discovered  in  later  times. 

Thus  Bjorn  Herjulfson,  in  a  voyage  he  made  to  see  his  fathci  in  Greenland,  was 
driven  by  a  strong  north  wind  upon  u  flat  woody  country,  from  whence  he  afkcrwards 
reached  his  father,  after  a  long  and  troublesome  voyage,  without  thinking  any  more  of 
his  new  discovery.  After  the  death  of  his  father,  he  again  returned  to  Norway ; 
where  the  account  of  his  voyage  raised  an  inclination  in  Leifer  to  go  in  search  of  this 
country.  He  therefore  set  sail  with  thirty-five  men,  and  at  first  landed  on  a  mountain- 
ous cbuntry  covered  with  snow,  without  the  least  appearance  of  verdure  :  from  whence 
he  continued  his  voyage,  and  came  to  another  country,  which  was  flat  and  woody ; 
this  he  named  Markland.  He  set  sail  again  with  a  north-east  wind,  and  in  two  days 
time  arrived  at  an  island  which  lay  north  of  the  continent.  He  now  entered  westward 
into  a  straight,  where  his  ship  struck  on  the  sand  at  low  water ;  he  then  had  it  drawn 
ashore  with  cables,  and  havmg  built  a  house,  remained  there  the  whole  winter :  here 
they  did  not  experience  the  least  cold,  and  the  grass  only  grew  a  little  reddish  in  win- 
ter. The  davb  were  not  of  so  unequal  a  length  as  in  Iceland ;  and  the  sun  appeared 
above  the  horizon  on  the  shortest  day,  both  when  they  breakfasted  and  at  supper-time. 
The  vine  and  wheat  both  grew  wild,  and  this  occasioned  their  giving  the  name  of  Vine- 
land  to  the  country.  This  gives  us  room  to  conjecture  that  nc  advanced  pretty  far  to- 
wards the  south  of  America.  They  afterwards  carried  on  a  trade  with  the  natives  of  the 
country,  whom  they  called  Skralingar,  for  a  long  time,  which,  however,  ceased  at  laut, 
and  thic  country,  and  even  its  name,  are  now  totally  forgotten. 

Poetry  formerly  flourished  very  much  in  Iceland ;  Egil  Skalla  Grimson,  Cormak  Og- 
mundson,  Glum  Gierson,  Thorleif,  Jarlar  Skald,  Sighvatr,  Thordson,  Gunlaug  Orm- 
stunga,  and  Skad  Ralfn,  arc  celebrated  as  great  poets.  The  art  of  writing  was  not, 
however,  much  in  use  till  after  the  year  1000.  It  is  true  the  Runic  characters  were 
known  in  the  country  before  that  period,  and  most  probably  brought  thither  from 
Norway.  Though  we  have  no  reason  to  believe  they  were  cut  upon  stones,  as  was 
practised  aiiaon?  us  (no  Runic  stones  having  been  found  diere,  whose  age  reaches 
to  the  times  of  Paganism;)  they  used,  however,  to  scratch  them  on  bucklers,  and 
sometimes  on  their  ceilings  and  walls :  and  the  Laxdaela  Saga  makes  mention  of  one 
Oiof  of  Hiardarhult,  who  had  a  large  house  built,  on  the  beams  and  rafters  of  which 
remarkable  stories  are  said  to  have  \^n  marked,  in  the  same  manner  as  Thorkil  Hoke 
cut  an  account  of  his  own  deeds  on  his  bedstead  and  chair.  That  Runic  chrractcrs 
were  made  use  of  before  the  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion,  may  be  proved  by 


670 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


^j 


Olof  Tryggvviibson's  Saga,  where  he  makes  mention  of  a  man,  whose  name  was  Oddni, 
who,  being  dumb,  made  known,  by  means  oi  Runic  characicrs,  that  he  had  been  insulted 
by  Ivar,  his  I'alher'j  guest. 

After  the  reception  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  year  1000,  the  sciences  took  ano- 
ther  form.  The  Latin  characters  were  immediately  adopted ;  as  the  Runic  alphabet, 
which  only  consists  of  sixteen  letters,  was  found  insufficient.  The  first  Icelandic  bishop, 
Isleif,  founded  a  school  at  Skalholt ;  and  soon  after  they  founded  four  other  schools, 
in  which  the  youth  werf.  instructed  in  the  Latin  tongue,  divinity,  and  some  piirts  of 
theoretic  philosophy.  Jonas  Ogmundsson,  first  bishop  of  H(X}lum,  sent  to  Gothland  in 
the  year  1120  for  one  Gisle  Finson,  to  superintend  the  school  at  Hoolum.  Amgrim 
Jonson,  on  this  occasion,  mentions  a  remarkable  circumstance  in  his  Crymogaea,  p.  108, 
of  the  architect  Thorodr,  v\  ho,  as  he  was  employed  in  building  the  cathedral  church  at 
Hoolum,  paid  so  much  attention  to  the  grammatical  lessons  given  to  the  schooUboys,  as 
to  make  a  considerable  progress  in  them  himself.  The  same  author  also  mentions,  that 
the  bishop,  who  was  a  learned  and  zealous  man,  having  one  day  surprised  one  of  the 
scholars  in  reading  Ovid's  letters,  and  book  De  Arte  Amandi,  was  so  incensed  thereat, 
as  to  strike  the  book  out  of  his  hand.  At  a  time  when  no  great  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  language  could  be  expected  even  in  Sweden,  an  Icelander  however  was  found,  of 
sufficient  capacity  and  learning  to  instruct  the  young  people  to  read  and  understand  the 
Latin  poets.  But  notwithstanding  the  sciences  were  there  only  in  their  infancy,  those 
who  desired  to  make  greater  progress  in  them  studied  in  foreign  universities.  Gislur 
Isleifson  studied  at  Erfurt ;  and  many  resorted  to  Paris,  as  Samundr  Sigfusson  did,  from 
whence  they  were  called  Parisklarkar  (Paris  writers.)  Many,  however,  whose  names 
are  become  celebrated,  have  only  studied  in  Iceland  :  as  a  proof  of  which,  I  will  only 
mention  the  two  most  famous  Icelandic  writers,  Are  Frode  and  Snorre  Sturleson.  It 
may  therefore  be  affirmed  that  Iceland,  from  the  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion 
there  till  the  year  1264,  when  it  became  subject  to  Norway,  was  one  of  the  few  countries 
in  Europe,  and  the  only  one  in  the  north,  where  the  sciences  were  cultivated  and  held 
in  esteem.  Thifi  period  of  time  has  also  produced  more  learned  men  than  at  any  other 
|ieriod  since.  We  r.ccd  only  read  their  ancient  chronicles,  to  be  convinced  that  tliey 
had  great  knowledge  in  morality,  philosophy,  natural  history,  and  astronomy.  They 
had  tolerably  clear  ideas  of  divinity,  and  used  to  read  the  Fathers :  but  their  poetical 
and  historical  productions,  in  particular,  have  bid  defiance  to  time,  even  when  igno- 
rance was  again  beginning  to  resume  her  empire.  It  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  men. 
tion  a  numlier  of  poets  who  distinguished  themselves,  not  only  in  Iceland  and  the  Ork- 
neys, but  likewise  at  the  Swedish,  Danish,  Norwegian,  and  English  courts,  as  the  skaU 
dartal  (or  list  of  poets)  contains  no  less  than  two  hundred  and  forty  :  but  it  will  be  su- 
purfluous  to  mention  here  any  more  than  the  three  principal  ones,  viz.  Snorre  Sturleson, 
Avho  was  beheaded  in  the  year  1241,  in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  ag?,  at  Reikholt,  in 
Iceland ;  Olafr  Huitaskald,  who  died  in  1259 ;  and  Sturia  Thordson,  who  made  his  exit 
in  1284.  Some  extracts  of  the  works  of  these  authors  are  inserted  in  some  printed  and 
manuscript  chronicles. 

Of  much  greater  importance  are  their  sayings  or  histories,  the  utility  and  authenti- 
city of  which  have  caused  so  many  disputes :  for  if  they  have  been  considered  by  some 
as  sure  antl  irreversible  supporters  of  the  historj'  of  our  forefathers,  they  have  been 
looked  upon  by  others  as  absuixl  inventions  and  falsehoods,  which  belong  to  the  same 
class  as  the  history  of  the  knight  Finke,  Fortunatus,  the  horned  Siegfried,  and  other  old 
womens'  tales.  This  last  opinion  is  no  less  unreasonable,  than  an  excess  of  veneration 
paid  to  them  would  be  inconsiderate  and  rash.  When  the"  are  consulted  with  circumspec- 


VON  THOIL'S  LEITEUS  ON  ICELAND. 


671 


tion  and  judgment,  they  are  undoubtedly  of  greiituse,  so  much  the  more,  as  they  are 
the  only  remaining  monuments  of  the  anci'^nt  northern  history ;  and  indeed  some  of 
them  are  written  with  great  judgment  and  perspicuit}-. 

The  Aw  Frodes  Schedse  were  written  since  1122,  and  are  the  most  ancient  Icelan- 
dic accounts  extant.  The  writings  of  Sturleson,  Gunlaug,  Odde,  and  several  others, 
are  all  of  them  works  that  will  never  be  lost  or  hurt  by  time  ;  and  I  do  not  find  any  thing 
in  them,  which  should  induce  us  to  deny  them  the  same  credit  that  we  so  implicitly  givr 
to  the  writings  of  Tacitus  and  Livy. 

No  one  can  doubt  that  even  those  authors,  in  the  compilation  of  their  histories,  which 
have  been  considered  as  pattei-ns  of  language,  have  made  use  of  the  information  of  other 
writers.  Nor  have  our  Icelandic  historians  been  remiss  in  this ;  for  Sturleson  himself 
quotes  Arc  Thiodolfr,  the  langfedgatal,  or  genealogical  table,  and  some  ancient  songs, 
in  which  their  kings  were  celebrated  :  from  which,  indeed,  he  compiled  his  ac- 
counts. 

The  Icelanders  were  remarkably  studious  in  preservbg  the  memory  of  their  ances- 
tors ;  and  it  was  the  most  agreeable  occupation  in  their  meetings  and  assemblies,  to  repeat 
those  histories  and  poems  for  which  their  great  men  had  been  renowned,  as  was  the  prac- 
tice among  the  Greeks.  Add  to  this,  the  contents  and  composition  of  the  writings  them- 
selves, which  plainly  prove  that  the  authors  have  not  been  inclined  to  relate  marvellous 
stories ;  and  it  would  be  unjust  to  refuse  them  that  reliance  on  their  veracity,  which  vvc 
without  hesitation  bestow  on  other  writers  of  the  same  class. 

The  greatest  part  of  their  works  were  composed  in  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth, 
and  fourteenth  centuries ;  and  some  of  them  have  even  appeared  in  print.  I  have  a 
list  of  these  histories  in  my  possession;  and  though  they  are  by  no  means  of  the  same 
degree  of  merit,  it  will  perhaps  not  be  disagreeable  to  you  to  have  a  copy  of  it,  as  it  is 
not  only  a  proof  of  their  love  of  science,  but  likewise  of  their  application. 

Asa  fresh  instance  of  their  accuracy  and  assiduity  in  study,  I  must  likewise  mention 
their  chronicles,  in  which  they  recorded  whatever  happened  of  imiwrtance  both  in  Ice- 
land and  abroad.  These  annals  are  in  general  considered  as  more  authentic  than  their 
sayings.  Semundr  and  Are  Frocle  were  the  first  who  introduced  them,  and  they  have 
since  been  continued  down  to  our  days.     The  following  are  considered  as  the  best. 

1.  Flateyar  Annal,  which  reaches  to  the  year  1395,  and  of  which 

2.  Vatnsfiardar  Annal  is  a  supplement  which  extends  to  1660. 

3.  Skalholt. 

4.  Hola. 

5.  Odda. 

6.  Biums  a  Skardzaa  to  1545,  of  which 

7.  Hests  Annal,  which  goes  down  to  the  year  1718,  is  a  supplement.  Hrafnagils  An- 
nal begins  where  the  last  leaves  off,  and  continues  to  1754. 

8.  Odds  Ejriksonar  a  fitium  to  1680. 

9.  Annates  Regii,  which  go  to  the  year  1341. 

10.  Hirdsttira. 

11.  Laugmanna. 

12.  Biskupa. 

13.  Annales  antiqui. 

14.  Annales  vetustiores  go  to  the  conclusion  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Bjame  Hall- 
dorson's  annal,  as  I  have  been  informed,  begins  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century, 
and  reaches  quite^  down  to  1772. 


672 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


But  even  here  the  sciences  iiuve  been  subject  to  the  same  revoluticnsi  which  they  have 
experienced  everywhere  else.  The  lustre  in  which  they  had  maintained  themselves  so 
long  was  succeeded  by  the  most  profound  obscurity.  To  give  a  clearer  idea  of  this,  I 
shrill  borrow  the  expressions  of  the  learned  bishop  of  Skalholt,  Dr.  Finneus,  on  this 
occasion,  who  compares  the  state  of  the  sciences  in  Iceland  to  the  four  stages  of  human 
life,  in  his  well-written  Hist.  Eccl.  Islandiac.  Their  infancy  extended  to  the  year  1056, 
when  the  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion  produced  the  first  dawn  of  light.  They 
were  in  their  youth  till  1110,  when  schools  were  first  established,  and  the  education  and 
instruction  of  youth  began  to  be  more  attended  to  than  before.  Their  manly  age  lasted 
till  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  Iceland  produced  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  learned  men.  Old  age  appeared  towards  the  end  of  this  same  fourteenth  century, 
when  the  sciences  gradually  decreased,  and  were  almost  entirely  extinct,  no  work  of  any 
merit  appearing.  History  now  drooped  her  head,  their  ix)etry  had  no  relish,  and  all 
other  sciences  were  enveloped  in  darkness.  The  schools  began  to  decay,  and  in  many 
places  tiiey  had  none  at  all.  It  was  very  uncommon  for  any  otie  to  understand  Latin, 
and  few  priests  could  read  their  breviary  and  rituals  fluently. 

But  this  was  not  alone  the  case  in  Iceland,  the  greater  part  of  Europe  experienced 
the  same  change.  For  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day,  which  had  begun  to  spread  from 
Greece  over  Italy  and  the  southern  part  of  Europe,  after  the  taking  of  Constantinople  by 
the  Turks  in  1453,  had  not  yet  penetrated  to  the  north.  Whatever  bore  the  name  of 
learning  was  not  only  despised,  but  so  gross  was  their  ignorance,  tliat  men  of  the  high- 
est rank,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  were  incapable  of  writing  their  names.  We  can- 
not wonder  at  this  in  Iceland,  when  the  history  of  the  church  affords  so  many  exam- 
ples of  bishops  who  were  present  at  councils^  at  the  conclusion  of  which  they  caused  to 
be  Avritten  under  the  acts,  quoniam  Dominus  N.  Episcopus  scribere  nescit,ideo  eju,  loco 
subscripsit  N.  N.  We  were  also  informed,  that  the  ignorance  of  this  age  was  so  great, 
that  scarce  any  Swedish  king  before  Gustavus  First  knew  how  to  write  his  name.  In  the 
annals  of  Konungaoch  Hofdinga  styrelse  (supposed  to  be  written  by  bishop  Brynolf 
Carlsson,  who  died  at  Skara  in  1430)  it  is  said,  no  more  ought  to  be  required  of  a 
sovereign,  than  to  know  how  to  read,  understand,  and  explain  his  letters. 

The  reformation  produced  here,  a?  in  most  places,  a  new  dawn  of  knowledge.  Some 
time  before  a  printing-press  had  been  brought  to  Iceland,  bishop  Gissur  proposed  to  open 
a  new  school  in  the  convent  of  Videy,  >\hich  had  been  seized  by  the  crown;  but  as 
this  hac'  icen  designed  for  a  dwelling  place  to  the  king's  receivers  of  the  customs,. 
Christip  Third  commanded,  in  the  year  1552,  that  a  school-house  should  be  built  near 
each  1  the  cathedral  churches ;  that  at  Skalholt  for  forty  scholars,  and  that  at  Hoolum 
for  .lirty-four ;  but  they  have  since  been  reduced,  die  one  to  thirty-four,  and  tlie  other 
o  .wenty.four  scholars.  Each  of  these  schools  was  to  be  provided  with  a  rector  and  an 
assistant  teacher ;  and  the  king  appropriated  as  much  land  to  these  foundations,  as  was 
sufficient  to  afford  tolerable  salaries  to  the  teachers,  and  board,  books,  and  clothing,  to 
the  scholars  gratis,  so  long  as  they  remained  at  school. 

Great  pains  have  since  been  taken  to  appoint  men  of  known  abilities  as  tw'Stchcis  to 
these  schools ;  and  young  men  are  so  well  instructed  there,  that  few  of  the  clergy  study 
any  where  else.  Many  Icelanders,  however,  study  at  Copenhagen ;  and  in  the  year 
1773  there  were  no  less  than  fifty-four  at  that  university,  where  excellent  regulations 
have  been  made  for  tlie  support  of  poor  students.  Some  likewise  study  in  foreign  uni- 
versities; anid  between  1760  and  1770  a  native  of  Iceland,  Paul  Widalin  by  name, 
died  at  Leipsic,  who  was  universally  beloved  and  esteemed  there.    A  Mr.  Thorolti, 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  OV  ICELAND. 


tm 


who  has  been  above  three  years  at  Upsala,  has  likewise  on  all  occasions  bhcwn  himself 
a  man  of  great  merit. 

We  should  therefore  form  a  very  wrong  judgment  of  Iceland,  to  imagine  it  absorbed 
in  total  ignorance  and  obscurity :  on  the  contrary,  I  can  affirm,  that  I  have  found 
more  knowledge  among  the  lower  class,  than  is  to  be  met  with  in  most  other  places. 
You  will  seldom  find  a  peasant,  who,  besides  being  well-instructed  in  the  principles  of 
religion,  is  not  also  acquainted  with  the  history  of  his  country,  which  proceeds  from 
the  frequent  reading  of  their  traditional  histories  (sagas)  wherein  consists  their  princi- 
pal amusement:  nor  is  it  uncommon  to  find  persons  among  them,  who  Cctn  repeat  the 
poems  of  Kolbein,  Grimson,  Sigurd,  Gisles,  Gudmund,  and  Bergthors,  by  heart,  all  of 
them  poets  who  flourished  in  later  times  ;  and  among  whom  Vigfus  Jonsson  has  par- 
ticularly distinguished  himself  by  his  wit,  though  sometimes  at  the  ex|)ence  of  decency. 
The  clergymen  speak  Latin  well ;  and  I  have  found  better  libraries  in  many  parts  of 
Iceland  than  could  have  been  expected. 

A  learned  society  was  erected  here,  which  is  spoken  of  in  the  prefiice  of  the  above, 
mentioned  Speculum  Regale  under  the  name  of  Societas  invisibilis ;  and  I  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  rector  Halfdan  Ejnarson,  and  the  late  sysselman  Bjarne  Huldorson, 
who  were  both  members  of  that  society,  though  I  believe  it  does  not  exist  at  present. 
I  could  mention  several,  wh^se  learning  and  taste  did  honour  to  their  country,  but  I  shall 
only  name  those  who  have  axfuired  most  fame  in  the  literary  world. 

Among  these  the  bishop  of  Skalholt,  Dr.  Finnur  Jonson,  deserves  the  first  place ; 
who,  besides  many  learned  writings  on  the  antiquities  of  Iceland,  some  of  which  have 
been  published,  has  lately  presented  the  public  with  an  ecclesiastical  history,  in  three 
volumes  quarto,  replete  with  information,  criticism,  and  erudition.  I  was  happy  in  be< 
coming  more  intimately  acquainted  with  this  worthy  prelate,  who  has  been  bishop  ever 
since  1754,  and  found  no  less  instruction  than  pleasure  in  his  company.  Y  >u  may  easily 
conceive  how  much  I  wished,  at  taking  leave  of  him,  that  his  advanced  age 
would  permit  him  to  put  a  finishing  stroke  to  his  other  works.  We  have  some  reason 
to  hope  for  this  at  present,  as  one  of  his  sons,  the  Icuriied  Mr.  John  Finsson,  has  lately 
been  appointed  his  father's  assistant  andjprovost. 

To  this  number  also  belong  Halfdan  Ejnarson,  rector  of  the  school  of  Hoolum,  who 
has  published  the  Speculum  Regale,  and  is  now  employed  in  M'riting  Historia  Litcraria 
Islandise.  The  provost  and  minister  of  Hiardarholt,  Gunnar  Paulsen,  is  justly  celebrated 
on  account  of  his  great  knowledge  in  ancient  poetry.  Bjarne  Jonson,  rector  of  Skal- 
holt, composes  very  good  Latin  verses,  and  has  a  d'lssertation  of  Gandagar  ready  for  the 
i)re8s.  Bjarne  Pulsen,  in  company  with  Eggert  Olofsen,  made  a'  journey  through 
Iceland  to  collect  manuscripts  and  curiosities,  at  the  expence  of  the  society  of  sciences. 
The  lagman  Soen  Solvesen  has  published  several  law- works ;  as  has  likewise  the  vice- 
lagman  John  Olsson,  and  the  provosts  Vigfus  Jonsen  and  Gudlaug  Thorgeirson,  be> 
sides  several  others. 

The  professor  and  counsellor  of  state,  Erichsen,  who  is  not  setded  in  Iceland,  is  like- 
wise  known  on  account  of  many  dissertations  on  antiquities,  and  is  a  useful  member  of 
the  CoUegii  Magnaeani.  Amas  Magnaus,  Torfeus,  and  several  other  Icelanders,  have 
also  particularly  distinguished  themselves  for  literature  in  this  and  the  former  century.  I 
shall  give  a  fuller  account  of  them  in  another  letter,  wherein  I  propose  to  treat  of  the 
Icelandic  antiquities  in  particular,  where  I  shall  also  mention  those  who  have  peculiar- 
ly distinguished  themselves  in  that  branch  of  literature. 

The  langiiage  in  Iceland  is  the  same  as  that  formerly  spoken  in  Sweden,  Denmark, 
and  Norway,  and  has  preserved  itself  so  pure,  that  any  Icelander  understands  the  most 
ancient  Iraditional  history,  as  easily  as  we  do  letters  written  in  the  time  of  Charles  Nindi. 

VOL.    I.  4   R 


*' ' 


M 


y- 


674 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


The  general  change  which  took  phice  in  the  northern  language  during  and  after  the 
time  of  hrick  ot  Ponicrania  did  not  extend  to  Iceland,  il  Dugh  some  trifling  alterations 
were  aficruards  made  in  it  in  the  fifteenth  century,  by  the  introduction  of  religion  and 
their  trade  with  the  Danes,  English  and  Germans.  Near  the  coast  some  Danish  is 
understood,  and  some  even  speak  it ;  nor  is  it  uncommon  for  a  peasant  to  say,  salve 
domine,  fjonus  dies,  bonus  vesper,  gratias,  proficiat,  dominus  tecum,  vale.  Notwith- 
standing,  I  cannot  agree  with  Sperling  in  considering  the  language  as  being  more  Dan- 
ish  than  Icelandic,  since  not  a  single  word  of  Danish  is  understood  in  the  interior 
parts  of  the  country.  The  great  pleasure  the\  find  in  reading  their  traditional  histories 
has  contributed  not  a  little  to  prcser\  e  the  language  in  its  purity. 

You  have  yourself  treated  of  its  origin  in  the  preface  to  your  Swedish-Gothic  Dic- 
tionary ;  and  one  may  form  the  best  judgment  of  the  language  from  Olof  Tryggwasson's 
and  some  other  historical  trarlitions  (Sagas)  which  have  been  written  in  the  eleventh, 
twcHth,  and  thirteenth  centuries,  when  it  was  in  its  greatest  puritv.  But  as  these 
works  are  not  in  every  person's  hands,  1  will  here  insert  a  copy  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  as 
a  sample,  both  as  it  was  expressed  and  printed  in  1585,  and  in  1746,  which  will  clearly 
point  out  the  small  change  which  the  language  has  undergone  during  a  space  of  near 
two  hundred  years. 

1585. 
Fader  vor  thu  sem  ert  a  himnum.  Helgjst  nafn  thitt.  Tilkome  thitt  riike. 
Verde  thinn  vilie  so  a  jordu  sem  himne.  Giefoss  idag  vort  dagligt  brand.  Og 
fyrerlat  oss  vorar  skulider,  so  em  vier  fyrerlautum  vorum  skulldunautum.  Og  inleid 
OSS  ecki  1  freistne.  Helldr  f relsa  thu  oss  al' illu.  thuiat  thitt  er  riikit,  maattur  or  dvrd  urn 
allder  allda.     Amen.  ^   ' 

1746. 
Fader  vor  thu  sem  ert  a  himnum,  helgesst  thitt  nafn,  tilkomme  thitt  rike,  verdc 
thui  vihe,  so  a  jordu  sem  a  himne.  Gief  thu  oss  i  dag  vort  daglegt  brand,  og  fyrer 
giet  oss  vorar  skulider,  so  sem  vier  fyrergit  fum  vorum  skulldunautum,  og  innleid  oss  ecke 
1  Ircivjie,  helldur  Irelsa  thu  oss  fra  illu,thuiad  thitt  er  riiked  og  maattur  oe  dvrd  urn  all- 
der allda.     Amen.  °    ' 

In  regard  to  the  pronunciation,  they  have  four  different  dialects.  Those  who  dwell 
on  the  east  side  of  the  country  drawl  out  their  words  in  pronouncing  them,  which  is 
not  done  m  other  places.  On  the  western  side  they  have  many  words  which  are  pecu- 
luir  to  that  part  of  the  island :  and  in  Snefialds  Jokul  the  aa  is  pronounced  as  aiV  In 
the  southern  part  of  Iceland  o  is  pronounced  short  before  r  in  certain  words,  as  for  ex- 
ample  in  hvoriger,  moraudt,  and  others,  though  they  are  commonly  long  in  other  parts. 
In  the  northern  part  of  Iceland  the  words  are  quite  of  different  genders,  as  skur,  which 
IS  usually  feminine,  but  there  is  masculine ;  and  klara,  masculine,  which  is  there  femi- 
nine. In  South  Iceland  I  have  observed  the  following  pronunciation. 
A  is  pronounced    au      in     tha 


Aa 

LI 

Au 

U 

Ae 

Ja 

O 

Gu 

Y 

Aef 


au     — 
dl     — 
o      — 
o      — 
ei     — 
iau  — 
ou   — 
^o  — 
i       — 
aep  — 


aara 

gamall 

thau 

upp 

vaere 

hia 

moder 

Gud 

fyrer 

kiaefda 


d  after  the 
alterations 
ligion  and 
Danish  is 
say,  salve 
Notwith- 
rtore  Dan- 
lie  interior 
li  histories 

}thic  Die 
gwasson's 
eleventh, 
as  these 
Prayer  as 
i^ill  clearly 
e  of  near 


^itt  riike. 
md.  Og 
Og  inleid 
;  dyrd  um 


kc,  vcrdc 

og  fyrer 

i  OSS  ecke 

-d  um  all- 

'ho  dwell 
which  is 
are  pecu- 
is  ai.  In 
IS  for  ex- 
her  parts, 
ir,  which 
tere  femi' 


'i 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICEI-AND. 


675 


Their  alphabet  consists  of  the  same  letters  as  ours,  except  the  (th)  which  character  wc 
have  lost,  together  with  the  pronunciation ;  the  English  have  yet  preserved  it,  though 
foreigners  find  it  difficult  to  pronounce. 

VVe  have  an  Icelandic  grammar  of  Runolph  Jonson,  printed  in  quarto,  at  Copenhagen, 
in  1651 :  it  was  alsoprluted  in  Hickesii  Elcmenta  linguarum  septentrionalium,  Oxford 
1688,  and  again  in  his  Thesaurus,  Oxford  1703.  But  the  manuscript  of  Jonas  Mugnu- 
sen's  Grammatica  Islandica,  which  you,  sir,  possess,  is  more  complete,  and  deserves  to 
be  published,  as  likewise  Eggert  Olsen's  Orthographia  Islandica.  The  most  ancient 
Icelandic  dictionary  we  have  is  the  Wormii  Specimen  Lexici  Runici,  compiled  by  Mag- 
nus Olafsen,  which  was  published,  in  folio,  at  Copenhagen,  in  1650.  Afterwards 
Gudmundi  Andreae  Lexicon  Islandicum  was  published  by  Resenius  at  Copenhagen, 
in  quarto,  in  the  year  1683.  This  was  followed  by  Verelii  Index  linguae  vet.  Scyto- 
Scandicae,  which  Rudbeck  caused  to  be  printed  in  folio,  at  Upsala,  1691,  and  by  two 
Lexica  Latina  Islandica,  ix)th  published  in  quarto  at  Copenhagen,  the  one  in  1734,  and 
the  other  in  1738 ;  to  tliese  Rugman's  Monosyllaba  Islandica  Lat.  Explicata,  Upsala, 
1676,  in  octavo,  may  be  added.  In  the  library  at  Upsala  was  a  copy  of  a  manuscript 
Lexicon  Isl.  Lat.  which  I  have  brought  with  me  from  Iceland.  In  the  antiquity  archives 
is  likewise  a  very  ample  work  of  Gudmundr  Olafsen,  which  has  been  augmented  and  re- 
duced to  order  by  Mr.  Assessor  Gagnerus,  which  will  however  most  probably  never  be 
printed,  for  want  of  a  publisher.  It  is  to  be  lamented  that  Runolph  Jonson  never  was 
able  to  publish  his  Lexicon  Islandicum,  though  a  privilege  was  granted  him  for  that  pur- 
pose in  May  1650 :  we  may  however  soon  expect  to  have  something  more  perfect  on 
this  subject,  as  the  Collegium  Magnaeanum  in  Copenhagen  have  promised  to  continue 
the  important  indexes,  with  which  they  have  supplied  the  Kristniss  and  Gunlaug  Orm- 
stunga  Sagas. 

LETTER  XV....TO  CHEVALIER  HIRE. 
OF  PRINTING  IN  ICELAND. 

Stockholm,  Sept.  12,  1774. 

I  HAVE  said  in  my  last  letter  that  the  art  of  printing  was  introduced  in  Iceland  a  short 
time  before  the  Reformation.  But  as  many  may  be  surprised  that  books  were  printed 
there  so  early,  I  shall  endeavour  to  treat  more  at  large  in  this  of  the  different  printing-offi- 
ces in  Iceland. 

One  of  the  most  famous,  but  at  the  same  time  most  illiterate  and  turbulent  bishops  in 
Iceland,  was  John  Areson,  bishop  of  Hoolum.  He  made  use  of  many  arts,  and  particu- 
larly of  his  zeal  for  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  to  undermine  the  king's  power,  and 
hinder  the  progress  of  the  reformation.  His  plots  however  succeeded  so  ill,  that  he  was 
beheaded  in  1550.  As  this  man  was  extremely  ignorant,  and  had  not  the  least  know- 
ledge  of  the  Latin  language,  which  was  however  made  use  of  in  letters  ofexcommunica- 
tion,  and  other  ordinances,  he  commissioned  a  friend  to  procure  him  a  person  well  vers- 
ed  in  Latin,  who  might  at  the  same  time  establish  a  printing-office.  For  this  purpose 
John  Mathiesson,  a  native  of  Sweden,  was  recommended  to  him,  and  he  arrived  in  Ice- 
land between  1527  and  1530. 

I  cannot  determine  with  certainty  whether  he  was  in  orders  at  his  arrival  in  Iceland  ; 
however  lam  inclined  to  believe  *it,  from  the  appellation  of  Sira  being  given  him  after 
his  arrival,  which  is  a  term  applicable  to  the  clergy.  The  bishop  immediatelv  appointed 
him  to  the  prebendary  of  Bridebolstad  and  Vesturhopi,  which  situation  he  enjoyed  till 

4  R  2 


•«•. 


076 


VON  TllOlL'S  LETTEnS  OV  ICELAND. 


his  death  in  1567,  when  ala  very  advanced  age.  Besides  several  other  children  he  left 
a  son,  whose  name  was  John,  who  was  a  printer  thef  in  the  time  of  bishop  Guthrandr  : 
he  was  succeeded  in  the  printing-office  by  his  son  Brandur.  John  Bradtson,  son  of  the 
hutcr,  died  in  an  advanced  age  in  1681,  as  provost  of  Hytarnas.  His  son  John  Jonson, 
u  clergyman,  died  in  the  same  place  in  1732.  This  whole  family  is  now  reduced  to  po- 
verty. 

The  printing-office  was  immediately  established ;  and  in  153 1  John  Mathicsson  print- 
ed the  first  book  in  Iceland,  which  was  the  Breviarium  Nidarosiense.  There  was  like- 
wise an  edition  of  this  book  printed  at  Dronthicm,  the  editor  of  which  was  archbishop 
Erick  VVulkendorf,  which  is  now  very  scarce.  I  do  not  remcmlier  to  have  seen  this  edi- 
tion mentioned  any  where,  except  in  the  twenty-eighth  number  of  the  Danish  Magazine, 
where  a  copy  of  it  is  said  to  be  in  the  libnu-y  of  Mr.  Klevenfeldt.  But  in  regard  to  the 
Icelandic  edition,  it  is  generally  believed  that  not  a  single  copy  of  it  remains,  since  the  on- 
ly one  I  ever  heard  of  was  in  Arnas  Magnaei*s  library,  which  was  consumed  in  the  fire 
.^t  Copenhagen  in  1728. 

Besides  the  Breviarium  Nidarosiense,  he  printed  the  Handbok  Proesta  (an  ecclesiastical 
manual)  Luther's  Catechism,  and  other  books  of  the  same  sort.  Printing  however  did 
not  go  on  veiy  well  till  1574,  when  bishop  Guthrandr  Thorlakson  ordered  new  types  to 
be  brought  thither  ;  whereupon,  amongst  other  books,  the  Icelandic  bible  appeared  in 
print  in  folio,  in  the  year  1584.  The  printing-office  was  at  this  period  so, well  provided 
with  types,  that  two  presses  were  employed,  exclusive  of  those  at  Hoolum,  where  seve- 
ral books  were  printed  and  published,  about  that  time.  The  Icelandic  code  of  laws  was 
printed  in  1578,  at  Nupufell,  twelve  miles  from  Hoolum,  as  likewise  the  Viti  Theodori 
Summaria  in  1589. 

The  printing-office  at  Hoolum  was  taken  from  Thord  Thorlakson  in  1685,  and  trans- 
ferred to  Skalholt,  where  one-and-forty  diffiirent  books  were  printed :  the  first  of  which 
was  Paradysar  Lykell,  likewise  Forfadra  Bok  in  1686 ;  and  the  last,  Bcenabok  Sira 
ThordarBardarsonar  Med  Vika  Saung  Olearii.  utl.  af  Sira  Steines,  in  1697.  But  in 
the  beginning  of  this  century  the  printing-office  was  again  removed  to  Hoolum,  after 
bishop  Bjorn  Thorleisson  had  bought  it,  together  with  the  privileges  granted  to  it,  for 
five  hundred  dollars ;  and  the  first  book  published  on  the  revival  of  printing  at  this  place 
was  the  Paraphrasis  Medit.  Dr.  John  Gerhardi,  1703.  Since  this  time,  some  historical 
books,  among  which  I  will  mention  the  Life  of  Gustavus  Landkrona,  published  at  Hoo- 
lum, in  octavo,  1756,  translated  from  the  Swedish  into  the  Icelandic  language,  have  al- 
ways been  published  here ;  the  greatest  part  of  them,  however,  are  religious  books.  A 
new  privileged  printing-office  has  likewise  lately  been  established  at  Hrappsey,  by  Olafr 
Olssen,  where  several  valuable  books  have  already  been  printed. 

A  list  of  Icelandic  books  might  perhaps  not  be  improper  in  this  place ;  but  as  I  am  nn- 
able  to  furnish  you  with  a  complete  one,  I  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  send  you  a  cata- 
logue of  about  three  hundred  that  I  am  acquainted  with ;  of  which  number,  however,  1 
am  happy  to  have  upwards  of  one  hundred  now  in  my  library. 


LETTER  XVI....TO  CHEVALIER  IHRE. 
OF  THE  REMAINS  OF  ANTlQJJiTY  IN  ICELAND. 

SEAR  SIR,  Stockholm,  December  21,  1774. 

How  infinitely  happy  should  I  be,  were  I  able  to  satisfy  your  curiosity  in  respect  to 
the  great  number  of  remarkable  ami  ancient  monuments  with  which  Iceland  is  supposed 


VON  TROIL'S  LKTIKRS  OX  ICKLAM) 


677 


(o  abound ;  but  this  is  out  of  my  power  :  alt  the  information  I  can  give  you  amounts 
to  no  more,  than  that  the  country  is  so  destitute  of  them,  that  it  is  in  vain  to  go  in  search 
of  any  anti(|uitics  deserving  the  least  notice.  There  are  however  some  ruins  of  an  old 
castle  near  Videdal,  which  was  formerly  about  two  hundred  perches  in  circumference  : 
the  remains  on  the  north  side  are  about  twenty  fath(>ms  in  height,  though  they  arc  very 
low  towards  the  south.  Near  the  parsonage  Skaggestad,  at  Laugernas,  are  likewis( 
some  ruins  of  a  lesser  castle,  but  it  is  not  known  by  whom,  or  when,  it  was  built.  In 
other  places  are  remains  of  heathen  temples,  viz.  at  Midliord,  Godale,  Vidvik,  and 
others :  at  Hegranis  is  a  kind  of  ancient  place  of  execution ;  there  are  also  several 
burying- places  from  the  times  of  paganism,  among  which  1  shall  only  mention  Thorleif 
Jarlaskalds,  situate  on  a  small  island  in  the  Oxania.  Some  old  swords  and  helmets  have 
likewise  been  found,  but  they  have  not  cleared  up  any  part  of  history.  On  the  heaths 
of  Thingmansand  Threkyllis  are  two  great  stones  standing  upright,  which  most  pro- 
bably have  been  erected  as  monuments  to  the  memory  of  some  deceased  persons,  ac- 
cording to  Odin's  regulation.  This  custom,  which  was  long  practised  in  the  north, 
has  from  thence  been  brought  to  Iceland ;  though  it  was  not  usual  in  Sweden  till  a  long 
time  after  to  put  any  inscription  on  the  monument.  I  have  been  told,  that  some  years 
ago  forty  small  figures  of  brass  were  found  in  the  ground  near  Flatey,  representing  ani- 
mals and  other  objects ;  but  unfortunately  they  fvll  into  the  hands  of  people  who  did 
not  know  their  value,  consequently  they  have  been  all  lost. 

There  are  no  other  monuments  remaining  of  Sturleson,  besides  his  writings,  but  a 
mount  over-grown  with  grass  at  Reikholt,  which  is  said  to  have  been  raised  from  the 
ruins  of  his  house  ;  Stulanga  Reitur,  the  burying-placc  of  his  family  ;  and  at  a  little  dis- 
tance from  them,  SnorraLaug,  one  of  the  finest  baths  in  Iceland.  This  bath,  which  is 
large  enough  to  contain  fifty  persons  at  one  time,  is  mured  in  with  a  wall  of  basalt,  and 
concreto  thermarum ;  it  has  a  smooth  level  bottom,  and  is  surrounded  with  benches. 
In  Sturleson's  time  a  long  covered  passage  led  from  thence  to  the  dwelling-house,  so 
that  the  bathers  retire  from  the  bath  without  being  exposed  to  the  cold.  The  spring  is 
at  forty  paces  distance,  and  is  called  Scribla,  and  the  water  from  it  is  conveyed  to  the 
bath  tlirough  a  conduit  made  of  stones.  At  the  end  of  this  conduit  is  a  hole  in  a  rock, 
which  is  shut  with  a  spigot  and  faucet,  and  through  which  you  let  in  as  much  warm  wa- 
ter as  you  think  fit ;  this,  when  too  hot,  may  easily  be  cooled  by  water  from  an  adjoin- 
ing brook. 

These  are  almost  the  only  ancient  monuments  Iceland  affords,  and  all>  as  you  will 
readily  allow,  are  of  very  little  importance.  There  are  no  ancient  manuscripts,  Ice- 
landic sagas,  or  historical  traditions  or  accounts,  to  be  met  with,  the  island  having  been 
entirely  stripped  of  them,  owing  to  the  zeal  and  industry  of  the  antiquarians  and  others, 
who  formerly  resorted  in  numbers  to  this  country,  for  the  sole  end  of  collecting 
them. 

The  honour  of  having  first  begun  to  collect  them  belongs  to  Sweden  :  the  first  who 
undertook  it  was  Jonas  Rugman,  who  went  to  Iceland  in  1661,  at  ihe  expence  of  the 
court  of  Sweden,  where  he  obtained  a  number  of  manuscripts,  which  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  collection  of  Icelandic  original  records  that  are  contained  in  the  Swedish  archives 
of  antiquities.  Encouraged  by  his  example,  Thormundr  Thorvison  likewise  went  to  Ice- 
land, furnished  with  an  order  from  King  Frederic  the  Third,  of  the  twenty-seventh  of 
May  1662,  to  the  bishops  Bryniolf,  Svensson,  and  Gisle  Thorlakson,  to  assist  him  in 
collecting  Icelandic  manuscripts. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  college,  it  was  proposed  to  send  Peter  Salan  to  Iceland ; 
but  this  did  not  take  place,  though  they  gained  their  point  some  time  after,  in  1680,  by 


«'(! 


678 


VON  TROIL'S  LBTTEIiS  ON  ICELAND. 


means  ot  Giultnundi  Olson,  who  prevailed  upon  his  brother  Helge  Olson  to  leave  Icc- 
lanil  and  come  to  Sweden,  whither  he  brought  a  considerable  number  of  manuscripts. 
Great  additions  were  afterwards  made  to  these  collections  by  Arngrim  Johnson,  Jonas 
Wigfusen,  Lopt  Josephen,  GudmundGudmunderson,  and  Thorvaldr  Brockman,  who 
were  all  employed  as  translators  l)v  the  college  of  anticpiities.  Jonas  ICghardsen,  Magnus 
Benedictsen,  Isleif  Thorleifscn,  Ljnar  Ejnarsen,  Arnas  Hakansen,  Francis  Jacobsen,  and 
Thord  Thorlakson,  have  also  very  much  enriched  the  collection,  both  when  the  college 
of  antiquities  was  ut  Upsala,  and  when  it  was  afterwards  transferred  to  Stockholm. 

The  attention  of  the  Danish  court  was  at  last  excited  :  King  Christian  Fifth,  in  1685, 
dispatched  Thomas  Bartholin  to  Iceland,  with  an  order  to  the  bailifl  Heidemann  to  assist 
him  in  collecting  Icelandic  antiquities :  he  forbad  at  the  same  time,  in  the  strictest  man* 
ner,  any  manuscripts,  hiittones,  or  other  accounts  relating  to  Iceland,  to  be  sold  to  fo- 
reigners, or  carried  out  of  the  country. 

Stockholm,  as  well  as  Copenhagen,  became  therefore  possest  of  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  Icelandic  writings ;  but  the  latter  court,  not  satisfied  with  what  they  had  already 
obtained,  dispatched  Arnas  Magnaus  and  Paul  Widalin  to  Iceland  in  1712 ;  where  they 
sought  for  whatever  might  remain  there  with  such  extreme  care,  that  it  is  almost  inrt- 
possible  to  get  sight  of  any  manuscript  history  in  the  whole  country  ;  and  notwithstand- 
ing  the  pains  I  have  taken,  I  could  only  obtain  an  imperfect  copy  of  the  Sturlunga  Saga, 
which  I  purchased. 

It  is  in  vain,  therefore,  that  one  now  inquires  for  ancient  Icelandic  chronicles  in  Ice> 
land  ;  for  besides  the  fine  collection  in  the  Swedish  archives  of  antiquities,  there  is  a  very 
admirable  collection  of  them  in  the  library  of  the  academy  at  Copenhagen,  which  was  a 
gift  of  Arnas  Magnuus ;  besides  several  small  collections  of  less  importance,  in  the  hands 
of  private  persons. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  Icelandic  histories  which  have  been  published  :  some 
of  them  have  been  printed  in  Iceland,  among  which  those  printed  at  Skalhok  are  very 
rare  ;  but  the  greatest  part  have  been  published  in  Sweden,  though  sometimes  from  very 
imperfect  manuscripts.  Olof  Rudbeck  the  elder,  Verelius,  the  two  Peringskolds,  Ren- 
hielm,  Biorner,  Salan,  and  Brokman,  have  however  acquired  a  great  deal  of  merit,  by  the 
care  and  diligence  w1  ich  they  bestowed  upon  them.  None  of  these  editions  however 
can  be  compared,  in  [)oint  of  elegance  and  criticism,  to  those  published  in  Copenhagen, 
by  the  Magnaanian  college,  the  continuation  of  which  is  expected  with  great  impatience 
by  the  literary  world. 


LETTER  XVII....TO  BARON  AXEL  LEJONHUFVVUD. 
OF  THE  ICELANDIC  POETRY. 

Stockholm,  Dec.  12,  1775. 

It  is  with  the  utmost  pleasure  that  I  prepare  to  obey  your  commands,  in  communi. 
eating  to  you  a  short  account  of  the  Icelandic  poetry  :  I  only  lament  that  my  circum- 
scribed kKowledge  on  a  subject  which  is  surrounded  with  so  manj  obscurities,  will  not 
permit  me  to  make  my  account  as  perfect  as  I  could  wish,  and  as  the  imiwrtance  of  the 
subject  requires  :  I  regret  this  inability  so  much  the  more,  as  I  am  to  submit  my  thoughts 
to  the  eye  of  so  great  a  connoisseur ;  but  if  even  my  observations  should  not  be  very 
iniportant,  I  will  console  myself  for  it,  as  they  will,  however,  be  a  proof  of  my  readiness 
to  comply  with  your  wishes. 

Though  the  opinion  of  some  men  of  learning,  that  writing  in  verse  has  been  earlier 
practised  in  Europe  than  writing  in  prose  may  appear  extraordinary  at  first,  yet  it 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTRUS  ON  ICF.I.AMJ. 


679 


iwems  more  probable  upon  nearer  cxuminution.  The  poets  among  the  Greeks  .uul 
Romans  were  more  ancient  than  their  historians  and  most  celebrated  orators.  The  time 
when  prose  first  began  to  l)e  written  among  these  nations  may  Ix:  ascertained  with  tulC' 
rable  accuracy  ;  but  it  is  ahnost  impossible  to  determine  the  age  of  poetry  among  them, 
as  it  is  far  more  ancient  than  the  siege  of  Troy  and  the  Olympic  games.  In  the  same 
tnanner  we  know  that  the  first  work  in  prose  among  the  l^)mans  was  the  speech  of  Ap- 
pius  Caegius  to  the  senate  and  Homan  people,  in  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-lifih  Olym- 
piad ;  in  which  he  advises  them  to  refuse  the  conditions  of  peace  oftered  by  Pynlus, 
when  it  is  certain  that  poetry  had  been  known  and  cultivated  among  them  long  Ixli   o. 

This  need  not  be  wondered  at,  when  we  recollect  that  long  before  the  knowledge  /f 
letters  could  have  become  general  in  Europe,  many  actions  might,  however,  have  been 
thought  worthy  to  Ijc  consigned  to  posterity.  How  great  an  assistance  must  it  have 
iKcn  to  the  memory,  when  the  remembrance  of  an  evefit,  destined  to  be  rescued  fron\ 
oblivion,  was  preserved  in  words  composed  according  to  a  certain  measniv,  where  it 
might  be  determined,  even  by  the  ear  alone,  if  any  woril  had  been  omitted  or  altered. 
The  laws  of  the  ancient  Germans  were  written  in  verse,  and  the  stanzas  in  which  they 
were  composed  werc  generally  sung.  The  French  monarch,  induced  by  the  favourable 
reception  given  to  every  poetical  work,  caused  the  Bible  to  be  translated  into  verse  in 
the  ninth  century  :  from  the  same  motive  Ottfried,  a  Benedictine  monk  in  Alsace,  trans- 
lated the  four  Evangelists  into  German  verse,  about  the  same  period. 

Thus  we  see  that  poeiry  is  extremely  ancient  among  all  nations ;  and  in  Sweden  "t 
may  be  considered  as  a  legacy  of  Odin,  who  first  brought  it  thither.  In  ancient  times 
there  was  no  king  or  chief,  or  any  other  man  of  note,  who  had  not  his  own  skald  or  poet, 
who  was  obliged  to  be  present  on  all  important  occasions,  to  remark  whatever  was 
worthy  of  attention,  and  to  relate  it  in  songs.  He  was  present  at  battles  in  the  Skold- 
borg,  or  in  the  midst  of  the  bravest  warriors,  that  he  might  behold  with  his  own  eyes 
those  actions  which  were  to  be  recorded  :  at  their  banquets  he  was  obliged  to  animate 
the  guests  with  happy  inventions  and  poetical  encomiums  on  their  deceased  heroes. 
These  poets  were  everywhere  held  in  high  esteem ;  they  were  constantly  admitted 
to  the  king's  presence,  and  frequently  were  both  his  generals  and  ministers.  They 
were  called  skaldr,  which  Chevalier  Ihre  derives  from  skial,  reason  or  prudence, 
from  whence  the  expression  of  skialaman,  \vise  men.  They  were  likewise  called 
spckingr,  from  speke,  wisdom,  from  whence  the  English  word,  to  ajx^ak,  derives  its 
origin. 

To  the  songs  of  these  poets  we  owe  the  first  accounts  of  the  Swedish  history ,  and 
cannot  therefore  deprive  them  of  the  honour  Tacitus  bestows  on  them  in  calling  them 
antiquissimum  annalium  genus.  Our  ancient  traditions  are  likewise  filled  with  these 
songs,  which  we  cannot  alter  or  reject  as  worthless,  though  they  are,  for  the  most  part, 
unintelligible  to  us.  The  cause  of  this  is,  first,  that  the  skalds  purposely  composed 
their  songs  with  so  much  art,  that  they  were  not  only  unintelligible  to  the  vulgar,  of 
which  we  find  examples  in  Geila  Stursonar,  Viga  Glum,  and  Greltis's  Sagas ;  but 
they  were  not  even  understood  by  the  greatest  poets,  of  which  Gretter's  history  gives  us 
a  proof. 

They  were,  secondly,  accustomed  to  transpose  the  order  of  the  words  in  their  songs 
in  so  strange  a  manner,  as  necessarily  augmented  the  obscurity.  I  will  only  mention  one 
example  of  this  from  Renhjelm,  where  the  words,  to  follow  in  their  natural  order,  ought 
to  have  been  ranged  according  to  the  number  placed  over  them : 


(t80 


VON  TROIL'S  LRTTKRS  ON  ICRLANU 


I:. 


I" 


111 


1  9      8      9 

Hilmir  vann  at  holmi 
5  7  6 

Hialni'Skoth  rothni  blothi 

3  U        15       13 
Huat  nfduldu  thess  hoeldaf 

4  10      11  12 
Hoerd  oc  austur  i  poertlwm 

18     20       17       19 
Hogs  bra  Recka  laegir 

10         22         21 
Riikur  valkera  Ujki 
23         24       27 
Herst^xW  let  hrqfnum 
25         26  28 

....  ^,  Hold  Jiaemingia  goldit. 

Ihcy  had,  thirdly,  a  particular  pcx-tical  language  (Skaldskaparnial)  which  was  vcrv 
copious  but  could  not  be  n^de  use  of  in  common  life.  This  language  p,^baW J  m'S 
one  of  the  principal  parts  of  their  studies  in  those  limes,  as  they  were  not  bS We  of 
jts  beauty  and  elcgrance.  Thus,  for  example,  there  are  upwards  of  fiftrsynonymes  oLe 
word  boija,  billow  or  wave.  And  Chevalier  Ihre  quotes  Lopt  GuttorUo^  KlkU 
(a  bve.song)  in  which  there  are  many  different  appellatfons,  whi^h  Jl  exDrV^^he 
word  woman.     I  shall  borrow  a  few  liiies  of  this  p!)em,  which  are  mentioned    n  he 

fonomasTas"^  ''"  ''""^'^"''  ""'  "'"^  P*"^^  '"'  ^^'^'"^  ^'^  v^t  SeiJ  An! 

Heingi  e^  hamri  kringdan 
Hang  a  nupu  tangar. 
Grimnis  sylgs  a  galga 
Gynnung  bruar  linna. 

The  natural  disposition  of  those  words  is  this :  Eg  heingi  hamri  kriiiRdan  linna  svu 
nung  a  hang  nupu  bruar  tangar,  a  Grymnis  s^lgs  |al^a  f  which  mean^M     Khe 
round  beaten  gaping  snake  on  the  end  of  the  brfdle  oft^  mountain  bird  'at  the  JlowS 

Tow^  nm  f'f^^Z  u  .^"'^  '^''  ^"''  °^  '^''^  ^°'^«'  Mr.  Ihre  observes,   hat  by  fhe  rT 
lows  of  Odin's  shield  ,s  meant  the  arm.  on  which  it  is  usual  to  hang  on  the  shield    ¥v 
the  word  ripa  is  understood  a  falcon,  for  a  skald  has  the  permission  of  putting  one  cenus 
for  another.     The  bridge  of  the  falcon  is  the  hand,  on  S5iich  the  fa  cC  f  laces^rr 
and  Its  end  or  tong  tongue    is  the  finger.     The  gaping  round  beaten  snEeai^a 
nng ;  and  consequently  this  long  story'means  no  L^re  tlian,  I  put  a  ring  on  my  fin- 
Fourthly   to  make  themselves  still  more  intelligible,  when  tivo  wonis  had  the  same 
sound,  the  Skalds  were  allowed  the  liberty  of  putlngthe  periph  IL  o^fhe  one  foM^ 
other  :  for  example,  the  word  hof  signifies  a  tiorse'f  hoof  or  foot ;  but  the  same  word 
likewise  means  decency,  moderation,  understanding;  and  to  express  tWs  h^hoTi^ 
hoof  was  frequently  made  use  of.     But  the  princfpal  difficulty  in  the  explaL  bn  of 
this  ancient  poetry  proceeds  frem  the  extreme  incor^ctness  of  thrn^a^uLripS  of  our 
Sagas,  particularly  of  the  poetry,  which  cannot  be  read  correctly  xvitCt  S  atten- 
tion.    These  are  the  causes  why  the  greater  part  of  the  verses  in  their  SagarpubSed 


! 


:■  |i 


\0S  TnOIL'S  LETTEnS  ON  ICRl.ANII 


081 


either  in  Iceland  itM.'lf  or  in  Sweden  cannot  be  understood ;  only  very  few  are  capuhic  of 
cumprchendinf^  them ;  that  it  is  however  possible,  h  proved  by  the  new  ediiiunn  of 
Kriktnis  Sagu,  Landnamabok,  and  bevcral  otherti.  The  provost  Gunnar  Paulsen  in  lec- 
land  is  particularly  distinguished  fur  his  great  knowledge  in  this  branch  of  litera* 
tuie. 

The  difficulties  we  meet  with  in  ascertaining  the  true  sense  of  these  ancient  |K)ems 
is  likewise  the  cause  of  the  cuntenipt  with  which  we  consider  these  i'cw  remains  of  the 
genius  of  the  ancients.  1  will  readily  acknowledge  that  they  have  no  puem  which 
could  be  proposed  as  a  pattern  of  wit  and  elegance;  yet  it  cuniiot  be  ddiii-d,  but  that 
very  sublime  thoughts  and  expressions,  and  sometimes  very  Ixauiilul  conipurisons,  arc 
to  be  met  with  in  them:  and  it  is  im()ossible  to  read  the  dying  LinlbrokN  Uiarkamal, 
Kigils,  Hotud,  Lausn,  and  Ejvindrs,  Haconarma,  without  pleasure,  besides  several 
others. 

They  chose  for  the  subject  of  their  poetry  whatever  hap|)ened  in  common  life  ;  how- 
ever they  principally  occupied  themselves  in  composing  songs  in  praise  ol  the  actions  of 
their  great  men  ;  in  which  they  are  accused  of  not  being  over  scrupulous  in  bestowing 
their  Hatteries.  We  have  several  poems  existing,  on  various  subjects,  among  which 
there  is  a  tolerable  epic  one  on  Charles  and  Grim,  besides  another  on  Hialmar.  They 
have  likewise  some  satirical  pieces,  which  they  used  to  call  nidvisor,  iuul  the  mulertakiiig 
of  the  author  was  named  yricia  nid ;  but  therc  are  no  traces  of  their  having  had  the  least 
idea  of  theatrical  performances. 

From  ivhat  has  been  siiid,  it  may  be  imagined,  that  there  is  no  language  which  allows 
a  poet  so  much  liberty  as  the  Icelandic ;  and  indeed  there  is  no  language  so  rich  in  poeti- 
cal expressions  as  this  :  It  must  not  however  be  thought  that  it  is  confined  by  certain 
rules  ;  on  the  cuiiirary,  I  believe  there  is  no  prosody  so  copious  as  the  Icelandic,  as,  ac- 
cording to  the  Edda,  they  had  no  less  than  a  hundred  and  thirty-six  different  sorts  of  versi- 
fications (in  leelandic  hattur)  cuch  of  which  had  its  particular  rules.  However,  it  will  be 
extremely  difficult,  nay  aimost  impossible,  to  say  any  thing  certain  on  this  subject,  Ixforc 
we  have  a  true  explanation  of  that  part  which  treats  of  it  in  the  third  volume  of  tb*^  Edda. 

The  Edda  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  remains  of  antiquity,  and  yet  it  has  hitherto 
been  verj'  imperfectly  known.  It  has  generally  been  considered  as  Uie  mythology  of  the 
ancients,  and  the  Voluspa  and  Havamal  have  been  forced  upon  it  as  two  of  its  volumes, 
though  they  do  not  in  the  least  belong  to  it.  But  Chevalier  Ihre  has  thrown  more  light 
on  this  affair :  in  his  printed  letter  to  Mr.  Lugerbring,  he  has  attentively  examined  the 
manuscript  of  the  Edda,  in  the  library  at  Upsala,  and  clearl}  proves  that  it  is  nothing 
more  than  an  introduction  to  Icelandie  poetry,  consisting  of  three  parts :  the  first,  daemi- 
sagor,  is  an  extract  from  the  Historia  mythica  veterum  ;  the  second,  kenningar,  is  a  mere 
^rarium  poeticum  :  and  the  third,  liods  greiner,  contains  the  Icelandic  prosody,  Sec.  &c. 
The  so-called  doemisagome  are  for  the  most  part  translated  into  the  Swedish  language 
by  Goranson,  but  the  translation  is  very  incorrect.  Resenius  has  likewise  published  them, 
together  with  the  Kenningarne,  in  Latin.  But  the  third  part,  which  deserves  no  less  at- 
tention, has  not  yet  appeared  in  print ;  and  it  is  much  to  l)c  wished  that  Chevalier  Ihre 
would  give  it  to  the  public,  as  there  are  so  few  besides  himself  capble  of  doing  it  justice. 

The  various  conjectures  which  have  been  formed  concerning  the  true  author  of 
the  Edda  have  been  no  less  erroneous,  than  those  relating  to  the  subject  of  the  book 
itself.  It  has  generally  been  ttiought  that  Samundr  Sigfuson,  who  died  in  II 33,  wrote  a 
very  ample  work  entitled  the  Edda,  which  treated  of  many  important  subjects,  and  was 
in  a  manner  a  magazine  of  all  human  knowledge ;  of  which  however  scarce  one  third 

VOL.   I.  4  s 


Ki 


683 


VOM  THOn.'S  IXTTEnn  OV  ICKI.ANI) 


has  ever  been  prrvTvcd,  and  transmitlcd  to  \is  in  the  present  F.ddu.  But  Chevalier  Ihrc 
asscrlH,  that  the  iUlda  \vi:  now  arc  in  po^sl•^^ion  lA'  lias  not  Iktu  extracted  from  any 
uiio  nion  ancieiU,  hnt  that  it  ha>i  originally  Ucn  composed  hy  Snorit:  Sturleson. 

Thf  dilHi  iiltics  and  objitciions  which  have  hi  en  made  a^-ainit  this  opinion  hy  the  learn- 
cd  Arnab  M.i^niuis,  and  aftcruardH  hy  professor  SchloHern,  can  easily  he  removed  ;  for 
most  nrnhahly  Stiirlcson*s  Kdda  h  is  heen  continued  hy  the  monk  Oiu)ian((.  as  Bjorn  of 
Skarilsaa  supposes,  or  r..thcT  hy  Olafr  IlvitasLalil.  It  is  not  therefore  surprising,  that 
somtthin^j  in  praise  of  Stuileson  should  he  inserted  ;  and  it  may  easily  I)e explained  from 
hent*',  \\i>\  the  author  called  WaliKniar,  kinj^  of  Dunuark,  his  master. 

It  is  ditlirult  to  determine  the  true  nature  of  the  ancient  Icelandic  poetry  :  however, 
tojrive  you  some  idea  of  it,  I  will  say  sonicthinj^  of  the  versification  most  fre(juenUj  used 
amoiip;  them,  and  which  was  called  dro|i(|iiadc  (kiiig's  sott^j^.) 

•  It  was  divi(l(  (I  into  stanzas,  eacli  of  whii  h  consisted  of  lour  couplets,  and  each  of 
these  toupl'.ts  was  aj»;ain  compost  d  of  two  henusticks,  of  which  every  one  contained  six 
syliahl's.  and  it  was  not  allow  ^il  to  auj^ment  this  numlK-r,  except  in  cases  of  the  ^rreat- 
est  neecs>ity.  These  hemislicks  consist  of  three  or  four  feet,  according  to  the  diflt.rent 
sorts  of  veisilicauon,  and  sometimes  ol  more,  in  proportion  to  the  shortness  of  the  syllu- 
hlcs.  Besides  this,  the  Icelandic  noetry  requires  two  other  things,  viz.  words  with  the 
same  initial  Icttcis,  and  woril^(,f  the  sanu'  sound.  This  assonance  is  called  hending,  and 
is  cither  mou  or  li  ss  ;  in  the  fitst  case  it  is  called  adalhcnding,  and  in  the  second,  skott< 
hending.     This  you  may  clearly  sec  hy  the  following  example  : 

Austur  londum  for  undann 
Alvaldursa  er  gafscaldimi, 
Hann  feck  gagn  at  gunne, 
Gunntrtir  da  slog  mcrgum, 
Slyduriungur  let  slingra 
Sverd  leiks  rcigcnn  ferdar, 
Seiide  granmuir  id  f^rundu 
Gullwarpathi  yuiroann. 

Merc  it  must  first  be  observed,  that  Uierc  is  in  every  couplet  a  syllabic  which  governs 
the  whole  \erse,  rader  qnaedinni,  which  is  almost  always  die  first  word  in  the  second 
hemibtick  ;  and  two  words  in  the  first  hemistick  must  begin  with  the  same  letter,  if  it  is 
a  consonant :  but  when  it  is  a  vow(  I,  one  vowel  may  be  put  for  another.  Thus,  for 
example,  in  the  above  stanza  the  following  words  are  those  which  govern  each  verse, 
consisting  of  two  lines  or  hcmisticks,  radar  quedandi,  in  the  first  verse,  the  uordalvadur, 
because  i*  iKf.^ins  with  a  vowel,  has,  in  the  first  hemistick  of  this  verse,  the  words  austur 
and  luidann ;  in  the  second  verse  gunhorda,  you  find  gagn  and  gunne  in  its  first 
half:  ii  he  third  verse  sverd,  whence  in  the  first  hemistick  slydurtungur  and  slingra: 
in  the  fourth  \\r-.L-,  gullvarpathi,  which  requires  gramur  and  grundu  in  its  first  half. 
Secondly,  <Mie  finds  m  the  iirst  hemistick  of  each  verse  a  skotthendmg,  or  two  words 
whicii  have  equal  consonants  with  unequal  vowels,  such  us  are  in  the  first  verse  Ibudum, 
undann ;  in  the  second  hann,  gunn  ;  in  the  third,  slydurtungur,  slingra ;  and  in  the  fourth, 
sceiidc,  grinuhi.  But  in  the  second  hemistick  of  each  verse  is  an  adalhending,  where  two 
words  have  both  equal  consonants  and  vowels  in  the  above-mentioned  stanza :  words 
of  this  kind  are  in  the  first  verse  alvald  skaldumm  ;  in  the  second  verse  gunhorda,  mor- 
gum  ;  in  the  third  verse  sverd,  ferdar ;  and  in  the  fourth  verse  gulvarpathi,  snarpann : 
conser{uently,  in  a  stanza,  which,  like  the  above,  consists  of  thirty-words,  above  one  half 


VON  TROII/S  l.F,TTF,n«  ON  ICIXANU. 


083 


of  its  peculiar  pro|)crtics  arc  contained  in  the  impossibility  of  changing  one  word  tbi 
another,  or  transposing  it,  without  in.ikinf^  a  great  alteration  in  the  whole  verse.  Th^se 
assonances,  or  hendingars,  are  generally  loiuid  in  the  first  and  lasl  word  of  each  Hi.r  : 
soinctinies  however  the  one  assonant  word  is  plaecd  in  the  middle  of  the  line,  as  mlhc 
instance  of  the  word  liindinnin  the  first  hemistick  of  the  first  vcrMC. 

This  eonsonanee  ofsoundt  must  be  considci-ed  as  the  necessary  ornament  of  a  regular 
verse  Ijy  the  ancient  Skalds  :  die  greater  this  uniformity  is,  the  more  the  vei se  appioach- 
es  to  perfection  ;  it  likewise  serves  them  as  a  guide  i.i  singing  their  vcr&cs,  VVc  also 
find  something  of  this  sort  in  the  Latin  poets :  Virgil  says, 

—tales  casus  Cassandra  cancbat 

And  another  poet, 

Dum  dubitat  natura  marcm  facerctvc  puellam, 
Nates  cs  o  pulchcr  paene  puella  puer. 

This  has  likewise  been  remarked  by  Boxhorn,  who  at  the  same  time  quotes  from 
Giraldufj  Cambrcnsis,  that  this  was  also  customary  among  the  ancient  Cambriiuis,  and 
in  Kngland  :  so  that  :L  seems  tc  have  been  the  opinion  of  most  nations,  that  the  elegance 
of  poetry  rccjuircd  this  harmony  of  sounds.    For  this  reason  the  Cambrians  say, 

Digawn  Duw  da  y  unic 
Wrth  bob  ctybwylh  paruvvd. 


And  the  English, 


God  is  together  gamman  and  wisdome. 


David  Rhaesus  confirms  this  in  his  Grammatica  Cambro-Brytannica,  printed  in  folio, 
London  1592,  and  {quotes  several  passages  from  their  verses,  which  have  a  great  deal  of 
resemblance  with  the  hendingar  of  the  Icelanders. 

I  know  not  whether  the  agreement  of  the  initial  letters,  customary  In  the  poetry  of 
the  Finlandcrs,  might  not  likewise  be  mentioned  here,  as  a  proof  of  the  same  custom 
being  observed  there  as  in  Iceland :  I  will  therefore  insert  a  passage  from  Calamnii's 
Congratulation  to  the  late  king  Adolphus  Frederic,  on  his  undertaking  a  voyage  to  Fin- 
land. 

Kosta  kulki  kuningamme 

Aclolph  Frediic  armollinen 

Mtid.iii  maalla  matkustcli, 

Kaieki  vereni  venahti, 

Kaicki  liikahti  lihani, 

EltOB  virteni  viritin, 

Kannoin  minum  kandeleni, 

Isaen  istuimen  etehen, 

Kaicki  vallan  kamarihin 

losta  anvin  andimia. 

But  thiscarnts  me  too  far  fi-om  my  subject.  Though  we  do  not  find  any  rhymes  in 
our  most  ancient  poetry,  *il  may  however  be  said  with  certaiaty,  that  they  c.rc  older  than 
the  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion.  Skul'.-Kjuarson  is  therefore  wrongfully  accused 

4  s  2 


jtw'i 


684 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


of  having  introduced  the  use  of  rhymes,  which  is  now  become  sc  general,  that  except 
Kngland,  which  has  preserved  its  blank  verse,  Donation  in  Eurojieis  pleased  with  vera- 
es  that  do  not  rhyme.  The  art  of  rhyming,  which  is  by  no  means  essential  to  poetrv 
and  still  less  useful,  ns  it  only  serves  to  make  it  more  difficult,  wai  borrowed,  it  is  not  im-' 
probable,  froni  the  ancient  northern  skalds,  and  has  now  spread  itself  beyond  Europe  ;  so 
that  rhyming  is  become  as  universal,  as  the  complaint  that  the  number  of  versifiers  in. 
creases  m  the  same  proportion  as  the  number  of  poets  decreases.  Baretti  relates,  that 
he  heard  a  Mosambique  song  in  rhyme,  from  some  negroes  at  Madrid.  Gages  says 
the  same  of  the  Mexicans ;  and  Nixbuhr  mentions  that  the  Arabs  are  great  riiymers. 

1  o  conclude,  I  here  present  you  with  a  specimen  of  an  Icelandic  poem,  u  hich  Rug- 
man  composed  on  the  death  of  count  Magnus  de  la  Gardia.  It  was  printed  at  Upsala  ; 
but  isbecosne  so  scarce,  that  I  doubt  whether  any  person  in  Sweden  has  a  printed  copy 
ot  It :  it  may  at  the  jamc  time  serve  to  suew  the  nature  of  a  drottquade,  as  the  author 
has  observed  almost  all  the  rules  which  constitute  one. 

Aut  er  i  seggia  soti 
Suknar  manns  i  ranni 
Gret  ylgur  Ragnvald  rytto 
Ron^stamir  haukar  fromast 
Kund  Lodbrokar ;  kiendo 
Kuillinda  valir  Mlra ; 
Ku61drido  klarar  hrcldost 
Kueid  ari  mar  fast  reidar 
Tijd  ficllo  tar  af  giodi 
Tafnlausir  aepto  hrafnar. 

Thuarr  og  vidthein^ls  daudu 
Thydur  morg  br^d,  i  hijdi 
Skreidast  thui  bersi  skiacdur 
Skiott  marti  grids,  of  otta  : 
Ox  6dum  falu  faxa 
Frar  miog  or  Jeiptri  tara 
Huarma  heckur  ad  hrockin 
Hraut  gron  a  baudar  nauti. 

Greto  skinlaus  agiastann 
Gripdijrheidingia  suipuls 
Verdar  of  faedo  fordum 
Fleinthings  allvakran  kingia  : 
Og  i  oglodum  huga 
Undo  sier  menn  og  hrundir 
Seims  kuado  mundar  soma 
Sieirrhuor  huit  malar  thuerri. 

Heidingiar  ef  sua  hedins 
Harmadu  kuanar  barma 
Stalir  sier  giordi  stala 
Stijrir  og  Eida  hirust : 
Thars  i  malmgusti  giera 
Grad  thuarr  og  vod  til  brada 
Varga  kna  vund  cborgivi 
Vas,  thaut  rafn  i  asi. 


I 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 

Hvad  bari  oss  er  erum 
Urdarbmnns  tha  alkunnir 
Sira  Jofurs  thess  sara 
Sueita  dagliga  neitum  ? 
Og  i  hans  erum  faugru 
Orda  vidkuaedivordnir 
L  ppfrijeddir  ad  vier  hreppa 
Astundum  gledi  hkk  ? 
Baeri  oss  ey  bliugum  vera 
Breiskleika  holdsins  veikan 
Tijitt  fyri  sionir  settia 
Synd  flya,  dygd  i  nijast  ? 
Hel  med  thui  hroka  stoli 
Hreikir  sier  a  faul  blcikum 
Akuedr  ymsra  thioda 
Andlat  med  quisti  bandar. 
Hel  vsBgir  hauldum  eigi 
Hrijfur  or  thesso  lijfi 
Kejsara,  Klerk  og  Rasir 
Karlmensko  fuUa  Jarla : 
Altignum  amint  fagnar 
Og  kot-af-rofja  throti 
Kurteisa  kappa  hersa 
Kielling  Icggur  ad  velli. 
Dasmi  framm  daglig  koma 
Drijir  hel  verk  at  nijo 
Audlinga  aburt  leidir 
Oss  dauggvar  tara  fossi : 
Mannlunga  maetsta  fangar 
Med  sier  hertekna  hiedan 
Faerir  og  furdum  storum 
Fiaurlestir  rieingid  besta. 
Sidpridi,  sjemd  og  heidur, 
Somligigur  dygdar  blonii, 
Man^aeska,  vinsasl  minning, 
Metrda  fremd  ofgietin, 
Frijdleikur,  fegiird,  audur, 
Fraekn,  ast,  og  hyller  dasto 
Hel  med  sier  dregur  i  duala 
Deyr  tho  goit  mannord  eije. 
Eiiin  nu  af  aed  banni 
Afgieck  raud  moens  brecku 
Maetur  altygin  ytum 
JE  tregandi  laegir : 
Kurreis,  vis,  kiaenn,  til  vurta 
Kin-storlof  dunga  vinur 
Haboriu  Jarl  og  Herra 
Haukstandar  malar  grandi. 


68S 


I 


686 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELANM 

Dyr  Magnus  Delagardi 
Dygdliar  Odains  bygde  ' 

Akurs  vist  at'  var  rekin, 
£r  nara  nift  illskiptin  : 
Mord  hauxa  Fall  bans  fjerdi 
Fridoitum  brccko  hlijda 
Sorg  stora  sua  og  morgum 
SIsedir  lax  hrundum  faedo. 

Thar  fie  oss  tho  ad  eyrir 
Thad  hann  i  gudi  gladur 
AIs  trajd  holds  goto  greida 
Grand  fyrtist  vondra  andii ; 
Hirdur  i  Gimlis  gardi 
Ghtt  singur  og  samklingir 
Utvi  uldum  Ein^la  sueitum 
End:  laust  lof  miuk  rausto. 

EPITAPHIUM. 

Conditurhoc  tumulc  juvcnili  mortuusaevo 

Magnus,  de  Magna  Gardia  gente  fatus. 
In  multos  canus  dignus  qui  viveret  annos, 

Hei  mihi  1  quod  juvenis  concidit  ante  diem. 
Hujus  enim  ingenram  cepit  non  terra.    Quid  inde  ? 

Tollite  Caelicoiae,  reddite  Caelicols. 
Die  tumulum  spectans  oculo  properaiite  viator  : 

Magno  Tuo  Cineri  sit  pia  terra  levis. 


JONAS    RUGMAN. 


Scripsit  Upsaliae  anno  1667, 
die  14  Februarii. 


LETTER  XVIII....TO  PROFESSOR  BERGMAN. 
OF  THE  VOLCANOES  IN  ICELAND. 

H  •    J  u       n     •     T       .    .    ,  Stockholm,  Sept.  1,  1773. 

Having  received  the  collection  I  made  in  Iceland  of  the  specimens  of  the  different 
substances  of  which  their  volcanoes  are  composed,  I  take  the  liberty  of  sending  it  to  you  • 
adding  at  the  same  time  a  short  account  of  these  burning  mountains,  which  is  in  part 
extracted  from  Icelandic  writers,  and  partly  founded  on  what  I  heard  from  the  natives 
as  well  as  from  my  own  observations ;  and  which  I  do  not  think  unworthy  of  youJ 
closer  examination.  Indeed  it  is  much  to  be  lamented  that,  since  of  late  such  care  and 
application  have  been  bestowed  on  the  study  of  natural  history,  so  little  attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  operations  of  Nature  in  this  remarkable  island  ;  for  hitherto  a  very  small 
number  of  the  many  volcanoes  are  yet  fully  known ;  but  that  we  should  be  more  igno- 
rant  in  regard  to  the  wonderful  hot  spouting  water-springs,  with  which  th?  country 
abounds,  is  very  extraordinary ;  not  to  mention  many  other  uncommon  appearances  in 
nature.  rr  •» 

My  time  and  attention  have  been  too  much  confined  and  taken  u-^,  to  give  you  so 
complete  an  account  of  the  curiosities  of  Iceland  as  they  deserve;  but  I  flatter  myself 
notwithstanding,  that  you  will  give  a  favourable  reception  to  the  few  observations  I  sliali 
make,  though  they  should  not  be  so  importaiit  as  might  be  expected.     We  may  hope 


^l- 


J  4 


VOV  TROIL'S  LBTTKH3  ON  ICELAND. 


687 


to  sec  this  subject  treated  upon  more  at  large,  when  you  have  time  and  opportunity 
to  compare  the  cttlcts  of  lire  in  Iceland  with  similar  ones  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 

I  will  not  venture  to  determine  how  far  the  opinion  of  some  men  of  learning  Is  found 
cd  on  truth,  that  all  mountains  have  taken  their  rise  either  from  lire  or  water.  How  pro- 
Ipable  soever  this  opinion  may  appear,  of  which  wc  can  find  no  traces  in  the  most  remote 
times,  and  the  most  ancient  authors ;  yet  it  w(juld  be  very  difficult,  nay  almost  impossi- 
ble, to  establish  it  by  experience  :  but  be  this  3  it  may,  1  will  ventiue  to  pronounce, 
that  Iceland  has  been  formed  by  eruptions  of  fire. 

It  is  no  uncommon  event  for  i&lands  to  be  produced  in  this  manner  ;  we  have  many  ex- 
amples of  it  ;  but  the  size  and  extent  of  Iceland,  in  coniparison  to  other  islands,  which 
owe  their  origin  to  the  same  cause,  may  raise  some  doubts  against  the  reception  of  this 
hypothesis.  Nor  can  it  be  denied,  that  this,  as  well  as  several  sorts  of  stone  which  are  to 
be  found  there,  and  which  do  not  beur  any  distinct  marks  of  the  effects  of  fire,  are  like- 
wise calculated  to  confirm  these  doubts.  Again,  I  see  nothing  to  hinder  me  from  con- 
sidering  Iceland  as  produced  by  fire,  when  I  rcPect  that  the  ground  in  all  parts  of  the  island, 
antl  particularly  near  the  sea-shore,  consists  of  » iva  or  tuffa,  which  is  frequently  covered 
with  other  sorts  of  stones,  as  at  Limdu,  and  even  -"ith  a  hard  kind  of  moor-stone  (saxum) 
or  with  several  strata  of  different  kinds  of  earth  and  stones,  as  at  Laugarnoes,  where  the 
lava  is  fourteen  feet  in  depth ;  when  I  find,  besides,  that  those  rocks,  which  have  no  traces 
of  fire,  are  compoimdedof  sand  mixed  with  small  pieces  of  spar,  which  may  easily  be 
produced,  in  two  or  three  thousand  years,  since  the  lava  has  laid  the  foundation,  I  am 
still  more  iiiclined  to  support  this  opinion. 

I  am  not  however  so  credulous  as  to  believe,  that  the  whole  island  was  produced  at 
once  by  fire  ;  but  1  rather  conjecture  that  it  has  been  the  work  of  some  centuries,  by 
several  cliffs  and  rocks  having  been  produced  at  different  times,  whose  points  have  been 
connected  by  new  eruptions,  and  which  have  formed  the  basis  of  the  whole  island. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  determine,  whether  this  supposition  has  any  real  foundation  or 
not ;  however,  I  think  myself  authorised  to  believe  it,  as  well  from  the  arched  figure  into 
which  the  streams  of  lava  have  generally  formed  themselves,  as  from  the  probable  con- 
nections of  the  sea  and  the  volcanoes  there  :  I  likewise  believe,  that  from  hence  it  may 
best  be  explained,  why  several  islands  have  been  swallowed  up  in  great  earthquakes, 
as  a  building  may  soonest  be  destroyed  by  tearing  away  the  pillars  on  which  it 
rests. 

Thus  I  go  further  back  with  regard  to  the  eruptions  of  fire  in  Iceland,  than  the  com- 
mon  tradition  among  the  vulgar  people  there,  who  believe  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  whom  they  suppose  to  have  been  Christians  and  Irishmen,  were  so  much  op- 
pressed by  tilt  Norwegian  colonists,  that  they  were  forced  to  leave  the  country,  which 
they  first  set  fire  to,  to  revenge  themselves.  We  cannot  however  determine,  till  after 
the  arrival  of  the  Norwegians,  how  often  the  eruptions  of  fire  have  happened.  But  this 
nation  has  preserved  with  great  care  whatever  concerned  their  place  of  residence  or  habi- 
tation. 

The  first  eruption  of  fire,  mentioned  by  the  ancient  records,  is  the  Ildborgar  hraun, 
immediately  after  the  arrival  of  the  Norwegians  on  the  west  side  of  the  island,  in  the 
ninth  century.  But  it  is  not  remarked  as  any  thing  extraordinary,  only  that  the  fire 
broke  out  near  a  farm  belonging  to  Thore ;  and  a  stretch  of  lava,  or  a  hraun,  of  three 
miles  in  length,  and  two  and  a  half  in  breadth,  remains  to  this  day,  as  a  monument  of 
it.  After  dns  there  are  no  eruptions  mentioned  till  the  year  1000,  when  the  Christian 
religion  was  introduced  there.  At  u  time  when  the  chiefs  of  the  country  were  assem- 
bled, to  consult  about  the  reception  of  the  Christian  religion,  infoi  mation  was  brought 


688 


VON  TnOIL'9  LE  fTRRS  OM  ICELAND. 


that  fire  was  thrown  out  at  Plow.  The  heathens  considered  this  as  a  proof  of  the  wrath 
of  their  gods,  on  which  account  they  were  resolved  to  refuse  the  new  religion  ;  but  this 
resolution  was  overruled  by  Snorre  Code's  asking  thtm,  '•  On  whom  did  the  gods  dis- 
play their  wrath,  when  those  rocks  on  which  we  now  stand  were  on  fire  ?" 

The  Icelandic  chronicles  mention  many  instances  of  fiery  eruptions  observed  indifcr- 
ent  places  during  the  space  of  eight  hundred  years;*  it  is  therefore  difficult  to  coniL'ive 
how  Horrebow,  who  has  been  in  the  country  himself,  could  affirm,  that  fire  is  emitted 
only  from  them  very  rarely,  and  in  few  places. 

To  be  sensible  of  the  dreadful  effects  of  fire  the  country  itself  need  only  be  con- 
sidered. The  mountains  are  almost  entirely  composed  of  lav  a  and  tuffa,  and  the  plains 
are  crusted  over  wiUi  hraun,  or  tracts  of  lava,  uhich  are,  however,  in  many  places 
covered  with  earth  or  turf.  Th  ir^onnts  which  we  have  of  certain  eruptions  of  fire 
also  informs  us,  that  they  have  a.«  ^id  waste  large  tracts  of  land,  either  more  or 
less. 

I  will  not  in  this  place  mention  the  damages  done  to  the  inhabitants  by  the  ashes  thrown 
from  the  volcanoes,  which  frequently  covered  the  fields  for  a  space  of  twenty  or  thirty 
miles  in  length,  and  half  a  yard  in  height,  and  by  which  the  cattle  suffered  very  much, 
as  it  caused  them  to  lose  their  teeth,  and  frequently  to  drop  down  dead  for  want  of  food  ; 
and  when  they  have  been  killed,  pummice  has  sometimes  been  found  in  their  liver  and 
bowels.  I  will  only  name  some  of  the  places  situate  nearest  to  the  volcanoes,  that  have 
been  utterly  destroyed  by  iheir  effects.  This  has  been  partly  done  by  violent  earthquakes, 
which  generally  preceded  the  eruption  ;  and  partly  by  inundations  of  water  from  the  ice 
melted  by  the  fire  ;  and  lastly,  by  the  quantity  of  glowing  ashes  and  stones  thrown  from 
the  mouths  of  the  volcanoes,  and  the  streams  of  burning  matter  which  flowed  down  on 
all  sides. 

In  1311  eleven  farms  were  consumed  near  Roidekamb,  and  as  many  mo.  nearTol- 
ledyngr ;  and  in  1366,  70  at  Lillehcred.  Heckla  destroyed  two  in  1374 ;  seven  in  1390  ; 
and  eighteen  in  one  day  in  1436.  In  the  same  manner  five  farms  were  laid  waste  near 
Myrdals  Jokul  in  1660,  and  still  more  in  1693  near  Heckla.  In  1727,  at  least  six  hun- 
drcd  sheep  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  horses  were  killed  near  Myrdals  Jokul,  by  the 
flood  and  the  pieces  of  ice  which  rushed  down  with  it.  In  1728,  many  farms  were  de- 
stroyed near  Krafle,  ;.nd  a  large  lake  called  My  vatn  was  entirely  dried  up,  into  which  the 
streams  of  fire  that  rolled  from  the  mountains  flowed  during  some  years,  and  formed  a 
tract  of  lava  of  four  miles  in  length,  and  one  and  a  half  in  breadth.  In  1755  Kattlegiaa 
laid  waste  six  parishes  ;  and  in  the  same  year  the  last  eruption  of  Heckla  ravaged  a  tract 
many  miles  to  the  north-east. 

It  is  not  therefore  to  be  doubted,  but  that  the  fire  rages  here  with  as  much,  and  per- 
haps more  violence  than  Vesuvius,  i^tna,  and  other  volcanoes ;  notwithstanding  which, 
I  see  no  foundation  for  the  opinion  of  some  people,  who  affirm  that  there  is  a  communis 
cation  between  the  volcanoes  of  Iceland  and  Italy  ;  it  might  be  maintained  with  as  much 
foundation  that  Kattlegiaa  and  Teneriff,  or  Krafle  and  Lima,  communicate. 

But  before  I  quit  this  subject  I  will  mention  a  circumstance,  which  is  related  both  by 
Eggert  Olafsen  and  Jacobsen.  The  last  time  that  Kattlegiaa  emitted  fire,  a  flash  of  light- 
ning, as  it  were,  burst  from  the  flame,  and  pierced  through  the  cliffy  which  intercepted 
its  way.  The  same  lightning  in  one  placed  killed  eleven  horses,  three  of  which  were  in  a 
stable  ;  a  farmer  was  also  killed  by  it  near  the  door  of  his  room ;  his  upper  clothes, 


to 


•  The  chronicles  give  a  list  of  sixiy-three  eruptions  at  HecWa  and  other  places,  from  the  year  lOOO 
1766  i  of  which  twenty-three  were  eruptions  of  mount  Heckla  only. 


vox  TUOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELANU. 


689 


which  were  woollen,  remained  entirely  unhurt,  but  hb  shirt  and  waistcoat,  which  were 
both  of  linen,  were  burnt :  and  when  his  clothes  were  pulled  ofl",  it  was  found  that  the 
flesh  ami  skin  on  the  right  side  were  consumed  to  the  very  bones.  The  maid-servant, 
who  want(  ;  to  assist  him  in  saving  the  cattle,  was  likewise  struck  by  the  lightning,  but 
did  not  die  till  several  days  after,  during  which  time  she  suffered  inexpressible  torture. 
It  is  likewise  said,  that  when  she  put  on  her  clothes,  they  were  singed  by  the  glutinous 
fires,  which  cleaved  to  her  body.  At  first  I  hesitated  to  lx;licvc  this  as  true ;  but  when 
I  read  in  your  Cosmography  that  Braccini  had  observed,  in  1631,  that  a  column  of  smoke 
from  Vesuvius  extended  over  several  miles  of  the  country,  from  which  deadly  lightning 
proceeded,  and  that  the  same  happened  in  1767,  when  the  iron  rods  erected  in  Naples 
became  electric  whenever  Vesuvius  emitted  fire,  I  am  the  more  inclined  to  believe 
that  there  is  something  electrical  in  tliis  kind  of  fire,  as  the  same  phaenomena  appear  in 
thunder  and  lightning. 


LETTER  XIX....TO  PROFESSOR  DERGMAN. 
OF  THE  VOLCANOES  IN  ICELAND. 

Stockholm,  September  21,  1774. 

It  scarcely  ever  happens  that  the  mountains  begin  to  throw  out  fire  unexpectedly ; 
for  besides  a  "oud  rumbling  noise,  which  is  heard  at  a  considerable  distance,  and  for 
several  days  preceding  any  eruption,  and  a  roaring  and  cracking  in  the  part  from  whence 
the  fire  is  gomg  to  burst  forth,  many  fiery  meteors  are  observed,  but  unattended  in  ge- 
neral with  any  violent  concussion  of  the  earth  ;  though  sometimes  earthquakes,  of  which 
the  history  of  the  country  affords  several  instances,  have  accompanied  these  dreadful 
conflagrations. 

Among  the  traces  left  by  these  eruptions  are,  particularly,  tlie  clefts  which  are  fre- 
quendy  to  be  met  with,  the  largest  of  which  is  Almennegiaa,  near  the  water  of  Tingalla ; 
it  is  very  long,  and  one  hundred  and  five  feet  in  breadth.  The  direction  of  the  chasm 
itself  is  from  north  to  south :  its  western  wall,  from  which  the  other  has  been  perpen- 
dicularly divided,  is  one  hundred  and  seven  feet  six  inches  in  height,  and  consists  of 
many  stratas  (each  of  which  is  about  ten  inches  in  height)  of  lava,  ^wn  cold  at  different 
times,  as  may  easily  be  discovered  Ly  the  apparent  crust,  which  is  full  of  blisters,  of  a 
darker  brown,  and  not  so  much  compressed  as  the  remaining  part  of  the  mass  of  lava. 
The  eastern  wall  is  only  forty-five  feet  four  inches  in  height ;  and  that  part  of  it  which  is 
directly  opposite  to  the  highest  part  on  the  other  side  is  no  more  than  tliirty-six  feet  five 
inches  high. 

It  is  likewise  considered  as  a  sign  of  an  impending  eruption,  when  small  lakes,  rivulets, 
and  streams,  dry  up.  Some  {lersons  believe  that  it  does  not  contribute  a  little  to  hasten 
the  eruption,  when  the  mountain  is  so  covered  with  ice,  that  the  holes  are  stopped  up 
thi'ough  which  the  exhalations,  &c.  often  found  a  free  passage. 

Though  it  is  by  no  means  my  opinion  that  this  contributes  much  to  it,  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied, that  the  fire  is  generally  contained  in  these  mountains  covered  with  ice,  or,  as  they 
are  called  in  the  country,  jokuls. 

The  first  thing  that  is  usually  observed,  before  a  new  eruption  of  fire,  is  the  bursting 
of  the  mass  of  ice  with  a  dreadful  noise,  whence  it  is  called  in  Icelandic  Jokla-hliod  (Jo- 
kul's  Sound)  and  Jokla  brestar. 

Flames  then  burst  forth,  and  lightning  and  balls  of  fire  issue  with  the  smoke,  which 
are  seen  several  miles  off.    With  the  flames  proceed  a  number  of  larger  and  smaller 

VOL.    I.  4   T 


I'.." 


f. 


690 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


r 

I 
111 


stones,  which  are  sometimes  thrown  to  an  incredible  distance.  I  have  seen  a  round  stone 
near  Nafeirholt,  about  a  mile  from  Heckla,  which  was  an  ell  in  diameter,  and  had  been 
thrown  there  in  the  last  eruption  of  Heckla.  Eggert  Olafsen  also  relates,  that  at  the 
last  eruption  of  Kattlegiaa,  a  stone  which  weighed  two  hundred  and  ninety  pounds  was 
thrown  to  the  distance  of  four  miles. 

A  quantity  cf  white  pumice-stone  is  also  thrown  up  with  the  boiling  waters  ;  and  it  is 
believed,  with  great  probability,  that  the  latter  proceeds  from  the  sea,  as  a  quantity  of 
salt  suilicient  to  load  several  horses  has  frequently  been  found  i\fter  the  mountain  has  dis> 
continued  burning. 

Then  follows  generally  brown  or  black  pumice-stone,  and  lava,  with  sand  and  ashes. 

The  lava  is  seldom  found  near  the  opening,  but  rather  tuffa,  or  loose  ashes  and  grit ; 
and  indeed  the  greater  part  of  the  Icelandic  mountains  consists  of  this  matter,  which, 
when  it  is  grown  cold,  generally  takes  an  arched  form,  some  admirable  proofs  of  which 
may  be  seen  in  the  cleft  at  AUmanagiaa :  the  upper  crust  frequently  grows  hard  and 
solid,  whilst  the  melted  matter  beneath  it  continues  liquid ;  this  forms  great  cavities, 
whose  walls,  bed,  and  roof,  are  of  lava,  and  where  great  quantities  of  stalactite  of  lava 
are  found. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  these  caves  in  Iceland,  some  of  which  are  very  lai^, 
and  are  made  use  of  by  the  inhabitants  for  sheltering  their  cattle.  I  will  here  only  take 
notice  of  the  cave  of  Surtheller,  as  the  lai^st  of  all:  it  is  between  thirty-four  and  thirty- 
six  feet  in  height ;  its  breadth  is  from  Bfty  to  fifty-four  feet,  and  it  is  five  thousand  and 
thirty -four  feet  long. 

It  vvould  be  both  tedious  and  difficult  to  class  the  different  compositions  of  fire  in 

these  places,  as  it  is  not  easily  discovered  to  which  they  belong :  for  example,  jasper,  of 

which  great  quantities  of  red  and  blacK  are  found  inclosed  in  the  lava,  and  mixed  with 

it :  I  will  therefore  only  name  those  which  have  been  evidently  produced  b^  the  fire. 

First,  tuffa,  a  stone,  fcruminated  ashes  and  grit,  which  sometimes  is  found  mixed  with 

lava,  basalt,  and  other  sorts  of  stones,  and  having  been  moistened  by  the  spouting  of 

water,  grows  hard  by  heat  and  length  of  time.     Secondly,  lava,  is  that  kind  of  stone 

which  has  been  melted  by  the  violence  of  the  fire,  and  vanes  according  to  the  difference 

of  the  state  in  which  it  served  as  food  to  li  '>  fire.     This  lava  is  sometimes  found  solid, 

and  at  others  porous  and  full  of  bladders  and  holes ;  in  the  inside  it  is  filled  up  with 

opaque  and  brittle  square  crystals  of  a  dead  white,  or  with  green  drops  of  glass,  which 

decay  after  they  have  been  long  exposed  to  the  air.     The  colour  of  the  lava  is  black, 

dark  blue,  purple,  reddish  brown,  or  yellowish,  but  oftenest  black  or  red.     Where  the 

fire  has  operated  very  strongly,  it  is,  as  it  were,  glazed,  and  looks  like  resin.     In  the 

frames  or  great  tracts  of  lava  it  is  sometimes  observed,  that  the  crust  in  growing  cold 

has  laid  itself  into  folds ;  but  generally  it  forms  itself  into  a  resemblance  of  a  rope  or 

cable,  sometimes  lengthways,  and  at  others  in  the  form  of  a  circle,  like  unto  a  ffreat 

cable  rolled  together ;  and  generally  so,  that  its  thickness  continually  augments  from 

the  centre  to  the  periphery.    To  this  class  I  must  also  count  a  black  solid  matter,  which 

strikes  fire  against  steel,  and  sometimes  takes  the  forms  of  trees  or  branches  :  some 

people  have  been  inclined  to  think  they  are  petrified  trees,  but  I  am  rather  of  opinion 

that  it  is  a  real  jasper.     Thirdly,  pumice,  black,  red,  and  even  white,  which  last  has 

most  probably  been  discoloured  by  the  boiling  water.     Fourthly,  agate  :  I  preserve  the 

received  name,  though  it  is  really  nothing  more  than  burned  glass.    In  some  few  places 

it  is  found  white,  transparent,  and  almost  in  the  form  of  crystal.     The  bluish  sort  is  also 

rare,  but  found  in  large  pieces :  the  most  common  is  the  black  agate,  which  is  found 

generally  in  stratas,  or  in  small  nests,  and  sometimes  almost  in  the  shape  of  crystal,  in 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  OX  ICELAND. 


691 


oval,  square,  or  pentagonal  forms.  The  astronomer,  Mr.  Ejnar  Jonson«  has  made  use 
of  tills  black  glass  in  his  tubes,  both  in  Copenhagen  and  in  Iceland,  for  the  observation 
of  the  sun,  and  has  found  them  greatly  preferable  to  the  darkened  glass.  The  green  agate 
is  found  rather  coarser  and  more  reddish,  like  tliick  bottle  glass :  it  is  called  hraflinnu- 
brodcon. 

Brimstone,  which  may  be  considered  as  the  proper  fuel  of  the  fire,  is  found  in  great 
ab  undance,  pure  and  mineralized:  in  the  north,  principally  at  Husewick,  and  in  the 
south,  at  Krysewick,  there  are  white  brimsto;ic  mines,  which  arc  called  Namas.  I  shall 
reserve  the  basalts  for  a  particular  letter. 

LETTER  XX.....TO  PROFESSOR  BERGMAN. 


OF  MOUNT  HECKLA. 

Stockholm,  September  7,  1773. 
The  cause  of  Heckla  (or,  as  it  is  called  in  the  country,  Heckla-fiall)  having  been  more 
noticed  than  many  other  volcanoes  of  as  great  extent,  and  no  less  wonderful  and  instruct- 
ive, may  partly  be  ascribed  to  its  having  vomited  fire  so  frequently,  and  partly  .oits  si- 
tuation, which  exposes  it  to  the  sight  of  all  the  ships  sailbg  to  Greenland  and  North 
America :  as  we  considered  it  with  greater  attention  than  any  other  volcanoe  on  the  island, 
I  will  give  you  a  description  of  the  state  in  which  we  found  it  on  the  twenty-fourth  of 
September  1772. 

After  we  had  seen  many  tracts  of  lava,  among  which  Garde  and  Wvalupe  Hraune 
were  the  most  considerable,  we  pursued  our  journey  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  We 
had  a  tent  pitched  here,  where  we  proposed  to  pass  the  night,  to  enable  us  to  ascend  the 
mountain  with  greater  spirits  in  the  morning.  The  weather  was  extremely  favourable, 
and  we  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  whatever  we  wished,  the  eruption  only  excepted. 

The  mountain  is  situated  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Island,  about  four  miles  from  the 
sea-coast,  and  is  divided  into  three  points  at  the  top,  the  highest  of  which  is  that  in  the 
middle,  and  is,  according  to  an  exact  observation  with  Ramsden's  barometer,  five  thou- 
sand  feet  higher  than  the  sea.  We  made  use  of  our  horses,  but  were  obliged  to  quit  them 
at  the  first  opening  from  which  the  fire  had  burst.  This  was  a  place  surrounded  with 
lofty  glazed  walls,  and  filled  with  high  glazed  cliffs,  which  I  cannot  compare  with  any 
thing  I  ever  saw  before. 

A  litUe  higher  up  we  found  a  great  quantity  of  grit  and  stones,  and  still  farther  on  an- 
other  opening,  which,  though  not  deep,  however  descende.dlower  down  than  that  of  the 
highest  point.  We  thought  we  plainly  observed  evident  marks  of  hot  boiling  water  in 
this  place. 

Not  far  from  thence  the  mountains  began  to  be  covered  with  snow,  some  small  spots 
excepted,  which  were  bare.  We  could  not  at  first  discern  the  cause  of  this  difference, 
but  soon  found  that  it  proceeded  from  the  vapour  which  arose  from  the  mountain.  As 
we  ascended  higher,  these  spots  became  larger ;  and  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the 
summit  we  found  a  hole  of  about  one  yard  and  a  half  in  diameter,  from  which  so  hot  a 
steam  exhaled,  that  it  prevented  us  from  ascertaining  the  degree  of  heat  with  the  ther- 
mometer. 

The  cold  now  began  to  be  very  intense,  as  Fahrenheit's  thermometer,  which  was  at 
54**  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  fell  to  24°.  The  wind  was  also  become^so  violent,  that 
we  were  sometimes  obliged  to  lie  down,  to  avoid  being  thrown  into  the  most  dreadful 
precipices  by  its  fury. 

4x2 


C92 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


I 

Iv 
.4 


We  were  now  arrived  at  one  of  the  highest  summits,  when  our  conductor,  who  did 
not  take  great  pleasure  in  the  walk,  endeavoured  to  persuade  us  that  this  was  the  highest 
part  of  the  mountains.  We  had  just  finished  our  observations,  and  found  by  them  that 
Ramsdcn's  barometer  stood  at  24ii38,  and  the  thermometer,  fixed  to  it,  at  27",  when 
liappily  the  clouds  divided,  and  we  discovered  a  still  higher  summit.  Wc  lost  no  time 
in  deliberation,  but  immediately  ascended  it,  and  when  at  the  top  discovered  a  space  of 
ground,  about  eight  yards  in  breadth,  and  twenty  in  length,  entirely  free  from  snow ;  the 
sand  was  however  quite  wet,  from  its  having  lately  melted  away.  Here  we  experienced, 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  a  high  degree  of  heat  and  cold,  for  in  the  air  Fahrenheit's  ther- 
mometer was  constantly  at  24",  and  when  we  set  it  down  on  the  ground  it  rose  to  153. 
The  barometer  was  here  at  22-247,  and  the  thermometer  at  38. 

We  could  not  with  safety  remain  here  any  longer,  though  we  were  very  much  inclin- 
ed to  it ;  and  descended,  afrer  having  considered  the  lost  opening  there,  one  of  the  sides 
of  which  was  entirely  overturned,  and  the  other  quite  covered  with  ashes  and  grit.  In 
our  return  we  observed  three  considerable  openings,  in  one  of  which  every  thing  looked 
as  red  as  brick.  From  another  the  lava  had  flowed  in  a  stream  of  about  fifty  yards  in 
breadth,  which  the  Icelanders  call  Stenaa,  or  Stone  Flood ;  and  at  some  distance  frx>m 
thence  the  stream  divided  into  three  broad  arms.  Further  on  we  found  a  large  circular 
opening,  at  the  bottom  of  which  we  observed  a  mountmn  in  the  form  of  a  sugar-loaf,  in 
throwing  up  of  which  the  fire  seemed  to  have  exhausted  itself. 

The  last  eruption  of  mount  Heckla  happened  in  1766 ;  it  began  the  fourth  of  April, 
and  continued  to  the  seventh  of  September  following.  Flames  proceeded  from^  it  in 
December  1771  and  in  September  1772,  but  no  flowing  of  lava,  &c. 

The  mountain  does  not  consist  of  lava,  but  chiefly  of  sand,  grit,  and  ashes,  which  are 
thrown  up  with  the  stones,  partly  melted,  and  partly  discoloured  by  the  fire.  We  like- 
wise found  several  sorts  of  pumice,  and  among  them  one  piece  with  some  sulphur  in  it. 
The  pumice  was  sometimes  so  much  burnt,  that  it  was  as  light  as  tow ;  their  form  and 
colour  was  sometimes  very  fine,  but  at  the  same  time  so  soft,  that  it  was  difficult  to  re- 
move them  from  one  place  to  another :  of  the  common  lava  we  found  both  lai^  pieces 
and  small  bits,  as  likewise  a  quantity  of  black  jasper,  burned  at  the  extremities,  and  re- 
sembling trees  and  branches.  Among  the  stones  dirown  out  of  the  mountain  we  saw 
some  slate  of  a  deep  red  colour. 

LETTER  XXI TO  PROFESSOR  BERGMAN. 

OF  THE  HOT  SPOUTING  WATER  SPRINGS  IN  ICELAND. 


P 


I 


Stockholm,  Oct.  3, 1774. 

Among  all  the  curiosities  in  Iceland,  which  nature  presents  to  the  eyes  of  an  attentive 
spectator,  to  raise  his  admiration,  nothing  can  be  compared  to  the  hot  spouting  water- 
springs  with  which  this  country  abounds.  The  hot  springs  at  Aken,  Carlsbad,  Bath, 
and  Switzerland,  and  several  others  which  are  found  in  Italy,  are  considered  as  very  re- 
markable ;  but  to  my  knowledge,  except  in  the  last-mentioned  country,  the  water  no 
where  becomes  so  hot  as  to  boil :  nor  is  it  any  where  known  to  be  thrown  so  high  as  at 
the  hot  spouting  water  springs  in  Iceland. 

All  those  jets  d'eau  which  have  been  contrived  with  so  much  art,  and  at  so  enormous 
an  expence,  cannot  by  any  means  be  compared  with  these.  The  water- works  at  Herren- 
hausen  throw  up  a  single  column  of  water,  of  half  a  quarter  of  a  yard  in  circi  ufercnce, 
to  the  height  of  about  seventy  feet ;  those  on  the  Winterkasten,  at  Cassel,  throw  it  up,  but 
in  a  much  thinner  column,  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet ;  and  the  jet  d^eau  at  St.  Cloud, 


VOK  TROn/S  LETTERS  ON  ICELA^TD. 


693 


ivhich  is  thought  the  greatest  amongst  all  the  French  water- works,  casts  up  a  thin  column 
eighty  feet  into  the  air :  whilst  some  springs  in  Iceland  pour  forth  columns  of  water,  of 
several  feet  in  thickness,  to  the  height  of  many  fathoms ;  and,  many  alHrm,  of  several 
hundred  feet. 

But,  without  relying  upon  what  has  been  said  by  others  of  these  wonderful  pliaenome^r 
na  of  nature,  I  think  myself  happy  to  have  contemplated  with  mine  own  eyes  the  most 
remarkable  of  these  sprmgs,  which  has  enabled  me  to  give  j  ou  an  accurate  account  of 
it.  I  only  beg  leave  to  say  something  of  them  in  general,  before  I  treat  of  tliat  which  I 
saw  in  particular. 

These  springs  are  of  uneriual  degrees  of  heat.  From  some  the  water  flows  gently,  as 
from  other  sprmgs,  and  it  is  then  called  laug,  a  bath ;  from  others,  it  spouts  boiling 
water  with  a  great  noise,  and  is  then  called  hver  or  kittcl  (kesscl.)  Though  the  degree 
of  heat  is  unequal,  yet  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  observed  it  under  188  of  Fahren- 
heit's thermometer.  At  Laugarnas  we  found  it  at  188,  191,  193.  At  Geyser,  Rcykum, 
and  Laugarvatn  212 ;  and  in  tlie  last  place,  in  the  ground,  at  a  little  hot  vein  of  water, 
213  degrees. 

It  is  very  common  for  some  of  the  spouting  springs  to  close  up,  and  others  to  spring 
up  in  their  stead ;  there  are  likewise  freouent  traces  of  former  hvers,  where  at  present 
not  a  single  drop  of  water  is  to  be  seen.  Many  remember  to  have  seen  instances  of  this ; 
and  Eggert  Olafsen  relates,  that  in  1753  a  new  hver  broke  forth  at  Rcikakio,  seven 
fathoms  in  breadth,  and  three  in  depth,  at  the  distance  of  fifty  fathoms  from  an  old 
spring,  which  had  been  stopped  up  by  a  fall  of  earth.  Frequent  earthquakes  and  subter- 
ranean noises,  heard  at  the  time,  caused  great  terror  to  the  people  who  lived  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. 

All  these  hot  waters  have  an  incrusting  quality,  so  that  we  very  commonly  find  the 
exterior  surface  from  whence  it  bursts  forth  covered  with  a  kind  of  rind,  which  almost 
resembles  chaced  work,  which  we  at  first  took  for  lime :  but  we  soon  became  dubious 
of  this,  as  it  did  not  ferment  with  acid ;  but  wc  hope  that  you,  sir,  will  soon  resolve  us. 
This  crust  is  jn  general  vtiy  fine ;  but  it  is,  however,  most  pure  and  clear  at  the  s|x>ut- 
ing  springs ;  for  at  the  others,  where  the  water  flows,  the  parts  precipitated  by  the  water 
are  sometimes  mixed  with  emth,  which  makes  the  crust  appear  darker. 

At  the  hvers  it  is  very  difficuh,  nay  almost  impossible,  to  examine  within  the  opening 
the  disposition  of  the  passage  which  the  water  has  formed,  both  by  reason  of  the  heat  of 
the  water,  and  the  violence  with  which  it  is  forced  out.  One  may,  however,  with  con- 
fidence judge  of  the  great  by  the  small :  and  it  gave  us  the  greater  pleasure,  as  we  had 
an  opportunity  at  Laugarnas  to  examine  the  vein  of  water  itself  a  considerable  way  under 
the  crust. 

The  water  had  in  this  place  taken  its  course  through  a  bright  gray  clay,  the  surface 
of  which  was  covered  with  a  white  rind ;  but  was  on  the  side  nearest  the  clay  quite 
smooth,  and  crisped  on  the  upper  side.  The  vein  flowed  a  good  way  under  this  crust, 
thrcugii  a  canal  formed  of  a  similar  matter ;  and  the  whole  canal  was  filled  with  crys- 
tals, which  had  a  very  pleasing  effect.  I  had  not  time  to  examine  their  nature  and 
form  on  the  spot,  as  they  m  ^'e  very  small ;  but  I  expect  a  more  particular  account  of 
this  subject  from  you,  as  you  will  find  several  specimens  of  them  in  the  collection  I  sent 
you.  We  could  not,  however,  pursue  the  course  of  the  water  very  far,  as  we  were 
obliged  to  leave  it  to  its  subterranean  passages,  through  which  nature  had  seduced  it  from 
its  reservoirs,  where,  heatt  by  the  warmth,  and  compressed  by  the  exhalations,  it  at  last 
bursts  from  its  prison,  by  gushing  forth  at  another  place,  in  order  to  make  way  for  its 
vapours. 


4  " 


'.1 


f 


C>9i 


VOVTnOlL'S  LETTrnS  ON  ICP.LAND. 


The  water  in  some  places  tastes  of  sulphur,  and  in  others  not ;  but  when  dn\nk  as 
soon  as  it  is  cold,  tastes  like  common  boiled  water.  The  inhabitants  use  it,  at  particular 
times,  for  dying  ;  and  were  they  to  adopt  proper  rcffulations,  it  might  be  of  still  irrcatcr 
use.  Victuals  may  also  be  boiled  in  it,  by  nutting  it  into  a  pot  covered,  and  boiling  it 
till  a  certain  quantity  is  evaporated.  Milk  held  over  this  water  when  boiling  becomes 
sweet,  owing,  most  probably,  to  its  excessive  heat ;  as  the  same  effect  is  produced  by 
boiling  it  a  lung  time  over  the  fire.  They  have  begun  to  make  salt,  by  boiling  sea-wutcr 
over  it,  which,  when  it  is  refined,  is  very  fine  and  good.  The  cows  which  drink  of  it 
yield  a  great  fiuantity  of  good  milk.  E^«rt  Olafsen  informs  us,  thiit  the  water  does  not 
become  troubled  when  alkali  is  thrown  into  it,  nor  docs  it  change  colour  from  syrup  of 
violets.  I  do  not  know  what  degree  of  credit  ought  to  be  given  to  Horrebow,  who  as- 
serts, that  if  you  fill  a  bottle  at  one  of  the  spouting  springs,  the  water  contained  in  the 
bottle  will  boil  over  two  or  three  times  during  the  time  the  spring  throws  it  forth,  and  if 
corked  too  soon  the  lx)ttle  will  burst 

Though  it  cannot  be  denied  that  these  springs  have  some  communication  with  the 
Icelandic  volcanoes,  yet  they  are  seldom  found  very  near  them,  but  are  disixrrsed  through- 
out the  whole  country.  For  this  reason,  hot  springs  are  found  among  the  mountains, 
and  even  on  the  top  of  the  ice  mountains ;  as  on  Torfa  Jockul,  where  a  great  number  of 
hot  springs  are  to  be  met  with :  and  among  them  two  large  hvers,  which  throw  up  the 
boiling  water  to  a  great  height.  There  is  likewise  a  lukewarm  spring  near  Haadcgis 
Hnuk,  on  Gutlands  Jokul,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  with  many  traces  of  former 
hvers.  There  are  even  in  the  sea  hot  spouting  springs,  which  can  only  be  approached 
at  low  water ;  as  at  Reyka-fiord  in  Isa-nord,  wnerc  four  springs  may  be  observed  in  the 
water  by  the  ascending  steam,  and  one  hver  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  There  arc 
also  two  others  in  the  Oddbiarnar  siiools,  still  more  at  Dranskar,  and  a  great  number  at 
Sando,  Urdholm,  Reykey,  and  on  the  fiat  islands.  To  ^ive  a  better  idea  of  the  situa- 
tion of  these  springs,  1  will  give  a  list  of  them,  which  I  will  endeavour  to  make  as  topo- 
graphical as  possible. 

In  Borgarfiord's  Syssel,  near  Leyraa,  not  far  from  the  foot  of  the  mountain  of 
Skardsheides,  we  met  with  the  first  hver,  which  is,  however,  not  a  very  strong  one  ; 
and  not  far  from  it  there  is  a  small  bath.  At  Lunda  Reykiadal  there  is  a  hver  and  a 
bath  ;  and  ivar  a  farm  yard,  Varma-Lakiar-Mula,  a  warm  spring  and  a  bath.  A  little 
farther  to  the  north  is  the  valley  of  Reykholts,  which  is  two  miles  and  a  half  in  breadth, 
in  the  bottom  of  which  hot  baths  arc  everywhere  to  be  met  with.  This  spot  may  be 
discovered  at  several  miles  distance  by  the  vapours  which  exhale  everywhere  from  the 
hot  water,  and  unite  in  the  air,  resembling  a  prodigious  smoke  arising  from  some  vol- 
canoe.  The  three  principal  hvers  in  this  place  are,  Tunguhver,  Aa-hver,  and  Scribia ; 
the  last  furnishes  water  to  Snorralaug,  Snorre  Sturleson's  bath,  which  is  esteemed  the 
best  in  Iceland.  From  this  place  there  is  no  hot  spring  to  be  met  with  northward  for  a 
very  large  tract,  till  you  come  to  Sneefield's  Cape,  where  there  is  a  lukewarm  spring, 
near  the  farm  called  Lysehol,  in  Stadesveit :  at  this  place  many  remains  of  ancient  hvers 
are  to  be  seen.  Still  further  to  the  north,  in  Dale  Syssel,  is  a  warm  bath,  with  some 
springs.  In  Soling's  Valley,  and  further  on,  near  the  farm  Reyka-holcr,  in  Reykianas, 
are  many  strong  hvers ;  particularly  three  very  large  ones,  the  most  considerable  of 
which  is  Krablanda.  From  thence  we  came  to  the  hot  springs  of  Flatdama,  Oddsbiar. 
marskar,  and  Drapskar ;  and  afterwards  visited  those  at  Talkne-fiord,  Amarfiord,  and 
Isa-fiord  in  Reyka-fiord,  where  there  is  a  strong  spouting  spring.  After  we  had  past 
Cape  Nord,  or  the  northern  extremity  of  Iceland,  we  met  with  some  warm  springs  at 
Reykar-fiord ;  others,  together  with  a  fine  bath,  at  Biamar-fiord,  near  Kaldadarna :  at 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTERS  ON  ICELANH.  ^ 

Hruta-fiordcn  there  is  a  j^rcat  liver  called  Ucike-!»vcr.  and  another  nn  larp;c  at  Midfiordcn, 
culled  Heixaluug.  When  you  go  from  hence  southward  into  the  country,  you  will 
find  a  numlxT  of  hoiling  spriii^^H  at  Hvcrevallc,  three  of  which  !>|)out  the  water  high  into 
the  air  with  a  prodigious  noise  ;  still  further  to  the  ttouth  there  iit  an  hvcr  near  Geitland'^ 
Jokul. 

If  wf  turn  again  to  the  north,  wc  find  liot  springs  at  Blanda,  others  near  the  haven  at 
Skaga-Strund,  and  still  more  at  a  little  distance  from  thence  at  Skaga-Uorden  ;  one  of 
which  falls  from  a  rock  thirty  feet  high.  To  the  east  there  arc  hot  t^prings  in  many 
places  of  Vadle  Syssel,  as  at  Olass-fiordr,  Langaland,  Krijitnas,  and  Hntftiegil ;  but  in 
Thyngo  Syssel  there  arc  spring*  of  both  sorts  (baths  and  hvers)  in  great  numl)er,  and 
of  considerable  dimensions.  Tiic  hvers  in  Reykia  Valley  deserve  to  be  particularly 
mentionedi  amongst  which  Oxe  and  Badstofu  arc  the  largest. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  country  there  arc  no  considerable  hvers,  though  warm  springs 
are  to  be  found  in  Selar,  Laugarvalle,  Rafukclls,  and  Fliots  valleys ;  and  on  the  south, 
on  Torfa  Jukiil.  We  then  proceeded  to  Skalholt,  where  there  are  many  springs ;  about 
a  mile  from  thence  the  hvers,  called  Ueikholt  and  Grafa,  both  which  spout  very  high. 
The  next  hvcr  is  Geyser,  which  I  shall  afterwards  mention  more  minutely.  Not  far 
from  this  last  is  Laugervatn,  a  small  lake,  round  which  a  number  of  warm  springs  may 
be  observed,  and  eight  boiling  ones.  The  road  ..ow  leads  us  to  the  hvers  at  Oelves, 
which  are  thought  to  Ix:  the  largest  in  all  Iceland  ;  the  most  remarkable  of  which  are 
Geyser  and  Badstufu. 

Here  is  also  a  dry  hver,  from  which  water  formerly  proceeded,  but  now  emits  only 
steam  through  its  mouth  ;  the  heat  of  which  however  is  so  great,  that  a  pot  of  water 
placed  over  the  opening  boils  in  a  very  short  time.  Wc  met  with  spouting  springs  at 
kruscvik  in  Gullpringe  Syssel,  the  hver  Eine,  the  livers  at  Reikianas,  and  several  at 
Langarnas  in  Kiofar  Syssel. 

From  this  list,  which,  however,  is  far  from  containing  all  the  warm  springs  in  Ice- 
land, you  may  judge,  sir,  of  the  prodigious  number  that  wc  met  with.  Near  most  of 
them  arc  warm  batns,  each  of  which  merits  a  particular  examination  and  description. 
Eggert  Olafsen  and  Biarne  Paulsen  have  made  very  curious  observations  on  several  of 
them ;  but  I  only  beg  leave  to  mention  some  which  I  made  at  Geyser,  where  is  the 
largest  of  all  the  spouting  springs  in  Iceland,  or  perhaps  in  the  known  world.  These 
observations  were  made  the  twenty-first  of  September  1772,  from  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning  till  seven  at  night. 

Among  the  hot  springs  in  Iceland,  several  of  which  bear  the  name  of  geyser,  there 
are  none  that  can  be  compared  with  that  which  I  am  going  to  describe,  though  the  best 
description  will  fall  very  short  of  it.  It  is  about  two  ^ys  journey  from  Heckla,  not  far 
from  Skalholt,  near  a  farm  called  Haukadal.  Here  a  poet  would  have  an  opix)rtunity 
of  painting  a  picture  of  whatever  Nature  has  of  beautiful  and  terrible  united,  by  deli- 
neating one  of  its  most  uncommon  phsenomena  :  it  would  be  a  subject  worthy  of  the 
Een  of  a  Thompson  to  transport  the  reader,  by  poetical  imagery,  to  the  spot  which  is 
ere  presented  to  the  eye.  Represent  to  yourself  a  large  field,  where  you  see  on  one 
side,  at  a  great  distance,  high  mountains  covered  with  ice,  whose  summits  are  generally 
wrapped  up  in  clouds,  so  that  their  sharp  unequal  points  become  invisible.  This  loss 
however  is  compensated  by  a  certain  wind,  which  causes  the  clouds  to  sink,  and  cover 
the  mountain  itself,  when  its  summit  appears  as  it  were  to  rest  upon  the  clouds.  On  the 
other  aide  Heckla  is  seen,  with  its  three  points  covered  with  ice,  rising  above  the 
clouds,  and  with  the  smoke  which  ascends  from  it  forming  other  clouds,  at  some  distance 
from  die  real  ones :  and  on  another  side  b  a  ridge  of  high  rocks,  at  the  foot  of  which 


h 


I 

i 

'1 


\l 


\ 


CfO 


VON  TROIL'S  LP.TTER9  OS  lOELAND. 


I 


I)uiling< water  tVom  time  to  time  gii^tlicit  forth  ;  niul  further  on  extendi  a  marsh  of  uix)ut 
half  u  mik-  in  circumference,  where  ure  forty  or  fiity  boiling  springs,  from  which  u  va« 
pour  nsccnds  to  a  prodigious  height. 

In  the  midst  of  these  is  the  griHtest  spring  Geyser,  which  deserves  u  more  exact  and 

})articulur  account.  In  travrlhng  to  the  plate,  utKjut  a  (juiirter  of  a  mile  from  the  hvcr, 
rom  which  the  ridge  of  rocks  near  it  still  divided  us,  we  heard  a  loud  roaring  noise,  like 
the  rushing  of  a  torrent,  precipitating  itself  from  stupendous  rocks.  We  asked  our 
guide  what  it  meant  ?  he  answered,  it  was  Geyser  roaring ;  and  wc  soon  naw  with  uur 
naked  eyes  what  bcfor.:  appeared  almost  incredible. 

The  depth  of  the  oixning  or  pipe  from  which  the  water  gushes  cannot  well  be  deter, 
mined ;  for  sometimes  the  water  sunk  down  sevenil  fathoms,  and  some  seconds  passed 
l)efore  a  stone,  which  was  thrown  into  the  aperture,  reached  the  surface  of  the  water. 
The  opening  itself  was  |x:rfectly  round,  and  nineteen  feet  in  diameter  ;  it  ended  above 
in  a  bnson,  which  was  tifty-nine  feU  in  diameter ;  both  the  pipe  and  the  bason  were 
covered  with  a  rough  stalaetic  rind,  which  had  been  formed  by  the  force  of  the  water ; 
the  uttermost  border  of  the  bason  is  nine  feet  and  an  inch  higher  than  the  pipe  itself. 

The  water  here  spouted  several  times  a  day,  but  always  by  starts,  ancl  afier  certain 
intervals.  The  people  who  lived  in  the  neighbourhood  told  us,  that  they  rose  higher  i 
cold  and  bad  weather  than  at  otht;r  times ;  and  Eggert  Olafsen  and  several  others  aflirm, 
that  it  spouted  to  the  height  of  sixty  fathoms.  Nlost  probably  they  only  guessed  by  the 
eye,  and  on  that  account  their  calculation  may  Ix;  a  little  i  xtravapfant :  and  indeed  I 
doubt  that  ever  the  water  was  Uirovvn  up  so  high,  though  i  am  much  inclined  to  believe, 
that  it  sometimes  mounts  higher  than  when  we  olwerved  it. 

I  will  here  insert  an  account  how  high  the  water  was  thrown  the  day  that  we  were 
there,  which  I  hope  will  not  be  disagreeable  to  you.  We  observed  the  height  thus : 
every  one  in  the  company  wrote  down,  at  each  time  that  the  water  spouted,  how  high  it 
appeared  to  him  to  be  thrown,  and  we  afterwards  chose  the  medium.  The  first  column 
marks  the  spootings  of  the  water,  in  the  order  in  which  they  follow  one  another ;  the 
second,  the  time  when  these  eftusions  happened ;  the  third,  the  height  to  which  the 
water  rose ;  and  the  last,  how  long  each  spouting  of  water  continued. 


No.        Time. 

1  at  6     42  m. 

llri(ch«. 

30  feet 

Dtinlinn. 

0  m.     20  s. 

2        ..     51     — 

6 

— 

0 

9.0 

3        7       6      — 

6 

_- 

0 

10 

4       ..     31      — 

12 

-i- 

0 

15 

5       ..     51      — 

60 

-i. 

0 

6 

6        8     17      — 

24 

— 

0 

30 

7       ..    29      — 

18 

-m-. 

0 

40 

8       ..     36      — 

12 



0 

40 

w  for  the  first  time  full  of  water, 

which  ran  slow 

No.       Time. 

9      9    25  m.     —- 

Hright. 

48  feet 

m^^ 

Dunlion. 

1  m.   10  s. 

10     10     16         — 

24 

_ 

1 

00 

12    35  minutes  we  heard,  as  it  were,  three  discharges  of  a  gun 
under  ground,  which  made  it  shake,  the  water  immedi- 
ately flowed  over,  but  sunk  again  instantly. 
2      8  the  water  flowed  over  the  border  of  the  bason. 


VON  TROTL'S  Lf.TXrRS  OV  TCELAim. 


TIm*. 


—       4 


697 

10  fit  3     15  m.  vvc  again  heard  several  sublcrrancous  noises,  though 
not  bO  strong  as  Ix-fore. 

the  water  flowed  over  very  strongly  during  a  whole 
miiuitc. 

we  again  heard  many  loud  subterraneous  discharges, 
not  cmly  near  f he  spring,  but  aUo  iVom  the  ncighU)ur. 
ing  ndgc  of  rocks,  where  the  water  spouted. 


43 
49 


11       6     51 


92.fect    —    4  m.    (JO  a. 


After  this  great  effort,  the  water  sunk  down  very  low  into  the  pipe,  and  was  entirely 
QUiet  durmp  several  minutes,  but  it  soon  began  to  bubble  again  it  was  however  not 
thrown  up  into  the  air,  but  only  to  the  top  of  the  pipe.  "wcvcr  not 


Ke. 

Houn. 

MIn, 

No. 

1 

5 

7 

18 

2 

5 

■  » 

19 

3 

5 

lOi 

20 

4 

5 

13i 

21 

5 

5 

14| 

22 

6 

5 

17 

23 

7 

5 

20i 

24 

8 

5 

25 

9 

5 

21  { 

26 

10 

5 

23^ 

97 

11 

5 

27| 

28 

12 

5 

30' 

29 

13 

5 

3li 

30 

14 

5 

33i 

31 

15 

5 

35 

32 

16 

5 

36 

33 

17 

5 

38 

Hauni. 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 


MIn. 

42 

43t 

47 

481 

49 

30t 

51t 

54 

37f 

59 

10 

19 

23 

26 

29 

30 


The  force  cf  the  vapours  which  throw  up  this  water  is  excessive ;  it  not  only  prevents 
the  stones  which  are  thrown  into  the  opening  from  sinking,  but  even  throws  them  ud 
to  a  very  great  height,  together  with  the  water.  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  a  veiv 
curious  circumstance:  when  the  bason  was  full  of  water,  we  placed  ourselves  before 
the  sun,  m  such  a  manner  that  we  could  see  our  shadows  in  the  water;  every  one  observed 
round  the  shadow  ot  his  own  head  (though  not  round  the  heads  of  the  others)  a  circle 
of  a  most  the  same  colours  which  compose  therain-bow,  and  round  this  another  bright 
circle :  this  most  probiibly  proceeded  from  the  vapours  exhaling  from  the  water.  Ire- 
member  to  have  seen  something  similar  to  it  when  travelling  in  the  summer,  particularly 
in  the  meadows,  and  it  is  soonest  observed  when  riding  on  horseback,  or  in  a  carriaire 
>vhen  you  have  your  shadow  on  one  side.  '^* 

Not  far  from  this  place,  another  spring  at  the  foot  of  the  neighbourinff  ridffe  of  rocks 
spouted  water  to  the  height  of  one  or  two  yards  each  time. 


No. 
1 

2 
3 
4 
5 

6 


Ilowfc       sCn. 

3        45 

3 

0 

0 

0 

0 


VOL.   Z. 


47t 
S0\ 

55 
571 


I 


No. 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 


4  u 


Houn, 

4 
4 
0 
0 
0 
0 


Min. 

0 
3 

14 


I* 

if. 

I 


;/ 


I' ' 


V 

♦  . . 


\i 


t  ■: 


698 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


The  oppiiing  through  which  this  water  issued  was  not  so  wide  as  the  other;  we  ima- 
gined it  possible  to  stop  up  the  hole  entirely  by  throwing  large  stones  into  it,  and  even 
nattered  ourselves  that  our  attempt  had  succeeded  :  but  to  our  great  astonishh>r>nt  the 
water  gushed  forth  in  a  very  violent  manner,  which  shews  how  litde  the  weak  'jftbrts 
of  men  avail,  when  they  endeavour  to  prescribe  bounds  to  the  works  of  nature.  We 
hastenc  J  to  the  pipe,  and  found  all  the  stones  thrown  aside,  and  the  water  playing  freely 
through  its  former  chanr"'l. 

In  these  large  springs  the  waters  were  hot  in  the  highest  degree,  and  tasted  a  little  of 
sulphur,  but  in  other  respects  were  pure  and  clear.  In  the  smaller  .springs  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood the  water  was  tainted ;  in  some  it  was  as  muddy  as  that  of  a  clay,  pit,  in  others 
as  white  as  milk  ;  and  yet  there  are  a  few  springs  where  the  watT  forces  itself  through 
a  fire  underneath  as  red  as  blood. 

I  have  already  observed,  that  near  most  of  these  springs  and  hvers  there  are  baths, 
v/hich  are  frequently  visited  by  the  natives :  there  are  also  in  many  places  dry  and 
sweating  baths.  Ep-gert  Olafsen  mentions  one  of  these  baths  at  Huusevik,  in  North 
Iceland;  and  I  hai  the  curiosity  of  seeing  one  of  them  at  Thibsaarholt,  not  far  from 
Skalholt,  which  consisted  of  a  hut  raised  of  earth,  into  which  hot  streams  arose  from 
many  holes.  Fahrenheit's  thermometer,  which  was  at  57  degrees  in  the  open  air,  rose 
to  93  in  the  hut  whilst  it  was  open,  and  when  it  was  placed  in  one  of  the  little  openings 
thf;  steam  arose  to  125. 


LETTER  XXII,...TO  PRC  FESSOR  BERGMAN. 
OF  THE  PILLARS  OF  BASALT. 

Stockholm,  June  6,  1773. 

Among  the  effects  of  fire,  some  of  which  are  extremely  dreadful,  and  all  of  them 
very  extraordinary  and  remarkable,  none  have  in  latter  times  attracted  more  attention 
than  those  Urge  regular  pillars  known  by  the  name  of  Basalts.  There  had  formerly 
been  hardly  any  places  observed  in  Europe  where  this  kind  of  stone  was  found,  the 
Giant's  Causeway  excepted ;  and  the  greater  part  of  our  mineralogists  have,  if  I  am  not 
mistaken,  considered  them  as  a  kind  ofcrystalliz-^tion.  Mr.  Desmarets  was  the  fisrt  who 
maintained,  in  a  dissertation  presented  to  the  French  academy  of  sciences,  that  they  were 
produced  by  fire,  wherein  he  described  some  basalts  found  near  St.  Sandour,  in  Au- 
vergne. 

This  opiiiion  at  first  appeared  almost  absurd  io  our  natural  historians,  as  it  was  not 
believed  that  volcanoes  had  ever  been  in  these  places  where  basalt  pillars  were  found. 

This  new  discovery  however  occasioned  a  more  exact  inquiry  concerning  other 
places  where  these  pillars  are  met  with.  All  these  inquiries  only  served  to  confirm 
Mr.  Dcsmaret's  opinion,  by  proving  that  these  basalt  pillars  must  have  been  produced 
by  subterraneous  fires.  i 

There  is  no  one  surely  will  entertain  the  least  doubt  of  a  subterraneoi/s  fire  having 
formerly  existed  where  these  pillars  now  stand,  as  at  Stolpenstein  in  Meissen ;  near  Lau- 
ijan  in  Lusatia ;  in  Bohemia ;  near  Licignitz  in  Silesia ;  near  Brandju  in  Hessia ;  in 
Sicily  ;  near  Bolsenna,  Montebello,  and  St.  Forio  in  Italy ;  near  St.  Lucac  in  the  dis- 
trict of  St.  Vicenza ;  near  Monte  Rosso  in  the  Paduan  district,  and  Monte  Diavolo  in 
the  mountain  of  Verona ;  in  Lower  Languedoc ;  in  Iceland,  and  in  the  western  islands 
of  Scotland  ;  which  you,  sir,  have  all  mentioned  in  your  Cosmography.  Also  in  St. 
Giovanni,  Monte  Castello,  Monte  Nuovo,  Monte  Oliveto,  near  Cadair  Idris  in  Wales, 


VONXnOlL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICKLAM). 


ODV 


in  England,  almost  every  where  in  the  Velay  and  Aiivergne,  where  whole  towri;,  as 
Chillac  and  St.  Flour,  are  built  upon  these  pillars.  But  as  this  matter  has  not  yet  been 
fully  investigated,  and  it  cannot  be  determined  with  certainty  in  what  manner  these  pillars 
are  formed,  though  they  are  known  to  be  produced  by  fire,  perhaps  it  will  not  be  disa- 
greeable to  you,  if  I  say  something  of  the  many  basalt  pillars  in  Iceland,  as  well  as  of 
those  in  the  isle  of  Staffa,  which  you  will  readily  acknowledge  to  be  more  singular  than 
any  thing  nature  ever  produced  of  this  kind. 

It  is  well  known  that  these  pillars  are  ve""y  common  in  Iceland,  and  some  account  is 
also  given  of  them  in  the  Physical  Description  published  of  the  country.  The  lower  sort 
of  people  imagine  these  pillars  have  been  piled  upon  one  another  by  the  giants,  who 
made  use  of  supernatural  force  to  effect  it,  whence  they  have  obtained  the  name  of  the 
TroUa-hlaud  Trcllkonu-gardur  in  several  places.  They  have  generally  from  three  to  se- 
ven sides,  and  are  from  four  to  six  feet  in  thickness,  and  from  twelve  to  sixteen  yards  in 
length,  without  any  horizonUil  divisions.  But  sometimes  they  are  only  from  six  inches 
to  one  foot  in  height,  and  they  are  then  very  regular,  as  those  at  Videy,- which  arc  made 
use  of  for  windows  and  door-posts.  In  some  places  they  only  peep  out  of  the  mountains 
here  and  there  among  the  lava,  or  still  oftener  among  tuffa :  in  other  places  they  are 
quite  overthrown,  and  only  pieces  of  broken  pillars  appear.  Sometimes  again  they  ex- 
tend two  or  three  miles  in  length  without  interruption.  In  the  mountain  called  Glock- 
enberg  in  Snefialdsnas,  this  kind  of  stone  appears  in  a  manner  very  different  from  any 
other  place  in  Iceland ;  for  on  the  top  the  pillars  lie  quite  horizontally,  in  the  middle  they 
are  sloping,  and  the  lowest  are  perfectly  perpendicular ;  in  some  places  they  are  bent  as 
u  semi-circle,  which  proves  a  very  violent  effect  of  the  fire  on  the  pillars  already  standing, 
as  in  most  places,  or  at  leiist  in  a  great  many,  they  are  e:  tircly  perpendicular,  and  by 
their  form  and  situation,  that  thty  have  even  been  burnt  in  a  perpendicular  direc- 
tion. 

As  to  tne  matter  of  which  the  Icelandic  basalts  are  composed,  it  is  in  some  places  simi- 
lar to  that  of  which  the  pillars  at  Staffa  consist,  though  in  others  it  is  more  porous,  and 
inclines  more  to  gray.  And  who  knowsj  if  an  attentive  and  curious  naturalist,  who  had 
both  time  and  talents  requisite  for  such  an  undertaking,  might  not  easily  trace  all  the  gra!- 
dations  between  the  coarsest  lava  and  the  finest  pillar  of  basalt  ?  I  myself  saw  some  of 
this  last  sort  at  Videy,  which  were  solid,  of  a  blackish  gray,  and  composed  of  several 
joints.  And  not  far  from  thence,  at  Laugarnas,  near  the  sea-shore,  I  saw  a  porous  glassy 
kind  of  stone,  consequently  lava,  but  was  so  indistinctly  divided,  that  I  was  a  long  time 
undetermined  whethtr  1  should  consider  it  as  pillars  or  not ;  but  at  length  the  rest  of 
the  comj-any,  as  well  as  myself,  were  persuaded  that  they  really  were  such.  But  I  will 
postpone  the  examination  of  the  matter  of  which  these  pillars  consist,  and  of  the  mani.'.r 
in  which  they  are  formed,  till  such  time  as  I  have  given  you  the  promised  description  of 
the  isle  of  Staffa. 

A  piece  of  good  tbrtui; 2  procured  us  the  pleasure  of  being  the  first  who  ever  examined 
these  wonders  of  nature  with  an  attentive  eye.  Among  all  those  who  have  published 
descriptions  of  Scodand,  there  are  rone,  except  Buchanan,  whose  account,  however,  is 
very  imperfect,  that  mentions  a  single  syllable  of  these  pillars.  Mr.  Pennant,  an  inde- 
fatigable and  experienced  naturalist,  in  the  same  year  that  we  visited  this  island,  made  a 
tour  to  Scodand,  to  examine  the  natural  productions  of  that  country,  but  \vas  prevented 
by  a  contrary  wind  from  going  to  Staffa.  Most  probably  we  should  not  have  come 
there  neither,  if  the  usual  ebb  and  flood,  whic'«  is  very  strong  between  the  western  islands 
of  Scodand,  had  not  forced  us,  hi  our  way  to  Iceland,  on  the  twelfth  of  Aug  1st  in  the 
n'ght,  to  cast  anchor  in  the  sound,  between  the  isles  of  Mull  and  Morvern  on  the  conti- 

4  u  2 


'•ii 

It'; 

I 

(J 


!:•; 


;    1 

J  * 

»  1 

!  1; 

is 


g 


II 


i 
i 

I* 


1 


I 


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r 


700 


VON  TKOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICBLANU. 


oent,  exactly  opposite  to  Drutnnc!i,  the  seat  of  Mr.  Maclean.  We  were  immediately  in- 
vitcd  to  land,  and  breakfasted  there,  with  that  hospitality  which  characterises  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Highlaii  Is  of  Scotland.  Mr.  Leach,  another  guest  of  Mr.  Maclean,  gave 
us  many  particulars  of  these  pillars,  which  he  had  visited  a  Tew  days  before.  Mr.  Banks's 
desire  of  inforr.'it!tion  could  not  resist  the  offer  of  this  gentleman  to  accompany  ustoStaf- 
fa  ;  we  therefore  went  on  board  our  long-boat  the  same  day;  Jir.d  arrived  there  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening.  It  was  impossible  for  our  surprise  to  be  increased,  or  our  curi- 
osity  to  be  fuller  gratilied,  than  they  were  the  next  morning,  when  we  beh'ld  the  no  less 
than  beautiful  spectacle  which  nature  presented  to  our  view. 

If  wc  even  with  admiration  behold  art,  according  to  the  rules  prescribed  to  it,  observ- 
ing a  certain  kind  of  order,  which  not  only  strikes  the  eye,  but  also  pleases  it ;  what 
must  be  the  effect  produced  upon  us  when  we  behold  Nature  displaying,  as  it  were,  a  re- 
gularity,  which  far  surpassed  every  thing  art  ever  produced !  An  attentive  spectator  will 
find  as  much  occasion  for  wonder  and  astonishmtnt,  when  he  observes  how  infinitely  short 
human  wisdom  oppears,  when  we  attempt  to  imitate  Nature  in  this  as  well  as  in  any  other 
of  her  grand  and  awful  productions.  And  though  we  acknowledge  Nature  to  be  the 
mistress  of  all  tlie  arts,  and  ascribe  a  greater  degree  of  perfection  to  them,  the  nearer  they 
approach  and  imitate  it,  yet  we  sometimes  imagine  that  she  might  be  improved,  according 
to  the  rules  of  architecture. 

How  magnficient  arc  the  remains  we  have  of  the  porticoes  of  the  ancients !  and  with 
what  admiration  do  we  behold  the  colonnades  which  adorn  the  principal  buildings  of  our 
times !  and  yet  every  one  who  compares  them  with  Fingal's  Cave,  formed  by  Nature  in 
the  isle  of  Stufta,  must  readily  acknowledge,  that  this  piece  of  Nature's  arcnitecture  far 
surpasses  every  thing  that  invention,  luxury,  and  taste,  ever  produced  among  the 
Greeks. 

The  island  of  Staffa*  lies  west  of  Mull,  three  miles  N.  E.  of  Jona,  or  Kolumb-Kill, 
and  is  about  a  ^-nile  in  length,  and  half  a  mile  in  breadth :  it  belongs  to  Mr.  Lauchlan 
Mac-Quarie.  On  the  west  side  of  the  island  is  a  small  cave,  where  there  is  a  very  con- 
venient landing-place,  but  where  no  regular  basalt  fibres  are  to  be  met  with.  To  the 
soutli  of  this  cave  are  some  narrow  pillars,  which,  instead  of  standing  upright,  are  all 
inclined,  tuid  look  like  so  many  pieces  of  an  arch.  Further  on  you  leave  a  small  grotto 
on  your  right  hand,  which  is  not  composed  of  pillars,  though  they  nppear  more  distinctly 
and  larger  above  it,  and  in  one  place  resemble  the  interior  timber- work  of  a  ship.  Di- 
rectly opposite  to  it,  only  a  few  yards  distant,  is  the  peninsula  of  fio-scha-la,  which  entire- 
ly consists  of  regular  though  less  pillars,  that  are  all  of  a  cmucal  figure.  Some  of  them 
lie  horizontally,  others  incline  as  it  were  to  the  central  point,  as  to  the  upper  end,  but  the 
greater  number  are  perfectly  perpendicular.  The  island  it!.w.f,  opposite  to  Bo-scha-la, 
consists  uf  thick  columns  or  pillars,  which  are  not  however  very  h^h>  as  they  gradually 
decrease  in  approaching  to  the  water,  and  extend  into  the  sea  as  for  as  the  eye  can  reach. 
You  may  walk  upon  these  with  great  ease,  as  from  one  step  of  a  staircase  to  another,  till 
you  come  to  Fingal's,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  to  Fiuhn  Mac  Coul*fi  grotto  or  cave, 
which  enters  into  the  mountain  from  N.  E.  to  E. 

ThLs  cave  consists  of  very  regular  pillars,  which,  to  a  great  extent  on  both  sides,  and 
in  the  most  interior  part,  support  an  arched  vault,  composed  of  the  dstuse  points  of 

*  Mr.  Banks's  account  of  this  island,  as  communicated  by  that  intelligent  gentleman  to  Mr.  Pennant, 
and  inserted  in  bis  T  jur  in  Scotland, and  Voyage  to  the  Hebrides  in  1772,  is  too  curious  to  be  omiUed, 
as  it  is  not  only  very  interesting  in  itself,  but  is  an  undeniable  proof  oi  the  accuracy  and  fidelity  with  which 
our  author,  Dr.  Troil,  has  treated  of  the  various  subjects  contained  in  this  publicatiOD :  the  editor  dtens 
it  therefore  unaece^Mry  to  apologize  for  subjoining  an  extract  of  it  to  this  letter. 


'»'  ''Mrt-.uij^i.i^.".— ■e-Koitgiiprij?-- 


VON  IROIL'S  LETTEHS  ON  ICELAND. 


701 


pillars  crowded  close  together.  The  bottom  of  the  cave,  which  is  Elled  with  clear 
fresh  water  several  feet  in  depth,  is  likewise  covered  widi  innumerable  pieces  of  pillars, 
which  compose  its  floor.  The  colour  of  the  pillars  is  of  a  blackish  gray ;  but  between 
the  joints  there  is  a  yellow  stalactic  quarry  rind  exhaled,  which  serves  to  make  these 
divbions  more  distinct,  and  produces  an  agreeable  effect  to  the  eye,  by  the  many  differ- 
ent modulations  of  colour.  It  is  so  light  within  the  cave,  that  one  can  distinguish  the 
innermost  range  of  pillars  perfectly  weU  from  without  The  air  in  it  is  very  pure  and 
good,  as  it  is  constantly  changed  by  the  rising  and  falling  of  the  water  during  the  tide. 
Very  far  into  the  cave  there  is  a  hole  in  the  rock,  somewhat  lower  than  the  surface  of  the 
water  standing  in  it,  which  makes  a  pleasing  kind  of  noise  on  every  flux  and  reflux  of 
the  tides.  One  may  walk  in  most  parts  of  the  cave  on  the  broken  points  of  some  pillars 
arising  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  but  it  is  most  convenient  to  go  in  a  boat.  We 
made  the  following  measurements  of  the  cave : 

F. 

The  length,  from  the  farthest  of  the  basalt  pillars,  which  from  the 
shore  formed  a  canal  to  the  cave  -  .  .  121 

From  the  commencement  of  the  vault  to  the  end  of  the  cave        250 

The  breadth  of  its  entrance  -  -  -  .  . 

Of  the  interior  end  ..... 

The  height  of  the  vault  at  the  entrance  of  the  cave 

Of  ditto,  at  the  interior  end  -  -  •  ,  . 

The  height  of  the  outermost  pillar  in  one  corner 

The  height  of  another,  in  the  north-west  corner 

The  depth  of  the  water  at  entrance  -  .  . 

Of  the  mside  end        -  ^  .... 

Above  the  cave  was  a  stratuni  of  a  stone  mixed  with  pieces  of  hasalt.    We  made  the 
following  measurements : 


F.    I. 

371      6 


53 
20 
117 
70 
39 
54 
18 
9 


7 
0 
6 
0 
6 
0 
0 
0 


F. 

36 
32 
31 

34 


I. 

8 
6 

4 

4 


From  the  water  to  the  foot  of  the  pillars  -  .  .  , 

Height  of  the  pillars  ---.._ 

Height  of  the  arch  or  vault  above  the  top  of  the  pillars 

The  stratum  above  this  ...  -  •  -        o-* 

From  hence,  a  little  farther  north.west,  we  met    vith  the  largest  pillars  which  are  to 
be  found  m  the  whole  island.    The  place  on  which  diey  stood  was  likewise  quite  free 
so  that  we  were  enabled  to  examine  it.    The  following  was  the  result  of  our  measure- 
ment: 

The  western  comer  of  Fingal's  C  . ,  e :  F 

1.  From  the  water  to  the  foot  of  the  pillars  .  .  -  -  12* 

2.  Height  of  the  pillars  -  .  .  .  ■  -  37 

3.  The  stratum  above  them  -  .  ,  -  -  66 

Farther  westward: 

1.  The  stratum  beneath  the  pillars  -  -  .  •        -       11 

2.  Height  of  the  pillars  -  .  .  .  -        -       54 

3.  The  stratum  above  -  -  -  .  -        -       61 

Still  more  westward: 


I. 

10 
3 
9 

0 
0 
6 


1.  Stratum  beneath  the  pillars 

2.  Height  of  the  pillars 

3.  The  stratum  above  them 


17      1 

50  0 

51  1 


4' 


i  M 


■  4 

i'1 


!> 


702 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  OK  ICKLAND. 


1.  Stratum  beneath  the  piifars 

2.  Height  of  the  pillars 

3.  The  stratum  above 


Still  more  to  the  west 


F.  I. 

19  8 

55  1 

54  7 


The  stratum  beneath  the  pillars  here  mentioned  is  evidently  tuffa,  which  had  been 
neatea  by  hre,  and  seems  to  be  interlarded,  as  it  were,  with  small  bits  of  basalt ;  and  the 
red  or  stratum  above  the  pillars,  in  which  large  pieces  of  pillars  are  sometimes  found  ir. 
regular  y  thrown  tofj-ther,  and  in  unequal  directions,  is  evidently  nothing  else  but  lava 
1  hough  a  prodigious  degree  of  fire  must  formerly  have  been  requisite  to  produce  this 
upjjer  stratum,  yet  there  are  not  Uie  least  traces  in  its  exterior,  the  pillars  having  been  re- 
moved by  It,  for  the  whole  enormous  mass  rests  upon  them. 

When  you  move  farUier  on,  and  pass  the  northern  side  of  the  island,  you  come  to 
Cormorant  s  Cavx,  where  the  bed  beneath  the  pillars  is  raised,  and  the  pillars  them- 
selves  decrcase  in  height:  they  are,  however,  tolerably  disUnct,  till  you  are  pasta 
bay  which  extends  very  far  into  the  country,  on  the  side  of  which  the  pillars  entirelv 
djsappear.  1  he  mountains  here  consist  of  a  dark  brown  stone,  of  which  I  cannot 
alhrm  with  certainty  whether  it  is  lava  or  not,  and  where  not  the  least  regularity  is  to 
be  observed ;  but  as  soon  as  you  pass  the  south-east  side  of  the  island,  the  stones  beeiii 
again  to  assume  a  regular  figure,  though  so  gradually,  that  it  is  scarcely  perceptible  at 
nrst,  .111  at  last  the  regular  and  crooked  pillars  again  appear,  with  which  I  began  my 

The  pillars  have  from  three  to  seven  sides,  but  the  greater  number  have  five  or  six, 
and  so  crowded  together,  that  a  heptagonal  pillar  is  surrounded  with  seven  others,  which 
join  closely  to  its  seven  sides.  In  some  places,  however,  there  are  little  insignificant 
openings,  but  they  are  filled  up  withquarz,  which,  in  one  place,  had  even  made  its  way 
T^L°"^n  ^  ""'"?^**  of  P'"ars.  though  without  in  the  least  destroying  their  regularity 
Ihepilh-s  consist  of  many  joints  or  pieces,  of  about  a  foot  in  height)"  which  so  exactly 
Jit  upon  i»ne  another,  that  it  is  difficult  to  introduce  a  knife  between  the  interstices  The 
upper  piece  was  generally  concave,  sometimes  flat,  and  rarely  convex  ;  if  the  upper  joint 
was  Hat,  the  lowest  was  so  likewise,  but  when  it  was  excavated,  the  lower  one  was 
rounded  and  reversed. 

The  sides  of  the  pillars  are  not  all  equally  broad.    The  following  measurements  were 
taken  of  four  pillars :  ov.iv 

No.  1,  with  four  sides.  p 

First  side 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 
No.  2,  with  five  sides. 

First  side 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 

Fifth 
No.  3,  with  six  sides. 

First  side 

Second 

Third 


Diameter  1 

1 

-      1 

1 


Diameter 


Diameter  0 
2 
2 


I. 
5 
1 
6 
1 

10 

10 

5 

7^ 
8 

10 
2 

Q 


■— .»-»VP<*»?i»5C!r 


'.**• ."-    :;^ 


703 

F. 

r. 

1 

11 

2 

2 

2 

9 

2 

10 

2 

4 

1 

10 

2 

0 

1 

1 

1 

6 

1 

3 

VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 

Fourth  ........ 

Fifth  -......., 

Sixth  ........ 

No.  4,  with  seven  sides 

First  side  .....                Diameter 

Second  ........ 

Third 

Fourth  ........ 

Fifth 

Sixth  ........ 

Seventh  ........ 

The  pillars  are  all  over  as  smooth,  and  as  sharp  cornered,  as  those  of  the  Giant*s 
Causeway ;  their  colours  are  generally  black ,  though  the  external  sides  sometimes  in- 
cline to  yellow,  as  their  surfaces  are  bleached  by  the  weather.  As  to  their  grain  and 
substance,  they  entirely  resemble,  and  are  most  probably  the  same  original  substance  as 
the  Icelandic  agate.  As  I  have  nothing  remaining  of  it,  I  cannot  examine  •  vhat  effect 
borax  and  other  alloys,  or  aqua-fortis,  and  the  like,  would  have  upon  it;  vhat  is  the 
nature  of  its  pro|)er  gravity,  and  what  polish  it  will  admit  of,  it  would,  notwithstand- 
ing, be  useful  to  be  informed  of,  in  order  to  compare  it  with  similar  kinds  of  stone  from 
other  parts. 

But  in  what  manner  have  these  regular  pillars  been  produced  ?  It  is  the  »-eceiytiI 
opinion  that  the  fire  has  been  accessary  to  it :  you  have  yourself  remarked,  sir,  that  it 
must  either  have  been  a  matter  which  had  been  melted  by  fire,  and  burst  afterwards, 
and  that  then  a  liquid,  which  we  are  yet  unacquainted  with,  must  have  produced  their 
regular  crystaline  figures ;  or  else  it  must  have  been,  us  you  have  likewise  observed,  a 
kind  of  earth,  which,  after  having  been  softened  by  the  exhalations  arising  from  a  subter- 
raneous fire,  its  whole  mass  ^vas  forced  out  of  its  situation,  and  assumed  this  regular 
form  as  it  grew  dry.  I  have  noticed  this  distinct  and  regular  appearance  in  dried  clay, 
and  even  in  starch,  ^vhen  dried  in  a  cup  or  bason.  For  it  may  be  demonstrated  that  they 
are  not  crystals  formed  by  Nature,  by  their  not  being  produced  as  all  other  crystals  are, 
by  external  apposition  (per  appositionem)  nor  in  any  other  matrix,  as  is  common  among 
crystals. 

It  would  be  very  difficult  t;j  determine  whether  the  matter,  of  which  these  prismatic 
pillars  consist,  burst  into  the  regular  forms  after  it  was  melted,  and  was  growing  cold,  or 
whilst  it  was  drying,  pz  you  set  m  inclined  to  believe.  I  cannot  deny  that  my  eyes  have 
prepossessed  me  in  favour  of  the  first  opinion,  in  all  those  places  where  I  have  seen  any 
of  these  pillars ;  but  as  so  many  objections  may  be  offered  against  this  opinion,  I  am 
obliged  to  leave  the  matter  undetermined.  The  following  may,  however,  serve  as  a 
proof  that  I  did  not,  without  due  foundation,  believe  them  to  be  a  kind  of  liiva, 
which  burst  in  growing  cold  and  hard.  First,  you  find  both  in  the  island  of  Staffi  and 
many  other  places,  that  the  pillars  stand  on  lava  or  tuffa,  and  are  surrounded  by  this 
matter.  Secondly,  at  Staffa  there  was  a  large  stratum  above  the  pillars,  in  which 
there  were  many  pieces  of  these  pillars  irregularly  thrown  among  one  another,  which 
leaves  us  to  conjecture  that  they  must  have  been  more  in  number,  and  higher  after  an 
old  eruption  of  fire,  but  that  a  subsequent  eruption  had  overthrown  them,  and  mixed 
them  with  the  whole  mass.  Thirdly,  we  found  one  of  these  pillars,  on  breaking  it,  full 
of  drops,  almost  like  a  lactile  or  dripping  stone ;  and  none  surely  will  pretend  a  basalt 
to  be  of  such  a  composition.    Fourthly,  I  have  formerly  said  that  the  pillars  in  some 


n 
i 


■4 


•i 


I 


!i 


I 


ro4 


VON  rnoiL's  letters  on  Iceland. 


places  resemble  the  inside  timber- work  of  a  ship ;  that  is  to  say,  these  pillars  which  most 
probably  were  quite  strait  at  first,  in  falling  received  this  crooked  incliiiatioR  ;  nor  were 
It  alone  the  joints  of  the  outermost  or  lowest  side  which  warped  a  little,  but  each  stone 
was  bent  singly.  Fifthly,  we  found  on  the  shore  at  Histra,  near  Skalholt,  a  piece  of 
basalt,  with  a  piece  of  glass  sticking  in  it,  in  the  same  manner  as  granate  formed  ciystals 
arc  found  in  the  basalts  at  Bulsenna,  which  are  like  thee  that  abound  in  the  lava  of  Ice- 
land E*nd  Italy.  And  lastly,  a  kind  of  stone  near  Langarnas,  in  Iceland,  which  was  much 
coarser,  and  more  glassy  than  the  common  basalts,  and  evidently  was  lava  burst  into 
polycdrous  and  regular  figures,  though  not  quite  so  regular  as  the  above-mentioned 
pillars. 

What  I  have  here  said  might  easily  induce  one  to  imagine  that  the  basalt,  aAer  having 
been  melted,  and  grown  hard  again,  had  been  burst  into  such  pillars.  But  two  ob- 
jections, which  you  raise  against  this  opinion,  are  difficult  to  be  removed.  First,  this 
matter  melts  so  easily,  that  i*  becomes  glass  without  difficulty,  before  the  blow-pipe  for 
assaying ;  whence  it  seems  that  this  mass  must  necessarily  have  been  changed  to  glass,  if 
it  had  been  exposed  to  so  great  a  fire  as  that  of  an  eruption.  But  may  one  safely  judge 
of  an  experiment,  made  in  miniature  before  the  blow-pipe,  of  the  workings  of  Nature  at 
large  ?  Might  not,  perhaps,  an  addition  we  are  unacquainted  with  have  prevented  the 
mass  from  becoming  glass,  and  cause  it  to  break  into  these  regular  figures,  though  we 
cannot  now  determine  wherein  this  addition  consisted?  Secondly,  we  find  that  the 
trapp*  in  West  Gothland,  which  both  in  appearance  and  substance  so  much  resembles 
basalts,  though  it  does  not  form  itself  into  pillars,  stands  on  slate ;  and  how  could  this 
trapp  have  been  formed  by  the  fire,  without,  at  the  same  time,  kindling  the  bed,  which 
is  of  so  combustible  a  nature  ?  But  should  not,  perhaps,  the  fire  be  able  to  form  the 
trapp  into  pillars  ?  Perhaps  all  basalt  pillars  may  have  been  a  mass  of  tr^p  in  the  in- 
side  of  the  earth,  which,  having  been  liquified  during  an  eruption,  was  thrown  up,  and 
split  into  pillars  ?  But,  sir,  I  fear  to  fatigue  you  with  my  conjectures  and  questions ;  it 
would,  however,  be  very  agreeable  to  me  and  other  naturalists,  if  you  would  kindly 
communicate  to  us  your  thoughts  on  this  subject.  This  would,  no  doubt,  enable  us 
vo  judge  with  more  certainty  of  basalts,  which  at  present  engage  the  attention  of  the 
curious  in  general,  and  all  naturalists  in  particular. 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ISLAND  OF  STAFFA, 

COMMUNICATED  BY  JOSEPH  BANKS,  ESq. 

In  the  sound  of  Mull  we  came  to  anchor  (August  12,  1772)  on  the  Morvem  side, 
opposite  to  a  gentleman's  house  called  Drumnen  :  the  owner  of  it,  Mr.  Maclean,  hav- 
ing  found  out  who  we  were,  verj'  cordially  asked  us  ashore  ;  we  accepted  his  invitation, 
and  arrived  at  his  house,  where  we  met  an  English  gentleman,  Mr.  Leach,  who  no 
sooner  saw  us  than  he  told  us,  that  about  nine  leagues  from  us  was  an  island,  where 
he  believed  no  one  even  in  the  Highlands  had  been,  on  which  were  pillars  like  those  of 
the  Giant's  Causeway  :  this  was  a  great  object  to  me,  who  had  wished  to  have  seen  the 
causeway  itself,  would  time,  have  allowed :  I  therefore  resolved  to  proceed  directly, 
especially  as  it  was  just  in  the  way  to  the  Kolumb-kill ;  accordingly,  having  put  up  two 

*  A  kind  of  stone  in  Lynn  Syst.  Nat.  Mineralogy. 


,->to■^■^.^*•''■'^?*.lft•^ 


vox  XnOlL'S  LETTERS  OS  ICELAND 


ro5 


i] 


days'  provisions,  and  my  little  tent,  we  put  oft'  in  the  boat  about  one  o'clock  for  our 
intended  voyage,  having  ordered  the  ship  to  wait  for  us  in  Tobirmore,  a  very  fine  har- 
bour  on  the  Mull  side. 

At  nine  o'clock,  after  a  tedious  passage,  having  had  not  a  breath  of  wind,  we  ar- 
rived under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Maclean's  son  and  Mr.  Leach.  It  was  too  dark  to 
see  any  thing,  so  we  carried  our  tent  and  baggage  near  the  only  house  upon  the  island, 
and  began  to  cook  our  suppers,  in  order  to  be  prepared  for  the  earlies'.  dawn,  to  enjoy 
that  which  from  the  conversation  of  the  geiulcmen  we  had  now  raiscG  the  highest  ex- 
pcctations  of. 

The  impatience  which  every  body  felt  to  see  the  wonders  we  had  heard  so  largely  de- 
scrilx:d  prevented  our  morning's  rest ;  every  one  was  up  and  in  motion  before  the  break 
of  day,  and  with  the  first  light  arrived  at  the  S.  W.  part  of  the  Island,  the  seat  of  the 
most  remarkable  pillars ;  where  we  no  sooner  arrived,  than  we  were  struck  with  a  scene 
of  magnificence  which  exceeded  our  expectations,  though  formed,  as  we  thought,  upon 
the  most  sanguine  foundations :  the  whole  of  that  end  of  the  island  supported  by  ranges 
of  natural  pillars,  mostly  above  fifty  feet  high,  standing  in  natural  colonnades,  according 
as  the  bays  or  points  of  land  formed  themselves  :  upon  a  firm  basis  of  solid  unformed 
rock,  above  these,  the  stratum,  which  reaches  to  the  soil  or  surface  of  the  island,  varied 
in  thickness,  as  the  island  itself  formed  into  hills  or  vallies  ;  each  hill,  which  hung  over 
the  columns  below,  forming  an  :  inple  pediment ;  some  of  these  above  sixty  feet  in 
thickness,  from  the  base  to  the  point,  fi)rmed,  by  the  sloping  of  the  hill  on  each  side,  al- 
most into  the  shap^  of  those  used  in  architecture. 

We  proceeded  along  the  shore,  treading  upon  another  Giant's  Causeway,  every  stone 
being  regularly  formed  into  a  cert;:in  number  of  aides  and  angles,  till  in  a  short  time  we 
arrived  at  the  mouth  of  a  cave,  the  mvist  magnificent,  I  suppose,  that  has  ever  been  de- 
scribed by  travellers. 

The  mind  can  hardly  form  an  idea  more  magnificent  than  such  a  space,  supported  on 
each  side  by  rmges  of  columns,  and  roofed  by  the  bottoms  of  those,  which  have  been 
broke  off  in  order  to  form  it,  between  the  angles  of  which  a  yello  v  stalagmitic  matter 
has  exuded,  which  served  to  define  the  angles  precisely,  and  at  tu  j  same  time  vary  the 
colour  with  a  great  deal  of  elegance ;  and  to  render  it  still  more  agreeable,  the  whole  is 
lighted  from  without;  so  that  the  farthest  extremity  is  very  plainly  seen  from  without; 
and  the  air  within,  being  agitated  by  the  flux  and  reflux  of  the  tides,  is  perfectly  dry  and 
wholesome,  free  entirely  from  the  damp  vapours  with  which  natural  caverns  in  general 
abound. 

We  asked  the  name  of  it ;  said  our  guide.  The  cave  of  Fiuhn :  what  is  Fiuhn?  said 
we.  Fiuhn  Mac  Coul,  whom  the  translator  of  Ossian's  works  has  called  Fingal.  How 
fortunate  that  in  this  cave  we  should  meet  v/ith  the  remembrance  of  that  chief,  whose 
existence,  as  well  as  that  of  the  whole  epic  poem,  is  almost  doubted  in  England! 

Enough  for  the  beauties  of  Stafia :  I  shall  now  proceed  to  describe  it  and  its  produc- 
tions more  philosophically. 

The  little  island  of  Staffa  lies  on  the  west  coast  of  Mull,  about  three  leagues  N.  E. 
from  Jona,  or  tlie  Kolumb-klii :  its  greatest  length  is  about  an  English  mile,  and  its 
breadth  about  half  a  one.  On  the  west  side  of  the  island  is  a  small  bay,  where  boats 
generally  land :  a  little  to  the  southward  of  which  the  first  appearance  of  pillars  are  to  be 
observed;  they  are  small,  and  instead  of  being  placed  upright,  lie  down  on  their  sides, 
each  fonning  a  segment  of  a  circle ;  from  thence  you  pass  a  small  cave,  above  which  the 

Eillurs,  now  grown  a  little  larger,  are  inclining  in  all  directions ;  in  one  place  in  particu- 
ir  a  small  mass  of  them  very  much  resembles  the  ribs  of  a  ship :  from  hence  having 
VOL.  I.  4  x 


^ 


"."-r 


roG 


\0S  I  UOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELANO. 


passed  the  cave,  which,  if  it  is  not  low  water,  you  must  do  in  a  boat,  you  come  to  the 
first  ranges  of  |)inars,  which  arc  still  not  above  half  as  large  as  those  u  little  beyond. 
Over  against  this  place  is  a  small  island,  called  in  Erse  Boo-sha-la,  separated  from  the 
main  by  a  channel  not  many  fathoms  wide :  this  whole  island  is  composed  of  pillars 
without  any  stratum  above  them ;  they  arc  still  small,  but  by  much  the  neatest  formed  of 
any  about  the  place. 

The  first  division  of  the  island,  for  at  high  water  it  is  divided  into  two,  makes  a  kind 
of  a  cone,  the  pillars  converging  together  towards  the  centre  :  on  the  other,  they  are  in 
general  laid  down  flat ;  and  in  the  front  next  to  the  main,  you  see  how  beautifully  they 
are  packed  together,  their  ends  coming  out  square  with  the  bank  which  they  form: 
all  these  have  their  transverse  sections  exact,  and  their  surfaces  smooth,  which  is  by  no 
means  the  case  with  the  large  ones,  which  are  cracked  in  all  directions.  1  much  question, 
however,  if  any  one  of  this  whole  island  of  Boo-sha-la  is  two  feet  in  diameter. 

The  main  island  opposite  to  Boo-sha-la,  and  farther  towards  the  N.  VV.  is  supported 
by  ranges  of  pillars  pretty  erect,  and  though  not  tall  (as  they  are  not  uncovered  to  the 
base)  of  large  diameters ;  and  at  their  feet  js  an  irregular  pavement,  made  by  the  up- 
per  sides  of  such  as  have  been  broken  off,  which  extends  as  far  under  water  as  the  eye 
can  reach.  Here  the  forms  of  the  pillars  arc  apparent ;  these  are  of  three,  four,  five, 
six,  and  seven  sides ;  but  the  numbers  of  live  and  six  are  much  the  most  prevalent. 
The  largest  I  measured  was  of  seven  ;  it  was  four  feet  five  inches  in  diamater.*  The 
surfaces  of  the  large  pillars  in  general  arc  rough  and  uneven,  full  of  cracks  in  all  direc- 
tions ;  the  transverse  figures  in  the  upright  ones  never  fail  to  run  in  their  true  directions : 
the  surfaces  upon  which  we  walked  were  often  flat,  having  neither  conciivity  nor  con- 
vexity ;  the  larger  number,  however,  were  concave,  though  some  were  very  evidently 
convex  :  in  some  places  the  interstices  within  the  perpendicular  figures  were  filled  up 
with  a  yellow  spar ;  in  one  place  a  vein  passed  in  aniong  the  mass  of  pillars,  carrying 
here  and  there  small  threads  of  spar.  Though  they  were  broken,  and  cracked  through 
and  through  in  all  directions,  yet  their  perpendicular  figures  might  easily  be  traced ;  from 
whence  it  is  easy  to  infer,  that  whatever  the  accident  might  have  been  that  caused  the 
dislocation,  it  happened  after  the  formation  of  the  pillars. 

From  hence,  proceeding  along  shore,  you  arrive  at  Fingal's  Cave,  which  runs  into  a 
rock  in  the  direction  of  north-east  by  east  by  the  compass. 

Proceeding  farther  to  the  north-west  you  meet  with  the  highest  range  of  pillars,  the 
magnificent  appearance  of  which  surpasses  all  description  ;  here  they  are  bare  to  their 
very  basis ;  and  the  stratum  below  them  is  also  visible  :  in  a  short  time  it  rises  many 
feet  above  the  water,  and  ^vcs  an  opportunity  of  examining  its  quality.  Its  surface  is 
rough,  and  has  often  large  lumps  of  stone  sticking  to  it,  as  if  half  immersed ;  itself,  when 
broken,  is  composed  of  a  thousand  heterogeneous  parts,  which  together  have  very  much 
the  appearance  of  a  lava ;  and  the  more  so,  as  many  of  the  lumps  appear  to  be  of  the 
very  same  stone  of  which  the  pillars  are  formed :  this  whole  stratum  lies  in  an  inclined  po- 
sition, dipping  gradually  towards  the  south-east.  Hereabouts  is  the  situation  of  the  high- 
est pillars.  The  stratum  above  them  is  uniformly  the  same,  consisting  of  numberless 
small  pillars,  bending  and  inclining  in  all  directions,  sometimes  so  irregularly  that  the 
stones  can  only  be  said  to  have  an  inclination  to  assume  a  columnar  form ;  in  others  more 
regular,  but  never  breaking  into  or  disturbing  the  stratum  of  large  pillars,  whose  tops 
everywhere  keep  an  uniform  and  regular  line. 

"  As  Mr.  Ban1(s's  measurement  and  dimensions  of  these  and  other  remarkable  pillars,  and  of  Fingal's 
Cave,  agree  even  to  a  single  figure  with  those  given  by  our  accurate  Author  in  this  work,  the  repetition 
of  tiicm  would  have  been  useless  ;  for  which  reason  they  are  omitted. 


\0S  TROfL'S  LETTKH8  ON  ICF.LANJ). 


707 


lars 


Proceeding  now  alongshore,  round  the  north  end  of  the  island,  yo>i  arrive  at  Otia  na 
scarve,  or  the  Cormorant's  Cave  :  here  the  stratum  under  the  nillars  ».<  lifted  u|>  v-iy 
high  ;  the  pillars  above  it  are  considerably  less  than  those  at  the  N.  VV.  cnv'  of  the  inland, 
but  btill  very  considerable.  Beyond  is  a  bay,  whieh  cuts  deep  into  the  isLuu',  rendering 
it  in  that  place  not  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  over.  On  the  side:;  of  this  ba},  espe- 
cially beyond  a  little  valley,  which  almost  cuts  the  island  into  two,  are  two  stages  of  pil- 
lars, but  small ;  however,  having  a  stratum  l)etsvecn  them  exactly  the  same  as  that  above 
them,  formed  of  innumerable  little  pillars,  shaken  out  of  their  places,  and  leaning  in  a!! 
directions. 

Having  passed  this  bay,  the  pillars  totally  cease  :  the  rock  is  of  a  darl;  bro^vn  stone, 
and  no  signs  of  regularity  occur  till  you  have  passed  round  the  S.  IC.  endof  ihv  island 
(u  Sluice  almost  as  large  as  that  occupied  by  the  pillars)  which  \  uu  meet  with  again  on  the 
west  side,  beginning  to  form  themselves  irregularly,  as  if  t'tc  stratum  had  an  inclination 
to  that  form,  and  soon  arrive  at  the  bending  ,Mllars  where  I  began. 

The  stone  of  which  die  pillars  arc  formed  i'  i  coarse  kind  of  basalts,  very  much  re- 
sembling  the  Giant's  Causeway  in  Ireland,  th  ..  gh  none  of  them  are  near  so  neat  as  the 
specimens  of  the  latter  which  I  have  seen  at  th'j  British  Museum,  owing  chiefly  to  the 
colour,  which  in  ours  is  a  dirty  brown,  in  the  Irish  a  line  black  :  indeed  the  whole  pro* 
duction  seems  very  much  to  resemble  the  Gii  nt's  Causeway,  with  which  I  should  wil- 
lingly  compare  it,  had  I  any  account  of  the  for  ner  before  me. 

Thus  much  we  have  taken  from  Mr.  Banks's  account  of  the  island  of  Stalfa ;  which 
Mr.  Pennant  assures  the  public,  in  a  note  to  his  Tour  in  Scotland  (p.  269)  wiis  copied 
from  his  Journal,  concluding  in  these  words :  '*  I  take  the  liberty  of  saying  (what  by 
this  time  that  gentleman,  meaning  Mr.  Banks,  is  well  acquainted  with)  that  Stafta  is  a 
genuine  mass  of  basalts,  or  Giant's  Causeway  ;  but  in  most  respects  superior  to  the  Irish 
m  grandeur." 

We  think  Mr.  Pennant  might  have  spared  his  reader  this  information,  as  Mr.  Banks, 
in  his  account,  informs  us  that  it  is  a  Giant's  Causeway  formed  of  coarse  basalts. 


1 


LETTER  XXIII FROM  CHEVALIER  IHRE  TO  DR.  TROIL. 


CONCERNING  THE  EOOA. 


SIR  I  Upsala,  October  1,  1776. 

According  to  your  request,  I  send  you  an  answer  to  the  objections  made  by  Mr. 
Schloczer  against  my  opinion  of  the  Edda,  which,  together  with  a  translation  of  my  letter 
to  Mr.  Lagerbring,  on  the  subject  of  a  manuscript  of  the  Icelandic  Edda,  is,  as  you 
know,  inserted  in  that  gentleman's  Icelandic  history. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  find  that  my  thoughts  on  these  subjects  have  been  exa- 
mined by  men  of  learning  in  Germany,  by  which  means  a  number  of  false  notions  which 
had  been  formed  on  the  subject  and  design  of  this  book  have  been  removed ;  and  I  am 
very  happy  to  receive  any  objections  which  may  tend  to  convince  me  that  I  have  been 
mistaken. 

Though  I  now  resume  the  i>en,  it  is  not  so  much  with  any  immediate  design  to  refute 
those  objections  which  have  been  made  against  me,  as  to  give  those  accounts  and  expla- 
nations which  have  been  required  of  me,  and  which  I  think  myself  more  capable  of 
doing  than  any  other  person,  as  I  can  command  the  codex  whenever  I  think  proper. 
Mr.  Schloczer  and  1  propose  the  same  end  to  ourselves,  namely,  the  investigation  of  truth. 

Mr.  Schloczer's  first  objection  is,  that  I  have  not  given  a  complete  description  of  the 

4  X  a    * 


708 


\()N  ruuiL's  LF/neits  us  icklanu. 


manuscript,  its  size,  &c.  He  is  ixrfcctly  right  ii\  this  point,  and  I  will  briefly  endeavour 
to  repair  this  clifliciilty  ;  but  first,  I  must  observe  a  diplomatic  description  was  not  so 
much  rcrpiircd  in  that  letter,  as  I  had  directed  my  attention  more  to  the  cuntcntti  of  tlic 
book  than  its  external  appearance. 

I  intended  to  shew  what  was  the  view  of  tlie  author  of  the  Kdda  in  com|)Osing  this 
work,  what  parts  belonged  to  it,  and  which  did  not,  wherein  our  mai\uscript  dilTcretl  from 
Kescnius's edition,  whence  the  book  had  oinanied the  name  of  Eddee,  &.c.  Etc.  audits 
diplomatical  descriptions  would  have  alVordcd  no  information  in  any  of  these  articles. 
This  letter  was  besides  not  addressed  to  any  foreign  man  of  learning,  but  to  one  of  my 
learned  countrymen,  well  versed  in  ancient  literature,  who  had  frecjuently  had  this  ma- 
nuscript in  his  own  hands,  and  examined  it,  and  was  perhaps  better  ac(|uainted  with  U 
than  myself.  It  would  have  been  very  superfluous  to  tell  him  it  was  written  in  ancient 
characters,  in  the  Icelandic  language,  on  parchment. 

But  to  oblige  Mr.  Schloczer,  and  perhaps  many  others,  I  will  inform  them  that  this 
codex,  as  I  said  before,  is  written  upon  parchment,  the  colour  of  which  is  dark  brown, 
which  may  proceed  partly  from  its  old  age,  and  partly  iK-rhans  from  its  having  been  long 
kept,  and  made  use  of  in  the  Icelandic  sinokey  rooms.  It  is  in  very  good  preservation, 
and  in  general  legible.  It  is  true,  there  are  some  round  holes  in  the  parchment,  but 
these  seem  to  have  been  there  at  first,  as  no  part  of  the  text  is  lost  by  them.  The  size 
is  a  small  quarto,  one  finger  in  thickness,  containing  fifty  four  leaves  and  a  half,  or  one 
hundred  and  nine  pages,  besides  a  white  leaf  before,  and  one  behind,  ^  .  which  there  arc 
however  some  bad  figur(;s,  of  which  these  on  the  first  represent  Gangleri,  with  Herjafu< 
har  and  Thridi,  who  resolve  questions.  The  characters  are  old,  and  when  compared 
with  many  others,  seem  to  prove  that  the  copier  lived  about  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century :  but  all  this  is  of  very  little  importance.  Mr.  Schloczer  believes  his 
subsequent  questions  may  give  more  light  in  settling  the  principal  point,  as  they  tend  to 
discover  who  was  the  author  of  the  Edda,  and  what  really  belongs  to  it. 

He  is  therefore  more  curious  to  know  what  is  contained  in  this  codex.  Mr.  Schloc- 
zer believes  he  has  so  much  more  reason  for  putting  this  question,  as  I  myself  have  hint- 
ed, that  besides  Demisiigor,  Koeiiinggar,  and  Liodsgreinir,  it  contained  a  list  of  Iceland- 
ic lagmcn,  and  a  langfedgatal  or  genealogy  of  Sturlcson's  ancestors.  He  therefore  desires 
to  know  if  this  codex  is  not  a  magazine  of  all  kinds  of  Icelandic  works,  which  have  been 
accidentally  collected  into  one  volume,  and  bound  together  ?  I  answer  to  this,  if  the  case 
A\  ere  thus,  Mr.  Schloczer  might  have  expected  from  a  man,  who  acted  with  candour 
and  some  knowledge  of  the  matter  before  him,  that  he  would  not  have  omitted  this  cir- 
cumstance. I  therefore  now  declare  that  there  is  nothing  else  in  it,  but  what  has  already 
been  mentioned ;  unless  I  add,  that  p.  92  and  93,  alter  the  author  has  described  the 
general  rules  of  poetry,  and  the  nature  of  letters,  and  the  copier  has  left  half  a  blank  page 
Ijcfore  he  writes  the  names  of  all  the  different  sorts  of  versification  used  in  the  Icelandic 
poetry,  another  hand  has  patched  in  a  steganographical  writing,  of  which  I  did  not  know 
what  to  make  during  a  long  time,  and  inc^.ced  I  did  not  take  great  pains  to  dc cypher 
it. 

I  will  however  give  a  specimen  of  it :  dfxtfrb  scrkptprks  bfnfdktb  skt  pmnkbxs  hprks. 
As  I  was  reading  m  Vanly'r'EIbliothcca  Anglo  Saxonica,  I  accidentally  met  with  a  simi- 
lar collection  of  consonants,  with  a  key  affixed  to  it,  which  shewed  that  the  whole  secret 
consisted  in  placing,  instead  of  each  vowel,  that  consonant  which  in  the  alphabet  followed 
next  to  it ;  also  instead  of  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  y,  the  letters  b,  f,  k,  p,  x,  z,  were  put ;  and  ac- 
cording to  this  rule  the  afore-mentioned  riddle  signified,  Dextera,  scriptoris  benedicta  sit 
omnibus  horis. 


VOV  TliOII.'S  I.F.TIKUSON  Kl'.l.AM). 


TO') 


I  afterwards  fovind  the  same  kind  of  stcfrano^raphy  mentioned  in  a  little  work  nsrriJKd 
to  Rhrabanus  M.uiruH,  iiiuU  r  the  title  oi  l)e  Iitventione  Liltcrariini,  and  which  is  so 
celebrated  on  account  of  the  |)roof  conUtined  in  it  of  die  runes  of  the  Mareomans. 
After  letters  became  more  universally  known  among  the  |K;ople,  the  subtle  monk'j  how- 
ever, desirous ot  knowin^^  something  which  the  vulgar  were  unaefjuaintcd  with,  invented 
various  mysterious  ways  of  writing  in  thi:>  manner,  which  they  not  only  made  um;  of 
among  Uiemselvcs,  but  introduced  in  their  public  writings,  'riiis  tusle  met  widi  ad- 
mirers among  our  ancesKjrs  in  Sweden,  and  thence  we  find  so  many  kinds  of  what  arc 
called  villrunes,  which  were  unintelligil)le  to  the  vulgar.  See  in  the  Uauiil,  N.  25,  205, 
331,  361,  SJ9,  5()8,  571,  57J,  581,  G49,  748,  767,  817,  Ol'J,  822,  l()()l,  l()«H,  and 
many  more  in  Vormius.  Perhaps  what  we  call  among  us  hclsinge  runes  have  also  no 
other  origin,  as  the  greater  part  of  them  only  ditter  from  the  conunon  runes,  by  having 
the  stati'  taken  awaj .  It  is  however  remarkable  that  our  gravers  of  runes  even  made 
use  of  this  cryptography  in  monimients  erected  to  the  memory  and  honour  of  the  dc 
ceased. 

It  is  further  nskcd,  if  there  arc  any  external  or  internal  traces  of  the  copier  having 
considered  all  the  above-mentioned  pieces,  or  at  least  the  thret:  first  parts,  us  u  connected 
Avork  ? 

The  answer  to  this  may  be  found  in  the  title  of  the  book,  wluch  is  at  length  in  the 
Goraiison  edition,  and  runs  thus : 

Bok  thessi  liciter  Edda.  Henne  liever  sam  sctta  Snorri  Sturlo  s.  cpter  theim  lioclti. 
scm  her  er  shipat.  Kn  fyrst  fra  Asum  ok  ymi;  tharnaest  skalld  skapar  mal  ok  heiti 
inur^a  hluta.  Sidaz  hoettartal,  cr  Snorri  hever  ort  um  Hakon  k.  ok  Skula  Ilertugu; 
that  IS,  This  book  is  called  Kdda ;  and  has  been  composed  by  Snorrc  Sturleson,  in  the 
manner  it  now  stands,  viz.  first  of  the  ases  and  ymi,  afterwards  the  language  of  poetry, 
and  its  apixMlations  of  various  things.  Lastly,  xi  dissertation  of  the  versifications  Snorrc 
made  upon  kingHakan  and  duke  Skule. 

1  mentioned  in  my  letter  to  Mr.  Lagcrbring,  thai  the  Rubric  was  written  in  a  later 
hand ;  which  is  right  so  far  as  has  been  added  after  the  Kdda  itself  was  begun,  which 
may  l)c  seen  by  the  narrow  space  left  for  it,  so  that  it  has  forced  the  copier  to  bring  the 
last  line  into  that  immediately  preceding  it.  Besides,  I  clearly  perceived  diat  the  manu- 
script was  very  old,  and  that  no  reasonable  eye-witness  could  Ixlieve  it  was  written  in 
1541,  as  Mr.  Schloczcr  conjectures.  But  as  it  had  been  written  with  red  ink,  which 
had  preserved  its  colour  better  than  the  black,  I  then  believed  the  hand  had  been  some- 
what  younger  ;  but  as  I  have  now  very  minutely  compared  the  writing  in  the  Rubric 
with  that  of  the  Edda,  I  think  I  may  salely  affirm,  that  they  are  both  written  by  one  and 
the  same  hand.  From  hence  it  follows,  that  he  who  copied  the  Edda  considered  the 
above-mentioned  articles,  and  no  otiiers,  as  essential  parts  of  it. 

I  am  come  to  the  principal  questio:  ,  whether  Sturleson  is  the  author  of  the  Edda? 
Here  Mr.  Schloczer  seems  to  have  taken  most  pains  to  prevent  me  from  deceiving  the 
learned  world  in  this  point. 

Because  Mr.  Schloczcr  has  found  that  most  antiquarians  express  themselves  with  a 
kind  of  circumspection  when  they  speak  of  die  Edda  audits  autl\or,  and  instead  of  posi- 
tively declaring  Sturleson  the  author,  as  Arngrim  and  some  others  have  done,  only  say 
Creditur,  existimatur  auctor  fuisse  :  that  is,  he  believes  the  matter  to  be  at  least  dubious, 
if  not  totally  groundless. 

I  will  not  insist  upon  it,  that  there  is  at  least  more  affirmation  than  negation  in  these 
expressions,  especially  as  it  is  usual,  on  mentioning  an  evidi  lUly  fidse  opinion,  to  add, 
false*  creditur,  or  something  similar.     For  Mr.  Schloczer  himself  remarks  very  judici- 


710 


VON  rnoii.'s LF.nEns  ov  icelanh 


tf 


,  J 


i'. 


oiisly,  thattlic  opinion  ol'  these  men  is  of  very  little  importance,  uhcn  they  ulledfi^c  no 
grouiuU  for  it.  He  therefore  Ix-'lieves  himself  entitled  to  maintain  with  certainly,  that 
Sturlchon  has  falsily  been  thought  the  author  of  the  Kdda.  To  sup|M)rt  his  opinion,  he 
nu  ntions  three  ar^^uments  in  difl'eant  pinces,  which  I  must  now  examine  more  closely. 

The  first  argument  is  to  be  mi  t  with  in  p.  39,  where  Mr.  Schloczer  submits  it  to 
(onsideration,  whether  the  serious  Snorrc,  overcharged  with  state  afl'airs,  could  be  sup- 
]x)sed  to  have  had  time,  and  did  not  think  it  beneath  his  dignity,  to  write  Aerarium  poo- 
ticum,  and  become  the  predecessor  of  Wei nrieh?  Here  I  will  only  observe,  that  Snorrc 
was  Mot  constantly  lagtnan,  and  that  he  might  have  compiled  this  work  before  he  ob- 
tained this  dignity,  or  in  the  interval  between  the  first  and  second  administration  of  this 
considerable  eharge ;  and  lastly,  even  in  its  vacaneii  s.  Neither  Mr.  Schloczer  nor  I 
ure  able  to  determine  how  much  time  the  management  of  a  lagman's  office  requires. 
They  liold  several  yearly  court-days  or  assizes,  after  which  I  have  always  understood 
that  they  are  entirely  free  and  disengaged ;  so  that  I  may  fairly  infer  that  the  lagmen  arc 
not  troubled  with  the  examination  of  tedious  records,  or  are  employed  in  any  extraordi- 
nary works.  We  find  many  Icelandic  lagmeit  who  have  been  poets  laureats  in  Sweden 
and  Norway,  as  Marcus  Skaggason,  Sturle  Thordarson,  and  others.  If  Mr.  Schloczcr's 
argument  was  conclusive,  he  might  go  still  farther,  and  prove  that  Sturlcson  could  neither 
have  written  the  Heimskringla,  or  history  of  the  northern  kings,  which  required  ti*n 
times  more  time,  and  more  laborious  disquisitions,  than  the  Kdda. 

Mr.  Schloczer  founds  his  second  argument  on  his  believing  it  incredible  that  any  one, 
in  the  golden  age  of  i)oetry  in  Iceland,  should  presume  to  advance  such  absurd  things  as 
1  have  done  in  my  letter.  He  tlKTcfore  believes  the  Edda  to  be  a  production  of  later 
times,  when  poetry  was  in  its  decline  in  Iceland. 

To  utiderstand  the  whole  force  of  this  argument,  it  must  be  known  that  Mr.  Schloczer 
divides  the  Icelandic  literature  into  three  periods ;  the  simpler  period,  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  introduction  of  Christianity ;  the  golden  period,  from  the  introduction  of 
Christianity  to  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  black  death,  or  the  great 
plague,  as  well  as  the  subjection  of  the  Icelanders  to  the  crown  of  Norway,  checked  the 
progress  of  poetry ;  and  the  last,  from  that  period  to  the  present.  I  will  not  strictly  ex- 
amine this  division,  though  I  cannot  comprehend  that  the  introduction  of  Christianity 
could  contribute  to  the  improvement  of  poetry ;  and  still  less,  if  the  diger-death,  which 
raged  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  produced  the  same  effect  on  the  surviving 
poets,  as  on  the  cultivation  of  the  country  and  its  population.  But  this  I  am  clear  of, 
that  any  one  who  would  attempt  to  class  the  Icelandic  poets  with  any  degree  of  ceriair.- 
ty  must  be  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  their  languge,  and  be  able  to  weigh  '.he  facul- 
ties of  their  minds  aj^ainst  each  other. 

It  signifies  very  little  under  what  particular  dynasty  the  poetry  of  the  Chinese  most 
flourished,  so  long  as  we  are  able  to  understand  their  poems  without  the  assistance  of  an 
interpreter. 

As  to  the  passages  of  Icelandic  poets,  which  I  have  quoted  in  different  places,  they 
prove  not  a  tittle  of  what  Mr.  Schloczer  pretends  they  do.  For  Lopt  Gutormsson's  verses 
are  not  in  the  Edda ;  and  though  the  other  song  is  to  be  met  with  in  Rcsenius's  edition 
of  it,  yet  it  is  not  in  the  Upsala  manuscript.  It  is  therefore  not  known  to  what  period 
they  belong ;  and  they  cannot  by  any  means  be  made  use  of  as  proofs  to  shew  that  Snomi 
was  not  the  author  of  the  Edda.  It  is  highly  proper  to  be  well  acquainted  with  a  subject 
before  one  ventures  "to  treat  of  it. 

I  will  by  no  means  presume  to  defend  all  the  phrases  I  have  made  use  of;  though  it 
is  well  known  that  custom  has  introduced  them  mto  every  language,  which,  were  they 


VOK  TttOIL'S  LRTTF.RS  ON  ICr.LAMI. 


11 


translated  into  other  langu.ipfcs,  would  not  only  lose  their  original  beauty,  hut  appear 
nukward  and  jj;racclcss.  For  example,  it  would  not  Ix'  iKlieved  that  to  tr<.atl  the  slurs 
iMuler  foot  signified  to  he  .  xalled  and  happy  ;  nor  woul ,  any  one  !)-•  v:iiderstood,  who 
would,  to  exnn.'ss  u  douhti'ui  state  of  mind,  call  it  hanging  water.  And  thcMe  phrases, 
not  to  mention  an  infinity  of  others,  were  however  in  constant  practice  among  the 
Latin». 

But  as  to  our  ancient  ancestors  in  particular,  who  iiiduhita!)ly  originated  from  the  east, 
they  no  douh  brought  their  allegorical  expressions  from  diencv.  And,  in  my  opinion, 
the  fondness  of  the  ancients  for  riddles  did  not  contribute  a  little  to  thehe  metaphors  in 
speech  ;  for  their  meiit  fre(iucntly  consisted  in  the  most  perverted  expressions,  which 
in  process  of  time  were  revived  and  admired  as  beauties.  We  are  not  permitted  the 
lilxirty  to  judge  without  distincuon  in  mere  matters  of  taste  and  genius,  though  they 
widely  diBer  from  what  is  !iractised  in  other  nations. 

Mr.  Schloczcr  takes  this  third  and  last,  and  perhaps  worst  argument,  from  the  con- 
tradiction  which  I  have  observed  between  the  Edda  and  Snorre'i.  Heimskringla.  I 
wanted  to  shew  in  my  letter,  that  the  ancients  by  their  Asgard  meant  the  town  of  Troy  ; 
and  this  I  can  prove,  by  the  one  having  maintained  the  same  diings  of  Asgard  as  the 
other  does  of  Troy.  My  opinion  therefore  is,  that  Troy  and  Asgard  must  necessarily  sig- 
nify  one  and  the  same  niace,  unless  we  admit  that  Sturleson  has  contradicted  himself.  It 
maybe  easily  apprehended,  that  what  I  have  mentioned  by  no  means  implies  that  there  was 
a  contradiction  between  the  Edda  and  Heimskringla,  but  only  that  the  above  cited  place 
had  been  called  by  two  different  names.  Mr.  Schloczer  cannot  possibly  be  ignorant 
of  the  meaning  of  argumentationcs  ab  absurdo. 

Hitherto  I  have  mentioned  die  arguments  with  which  Mr.  Schloczcr  endeavours  to 
shew  that  Sturleson  is  not  the  author  of  the  Edda ;  but  now,  to  prove  the  contrary  on 
my  side,  I  will  content  myself  with  one  single  argument,  whijh  is  of  su«ch  a  nature  as  to 
make  all  other  unnecessary.  In  the  superscription  subjoined  to  our  Codex,  the  copier 
roundly  affirms  Sturleson  to  be  the  author  of  this  work  ;  and  his  testimony  is  so  much 
the  more  undeniable,  as  the  nature  of  the  copy  itself  proves  that  it  cannot  Ixi  later  than 
the  fourteenth  century  ;  and  that  an  Icelander  had  made  it  on  the  spot,  who  certainly 
would  noi  have  thought  it  worth  his  attention  and  time  to  copy  a  work,  if  he  had  not 
known  the  author  of  it.  That  this  was  the  general  opinion  of' the  Icelanders,  I  think, 
may  b^  proved  thus ;  that  though  various  conjectures  are  generally  made  concerning 
the  author  of  an  anonymous  work,  there  are  hardly  any  except  Sturleson  mentioned  as 
the  author  of  the  Edda. 

I  cannot  on  this  occasion  pass  over  in  silence  what  I  have  read  in  p.  S2G  of  the  Da- 
nisli  Journal,  which  Mr.  Lilie  published  in  1756;  namely,  that  the  celebrated  Arnas 
Magnaus,  in  a  written  account  left  us  by  Sumundr  Trode,  was  of  the  same  opinion  as 
Mr.  Schloczer,  that  Sturleson  was  not  the  author  of  the  Edda. 

The  arguments  which  he  makes  use  of  seem  to  carry  some  weight  with  tliem ;  that 
in  the  last  part  of  the  Edda,  called  Liodsgreinir  or  Skal'da,  Sturleson  is  not  only  quoted, 
but  also  recommended  as  a  pattern  to  the  poets ;  and  that  in  this  part  mention  is  like- 
wise made  of  the  kings  Hakan  Hakanson,  Magnus,  Erich,  and  Hakan  Magnusson,  who 
all  lived  later  thaii  Snorre.  This  argument  at  first  sight  seems  to  be  decisive,  but  loses 
its  whole  force  upon  a  nearer  examination.     The  true  state  of  the  matter  is  this  : 

In  the  beginning  of  Liodsgreinir  the  author  of  the  Edda  says,  that  he  has  three  differ- 
ent heads  to  treat  upon;  viz.  the  rules  of  poetry,  its  licences  (licentia  poetica)  and  its 
faults  (vitia  carminuin)  scttning,  leife,  and  syrerbodning.  The  two  first  of  these  subjects 
are  perfectly  dbcussed  in  the  Liodsgreinir,  but  the  last  is  wanting.    A  later  writer  has 


712 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICFXAVU. 


attempted  to  make  up  this  deficiency,  and  hiis  therefore  made  a  supplement  to  Sturle- 
son's  Kdda.  It  is  not  in  the  least  extraordinary  that  he  should  have  mentioned  Sturle> 
son,  and  given  him  his  merited  share  of  praise  :  but  that  this  supplement  does  not  belong 
to  the  genuine  Edda,  is  proved  by  the  Upsala  manuscript,  where  it  is  entirely  wanting. 

In  this  manner  it  may  be  explained  what  is  said  of  the  late  kings :  they  are  never 
mentioned  in  the  Edda ;  and  I  am  much  mistaken  if  Arnaus  Magnaus  has  not  taken 
them  from  the  Sktildetal,  or  list  of  poets,  where  they  are  all  taken  notice  of.  This 
Skaldetal  was  no  more  than  a  supplement  to  the  Edda,  as  I  shall  make  apjiear  presently. 
If  therefore  the  learned  Magnaus  had  ever  seen  our  codex,  he  certainly  would  not  have 
entertained  this  opinion. 

In  regard  to  these  appendixes,  I  am  perfectly  convinced  thatthe  catalogue  of  Lagmen 
and  the  Langfedgetal,  or  genealogy,  are  the  works  of  Sturleson  himself.  The  subject 
contained  in  them  refers  entirely  to  Snorre,  who  was  lx)th  lagman  and  a  descendant  of 
?.hf  Sturlunga  family.  The  Aettartal,  or  genealogical  table,  which  from  the  beginning 
descends  in  a  strait  line  from  the  fathers'  and  mothers'  side  to  the  sons,  at  Sturle  extends 
to  all  the  ( hildren,  and  daughters'  children  ;  yet  in  some  instances  even  there  not  to  all 
ihese,  but  most  probably  to  those  only  who  were  alive  when  this  genealogical  table  was 
composed.  The  same  is  to  be  observed  in  the  catalogue  of  the  Lagmen,  where  it  is  very 
accurately  mentioned  how  long  e  'ery  one  of  them  possessed  their  place  :  but  at  the  fa- 
mily of  Snorre  the  catalogue  stops,  without  observing  how  long  they  maintained  this 
charge  the  last  time.  It  is  therefore  impossible  that  this  genealogy  should  have  been 
composed  before  Snorre'stime  ;  nor  is  it  less  improbable  that  any  one  should  have  omit- 
ted, in  later  times,  to  add  the  sixteen  years  during  which  Snorre  was  lagman  the  last  time; 
or  that  he  should  have  forgot  to  mention  this  circumstance  of  him  in  the  whole  list  of 
lagmen,  who  was  the  most  considerable  of  them  all. 

I  will  in  this  place  add,  that  it  was  very  common,  not  only  in  the  north,  but  even  in 
other  parts,  to  subjoin  such  lists,  genealogical  tables,  and  the  like,  to  larger  works,  in 
order  to  rescue  them  from  oblivion,  and  prevent  their  being  totally  lost  to  posterity.  In 
the  same  manner  the  copier  of  our  West  Gothic  law  had  added  to  it  a  Konunga  Langd, 
or  list  of  kings,  as  likewise  a  list  of  the  bishops  of  Skara  and  Lan'gmanner  in  West 
Gothland.  Are  Frode  has  in  like  manner  afKxed  his  genealogy  to  his  Schedis,  or 
Islandiga  bok,  and  several  others. 

It  is  more  difficult  to  determine  something  conclusive  concerning  the  third  appendix, 
or  Skaldetal.  I  have  always  been  of  opinion,  that  it  was  begun  by  Snorre,  as  it  com- 
monly follows  the  Edda,  and  that  it  was  afterwards  augmented  by  one  or  more  persons  : 
Vormius  did  the  same  by  a  poem  written  by  Saxo  Hiasrne,  who  obtained  by  that  com- 
position the  regal  dignity  in  Denmark,  though  as  a  Dane  he  was  not  properly  intitled  to 
be  placed  in  the  list  of  Icelandic  poets. 

That  this  catalogue  was  the  work  of  several  hands  may,  in  my  opinion,  be  perceived 
by  more  than  one  indication :  immediately  in  the  beginning  it  is  said,  that  Starkotter 
was  the  iRrst  of  the  skalds,  whose  verses  the  people  had  learned  by  heart ;  and  in  the 
end  a  certain  Ulfver  hin  Oarge  is  cited  as  the  first,  who,  according  to  Mr.  Schoning, 
lived  in  the  second  century,  and  consequently  must  have  been  several  centuries  older 
than  the  above-mentioned  Starkotter.  These  two  accounts  can  hardly  be  supposed  to 
proceed  from  one  and  the  same  author. 

It  is  besides  incontrovertible,  that  what  is  said  of  the  last  Norwegian  kings  corresponds 
not  with  the  time  of  Snorre.  It  would  be  of  essential  service  if  a  man  of  Mr.  Suhm's 
merit  and  abilities  would  critically  examine  this  Skaldatal,  and  compare  it  with  Vormi- 
us's  list  of  poets,  which  diflfers  so  widely  from  it  in  several  points. 


VONTnOIL'3  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


71; 


This  at  least  may  be  perceived  by  every  one,  that  the  skalds  therein  mentioned  have 
not  all  lived  in  the  thirteenth  century  ;  but  that  a  great  part  of  them  existed  in  the  tenth, 
eleventh,  and  twelfth  centuries.  1  he  two  hundred  and  thirty  skalds,  who,  according 
to  Mr.  Schloczer's  reckoning,  lived  in  the  thirteenth  century,  may  be  considerably  re- 
duced  in  number,  by  one  and  the  same  skald  being  mentioned  in  three  or  four  different 
places,  as  if  he  had  been  in  the  service  of  as  many  masters.  It  is  very  rein'irkable  that 
some  of  these  skalds,  as  Oltar  Svartc,  Sigvatur  Thordarson,  and  others,  have  been  re- 
ceived as  poets  laureat  in  all  the  three  northern  courts. 

Nor  is  U  less  remarkable,  that  some  of  these  Icelandic  skalds  were  taken  into  pay  at 
the'English  court,  by  kings  Athelstan  and  Etheldred :  this  would  require  an  examination, 
to  discover  hov*-  their  Skaldskaparmal,  or  poetical  language,  could  be  understood  in  u 
foreign  country,  as  both  languaTcs,  without  these  poetical  figures,  differ  so  widely  from 
each  other,  as  is  evident  from  the  remains  of  both. 

It  is  lastly  asked,  if  there  are  any  internal  or  external  marks,  from  which  it  might  he. 
guessed  that  the  three  parts  of  the  Edda  mentioned  by  me  belong  together,  and  form 
one  work  ?  But  this  question  is  answered  by  the  title  quoted  above,  wherein  all  the 
parts  are  clearly  enumerated. 

In  regard  to  the  third  part,  called  Liodsgreinir,  Mr.  Schloczer  desires  to  know  how 
this  title  suits  to  an  ars  poetica  ? 

I  have  already  in  some  measure  answered  this  question  in  my  letter  to  Mr.  Lagerbring, 
by  citing  the  strange  titles  the  ancients  sometimes  prefixed  to  their  books.  However, 
that  a  clearer  idea  may  be  formed  of  what  relates  to  this  appellation,  it  should  be  observ- 
ed, that  Sturleson  immediately  in  the  beginning  divides  all  sounds  ortones  into  three  kinds* 
The  first  he  calls  vittlaus  hliod,  or  the  sound  of  inanimate  things,  as  of  thunder,  waves, 
wind,  and  the  like  ;  to  the  second  he  reckons  the  sounds  of  irrational  animals ;  and  to 
the  last,  the  articular  sounds  of  men,  which  are  produced  by  means  of  the  tongue,  the 
palate,  &c.  He  then  speaks  of  the  sound  of  the  letters,  how  some  are  long,  others  short ; 
some  consonants,  and  others  vowels  and  dipthongs :  he  then  proceeds  to  the  rules  of 
prosody,  and  whatever  else  belongs  to  the  IcelanSc  skaldskap,  or  poetry. 

From  hence  it  may  be  seen  what  has  g^ven  rise  to  this  appellation ;  Liodsgreinir  lite* 
rally  signifying  no  more  than  distinction  of  sounds.  Sturleson  has  given  as  strange 
a  title  to  this  northern  history,  which  he  cal'.s  heimskringla ;  and  this  from  no  other 
reason,  but  because  it  was  the  first  word  with  which  the  book  began. 


LETTER  XXIV....FROM  CHEVALIER  BACH  TO  DR.  TROIL. 
OF  THE  ICELANDIC  SCURVY. 

Sir,  Stockholm,  June  12,  1776. 

The  accounts  with  which  you  have  favoured  us  of  the  diseases  which  mobUy  abound 
in  Iceland  must  be  of  universal  service  to  the  Swedes.  When  I  had  the  pleasure  and 
happiness  of  conversing  with  you  on  this  subject,  my  attention  was  peculiarly  raised 
by  the  information  you  gave  me  of  the  Icelandic  scurvy,  and  of  its  dreadful  consequen- 
ces on  those  persons  who  were  affected  with  it. 

What  Mr.  Peterson  calls  the  Icelandic  scurvy  is  the  true  elephantiasis,  which  is  nearly 
related  to  the  leprosy.  Celsus  has  described  it  in  the  days  of  Augustus  under  the  name 
of  elephantiasis :  and  yet  Aretaeus  has  treated  more  fully  upon  it,  in  sect.  5,  under  the 
same  name.    It  is  more  terrible  than  any  other  disease,  producing  frequently  a  dread- 

VOL.  I.  4  V 


u 


ri4 


VON  TUOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


fill  end :  it  gives  a  disgusting  appearance  to  the  patient,  as  the  body,  by  its  colour,  rough, 
ness,  and  scaly  appearance,  resembles  the  skin  of  an  elephant.  VVhoever  compares  your 
description  and  Mr.  Petersen's  of  this  disease  with  that  of  the  ancients,  will  not  find  it 
an  easy  matter  to  take  the  Icelandic  scurvy  for  any  thing  else  but  the  elephantiasis. 
In  my  opinion,  both  Ettmuller  and  Boerhaave,  and  his  famous  commentator  baron  Van 
Swictcn,  would  have  done  better  not  to  call  the  elephantiasis  the  highest  degree  of  the 
scurvy ;  or  if  they  had  not  confounded  these  two  diseases,  so  different  in  their  begin- 
niiip^,  progress,  nature,  and  remedies. 

Those  among  us,  who  have  ^vritten  of  the  theory  of  diseases,  have  with  more  pro- 
priety given  the  name  of  scurvy  where  a  gradual  increasing  languor  takes  place,  toge- 
ther with  a  bleeding,  stinking  and  putrid  breath,  and  many  coloured  blackish  blue  spots 
on  the  body,  [jarticularly  round  the  roots  of  the  hair,  and  whfch  principally  proceed 
from  corrupted  salt  animal  food,  and  the  want  of  vegetables.  The  elephantiasis,  on  the 
other  hand,  which  is  also  called  Lepra  Arabum,  is  rather  an  hereditary  disease  ;  the  skin 
Ixcomes  thick,  unequal,  glossy,  and  loses  its  smoothness ;  the  hair  falls  off,  languor  and 
want  of  feeling  take  place  in  the  extremities ;  the  fiice  becomes  disgusting  and  ftiU  of 
biles,  and  the  patient  gets  a  hoarse  nasal  voice.  In  the  real  leprosy  (impetigo,  lepra 
Graicorum)  the  skin  becomes  wrinkled  and  full  of  scales,  which  seem  to  be  strewed 
>\ith  bran,  often  burst,  itch  exceedingly,  and  are  filled  with  a  watery  moisture. 

Mr.  Sauvagc  mentions  several  sorts  of  elephantiasis ;  but  k  is  a  question  whether 
they  all  differ  or  not,  as  he  might  have  multiplied  theiv  number.  I  believe  that  the 
elephantiasis  mentioned  by  Clcger  in  his  Eph.  Nat.  Curios,  and  Sauvage's  Javanese 
elephantiasis,  are  very  like  the  Icelandic.  At  least,  it  is  certain  that  the  elephantiasis  in 
INIadeira,  which  Dr.  Thomas  Heberden  describes  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Medical 
'I'ransactions,  almost  one  hundred  years  after  Cleger,  is  entirely  the  same. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  this  disease  has  preserved  its  nature  so  perfectly  in  the  most 
northern  parts  during  more  than  a  hundred  years,  and  remained  entirely  similar  to  that 
in  the  hottest  climates.  It  appears  the  same  disease,  at  Martigues  in  Provence,  has  been 
described  by  Dr.  Johannes  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Medical  Observations  and  Inqui- 
ries ;  and  that  it  has  been  in  the  Ferro  Islands  may  be  seen  in  the  first  volume  of  Bar- 
tholin's Actis  Hafn. 

The  disease  observed  in  Norway,  which  Mr.  Anthony  Rob.  Martin  describes  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Swedish  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year 
1760,  may  likewise  be  reckoned  amongst  this  class ;  as  also  that  which  appeared  in 
several  parts  of  Sweden,  and  of  which  Mr.  Assessor  Odhelius  gives  an  account  in  the 
third  part  of  these  TransactionsTor  the  year  1774 ;  all  these  may  very  properly  be  com- 
pared to  Mr.  Sauvage's  Elephantiasis  Legitima. 

It  was  believed  in  the  most  early  times  that  this  disease  had  taken  its  rise  in  Egypt : 
but  Lucretius  positively  says,  that  it  was  first  discovered  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  In 
Celsus's  time  it  was  not  at  all  known  in  Italy ;  but  Pliny  relates  that  it  was  first 
brought  into  that  country  by  an  army  of  Pompey,  from  Egypt  and  Syria,  but  did  not 
remain  there  long.  In  the  twelfth  century  it  was  brought  to  Europe  the  second  4imc 
by  the  crusaders,  and  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the  publications  of  the  thirteenth, 
fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries :  it  was  not,  however,  very  violent  in  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries ;  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  it  seems  to  have  entirely  disappeared 
in  England,  France,  and  Italy,  when  all  the  lazar-houses,  which  had  been  built  on  pur- 
pose  to  receive  patients  infected  with  this  disease,  became  useless* 


IF 


rt'l 


VOK  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


715 


But  how  did  this  dreadful  disease  come  from  the  south,  where  the  diseases  con- 
nected  with  an  eruption  are  most  frequent,  so  far  to  the  north  ?  Could  it  not  also  have 
happened  by  means  of  the  crusades,  our  forefathers  in  the  north  having  had  likewise 
the  honour  to  partake  of  them  f  nay,  even  the  Icelanders  were  not  excluded  from  ti 
share.  The  oldest  Iceland  writings  give  us  examples  of  the  elephantiasis  in  Norwa)-, 
and  other  northern  countries,  as  maj  be  seen  in  the  first  volume  of  Olafsen's  Voyage 
to  Iceland,  page  172.  But  it  still  remains  a  query,  whether  it  was  the  true  scurvy  or 
not,  which  the  learned  author  found  mentioned  for  the  first  time,  under  the  ancient 
Norway  and  Icelandic  name  of  skyrbjugur,  that  appeared  in  the  Norway  fleet,  in  the 
year  1289,  during  the  war  of  king  Erick  with  Denmark.  For,  according  to  Mr.  Pe- 
tersen's testimony,  the  word  skyrbjugur  is  to  this  day  frequently  made  use  of  to  ex- 
press the  elephantiasis ;  though  I  must  confess  that  the  scurvy  seems  to  be  a  common 
disease  among  the  fleets  in  those  days,  as  well  as  in  ours.  However,  it  would  be  use- 
ful for  the  history  of  the  diseases  common  in  the  north,  if  the  origin  of  them  could  be 
determined  from  these  old  accounts,  especially  as  these  accounts  of  the  scurvy  are  two 
hundred  years  older  than  any  we  have  yet  been  able  to  discover.  We  may  most  pro- 
bably expect  this  discovery  from,  our  neighbours  in  Denmark  and  Norway,  who  elu- 
cidate the  northern  historyfromancientaccounts  with  so  much  zeal  and  happy  success. 

Mr,  Anthony  Rob.  Martin  relates,  that  in  the  above-mentioned  place  the  number  of 
persons  in  Norway  infected  with  this  disease,  in  the  year  1759,  amounted  to  one  hun- 
dred  and  fifty,  for  whom  three  hospitals  were  erected  ;  and  Mr.  Peterson  fixes  the 
number  of  those  who  were  ill  of  it  in  Iceland,  in  the  year  1762,  at  two  hundred  and 
eighty  persons,  for  whom  four  hospitals  were  established. 

You  may  ask,  sir,  how  this  disease  came  to  be  so  firmly  rooted  in  Iceland,  as  it 
has  so  decreased  in  the  south,  that  it  has  almost  disappeared  there  ? 

I  believe  that  this  is  not  so  much  owing  to  the  climate  as  to  the  manner  of  life  and 
diet.  People,  whose  continual  occupation  is  fishing,  are  night  and  day  exposed  to  wet 
and  cold,  frequently  feed  upon  corrupted  rotten  fish,  fish  livers  and  roe,  fat  and  train 
of  whales,  and  sea-dogs  ;  as  likewise  congealed  and  stale  sour  milk  :  they  often  wear 
wet  clothes,  and  are  commonly  exposed  to  all  the  hardships  of  poverty.  The  greater 
number  of  these  are  therefore  to  be  met  with  in  this  class :  on  the  contrary,  where 
less  fish  and  sour  whey  are  eaten,  and  more  Icelandic  moss  (lichen  Islandicus)  and 
other  vegetables,  this  disease  is  not  so  prevalent,  according  to  an  observation  made 
by  Mr.  Peterson  in  the  above-mentioned  Transactions. 

We  have  a  very  remarkable  instance  of  the  great  effects  of  diet  on  the  diseases  of 
a  nation.  In  the  inhabitants  of  the  isle  of  Ferro.  Since  fishing  has  declinedamongthem, 
and  the  inhabitants  have  cultivated  corn,  and  live  upon  other  food  instead  of  whale's 
flesh  and  bacon,  the  elephantiasis  has  entirely  ceased  among  them,  according  to  Mr. 
Petersen's  account.  Things  bore  a  very  different  aspect  there  ten  years  before  this 
alteration :  as  a  proof,  I  will  quote  Mr.  Debe's  own  words  from  the  first  volume  of  the 
Act.  Hfn.  pag.  98.  Elephantiasis  in  insulis  Ferroensibus  frequens  ex  victu  ct  acre, 
has  habet  notas  ;  facies  et  artus  hie  fere  ubique  foedantur  tumoribus  plumbei  coloris, 
qui  exuJcerantur  foedum  in  modum.  Rauci  sunt  hoc  morbo  infecti,  et  per  nares  vo- 
cem  emittentes.     Vere  et  autumno  invalescens  morbus  plurimos  enecat. 

Experience  likewise  teaches  us,  that  the  greater  number  of  persons  labouring  under 
this  disorder  in  our  country  reside  near  the  sea- shore,  in  the  districts  of  Abo  and  Oester- 
bottn,  and  in  the  isles  scattered  round  the  shore,  who  in  general  get  their  livclihocd 
by  fishing  and  catching  sea-dogs :  from  what  has  been  said  before  it  may  be  learnt, 

4  Y  2 


716 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTEnS  ON  ICELAND. 


what  is  proper  to  be  done  gradually  to  remove  this  destructive  disease.  But  I  will  re« 
serve  for  i  nothcr  occasion  whatever  relates  to  this  disease  in  Sweden. 

About  a  hundred  years  ago  plagues  and  pestilential  fevers  raged  in  Europe,  «s  may  be 
seen  in  the  accounts  of  several  physicians  of  the  epidemical  fevers  which  prevail  ed  at  cer- 
tain times.  But  at  present,  when  a  better  police  has  procured  us  more  cleanliness  in 
the  streets  and  narrow  lanes  ;  and  more  neatness  is  observed  in  our  apparel  and  habita- 
tions ;  as  also  since  beer  prepared  with  hops,  wines,  and  other  liquors,  are  drank,  which 
arc  very  salutarj',  though  they  produce  other  diseases  when  made  use  of  in  excess ; 
since  fruits  and  vegetables,  tea  and  sugi\r,  are  become  fashionable;  these  and  similar 
disorders  are  greatly  diminished.  Sir  John  Pringle  proves  the  truth  of  these  remarks, 
accompanied  with  several  excunples,  particularly  with  respect  to  the  diseases  of  England, 
in  his  Observations  of  the  Diseases  of  an  Army. 

It  is  very  probable  that  the  elephantiasis,  and  many  other  great  disorders  in  the  skin, 
quitted  the  southern  countries  from  similar  causes  ;  and  have  on  the  contrary  maintained 
themselves  towards  the  north,  where  a  sufficient  quantity  of  bread  cannot  be  provided  for 
the  natives,  and  wlvre  the  lower  sort  of  people,  who  live  entirely  by  fishings  do  not  eat 
any  vegetable  food,  but  only  feed  upon  rancid  oily  victuals ;  and  are  besides  unable  to 
keep  themselves  clean  and  neat,  being  continuiJly  exposed  to  wet  and  cold  on  the  sea- 
shore,  &c. 

I  should  repeat  the  observations  which  have  been  made  Upun  this  disease  in  Iceland, 
as  they  might  perhaps  serve  to  make  our  countrymen  better  acquainted  with  the  disorder 
itself,  and  the  manner  of  curing  it.  But  you,  Sir,  might  perhaps  tell  me,  that  this  is  a 
more  projier  subject  for  a  physical  book  than  for  letters  concerning  Iceland ;  for  which 
reason  I  will  be  as  concise  as  possible. 

Mr.  Anthony  Rob.  Martin  has  given  so  exact  an  account  of  this  disease,  that  I  need 
not  here  enumerate  its  symptoms.  Whoever  compares  it  with  Mr.  Petersen's  little  dis- 
spnation  will  become  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  elephantiasis,  its  beginning,  progress, 
and  greatest  height ;  and  will  readily  allow,  that  the  Icelandic  name  of  liktraa  is  given  it 
with  great  propriety,  which  signifies,  that  those  who  are  infected  with  this  disease,  in  its 
highest  degree,  resemble  a  putrefying  corpse  more  than  a  living  man. 

The  elephantiasis  is  either  inherited  from  the  father  or  mother,  who  are  afflicted  with 
it,  or  it  is  not  inherited.  In  the  first  case,  the  disease  frequently  appears  before  the  child 
is  two  years  old,  and  always  before  the  age  of  twenty-five,  so  that  such  persons  seldom 
live  to  see  thirty  years.  The  sooner  the  disease  makes  its  appearance,  the  sooner  the 
patient  becomes  a  prey  to  death.  But  those  who  have  not  inherited  the  elephantiasis, 
but  have  brought  it  upon  themselves  by  their  mode  of  living,  and  other  causes,  may  drag 
on  a  wretched  existence  during  twelve  or  fourteen  years,  and  sometimes  longer.  The 
elephantiasis  is  of  the  same  nature  in  the  South. 

Before  this  disease  breaks  out  on  any  person,  his  breath  is  disagreeable  and  stinking 
for  three,  and  sometimes  six  years  preceding ;  he  has  a  great  appetite  to  eat  sour,  half- 
rotten,  and  unwholesome  food ;  is  always  thirsty,  and  drinks  very  much:  some  are  sloth- 
ful and  sleepy,  and  when  asleep  are  with  difficulty  awakened ;  are  short-breathed  when 
the  complaint  ascends  upwards ;  they  spit  very  much,  and  complain  of  weariness  in 
their  knees  They  shiver  violently  when  they  come  out  of  a  cold  room  into  the  open 
air ;  the  eyes  and  lips  become  of  a  brown  and  blue  colour :  they  have  a  weak  smell : 
with  some  the  feeling  is  likewise  numbed ;  others  have  weak  sight ;  and  some  lose  it 
entirely,  when  their  foreheads  begin  to  swell  in  the  beginning  of  the  disease.  They  have 
firequently  thin  hair,  particularly  on  the  eye-brows ;  the  beard  likewise  grows  very  thin 


VON  TROn.'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


717 


on  b  .th  sides  of  the  chin,  and  the  skin  becomes  glossy,  as  if  it  had  been  rubbed  over 
with  grease. 

This  disease  is  not  found  to  be  particularly  infectious  in  Iceland  ;  as  a  husband  af- 
flicted with  it  does  not  infect  his  wife,  nor  a  diseased  wife  her  husband.  The  children 
may  likewise  be  brought  up  without  danger  in  the  house  of  their  diseased  parents.  But 
it  has  been  found  by  experience,  that  when  one  of  the  parents  is  inf<?cted  with  it,  some 
one  or  other  of  the  children  alwaj's  catch  it.  It  is  the  same  thing  'in  Madeira,  as  Dr. 
Heberden  observes.  Dr.  Johannes  informs  us  that  at  Martigues  in  Provence,  when 
one  of  the  parents  has  the  disease,  one  of  the  children  or  grand-children,  or  a  descend- 
ant in  the  third  degree,  is  certainly  infected  with  it ;  but  in  the  fourth  degree  it  again 
disappears,  and  only  shews  itself  in  a  bad  breath,  hollow  teeth,  swelled  throat,  and  a 
darker  colour  than  usual. 

The  more  ancient  writers  who  have  treated  of  this  disease  frequently  relate,  that 
people  were  even  afraid  of  being  infected  by  conversing  with  those  who  were  troubled 
with  it.  The  disease  must  therefore  either  have  been  more  violent  in  the  beginning,  and 
in  the  southern  countries,  as  the  venereal  diseases  were  formerly  in  the  beginning  of  the 
infection ;  or  the  disease  having  but  lately  made  its  appearance  caused  more  appre- 
hensions. It  is,  however,  always  adviseable  to  be  cautious  in  conversing  with  sucli  pa- 
tients, and  neither  to  wear  their  shoes  or  clothes,  when  they  have  been  rendered  wet 
with  sweating.  When  the  disease  is  arrived  at  so  high  a  pitch,  that  the  matter  which 
flows  from  the  skin  is  corrosive,  and  eats  into  the  flesh,  it  can  no  longer  be  denied  but 
that  it  then  becomes  infectious,  and  even  dangerous  to  converse  too  near  with  the 
patient. 

As  the  elephantiasis,  when  it  has  attained  its  greatest  height,  is  incurable,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  ancient  and  modem  physicians,  it  is  so  much  the  more  necessary  '^^ 
notice  the  beginning  of  the  disease,  and  the  time  preceding  it,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
danger. 

A  patient  who  finds  himself  in  these  circumstances,  or  lives  in  a  place  where  the 
disease  is  rife,  or  has  any  other  cause  to  believe  that  he  has  the  least  vestige  of  it  existing 
in  his  body,  either  by  inheritance,  or  through  his  own  fault,  should,  both  in  his  diet  and 
in  hb  whole  manner  of  life,  avoid  whatever  is  likely  to  contribute  to  it,  or  render  his 
body  more  liable  to  receive  the  infection,  with  the  utmost  caution.  He  must  keep  him- 
self extremely  clean ;  immediately  put  on  dry  clothes,  whenever  those  on  his  back  be- 
come wet;  eat  no  other  food  but  what  is  easily  digested,  and  abstain  from  all  oily  ran- 
cid whale's  flesh  and  the  like.  He  must  eat  no  half- rotten  fish ;  nor  theu:  intestines  and 
livers,  especially  if  they  are  in  a  putrid  state :  on  the  contrary,  he  must  confine  himself 
to  bread,  roots,  green  herbs,  cabbages,  turnips,  and  salad  of  gentiana,  campestris,  sorrel 
(rumex  acetosa,  L.)  rumex  crispus,  &c.  &c.  He  must  eat  soups,  boiled  fresh  meat, 
with  scurvy-grass,  sedum  acre,  and  the  like.  He  must  make  use  of  baths  of  the  de« 
coction  of  juniper,  dry  baths  of  juniper,  &c.  &c.  In  the  same  manner  antimonial  re- 
medies  would  be  very  useful ;  and  even  Swieten's  mineral  mixtures,  pills  of  an  extract 
of  hemlock  (pilulae  jJterantes  P''"niris)  and  ledum  palustre.  I  have  likewise  observed 
wth  pleasure,  that  a  girl  in  the  parish  of  Wester  Hannings  was  cured  of  a  commencing 
elephantiasis  in  the  year  1774,  by  making  use,  during  a  long  time,  of  Huxham*s  anti- 
monial essence,  with  a  decoction  of  antiscorbutic  herbs. 

But  every  one  will  easily  apprehend,  that  poor  wretched  people,  who  are  naturally 
most  exposed  to  these  and  the  like  diseases,  are  likewise  entirely  incapable  ol  averting 
them  by  observing  a  proper  diet  and  manner  of  Ufe,  which  are,  however,  almost  the 
only  remedies.    Besides,  these  kind  of  people  are  generally  careless  of  any  illness  so 


(fi* 


T18 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


long  as  they  are  able  to  stir ;  they  likewise  seldom  consult  a  physician,  and  when  they 
do,  it  is  out  of  their  power  to  follow  his  prescriptions  exactly.  Some  persons  attacked 
with  it  have,  however,  been  freed  of  it,  after  having  had  the  small-pox.  It  might,  there- 
fore, be  conjectured,  that  patients  afflicted  with  the  elephantiasis,  if  they  had  not  had  the 
small-pox,  would  be  benefitted  by  inoculation. 

Some  who  have  had  this  dreadful  disease  have  gone  from  Iceland  to  Copenhagen, 
where  they  have  happily  experienced  a  cure.  I  will  likewise  mention,  in  justice  to  Dr. 
Thomas  Heberden,  that  he  is  the  only  physician  known  to  have  cured  the  elephantiasis, 
after  it  had  attained  a  very  high  degree.  His  manner  of  cure  is  this :  he  first  mixes  an 
ounce  and  a  half  of  powder  of  bark  with  half  an  ounce  of  sassafras  root,  and  then  adds 
as  much  simple  syrup  as  is  necessary  to  make  the  whole  into  an  electuary  ;  of  which  he 
gives  the  patient  two  f>ortions  a  day,  of  the  size  of  a  nutmeg :  he  causes  the  hands  and 
feet  to  be  rubbed  morning  and  evening  with  a  mixture,  consisting  of  eight  ounces  of 
braiul}',  an  ounce  of  lee  of  tartar,  and  two  ounces  of  spirit  of  sal  armoniock.  He  lastly 
causes  blisters  to  be  constantly  laid  between  the  shoulders.  Thb  method  regularly  pur- 
sued succeeded  in  the  course  of  five  months,  after  he  had  before  made  use  of  antimony, 
mercury,  and  the  like,  during  the  full  period  of  seven  years,  without  any  lasting  amend* 
ment.     But  I  have  already  said  too  much  of  this  loathsome  disease. 

Sed  quaenam  medela  excogitari  peterit,  quae  elephantem  tam  ingens  malum  expugnarc 
digna  sit  ?    Aretaeus. 

LETTER  XXV....FROM  PROFESSOR  BERGMAN  TO  DR.  TROIL. 

OF  THE  EFFECTS  OF  FIRE.  BOTH  AT  THE  VOLCANOES  AND  THB  HOT  SPRINGS ;  AND  ALSO 

OF  THE  BASALTS. 

Sir,  Stockholm,  June  12,  1776. 

You  have  been  so  kind  as  to  communicate  to  me  your  observations  on  Staffa  and  Ice« 
land,  and  to  desire  my  opinion  of  their  natural  curiosities.  It  would  be  very  ungrate- 
ful, if  I  hesitated  to  comply  with  this  request,  as  you  presented  me  with  the  entire  coU 
lections  you  made  there,  that  T  might  chemically  examine  the  nature  of  each.  Mere  ob- 
servations, without  the  assistance  of  an  exact  knowledge  of  the  substances,  in  respect  to 
their  original  matter  and  composition,  instead  of  affording  any  sufficient  lights  whereby  to 
enable  us  to  determine  with  certainty  of  them,  would  only  lead  us  to  draw  very  erroneous 
conclusions.  Though  the  form,  grain,  colour,  hardness,  position,  and  external  appear- 
ances, may  asssit  us  in  our  conjectures  of  the  true  nature  of  minerals,  and  sometimes  of 
the  manner  in  which  they  are  produced,  yet  we  must  nevertheless  remain  in  uncertainty, 
till  proi)er  experiments  guide  us  to  a  more  clear  decision. 

Forgive  me  for  mentioning  the  conclusions,  which,  in  my  ojunion,  might  be  drawn 
from  your  observations  regarding  the  intenial  nature  of  these  substances,  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  discover  them  from  actual  experiments.  But  you  mustb}'  no  means 
expect  a  solution  of  all  the  difficulties  that  arise  on  this  intricate  business.  I  will  cau- 
tiously endeavour  to  separate  what  is  certain  from  what  has  been  hitherto  considered 
precarious  and  doubtful ;  a  due  regard  to  truth  will  always  prevent  me  from  offering 
mere  conjectures,  or  even  credible  opinions,  with  a  peremptory  decision,  as  incontro- 
vertible arguments.  Experience  has  taught  us  tliat  we  ought  to  judge  of  the  works  of 
nature  with  the  utmost  diffidence ;  and  we  do  not  want  examples,  even  from  the  remotest 
times,  of  persons  who  have  pretended  to  explEun,  with  the  most  positive  certainty,  not 
only  how  our  earth,  but  even  how  the  whole  world,  received  its  present  form,. and  even  its 
very  origin.     To  determine  the  contrivance  of  so  vast  a  machine  over  a  writing-desk  is 


W 


.a 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  OM  ICELAND. 


71f 


indeed  one  of  the  most  daring  enterprizes,  which  the  proud  reason  of  man  ever  proposed 
to  itself;  and,  more  than  any  other  attempt,  shews  his  weakness  and  arrogance.  All 
these  imaginary  systems  have  been  bv  little  and  little  overturned,  though  the  greatest 
pains  were  exerted  to  compare  them  with  nature,  and  examine  their  existence.  Their 
arguments  were  then  discovered  to  be  founded  on  a  few  insufficient  observations,  or, 
what  is  still  worse,  on  uncertain,  and  sometimes  evidently  false,  principles. 

You,  sir,  will  therefore  readily  excuse  my  timidity;  for,  instead  of  endeavouring  to 
discover  all  at  once,  as  it  were  a  priori,  though  without  any  certainty,  the  manner  in 
which  nature  works,  and  forms  things  in  secret,  I  prefer  the  more  laborious  method  of 
discovering  it  gradually  with  certainty,  by  experiments  founded  on  due  observations  ; 
and  shall  not  hesitate  to  confess  my  ignorance,  wherever  these  guides  in  the  study  of  na- 
ture cease  their  instructions.  I  do  not,  however,  reject  all  conjectures  and  proposed 
opinions,  whenever  they  lead  to  new  researches,  provided  they  arc  offered  as  mere  con- 
jectures, and  not  obtruded  on  us  as  certain  truths,  or  determined  opinions. 

From  what  I  have  hitherto  said,  you  will,  I  believe,  conceive  my  method ;  therefore 
I  shall  enter  upon  the  subject,  and  briefly  treat  of  it  under  separate  heads,  in  the  follow- 
ing manner. 

OF  THE  HOT  SPRINGS. 

Your  description  of  the  Icelandic  springs,  the  most  extraordinary  which  have  hitherto 
been  discovered  in  the  known  world,  was  extremely  agreeable  to  me,  partly  on  account 
of  the  surprizing  force  of  them,  and  partly  on  account  of  the  great  light  obtained  in  mi- 
neralogy b)  the  crustated  stones  formed  in  them.  How  these  springs  may  be  accounted 
for,  I  hope  I  have  sufficiently  explained  in  another  place  ;  *  I  shall,  therefore,  entirely 
pass  it  over  here.  But  now  I  will  communicate  to  you  what  I  could  not  then  understand, 
namely,  the  true  nature  of  these  depositions. 

You  have  presented  me  with  the  following  substances  from  the  Geyser : 

1.  The  substance,  of  which  the  water  has  prepared  itself  a  bason  to  run  from.  It  con- 
sists of  a  hard,  rough,  grayish,  and  irre^lar  slaty,  and  generally  marti|>l  crustated  stone, 
over  which  a  covering  of  small  crystallizations  has  formed  itself,  that  resembles  the  lich- 
en fruticulosus,  or  rather  the  Stahlsteindruse  found  in  the  Westersilverberg,  that  is  call- 
ed the  fios  ferri,  or  Eisen  bluthe.    These  precipitations  are  opaque,  without  of  a  whitish 

fay,  blacker  within,  and  plainly  shew  the  formation  of  several  crusts  on  pne  another, 
ach  of  these  flos  ferri,  as  well  as  the  crustated  stone,  has  the  hardness  of  a  flint;  how- 
ever, they  are  not  so  compact  or  strong  as  to  strike  fire  with  the  steel.^ 

TTie  strongest  acids,  the  fluor  acid  not  excepted,  are  not  sufficient  with  a  boiling  heat 
to  dissolve  this  substance.  It  dissolves  very  litde,  if  at  all,  by  the  blow-pipe  with  the  fu- 
sible alkali,  ai  little  more  with  borax,  and  makes  a  strong  effervescence  with  sal  sodas. 
These  effects  are  peculiar  only  to  a  siliceous  earth,  and  therefore  there  remains  ..o  doubt 
concerning  the  real  nature  of  this  crustated  stone.  Nevertheless,  I  have  melted  it  in  the 
crucible ;  first,  by  weight,  with  half  as  much  alkaline  salt,  and  likewise  with  three  times 
as  much ;  and  have  obtained  in  the  first  case  a  fixed  glass,  and  in  the  second  one,  which 
in  dissolving  yielded  a  common  liquor,  silicum.  The  glass  of  the  crustated  stone  is  of 
a  more  yellowish  brown  than  that  of  the  crystallizations ;  and  this  difference  is  caused  by 
the  greater  quantity  of  irony  particles. 

2.  The  porous  crustated  stone  or  sinter,  which  is  found  in  the  moor  surrounding  the 
border  of  the  bason,  is  light,  whitish,  and  here  and  there  spotted  with  a  rust  colour :  it 

*  iDmyFkysikabeskrisningom  JordklotetjUlt.  edit. 


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VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


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is  evidently  an  incrustation  upon  moss  and  similar  substances,  which  have  been  decayed 
by  length  of  time,  and  lefl  those  cavities.  In  regard  to  its  composition,  it  is  of  a  siliceous 
nature  as  the  preceding,  and  also  perfectly  similar  in  respect  to  lire  and  dissolvents. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  solution  of  the  flint  h\  sal  sodae  with  the  Llow-pipc  ;  and 
ns  I  shiill  hereaHer  have  frequent  occasion  to  refer  to  it,  I  will  in  this  place  relate  the 
whole  process.  The  late  director  of  the  mines  (Ixrgmastare)  Mr.  CronsteUtj  makes 
mention  of  this  salt  in  his  Mineralogy,  but  it  is  very  seldom ;  and  he  considers  it  as  less 
properf  or  using  with  the  blow-pipe,  because  it  is  too  ;ioon  imbibed  by  the  coals.  It  cer- 
tainly does  not  aflbrd  a  very  good  solution  upon  coals,  and  I  therefore  made  use  of  a  siN 
ver  spoon,  made  on  purpose  ;  by  which  method  I  hav?  been  able  to  make  good  use  of 
the  sal  sodae,  which,  in  nis  examinations  of  the  diflfereiyt  kinds  of  earth  in  this  manner,  is 
very  serviceiible,  and  even  indispensably  necessary,  ai  I  shall  hereafter  prove  more  at 
large,  in  a  little  dissertation  on  the  blow-pipe,  and  its  proper  use. 

I  have  frequently  inserted  a  supposition  in  my  printed  works,  that  though  the  siliceous 
earth  cannot  be  dissolved  in  the  usual  manner  in  water,  yet  it  might  with  the  help  of  a 
great  degree  of  heat ;  and  that  this  really  happened  at  Geyser  is  evidently  proved  by  the 
above  described  crustated  stone.  The  hot  water  forms  of  i 'self  the  large  siliceous  bason 
from  which  it  issues  out  of  the  substance,  that  is  in  a  dissolved  state  at  the  first,  but 
quickly  precipitates,  on  account  of  the  heat  decreasing  in  the  open  air.  The  heat  of  the 
water  was  not  examined  with  the  thermometer  till  such  time  that  the  bason  was  filled, 
when  it  was  nevertheless  found  at  a  hundred  degrees,  according  to  the  Swedish  measure. 
It  is  in  all  probability  much  greater  under  the  earth ;  for  its  running  through  cooler 
channels,  and  its  spouting  afterwards  into  the  air  to  a  great  height,  must  necessarily  very 
much  diminish  the  heat,  on  account  of  the  great  dispersion. 

This  quick  deposition  produces  both  the  opacity  and  irregular  form  of  thb  stone,  and 
prevents  the  particles  from  being  so  closely  united,  as  might  have  been  exjjected  from 
the  degree  of  the  hardness  of  each,  supposing  the  solvent  power  had  diminished  more 
gradually. 

Mr.  Scheele  has  discovered  the  formation  of  the  flint ;  and  I  myself  have  found  out, 
within  these  two  years,  a  method  of  obtaining,  with  the  help  of  some  fluor  acid,  thirteen 
precipitated  crystals,  of  the  size  of  small  peas.  This  artificial  pebble  in  all  experiments, 
lx)th  in  the  wet  and  dry  method,  and  even  in  the  focus  of  a  burning-glass,  in  a  piece  that 
I  sent  to  Mr.  Macquer,  discovered  exactly  to  him  the  same  qualities  as  the  natural  one. 

All  these  circumstances,  therefore,  prove  that  the  pebble  is  a  saline  earth,  which  is 
composed  of  fluor  acid,  and  an  ori^nal  stibstance  existing  in  the  watry  exhaladons.  It 
is  not  quite  simple ;  but  however  I  have  not  been  able  to  consider  it  as  any  other  than 
an  elementary  earth :  indeed,  my  judgment  is,  that  it  cannot  be  compounded  from  any 
other  principle. 

I  do  not  in  this  place  mean  a  finer  or  coarser  powder,  by  the  denomination  of  earth, 
HS  is  generally  understood  under  this  appellation ;  but  I  take  the  word  in  a  chemical  sense, 
to  express  a  fixed  principle,  which  is  obtained  in  analysing  any  substance,  and  that  can- 
not be  dissolved  in  boiling  water,  after  the  nicest  mechanical  division.  It  is  well  knovm 
that  the  dissolubility  of  any  substance  may  be  lessened  by  certain  compositions ;  and  that 
a  solvent  can  better  attack  the  substance,  i*ccording  to  the  extent  of  its  surface ;  and  that, 
lastly,  water  in  an  open  vessel  will  not  admit  of  any  greater  degree  of  heat  than  one  hun- 
dred degrees,  according  to  the  Swedish  thermometer.  A  substance  may,  by  this  rule,  be 
dissoluble  by  itself,  after  having  gone  through  a  preparatory  cleansing,  or  a  chemical  se- 
paration, or  with  the  assistance  of  a  greater  degree  of  heat,  though  it  may  be  indbsolu- 
ble  without  any  preparation,  or  with  the  usual  method  of  boiling ;  and  it  is  with  a  view 
to  this  circumstance  that  I  call  the  flint  a  kind  of  salt  earth. 


,1S 

at 


VON  TROFL'S  LETTEnS  OX  ICELAWU. 


721 


I  have  likewise  examined  the  substances  you  collected  in  the  moniss  near  the  Geyser, 
and  have  found  them  to  be  the  following : 

3.  A  dark-red  hole,  which  became  darker  in  the  fire,  but  was  afterwards  a  little  at- 
tracted by  the  magnet.  It  crumbled  into  pieces  in  the  water,  and  is  fine  and  tough  t'j 
the  touch. 

4.  A  bluish-gray  clay,  which  contains  green  vitriol  of  decayed  pyritae. 

5.  A  brighter-gray  sort,  which  did  not  seem  to  contain  any  vitriol. 

6.  A  white  or  yellowish  clay,  with  rust-spots. 

All  these  sorta  become  very  hard  in  the  fire,  and  lake  a  good  deal  of  time  before 
they  liquify.  The  last,  when  it  sotkns,  is  harsh  and  more  sxmdy  to  the  touch  than  the 
preceding  sorts. 

The  different  sorts  of  stone  collected  at  Laugarnas  arc  of  another  nature  ;  nor  does  the 
water  here  spout  out  of  a  bason,  but  through  many  small  openings  in  the  earth. 

7.  A  whitish  irregular  plated  crust,  which  often  grows  on  the  outside  into  small  glo- 
bular blunt  points.  This  m  acids  gives  a  sudden  fermentation,  that  immediately  ceases, 
without  its  being  iuiy  otherwise  attacked.  It  dissolves  with  borax  by  the  blow-pipe  with 
great  difficulty,  and  without  motion,  but  with  a  loud  effervescence  with  sal  sodae.  It  is 
consequently  a  siliceous  mass,  outwardly  covered  with  lime,  and  has  fixed  itself  on  the 
following  substance. 

8.  A  solid  irregular  plated  and  broken  crust,  of  a  dark  colour,  but  in  many  places 
tinged  with  bright  blue  spots^  It  becomes  quite  smooth  in  cutting,  almost  like  stone 
marie,  but  does  not  crumble  in  water,  nor  docs  it  become  soft  in  it ;  with  acid  it  shews 
an  effervescence  which  soon  ceases :  with  the  blow-pipe  it  grows  hard,  scarcely  melts  at 
the  thinnest  edges,  and  is  attacked  with  some  motion  both  by  borax  and  fusible  urinous 
salt  and  sal  scdae,  but  is  not  entirely  dissolved  by  any  of  them. 

9.  The  subuance  found  at  the  botttom  of  the  brook,  which  carries  off  the  water  that 
gushes  cut,  is  brown,  spongy,  and  composed  of  pretty  hard  flakes  and  threads,  that  are 
covered  with  fine  glassy  crystallizations.  These  are  clear  only  in  some  few  places ;  but 
lose  their  brown  colour,  both  in  fire  and  marine  acid,  and  become  quite  clear. 

The  small  crystals  puff  up  very  much  under  the  blow-pipe,  almost  like  borax  ;  they 
float  in  bubbles  on  the  surface,  and  are  dissolved  with  great  difficulty  by  borax  ;  they 
are  attacked  by  sal  sodae  with  a  strong  ebullition ;  it  is  the  same  with  the  more  solid 
flakes,  but  they  do  not  puff  up  so  strongly  as  the  crystallization.  These  several  qualities 
here  mentioned  evidently  shew,  that  this  crustated  stone  consbts  of  zeolite. 

10.  From  Reykum  you  sent  me  calcareous  spar  in  lumps,  that  are  externally  rounded, 
as  if  they  had  been  tossed  backwards  and  forwards  by  the  water,  and  rubbed  against 
hard  bodies.  In  them  there  are  small  grayish  green  crystallizations,  that  dissolve  by  the 
blow-pipe  to  a  black  slag :  the  sal  soda;  causes  some  efiervescence  in  them,  but  does  not 
dissolve  them ;  they  are  likewise  attacked  with  some  emotion  by  fusible  urinous  salt. 

11.  A  loose,  tubulose,  whitbh  crustated  stone,  or  an  incrustation  cavernous,  and  with 
impres»ons  of  leaves,  stalks,  and  the  like.  As  to  its  nature  it  is  siliceous ;  but  seems 
at  the  same  time  to  contain  a  different  substance,  as  it  dissolves  .more  slowly  with  sal  sodae. 

The  spring  which  here  bursts  forth  in  a  very  sloping  direction  towards  the  horizon, 
acc(NPding  to  your  account,  deposits  a  kind  of  sulphureous  grease  by  its  hot  steam  on  the 
cavities  of  the  upper  side ;  but  I  have  found  no  s|)ecimen  of  Uiis  in  the  collection 
you  communicated  to  me. 

From  what  I  have  hitherto  said  we  may  gather,  that  the  Icelandic  hot  springs^contain 
very  ^fiflferent  substances  from  what  are  to  be  met  vnXh  in  other  places  of  the  same  sort, 
especially  dliceous  earth. 


VOL.    X. 


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VON  Xnon.'S  LRXTEnS  OV  tCF.l.AM). 


There  is  no  lime  at  all  near  the  Geyser ;  but  at  Laugnrnns  tlierc  arc  st)mc  faint  traces 
of  it,  partly  as  an  external  covering,  and  partly  as  constituent  parts  in  th'*  v^eolite,  of  which 
more  will  be  said  hereafter.  The  ballu  of  lime  found  at  Reykuni  arc  most  probably 
thrown  out  by  the  spring,  and  have  been  rounded  on  tlie  surface  by  the  friction. 


OF  THE  ERUPTIONS  OF  FlUli:. 


I  have  in  another*  place  treated  pretty  extensively  of  the  dreadful  devastations  caus- 
ed by  subterraneous  fires  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  both  in 
regiird  to  their  causes  and  effects ;  I  have  therefore  not  any  thing  to  add  in  this  place  but 
what  particularly  relates  to  Iceland,  and  what  may  serve  to  explain  the  eruptions  which 
have  happened  there  from  time  to  time. 

Whetlier  Iceland  is  to  be  considered  as  entirely  produced  by  volcanoes  is  a  question, 
which  most  probably  will  remain  unresolved  many  years.  It  is  tnie,  sir,  that,  according 
to  the  accounts  you  have  collected  there,  the  volcanoes  have  rar'xl  in  a  great  many  places, 
and  that  the  whole  country  is  in  a  manner  covered  with  traces  their  destructive  effects : 
we  also  learn,  from  inideniable  facts,  that  new  islands  have  been  produced  by  vol<:anoes 
in  many  places.  But  all  this  proves  not  any  thing  more  than  that  the  most  dreadful  ef. 
fecia  have  been  produced  by  fiery  eruptions  in  Iceland. 

To  determine  this  question,  it  would  be  indispensably  necessary  that  a  naturalist  should 
thoroughly  examine  all  Iceland.  If  a  granite  or  any  other  stone  or  berg-art,  was  found 
in  solid  rocks,  and  not  separate,  or  in  loose  fragments,  which  may  have  been  brought 
thither  from  distant  parts,  I  should  entirely  dissent  from  your  opinion.  But  before  these 
and  the  like  discoveries  were  made,  I  believe  no  conclusions  could  be  drawn. 

I  may  venture  to  maintain  with  more  certainty,  that  your  collection  confirms  what  I 
before  concluded  from  other  reasons,  viz.  ihat  in  all  volcanoes  pyrites  are  found,  which 
on  decomposing  produce  heat  and  fire ;  and  likewise  slate,  that,  penetrated  with  bitumen, 
serves  to  feed  the  fire. 

12.  The  slate  which  you  have  brought  from  Iceland  splits  into  thin  plates,  which  dis- 
cover many  sorts  of  Impressions,  particularly  of  leaves ;  the  colour  is  black,  and  it  Is  ex- 
actly  of  tlie  same  nature  as  the  common  aluminous  slate. 

13.  The  two  pieces  of  surturbrand,  or  fossil  wood,  which  you  brought  with  you,  bear 
evident  marks  of  a  vegetable  composition  ;  and  I  may  almost  alitirm,  with  perfect  cer- 
tainty, that  the  largest  is  a  kind  of  pinus  abies  ;  on  the  outside  are  barks  and  branches, 
and  in  the  inside  all  the  rings  of  the  sap  appear :  the  lesser  is  a  piece  of  rind  without 
wood :  both  are  black,  quite  soft,  easily  takt  fire,  and  flame  In  burning.  After  the 
flame  is  extinguished,  one  hundred  parts  afford  forty -two  parts  of  coals,  which  after  being 
only  calcined  yield  two  parts  of  yellowish- brown  earth,  that  is  attracted  by  the  magnet, 
and  partly  dissolves  with  acids :  it  makes  some  effervescence  with  borax  and  fusible 
urinous  salt ;  the  sal  sodae  also  causes  a  little  ebullition  at  flirst,  but  does  not  entirely  dis- 
solve it. 

Your  conjecture,  sir,  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the  subturbrand  is  produced, 
does  not  seem  improbable.  I  have  already  observed  a  long  time  with  surprise,  that  fish- 
es, othoceratltes,  lituites,  wood,  &c.  &c.  which  are  to  be  found  in  slate,  have  been  com- 
pressed or  flatted,  whilst  they  preserve  their  entire  form  and  roundness  In  lime. 

This  same  circumstance  may  be  observed  In  the  two  pieces  described  above,  especially 
in  the  larger,  which  is  only  an  inch  and  a  half  in  thickness,  though  it  is  nineteen  inches 

•  Verlds  beskrifn,  5  149. 


VON   (KOtL'O  I.C't TLKS  OX  ICI'.LANW  f^ 

in  length,  and  thirteen  in  hrcudrh.  The  outside  of  it  has  no  marks  of  iiny  rouiuhiesN, 
but  is  quite  flat.  An  exceeding  ^reat  weight  in  rc(|niix'd  to  press  u  stick  to  a  Rut  plate  ; 
and  I  cannot  conceive  how  the  most  unniensc  beds,  which  nui»t  nccessuriiy  have  Ikcii 
soft  when  spread  over  it,  could  eVer  produce  this  effect.  The  cause  of  this  is  yet  undis- 
covered, und  will  probably  remain  so  a  lon^  time  ;  howi  \er,  something  may  Ijc  found 
there  which  seems  to  shew,  that  the  blunnnious  slate  has  been  pnxluccd  in  the  same 
manner,  as  it  has  not  only  penetnited  the  substance  of  the  slate,  but  every  thing  else 
which  has  been  laid  upon  it,  for  il  may  yet  l)c  obtained  l)y  means  of  distillation.  UuL  by 
what  means  has  this  been  brought  thither  ?  How  could  it  be  imbitxd  by  the  rlay,  in  case 
this  was  under  water,  which  however  seems  to  be  undeniable,  from  tlic  prtxligious  num- 
ber of  marine  animals  whi(  h  are  found  buried  ?  and  how  could  the  inclosed  bodies  have 
been  pressed  down  horizontally  ?  All  these  problems  I  caniiOt  as  yet  answer  satisluctori- 
iy,  much  less  explain  with  any  degree  of  certainty. 

14.  Very  coarse,  heavy,  and  hard  lava,  full  of  bladders,  almost  black,  intermixed 
with  white  grains  rcsembhng  quur;;,  which  in  some  places  have  a  figure  not  very  unlike 
a  square. 

The  black  matter  is  not  attracted  by  the  magnet ;  but  if  a  piece  of  it  is  held  against  a 
compass,  the  needle  visibly  moves.  When  tried  in  the  crucible,  u  yields  from  ten  to 
twelve  pounds  of  iron  in  every  hundred  weight :  it  does  not  dissolve  in  the  least  with 
sal  soda»,  with  great  difHculty  with  borax,  and  hardly  visible  by  fusible  urinous  salt.  It 
seems  to  contain  a  great  deal  of  clay-earth  in  its  composition,  which  may  l)c  extracted 
by  all  solvents  of  <icids. 

It  is  well  known  that  this  earth,  when  it  isenuicly  free  from  any  other  mixture,  may, 
by  means  of  heal  and  drying,  be  brought  to  that  degree  of  hardness  as  to  give  fire  with 
a  steel,  which  proceeds  from  the  parts  being  brought  closer  together,  and  contracted  in  u 
space  only  half  as  large.  By  being  thus  contracted,  it  obtains  a  solidity  and  hardness  ; 
and,  besides,  the  surface  is  so  much  diminished,  in  pro[X}rtion  to  the  whole  mass,  that  the 
water  cannot  penetrate  any  HirthA"  to  soften  it. 

We  have  almost  daily  opportunities  in  the  study  of  chemistry  of  convincing  ourselves, 
that  a  substance  with  a  small  surface  cannot  be  changed  in  any  manner  by  liquid  solvents, 
but  may  however  be  attacked  by  them,  in  proportion  to  the  different  degrees  of  pulveriza- 
tion ;  nay,  even  a  substance,  which  cannot  be  reduced  by  the  finest  mechanical  division, 
may  frequently  be  separated,  as  much  as  is  nccessiiry,  by  a  chemical  one ;  that  is  to  say, 
by  a  preceding  solution  in  another  solvent.  The  attraction  is  here  in  proportion  to  the 
extent  of  the  surface  ;  and  the  larger  this  is,  the  stronger  will  be  the  attack  :  consequent. 
ly  I  cannot  believe  that  any  clay,  petrified  by  heat  or  slow  drying,  can  have  undergone 
any  essential  change,  but  only  that  its  parts  have  so  contracted  themselves  as  to  give  it 
the  hardness  of  a  flint,  tO  prevent  it  from  imbibing  any  visible  quantity  of  water.  But  as 
soon  as  it  has  been  dissolved  by  any  acid  whatever,  and  its  parts  have  by  this  means  been 
brought  out  of  its  former  contraction  to  the  requisite  degree  of  fineness  and  expansion, 
it  becomes  as  soil  as  before,  without  the  acid  contributing  any  more  to  it  than  has  been 
said,  as  all  kinds  of  acids  succeed  equally  well. 

I  have  a  very  good  assortment  of  the  lava  of  Solfater  a,  by  w!Mch  it  is  very  evident  that 
the  sulphureous  acid,  which  had  penetrated  the  black  lava,  deprived  it,  gradually,  partly 
ofits  combustible  quality,  and  had  also  whitened  it  (to  effect  which  other  substances, 
particularly  silk,  are  likewise  exposed  to  sulphureous  exhalations)  and  partly  had  reduced 
It  by  solution,  either  to  a  perfect  allum,  or  at  least  to  the  common  nature  of  any  loose 
clay.  1  have  likewise  produced  all  these  effects  with  aqua-fortis,  or  any  other  acid,  in  a 
lava  which  had  not  yet  suffered  any  change. 

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i34 


VON  TnoU.'S  LKTIKUS  ON  ICKLANO. 


The  white,  which  possesitcs  more*  or  Icoh  of  (husc  trunitparciu  grainn  or  rays  with  which 
the  lavu  is  i:h('f|ucrc(l,  do  not  Hccm  to  l)c  of  the  nature  of  ({uurz,  us  they  cannot  be  ut* 
tacked  I)y  sal  »o<l.c  ;  tlicy  are,  however,  witl»  some  difliciilty  dissolved  by  borux  und  fusi. 
ble  urinous  suit. 

These  effects  arc  perfectly  similar  to  thow  procJuced  upon  the  diamond,  ruby,  siiphiiv, 
tonaz,  and  hyacinth.  'I'he  chrysolite,  gurnet,  turmuline,  and  shirl,  can  neither  be  dis- 
xolved  by  sal  »o<lx,  though  they  an-  somewhat  attacked  by  it,  when  reduced  to  a  fnic 
powder;  and  upon  the  two  last  mi  ntioned  ones  it  produces  a  slight  efl'crvesccnce.  On 
this  account  it  is  possible  that  thcprtcious  stones  of  mount  Vesuvius,  which  are  sold  ut 
Naples,  arc  nearer  itlated  to  the  n.al  precious  stones  than  is  generally  imagined. 

15.  A  Hner  kind  of  lava,  quitv*  porous  within,  and  entirely  burnt  out,  and  considerably 
lighter  on  that  nccount  than  the  preceding  oik's.  I  have  not  found  any  uuch  grains  in 
it  resembling  quarz. 

16.  The  so  called  Icelandic  agate.  This  is  of  a  black  or  blackish- brown  colour,  and 
u  little  transparent  at  the  thin  edges,  like  glass,  and  gives  fire  with  the  steel. 

It  cannot  easily  be  melted  by  itself,  but  becomes  white,  and  flics  in  pieces.  It  can 
hardly  l)e  dissolved  in  the  fire  by  fusible  urinous  salt ;  but  it  succeeds  u  little  better  with 
borax,  though  with  some  difliculty  ;  with  sal  sodas  it  dissolves  very  little,  though  in  the 
first  moments  some  ebullition  is  perceivcdi  und  the  whole  muss  is  afterwards  reduced  to 
powder. 

From  hence  it  may  be  concluded,  that  the  Icelandic  agate  has  been  produced  by  an 
excessive  fire  out  of  the  lava  described  in  No.  14.  I  have  found  no  crystals  of  this  glass 
in  the  collection.  If  any  |)crson  has  such  in  their  possession,  ihey  should  be  examined, 
to  sec  if  they  arc  exactly  of  the  same  nature  and  substance  with  the  above  described  agate, 
and  if  their  form  has  not  been  protluced  accidentally  by  bursting  asunder. 

17.  More  or  less  light,  spongy,  and  burnt-out  pumice  stone,  particularly  black  and 
reddish- brown.  Quarz  crystals  are  sometimes  found  in  them  ;  but  oftener  the  rays  and 
grains  resembling  quarz. 

Stones  thrown  out  of  the  volcano,  gray  or  burnt  brown,  which  seem  to  consist  of  a  hard- 
encd  clay  mixed  with  siliceous  earth.  Ther  arc  sprinkled  with  rays  and  grains  resemb* 
ling  quarz,  and  some  few  flakes  of  mica.  They  fuse  with  great  difficulty  in  the  fire  ;  with 
sal  sod.Tc  they  shew  some  effervescence  at  first,  but  however  it  soon  ceases :  the  parts 
resembling  quarz  do  not  protluce  any  motion  at  all.  From  this  we  may  conclude,  that 
the  lava  mentioned  in  No.  14  principally  originates  from  this  mass. 

The  other  loose  stones  which  I  have  received  from  you,  sir,  to  all  appearance  have 
no  absolute  connection  with  the  eruptions  of  fire,  though  some  have  been  suspected  of 
it.     I  will  enumerate  them  here  separately. 

19.  Red  and  green  jasper,  which,  in  some  places  where  it  is  broken,  is  quite  smooth 
and  shining;  this  circumstance  distinguishes  it  from  the  common  jasper,  which  is  dull 
und  clay-like  where  it  is  broken.  It  has  besides  all  the  qualities  of  true  jasper;  strikes 
fire  with  the  steel,  does  not  melt  in  the  most  violent  fire,  but  is  dbsolved  by  sal  sodse 
with  an  effervescence,  &c.  8cc.  As  to  the  smoothness  of  some  parts,  it  cannot  proceed 
from  a  commencing  fusion,  as  it  becomes  black  and  dark  in  a  weaker  fire.  We  here  only 
find  a  new  link  in  the  connected  chain  of  nature,  by  which  tlie  jasper  m  united  with  the 
flint. 

There  is  no  black  jasper  in  your  collection ;  but  the  pieces,  which  to  appearance 
come  nearest  to  it,  belong  to  the  class  of  the  trapp,  and  shall  be  described  hereafter. 

20.  Gray,  greenish  slate,  resembling  jasper,  that  gives  sparks  with  the  steel,  is  at?- 
tacked  with  a  quick  effervescence  by  sal  sodee,  but  not&rther  dissohred  by  it.    In  some 


VON  mown  lettfm  om  icrxAMu. 


725 


placet  are  grains  resembling  quurz,  which  are  easily  cUhsoIvcU  in  t'uitililc  uirinoussalt,  but 
do  not  shew  the  least  cfTrrvcsccncc  in  sol  srxlx. 

31.  The  snuUI  crystals,  said  to  resemble  cocks-combs ;  they  ore  nothing  Ijut  a  diB'crtnt 
;ippc*arnncc  or  change  of  the  hcovy  spar. 

22.  A  chulccdon  crust  with  smooth  prominencies,  like  what  thoy  call  hasraatites  :  this 
is  dissolved  with  the  utmost  dilHculty  by  fusible  uri^MUis  salt,  with  more  case  by  borax, 
and  with  a  violent  cfTcrvcscencc  by  sal  sodas,  exactly  as  the  Hint. 

23.  Zeolite  ;  two  kimls  :  the  one  is  solid,  white,  and  internally,  as  it  were,  composed 
of  glol)ose  parts,  in  which  rays  proceeding  from  ihc  centre  appear,  th;it  resemble  itnc 
threads. 

This  sort  swells  a  little  by  the  blow-pipc,  dissolves  ncrfcctly  with  borax,  separates  in 
tal  sodae  with  some  effervescence,  but  mxtn  ceases,  ana  leaves  some  part  undissolved. 

The  oilier  sort  consists  of  a  plate,  which  in  colour  and  break  resembles  a  carnclta  :  it 
has  a  quantity  of  small  prominences  in  it,  filled  with  irregular  white  chrystuls,  and  somc- 
of  the  cavities  are  filled  with  a  loose -grained  and  brownislvred  substance. 

The  substance  resembling  a  cariu;lian  becomes  white  in  tlie  fircj  bubbles  up,  and  be- 
comes  fusible. 

The  crystalline  substance  becomes  more  frothy  in  the  fire  than  the  camelian,  and  has 
all  the  qualities  of  the  zeolite. 

Tlie  sandy  substance  hardly  swells,  is  dissolved  with  difficulty  by  borax,  and  is  at- 
tacked at  first  with  a  sudden  cflfervescence  by  sal  aodae. 

As  it  is  not  uncommon  even  in  the  professors  of  morality  to  pass  from  one  wrong  step 
to  another,  so  arc  we  not  without  examples  of  this  kind  in  those  who  make  nature  their 
•tudy.  Ten  years  ago  it  was  a  general  opinion  that  the  surface  of  the  earth,  together 
vrith  the  mountains  upon  it,  had  been  produced  by  moisture.  It  is  true,  some  declared 
the  fire  to  be  the  first  original  cause,  but  the  greater  number  paid  little  attention  to  Uiis 
opinion.  Now,  on  the  contrary,  that  a  subterraneous  fire  bad  been  the  principal  agent 
nins  ground  daily :  every  thing  is  supposed  to  have  been  melted,  even  to  the  granite. 
My  own  sentiments  with  regard  to  it  is  this,  that  both  the  fire  and  water  have  contribu- 
ted their  share  in  tbb  operation,  though  in  such  a  proportion,  that  the  force  of  the  former 
extends  much  further  than  the  latter ;  and,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  fire  has  only  work- 
ed in  some  parts  of  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  explain  how  the  granite,  which  consists  of  clear  quarz  crys- 
tals, solid  field-spar,  and  glimmer  (mica)  with  flat  scales,  has  been  able  to  support  a  fu- 
sion, without  the  quarz  bursting,  or  becoming  opaque. 

This  is  yet  less  to  be  conceived  of  the  field-spar,  that  becomes  soA  and  liquid  in  a 
weak  fire,  and  has  a  dull  appearance.  The  glimn.sr  splits  its  scales  asunder  in  t^ie  fire,  and 
frequendy  twists  them  together  again,  in  a  very  dif&rent  manner  from  that  in  which  they 
appear  in  the  granite.  Not\vithstanding  all  this,  if  the  granite  is  considered  as  a  pro- 
duction of  the  fire,  it  need  not  be  wondered  at  that  the  zedite  has  likewise  been  compre- 
hended in  this  supposition. 

I  will  allow  that  crystals  may  be  produced  by  the  dry  method,  and  I  know  several 
ways  of  obtaining  Hiem,  both  by  fusion  and  sublimation ;  but  I  can  never  be  persuaded 
that  the  zeolite  has  been  produced  by  the  assistance  of  fire.  It  is  true,  that  sometimes 
tliey  are  found  in  loose  stones,  and  in  such  places  where  volcanoes  had  formerly  raged  : 
it  is  likewise  found  in  solid  rocks  that  have  never  been  exposed  to  these  fires,  as  at  Gus- 
tavenberg  in  Jemtland. 

If  more  sorts  than  one  are  also  certainly  free  from  all  suspicion  of  having  been  subject 
to  fusion,  how  is  it  possible  without  the  clearest  proofs,  to  suppose  that  the  whole  genus 


1!] 


726 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICRLAKU. 


has  been  subjCfct  to  it  ?  If  the  Icelandic  zeolite  has  been  prepared  by  fire,  we  may  justly 
question  how  it  can  produce  above  five  quarts  in  twenty-five  of  water  in  distilling. 
This  may  likewise  be  applied  to  all  the  other  sorts,  though  they  generally  contain  less 
water,  and  the  red  sort  from  Adelfors  only  one  quart  in  twenty-five.  This  is  evidently 
the  water  of  crystallization,  in  proportion  to  which  each  kind  swells  more  or  less  by  the 
blow-pipe.  The  Icelandic  and  Feroe  zeolites  are  most  subject  to  this,  almost  like  borax  ; 
the  Adelfors  zeolite  swells  much  less,  and  that  from  Upland,  and  several  other  sorts,  so 
little,  that  it  ceases  in  a  moment ;  and  even  tiien  produces  so  small  an  expansion  of  space, 
that  it  is  scarcely  perceivable  to  the  eye.       ^ 

Since  therefore  all  zeolites  contain  this  water  of  crystallization,  which  is  neither  found 
nor  expected  in  the  productions  of  fire,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  undeniable,  that  they  have 
been  produced  in  the  way  of  moisture  ;  besides,  the  zeolites  do  not  consist  of  a  simple 
particular  kind  of  earth,  but  of  three  different  sorts,  which  are  mixed  together,  and  in  a 
manner  the  one  dissolved  by  the  other,  in  consequence  of  which  their  connection  cannot 
be  considered  as  an  original  earth.  In  all,  the  greatest  part  consists  of  siliceous  earth, 
the  next  is  argillaceous  earth,  and  the  least  part  is  calcareous  earth.  The  two  last  sorts 
may  be  dissolved  by  acids,  and  then  precipitated  by  alkali  volatile  causticum,  by  which 
the  argillaceous  earth,  but  not  the  calcareous  earth,  after  being  separated  from  the  first  by 
filtrating,  may  be  precipitated  by  sal  sodse. 

In  this  manner  I  have  found  that  the  zeolites  described  above  contain  forty-eight  in 
one  hundred  of  siliceous  earth,  twenty-two  of  pure  argillaceous  earth,  and  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  of  calcareous  earth.  If  these  numbers  were  added  together,  and  reckoned  with 
what  it  contains  of  water,  the  produce  is  something  more  than  one  hundred.  This  sur- 
plus proceeds  from)  the  calcareous  earth  that  enters  into  the  zeolite  without  fixed  air, 
with  which  it  is  afterwards  impregnateu  during  the  precipitation.  Other  zeolites  con- 
tain exactly  the  same  substances,  only  in  different  proportions. 

Of  those  which  I  have  hitherto  examined,  the  Jemtland  zeolite  contains  the  greatest 
quantity  of  calcareous  earth,  that  is  to  say,  sixteen  parts  in  one  hundred,  and  that  from 
Feroe  the  least,  namely,  eight  in  one  hundred.  The  red  zeolite  from  Adelfors  contains  the 
greatest  quantity  of  siliceous  earth,  to  wit,  eighty  in  one  hundred,  and  the  Icelandic  the 
least,  to  wit,  forty-eight  in  one  hundred.  The  zeolite  from  Feroe  contains  most  ar^lla- 
ceous  earth,  namely,  about  twenty -five  in  one  hundred,  and  that  fi-om  Adelfors  the  least, 
or  about  nine  in  one  hundred.  When  the  original  composition  of  any  kind  of  stone  is 
thus  known,  it  is  not  difficult  to  d(  tct  viiirw  its  qualities. 

The  zeolites  at  first  froth  and  s'  I'l  in  the  fire,  the  cause  of  which  has  been  already 
explained. 

They  afterwards  fuse  more  or  less  perfectly.  The  swapparara  may  be  reduced  to  a 
clear  glass,  and  the  Upland  red  zeolite  can  hardly  be  brought  to  g^ve  any  signs  of  vitrifi- 
cation  on  the  surface. 

It  is  well  known  that  quarz,  pure  argillaceous  earth  and  lime,  cannot  separately  be 
made  to  fuse,  nor  two  and  two  mixed  together  in  many  cases ;  but  when  all  three  are 
compounded,  they  are  more  or  less  inclined  to  fusion.  One  part  of  pure  ar^Uaceous 
earth,  with  one  part  of  lime,  and  two  and  a  half  to  three  parts  of  quarz,  afford  a  mixture, 
which  is  easiest  brought  to  fuse.  If  the  composition  of  the  zeolites  is  compared  with 
this  mixture  they  are  found  to  be  fusible,  in  the  same  measure  as  the  proportion  of  their 
constituent  parts  approaches  more  or  less  to  the  above-mentioned  composition. 

They  are  more  strongly  attacked  by  sal  sodae  than  by  borax,  or  fusible  urinous  salt, 
because  there  is  in  all  most  sificeous  earth,  which  is  best  dissolved  by  the  solid  alkaline 
salt  in  the  dry  way. 


VOV  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


727 


Lastly,  several  sorts  have  the  quality  of  yielding  jellies,  that  is  to  say,  they  change  a  pro- 
portionable quantity  of  acid  to  a  semi-transparent  congealed  mass,  which  resembles  a  jelly. 

These  congelations  may  in  general  be  produced  in  different  ways ;  sometimes  the 
menstruum  by  length  of  time  loses  its  power,  when  the  dissolved  part  is  attacked  gra- 
dually, though  imperfectly  dissolved,  so  that  in  a  manner  it  remains  suspended  half  dis- 
solved, and  after  some  evaporation  at  last  congeals  to  a  tough  coherent  substance.  This 
frequently  happened  in  dissolving  tin  in  marine  acid,  or  aqua  regia,  v/hcn  the  inflamma- 
ble substance  decreases  too  mucn,  and  by  that  means  weakens  the  connection  between 
the  metal  and  the  solvent. 

Sometimes  a  kind  of  gelatinous  congelation  is  produced  by  an  imperfect  precipita- 
tion. For  instance,  when  s.^  liquor  silicum  is  united  with  a  certain  quantity  of  acid, 
so  that  the  siliceous  earth  is  .lot  entirely  separated,  but  remains  suspended  in  tiie  liquor. 
This  much  resembles  a  circumstance  exhibited  by  some  zeolites,  which  I  will  now 
more  fully  explain. 

As  the  red  zeolite  of  Adelfors  produces  this  effect  more  clearly  than  any  other,  it 
shall  serve  as  an  instance  of  it.  After  this  is  separated  and  freed  as  much  as  possible 
from  calcareous  spar,  three  or  four  tea-spoons  full  of  it  must  be  thrown  into  a  wine- 
glass half  filled  with  common  aqua-fortis ;  when,  after  a  short  time,  the  whole  solution 
will  be  found  in  the  form  of  a  reddish  gelatinous  substance,  that  nothing  of  it  runs  out, 
if  even  the  glass  is  turned.  To  discover  the  cause  of  this,  I  have  taken  some  of  the 
clearest  jelly,  and  dissolved  it  with  boiling  water  in  a  glass  mortar,  and  left  it  to  dry  on  a 
filtering  paper  after  a  perfect  filtration,  by  which  means  the  place  which  it  occupied 
was  incredibly  diminished.  I  then  tried  this  substance  with  acids,  but  it  was  not  at  all 
attacked,  and  did  not  melt  in  the  strongest  fire  alone.  The  fusible  urinous  salt  hardly 
attacked  it ;  borax  dissolved  it,  though  with  difficulty;  but  sal  sodae  dissolved  it  perfectly, 
with  a  strong  effervescence.  In  consequence  of  this  the  gelatinous  substance  chiefly 
consists  of  siliceous  earth,  expanded  in  the  highest  degree.  But  by  what  means  has  this 
indissoluble  substance  been  introduced  into  a  solvent  ? 

We  have  before  observed,  that  the  Adelfors  zeolite  contains  eighty  parts  in  a  hun- 
dred  of  siliceous  earth,  nine  and  a  half  of  argillaceous  earth,  and  six  and  a  half  of  cal- 
careous earth,  free  from  fixed  air ;  all  which  substances  are  united  as  close  as  possible. 
If  therefore  the  powder  is  thrown  into  an  acid,  and  remains  there  during  some  time, 
the  argillaceous  and  calcareous  earths  are  immediately  attacked  by  it ;  but  these  are  in- 
ternally connected  with  the  siliceous  earth,  and  consequently  take  a  considerable  part  ol 
it,  half  dissolved,  into  the  spongy  and  swollen  state  which  all  substances  generally  exhi- 
bit in  the  moment  of  precipitation.  The  same  thing  happens  when  a  resinous  gum  is 
laid  into  spirits  of  wine  ;  part  of  the  gum,  together  with  the  resin,  is  then  immediately 
dissolved  by  the  spirits  of  wine,  on  account  of  its  connection,  though  the  first  alone  can- 
not  be  dissolved  by  it  at  all.  If  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  or  acid  is  added  before  the 
liquor  begins  to  congeal,  no  congelation  ensues,  but  the  siliceous  earth  falls  in  loose 
flakes  to  the  bottom,  which  evidently  proves  that  the  solvent,  in  regard  to  its  quantity 
and  strength,  must  be  confined  within  certain  limits.  An  addition  of  some  chalk  in- 
creases its  tendency  to  gelatinous  congelations,  partly  because  the  solution  becomes 
more  broken  and  solid,  and  partly  by  means  of  bubbles  of  fixed  air,  which  attiich  them- 
selves to  the  spongy  siliceous  powder,  and  make  it  lighter ;  whence  the  zeolite  of  Adel- 
fors  In  this  case  seems  to  have  an  advantage  over  every  other  sort,  on  account  of  the 
lime-spar  naturally  mixed  with  it ;  the  principal  part  however  no  doubt  depends  on  the 
several  parts  which  compose  it.  Some  sorts  afford  only  a  gelatinous  substance,  after 
a  preparatory  calcination ;  the  cause  of  which  most  probablj'  is  this,  that  the  calcareous 


■  II, 


728 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


earth  has  not  before  been  enough  united  with  the  siliceous  earth,  at  least  not  with  the 
whole  of  it.  It  is  well  known  that  lime  and  quarz,  when  exposed  to  the  operation  of  a 
fire,  that  has  only  caused  them  to  bake  together,  nevertheless  afterwards  yield  a  gelatin- 
ous substance.  Alkaline  salt  mixed  with  sand  affords  a  similar  demi-concretion,  as 
when  we  calcine  pot-ashes;  on  which  account  the  clearest  solution  a  long  while  after 
precipitates  siliceous  powder,  in  the  same  proportion  that  the  alkaline  salt  attracts  fixed 
air,  with  which  it  preferably  unites  itself.  This  generally  produces  a  geladnous  con- 
gelation, when  the  water  is  saturated  with  alkaline  salt,  and  also  is  well  charged  with  sili" 
ccous  earth. 

For  the  same  cause,  clay,  spathose  fluor,  and  other  substances,  hard  to  be  dissolved  in 
acids,  may  be  brought  to  a  gelatinous  congelation,  when  they  have  before  by  fusion  been 
united  with  alkaline  sah,  borax,  or  calcareous  earth :  calcareous  earth  by  itself  never 
gives  a  gelatinous  substance  in  acids,  consequently  it  can  so  much  the  less  become  a 
siliceous  earth  by  this  method,  as  has  however  been  thought  by  some,  who  would  sooa 
relinquish  their  opinion,  if  they  would  only  make  experiments  themselves ;  where  there  is 
no  Hint  before,  it  cannot  possibly  be  proposed  by  any  other  acid,  but  that  which  is  ob- 
tained from  spathose  fluor. 

But  at  present  this  is  enough  of  the  zeolite,  of  which  I  have  treated  more  extensively, 
as  it  is  found  in  great  abundance  in  Iceland,  and  is  supposed  by  some  to  be  produced  in 
the  dry  way  ;  but  I  hope  that  this  matter  is  at  present  entirely  determined,  not  only  bf. 
m  separation,  but  also  by  its  production,  which  happens  daily  in  the  water.  See  No.  II.  - 

I  have  for  several  years  past  endeavoured  to  discover  the  number  as  well  as  the  nature 
of  the  original  lands  of  earth.  In  the  year  1758  Mr.  Cronstcdt  counted  nine;  if  he 
had  lived  longer,  for  the  benefit  of  the  sciences,  he  would  no  doubt  have  rectified  this 
account.  In  consequence  of  my  experiments  I  have  discovered  the  following  six 
sorts : 

1.  Calcareous  earth,  which,  after  being  saturated  by  acid  of  vitriol,  afibrds  a  kind  of 
gypsum. 

2.  Terra  pondcrosa,  which,  with  acid  of  vitriol,  gives  a  ponderous  spar,  and  in  several 
respects  is  ver;-  different  from  the  calcareous  earth, 

3.  Magnesia,  which,  together  with  acid  of  vitriol,  produces  the  English  or  Epsom 
salt. 

These  three  kinds  are  generally  found  saturated  with  fixed  air>  and  they  are  on  that 
account  subject  to  an  effervescence  with  stronger  acids. 

4.  Argillaceous  earth,  which,  together  with  the  vitriolic  acid,  produces  allum. 

The  common  argillaceous  earth  is  always  mixed  with  siliceous  earth,  but  the  soit  here 
ment  must  be  entirely  pure. 

5.  Siliceous  earth,  which  is  not  attacked  by  ai^y  acid  yet  known,  ihe  fluor  acid  tsc- 
cepted.  In  thedn'  way  it  can  be  dissolved  with  a  third  part  of  its  weight  of  fixed  alkali 
to  a  transparent  lasting  glass,  which  at  first  is  affected  with  a  strong  effervescence. 

6.  Gemmeous  earth,  that  is  not  attacked  by  any  known  acid,  and  clearly  distinguishes 
itself  from  the  preceding  sorts,  by  its  being  entirely  indbsolubie,  and  being  subject  to  a 
weaker  efl^rvescence  in  the  fire  with  fixed  alkali.  It  is  found  in  all  the  gems  or  pre- 
cious stones. 

I  have  in  vain  made  use  of  various  methods  to  separate  these  earths  into  more  simple 
pr  nciples,  and  to  all  appearance  others  would  have  no  better  success  than  I  have  had : 
if  they  are  really  compounds,  they  are  at  least  simple,  in  regard  to  the  method  known 
among  us  of  separating  substances,  and  do  not  arise  from  one  another.  Whatever  has 
therefwe  been  objected  to  this  opinion,  from  prejudice,  caraiot  subsist  after  experiinents 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELANU. 


729 


have  been  made  upon  that  subject.  We  must  not  pretend  to  improve  natarc  according 
to  our  notions,  but  endeavour  to  distinguish  all  kinds  of  substances  which  have  sufficient 
and  lasting  marks  of  distinctions.  No  certain  origin  can  be  made,  unless  the  separation 
and  composition  of  them,  which  may  be  relied  on,  has  been  made  before.  All  the  dif- 
ferent sorts  of  scone  and  earth,  hitherto  known,  are  composed  of  one  or  more  of  the  six 
princii)al  swts  before -mentioned,  which  shall  be  proved  more  at  large  in  another  place, 
as  soon  as  I  am  able  to  make  some  experiments  that  require  repetition. 


in 


I 


OF  THE  BASALTS. 

OF  all  the  mountjuns  hitherto  known,  there  are  without  doubt  not  any  more  remarka- 
ble than  those  that  are  composed  of  angular  pillars.  A  few  years  ago  only  one  or  two  of 
this  kind  were  known ;  but  new  ones  are  daily  discovered,  which  is  a  plain  proof  how 
much  our  attention  requires  being  roused,  to  prevent  it  from  slumbering  even  on  the 
most  important  occasions. 

It  cannot  much  be  doubted  that  there  has  been  some  connections  between  these  pil- 
lars and  the  effects  of  a  subterraneous  fire,  as  they  are  found  in  places  where  the  signs 
of  fire  are  yet  visible  ;  and  as  they  are  even  found  mixed  with  lava,  tophus,  and  other 
substances,  produced  by  fire. 

The  cause  of  the  regtilar  form  of  these  pillars  is  a  problem,  which  we  have  hitherto 
been  unable  to  solve  satisfactorily.  This  difficulty  has  appeared  so  insurmountable  to 
some,  that  they  have  thought  it  impossible  to  be  the  effects  of  Nature,  and  have  con- 
sidered them  as  works  made  by  human  hands :  this  idea  betrays  the  utmost  ignorance 
in  regard  to  the  true  nature  of  these  mountains  of  pillars,  and  does  not  even  deserve  a 
refutation. 

As  far  as  we  know,  Nature  makes  use  of  three  methods  to  produce  regular  forms 
in  the  mineral  kingdom,  namely,  that  of  crystallization  or  precipitation :  secondly,  the 
crusting  or  settling  of  the  external  surface  of  a  liquid  mass  whilst  it  is  cooling :  and, 
thirdly,  the  bursting  of  a  moist  substance  whiUt  it  is  drying. 

The  first  method  is  the  most  common,  but  to  all  appearance  nature  has  not  made 
use  of  this  in  the  present  case.  Crystals  are  seldom  or  never  found  in  any  considerable 
quantity  running  in  the  same  direction,  but  either  inclining  from  one  another,  or,  what 
is  still  more  cortimon,  placed  towards  one  another  in  several  sloping  directions.  They 
are  also  generally  separated  a  little  from  one  another,  when  they  are  regular ;  the  nature 
of  the  thing  likewise  requires  this,  because  the  several  particles,  of  which  the  crystals  are 
composed,  must  have  the  liberty  of  following  that  power  which  affects  their  regular 
disposition. 

The  basalt  columns,  on  the  contrary,  whose  heights  are  frequently  from  thirty  to 
forty  feet,  are  placed  parallel  to  one  another  in  considerable  numbers,  and  so  close  toge- 
ther that  the  point  of  a  knife  can  hardly  be  introduced  between  them.  Besides,  in  most 
places,  each  pillar  is  divided  into  several  parts  or  joints,  which  seem  to  he  placed  upon 
one  another ;  and  indeed  it  is  not  uncommon  for  crystals  to  be  formed  >.bove  one 
another  in  different  layers,  when  the  solvent  has  been  visibly  diminished  at  different 
times;  but  then  the  upper  crystals  never  fit  so  exHctly  upon  the  lower  ones,  as  to  pro- 
duce connected  prisms  of  the  same  length  and  depth  as  all  the  strata  taken  together,  but 
each  stratum  separately  forms  its  own  crystals. 

How  then  can  the  Giant's  Causeway  in  the  county  of  Antrim,  Fingal's  Cave  at 
Staffu,  and  all  other  r^ssemblages  of  pillars  of  the  same  kind,  be  considered  as  crystal- 
lir.dtions?  Precipitation,  both  in  the  wet  and  dry  manner,  requires  that  the  particles 

VOL.  I.  5  a 


ill 


I 


II 


• 


'^f:}  '  ■ 


730 


VON  TROIL'8  LETTERS  ON  ICELAND. 


should  be  free  enough  to  fix' themselves  in  a  certain  order ;  and  as  this  is  not  practicable 
in  a  large  melted  mass,  no  crystallizations  appear  in  it,  except  on  its  surface,  or  in  its  ca- 
vities. 

Add  to  this,  that  the  basalts,  in  a  fresh  fracture,  do  not  shew  a  plain  smooth  surface  un- 
der the  microscope,  but  appear  sometimes  like  grains  of  a  different  magnitude,  and  at 
other  times  resemble  fine  rays  running  in  different  directions,  which  does  not  correspond 
with  the  internal  structure  of  the  crystals,  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  examine  in  ano> 
ther  place. 

From  what  I  have  hitherto  mentioned,  the  opinion  that  the  basalts  have  been  produced 
by  crystallization  becomes  at  least  less  probable,  whether  we  admit  the  wet  or  dry  me- 
thod. But  I  must  not  omit  that  the  spars  exhibit  a  kind  of  crystallization,  which,  at 
first  sight,  resembles  a  heap  of  basalts,  but,  upon  a  close  examination,  a  very  great  dif- 
ference is  observed.  The  form  of  the  spar  is  everywhere  alike,  but  the  basalts.differ 
from  one  another  in  point  of  size  and  number  of  sides ;  the  former,  when  broken,  con- 
sists of  many  small  unequal  cubes,  but  the  basalt  does  not  separate  in  regular  parts,  &c. 
&c. 

Nature's  second  method  to  produce  regular  forms  is  that  of  crusting  the  outer  surface 
of  a  melted  mass.  By  a  sudden  refrigeration.  Nature,  to  effect  this  purpose,  makes  use 
of  polyedrous  and  irregular  forms.  If  we  suppose  a  considerable  bed,  which  is  become 
fluid  by  fire,  and  spread  over  a  plain,  it  evidently  appears  that  the  surface  must  first  of 
all  lose  the  degree  of  heat  requisite  for  melting,  and  begin  to  congeal ;  but  the  cold  re- 
quisite for  this  purpose  likewise  contracts  the  upjiermost  congealed  stratum  into  a  narrow- 
er space,  and  consequently  causes  it  to  separate  from  the  remaining  liquid  mass,  as  the 
side  exposed  to  the  air  is  already  too  stiff  to  give  way.  In  this  manner  a  stratum  is  pro- 
duced, running  in  a  parallel  direction  with  the  whole  mass,  others  still  are  produced  by 
the  same  cause,  in  proportion  as  the  refrigeration  penetrates  deeper. 

Hence  we  .may,  in  my  opinion,  very  plunly  see  how  a  bed  may  be  divided  into  strata. 
In  the  same  manner  the  refrigeration  advances  on  the  sides,  which  consequently  divides 
the  strata  into  polyedrous  pieces  of  pillars,  which  can  hardly  ever  be  exactly  square,  as 
the  strongest  refrigeration  into  the  inner  parts  of  the  mass  advances  almost  in  a  diagonal 
line  from  the  corners.  If  we  add  to  this,  that  a  large  mass  cannot  be  equal  throughout 
its  composition,  nor  everywhere  liquid  in  the  same  degree,  it  will  be  easy  to  discover  the 
cause  of  several  irregularities.  If  the  depth  of  the  bed  is  very  considerable,  in  porportion 
to  its  breadth,  prismatic  pillars,  without  cross  div'isions,  are  produced,  at  least  lengthways, 
from  the  uppermost  surface  downwards. 

The  third  way  is  perfectly  similar  to  the  preceding  in  respect  to  the  effect,  but  is  didbr- 
ent  from  it  by  the  mass  being  soaked  with  water,  and  by  the  bursting  of  it  asunder, 
being  the  effect  of  the  contraction  whilst  it  is  dicing.  If  we  suppose  such  a  bed  to  be 
spread  over  a  level  space,  the  drying  advances  u\  the  same  manner  as  the  refrigeration 
in  the  former  case. 

This  separation  into  strata  properly  happens  when  a  considerable  quantity  of  clay  enters 
into  the  whole  composition,  because  the  clay  decreases  more  than  any  other  kind  of 
earth  in  drying. 

We  must  now  examine  which  of  these  two  ways  may  best  serve  to  explain  the  man- 
ner  in  which  the  basalts  are  produced,  for  it  is  hardly  possible  that  they  should  have 
been  formed  by  crystalli^  ition. 

However  well  founded  the  opinion  may  appear  of  deducingthem  from  a  melted  sub- 
stance, several  very  considerable  objections  however  may  be  raised  against  it,  which  I 
sb  lU  not  forget  to  mention.    It  seems  therefore  more  credible  to  me,  that  they  have  been 


ii 


V  > 


VON  TROUT'S  LETTBR9  ON  ICELANU. 


731 


produced  out  of  their  substance  whilst  it  was  yet  soft,  or  at  least  not  too  hard  to  be 
softened  by  exhalations.  If  we  therefore  suppose  that  a  bed  is  spread  over  a  place  where 
a  volcanoe  begins  to  work,  it  is  evident  that  a  great  quantity  of  the  water,  always  present 
on  these  occasions,  is  driven  upwards  in  exhalations  or  vapours;  these,  it  is  well  known, 
possess  a  penetrating  softening  power,  by  means  of  which  they  also  produce  their  first 
eifect ;  but  when  they  are  increased  to  a  sufficient  quantity,  they  force  this  tough  moist 
substance  upwards,  which  then  gradually  falls,  and  during  this  time  bursts  in  the  man- 
ner described  above. 

My  reasons  for  this  opinion  are  these;  first,  we  do  not  find  the  internal  grain  of  the 
basalts  melted  or  vitrified,  which  however  soon  happens  by  fusion,  and  for  which  pur- 
pose only  a  very  small  degree  of  fire  is  requisite.  It  consequently  is  very  hard  to  ex- 
plain how  this  substance  could  have  been  so  fluid,  that  no  traces  of  bubbles  appear  in  it 
(at  least  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  any,  after  the  nicest  examination  into  the  Scotch 
and  Icelandic  basalts)  and  yet  when  broken  appear  dull  and  uneven.  I  know  very 
well  that  lava  is  seldom  vitrified  within ;  but  the  great  number  of  bubbles  and  pores 
which  are  found  in  the  whole  mass  are  more  than  sufficient  proofs,  that  it  has  not 
been  perfectly  melted  to  its  smallest  parts,  but  has  only  been  brought  to  be  near 
fluid. 

Secondly,  the  basalts  so  much  assemble  the  finer  trapp,  both  in  respect  to  their 
grain  and  original  composition,  that  they  can  hardly  be  distinguished  in  small  frag- 
ments, as  will  be  more  plainly  proved  in  the  comparison  which  I  will  make  hereafter. 
See  NO.  24. 

But  the  trapp  in  all  probability  has  never  been  melted,  at  least  not  in  those  parts  where 
I  have  had  opportunnies  of  examining  it. 

Almost  'm  all  the  west  Gothic  stratified  mountains,  the  uppermost  stratum  is  trapp ; 
and  it  must  be  well  observed^  that  it  always  lies  upon  black  ^lum  slate.  Is  it  therefore 
credible  that  this  substance,  which  in  many  places  extends  above  a  hundred  yards,  can 
have  (seen  perfectly  melted,  without  causing  the  slate  lying  beneath  it  to  lose  some  part  of 
its  blackness,  even  in  those  places  where  they  touch  one  another,  as  this  effect  may  be 
produced  in  a  small  culinary  fire  ? 

There  is  besides  a  finer  kind  of  trapp,  which  is  generally  found  in  veins  or  loads,  and 
frequently  in  very  ancient  mountains,  where  not  the  least  traces  of  subterraneous  fire 
are  to  be  seen. 

The  basalt  mountains  seem  to  be  very  ancient,  at  least  I  do  not  know  that  the  age  of 
any  one  is  ascertained.  Should  they  then  be  so  old,  that  the  substance  of  the  trapp  was 
■at  yet  perfectly  hardened,  when  were  they  produced  ?  Besides,  we  frequently  find  to 
4ii  day  clayey  substances  at  a  great  depth,  which  are  so  soft  that  they  may  be  scraped 
bf  the  nail,  but  afterwards  become  very  hard  when  exposed  to  the  air. 

There  have  without  doubt  been  many  eruptions  of  fire  on  the  isle  of  Staffa,  as  the  si- 
tuation of  the  pillars  and  their  being  removed  out  of  their  places  evidently  prove. 

You,  sir,  have  likewise  brought  a  very  clear  proof  of  this  from  thence,  which  is  a  piece 
of  basalt,  that  on  the  exterior  is  full  of  hollows,  and  in  a  manner  burnt. 

A  hard  substance,  when  exposed  to  a  degree  of  heat  insufficient  to  melt  the  whole 
piece,  may,  however,  (m:  attacked  by  it  in  some  parts  of  the  surface  most  liable  to  become 
fluid.  The  mixture  of  a  large  mass  is  seldom  everywhere  so  uniform,  that  some  parts 
should  not  be  more  liable  to  melt  than  others.  . 

Crooked  pillars  may  he  produced  as  well  by  the  drying  as  the  refrigeration  of  a  liquid 
mass;  for  this  purpose  it  is  only  necessary  that  the  surface  should  be  bent,  as  the  stratum 
tdways  runs  in  a  parallel  direction  widi  it. 

5a2 


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r32 


VON  TROIL'S  LETTEUS  ON  ICELAND. 


/ 


From  what  I  have  hitherto  said,  you  will  perceive  it  is  my  opinion,  that  the  basalts 
have  been  produced  by  the  assistance  of  a  subterraneous  fire,  but  tliat  it  is  not  vet  de- 
termined  whether  they  have  been  rent  asunder  after  llie  fusion,  or  by  drying :  this  last 
however  appears  more  credible  to  me,  on  account  of  the  reasons  I  have  mentioned.  For, 
to  speak  strictly,  the  substances  inclosed  in  the  basalts,  though  they  should  even  be 
volcanic,  do  not  yet  with  certainty  prove  a  preceding  fusion,  as  a  substance  softened  by 
water  may  be  as  proper  for  it  as  one  fused  by  fire.  I  am,  however,  very  far  from  being 
inclined  to  maintain  my  opinion  any  farther  than  it  agrees  with  certmn  experiments  and 
experience. 

Truth  will  sooner  or  later  be  discovered ;  and  I  know  nothing  more  derogatory  to  the 
honour  of  a  natural  historian,  than  having  wilfully  obstructed  its  passage. 

I  will  now  give  a  more  full  description  of  the  basalts  and  different  kinds  of  trapp,  which 
you  have  brought  from  StafTa  and  Iceland. 

24.  Basalt  from  Stufll).  The  piece  presented  to  me  is  a  prismatic  hexagonal  fragment, 
three  sides  of  which  are  almost  of  equal  dimensions,  and  are  connected  with  one  another, 
two  others  are  larger,  and  are  separated  from  one  another  by  the  sixth  and  smallest ;  it 
is  a  little  concave  at  tl;e  top,  and  convex  at  the  bottom. 

Trapp  is  generally  found  in  square  irregular  cubes,  whence  it  has  most  probably  ob- 
tained its  denomination,  on  account  of  some  similarity  with  stones  made  use  of  for  stair- 
cases. 

It  is  also  found  in  prismatic  triangular  forms,  though  rarely,  as  also  in  the  form  of  im- 
mense pillars.  Of  this  kind  are  those  called  Trselestenar,  opposite  Bragnum,  at  the  foot 
of  the  Hanneberg,  which  have  separated  themselves  from  the  remaining  part  of  the  bed ; 
aid  in  1759,  when  I  first  saw  them,  formed  an  angle  of  about  eight  degrees  with  the 
plumb-line. 

The  basalt  from  Staffa,  when  newly  broken,  is  of  a  blackish  gray,  shining,  and  small 
scaled ;  and  I  have  discovered  with  the  microscope  some  small  white  particles  sprinkled 
up  and  down. 

The  finest  trapp  is  perfectly  similar  when  broken,  only  of  a  lighter  colour,  which  pro. 
ceeds  from  the  greater  quantity  of  white  particles. 

The  surface  decays  to  a  gray  yellow  loose  crust,  which  loses  itself  in  the  more  solid 
mass. 

The  fine  trapp  decays  in  the  same  manner. 

The  basalt  when  struck  with  the  steel  hardly  gives  fire,  though  a  spark  may  now  and 
then  be  obtained  with  difficulty. 

This  sameciicumstance  may  be  observed  of  the  trapp. 

Its  specific  weight  is  about  3000,  and  that  of  the  trapp  about  2990. 

It  becomes  very  beautiful  by  cutting,  polishing,  and  grinding. 

Likewise  the  more  fine  kind  of  trapp. 

It  yields  an  aSh-coloured  powder. 

The  trapp  yields  rather  a  powder  of  a  more  light  colour. 

It  soon  melts  to  black'gk^sy  flags.  ,    > 

The  trapp  likewise. 

The  basalt  is  attacked  by  sodse  with  an  effervescence  which  soon  ceases,  and,  though 
some  separation  ensues,  the  greater  part  however  remains  undissolved.  Borax  perfectly 
solves  it  without  effervescence,  and  gives  a  clear  iron-coloured  glass.  It  is  solved  with 
great  difficulty  by  fuable  urinous  salt,  and  whilst  cooling  becomes  of  a  whitish  gray, 
and  not  transparent. 

The  same  effects  are  produced  by  these  acids  upon  the  trapp. 


VON  TnOIL'S  LETTERS  ON  ICELANU. 


733 


One  hundred  parts  of  basalt,  very  finely  powdered,  and  several  times  di(rcstcd  witli 
fresh  aqua  regia,  and  then  well  washed  and  dried,  leave  sixty-eight  parts  undissolved. 

The  remainder  of  this  shews  a  little  eftervescencc  before  it  unites  with  the  sal  sodre, 
and  dissolves  very  little.  It  is  dissolved  with  ease  by  borax,  and  with  difficulty  by  fusible 
urinous  salt.     It  seems  therefore  to  be  a  mixture  of  siliceous  and  gemmcous  earth. 

The  solution  gives,  by  precipitation  with  lixivium  sanguinis,  as  much  Prussian  blue  as 
is  equal  to  twenty-six  parts  in  one  hundred  of  iron  ;  though  the  basalt,  by  being  tried 
in  the  usual  manner  in  the  crucible,  does  not  yield  above  ten  in  one  hundred.  This 
proves  that  lixivium  sanguinis  affords  the  most  exact  method  of  assaying  iron  ore. 

When  at  last  the  solution  is  precipitated  with  caustic  volatile  alkali,  atier  the  iron  has 
been  separated  by  lixivium  sanguinis,  saturated  with  acid,  pure  argillaceous  earth  is  ob- 
tained. 

Sometimes  a  litdc  calcareous  earth  appears  after  a  preceding  precipitation ;  when 
dissolved,  sal  sodae  is  added  ;  but  sometimes  not  the  smallest  traces  of  it  can  be  discover- 
ed, even  with  the  acid  of  sugar,  which  is  however  the  safest  method  hitherto  known  of 
discovering  it.  The  calcareous  earth  seems  therefore  to  be  accidental.  This  is  how- 
ever very  certain,  that  the  mterstices  between  the  pillars  are  sometimes  found  filled  up 
with  calcareous  spar. 

The  trapp  is  exactly  of  the  same  nature,  and  contfiiiis  nearly  the  same  allay,  so  that 
the  experiments  differ  only  one  or  a  half  part  in  one  hundred.  The  most  considerable 
difference  consists  in  the  calcareous  earth  appearing  here  more  visibly,  so  that  generally 
a  slight  effervescence  is  observed  when  an  acid  is  poured  on  the  powder. 

25.  Basalt  from  Hvitara,  near  Skalholt,  in  Iceland.  The  piece  in  my  possession  is 
too  small  to  discover  its  form;  only  a  part  of  the  outside  can  be  distinguished.  When 
fresh  broken  it  resembles  the  basak  from  Staffa,  though  something  may  be  observed  in 
it,  which  is  very  seldom  discovered  in  the  last.  These  are  small  round  cavities,  not  larger 
than  pins  heads,  thinly  scattered  in  some  places,  as  likewise  on  the  outside.  All  these 
cavities  axe  filled  up  with  a  white,  green  or  brown  powder. 

May  not  these  perhaps  have  been  some  particles  of  a  substance,  which  easily  dissolv- 
ing was  become  liquid,  though  the  whole  mass  had  not  a  sufficient  degree  of  heat  to  melt 
it? 

But  whence  can  these  cavities  be  filled  with  this  powder  ?  In  the  midst  of  so  solid  a 
mass,  no  decay  seems  to  be  possible. 

The  substance  of  the  basalt  itself  produces  a  little  effervescence  with  sal  soda;,  and 
separates,  without  being  visibly  dissolved.  It  dissolves  in  borax,  as  likewise  in  fusible 
urinous  salt,  although  with  more  difficulty.  By  the  common  method  of  proving  it  in 
the  crucible,  it  yields  ten  parts  in  one  hundred  of  iron.  The  same  circumstances  may  be 
observed  in  trying  the  powder  that  fills  up  the  cavities ;  it  only  seems  to  melt  a  little 
easier  than  the  solid  substance  surrounding  it. 

26.  The  basalt  from  Langarnas  perfectly  resembles  coarse  trapp,  though  it  has  more 
white  particles,  and  sometimes  crystallizations  as  laige  as  a  cherry-stone ;  the  dark  gray 
and  white  parts  prove  to  be  entirely  of  the  same  nature  by  the  blow  pipe,  becomes  fluid 
by  itself,  and  produces  a  sudden  effervescence  with  sal  sodte,  but  wiriiout  being  quite 
dissolved  by  it :  it  is  exactly  as  the  preceding  sort. 

27.  Black,  solid,  glossy  trapp,  knotty  within,  and  resembling  wood  in  its  internal 
structure,  being  full  of  filaments.  Many  pieces  are  grown  to  a  crust  of  pumice  on  one 
side  or  another,  though  their  edges  are  quite  fresh  and  smooth  ;  whence  we  may  con- 
clude, that  they  themselves  have  not  been  melted,  but  have  either  been  thrown  into  the 


734. 


VON  THOIL'S  LETTEUS  ON  ICELAND. 


lava,  which  was  already  burnt  out,  or  that  the  lava  has  flowed  over  them :  some  part  of 
It  however  seems  to  have  been  more  attacked  by  the  fire. 

The  manner  in  which  the  fire  and  acids  operate  upon  this  trapp  is  exactly  the  same 
as  with  the  preceding  basalt.  There  arelikewise  some  grains  scattered  in  it  fesemblinir 
quarz,  which  are  not  solved  by  sal  sod»,  nor  does  it  cause  any  effervescence  ;  borax 
and  fusible  rnnoi-s  siilt  enUrely  dissolves  them,  though  slowly. 

28.  A  CO  lark  brown  trapp  from  Vido,  the  surface  of  which  is  glassy  and  un- 

even,  as  if  it  n  made  fluid  by  fire.     It  must  also  be  observed,  that  crystoUizations 

of  fresh  pyrites  .uc  frequently  found  in  these  glassy  rough  pieces.  The  glaiy  substance 
easily  becomes  fluid,  with  some  ebullition,  almost  like  shirl;  besides,  it  exhibits  the 
same  circumstances  with  acids  as  the  preceding. 

You  will  see,  sir,  by  this  long  letter,  that  in  the  eruptions  in  Iceland  argillaceous  and 
siliceous  substances  have  been  principally  concerned,  as  has  been  the  case  in  other  parts. 
I  know  very  vvell  that  Mr.  Beaume  maintains,  that  silex  might  be  made  to  affoitl  Slum 
with  acid  of  vitriol,  after  it  has  been  dissolved  in  liquor  silicum  with  sal  sods.  But 
when  the  fusions  are  made  in  vessels  which  contain  no  argillaceous  earth,  no  allum  can 
be  obtained  with  acid  of  vitriol,  which,  however,  may  be  obtained,  when  the  vegetable 
alkali  lb  kept  fluid  during  a  considerable  time  in  a  common  crucible,  because  th?  alkali 
dissolves  some  part  of  the  vessel  itself.  Pure  siliceous  earth  is  entirely  indissoluble  by 
Itself  in  acid  of  vitriol,  let  it  be  treated  in  any  manner  whatsoever. 

Let  this  account  of  these  dreadful  devastations  be  suflicient. 

r.rSTr  ""^T"^  /"'"i"^""  ^^  ^^^^T^'^S'  ^^utum  facit  et  intelligit,  quantum  de  nature 
ordme,  revel  menteobservavent,  nee  ampliusscitaut  potest.    Baco. 


I 

I.. 


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L)ling 
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\  and 
(arts. 
Hum 
But 
I  can 
table 
tlkali 


RELATION  Ol-  A  VOYAGE  IN  THE  NORTH  SEA,  ALONG  THE  COASTS  OF 
ICELAND,  GREENLAND,  FERRO,  SHETLAND,  THE  ORCADES,  AND  NOR- 
WAY, MADE  IN  THE  YEARS  1767  AND  1768,  «Y  M.  DE  KERGUELEN 
TREMAREC,  OF  THE  ROYAL  MARINE  ACADEMY  IN  FRANCE,  LIEUTE- 
NANT,  COMMANDER  OF  THE  FRIGATES  LA  FOLLE  AND  L'HIRON- 
DELLE. 

PREFACE. 

HIS  majesty  beit'g  dc&irous  that  encouragement  ami  protection  should  be  given  to  the 
cod  Gshery  on  the  coast  of  Iceland,  carried  on  between  the  months  of  April  and  Sep- 
tember, the  Due  de  Praslin,  minister  and  secretary  of  state  for  naval  affairs,  dispatched 
the  frigate  La  FoUe  to  a  station  off  Iceland,  to  preserve  good  order  among  the  French 
fishermen,  to  protect  tliem,  and  to  furnish  them  with  any  succours  they  might  require. 
Towards  the  end  of  January  1767 1  received  an  order  at  Brest  from  the  Due  de  Praslin, 
to  repair  to  court  upon  his  majesty's  service.  I  set  off  immediately,  arrived  at  Versailles, 
and  presented  myself  to  the  minister,  who  informed  me  that  he  had  appointed  me  to 
the  command  of  the  frigate  La  FoUe,  of  twenty-six  guns,  and  two  hundred  men,  for  the 
object  I  have  before  described.  Although  I  must  necessarily  on  this  cruize  be  subject 
to  much  fatigue  and  inconvenience,  the  novelty  of  it,  and  tnr  inclination  which  from 
my  most  tender  infancy  I  liarl  always  felt  for  cruizing,  occasioned  mc  an  indiscribabic 
satisfaction.  M.  Rodier,  first  clerk  intjii  navy  offinn,  communicated  tome  sundry  do- 
cuments  and  regulations  relative  to  the  IJsliLjl  in  itiifHtUm.  On  the  same  subject  I  had 
the  honour  of  seeing  the  president  Ogier,  wlio  (JuI|m|{  Ins  embassy  to  Denmark  obtniiiLd 
considerable  information  on  this  branch  of  commerce,  and  had  amicably  settled  some 
disputes  which  hud  arose  upon  the  urna^ioi)  ui'  |t.  lie  liad  the  kindness  tu  impart  to 
me  all  the  elucidation  I  could  requiic  hf  hifjiMtlMil  nib  ihiil  the  king  of  Denmark  had 
granted  to  a  company  rsr.|bli>li(fl  at  Copcdliil^/ //  j|(/  fKclusivc  privilege  of  trading  with 
Iceland;  that  every  foreigji  , .  I  ir  even  Iiiuiljli,  tiot  belonging  to  the  company,  was 
liable  to  confiscation,  if  found  uuon  (.lie  uumiHiifm  lifllfl !  ||iiir  the  company  kept  eruizers 
to  maintain  its  rights,  and  to  ciipliirc  any  vessel  n«nliljifl||(  II'  ''  'f  these  eruizers,  three 

years  before,  had  made  themselvts  iwhii  lit  nj  hvo  firllll  fi nkirk,  which  were  sold 

at  Copenhagen:  that  these  two  ships  liadueL'li  |lu|ii  i  tod  upon  the  coast  of  Iceland, 
and  were  surprised  in  a  harboni  by  thr  eruizers,  jvitli  wool  and  other  contrjiband  articles 
on  board,  but,  being  ambassador  at  titr  ijirK  In  fiad  reclaimed  them,  and  had  them  re- 
stored with  all  costs  and  interest.  The  Un  I  I  laslin  ordered  me  to  Dunkirk,  to  con- 
fer with  the  gentlemen  of  the  chamber  of  coinlijcici  on  the  means  of  encouraging  the 
fishery,  and  securing  success,  Ijy  estuUishiiig  regulations  and  a  discipline,  by  which  the 
men  were  to  abide.  After  taking  the  measuies  necessary  at  Dunkirk,  and  choosing  two 
sailors  well  acquainted  with  the  coasts  of  Iceland,  I  returned  to  Versailles  for  my  last 
orders  from  the  Due  de  Praslin  and  proceeded  afterwards  to  Brest  to  equip  my  frigate  : 
on  the  first  of  April  she  was  taaen  into  dock  to  be  careened ;  she  came  out  again  on  the 
third,  and  the  fourth  her  s^quipment  began ;  in  order  to  hasten  which  I  divided  the 
operation  among  my  officers.  M.  Duchastel,  who  was  my  second  lieutenant,  had  the 
care  of  the  stowage  and  general  spection,  with  M.  de  la  Martillicre,  midshipman ; 
lieutenant  Le  Chevalier  Ferron  n.id  the  inspecdon  of  provisions,  with  Messrs.  Pehan 
and  Le  Rouge,  midshipmen ;  M.  Lerondel  and  Le  Chevalier  Menyeau,  midshipmen, 
looked  to  the  guns  and  ammunition ;  and  Messrs.  Dorvault  and  Menyeau,  senior,  to  the 


tarn 


4O0 


KERGUELEN'S  VOVAf.E  TO  THE  NORTII. 


sails  and  rigf^iiig.     By  the  exertions  of  these  ofHccrs,  whose  talents  cannot  l)e  too  highly 

1)ruiscd,  my  i'rigatc  was  eiitia-iy  c(iuii)|)cd  in  four  days,  with  six  months  provision  on 
)oard.  She  fell  down  to  the  road-stead  on  the  eleventh  of  April,  where  I  anchored  in 
ten  fathoms  water,  with  bottom  of  mud  and  sand,  mooring  her  E.  S.  E.  and  W.  N.  W. 
with  A  heavy  anchor.  Being  moored,  I  set  Point  Porzic  at  W.  quarter  S.  W.  five  dc- 
grces  S.  and  Round  Island  at  S.  quarter  S.  E.  four  degrees  E.  This  is  the  best  anchor- 
age in  the  road ;  it  is  called  La  I^  osse,  on  account  of  the  bottom  risit;g  from  the  middle  ; 
but  as  it  is  at  some  little  distance  from  the  port,  it  is  mostly  frequented  by  large  vessels. 
Nothing  interesting  occurred  to  me  in  the  road  till  the  twenty-first,  when  I  experi- 
enced a  heavy  gale  of  wind  from  the  S.  S.  W.  During  my  stay  there  I  exercised  the 
ship's  company  in  the  rigging,  and  at  the  great  guns.  M.  Duchastel  made  out  the 
roll  for  the  watch,  and  engaging  ;  that  for  engaging  was  made  ailer  a  manner  which 
ought  to  be  generally  adopted :  it  distributed,  for  example,  to  the  starboard  watch  the 
uneven  guns,  one,  three,  five,  seven,  and  to  the  larboard  watch  the  even  ones,  two,  four, 
six,  eight. 

By  this  means  a  vessel  can  never  be  taken  by  surprise  ;  for  the  watch  on  duty  on  the 
deck  may  by  night  and  day  serve  half  the  guns :  she  may  prepare  on  a  sudden  as  well 
to  fire  from  both  sides,  on  giving  the  word  starboard  to  the  starboard,  and  larboard  to 
the  larboard  side.  To  conclude,  the  watch  may  exercise  at  the  guns,  without  waking 
those  who  have  turned  in. 


i 


FIRST  PART. 

CONTAINING  THE  COURSE  FROM  BREST  TO  ICELAND. 

I  RECEIVED  my  instructions  from  court  the  twenty-sixth  of  April  1767,  and  the 
next  day,  the  twenty-seventh,  I  left  Brest  roads  at  nine  in  the  morning,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  flood  tide,  and  with  a  very  weak  N.  E.  wind ;  as  I  got  off  the  land  it  became 
stronger  :  at  five  in  the  evening  we  made  Ushant,  bearing  E.  N.  E.  five  leagues  and 
a  half  distant.  I  steered  all  night  W.  N.  W.  to  make  an  ofling,  and  seeing  by  the 
weather  that  the  easterly  winds  were  likely  to  continue,  1  kept  the  point  ahead  at  N. 
N.  VV.  in  order  to  reach  Cape  Clear.  The  tw^enty-eighth,  at  noon,  I  was  by  obser- 
vation in  lat.  48°  46',  and  long.  10°  3'  W.  from  Paris.  At  sun-set  I  noticed  the  va- 
riation of  the  compass  to  be  20°  towards  the  W.  The  twenty-ninth,  at  half  past  eight 
in  the  morning,  after  having  run  forty-five  leagues  by  the  log  in  the  preceding  day,  I 
discovered  Cape  Clear.  At  ten  o'clock,  Missin-head  beariiig^  N.  N.  E.  five  leagues 
distant,  I  sounded,  and  found  sixty-five  fathoms  water,  the  bottom  a  muddy  sand  mix- 
ed with  pebbles.  Afterwards  I  steered  N.  W.  quarter  W.  On  the  twenty-ninth,  at 
noon,  I  found  the  lat.  51**  5',  and  long.  12o  24'  W.  M.  Boutanguoy,  my  first  pilot, 
observed  21°  of  variation  in  the  morning.  I  remarked  that  Missin-head  was  a  bet- 
ter land  to  make  for  than  Cape  Clear,  on  account  of  its  being  higher,  and  more  easy 
to  perceive.  I  took  notice  of  the  Schyllings  islands,  which  I  fiaund  badly  laiddown 
in  the  map  of  M.  Beliin,  naval  engineer,  engraved  in  1751.  These  islands  stretch 
more  to  the  W.  and  W.  S.  W.  than  they  are  described  to  do  in  that  chart. 

On  running  from  Cape  Clear  to  the  Schyllings  I  noticed  a  sensible  current  to  the 
N.  E.  After  doubling  these  islands,  I  kept  the  Cape  at  S.  S.  E.  On  the  thirtieth, 
at  noon,  I  observed  the  polar  height  was  52*  44',  and  by  calculation  14"  54'  W.  lon- 
gitude from  Paris.  At  noon  I  steered  N.  N.  E.  the  wind  S.  E.  but  light,  and  a  fine  sea. 

On  the  first  of  May  1  was  by  reckoning  in  latitude  53"  18',  and  I  found  it  by  observa- 
tion 538  30',  which  gave  a  difference  in  twenty-four  hours  of  twelve  minutes  ;  this 


KEnnUEI.EN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NOUTU. 


737 


could  not  have  arisen  from  the  lojj-linc,  tlic  knots  of  which  were  made  at  a  distanre  of 
forty-seven  feet  six  inches  :  this  (listinicc  is  corrcr.t,  the  sca-lcagiie  being  riduced  l)y  thi- 
KC'.it'emcn  of  the  academy  of  sciences  to  2850  toiscs,  from  tlieir  finding  in  l(i72  that  .i 
degree  in  the  celestial  sphere  was  ecjual  to  57000  tuises  on  the  earth.  If  the  third  nart 
of  2850  be  taken,  it  will  give  950  toises  of  the  Cluitclet  at  I*aris,  or  5700  royal  feet,  which, 
divided  by  twelve,  yields  forty-seven  feet  and  a  half,  the  distance  or  interval  of  each  knot 
on  the  log-line.  The  difference  could  not  proceed  from  the  half-minute  glasses  either, 
which  I  proved  the  corrcctiussof,  by  comparing  them  with  each  other,  and  by  a  watch 
I  had  which  pointed  the  seconds.  These  small  glasses,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  mea- 
sure the  distance  passed  over  on  the  log-line  during  their  run,  which  is  half  a  minute, 
cannot  be  proved  too  frequently,  for  the  change  of  weather  from  dry  to  humid  alone 
may  occasion  a  considerable  variation  ;  and  one  single  second  error  in  half  a  minute  will 
cause  a  difference  of  thirty  leagues  in  a  run  of  a  thousand.  It  would  be  useless  to  enter 
into  minutiae  on  this  matter  so  often  noticed,  and  particularly  by  M.  Dcchal)crt,  at  pre- 
sent captain  of  a  frigate,  who  in  his  Journal  of  a  Voyage  to  North  America  displays  all 
the  causes  of  errors  in  navigation.  It  is  sufficient  to  observe  that  the  12'  difference  of 
the  latitude  did  not  arise  either  from  the  log-line  or  the  half-minute  glasses,  but  from  the 
currents,  which  I  reckon  to  run  N.  E.  in  this  quarter,  owing  to  the  bay  of  Galway, 
the  bearing  ofthe  coast,  which  is  N.  and  S.  and  the  S.  W.  winds,  which  almo^tt  conti- 
nually  blow  in  this  latitude,  all  which  should  necessarily  determine  the  currents  running 
to  the  N.  E. 

I  found  next  day  ag..in  a  difference  N.  between  the  height  by  observation  and  that  by 
reckoning,  and  perceived  tide-banks  and  sea- weed,  the  direction  of  which  were  N.  L. 
and  S.  VV.  wi  h  confirmed  me  in  my  oj/inion.  I  noticed  the  simc  day  22°  50'  varia- 
tion at  sun-set ,  short  tin»  previous  to  which  we  had  a  most  pleasing  sight.  The  rays 
of  the  sun,  brokei  and  reflected  by  dark  clouds  on  the  horizon,  represented  at  a  distance, 
apparently  of  two  leagues,  a  rapid  river,  which  seemed  to  precipitate  itself  in  cascades  of 
dinercnt  colours,  azure,  silver  .*nd  gold. 

The  third,  fourth  and  fifth,  nothing  particular  occurred ;  the  winds  were  variable,  and 
I  made  most  advantageous  tacks :  until  the  third,  the  wind  had  been  S.  E. 

On  the  sixth,  after  keeping  all  day  i  N.  N.  E.  course,  the  wind  blowing  hard  and 
fresh,  with  a  rougfi  sea,  the  main  and  fore -top- sails  reefed,  as  soon  as  the  evening  came 
on  I  stood  under  bare  poles,  not  wishing  to  make  way  tillday-light,  thinking  my  self  five 
leagues  to  the  S.  S.  E.  of  a  sand-bunk,  as  described  in  the  Dutch  charts.  The  seventh, 
at  noon,  I  found  myself  by  observation  in  lat,  56"  41',  and  long.  16*  15',  W.  of  Paris. 

The  eighth,  at  night,  a  violent  gale  of  wind  came  on  from  the  east,  with  a  dreadful  sea ; 
it  sno'v'd  and  hailed,  and  was  colder  than  what  we  find  it  at  Paris  in  the  sharpest  win- 
ters,    i  then  recollected  tb<^^"  application  made  by  M.  de  Frezier  it.  he  same  circumstan- 
\v)  en  doubling  Cape  Horn,  of  the  thought  of  Horace  : 

Meliusne  fluctus. 
Ire  j«r  iongos  loit,  an  recentes 
Cai'isere  flores  ? 

Or  gives  thein  more  delight, 
A  dangerous  voyage  o'er  the  distant  main, 
Or  gath'ruig  flowers  from  the  tranquil  plflin  ? 

In  truth,  there  is  some  difference  between  the  smiling  days  of  May  „  such  as  wc  expe- 
rience in  France,  and  the  rigorous  weather  we  had  to  undergo ;  and  when  I  compared 
the  comfort  of  a  life  on  shore,  with  a  tolerable  competency,  to  the  tiresomeness  of  dje 

VOL.    I.  5   B  ^ 


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KBHOUBLRN'S  VOYAGE  TO  1 1IK  NOItl  II. 


"jca,  especially  in  bad  wruthcr,  I  wondered  that  any  man  (-nioyin);;  a  Mufficicncy  could  l)c 
indiKcd  to  trust  himhclf  twice  to  the  mercy  of  the  winds  and  billows  :  fortunately  i'ur  this 
condition  of  life,  one  hour  of  fair  weather  obliterates  the  remembrance  of  day  ti  of  danger 
and  toil. 

The  ninth,  we  had  the  same  weather,  the  wind  was  cmialty  l)oi»tcroiis,  and  the  sea  as 
tremendous  us  Ixfore  ;  I  still  kept  all  sails  reefed :  once  I  attempted  to  set  the  main  top. 
gallant  atid  the  mizen,  in  order  to  pass  by  day-light  the  latitude  of  another  bank  marked 
on  all  the  Dutch  charts,  md  the  existence  of  wnich  the  experienced  pilots  I  had  on 
JKiard  assured  me  had  been  veiilied  by  the  loss  of  several  vessels;  but  I  was  obliged  to 
haul  in  the  main-top-gallanf.  This  bank,  according  to  the  Dutch  accounts,  extends, 
from  N.  to  S.  eleven  leagues,  and  from  K.  to  VV.  about  five  leagues.  I  caused  it  to  be 
marked  on  our  charts.  I  do  not  affirm  there  being  any  very  high  shelving  or  dangerous 
sand  in  this  position ;  but  I  am  persuaded,  from  the  prodigious  numl)cr  of  birds,  the 
multitude  of  them  of  those  species  which  only  resort  to  shallows,  and  from  the  fre(|uent 
striking  of  the  waves  against  the  vessel,  that  there  is  a  bank  there.  Several  times  during 
the  d.iy,  and  in  the  evening,  I  sounded,  but  without  finding  a  bottom  :  when  exhausted 
by  tht.'  bad  wether,  and  the  violent  rolling  to  which  we  hacl  been  subject  for  two  days, 
I  was  anxious  to  get  some  rest,  and  laid  clown,  after  ordering  the  oiHcer  of  the  watch  to 
sound  ut  midnight ;  which  was  done.  After  letting  out  sixty-five  fathoms  of  line,  they 
cried  lx)ttom,  Ixcause  the  lead  did  not  draw  any  longer ;  but  as  the  tallow  with  which 
the  lead  is  loaded  to  take  the  impression  of  the  bottom  shewed  nothing,  they  thought 
they  might  have  been  deceived,  and  did  not  wake  me,  which  I  had  ordered  them  to  do, 
in  c'Abc  of  finding  bottom.  I  conjecture  that  we  passed  the  edge  of  tlie  bank,  and  fa- 
thomed it,  and  which  persuades  me  was  the  case,  on  examining  by  day-light  the  large 
end  of  the  lead  to  which  the  tallow  is  applied,  I  found  adhering  to  it  some  fine  grains  of 
sand,  the  roughness  of  which  was  distinguishable  by  the  finger ;  and  I  conceive  that  the 
violcni  agitation  of  the  waves  might  have  washed  the  lead  on  heaving  it  up,  and  the 
more  easily  from  the  grains  of  sand  being  very  fine  and  mixed  with  mud. 

The  tenth  and  eleventh,  the  same  wcatner  still  continued,  violent  east  winds,  and  very 
high  sea. 

On  the  eleventh  at  noon,  1  was  by  reckoning  in  61"  20'  latitude,  and  longitude  19°  30' 
westward  of  Paris ;  in  the  afternoon  the  wind  veered  to  the  S.  E.  it  was  less  impetuous, 
I  deemed  the  weather  notwithstanding  too  bad  to  make  land,  but  at  four  o'clock  seeing 
several  vessels  called  Doggers,  which  went  before  the  wind  to  the  N.  W.  I  judged  that 
they  who  \vere  fishermen  going  to  Iceland  had  fallen  in  the  day  before,  and  recognized 
the  isles  of  Ferro,  and  satisfied  with  respect  to  their  position,  they  bent  their  course  to  fall 
in  with  the  islands  of  Westerman,  which  are  to  the  S.  of  Iceland.  The  course  of  these 
doggers,  and  the  tiresomeness  of  the  bad  weather,  engaged  me  to  go  before  the  wind.  I 
did  not,  like  the  fishermen,  however,  keep  directly  before  the  wind,  but  steered  N.  N.  W. 
in  order  to  make  land  higher  up,  that  is  to  say,  more  to  the  east  than  the  Westerman 
islands. 

Lkept  on  this  tack  all  night,  and  until  five  the  next  morning,  the  twelfth  of  May, 
when  I  made  cape  Heckla ;  I  then  steered  W.  N.  W.  for  the  Westerman  islands,  which 
I  saw  at  eight  o'clock.  I  took  an  altitude  at  noon,  and  ftoni  the  difference  of  latitude 
by  observation  from  that  of  bearings,  I  found  that  on  tl)e  large  chart  of  M.  Bellin,  pub- 
lished in  1767,  the  coast  was  laid  down  in  general  8'  more  to  the  S.  than  what  it  ought 
to  be.  Oft'cape  Heckla,  in  the  morning,  we  noticed  the  variation  of  the  compass  was 
29**.  I  obserN'ed  that  cape  Heckla  had  two  points  stretching  from  E.  to  W.  We  saw 
also  mount  Heckla,  which  is  nearly  in  the  N.  W.  corrected  by  the  cape.   The  volcanoe 


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KEKGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


739 


of  this  mountain,  one  of  the  most  considerable  on  earth,  is  known  from  its  frequent,  and 
sometimes  terrible,  eruptions  :  towards  the  close  of  this  journal  I  shall  speak  of  it  more 
particularly.  Between  cape  Heckla  and  the  Wcstcrman  islands  the  land  falls  in  in  the 
bay,  owing  to  ivhich  I  understand  there  is  a  good  anchorage.  Above  all,  behind  4he 
western  pomt  of  cape  Heckla  there  are  excellent  moorings,  well  sheltered:  to  coup 
them  requires  a  south  or  westerly  wind.  There  are  many  passages  between  the  Wes- 
terman  islands,  but  they  are'  little  known,  being  unfrequented,  except  by  Iceland  fisher- 
men ;  nevertheless  some  fishing  smacks  lay  off  there  to  fish,  and  1  saw  a  dogger  from 
Dunkirk,  which  had  in  a  week's  time  caught  seventy  tons  of  cod  there.  A  violent  cur- 
rent  runs  between  all  these  islands  ;  they  appeared  to  me  to  stretch  more  to  the  S.  W. 
than  what  they  are  described  in  the  French  and  Dutch  maps.  The  distance  of  the 
Westerman  islands  to  the  western  point  of  Heckla  is  well  laid  down  on  the  chart  of  M. 
Bellin.  The  currents  run  to  the  W.  N.  W.  from  cape  Heckla  to  the  isle  of  Birds,  but 
in  the  midst  of  these  islands  they  run  N.  W.  with  dreadful  eddies.  At  new  and  full 
moon  it  is  high  water  at  eleven  o'clock.  Between  the  Westerman  islands  and  the  point 
of  Iceland  contiguous  to  the  isle  of  Birds,  ihere  is  anchorage,  under  shelter  from  ttieN. 
wind ;  but  if  the  wind  should  happen  to  change,  it  is  necessary  to  weigh  anchor  immC' 
diately  and  put  out  to  sea.  All  this  coast  is  very  healthy,  and  there  is  a  very  fine  pas- 
sage through  the  middle  of  the  isles  of  Birds. 

About  twenty  leagues  to  the  S.  of  the  western  point  of  Iceland  there  i:}  a  heap  of  rock's, 
which  form  a  low  and  dangerous  island :  it  was  not  described  in  our  chatts,  but  is  known 
to  the  Dutch  :  it  has  often  been  seen.  An  inhabitant  of  Iceland,  a  man  of  great  sense 
and  learning,  who  has  frequently  been  to  Copenhagen,  and  who  has  even  wrote  an  abridg- 
ed account  of  the  natural  history  of  Iceland,  has  often  spoke  to  me  of  this  dangerous  island, 
only  described  in  Dutch  charts.  Having  sent  him  a  large  French  chart  of  Iceland,  on 
which  I  had  marked  with  pencil  the  situation  of  this  heap  of  rocks,  according  to  the 
Dutch,  he  wrote  to  thank  me  in  Latin,  which  was  the  language  through  the  medium  of 
which  I  was  enabled  to  enjoy  his  learned  and  instructive  conversation ;  and  speaking 
of  this  island  this  was  his  remark :  "  Laetus  video  te  ipsum  notavisse  scopulos,  quos  ipse 
semel  vidi  transeundo."  I  see  with  pleasure  that  you  have  noticed  the  rocks,  which  I 
saw  also  in  sailing  by. 

On  the  twelfth,  at  six  in  the  evening,  the  winds  began  to  blow  pretty  strongly  from  the 
N.  E.  I  steered  N.  W.  quarter  W.  with  no  canvass  out,  in  order  that  I  might  not 
pass  by  the  isles  of  Birds  before  day-light.  The  wind  drove  us  nine  knots,  that  is  to  say, 
three  leagues  an  hour,  without  a  sail  up.  At  two  in  the  morning,  lying  N.  and  S.  of 
the  most  western  of  the  islands,  acconUng  to  reckomng,  I  was  desirous  of  caiTying  sail  to 
haul  the  wind ;  but  as  it  was  too  violent,  I  was  obliged  to  be  content  with  the  main  and 
mizen>sail  part  reefed. 

The  thirteenth,  by  observation  at  noon,  I  was  in  lat.  63^  15',  and  by  reckoning  in 
long.  26°  15' W.  of  Paris. 

In  the  night  between  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  the  wind  became  furious ;  I  low- 
ered the  mizen-yard  to  reef  in  the  sail,  and  at  one  in  the  morning  the  force  of  the  wind 
was  so  g^at  that  the  waves  could  not  rise,  and  the  sea  was  covered  with  foam.  A 
matter  which  astonished  me  was,  to  see  in  th.^  height  of  the  gale  thousands  of  birds  co- 
vering the  surface  of  the  main,  unappalled  by  the  approach  and  motion  of  the  vessel : 
the  force  of  the  vrind  had  driven  them,  I  imagined,  fh)m  the  islands  of  Birds.  This 
continual  violent  weather  began  to  try  my  frigate,  which  was  an  old  one ;  she  leaked, 
and  we  were  obliged  every  two  hours  to  keep  at  the  pump.  The  apprehension  of  being 
obliged  to  make  a  port,  without  being  able  to  complete  my  mission,  began  to  give  me 

5  B  2 


ft 


•^40  KERGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 

uneasiness ;  but  on  the  fifth  the  gale  abated,  the  tliermometer,  wliich  the  day  before  was 
'four  decrees  below  the  freezing  point,  was  now  three  degrees  higher,  from  which  I  drew 
an  auspicious  foreboding  of  finer  weather :  in  cfiect,  the  wind  changed  to  the  S.  E. 
blowing  a  little  fresh  by  eight  in  the  evening,  when  I  reckoned  myself  S.  of  the  largest 
of  the  isles  of  Birds,  at  eleven  leagues  distant.  I  steered  towards  the  north,  to  fall  in  with 
it ;  but  I  saw  no  island,  doubtless  from  the  currents  to  the  west  being  stronger  than  what 
I  had  esteemed  them.  When  N.  of  the  islands  of  Birds,  which  I  conjectured  myself  to 
be  from  the  run  I  had  made,  as  well  as  from  their  being  a  calmer  sea,  the  consequence 
of  being  between  lands,  I  steered  N.  £.  to  fall  in  with  the  coast,  and  to  make  it  the 
sooner. 

The  sixteenth,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  distant  fifteen  leagues,  I  descried 
mount  Jeugel,  l^earing  N.  £.  This  mountain,  or  rattier  cape,  which  advances  far  to 
sea,  rises  very  high  above  the  horizon  ;  I  think  it  may  be  discerned  in  fair  weather  twen. 
ty  leagues  at  sea.  It  must  be  remarked,  that  as  the  high  lands  of  Iceland  are  almost 
wholly  and  condnually  covered  with  snow,  and  resemble  each  other  in  colour,  in  order 
to  distinguish  one  from  the  other,  respect  must  be  had  to  their  height  and  shape.  Hav. 
ing  taken  the  latitude  imder  this  cape,  I  found  by  its  bearings  that  it  is  rightly  laid  down 
in  the  cliarts }  but  its  northern  point  is  not  sufficiently  far  stretched  out  upon  them  to 
the  N.  N.  £.  The  currents  here  run  N.  the  variation  31^.  Between  the  islands  of  Birds 
and  cape  Jeugel,  there  b  alai^  bay,  called  the  Bay  of  Hannefiord ;  it  is  litUe  known  to 
.  the  fishermen,  and  mv  examination  of  it  was  restricted  to  finding  that  several  fine  rivers 
empty  themselves  into  it,  and  that  to  the  S.  of  this  bay  there  is  an  island,  under  which 
there  is  good  anchorage,  sheltered  from  all  winds,  in  four  fathoms  water. 

Continuing  my  course  to  the  N.  £.  at  two  o'clock  I  made  the  point  of  Brederwick, 
or  Brederfiord.  The  gulf  of  Brederwick,  which  is  between  the  point  bearing  that 
name  and  mount  Jeugel,  is  very  spacious  and  very  deep.  It  is  twelve  leagues  wide  at 
the  mouth,  and  receives  many  large  rivers :  thtre  are  in  it  many  islands,  behind  which 
I  am  persuaded  there  must  l)e  excellent  anchorage,  but  they  are  not  known.  The  fish- 
ermen even  have  not  frequented  this  before  the  three  last  years :  there  b  notwithstand- 
ing a  quantity  of  cod  caught  here.  When  the  winds  are  northerly,  there  is  a  good 
mooring  at  the  northern  part  of  the  bay,  in  from  fifteen  to  twenty  fathoms  water,  with 
a  sandy  bottom  :  ships  frequently  anchor  here,  but  it  is  safr  only  during  the  prevalence 
of  northerly  winds. 

The  seventeenth,  in  the  morning,  the  wind  easterly,  I  stood  in  towards  point  Breder- 
wick, which  must  not  be  approached  nearer  than  to  two  cables  lengdi,  on  account  of 
a  sand  or  shelve  which  stretches  oiit  to  sea  from  that  point.  When  I  had  douUed  it,  I 
distinguished,  notwithstanding  the  fog,  more-  than  four  score  fishing  vesseb.  I  steered 
for  the  middle  of  them,  consisting  half  of  French,  half  of  Dutch,  and  hoisted  a  white  and 
blue  flag  at  the  fore-top-  (the  signal  agreed  upon)  to  make  myself  known.  I  spoke  se- 
veral French  fishermen,  in  order  to  learn  news  of  the  fleet,  and  what  the  success  of  the 
fishery.  I  spoke  a  Denmarker,  from  whom  I  learnt  that  he  had  already  taken  ten  lasts, 
a  considerable  quantity  for  a  month's  fishing,  for  a  last  b  fourteen  tons.  He  added, 
that  he  had  taken  six  lasts  in  the  Westermann  islands,  where  he  only  stopped  a  week. 
There  is  32<^  variation  at  the  point  of  Brederwick:  we  observed  it  many  times,  as  well 
by  corresponding  elevations,  ami  by  meridional  observations ;  for  every  body  knows 
that  when  the  polar  elevation  b  great,  the  eastern  and  western  observations  are  not  to  be 
depended  on. 

The  eighteenth,  nineteenth,  and  twentieth,  the  winds  continually  varied ;  they  were 
sometimes  N.  £.  then  S.  W.  at  times  light,  at  others  violent.    In  these  latitudes  there 


--—p 


KERGUBLEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH- 


741 


is  always  a  great  instability  in  the  winds ;  they  however  mostly  blow  N.  E.  and  S.  £. 
These  three  days  were  employed  in  reconnottering  the  coast,  and  in  taking  bearings,  and 
making  remarks  on  the  direction  of  the  shores. 

The  twenty- first  the  wind  was  W.  and  not  perceiving  more  than  two  or  three  vessels, 
I  bore  N.  N.  W.  to  seek  the  fleet.     At  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  six  or  seven  leagues 
from  tlie  land,  I  perceived  the  sea  white  before  me  to  the  horizon.     The  two  pilots  for 
those  coasts  which  I  had  on  board  assured  me  that  this  whiteness  was  nothing  but  the 
sea  itself,  which  was  frozen.     I  continued  my  course  N.  N.  W.  to  take  a  nearer  view, 
and  getting  within  a  half  a  league  of  it,  I  satisfied  myself,  the  sea  appearing  wholly  frozefi 
in  one  solid  mass,  extending  from  the  N.  W.  of  the  compass  as  far  as  to  the  North  Cape, 
which  was  at  £.  S.  £.    I  tacked  immediately,  to  avoid  the  danger,  and  warn  the  fleet  of 
it.    The  year  before  the  strait  between  Greenland  and  Iceland  had  been  entirely  frozen 
over  all  the  summer.     I  cannot  here  refrain  from  making  some  reflections  on  this  frozen 
sea,  and  on  the  mountains  of  ice  which  are  found  on  the  north  sea  during  voyages  from 
Europe  to  North  America,  and  sometimes  on  doubling  cape  Horn.    Some  have  been 
met  with,  which,  like  islands  oi  rather  continents,  appear  to  be  many  leagues  in  length, 
and  elevated  more  than  two  hundred  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  water.     How  are  we 
to  account  for  those  enormous  masses  ?  Every  body  knows  that  the  total  cessation  of 
motion  in  insensible  particles  causes  cold,  and  that  cold  is  the  immediate  and  true  cause 
of  the  formation  of  ice ;  that  there  are  other  subordinate  and  accidental  causes,  such  as 
spirits  of  salt  and  nitre,  which,  expanded  in  the  air#  occasion  even  in  the  midst  of  sum- 
mer such  extnmitf  cold,  as  to  freeze  lakes  and  rivers.    Thus  the  north  wind  in  the 
northern  hemisphere,  and  the  south  wind  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  contribute  to  cold 
and  the  forming  of  ice,  because  they  bring  from  the  poles  corpuscles  or  cold  particles, 
wliich,  penetrating  ite  surfaces  v>f  bodies,  suspend  the  motion  of  the  imperceptible  par- 
ticles. I  shall  enter  in^.o  some  detail  to  develope  the  different  causes  of  cold  and  ice. 

I  compute,  in  tdie  first  place,  on  the  exbtence,  as  a  base,  of  an  aetherial  Otatter,  ex. 
tremely  subtle  and  active,  which  surrounds  and  penetrates  in  a  larger  or  smaller  degree 
all  liquid  substances ;  if  its  motion  be  lessened,  its  spring  become  weak,  so  that  it  be  no 
longer  able  to  overcome  the  resbtance  of  the  integral  parts  of  the  liquid  (that  is,  which 
causes  the  cold)  ice  will  be  produced ;  thus  the  formation  of  ice  is,  the  immediat^^Tesult 
of  the  diminished  motion  of  the  subtle  matter  which  constitutes  fire  and  heat. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  accidental  causes.  Salt,  nitre,  saltpetre,  these  make  up  the 
first  accidental  cause  of  the  formation  of  ice.  In  places  where  they  abound  the  air  be- 
comes loaded  with  them,  they  penetrate  the  pores  of  liquids  like  so  many  small  wedges, 
they  close  the  passages  against  the  entrance  of  the  gross  particles  of  the  subtile  matter, 
stop  the  motbn  of  the  imperceptible  particles  of  liquids,  and  thus  harden  and  convert 
them  into  ice.  It  is  thus  that  in  certain  caverns,  whose  neighbourhood  abounds  in  nitre, 
pyramids  of  ice  are  formed,  as  in  a  cave  near  the  village  of  Chaux,  five  leagues  from  Be- 
sancon,  where  tiiree  were  found,  in  the  montii  of  l^ptember  1711,  of  fifteen  feet  in 
height.^    Wuid  I  consider  to  be  the  second  cause  of  ice. 

Many  persons  imagine  the  wind  to  be  an  obstacle  to  the  formation  of  ice ;  it  is  true, 
when  it  has  much  hold  of  an  extensive  surface  of  water,  as  of  rivers,  lakes,  and  seas,  it 
frequentiy  hinders  them  from  freezing  wlule  it  continues  to  agitate  them,  and  deprives 
the  integral  parts  of  the  liquid  from  uniting  toother,  notwithstanding  it  is  cert^n  tiiat 
for  the  most  part  nind  ought  to  accelerate  freezmg,  as  I  am  about  to  explam.  In  cold 
weather,  approaching  to  frost,  a  dry  wind,  such  as  ^  N.  E.  in  our  climate,  contributes 


■.,<,1-     ,*>v(»^       »•  .>.l-i 


•  HiBtoire  de  I'Acad.  17  >  3.  p.  22. 


742 


KERGUELKN'S  VOYAGE  TO  TIIR  NOliTli. 


to  freezing ;  for  the  air,  which  is  at  rest  on  the  surface  of  a  liquid,  participates  by  de- 
grees  of  the  coldness  thereof,  and  keeps  at  that  temperature ;  so  that  the  subtile  matter 
which  circulates  in  the  interstices  of  the  liquid,  and  the  motion  of  which  is  always  in 
proportion  to  the  motion  of  that  which  immediately  surrounds  it,  is  not  yet  sufficiently 
weakened  to  admit  of  freezing  taking  place  ;  but  if  the  communication  of  cold  to  the 
surface  of  the  liquid  be  hastened  by  a  violent  imj^ulsion  of  the  air,  which  immediately 
adjoins  its  surface,  and  substituting  (which  the  wind  does)  a  more  cold  and  dense  air, 
such  as  is  requisite  for  occasioning  congelation,  the  subtile  exterior  matter  imposed  on 
the  liquid  will  be  weakened,  and,  by  this  means,  that  in  the  interior  as  well,  which  must 
necessarily  lose  in  its  action  as  much  as  the  external,  in  order  to  preserve  an  equilibrium. 
Nevertheless,  should  the  fresh  airs  remain  at  rest,  freezing  would  not  succeed ;  but  if 
continually  cold  air  in  succession  should  drive  away  that  which  preceded  it,  until  that 
which  should  be  of  a  temperature  to  excite  freezing  shduld  be  in  contact,  it  is  evident, 
that  ultimately  it  must  communicate  its  frigidity  to  the  liquid,  and  paralize  the  motion  of 
the  internal  matter  so  as  to  occasion  frost ;  thus  wind  produces  frost,  as  a  fan  excites  in 
our  frame  the  sensation  of  coolness,  by  expelling  from  around  us  the  airs  warmed  by  our 
secretions  and  breathing. 

The  third  accidental  cause  of  the  formation  of  ice  is,  the  diminution  of  the  exterior 
heat  of  the  sun,  arising  from  the  distance  of  its  source,  the  oblique  and  ungain  disposi- 
tion  of  the  surface  which  receives  its  rays,  and,  lastly,  the  interposition  of  vapours,  and 
dense  and  dark  atmosphere,  such  as  a  fog,  which  in  measure  intercepts  its  rays.  It  is 
to  be  observed  as  well,  that  the  obliquity  of  the  globe  causes  the  solar  rays  to  be  inter* 
cepted  by  a  greater  column  of  air. 

There  are  besides  many  other  accidental  causes,  such  as  climate,  local  circumstances, 
and  the  suppression  of  the  central  aspirations,  or  vapours,  which  are  continually  arising 
from  the  bosom  of  the  earth.  Many  naturalists,  and  particularly  a  celebrated  academe- 
cian,  M.  Dortous  de  Mait-an,  have  maintained  the  theory  of  a  central  fire. 

From  this  short  dissertation,  and  from  examination  of  circumstances,  it  is  easy  to 
conceive  that  the  sea  may  freeze  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  poles,  even  as  far  as 
forty  leagues  from  the  shore  ;*  and  that  considerable  masses  of  ice  may  be  met' with 
at  sea;  but  how  are  we  to  account  for  the  pyramids,  the  islands,  and  towering  heaps 
of  ice  of  six  or  eight  leagues  in  length  which  are  found  floating  ?  These  mountains  of  ice, 
formed  at  first  by  the  anion  of  different  masses,  owe  their  height  to  snow,  and  rain, 
frozen  on  its  reaching  them ;  and  I  am  inclined  to  imagine,  that  when  become  of  a  cer. 
tain  size,  they  always  increase  in  bulk.  A  learned  Englishman,  who  wrote  in  the  mid' 
die  of  the  last  century,  adopted  the  ideaof  their  being  perpetual,  especially  near  the  poles, 
and  computed  that  they  rose  so  high  as  to  cause  the  figure  of  the  earth  to  be  sensibly 
lengthened  thereby  at  the  extremities  of  its  axis  :t  It  is  on  this  theory  that  he  explains 
the  elliptic  appearance  of  the  shadow  of  the  earth  on  the  disk  of  the  moon  in  two  eclipses, 
the  one  observed  by  Kepler,  the  other  by  Tycho  Brah^ ;  but  all  these  reasonings  are 
unfounded.  The  sea  is  not  frozen  round  the  poles  for  a  greater  distance  than  fifteen 
or  twenty  leagues  from  land,  and  the  mountains  of  ice  which  various  navigators  have 
seen  have  no  more  effect  in  altering  the  rotundity  of  the  globe,  than  five  or  six  grains 
of  millet  floating  on  the  surface  of  a  globe  of  four  or  five  feet  in  diameter. 

The  twenty.secon|d,  the  wind  was  N.  W.  a  very  fresh  sale,  the  weather,f(^;gy,  with 
a  heavy  sea ;  and  perceiving  every  appearance  of  a  tempest,  I  decided  on  making  land,  to 
take  shelter  in  the  gulf  of  Patrixfiord.     At  eleven  in  the  morning,  during  a  moment's 


*  Memoires  de  Tr^voux. 


t  Mr.  Childrey's  Historyof  the  Singularities  of  Scotland. 


KERCUELEN'8  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


743 


clearness,  I  saw  several  vessels  which  were  making  for  different  ports,  to  shield  themselves 
from  the  threatened  storm.  For  my  part,  I  preferred  the  gulf  of  Patrixfiord,  l)ccausu 
one  of  the  directors  of  the  Danish  company  resided  there,  and  the  whole  of  the  coast  of- 
fered so  secure  a  road,  that,  using  an  expression  of  Virgil,  we  may  justly  denominate  it, 
"  Sedestutissimanavi."  I  entered  the  gulf,  sounding  all  the  way;  I  found  continually 
from  thirty  to  thirty-five  fathoms  water,  with  a  muddy  bottom,  and  when  I  had  doubled 
the  warehouses  of  the  company,  which  I  left  to  leeward  a  quarter  of  a  league  distant,  I 
anchored  in  twenty-two  lihthoms,  with  a  muddy  bottom.  I  stopped  with  the  anchor  a- 
peak  for  some  time,  while  we  sounded  all  round  the  frigate,  and,  when  I  found  no  danger 
to  be  apprehended,  I  let  out  eighty  fathom  of  cable,  and  moored  S.  E.  and  N.  W.  I  then 
bore  N.  N.  E.  upon  the  warehouses  of  the  director,  the  pyramids  of  stone,  which  are  the 
point  of  the  gravel  lying  N.  five  degrees  E.  and  the  first  point  out  of  the  gulf  bearing 
r«f.  W.  a  quarter  N  five  degrees  N.  I  could  have  anchored  nearer  the  shore  more  deep 
in  the  inlet,  but  it  would  not  have  been  so  advantageous  a  position  to  sail  from.  The 
proper  time  to  anchor  is  on  bearing  N.  and  S.  of  the  point  of  gravel. 

As  soon  as  my  frigate  was  moored,  I  went  to  the  director  of  the  Danish  company, 
whom  I  informed  that  the  bad  weather  had  forced  mc  to  anchor  there  :  that  the  king  of 
France  had  sent  me  to  preserve  a  proper  discipline  and  good  order  among  the  fisher- 
men, and  to  hinder  their  trading  with  the  inhabitants  of  Iceland,  or  doing  any  thing 
which  might  be  considered  as  infringing  the  privileges  of  the  company.  1  he  director 
received  me  with  a  cool  civility,  and  did  not  appear  to  give  much  credit  to  what  I  said. 
It  had  been  told  him,  that  there  were  three  French  frigates  in  that  latitude,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  protecting  a  smuggling  trade  with  the  inhabitants,  and  that  we  certainly  had  bad 
designs ;  but  very  soon  he  was  dissuaded  from  such  an  opinion,  and  convinced  of  the 
contrary.  The  order  which  I  preserved  quickly  destroyed  the  wrong  impressions  which 
had  been  stamped  on  his  mind  respecting  us.  I  always  kept  a  guard  in  my  row-boats, 
never  suffered  any  but  the  officers  to  go  on  shore,  and,  for  any  thing  I  wanted,  addressed 
myself  to  the  director. 

The  day  after  my  arriving  in  the  bay,  the  wind  being  still  N.  W.  the  sky  clear,  and 
the  weather  sufficiently  mild,  I  sounded  the  roadsted,  and  took  bearings.  For  several 
days  I  continued  the  same  employment.  I  determined  the  position  of  the  principal 
points  by  means  of  a  rule  with  copper  mountings,  furnished  with  a  telescope,  and  con- 
trived to  form  a  plai  of  the  bay,  on  which  reliance  may  be  placed,  as  well  for  luffing  as 
for  anchoring,  although  not  laid  down  with  the  nicest  precision. 

The  twenty-ninth,  at  noon,  a  violent  gale  of  wind  arose  from  the  N.  £.  which  lasted 
forty-eight  hours.  As  I  was  moored  at  the  foot  of  a  liigh  mountain,  which  covered  the 
station,  the  sea  did  not  run  very  high :  but  the  swiftness  of  the  clouds,  and  the  whist- 
ling of  the  wind  in  the  rigging,  shewed  the  force  of  the  gale.  The  cold  \vas  intolerable ; 
'  Reaumur's  thermometer  was  on  the  thirtieth  at  4°  below  0.  The  storm  drove  to  the  en- 
trance of  the  bay  several  large  fragments  of  ice,  detached  in  all  probability  from  the  fro- 
zen ocean,  which  I  had  had  sight  of.  The  si^t  of  these  islets  of  ice  surprised  me  less 
than  the  information  which  I  received  of  the  road  of  Patrixfiord  having  been,  as  it  were, 
covered  with  ice  on  the  fourteenth  of  May.  This  is  however  what  the  director  told  me, 
as  well  as  several  of  my  officers.  The  storm  occasioned  thirty-six  fishing  vessels,  French 
and  Dutcli,  to  go  into  port ;  several  of  which  had  received  damage,  which  I  caused  to  be 
repaired  with  diligence ;  so  that  in  three  days  such  as  had  been  injured  were  in  condition 
to  return  to  sea. 


^;. 


Mi  ...xWifM 


mm^le>!M^M'-'M'ii^!ii0is^'^^ 


744 


KERGUBLEN'8  VOYAGE  TO  TUB  NORTH. 


SECOND  PART. 


CONTAINING  A  DESCRimriON  OF  ICELAND. 


During  my  stay  in  Iceland,  I  neglected  nothing  in  making  myself  acquainted  with 
what  was  remarkable  in  this  island,  such  as  the  mode  of  living  of  its  inhabitants, 
their  manners,  their  religion,  and  government  I  paid  attention  to  all  these,  and  the 
frequent  conversations  which  I  had  with  Mr.  Olave,  who  had  dwelt  a  long  time  at 
Patrixliord,  and  who  was  very  learned,  gave  me  information  on  every  subject  which 
can  be  gratifying  to  the  reader  relative  to  this  country.  Some  writers  have  spoken  of 
this  island  but  merely  from  the  report  of  a  few  fishermen,  or  sailors,  very  ill  inform^ 
ed,  and  very  incapable  of  giving  due  regard  to  things.  Mr.  Andersen,  burgomaster 
of  Hamburghj  who  published  the  natural  history  oithe  country  in  German,  obtained 
all  that  he  collected  relative  to  Iceland  from  the  oral  testimony  of  fishermen.  Mr. 
Horrebows  also  has  given  the  world  an  historical  and  physical  description  of  the  island, 
in  the  German  tongue,  with  critical  observations  on  the  history  of  Mr.  Andersen. 
These  two  authors  frequently  contradict  each  other.  We  have  as  well  a  description 
of  Iceland  by  Pieriere,  author  of  the  system  of  Psedamites.  These  are  the  three 
writers  who  have  furnished  us  with  any  knowledge  of  Iceland ;  but  as  all  their  his* 
tories  are  replete  with  errors,  I  conceive  that  the  reader  will  not  object  to  a  more 
exact  and  faithful  account  here  offered  him.  I  shall  follow  the  steps  of  Mr.  Horre- 
bows, who  was  born  a  Dane,  and  is  best  informed. 

The  island  of  Iceland  is  situated  in  the  north  sea,  between  63"  and  67*  N.  lati- 
tude,  and  between  IS**  and  30"  W.  of  Paris.  The  etymology  of  the  word  is  derived 
from  ice  and  land.  The  fi'ost,  which  is  so  severe,  and  in  the  mountains,  which  are 
constantly  covered  with  snow  and  ice,  gave  origin  to  the  word. 

Iceland  is  one  hundred  and  thirty  leagues  long,  of  twenty- five  to  a  degree,  and  se- 
venty leagues  wide ;  it  is  only  seventy.eight  sea-leagues  distant  fi-om  Ferro,  and  thir- 
ty-five from  Greenland;  which,  on  the  coast  opposite  to  Iceland,  is  inaccessible,  fi-om 
the  ice  and  rocks  which  surround  it. 

History  does  not  positively  fix  the  period  of  the  discovery  of  Iceland ;  some  writers 
have  taken  it  to  be  the  Thule  of  the  ancients,  mentioned  by  Virgil,  lib.  I.  Georg.  I 
rather  ima^ne  this  Thule  to  be  Ireland,  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  leagues  from  Ice- 
land. Angrinus  Jonas,  author  of  the  Icelandic  Chronicles,  refutes  the  opinion  of 
writers,  especially  Pontanus,  who  contended  for  Iceland  being  the  ancient  Thule,  in 
his  Specimen  Islandicum. 

This  island  was  discovered  in  798  by  Nadocus,  who  called  itSneeland,  on  account 
of  the  great  quantity  oi  snow  with  which  it  was  covered.  In  873  a  Swede,  named 
Gardanus,  observed  it  more  particulariy.  The  following  year  a  Norwecpan  pirate, 
called  Flocco,  gave  it  the  name  of  Iceland ;  and  in  the  year  874  Ingulf,  or  Ingultus,  a 
Norwegian  nobleman,  took  refuge  here,  in  consequence  of  having  killed  two  barons 
of  his  country.  He  found  it  uncultivated,  and  very  thinly  inhabited;  he  is  said  to 
have  been  its  first  king. 

Every  thing  I  have  said  shews  that  Iceland  was  very  little  known,  and  the  first  ideas . 
we  have  had  of  the  country  originated  in  Mr.  Andersen  and  Mr.  Horrebows.         -t' 

The  maps  of  tliis  island  have  been  hitherto  very  defective.  Europe  had  no  other 
map  of  it  than  that  of  Andrew  Velleius,  a  Dane,  engraved  in  1585,  cooied  by  the' 
Dutch  in  1698,  and  by  Mr.  Bellin  in  1751,  for  his  reduced  chart  of  the  North  Sea. 
This  skilful  hydrographer,  whose  useful  labours  have  furnished  us  with  so  fine  a  col- 
lection of  plans  and  charts  of  every  kind,  presented  me  with  a  map  of  this  island  on  a 


*l'?a.^**fc:.'*i-lim-Lf-,"-i^jM'T:J'.-^jwt  .-rtw-rti-f"*****-**— - 


KEUGUELKN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


745 


large  scale,  reduced  from  a  greater  drawn  by  Danish  surveyors  from  actual  observation, 
and  finished  in  1734 ;  I  found  it  however  very  bad  and  highly  dangerous.  In  my  two 
voyages  I  neglected  nothing  in  correcting  it ;  and  I  flatter  myself  that  all  navigators 
will  bie  perfectly  satisfied  with  that  which  Mr.  Bellin  is  about  to  publish  from  my  remarks 
and  observations. 

Iceland  is,  as  it  were,  nothing  but  a  heap  of  mountains  and  rugged  rocks,  which  cut 
each  other  in  parallel  lines  nearly  in  the  directioa  of  the  cardinal  points ;  but  between 
these  rocks  and  mountains  are  fine  vallies,  furnishing  good  pasture  for  flocks.  These 
mountains  are  almost  all  barren,  and  continually  covered  with  ice  and  snow.  Manv  of 
the  mountains  are  volcanic,  but  the  most  famous  in  the  island,  and  even  in  the  whole 
world,  is  that  called  Heckia ;  in  1766  it  vomited  forth  such  a  prodigious  quantity  of 
stones,  that  the  sea  was  covered  with  them  for  twenty  leagues  from  the  shore  in  the 
southern  part.  It  is  nowise  surprising  that  these  stones  should  float,  penetrated  as  they 
are  by  so  violent  a  fire,  that  it  consumes  all  their  solid  parts.  The  mountains  which  are 
continually  covered  with  snow  are  called  Joekul,  or  Jeckelen  ;  they  yield  in  the  sum* 
mer  large  torrents,  whose  troubled  and  dirty  waters  exhale  a  most  feted  smell.  In  the 
neighbourhood'of  these  Jeckelen  there  are  some  mountains  more  lofty,  but  on  which  ice 
b  not  perpetually  found,  doubtless  on  account  of  saltpetre  in  them,  which  causes  it  to 
thaw.  A  singular  circumstance  is  noticeable  in  the  Jeckelen ;  they  increase,  diminish, 
become  hieher  and  lower  daily ;  every  passing  moment  adds  to  or  takes  from  their 
shape ;  so  uiat  if  desirous  of  following  the  steps  of  any  one,  who  the  day  before  should 
have  travelled  among  them,  the  traces  are  suddenly  lost  at  the  bottom  of  an  enormous 
accumulation  of  ice,  which  it  is  impossible  to  traverse ;  and  if  it  be  passed  by  a  circuitous 
route  to  the  rieht  or  left,  the  steps  of  the  traveller  are  distinguishable  again  at  the  same 
elevation,  and  in  the  same  line  as  the  former  track,  which  is  a  proof  of  the  non-existence 
of  the  mass  of  ice  upon  the  previous  day ;  it  must  be  conrcssed  thb  phenomenon  is 
siranilar. 

That  travelUng  is  difficult  in  thb  country  from  this  is  easily  deducible,  there  b  no  road 
for  carts  or  carriages ;  the  mode  of  travelling  and  transporting  of  effects  is  by  horses ;  but 
in  many  places  there  is  no  means  of  advancmg  except  on  foot,  when  the  merchants  are 
dbliged  to  carry  every  thing  on  their  backs :  add  to  which,  the  traveller  is  not  secure  c£ 
being  able  to  pass  one  year  by  the  same  h)ute  he  did  the  preceding ;  for  thaws  sometimes 
separate  rocks  in  twain,  which  presents  an  invincible  obstacle,  and  torrents  nishing  from 
the  mountains  precipitate  into  the  roads  heaps  of  stones,  which  cover  and  render  them 
impassable. 

Iceland  at  this  time  contains  more  than  seventy  thousand  souls ;  before  that  terrible 
pestilence,  known  by  the  name  of  the  black  plague,  which  ravaged  the  whole  of  the  north 
m  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  it  was  much  more  populous.  The  Icelandic  an- 
mds  make  no  mention  of  thb  calami^,  it  b  only  known  by  oral  tradition,  that  the  infec- 
tion existed  in  the  vallies  covered  with  a  heavy  dew,  and  that,  as  a  preservative  from 
death,  it  u  as  requi^te  to  fly  to  the  lughest  rocks. 

The  maritime  part  is  l?<tter  peojded  than  the  interior,  on  account  of  the  prodigious 
quantity  df  fish  which  re^  to  the  coasts,  and  the  facility  of  trading  with  the  vessels  of. 
the  company  established  in  <!^fferent  ports.  It  would  be  much  more  populous  were  it 
not  for  the  frequent  earthi^^es,  which  have  oftentimes  destroyed  numbers  of  the  in- 
habitants, and  whatever  M.i^:|||pfTebow,  who  ridicules  M.  Andersen  for  his  remarks 
on. the  destructive  igneous' idi^tions  and  earthquakes,  may  say,  the  recital  Of  M. 
Horrebow  himself  wiU  shew  wfae^r  or  no  these  fires  are  matters  to  be  li^tly  esteemed.  ' 
Thb  b  hb  own  relation  of  them.    "  In  1726  some  shocks  of  an 'earthquake  were  per- 

yoL,^.  So  ,  •  ;^?^,:vj,  ■'  ■ 


m 


^i 


:'4' 


iiCiiliitliMfc'P'' 


I. 

.» 


746 


KEIIOUKLEN'S  VOYACJE  TO  TUB  NORTH. 


(I 


'I 


W 


ctivcd  in  the  northern  districts ;  after  these  a  considerable  mountain,  called  Krafle, 
began  with  a  dreadful  noise  to  vomit  forth  smoke,  fire,  ashes,  and  stones.  Horrible 
signt  for  those  who  dwelt  in  the  neighbourhood,andparticularlyfortwo  travellers  who 
happened  to  be  passing  below  the  mountain  !  To  them,  however,  from  there  being  no 
wind,  not  any  accident  occurred,  the  ignited  stonescastup  by  the  mountain  falling  back 
perpendicularlv.  It  continued  burning  for  two  or  three  years  ;  and,  in  1728,  the  fire 
communicatea  to  some  mountains  of  sulphursituated  near  the  volcano;  they  burnt  for 
some  time  until  the  mineral  matter  had  melted,  and  formed  a  river  of  fire  which  run 
from  the  mountain  towards  the  south.  The  inhabitants  established  on  the  borders  of 
a  great  lake,  called  My-Varne,  three  leagues  distant  from  the  mountain,  were  appre- 
hensive of  this  burning  river,  which  continued  advancing  towards  their  abode.  YUcy 
took  away  the  wood  of  their  houses  to  remove  to  some  other  spot ;  at  length  it  conti- 
nued its  course,  and  proceeded  to  the  farms  and  the  lake  before  mentioned.  There  it 
overturned,  burnt,  and  consumed  a  farm,  called  Keikchild,  its  meadows,  and  two 
other  farms,  named  GrofTand  Fragrcnes,  situated  on  the  lower  shore  of  the  lake.  It  at 
length  discharged  itself  into  the  lake  My- Varne  with  a  frightful  noise,  causing  an  ebul- 
lition, a  frothy  whirlpool  in  the  highest  degree  horrible."  From  thi»  description  of 
Mr.  Horrebow,  who  cer^inly  did  not  exaggerate,  for  he  was  very  much  inclined, 
being  a  Dane,  to  lessen  the  physical  vices  of  an  island  belonging  to  Denmark,  some 
judgment  may  be  formed  of  the  volcanic  eruptions  and  earthquakes,  to  which  Iceland 
is  liable  :  it  is  certainly  true,  that  it  is  subject  to  all  sorts  of  catastrophes.  Mountains 
are  seen  to  sink  in  an  instant,  and  lakes  form  ;  Jeckelen,  or  ice  mountains,  to  melt,  and 
throw  out  fire,  uniting  the  double  horror  of  flood  and  conflagration. 

Springs  of  hot  water  are  found  in  several  districts  of  Iceland.  Messrs.  Horrebow 
and  Andersen  agree  upon  the  singular  eflccts  of  many  of  these  springs,  but  the  most 
curious  of  all  these  fountains  is  that  situated  near  a  farm  called  Raycum,  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Huzevig.  There  are  three  hot  springs  distant  from  each  other  about  thirty 
toises;  the  water  boils  in  each  alternately.  They  rise  from  aflat  surface;  two  of  them 
throw  up  water  frojn  the  midst  of  stones  to  the  height  of  eighteen  inches :  the  third  has 
a  round  opening  of  the  size  of  a  brewer's  vat,  and  throws  up  water  ten  feet  high. 
What  is  surprising,  these  springs  only  play  alternately,  and  alter  having  boiled  three 
times,  which  serves  as  a  notice  to  those  who  are  nigh  to  retire.  It  is  remarkable,  that 
when  a  stone  of  whatever  dimensions  is  cast  into  them,  the  force  of  the  ebullition  is  so 
great  as  to  throw  it  back.  M.  Olave  informed  me,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  these  hot  springs  use  them  for  cooking  their  meat  and  fish,  and  that  tra- 
vellers heat  water  in  them  for  making  tea. 

Marble  is  found  in  some  parts  of  the  island,  and  crystal  frequently  in  the  rocks.  The 
crystal  of  Iceland  possesses  the  faculty  of  doubling  the  objects  which  are  seen  through 
it.  Mr.  Horrebow  conceives  it  to  be  rather  a  lapis  specularis  than  a  crystal.  He  is 
mistaken,  as  well  as  others,  who  have  imagined  it,  from  its  leafy  tissue,  to  be  a  sort  of 
talc.  Some  have  reckoned  it  in  the  number  of  selenites ;  but  it  is  demonstrated  to 
be  a  calcareous  spar,  which  care  must  be  taken  in  ranking  with  other  substances  re- 
sembling it.  The  excellent  work  of  Huygensonlight  may  be  consulted  upon  this  sub- 
ject, with  the  Memoirs  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  for  the  year  1710,  p.  341. 

Iceland  contains  in  its  bowels  mines  of  copper  and  iron  ;  and  I  myself  have  often 
found  pure  masses  of  these  metals  in  the  mountains.  M.  Horrebow  certifies,  that 
large  lumps  of  silver  are  firquently  found  almost  at  the  siuikce  of  the  earth ;  this  I  ne- 
ver saw,  nor  ever  heard  of  any  body's  finding.        J  .    •      ,.    ;ri>  ,^..  * ,  .J,  . .  , 


-^r 


I'llt 

i 


KERGUELEN'S  VOYAOE  TO   uii:  NOUTM 


"47 


Brimstone  is  met  with  both  in  the  plains  and  mountains.  It  is  discovered  by  the  va- 
pours rising  from  the  earth,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  hot  springs.  It  is  always  covered 
with  a  stratum  of  slime,  or  sand.  It  is  of  diflercnt  colours,  whitc^  yellow,  green,  red, 
and  blue.  It  is  not  necessary  to  dig  lower  than  three  or  four  feet  to  find  exceeding  good 
sulphur.  Those  places  are  preferred  where  there  are  small  emiocnces,  at  the  summit  of 
which  is  a  focus  by  which  a  hot  vapour  exhales.  At  a  short  distance  from  the  eminence 
sulphur  is  met  with  in  small  detached  lumps,  but  it  is  under  the  eminence  itself  that  it 
is  found  the  most  compact  and  in  the  greatest  quantity.  The  workmen  who  dig  the  suU 
phur  mines  take  especial  care  to  envelope  their  shoes  with  coarse  woollen  rags,  in  order 
to  preserve  their  feet  from  the  heat  i  in  fact,  the  brimstone,  when  fresh  brought  from  the 
mine,  is  so  hot,  that  it  is  impossible  to  keep  it  in  the  hand. 

M.  Horrebow  criticises  M.  Andersen,  upon  his  saying  that  no  wood  is  found  on  the 
island ;  he  then  gives  an  account  of  two  or  three  forests,  which  he  affirms  are  more  than 
half  a '  ague  in  circumference.  For  my  part  I  never  saw  any  wood,  and  have  been  told 
that  there  is  none  other  than  brambles  and  small  bushes,  such  as  thorns  and  juniper :  but 
nature,  always  beneficent,  makes  up  this  deficiency  by  the  prodigious  quantity  of  wood 
which  the  sea  throws  on  shore  in  several  parts  of  the  i^and.  On  the  coasts  where  this  ad. 
vantage  is  wanting  the  inhabitants  make  their  fires  of  turf,  and  the  refuse  offish,  dipped  in 
oil  made  from  cods'  liver.  In  many  places  old  roots  are  dragged  from  the  ground,  which 
proves  that  the  island  was  formerly  covered  with  wood. 

M.  Olave  shewed  me  pieces  of  a  singular  kind  of  wood  found  in  sand,  and  at  times  in 
the  midst  of  stones.  This  wood,  to  which  he  gave  the  Latin  name  of  lignum  fo:»ile,  is 
black,  heavy,  and  resembles  ebony.  The  Icelanders  call  it  schwartzen  brand,  black 
brand.  It  is  found  both  in  broad  and  narrow  pieces,  and  always  among  rocks  surround- 
ing it.  This  wood,  if  it  be  wood,  deserves  the  particular  attention  of  naturalists.  I  give 
here  the  substance  of  what  M.  Olave  says  of  it  in  one  of  his  letters.  "  Some  persons 
rank  fossil  wood  among  the  class  of  petrefactions,  but  improperly,  perhaps  owing  to  their 
not  having  seen  it  itself.  The  nature  of  it,  in  which  it  bears  resemblance  to  wood,  of 
splitting,  being  cut,  and  receiving  a  fine  polish,  sufficiently  proves  the  contrary.  Never* 
theless  this  fossil  genus  is  not  wood,  nor  vegetable,  since  it  does  not  possess  proper  ves< 
sels  for  the  reception  of  alimentary  juices,  nor  either  throws  out  roots  below,  or  spreads 
its  branches  above  the  earth.  It  is  called  black  brand  by  the  Icelanders.  It  thrusts  itself 
from  the  fissures  of  dirty  rocks,  either  abounding  in  bark,  or  for  the  most  part  earthy  ; 
on  the  inside  it  is  curious  for  its  very  fine  grr'n,  which  runs  in  the  course  of  its  length  ; 
in  its  most  internal  part,  where  most  perfect,  it  is  wavy,  and  does  not  yield  to  etwny. 
Hence  it  is  turned  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  into  stands  for  caskets,  tables,  &c. 
Heavier  than  any  other  wood,  it  sinks  in  water,  is  not  liable  to  rot,  nor  easy  to  be  con- 
sumed by  fire,  burning  like  earth.  In  its  substance  it  bears  resemblance  to  wood,  in  its 
origin  to  minerals ;  whence  can  it  be  that  in  Iceland,  where  it  was  first  produced,  it 
should  be  so  long  unknown,  and  its  nature  for  so  long  a  time  be  unexplored  ?  How 
comes  it  that  a  matter  so  curious  has  not  been  thought  worthy  the  trouble  of  more  dili- 
gent  inquiry  V*  The  reader  may  not  be  displeased  with  my  producing  this  fragment  of 
a  letter,  which  may  serve  to  make  him  acq^uainted  with  the  nature  of  this  fossil  wood. 

A  botanist  would  find  much  to  observe  in  Iceland.  I  shall  not  detail  the  numerous 
salutary  plants  wluch  the  earth  produces  in  large  quantities,  many  of  them  unknown  in 
France ;  these  matters  are  not  in  my  way,  but  I  could  not  refrain  noticing,  while  I  ad- 
mired the  wise  bounty  of  Providence,  that  those  simples  the  most  neccbsary  to  the  in- 
habitants were  the  most  common,  such  as  garlick,  sorrel  and  cochlearia ;  excellent  pre^ 
servatives  against  the  scurvy,  which  is  the  most  prevalent  malady  of  the  country.     An- 

5  c  2 


1 


I 


I 


i 

1! 


f   i 

* 


iSifMa^a'!  i/'"'S-!i!i'iV(;.' 


748 


KEnnUKLRN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THK  NORTH. 


1^ 


celica  ns  well  is  met  with  every  where,  it  grows  so  plenteoiHly  that  the  inhabitants  often 
hvc  upon  it  themselves,  and  give  it  to  their  cattle  ;  it  is  moreover  of  a  most  exquisite 
flavour,  and  extraordinary  size. 

Uut  the  most  singular  and  valuable  plant  is  that  which  is  found  upon  the  rocks ;  it  is  a 
species  of  moss,  which  very  much  resembles  lungwort,  or  ladies'  wild-wort.  Many  Ice- 
landers make  flour  of  it  which  they  prefer  to  wheat :  it  is  called  by  them  fialla-gras,  or 
rock-grass.  M.  Olavc  sending  me  at  the  same  time  a  handful  of  it,  thus  speaks  in  praise 
of  the  Mlunt  in  one  of  his  letters.  "  1  send  to  you,  sir,  a  herb,  which  resembling  lung's, 
wort  serves  among  the  Icelanders  as  a  succcdaneum  for  bread,  it  is  called  Iceland  moss, 
and  grows  on  the  rocks  of  the  loftier  mountains,  so  that  with  truth  we  may  say,  God 
gives  us  bread  from  stones.  It  never  grows  in  earth  or  soil  of  any  description,  nor  casts 
forth  roots.  It  afibrds  us  a  noble  feast ;  the  powder  of  it,  taken  most  frequently  in  milk, 
is  so  pleasant  and  si\lubrious,  that  I  prefer  it  to  every  kind  of  flour ;  it  is  besides  an  excel- 
Itnt  stomachic,  and  a  most  safe  meoicinc  in  dysentery."  The  reader  will  perceive  that 
M.  Olavc  who  is  well  versed  in  botany,  attributes  highly  salutary  qualities  to  this 
plant 

Pulse  and  fruit  do  not  grow  in  Iceland,  owing  to  the  excessive  cold,  according  to  M. 
Andersen  ;  and  notwithstanding  what  M.  Horrcbow  may  say,  who  aflirms  that  he  ate 
currants  ftt)m  the  garden  of  the  governor  of  Besested,  I  believe  it  to  be  as  difficult  to 
raise  turnips  in  Iceland,  as  pine  apples  at  Paris.  It  is  at  this  time  impossible  to  grow 
corn  there  ;  and  the  regulations  respecting  agriculture,  which  are  used  as  an  authority 
for  the  supposition  of  its  having  been  formerly  cultivated,  do  not  prove  the  fact ;  for  the 
wisdom  of  legislators  every  day  provides  for  occurrences  that  never  happen. 

There  ore  no  wild  beasts  in  Iceland.  Sometimes  bears  are  brought  over  on  sheets  of 
ice  from  Greenland ;  but  as  soon  as  they  land  and  arc  perceived,  they  are  shot,  or  killed 
with  javelins :  they  come  over  of  difierent  colours,  black,  white,  silvered,  and  striped, 
but  never  have  time  to  multiply. 

The  only  undomesticated  animals  in  Iceland  are  foxes.  The|r  are  black,  blue,  red, 
and  white.  In  order  to  collect  a  number  of  these  animals,  the  mhabitants  place  in  the 
fields  a  dead  sheep  or  horse,  whose  carcass,  exhaling  a  strong  smell  to  a  great  distance, 
draws  togetlier  the  foxes  around  it ;  somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  the  sportsman 
fixes  himself,  having  beforehand  built  a  place  from  which  he  can  see,  without  bong  seen, 
and  whence  he  is  enabled  to  kill  four  or  five  foxes  at  a  shot. 

There  is  a  plenty  of  horses  in  Iceland,  of  a  small  race,  coining,  according  to  M. 
Andersen,  from  Norway ;  according  to  M.  Horrcbow  from  Scotland ;  probably  neither 
is  in  the  right.  Howeyer  that  may  be,  they  ore  strong  and  swift.  In  the  mountains  are 
thousands  of  them,  which  for  several  years  never  enter  a  stable ;  they  possess  the  instinct 
of  breaking  the  ice  in  order  to  get  their  food.  The  saddle  horses  are  kept  in  the  stable 
all  the  winter ;  but  when  an  inhabitant  wants  any  for  labour,  he  sends  his  servants  into 
the  mountains,  who  gath  them  together,  and  take  them  with  halters.  The  horses 
taken  in  the  mountains  at  five  years  old  generally  become  the  handsomest  and  most 
vigorous  of  any. 

The  Icelanders  raise  numerous  flocks  of  sheep.  Every  farm  has  its  flock,  and  some 
farmers  have  as  many  as  five  sheep  walks.  In  some  districts  they  are  left  to  wander  »V 
the  year  about,  and  even  during  the  winter,  in  the  mountains.  The  only  precau^v  j^ 
used  is  to  separate  and  take  into  folds  the  yearlings,  w4k),  not  being  so  well  fleeced  a»? 
the  older  sheep,  would  not  be  able  to  support  the  cok!.  These  animals  are  obli^ui  to 
make  a  hole  in  the  snow  in  order  to  get  to  their  pasture :  it  is  a  very  precarious  pease;., 
sion  to  the  inhabitants,  who  oftentimes  lose  the  fiitit  of  all  their  cares  in  an  instat^t. 


.^■. 


-:     ^f 


UJiu^ 


T-.  "-ait.t^L—  — l^-»:.u  .1  liii  - 


•'U  ■-^■^J  '  WU-UW* 


■■* 


KKUdUKI.BN'S  VOYAfiK  TO  THR  NOHIII. 


749 


When  it  mows  und  the  wind  is  violent  whole  flocks,  obliged  tu  yield  to  its  viulcncc,  urc 
driven  to  the  sen  tihon;,  whence  u  aucccsaioiiul  tempest  curries  them  off  to  sea.  M. 
Horrcbow  reports  his  having  seen  some  which  the  force  uf  the  wind  had  tukcn  four 
leHgnes  out  to  sea.  It  often  happens  when  the  sheep  arc  in  the  fields  in  winter  time, 
while  it  snows  und  freezes,  they  huddle  themselves  togett.ct,  their  fleece  then  becomes 
frozen  in  buch  manner  that  they  cannot  separate,  having  ubove  them  more  than  twenty 
feet  depth  of  snow.  In  this  situation  they  remain  until  the  weuther  allows  of  their  being 
sought  for  und  released.  At  times  they  arc  sufely  relieved,  at  others  they  arc  smothered 
by  the  weight  of  snow,  or  strangled  l^y  the  foxes,  which  arc  always  perseeuting  them. 
A  singularity  which  appears  fabulous  i '.  related  by  M.  Andersen.  He  says,  that  when 
the  sheep  arc  obliged  to  remain  some  days  in  the  snow,  hunger  causes  them  to  feed  on 
their  wool,  and  that  they  subsist  themselves  in  this  manner  rntil  they  meet  with  succour. 

This  I  have  myself  been  assured  in  the  country  is  a  fact :  1  was  even  f cv  informedi 

that  when  the  farmer  discovers  any  possessed  of  this  mania,  he  kills  them,  as  it  is  injuri- 
ous to  the  fleece  of  the  others,  which  is  their  only  protection  from  the  cold.  The  wool 
of  the  sheep  is  very  fine,  but  varies  in  quality  according  to  the  quiU'tcr  of  the  island, 
which  is  ot  greac  extein.  ^    - 

Iceland  has  plenty  oi*  bulls  and  cows  of  small  size.  The  bulls  have  a  game  flavour, 
the  cows  give  a  quantity  of  milk,^  some  ten  gallons  a  day,  of  an  excellent  quality  ;  it  is 
both  meat  and  drink  for  the  sick  ;  skimmed,  it  forms  the  principal  beverage  of  those 
who  are  well,  it  is  called  then  syre.  It  becomes  sour  as  it  ^ts  old ;  it  is  then  esteemed 
good  and  wholesome  :  when  too  fresh,  f^hey  even  mix  the  juice  of  sorrel  with  it. 

The  game  of  Iceland  consists  of  woodcocks,  snipes,  and  partridges.  The  partridge 
called  by  the  natives  riper  is  white,  it  is  larger  than  ours,  and  has  its  feet  covered  witn 
a  down  similar  to  that  of  the  rabbit ;  partridges  in  Lapland  are  white  plumed  as  well,  and 
as  large  as  those  of  Iceland.     The  Icelanders  shoot  thorn,  ur  take  them  in  nets. 

Iceland  is  full  of  an  infinite  number  of  birds  of  prey  of  every  kind,  such  as  cagKs,  vul- 
tures, hawks,  falcons,  owls,  crows,  and  tiiKny  others,  both  with  distinguishing  names, 
and  without  them.  Of  all  of  them  the  falcon  is  best  worthy  attention.  It  is  met  with, 
white,  a  light  gray,  and  gray.  It  is  well  known  that  the  falcons  of  Iceland  are  the  best, 
they  are  l^^r  and  stronger  than  those  of  other  countries,  and  hawk  for  more  than  a 
dozen  years.  The  king  of  Denmark  sends  for  some  every  year.  He  gives  two  guineas 
of  our  money  for  a  gray  falcon,  and  seventy  shillings  for  a  white  one. 

Their  ii  plenty  of  aquatic  fowls,  ^uch  as  swans,  geese,  ducks,  plovers,  &c.  but  the 
most  remarkable,  and  tne  most  gainful  to  the  inhabitants,  b  the  duck  whic>^  yields  the 
eiderdown.  This  duck  brings  two  fold  profit  to  the  inhabitants ;  it  lays  excellent  e^s, 
which  it  may  be  nuide  to  renew  three  times,  and  it  gives  a  precious  down. 

This  bird  forms  the  inside  of  its  nest  of  the  down  which  it  tears  from  its  breast,  after, 
wards  it  lays  three  or  four  eggs  ;  the  inhabitant  to  whom  the  nest  belongs  takes  away 
the  dovjm,  and  the  eggs ;  the  female  strips  herself  again,  and  lays  other  eggs,  which  a 
second  time  are  taken  away :  the  male  then  strips  its  breast  of  down,  and  the  female  lays 
eggs  for  ^e  third  time  ;  but  these  are  left  her,  since  if  taken  away  the  third  time  she 
would  lay  no  more,  and  would  leave  the  district,  which  would  be  an  unfortunate  event, 
and  a  considerable  loss ;  as  the  young  ones  the  succeeding  year  return  to  multiply  on 
the  place  ni^icli  gave  them  birth.  M.  Andersen  relates  that  he  had  been  told  that  ;he 
Icelanders  put  a  stick  Haifa  yard  long  into  the  nest  of  these  ducks,  in  order  to  make  the 
female  lay  as  many  eggs  as  would  cover  the  height  of  the  stick,  in  order  to  hatch  them. 

4- 

'ifi^ii' '     •  For  want  of  btf  the  inbiliiiitfits  feed  their  cattle  on  the  refute  of  fish  boiled. 


%^' 


^#' 


■•-  \ 


••■•  ■;  '" 


r 


D''m 


750 


KKKGUELEN'S  V     I'AGE  TO   THE   NORTir. 


I  am  surprised  that  M.  Andersen  could  repeat  such  idle  tales ;  for  my  part  all  that  I  re- 
late is  credible.  During  our  stay  in  Iceland  wc  killed  a  number  of  these  birds,  both  male 
and  female,  and  I  remarked  that  the  down  taken  from  the  male,  which  has  many  white 
feathers,  is  much  more  fine  and  delicate  than  that  of  the  female. 

The  quantity  of  fish  of  every  sort  with  which  Iceland  abounds  is  astonishing :  they 
are  fished  for  all  the  year  about ;  but  the  most  suitable  season  b  from  March  to  Sep- 
tember.    The  fishery  produces  herrings,  cod,  haddoc,  hoUebut,  soles,  plaice,  maids, 
mackarel,  ray  fish,  &c.     All  these  fish  are  well  known,  but  we  caught  of  them  some 
unusually  large ;  a  m^d  one  day,  for  example,  which  weighed  three  hundred  pounds. 
The  most  singular  fish  of  this  island  is  that  we  call  the  wolf-fish,  which  the  Icelanders 
name  steen  bit  (stone-eater;)  when  opened,  it  is  always  found  full  of  little  stones  or 
gravel :  it  feeds  also  upon  small  cod,  which  it  is  continually  pursuing.     As  often  as  the 
weather  will  allow,  the  Icelanders  go  fishing  in  the  bays,  or  even  as  far  as  a  league  or 
two  to  sea ;  they  embark  for  the  purpose  in  small  boats,  which  are  called  by  them  yawls. 
The  most  common  and  most  advantageous  fish  for  the  inhabitants  is  the  cod,  which 
they  know  by  the  name  of  forsch ;  it  is  their  principal  article  of  barter ;  they  maintain 
themselves  by  exchanging  it  against  whatever  they  have  occasion  for.  It  is  this  fish  that 
the  French  and  Dutch  go  to  fish  for  in  the  months  from  March  to  September.    The 
vessels  they  use  are  called  doggers,  and  are  of  about  an  hundred  tons  burthen.     The 
fishery  begins  at  the  head-land  of  Bederwick,  and  ends  at  the  point  of  Langeness,  going 
round  by  the  North  cape  and  the  island  of  Grims.     The  people  fish  with  the  hook, 
which  is  furnished  with  a  bit  df  raw  meat;*  or  the  heart  of  a  fish  newly  taken.    The 
French  and  Dutch  doggers  ii^ualhr  fishat'the  distance  of  five  or  six  leagues  from  shore, 
in  forty  to  fifty  fathoms  water.     MMiy^vessels  even  go  fifteen  leagues  to  sea,  and  fish  in 
one  hundred  fathoms  water.     Whcti  the  jcod  is  taken  the  head  is  cut  off;  it  is  well 
-washed  and  cured,  and  afterwards'put  in  caskb  with  ror.k  or  Lisbon  salt.     Thus  is  this 
fishery  carried  on,  which  em|^loys  annually  abttiit  eighty  French  and  two  hundred  Dutch 
ships.     Cod  fish  thus  prepaid  is  white  and  dfBlinnte,  rock  salt  contributing  to  preserve 
its  whiteness,  not  Jirecipita^hg  a  dirty  sediment,  like  French  salt.     It  is  suiiprising,  on 
noticing  the  great  quantity 'of  cod  that  is  annually  taken  on  the  great  bank,  in  the  north, 
Sec.  that  the  sea  should  not  be  exhausted ;  but  a  naturalist,  who  had  the  patience  to 
enumerate  the  eggs  of  a  cod,  and  who  found  in  v«ic  only  9,344,000  eggs,  has  sufficiently 
satisfied  u£{  that  its  increase  must  exceed  its  dei^lltiction.   After  the  cod  the  most  common 
fish  is  the  herring,  along  the  coasts,  and  throiuilout  the  north  sea,  the  fishery  of  which 
is  infinitely  productive  to  the!|iyperborean  namwis.    This  fish  is  so  numerous,  that  it  is 
calculated'  that  the  whole  taken  by  the  fishemwn  of  the  north  bears  proportion  to  the 
number  which  populate  tht^cea  as  one  to  a  million  only.     This  fishery  supports  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  people  in  Holland.    M.  Huct  values  the  annual  produce  of 
theDutcbfishery  at  twenty^fivemillionSf'of  which  seventeen  millions  are  gain,  and  the 
cxpences  eight."  t^kMk^^Htdbrgti;^  that  in  1683  the  mimber  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand Dutchmen  were  employed  in  the  herring-fishery  and  its  concerns. 

A  great^jjaib^i;  of  whales  are  met  with,  particularly  in  the  summer,  on  the  cr^st  of 
Iceland*  it  havils  fiieen^welyeiw  fift^  t(^ther^.fiveor  six  leagues  from  shore,  north  of 
Bird's  island;  I" fired^afebiittwenty  cannon-shot  at  them,  to  exercise  my  gunners,  and 
wounded  several.  In  Iceland  they  catch  a  quantity  of  salmon ;  and  in  the  lakes,  such  as 
the  Myvarne,  of  which  I  have  before  spoken,  numbers  of  excellent  trout  are  met  with, 
which  the  inhabitants  dry  and  salt.  Eels  as  well  are  very  common ;  but  the  Icelanders 
have  a  particular  antipathy  to  them.  « 


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KEUGUELEN'S  VOVA(ili  TO  TIIK  NORTII. 


751 


rjd  dnw 


After  describing  the  productions  of  the  island,  it  is  fit  I  should  notice  the  constitution, 
labours,  and  private  life  of  the  Icelanders.  These  people  are  of  a  common  size,  and 
robust  nature,  enjoying  their  health  admirably  ;  a  manly  education,  a  sober,  frugal,  and 
laborious  life,  no  doubt  contribute  to  give  them  this  temperdment.  They  are  mostly 
nimble  and  well  made,  have  fine  teeth,  and  generally  light  hair.  The  women  are  not 
of  so  strong  constitution  as  the  men;  their  occupations  are  very  light,  they  work  and 
prepare  the  wool,  and  their  most  laborious  employment  is  hay-making.  Their  labours 
arc  not  so  easy  nor  so  fortunate  as  M.  Andersen  describes ;  they  do  not  proceed  to  bathe, 
and  resume  their  different  work  immediately  after  laying-in.  In  the  different  places  I 
resided  at  in  the  country  my  sui^eon  delivered  several,  and  always  with  the  same  diffi- 
culty, and  I  know  that  they  always  kept  their  bed  for  a  week.  I  have  even  been  in- 
formed, that  for  want  of  midwives,  surgeons,  and  necessary  assistance,  many  women  arc 
lost.  The  Icelanders  have  no  good  surgeons,  nor  skilful  physicians ;  nevertheless,  after 
fifty  years  of  age  they  are  much  in  need  of  them  ;  it  is  then  that  they  begin  to  be  at- 
tacked by  disorders  and  infirmities.  A  man  of  eighty  years  of  age  is  seldom  seen  on 
the  bland.  They  die  chiefly  from  complaints  in  the  breast,  the  scurvy,  and  obstructions. 
They  call  almost  all  the  disorders  which  are  fatal  by  the  common  title  of  landsarsak.  They 
have  an  hereditary  complaint  differing  little  from  the  leprosy,  but  not  contagious.  It 
will  perhaps  appear  surprising  that  the  Icelanders,  whom  I  have  described  so  vigorous, 
should  become  infirm  so  soon ;  but  respect  must  be  had  to  their  rude  occupations,  and 
the  sedentary  life  they  lead.  They  have  no  public  exercise,  no  games,  no  dancing,  and 
both  by  night  and  day  in  fishing  are  subject  to  the  inclemency  of  the  weather ;  or  if  they 
inhabit  the  interior,  they  never  leave  their  home  without  getting  wet  at  feet,  from  the 
number  of  rivulets  and  torrents  which  fall  from  the  mountains  covered  with  ice  and  snow. 
The  Icelanders  bring  up  their  children  with  great  tenderness,  and  do  not  wean  them  ear- 
lier than  in  France.  M.  Andersen,  is  deceived  in  imagining  that  they  do  not  suckle 
more  than  eight  or  ten  days ;  but  (without  offence  to  M.  Horrebows)  he  is  correct  in 
stating  that  when  a  child  is  carried  to  be  baptised,  a  bit  of  linen  dipped  in  milk  is  put  into 
its  mouth  :  I  have  seen  and  can  cerdfy  the  truth  of  this.  Their  mode  of  bringing  up 
their  children  surprised  me  ;  they  put  them  in  breeches  at  the  end  of  two  months. 

I  have  observed  that  the  life  of  an  Icelander  was  sober  and  frugal :  the  reader  may 
form  an  estimate  of  it  from  their  meals;  they  live  during  the  summer  principally  on 
cod's  heads,  and  in  the  winter  on  sheep's  heads  :  they  cut  off  the  heads  of  the  cod  to 
dry  or  salt  the  fish,  and  they  are  mostly  consumed  at  home.  A  common  family  make  a 
meal  of  three  or  four  cods'  heads  boiled  in  sea- water :  they  boil  every  thing.  The  sheep's 
heads  which  they  consume  in  the  winter  are  the  remnants  of  the  mutton  they  salt  for  trad- 
ing with.  They  put  them  in  a  kind  of  vinegar  for  keeping.  The  vinegar  is  made 
from  skimmed  milk,  the  juice  of  sorrel,  and  other  strong  herbs.  All  their  dishes  are 
cooked  without  either  salt  or  spice ;  butter  is  the  only  sauce  :  milk  however  is  their 
principal  food.  Bread  is  very  uncommon  in  Iceland ;  the  poor  are  unacquainted  with 
It,  living  on  dried  fish  alone  :  those  in  easy  circumstances  eat  bread  on  high  days,  such 
as  wedding  and  baptismal  days,  and  where  particular  company  visit,  &c.  This  bread 
is  brought  from  Copenhagen  :  it  consists  of  broad  thin  cakes,  or  sea-biscuits,  made  of 
rye  flour,  and  extremely  black. 

The  dress  of  the  Icelanders,  particularly  the  women,  is  singular  :  I  do  not  speak  of 
the  officers  of  the  law  who  come  from  Denmark,  and  who  dress  after  the  manner  of 
their  country,  but  only  of  the  inhabitants  of  Iceland.  The  men  dress  in  much  the  same 
manner  as  seamen ;  they  have  a  jacket  shaped  like  a  coat,  and  a  good  cloth  waistcoat, 
with  breeches  of  the  same.    They  have  four  and  even  six  rows  of  buttons  to  their  waist- 


752 


KERGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  KOBTII. 


^'i 


coat,  and  as  they  are  always  of  metal,  cither  copper  or  silver,  they  serve  for  ornament. 
The  fishermen  wear  above  it  a  coarse  smooth  waistcoat,  and  a  large  skin  jacket  of  lertlier 
or  sheep's  skin ;  they  rub  this  over  with  the  oil  of  fish's  liver  or  grease,  to  keep  out  the 
rain,  and  preserve  it.  The  rest  of  the  body  thev  cover  with  a  sort  of  pantaloons  of 
leather,  which  supply  the  place  of  breeches,  stockings,  and  shoes.  They  have  large 
flapped  hats,  which  keep  them  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather  when  they  go  a  fish, 
ing.  The  women  wear  gowns,  jackets,  and  aprons,  made  of  a  cloth  manufactured  in 
Iceland,  called  wadmel :  over  their  jacket  they  wear  a  very  wide  robe,  pretty  much  re- 
sembling that  worn  by  the  Jesuits,  but  it  does  not  reach  down  so  low  as  the  petticoats, 
which  are  exposed.  This  robe  is  of  a  different  colour,  mostly  black,  and  is  named 
hempe ;  it  is  trimmed  with  a  velvet  binding,  or  some  other  ornament.  The  rich  wear 
down  tlie  front  of  their  hempe  several  ornaments  of  silver.  They  tr*'in  the  bottom  of 
their  aprons  and  petticoats  as  well,  and  the  seams  of  their  jackets,  with  silk  ribbon,  g  J. 
loon,  or  velvet,  of  a  different  colour.  They  wear  a  stiff  collar  three  or  four  fingers  wide. 
This  collar,  or  necklace,  is  always  of  a  very  fine  stuff,  or  velvet,  embroidered  with  gold 
or  silver.  Their  head-drei^s  resembles  a  cone,  or  a  sugar-loaf,  of  two  or  three  feet  high ; 
it  consists  of  a  kerchief  of  very  coarse  cloth,  which  stands  erect,  and  is  covered  over  by 
another  finer  kerchief,  forming  the  figure  I  have  mentioned.  Both  men  and  women 
wear  shoes  of  fox's  or  sheep^s  skin  tanned,  and  sewed  together  by  tlie  women.  Their 
shoes  have  no  heels,  but  are  fastened  to  the  instep  by  small  straps. 

Messrs.  Horrebow  and  Andersen  do  not  agree  about  the  dwellings  of  the  Icelanders* 
The  first,  who  sees  every  thing  in  a  brilliant  point  of  view,  describes  the  houses  of  the 
rich  ;  the  latter,  who  only  wrote  from  the  relation  of  fishermen  frequenting  the  coasts/ 
pictures  the  cabins  of  the  poor.  The  descriptions  of  the  former  are  too  magnificent ; 
the  account  of  the  other  is  not  very  wide  of  truth.  Entering  a  house>  says  M.  Horre- 
bow, you  meet  with  a  deep  passage,  six  feet  wide,  at  the  top  of  which  are  cross  rafters 
roofed  over.  In  the  passage,  from  space  to  space,  are  round  openings  to  admit  the  light ; 
they  are  closed  with  small  panes  of  glass,  or  more  commonly  by  small  cask  hoops,  over 
which  is  stretched  a  parchment  made  from  the  bladders  of  bulls  and  cows :  this  parch- 
ment is  called  hinne ;  it  is  veiy  transparent.  At  the  end  of  this  passage  is  the  common 
entrance  to  the  house.  In  the  front  of  it  is  a  room  fourteen  ells  long  by  eight  broad, 
which  the  Icelanders  call  the  stove ;  this  apartment  is  generally  the  working  room :  the 
women  dress  the  wool,  make  clothes,  and  do  other  household  work  in  it.  At  the  end 
of  this  there  is  mostly  a  bed-room  for  the  master  and  mistress  of  the  house :  above,  the 
women  servants  sleep,  and  the  children.  There  is  usually  besides  two  other  apartments 
on  each  side  the  passage ;  one  a  kitchen,  another  a  pantry,  the  third  a  dairy,  and  the 
fourth  and  last  a  bed-room,  near  the  entrance  of  the  passage,  for  the  men  servants ;  this 
apartment  is  with  them  called  Skaule.  In  the  roof  of  every  room  are  openings  as  in  tlie 
pa&iage,  for  the  admission  of  light  through  frames  of  hinne  ;  but  the  work  room  is  ordi* 
narily  lighted  through  two  glass  windows :  besides  these  di%rent  apartments,  the  gene- 
ralitv  have  besides,  adjoining  the  skaule,  a  parlour,  to  receive  strangers  in.  Near  the 
dwelling-house  they  have  a  small  building,,  called  forge,  where  all  their  worics  are  carried 
on.  Every  inhabitant,  in  addition  to  these,  has  his  stable,  his  cow-house,  and  sheep- 
pen.  The  Icelanders  do  not  house  their  hay,  but  place  it  on  a  high  spot,  surrounding 
It  with  a  ditch,  stacked  in  heaps  six  feet  high  and  six  scj^uare.  They  place  these  stacks 
at  small  distances  from  each  other,  which  they  cover  with  turf  in  a  sloping  dl>iection,  so 
«B  to  carry  off*  the  rain  to  the  ditch.  This  is  th^  description  Mr.  Horrebow  g^ves  of  the 
common  houses  of  the  Icelanders ;  afterwards  he  wainscots  the  apartments,  and  orna- 
ments them  with  glasses  and  furiuture.    Thd  richest  people  of  the  ccaintry,  it  b  true. 


•,.M 


KERGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  TirE  NORTH. 


J55 


lament, 
'lerther 
out  the 
oons  of 
e  large 

0  afi£. 
tured  in 
luch  re- 
tticoats, 

named 
ch  wear 
ttom  of 
>on,  g  d- 
;rs  wide. 
nth  ^Id 
et  high ; 

1  over  by- 
women 

Their 

elanders* 
es  of  the 
e  coasts/ 
nificent ; 
[.  Horre- 
Bs  raftera 
he  light ; 
ops,  over 
b  parch- 
common 
it  broad, 
torn:  the 
t  the  end 
3ove,  the 
>artments 

and  the 
nts;  thb 

as  in  tlie 
miswdi* 
the  gene- 
Near  the 
re  carried 
ndsheep- 
rrounding 
;se  stacks 
ection,  so 
^es  of  the 
and  oma- 
itb  true. 


have  their  houses  portioned  out  in  the  manner  above  mentioned,  but  without  pannelling, 
glasses,  or  gaudy  furniture.  The  rooms,  the  bed-chambers,  or  even  the  parlours  ap- 
propriated to  the  reception  of  strangers,  are  rarely  floored :  a  table,  some  chests  or  ward- 
robes,  and  a  stove,  these  complete  the  furniture  of  the  most  easy  ;  the  poor  and  thp 
fishermen  have  only  a  wretched  cabin,  half  under  ground,  the  lower  part  of  which  is  occu- 
pied bjr  cattle,  and  the  upper  part,  separated  only  by  a  few  straggling  planks,  serves  for 
the  residence  of  the  masters,  their  children,  and  servants  :  for  the  rest,  all  the  houses 
are  covered  with  turf.  Nevertheless,  in  towns,  such  as  Hoolum  and  Skalholt,  the  houses 
of  the  bishops  and  mayors  are  built  of  brick,  stone,  and  wood,  and  are  covered  with 
planks ;  but  they  are  very  expensive,  since  almost  all  the  materials  are  brought  from 
bopenhagen.    A  heap  of  houses  scattered  at  a  distance  is  called  a  town  with  them. 

The  Icelanders  are  not  so  vicious  as  Mr.  Andersen  relates,  nor  so  virtuous  by  much 
as  Mr.  Horrebow  asserts  them :  they  are  good-natured,  mild,  humane ;  but  lazy,  mis- 
trustful, and  drunkards.  The  factors  of  the  Danish  compan}',  who  have  warehouses  on 
different  parts  of  the  coasts,  give  them  brandy  in  exchange  for  dry  fish,  wool,  and  other 
merchandise  of  the  country ;  and  this  trade  furnishes  the  inhabitants  with  the  means  of 
inebriation.  They  did  not  appear  to  me  to  be  courageous :  I  have  however  been  in- 
formed that  there  are  Icelanders  among  the  troops  of  the  king  of  Denmark  :  they  are 
good  sailors  for  coasting.  The  Dutch,  who  attend  the  fishery,  frequently  entice  them  to 
serve  on  board  their  vessels.  They  are  judicious,  fond  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  play 
much  at  chess,  and  are  greatly  attached  to  the  game.  Many  of  them  whom  I  met  with 
speak  Latin :  numbers  of  them  go  to  study  at  Coj;)enhagen,  and  with  success.  There 
are  as  well  colleges  at  Skalholt  and  Hoolum,  to  which  the  Icelanders  send  their  children, 
who  most  of  them  make  progress  in  liberal  knowledge. 

In  the  year  1000  they  were  plunged  in  the  darkness  of  idolatry.  They  paid  divine 
worship  to  Jupiter,  under  the  name  of  I'hor,  and  to  Mercury,  under  the  title  of  Odin ; 
these  were  their  only  divinities.  The  catholic  religion  was  some  time  after  established, 
but  in  succeeding  thnes  banished  by  Christian  Third  of  Dennuu'k :  at  present  they  arc 
Lutherans  of  the  church  of  Augsbourg.  This  doctrine  was  not  established  among  them 
without  bloodshed.  A  catholic  bbhop,  of  the  strictest  virtue,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful 
party,  resisted  the  process  of  error ;  he  maintained  himself  for  a  long  time,  but  became 
the  victim  of  his  zeal,  it  costing  him  his  life. 

The  Icelanders  trade  with  a  company  of  Copenhagen,  which  has  an  exclusive  privi- 
lege, the  price  of  a  certain  consideration  paid  to  the  king.  This  company,  which  I  have 
before  mentioned,  establishes  factors  or  directors  in  every  pa'  c,  who  have  warehouses 
ftifl  of  goods,  which  in  course  of  the  year  the}r  sell  to  the  inhabitants.  This  continual 
and  daily  sale  does  not  hinder  a  great  consumption  every  year,  at  the  arrival  of  every  ves- 
sel in  either  of  their  ports.  The  ardcles  of  exportation  consist  of  dry  fish,  salt  mutton, 
salt  beef,  butter,  fish  oil,  tallow,  wool  in  the  grease,  wadmel,  fine  and  coarse  jackets, 
woollen  stockin^^  and  gloves,  sheep  and  foxes  skins,  sulphur,  feathers,  and  eider-down. 
The  articles  of  importation  consist  of  all  sorts  of  iron  ware,  dry  bread,  beer,  brandy, 
stuffs,  fiour,  fishing-tackle,  planks,  carpentery,  tobacco,  and  hwse-shoes.  The  Icelanders 
barter  the  productions  of  their  country  against  whatever  they  need.  Money  is  scarcely 
known  among  them.  All  sales,  all  contracts,  in  one  word,  all  business  is  negotiated  for 
fish,  and  with  stCch  every  thing  is  paid  for  according  to  valuation :  an  ell  of  pig-tail  tobac- 
co is  the  price  of  a  fish.  Thus  fish  and  tobacco  may  be  considered  as  the  money  of  the 
island.  . 

The  government  of  Iceland  remains  to  oe  mentioned.  This  ishnd  is  divided  in  four 
parts,  or  provinces,  the  nortj^em,  the  eastern,  the  southern,  and  the  western,  governed 

VOL.   I.  5    D 


; 


II 


! 


I   : 


I 


!  ! 


-54  KBllOnKLKN'S  VOYAGE  TO  TUB  NORTH. 

by  bu'ilifts.  There  arc  eighteen  or  twenty  cantons,  each  of  which  comprises  fifteen  or 
sixteen  parishes.  All  these  parishes  are  directed  by  two  bishops ;  one  governs  the 
northern,  the  other  tlie  southern  part.  The  seat  of  the  sovereign  council  is  Besscsted, 
under  the  direction  of  a  grand  bailiff,  who  resides  there.  The  king,  for  the  receipt  of 
taxes,  maintains  a  seneschal  at  the  same  place.  These  two  principal  officers  render  an 
account  to  the  governor-general,  who  dwells  at  court.  This  is  the  whole  of  what  is  in- 
teresting, without  extending  beyond  the  bounds  I  have  prescrilied  to  myself,  which  I  can 
say  of  Iceland.     I  now  tiikc  up  the  thread  of  my  journal. 

.      THIRD  PART. 

CONTAINING  THE  COURSE  FROM  ICELAND  TO  BERGHENt  DESCRIPTION  OF  BERGHEK,  01 
NORWAY,  AND  THE  PEOPLE  SITUATED  NORTH  OF  NORWAY. 

As  I  had  ordered  all  the  fishing  vessels,  which  the  gale  of  wi.  J  of  the  twenty«ninth  of 
May  had  obli^d  to  take  shelter  at  Fatrixfiord,  to  inform  the  whole  fleet  that  I  should 
remain  a  fortnight  longer  in  that  road,  in  order  to  be  nearer  to  render  them  assistance, 
and  that  they  mi^ht  not  be  under  necessity  of  groping  for  me,  as  it  were,  in  foggy  wea- 
ther, I  remained  in  the  same  position  to  the  fiftLcnth  of  June.  I  shall  here  remark,  that 
any  king's  ship  which  may  be  sent  to  protect  the  fishery  can  never  be  more  effectually 
serviceable,  than  by  giving  a  general  rendezvous  to  all  vessels  who  may  stand  in  need  of 
succour  or  repairs ;  for  the  fishery  of  Iceland  is  so  extensive,  that  it  would  require  four 
frigates  for  its  protection ;  and  there  lu-e  in  these  climates  such  thick  fogs,  that  it  is  some- 
times impossible  to  perceive  a  vessel  at  the  distance  of  musket  shot. 

The  fifteenth  of  June,  in  the  morning,  in  the  prospect  of  a  south  wind,  I  caused  a  small 
anchor  with  a  towing  line  to  be  heaved  out  to  the  S.  S.  W.  to  be  the  better  enabled  to 
raise  it  easily  and  quickly  either  frum  the  frigate,  or  by  means  of  my  lonp^  boat.  The 
strength  of  the  anchorage,  the  depth  of  water,  and  the  projection  of  the  inlet,  inclined 
me  to  this  expedient.  It  was  calm  all  day,  I  weighed  my  two  main  anchors  in  the  after- 
noon, and  at  nine  in  the  evening,  the  wind  southing,  I  set  sail.  I  did  not  ship  my  oared 
cutters  before  I  was  out  the  points,  lest  it  should  have  fallen  calm,  and  I  have  need  of  them 
to  tow  me.  I  forgot  to  observe  that  south  of  the  southern  point  of  Patrixfiord,  outside, 
is  an  inlet  of  yellow  sand,  which  serves  as  a  mark  at  four  leagues  distant,  and  is  a  bea- 
con on  that  side. 

The  sixteenth,  I  took  bearings  along  the  coast.  The  seventeenth  and  eighteenth,  the 
wind  varied  from  W.  N.  W.  to  S.  W.  a  light  breeze,  and  foggy.  The  nineteenth,  be- 
ing in  that  part  of  the  sea,  and  on  the  precise  spot  where  formerly  were  several  islands, 
under  the  name  ofGoubermans,  I  sounded  and  found  one  hundred  and  forty  fathoms  of 
water,  muddy  bottom,  mixed  with  herbs. 

The  sketch  of  these  islands  was  taken  by  some  Danish  engineers,  who  drew  the  map 
of  Iceland.  The  Islanders  relate  that  they  formerly  consisted  of  nine ;  that  they  were 
no  more  than  four  leagues  from  the  main  island,  and  that  they  were  swallowed  up  dur- 
ing an  earthquake :  what  is  certain  respecting  them  is,  that  they  are  noticed  in  all  maps, 
and  that  there  now  remains  no  vestige  of  them,  their  fof  mer  residence  being  that  part 
of  the  coast  where  now  is  the  greatest  depth  of  water.  It  is  not  more  difficult  to  ima- 
gine that  these  islands  may  have  been  swallowed  up  by  an  earthquake,  or  owing  to 
subterraneous  fires,  than  to  conceive,  as  does  a  celebrated  naturalist,*  that  Iceland  itself 


*  EgerhardUB  Ola.  de  Igne  Subterraneo,  page  U. 


KEnnUELEN'S  VOYAfiE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


755 


is  the  production  of  a  volcano,  thus  being  a  child  of  tlic  earth.  The  same  day  at  noon, 
having  taken  the  latitude,  I  perceived  myself  exactly  upon  the  line  of  the  polat  circle  :  1 
was  desirous  of  continuing  my  course  towards  the  nortn  ;  but  was  stopped  by  a  chain  of 
ice  which  extended  from  the  North  Cape  as  far  as  the  eye  could  distinguish  to  the  N.  VV. 
I  did  not  choose  to  expose  myself  to  it  with  a  frigate  of  a  weak  d'^scription,  which  was 
leaky,  and  which  from  its  length  was  diflicult  to  navigate  amid  islands  of  ice.  I  thought 
it  therefore  expedient  to  veer  about  to  the  south  ;  and  as  1  was  obliged  to  go  into  some 
port,  in  order  to  take  in  wood  and  provisions,  I  preferred  Berghen  in  Norway,  whilst  the 
fishing  vessels  were  employed  in  seeking  a  passage  between  the  ice,  to  reach  the  isle  of 
Grims  and  the  point  of  Lan^rness. 

On  the  twentieth  at  midnight,  as  we  were  steering  W.  S.  W.  to  pass  at  large  the  island 
of  Birds,  the  wind  N.  £.  and  the  weather  foggy,  a  cry  from  the  forecastle  warned  us  of 
being  upon  the  ice.  At  the  same  instant  I  saw  on  the  starboard  quarter  large  pieces, 
which  made  part  of  a  bank  of  ice,  the  extremities  of  which  3vere  before  me.  I  immedi- 
ately brought  the  ship  to  larboard,  to  double  it  with  the  wind,  and  passed  so  nigh,  that 
I  struck  against  several  detached  fragments,  but  without  damage,  although  the  frigate 
received  rather  rude  shocks  from  the  contact.  It  may  not  be  useless  here  to  mention 
some  expedients,  which  may  be  of  service  to  those  who  should  for  the  first  time  be  en- 
tangled in  ice.  It  is  no  ways  wonderful  that  such  persons  should  be  intimidated  at  the 
si^ht  of  these  enormous  masses,  which  will  frequently  break  of  themselves  about  them 
with  a  horrid  crash :  their  dread  however  will  disappear,  on  learning  that  vessels  have 
frequently  taken  shelter  amid  the  ice,  and  that  navigators  frequently  resort  to  it  for  pro- 
tection from  storms,  on  account  of  the  sea  being  always  smooth  when  surrounded  by  it ; 
amidst  it  the  vessel  rides  as  if  in  harbour :  but  it  is  requisite  to  guard  the  outside  of  the 
ship  with  the  ends  of  old  cables,  mattrasses,  or  paillasses.  A  ship  may  even  be  moored 
along-side  a  piece  of  ice,  fixing  in  it  iron  crows  of  five  feet  long,  to  which  small  cables 
are  fastened  at  head  and  stern,  taking  care  to  make  them  tight  on  board  by  means  of  the 
capstan.  In  the  absence  of  iron  crows,  graplins  and  iron  bars  are  made  use  of, 
which  are  driven  into  the  ice  with  mallets.  The  sails  are  taken  in  and  brailed,  and 
a  ship  rides  there  as  well  as  beside  a  wharf.  Care  must  be  taken  not  to  moor  to  a 
mass  of  ice  of  too  much  elevation,  since  such  are  often  subject  to  break  and  roll  over. 
When  the  sight  of  an  opening  in  the  ice,  a  change  of  wind,  or  the  neighbourhood  of 
shore,  induce  to  go  about,  the  vessel  is  steered  by  help  of  her  lashings,  tne  same  as  in 
port.  If  desirous  of  breaking  way,  either  to  enter  or  to  go  out,  two  spare  top.!nasts  are 
taken,  the  thicker  ends  of  which  are  lashed  to  the  mizen-chain  wales,  and  the  two  small 
ends  are  made  to  form  a  fork  before  the  prow,  which  fork  is  supported  by  lashing  under 
the  bowsprit ;  this  fork  serves  to  separate  the  ice  in  front  of  the  vessel.  If  it  be  not 
considered  proper  to  use  this  tackling,  a  fragment  of  ice  is  chosen,  in  a  small  degree 
more  elevated  than  the  prow,  which  is  steered  upon  under  easy  sail,  and  when  got  un- 
der the  cutwater,  all  sails  are  set.  This  lump  of  ice,  driven  by  the  vessel,  drives  forward 
in  its  turn  all  those  which  obstruct  the  way  of  the  ship,  which  by  this  means  receives  no 
injury. 

The  twenty  first,  twenty. second,  and  twenty-third,  the  wind  continually  varying,  and 
the  sea  running  high,  I  steered  S.  S.  VV.  and  S.  W.  quarter  S.  and  the  twenty-third, 
at  midnight,  reckoning  myself  ten  leagues  VV.  of  the  Bird's  island,  I  sounded,  and  found 
two  hundred  and  five  fathoms  water,  with  sand  as  black  as  gunpowder.  The  quality  of 
the  bottom  brought  to  mind  what  I  had  heard  the  captain  of  a  fishing  vessel  say,  that 
he  had  met  with  a  rock  N.  W.  of  Bird's  island,  at  a  distance  of  seven  leagues ;  that  he 
had  sounded  all  round,  and  found  twenty  fathoms  water,  with  a  bottom  of  black  sand. 

5  D  2 


mm 


I 


I 


: 


i 


756 


KRRGUELBN*S  VOYARG  TO  TUB  NOni'lf. 


I 


The  resemblance  of  the  bottom  which  1  found  with  that  of  the  environs  of  the  rock 
seems  to  confirm  the  existence  of  it. 

Before  leaving  Iceland,  it  is  right  I  should  impart  to  the  reader  the  knowledge  I  was 
cnab'rd  to  acquire  of  the  ports  situated  west  and  north  of  the  island.  I  sliall  begin  with 
Atklfiord,  iKM-th  of  Lusbaye,  and  shall  continue  the  same  to  the  point  of  Langcrness. 
Adclflord,  or  the  bay  which  bears  that  name,  is  very  extensive  and  deep,  but  the  an- 
chorage is  bad  for  large  vessels,  as  the  coast  is  rugged,  and  it  is  necessary  to  anchor 
close  to  the  shore.  The  (uihing  vessels  lying  at  anchor  have  the  poop  so  near  the  land, 
that  the  sailors  ^oon  shore  by  means  of  a  plank  laid  from  the  ship's  side. 

The  bay  of  Direfiord  is  as  fine  and  as  large  as  that  of  Lusbaye  ;  there  is  no  danger  in 
entering  it,  core  being  taken  of  the  squalls  of  wind  which  come  from  the  gorges,  as  1  be- 
fore mentioned  in  speaking  of  Patriyfiord.  The  anchorage  is  good  everywhere  for  ves- 
sels of  war.  At  the  bottom  of  the  ay  are  two  points  in  tne  shape  of  a  sugar-loaf,  which 
at  sea  are  taken  for  two  pyramidal  islands,  and  which  mark  the  bay  of  Direfiord  on  com- 
ing from  sea. 

The  bay  of  West  Norderfiord  is  as  extensive  as  the  preceding ;  there  is  good  anchor, 
age  in  the  first  inlet  to  larboard  on  entering,  but  it  is  suitable  to  those  vAsels  only  which 
mean  to  sail  again  directly  ;  for  shelter  it  is  better  to  proceed  higher  up.  In  the  middle  of 
the  bay  there  is  twenty-five  fathoms  water ;  but  at  the  extremity  the  anchorage  is  in 
sixteen  to  eighteen  fath(  ns,  with  good  bottom  :  there  are  rocks  both  on  the  larboard 
and  starboard  quarter  on  entering,  but  they  are  all  above  water. 

The  bay  of  Pikhol  is  too  open,  it  is  fit  only  for  fishing  vessels  or  corvettes,  the  an> 
chorage  is  close  to  the  minister's  house,  where  there  is  shelter  under  the  north  point. 

The  bay  of  Bolk-Bog^t  is  more  properly  a  gulf  than  a  bay  ;  it  is  little  known.  The 
fishermen  seldom  proceed  up  it ;  notwithstanding,  an  owner  or  master  told  me  that  he 
had  once  sailed  to  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  and  that  behind  a  point  of  land  which  pro- 
jects he  found  most  excellent  anchorage,  bdow  the  house  of  the  factor  of  the  compa> 
ny.  He  even  stud,  if  he  were  obliged  to  winter  in  Iceland,  he  should  prefer  this  spot  to 
any. 

The  roads  of  Seertel  Bay  are  very  fine,  there  is  excellent  anchorage  for  all  shipping : 
a  ship  may  anchor  to  starboard  on  entering,  after  doubling  a  point,  but  thje  best  anchor, 
age  is  at  the  foot  of  a  remarkable  cliiTat  the  bottom  of  the  Roadsted.  These  roads  are 
distinguishable  by  a  hill  of  gray  sand,  perceptible  at  a  great  distance. 

In  the  Ba}'  of  Radkol  there  is  anchorage  in  twelve  fathoms  water,  with  a  sandy  bot- 
tom. There  is  sht  Iter  from  the  wind  on  the  south  and  the  east,  but  with  a  N.  or  W. 
wind  a  vessel  would  be  much  exposed. 

The  roads  of  Rukbaye  are  very  large  and  very  good ;  fifty  vessels  of  war  mig^t  ea«ly 
anchor  in  them ;  the  best  place  for  casting  anchor  is  at  the  extremity  of  the  bay,  on  tKe 
south  side,  half  a  league  from  shore.  Drift  wood  is  met  with  here,  cast  on  shore  by  the 
sea. 

In  going  out  of  Rakbaye  the  North  Cape  is  on  the  starboard  quarter.  Eastward  of 
the  North  Cape,  on  the  side  of  the  gulph  of  Orgel  Bogt,  there  is  a  cascade  or  river, 
which  falls  in  large  volumes  of  foam,  and  with  a  conskkrable  noise  ;  it  is  a  land's  mark 
on  the  coast.    Tnb  cascade  or  river  is  called  Watalope.  - 

In  the  whole  of  the  gulf  6f  Orgel  Bogt,  there  u  only  the  bay  of  east  Nordefiord 
where  a  frigate  can  take  refuge ;  its  anchorage  b  to  starboard  on  entering,  two  cables* 
length  fix>m  the  cabins  of  the  Icelanders.  The  fishermen  go  for  anchorage  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  bay;  but  they  must  pass  a  bar,  over  which  at  low  water  there  is  onl^ 
twelve  feet  depth.    The  sea  throws  wood  on  shore  here  also ;  a  river  empties  itself  into 


KEnCUELKN'S  VOYAf.K  TO  TIIR  NOIITII. 


757 


this  bav,  which  abounds  in  salmon.  At  the  eastern  point  of  the  gulf  there  is  n  reef, 
or  cttain  of  rocks,  which  proceeds  further  out  than  is  noticed  in  the  Dutch  maps. 
Eastward  of  this  reef  four  islands  are  distinguished,  pretty  high  and  very  lofty,  the 
fourth  is  at  the  entrance  of  Kiipbuye,  where  there  is  anchorage  close  to  shore,  either  on 
the  starboard  or  larboard  quarter ;  but  heed  mu!it  be  taken  of  a  large  bank  in  the 
middle  of  the  bay,  and  which  does  not  allow  of  luffing.  Eastward  of  the  four  islands 
a  large  flat  island  is  seen,  called  Ulakiland,  at  the  foot  of  which  westward  there  is  an 
anchoraee.  This  island  is  in  the  S.  one  quarter  S.  K.  corrected,  from  the  isle  of  Grims, 
where  the  anchorage  is  in  the  southern  part.  There  is  shelter  from  the  north,  but  a 
vessel  there  must  be  prepared  to  sail  upon  its  blowing  S.  £.  or  S.  VV.  The  tides  run 
very  strong,  the  direction  of  them  L.  and  W.  Good  anchorage  's  found  at  the  point 
of  Roodchoke,  in  ten  fathoms,  with  sandy  bottom,  south  of  a  round  rock,  which  is  safe 
and  very  distinguishable ;  sheltered  from  S.  E.  winds.  There  is  besides  good  anchor- 
age at  Oudeman,  safe  from  all  winds  to  S.  hut  when  it  veers  to  the  N.  tne  ship  must 
change  her  birth.  This  is  the  summary  of  what  I  learned  from  experience  in  my  own 
vessd,  and  from  several  fishermen  with  whom  I  frecjucntly  conversed  on  this  subject. 
Lower  down  I  shall  speak  of  the  roads  and  ports  of  the  east  side.  I  do  not  conceive  that 
any  one  will  be  surprised  in  reading  this  journal  at  noticing  my  entrance,  whether  by 
niglit  or  day,  into  all  the  ports  of  Iceland.  No  one  is  ignorant,  that  under  the  poles 
there  is  six  months  of  day,  and  the  same  length  of  night ;  that  the  nearer  the  poles  arc 
approached,  the  longer  the  days  and  the  nights,  according  to  the  season  of  the  year. 
Every  one  knows  also,  that  the  sun  gives  its  Tight  by  refraction  when  below  the  horizon  ; 
and  that  this  is  called  twilight ;  that  that  which  precedes  the  rising  is  called  the  dawn, 
or  morning  twilight,  and  that  that  follows  its  setting  is  named  the  twilight,  or  evening 
twilight ;  moreover,  that  the  farther  the  observer  proceeds  from  the  equator,  the  longer 
the  twilight.  Thus  it  may  readily  be  conceived,  that  in  Iceland,  which  extends  north- 
ward  as  tar  as  the  polar  circle,  by  favour  of  the  twilight  a  continual  day  reigns  from  May 
to  September,  so  as  to  enal)le  a  person  to  read  and  write  at  midnight,  and  that  the  sun 
does  not  set  below  the  horizon  for  eight  days  before  and  eight  days  after  the  summer 
solstice :  that  is  to  say,  from  the  twelfth  of  June  to  the  first  of  July. 

The  twenty-fourth  die  wind  varied,  making  the  entire  circle  of  the  compass ;  some, 
times  gende  and  at  others  violent,  but  continually  a  heavy  sea.  I  steered  S.  one  c&iarter 
S.  W.  and  the  twenty-fiAh  at  noon  was  in  latitude  60°  58',  and  longitude  w.  of 
Paris  19**  30*.  By  the  map  I  perceived  I  was  3*>  E.  of  Ferro,  110  leagues  distant,  ac- 
cording to  the  chart  of  Mr.  Bellin ;  and  acording  to  the  Dutch  charts,  from  the  same 
station,  Ferro  bore  E.  N.  £.  42  leagues  distant,  making  a  difference  of  68  leagues,  or 
nearly  1**  in  that  latitude.  The  rock  at  S.  of  these  islands,  according  to  Mr.  Bellin,  k. 
in  latitude  61°  17' :  according  to  the  Dutch  61°  44' :  that  is  to  say,  27°  more  N.  These 
differences  as  well  in  latitude  as  longitude  surprised  me,  and  made  me  hesitate  as  to  the 
course  to  steer.  I  resolved,  at  leiwdi,  to  make  the  southern  point  of  the  isles  of  Ferro, 
according  to  the  latitude  described  by  Mr.  Bellin.  I  steered  accordingly,  and  observed 
the  variation  vi  the  needle  in  the  evening  to  be  the  same  as  the  day  before,  23°  30'. 

The  twen^-uxth  at  noon,  having  m^  43  leagues  of  way  ui  Jer  a  fresh  breeze  from 
the  £.  S.  £.  I  observed  the  latitude  to  be  the  same  as  the  day  before,  60°  58',  and  the 
longitude  14°  SB'.  As  I  had  no  difference  of  latitude  stfter  having  steered  E.  S.  E.  for 
twenty-frur  hours  with  great  ch'cumspection,  I  conjectured  that  the  difference  arose  irota 
twopoints  of  wind,  or  &°  30*. 

The  tweiity-seventh,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  having  run  E.  one  quarter  S.  E. 
with  a  N.  and  N.  N.  W.  wind  from  the  tWent^-uxdi  at  noon,  the  vrind  firesh  wiUi  a  high 


758  KEFK.l  RLEN'S  VOVA(iK  TO  TIIK  XOHTII. 

hca,  uc  made  the  Fcrro  Isles.  I  passed  two  leagues  south  of  a  rock  layinp;  south  of  the 
island:*,  and  distant  from  them  by  apixarancc  about  a  league.  I  perceived  breakers  at 
Haifa  leafj^ue  from  this  rock.  At  noon  I  took  an  elevation  under  the  land,  and  found, 
after  making  u  back  observation  to  try  my  former  by,  after  noticing  die  bearing,  and 
casting  my  log-book,  that  these  islands  are  correcUy  laid  down  in  Mr.  Bcllin's 
map.  We  found  18<»  of  variation  from  two  corresponding  elevations.  After  doubling 
the  isles  of  Ferro,  I  directed  my  course  to  the  northward,  to  make  the  Shetland  Isles ; 
but  not  falling  in  with  them  on  the  twenty-eighth,  at  four  in  the  morning,  and  judging, 
by  the  way  I  had  made,  that  I  must  have  jiossed  them  (for  I  had  continually  steered  E. 
one  quarters.  E.)  I  tacked  to  the  S.  E.  one  quarter  E.  to  proceed  to  Berghen.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  currents  carried  me  towards  the  north  in  my  passage  from  the  isles  of 
Ferro  to  SheUand.  I  must  observe  as  well  that  in  the  passage  I  had  two  floods  to  one  ebb 
tide. 

The  twenty.ninth  the  wind  fresh  .ind  strong  from  the  N.  VV.  the  sea  very  heavy,  with 
n  thick  fog.  In  such  weather  1  was  not  dcsirmis  of  encountering  the  coasts  of  Norway. 
I  kept  under  main  and  foresail,  and  employed  myself  in  taking  soundings,  waiting  for 
more  favourable  weather. 

The  thirtieth,  at  live  o^clock  in  the  morning,  the  weather  brightening  and  the  wind 
becoming  lighter,  I  steered  E.  S.  E.  with  a  north  wind  to  make  land ;  but  observing  at 
noon  that  I  was  in  latitude  59°  12',  I  saw  that  I  was  too  far  to  S.  to  enter  by  the  way 
of  Cruxfiord,  which  is  the  shortest  and  the  most  usual  passage ;  I  worked  to  windward, 
it  blew  N.  and  I  steered  N.  E.  As  I  was  by  observation  18'  more  to  the  south  than 
by  my  log,  I  sought  for  the  cause  of  this  diflerence  in  the  position  of  the  islands,  and  the 
coast3of  the  north,  which,  by  the  manner  of  their  lying,  govern  the  following  course  of 
currents.  At  flood  the  tide  flows  from  the  W.  S.  W.  upon  the  ules  of  SheUand,  and, 
changing  its  direction  on  ebbing,  flows  S.  S.  E.  varying  its  course  according  to  the  line 
of  the  coast,  as  far  r^  to  the  straits  of  Dover,  but  the  waves  meeting  here  with  another 
flood,  flow  back,  and  throw  themselves  upon  the  coasts  of  Jutland,  which  sends  them 
back  to  Cape  Dcrneus,  from  which  they  take  their  course,  direction,  and  motion,  ac- 
cording to  the  position  of  the  coasts  of  Norway  :  this,  according  to  my  opinion,  is  the 
cause  of  the  current  which  runs  always  to  the  south  on  the  caosts  of  Shetland,  and  that 
which  runs  always  north  on  those  of  Norway :  this  general  movement  not  interfering 
with  the  ebb  and  flow  incident  to  each  particular  spot.  It  is  here  that  I  should  notice 
the  observations  I  made  for  knowing  with  certainty,  by  sounding,  whether  a  ship  be  ap- 
proaching the  coast  of  Shetland,  or  Norway,  which  is  of  consequence  and  interesting  for 
those  vessels  which  cruise  or  navigate  these  seas,  almost  continually  over«shadowed  with 
fogs. 

When  in  the  middle  of  the  channel  between  the  isles  of  Shetland  and  the  coast  of  Nor- 
way, or  but  little  distant  from  the  middle,  there  are  65,  70,  and  75  fathoms  of  water, 
clean  and  line  sand.  On  nearing  Shetland  the  depth  does  not  diminish,  it  rather  in- 
creases in  diflcrent  places  ;  but  tne  bottom  is  differe>?t,  the  sand  is  larger,  darker,  and 
mixed  more  with  gravel  the  closer  you  get  to  shore.  On  the  contrary,  when  approach- 
ing the  caists  of  Norway,  the  depth  of  water  sensibly  increases,  the  bottom  changes,  be- 
coming  more  muddy,  and  this  mud  becomes  less  dark  as  you  go  near  the  coast  of  Nor- 
way. This  channel  is  called  the  Great  Tun  by  mariners,  and  the  ))assage  between  the 
Arcades  and  the  Shetland  Isles  in  the  north  or  south  of  the  little  island  ofFairehil,  which 
is  in  the  middle,  is  called  the  Little  Tun. 

The  first  of  July,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  having  steered  E.  N.  E.  with  very 
litUe  wind  from  the  N.  from  the  preceding  noon,  1  made  land ;  it  was  perfectly  calm, 


11  s 


KUIUiUELKN'd  VUYA(.K  Id  Tlir.  NOII'I  l(. 


759 


and  nature  was  as  it  wcrcnslccp  ;  l)iit  tlicsiiii  appoarinp;  above  the  horlzoi)  rc-animatcd 
her,  and  broii(;ht  us  a  breeze  ;  this  is  what  is  frccjucntly  experienced  in  the  torrid  zone  ; 
the  reason  of  it  is  this. 

During  the  whole  of  the  day,  the  sun  by  its  hrat  expands  and  causes  to  ri%c  from  the 
phiins,  and  above  all  from  the  surface  of  the  sea,  acpieous  particles  and  bubbles  of  rari- 
lied  air,  which  it  attracts  to  a  distance  from  the  earth,  'i'hose  which  ascend  the  last  fall 
again  almost  immediately  after  sun-set ;  they  approach  each  other  in  their  fall,  and  cause 
that  first  coolness  of  the  evening  which  is  called  serenity  ;  but  all  the  other  particles  which 
in  the  long  course  of  the  day  have  surmounted  the  gross  airs,  and  become  in  equlibrium 
with  the  first  strata  of  that  air  in  a  sujK'rior  region,  remain  sus{x.'nded  there  during  the 
calm  of  night ;  at  sun-rising  the  first  rays  of  heat,  being  felt  by  the  chilled  and  contracted 
nir,  necessarily  dilute  it.  One  mass  of  air  expanded  by  the  heat  drives  on  another, 
which  meets  with  resistance  from  u  third  ;  this  motion  of  the  air  becomes  a  wind,  and 
the  atmosphere  is  affected  by  it  in  a  less  or  greater  degree. 

At  eight  o'clock,  being  yet  three  leagues  from  shore,  some  Norwegian  pilots  came 
on  board,  who  informed  me  that  I  was  a  great  deal  to  the  south  of  the  passage  of 
Cruxfiord,  but  that  there  was  a  passage  two  leagues  north  of  where  I  was,  and  that  if 
by  luffing  I  could  get  up  these  two  leagues  (for  the  wind  was  north)  they  would  take 
me  into  good  anchorage,  where  I  might  wait  for  a  south  wind  to  get  into  Berghen.  I 
luffed  therefore,  to  head  the  wind.  At  noon  I  observed  the  latitude  ;  and  at  four  o'clock 
a  storm  arose,  which  determined  the  pilots  to  make  the  land,  in  order  to  seek  the  pas- 
sage to  the  north  of  the  isle  of  Bommel ;  through  which  they  steered  me  to  anchor  at 
Ingcson.  As  the  anchorage  is  difficult  on  the  coast  of  Norway,  that  is  to  say,  on  the 
currents  of  Berghen,  and  as  they  require  great  precaution,  I  shall  detail  the  methods  I 
made  use  of  in  anchoring ;  it  would  be  proper  to  inform  the  reader  the  first,  what  ob- 
servations I  made  on  the  coast. 

I  first  assured  myself  by  three  observations  of  the  variation :  the  one  an  eastern,  the 
other  by  azimuth,  and  the  third  meridional.  The  agreement  of  these  three  observations 
shewed  me  that  the  variation  of  the  needle  was  17®  50'  on  the  coast  of  Norway,  under 
the  isle  of  Bommel.  I  took  the  latitude  at  noon,  and  from  the  bearings  1  found  the  isle 
of  Bommel  to  be  15'  more  north,  than  what  it  is  set  down  in  the  large  chart  of  the 
Neptune.  On  my  second  voyage  I  made  the  same  observation,  and  found  the  whole  of 
the  coast  of  Norway  to  be  15'  more  north,  than  what  it  is  described  in  the  above-men- 
tioned chart.  In  short,  I  remarked  that  the  exterior  grounds,  and  bed  of  the  channel  of 
Berghen,  almost  wholly  resemble  each  other.  There  are  everywhere  rocks  of  the 
same  elevation,  fastiioned  and  craggy  alike ;  which  renders  making  land  a  difficult 
matter,  as  nothing  short  of  perfect  experience  can  enable  a  person  to  know  where  to 
make  for  land.  It  may  be  said  that  in  an  extent  of  twelve  leagues  of  coast  on  the  side 
where  I  made  for  shore,  there  i^  pnly  mount  Bommel,  in  the  island  of  that  name,  that  is 
distinguishable  from  others.  The  objects  of  the  continent  seldom  serve  for  land-marks, 
on  account  of  their  being  generally  hid  by  fogs,  and  covered  with  snow,  besides  being 
greatly  in  land.  There  are  several  passages  to  enter  the  canal  or  river  of  Berghen. 
From  the  isle  of  Shuttness  to  the  town  of  Berghen  is  sixteen  Danish  miles,  about 
ninety  Englbh,  and  in  this  extent  of  the  coast  there  are  eight  passages  to  enter  the  canal. 
In  coming  from  the  sea  to  the  north  of  Berghen,  there  are  also  two  passages  much  fre- 
quented, the  most  northerly  of  which  is  only  six  Danish  miles  from  the  town.  North 
of  these  are  some  other  passages,  but  thty  are  so  litUe  known,  so  little  frequented,  and  so 
difficult,  that  they  are  not  worth  mentioning. 


I 


^■^ 


reo 


KrnnURLEN'l  VOVACiK  TO  Tin-.  NORTft. 


These  are  the  names  of  all  the  passages,  l)C[rtnning  with  the  most  southerly  ;  1^  St%> 
vangcrfiurd  near  Stavanger,  sixteen  Danish  milrs  tVoin  Rcrffhcn ;  2°  SchuttncHu,  which 
is  the  iK-ginning  ufthc  cunuls,  fourtCMt  miles  distant ;  3°  Udeiro  thirteen  miles ;  4*>  Ik)m- 
melfiord  eleven  miles ;  5'  Solmenfiord  five  miles  ;  6*'  Parxrfiord  four  miles  ;  7S  Cruix* 
fiord  three  miles  ;  8<*  Jcttefiord  nearly  three  miles  west  oi  the  town. 

The  two  passages  or  openings  which  ;irc  frequented  at  the  north  of  the  town,  arc  P 
Herlefiord  ;  this  pass;igc  is  between  two  islands  advancing  some  distance  into  the  sen, 
known  by  the  names  of  Hennc  and  Feyer,  five  miles  from  the  town ;  S**  Foensfiord  ; 
there  is  in  the  middle  of  the  second  passage  a  little  loAy  island,  railed  Holmen  Graac.  It 
■crves  as  a  land  mark  :  this  passage  is  six  miles  from  Berghen.  It  will  be  seen  by  what  I 
have  observed  that  it  is  better  to  make  land  south  of  the  town,  on  account  of  there  being 
in  that  quarter  more  passages  than  in  the  north  ;  Ix'sides  which,  they  arc  more  practica- 
ble,  and  the  currents  run  towartis  the  north,  the  whole  length  of  the  coast ;  in  other  re- 
spects the  wind  must  decide  ;  the  best  latitude  at  which  to  make  land  I  consider  to  be 
59°  40'. 

A  vessel  may  mnke  for  land  without  apprehension ;  it  is  very  safe  ;  the  coast  of  Nor- 
way  presents  a  dreadful  aspect  everywhere,  it  is  a  continued  chain  of  rocks,  the  sight  of 
which  makes  one  shudder;  but  nothing  should  prevent  making  for  them  ;  for  as  I  be* 
fore  observed,  n  ship  may  range  very  close  under  them,  and  when  at  two  leagues  from 
shore,  pilots  always  come  out,  unless  there  happens  a  storm  ;  but  in  fine  weather  they 
proceed  even  as  (at  as  three  leagues  to  get  on  board  a  ship :  they  row  with  all  their  might 
as  well  to  be  first,  for  the  first  Doat  which  touches  the  vessel  with  an  oar  has  a  right  to 
furnish  a  pilot,  the  others  then  return,  but  not  without  asking  for  biscuit  or  brandy,  of 
which  they  arc  exta-mcly  fond. 

I  have  before  observed  that  the  land  may  be  approached  at  all  times,  however,  when  the 
weather  is  foggj',  with  a  strong  W.  N.  W.  wina,  unless  the  case  were  urgent,  I  would 
not  advise  making  for  shore,  seeing  that  there  is  no  shifHng  from  a  W.  N.  \V.  wind. 

I  return  to  my  aiichora^  at  Ingeson,  and  as  all  anchoring  in  the  river  of  Berghen 
requires  core,  I  shall  describe  the  method  I  used  at  Ingeson ;  it  will  serve  as  instruction 
for  all  vessels  which  may  be  going  to  Berghen ;  that  port,  which  of  all  in  the  North  Sea 
yields  the  greatest  resources,  there  being  a  mast  yard,  a  capital  rope  warehouse,  and 
plenty  of  provisions.  By  chance  a,  vessel  may  be  obliged  to  enter  the  passages  without 
pilots,  either  owing  to  the  superiority  of  an  enemy's  vessel,  or  to  storms,  and  what  I  am 
about  to  observe  will  be  of  great  utility. 

On  coming  from  sea  with  a  north  wind,  keeping  Mount  Bommel  at  six  to  eight 
leagues  distant  at  S.  £.  the  ship  must  continue  its  way,  steering  as  close  to  the  wind  as 
possible,  in  order  to  keep  before  tlie  wind,  and  north  of  the  isle  of  Bommel.  At  about 
a  league  from  shore,  an  openingwill  be  seen  between  the  rocks,  which  is  the  passage  of 
*Solmenfiord,  five  miles  from  Berghen.  Imagining  t^e  reader  at  the  entrance  of  the 
passage,  I  recommend  him  the  expedienv"  I  made  use  of.  The  wind  was  northeriy,  I 
kept  close  to  the  islets  and  rocks  in  the  north,  which  I  passed  at  two  cables'  length,  in 
order  to  avoid  the  stones  which  are  in  the  middle  of  the  passage  under  water,  and  which 
I  left  to  starboard  ^ing  before  the  wind.  At  a  ouarter  of  a  league  from  the  isk  of 
Rootholm,  I  made  in  short  to  coast  round  this  island,  till  I  should  discover  an  oi)enin^ 
to  leeward.  I  then  bore  up  for  the  inlet,  steering  S.  and  S.  quarter  S.  E.  I  went  up  this 
creek,  and  when  about  a  cable's  length  from  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  I  cast  anchor  to 
larboardt  I  put  the  hfilm  to  starboard,  to  round  to  the  wind,  letting  the  cable  run.     As 

'  This  passage  is  nearly  a  league  wide  ;  on  my  second  voyage  I  lufled  up  it. 


KCnoUELEN'l  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NUUTll. 


701 


•con  as  I  had  anchored,  and  the  frigate  rude  at  her  muorin)(!i,  I  sent  a  tow-ro))c  ashnn: 
to  the  Ciiatward,  which  wum  lusihcd  usitcrn  to  itturLxMud  :  by  thit  nicuns  the  vchhcI  d(K  h  not 
lay  withtiic  current,  hut  it  i»  secure.  The  nmin  anchor  ist  heaved  into  cighiccu  t'athoni 
water,  sund  and  giavelly  bottom  ;  there  is  !>ix  t'athouiH  below  llic  vessiel,  and  an  the  bot> 
torn  riHettin  u  sloning  manner,  there  doesi  not  need  more  thanfi  .ty-five  iat  horn  at  of  cable 
out,  comprising  ttie  plaiting.  The  tow-line  in  moored  to  u  rock  on  shore,  cut  for  the  pur- 

{>osc.  Great  care  must  Ik-  taken  to  plat  the  cable,  and  examine  it  often,  for  there  arc  r(K:ks 
n  muny  places  ut  the  bottom.  The  tide  does  not  run  strong.  The  difference  of  high  and 
low  water  in  eight  feet ;  the  tides  ore  of  ttix  hour.<).  1  forgot  to  observe  that  five-and* 
twenty  fathonts  uf  bitter  must  Ix:  used  in  anchoring,  and  to  recommend  to  be  always 
ready  to  let  out  cable,  so  as  to  ride  easy  on  the  wind.  Moreover,  it  will  Ijc  neccss;urv  to 
have  another  anchor  in  reserve,  ready  to  be  ciist,  in  cose  the  first  should  not  hold.  It  is 
needless  to  advise  tlic  coming  to  an  anchor  with  as  little  wind  as  possible.  I  observed 
that  u  vessel  is  sulHcientlv  well  moored  with  a  tow-roi)e  astern  ;  for  as  soon  as  the  wind 
southb,  she  sets  s;(il  for  Ueigiien.  If  the  wind  should  hapiK'n  to  blow  8.  S.  VV.  it  would 
be  j)rudent  to  have  a  second  tow-ro|)e  to  larboard,  on  the  western  side. 

When  about  to  su:l,  s.  vessel  must  pay  out  tow-rope  while  heaving  nt  the  capstan. 
The  ujichor  is  weighed  and  catted,  the  topsails  and  mizcn-topsuHs  are  then  tallied,  the 
tow-rope  is  paid  out,  or  cut,  and  an  oared  bout  bcnt  ashore  to  bring  it  after. 

The  second  and  third  we  had  u  dead  culm.  I  employed  mvscU  in  taking  a  draft  of 
this  road,  or  rother  this  bason.  At  musquet  shot  from  this  anchorage,  as  well  us  near  all 
others  along  the  river,  you  meet  with  a  tu>'ern,  provided  with  meat,  fish,  eggs,  milk, 
beer,  ar.d  in  short  every  thing  the  country  affords. 

The  fourth,  at  nit\c  in  the  evening,  the  wind  S.  with  fog,  we  sailed  front  Ingcson  for 
Berghen.  We  made  nearly  eight  leagues  among  the  rocks,  which  we  passed  very  close 
to  during  a  thick  fog,  that  almost  entirely  obscured  the  feeble  glimmering  of  twilight. 
On  the  road  the  pilots  made  me  notice  several  uncliorages,  both  to  sturboiU*d  and  lar- 
board, as  well  for  large  as  small  vessels. 

The  fifth,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  wind  at  S.  E.  but  weak,  we  uachorcd 
atBehoriavcn,  nearly  three  sea  leagues  from  Berghen.  The  starboard  anchor  was  cast 
in  twenty  fathoms  water,  sandy  bottom,  with  flint  stones.  As  soon  os  the  frigate 
rounded,  I  sent  two  tow-ropes  ashore  to  two  iron  rings,  fixed  for  the  purpose  of  vessels  t« 
moor  to ;  there  are  similar  rings  along  all  the  canals  of  Berghen,  wherever  there  is 
anchorage ;  for  it  must  not  be  conceived  that  a  vessel  can  anchor  any  where,  although 
enclosed  by  land  and  rocks ;  sometimes  it  is  requisite  to  proceed  three  or  four  league-,  to 
get  to  an  anchor,  on  account  of  there  being  not  less  than  eighty  to  one  hundred  fa- 
tnoms  water  between  one  anchorage  and  another.  At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we 
had  a  weak  S.  wind  and  sailed,  when  under  sail  it  veered  to  W.  N.  W.  and  N.  W.  I  had 
great  difficulty  in  doubling  the  last  point,  which  forms  the  entrance  of  the  bay  of  Berghen 
on  the  side  of  the  west,  at  which  point  there  is  a  buoy  to  murk  a  sunken  rock.  In  the 
middle  of  the  bay,  a  league,  from  the  anchorage,  we  experienced  a  violent  cm  rent  which 
prevented  our  advancing,  and  kept  us  as  it  were  at  anchor,  notwithstanding  we  had  a 
good  wind,  and  all  sails  set ;  this  current  was  occasioned  by  the  ebb  tide  emptying  itself 
from  the  two  bays,  the  one  north,  the  other  south,  of  the  citadel.  I  manned  all  the 
boats  of  the  frigate,  and  sent  them  before,  to  row  her.  By  dint  of  rowing,  with  all  sails 
set,  I  made  shift  to  pass  this  current,  which  otherwise  might  have  carried  me  on  to  the 
north  shore.  At  six  o'clock  1  anchored  in  nine  fathoms,  with  a  sandy  bottom,  and  the 
frigate  lying  with  her  head  to  windward,  after  paying  out  forty  fathoms  of  cable,  struck 
on  a  flat  rock,  the  only  danger  to  be  apprehended  in  this  roadstead ;  there  were  fourteen 

VOL.  z.  5  c 


r62 


Kl'JiUUKLUN'S  VOYACE  TU   TUK  NORTH- 


feet  two  inches  of  water  on  the  rock,  but  the  draft  of  the  frigate  was  fourteen  feet  three, 
and  it  yet  wanted  four  or  five  inches  of  low  water.  I  immediately  lashed  a  tow-rope  to 
a  dead-head,  which  was  out  with  my  anchor,  and  which  served  to  shew  where  to  weigh 
it.  I  pumped  out  my  water,  and  heaved  at  the  tow-rope,  as  well  as  the  cable,  but  all 
in  vain.  We  were  obliged  to  wait  for  the  flood-tide.  This  accident  would  nothavchap- 
pened,  if  the  Norwegian  pilots  had  cast  anchor  more  to  the  north,  as  I  wished  them,  in 
sixteen  fathoms  water.  It  only  occasioned  us  however  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  and  ow- 
ing to  the  care  of  M.  Duchatel  and  my  officers,  we  had  no  confusion,  which  in  si- 
milar circumstances  is  extraordinary.  When  afloat  I  heaved  my  main-anchor  and  got 
to  the  entrance  of  the  port ;  my  great  stream-anchor  was  in  ten  fathoms  water,  sand 
and  gravelly  bottom ;  my  bower-anchor  S.  E.  of  the  first  in  six  fathoms,  muddv  bot- 
tom. I  sent  a  tow-line  ashore,  which  I  moored  to  the  post  of  the  Corps  de  Garde,  and 
a  small  anchor  to  N.  E.  These  precautions  made  me  perfectly  secure,  but  I  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  number  of  merchant  vessels,  and  that  is  not  a  proper  mooring  for  a  large 
frigate.  Ships  of  war  in  general  anchor  at  Sandvick,  they  go  entirely  into  port,  where 
they  ride  in  four  moorings ;  but  when  desiroui  of  going  thus  far  into  port,  and  get 
within  the  citadel,  it  is  required  that  the  powder  should  be  landed. 

To  avoid  the  rock  on  which  I  struck,  it  is  essential  to  notice  a  buoy  which  points 
out  the  place  it  lays  in.  What  deceived  my  experienced  pilots  was,  the  buoy's  having 
been  carried  away  two  hours  before  by  a  Dutch  vessel,  which  struck  as  well  as  1  did 
on  the  same  rock  ;  but  in  case  the  buoy  should  not  be  seen,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  rock  lays  S.  E.  half  a  cable's  distance  from  a  buoy,  which  serves  as  a  dead- 
head to  moor  to. 

As  soon  as  I  had  arrived,  I  sent  an  officer  to  pay  my  respects  to  the  governor  of  the 
town,  who  lives  in  the  castle,  and  the  next  day,  accompanied  by  my  staff",  I  paid  him 
a  visit.  Wc  went  as  well  to  see  Mr.  Deschiel,  grand  bailiff"  of  the  city  and  territory  of 
Berghen.  He  loadeduswith  kindness,  and  offered  to  render  every  service  of  which  we 
stood  in  need.  We  did  not  meet  with  so  favourable  a  reception  from  the  people.  The 
merchants,  workmen,  and  all  those  to  whom  we  had  recourse  for  what  the  frigate 
wanted,  treated  us  coolly.  They  fled  before  us  in  the  streets,  and  even  refused  in  the 
public  markets  to  sell  to  my  maitre  d'hotel.  We  owed  this  reception  to  the  bad  con- 
duct of  some  captains  of  privateers,  who,  under  the  title,  and  in  the  uniform  of  his 
majesty's  officers,  which  they  had  the  impudence  to  take  upon  them,  had  during  the 
last  war  committed  so  many  excesses  in  this  town,  that  the  grand  bailiff,  fearing  we 
might  meet  with  insult,  thought  right  to  publish  that  we  were  truly  possessed  of  the 
king's  commission,  recommending  civility  towards  us.  Our  mode  of  acting  and  the 
discipline  we  maintained  soon  shewed  them  who  we  were.  A  sailor  having  stolen  a  sil- 
ver spoon  out  of  an  ale-house  in  a  fit  of  drunkenness,  I  caused  him  to  be  dipped  from 
the  main-yard  for  three  successive  days,  and  but  for  the  intercession  of  all  the  ladies, 
at  a  grand  supper  given  by  Mad.  Deschiel,  his  punishment  would  have  been  of  longer 
duration.  I  gave  a  dinner  on  board  the  frigate  to  Mad.  Deschiel,  and  all  the  principal 
ladies,  to  the  staff-major,  the  officers  in  garrison,  and  all  the  principal  persons  of  the 
place.  This  dinner,  which  was  succeeded  by  a  ball,  spread  a  gaiety  through  every 
quarter  of  the  town,  where  the  healths  of  the  kings  of  France  and  Denmark  were 
drank,  under  the  discharge  of  the  cannon  of  the  frigate  ;  notwithstanding  this,  the 
people  could  with  difficulty  forget  that  a  Frenchman,  the  captain  of  a  fine  vessel,  or 
who  represented  himself  in  that  character,  had  threatened,  upon  a  refusal  of  some  in- 
discreet demand,  to  fire  upon  the  citadel,  and  that  upon  sever  al  occasions  their  women 
had  met  with  insult  from  them. 


^r|~ft5;r5Mfv«B;::r,~'''*«<»iU»«''' 


KERCUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NOnXH. 


763 


I  cannot  here  refrain  from  a  reflection  on  the  high  idea  thatthe  public  entertains  of 
certain  intriguers,  whose  merit  consists  in  their  praising  themselves ;  who  propose  the 
grandest  schemes,  because  they  run  no  other  risk  than  that  of  falling  back  into  the  no. 
thing  from  whici .  they  are  studious  of  raising  themselves,  and  whom  we  every  day  see 
fail  in  their  enterprizes  with  shame,  although  supported  by  an  ignorant  cabal,  prejudiced 
against  the  royal  navy.     The  proofs  of  this  blind  perversion  are  but  two  widely  spread. 
Even  in  the  Encyelopediti  most  indecent  absurdities  are  to  be  found,  under  the  h'^acl 
marine.     An  abstract  from  -x  work,  intitled  Reflexions  of  a  Citizen  on  the  Navy,  is  m- 
serted  there.     This  is  the  work  of  an  officer,  a  merchant  of  Dieppe.     The  rank  of  this 
man  sufficiently  shews  that  he  is  a  blackener  of  the  bharacters  of  his  majesty's  officers. 
He  s;iys,  "  the  gentleman  sailor  takes  no  pride  in  his  occupation,  he  despises  seamanship, 
&c."     I  must  however  do  justice  to  his  sentiments,  when  speaking  of  war  and  arma- 
ments. "  The  captain,"  he  says,  "  ought  to  be  completely  master  of  the  lighting  his 
ship,  &c.     To  wage  war  with  the  English,  their  commerce  must  be  attacked,  and  our- 
selves be  satisfied  with  preserving  our  possessions ;  it  is  precisely  playing  with  a  chance 
of  losing,  and  none  of  gaining,  to  act  otherwise :  it  is  against  the  English  commerce, 
alone,  that  we  should  wage  war ;  no  durable  peace  with  this  nation  can  be  expected 
without  following  this  polity.     Let  England  tremble  for  her  trade  in  a  war  with  us ;  this 
is  the  important  point.     The  enemy,  in  the  war  of  1744,  made  considerable  insurances 
on  our  merchant  vessels,  in  this  war  few,  and  those  at  very  heavy  premiums.    Why  so, 
because  they  imagin<^  that  a  war  on  the  continent  would  cause  us  to  neglect  our  navy, 
and  they  were  in  the  right :  it  is  the  finances  alone  of  the  enemy  which  support  her  navy, 
and  its  finances  depend  upon  her  trade ;  let  us  then  make  war  on  her  commerce,  and  on 
her  commerce  only.     Take  a  colony  from  the  English,  they  murmur;  ruin  their  trade, 
they  will  revolt.     We  have  three  hundred  leagues  of  sea-coast  to  protect.     This  case 
requires  a  considerable  navy....what!  Are  vessels  requisite  to  guard  our  shores?  Delusive 
error  We  want  soldiers  only  for  that  ^rpose,  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  shall  be 
put  inarms  for  saving's  sake,  nevertheless  the  shores  will  be  insulted ;  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men  are  clad  in  arms,  and  it  is  evident  that  twenty-five  sail  of  the  line  at  Brest, 
and  fifteen  thousand  men  near  that    place,    will  be  sufficient  to  prevent  any  such 
consequence;  nay,  any  thing  except  the  prejudice  in  favour  of  soldiers."     It  is  visible 
that  this  seaman  is  possessed  of  judgment,  although  he  does  not  display  the  necessity  of 
a  navy  with  equal  eloquence  with  Mr.  Thomas,  in  his  eulogy  of  Duguay  Trouin.  How- 
ever, that  orator,  guided  by  an  excusable  prejudice,  seeing  that  he  had  never  frequented 
the  sea-ports  of  his  majesty,  lets  escape  him  some  critiques  in  favour  of  the  mercliant 
vessels,  to  the  injury  of  the  king's  ships.     Labouring  under  the  same  prejudice,  a  monk 
has  manufactured  an  historical  journal  of  a  voyage  to  the  Madeira  islands  in  1763  and 
1764.     The  editor  of  this  insipid  journal,  printed  at  Berlin  in  1769,  seems  to  h?,ve  left 
his  convent  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  reap  in  another  hemisphere  an  amp''  Jiarvest  of 
lies  and  invectives.     Returning  to  Europe,  he  takes  pleasure  in  po'.liig  the  coarse 
poison  of  his  graceless  pen  upon  the  navy,  in  a  digression  which  co'^tains  as  many  blun- 
ders as  phrases.     "  On  the  fifteenth  of  June  1754,"  says  the  stupid  son  of  St.  Benoit, 
"  a  vessel  is  seen  to  windward  in  the  N.  W.  the  flag  and  pennant  is  hoisted,  a  flag  is  plait- 
ed and  hoisted,  and  we  lay  close  to  the  wind ;  in  spite  of  all  these  pretended  signals,  the 
vessel  continues  its  course,"    This  learned  Cenobite  imaginea  that  a  vessel,  who  should 
so  act  can  be  no  other  than  a  French  vessel.     Upon  this  his  bile  inflames,  his  love  for 
his  country  and  the  commonweal  puis  in  his  mouth  a  violent  diatribe  against  a  navy  which 
he  ought  to  respect;  but  in  what  order  has  this  monk  learnt,  that  a  love  for  one's  country 
is  shown  by  exclaiming  in  a  Hottentot  dialect,  that  "the  license  of  thereds  causes  the  sla- 

5  £  2 


h 


764 


KEHCUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


' 


\'ery  of  the  blues,  that  the  ofllccrs  of  the  royal  navy  possess  prejudices  which  raiiie  them 
much  above  the  profession  of  sailors,  and  make  them  imagine  it  uiineuebsary  to  learn 
the  art  of  seamanship,  in  order  to  practise  it,  &c."  If  this  paiierstainer  had  read  the 
ordonnances  of  the  marine,  he  v/ould  have  known  that  there  are  schools  established  for 
the  education  of  young  i)eople  in  this  art :  if  he  had  been  at  any  one  of  the  sea  ports,  he 
must  have  seen  officers  applying  themselves  to  the  theor)',  and  anxiously  desirous  of  re< 
ducing  this  theory  to  practice ;  if  he  had  taken  the  trouble  to  seek  for  intbrmation,  he 
might  have  learnt  that  it  is  necessary,  before  a  man  can  become  a  captain  of  a  merchant 
vessel,  that  he  should  have  made  at  least  two  voyages  on  board  of  a  king's  ship,  and  obtain 
satisfactory  credentials  from  his  commanders ;  which  pre-supposes  that  it  is  on  board 
these  vessels  alone  that  proper  discipline,  and  a  perfect  knowled^  of  the  necessary  sub« 
ordination  and  service  at  sea,  can  be  acquired ;  and  that  the  oincers  in  the  navy  arc  the 
competent  judges  of  the  merchants'  captains :  had  he  sailed  on  board  vessels  truly  com- 
manded by  his  majesty's  officers,  he  would  not  have  affirmed  that  **  every  vessel  is  o- 
bliged  to  Strike,  when  a  king's  ship  orders  her  to  do  so,  by  firing  a  gun  and  bringing  round 
the  pennant  to  the  mast,  at  the  part  it  ought  to  be,  according  to  the  rank  of  the  officer 
commanding  the  king's  ship."  He  would  have  known  that  the  pennant  is  hobted,  and 
not  brought  round,  and  that  a  merchant  vessel  is  not  obliged  to  strike,  but  to  bring  to, 
in  order  to  receive  orders.  If  he  had  resided  in  a  sea-port,  he  might  have  learnt  the  lan- 
guage of  a  profession,  which,  had  he  possessed  any  modesty,  he  must  have  been  persuad- 
ed is  a  necessary  acquisition  to  him  who  professes  to  give  lessons;  he  would  have  seen  how 
highly  the  Barts,  the  Duguai  Trouins,  and  the  Cassards,  are  respected ;  all  these  great 
men  were  entitled  to  the  stations  they  held  on  board  the  king's  ships ;  they  had  fought 
in  desperate  engagements,  made  many  skilful  manoeuvres,  taken  ships  of  war  from  the 
enemy  ;  let  any  one  present  himself  after  such  striking  recommendations,  and  certainly 
he  will  be  received  with  as  much  welcome  as  distu^tion.  Notwithstanding  the  officers 
of  the  royal  navy  are  much  above  such  paltry  aspefHons  as  those  lanced  from  so  palsied 
an  arm  as  that  of  the  traveller  to  the  '  lalucca  isbnds,  I  have  not  been  able  to  restrain 
the  first  boilings  of  anger,  which  the  reading  of  the  fastidious  volume  of  that  monk-errant 
occasioned  me. 

During  the  stay  I  made  at  Berghen  I  sounded,  and  caused  to  be  sounded,  the  port, 
the  roadstead,  and  the  neighbourhood  of  ti.c  town ;  respecting  which  I  shall  say  more  in 
succession,  hitending  now  to  give  a  description  of  the  town  and  territory  of  Berghen.  I 
shall  even  sa^  >omething  of  Denmark,  Norway,  the  Laplanders,  the  Samoiedes,  and 
other  people  o^  ^he  north  of  this  second  kingdom,  which  are  but  little  known,  and  oi 
whom  n;anv  .abulous  tales  have  been  related.  As  I  have  conversed  with  and  received  my 
informatir  i  from  persons  of  education  who  have  travelled  in  that  country,  receiving 
from  ^he  ibuntain-head  my  accounts,  I  think  they  will  meet  with  estimation. 

The  city  of  Berghen,  formerly  Biorginn,  capital  of  the  diocese  of  that  name,  is  the  lar- 
gest  and  most  considerable  trading  city  of  Norway ;  it  is  situated  at  the  bottom  of  a  valley, 
surrounded  and  defended  by  seven  large  mountains ;  its  fortifications  on  the  sea-side  do 
not  deserve  mention.  Formerly  there  were  thirty  churches  and  convents  in  Ber^^hen  t 
at  present  there  are  only  four  parish  churches,  three  of  which  are  Danish,  and  one  Ger- 
man. The  churches  are  built  of  stone,  as  well  as  the  houses  of  the  noblemen,  consuls, 
and  principal  merchants.  The  most  remarkable  building  is  the  custom-house,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  \yott.  There  is  a  Latin  school,  founded  in  1544,  and  endowed  by  Pe« 
ter  the  bishop ;  its  revenues  were  encreased  by  Frederic  Second  and  his  successors.  At 
this  time  it  maintains  twelve  students  in  philosophy,  mathematics,  history,  and  the  French 
language.  The  marine  school  was  formerly  suilGciently  numerous,  but  it  is  fallen  into 
decay. 


-;.':.'.'WM.'!l.'i'JM5,.  '"i,-'j,^y.. 


ii-:''=|i 


KBRCUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


765 


Berghen  formerly  had  the  privilege  of  coining ;  this  she  retained  until  1575.  As 
yet  there  is  preserved  in  the  cabinet  of  medals,  at  Copenhagen,  one  which  was  struck 
here  in  the  reign  of  Eric.  The  city  was  built  in  1070  and  1071.  Several  councils  have 
been  held  here.  As  the  greatest  part  of  Berghen  is  built  of  wood,  this  town  has  fre- 
quently been  a  prey  to  the  flames :  it  was  burnt  in  1248 ;  eleven  churches  were  reduced 
to  ashes :  the  same  misfortune  happened  to  it  in  147:2,  in  1623,  in  1640,  in  1702,  and 
in  1756  ;  at  this  last  fire  sixteen  hundred  houses  were  destroyed.  The  city  is  very  ex- 
te^nsive.  The  streets  are  not  straight,  and  are  irregularly  paved  with  la*^  and  small 
stones,  but  are  kept  very  clean.  The  houses,  although  built  of  wood,  afford  a  very 
pleasing  appearance,  from  the  diversity  of  colours  with  which  they  are  painted :  they 
are  extremely  pretty  within ;  no  gold  or  silver  is  seen,  but  the  furniture  is  neat,  and 
agreeably  simple. 

The  city  of  Berghen  may  contain  three  thousand  houses,  and  more  than  twenty  thou- 
sand inhabitants :  the  inhabitants  of  Hamburg,  Lubeck,  and  Bremen,  annually  resort 
there  for  the  fishery. 

The  reli^on  of  the  country  is  Lutheran,  of  the  creed  of  Augsburg,  known  in  Ger- 
many by  the  title  of  Evangelical ;  it  is  the  religion  of  the  sovereign,  and  prevails  through 
all  the  possessions  of  the  king  of  Denmark.  All  other  religion;:)  are  tolerated  (but  with- 
out allowance  of  public  worship)  provided  they  do  not  disturb  the  commonweal.  Every 
inh:^ bitant,  whatever  may  be  hi  •  religion  or  station  in  life,  enjoys  equally  the  protection 
of  the  government ;  no  one  undergoes  vexation  for  conscience  sake. 

As  to  the  manners  of  the  inhabitants  of  Berghen*  it  is  difficult  to  satisfy  the  reader  on 
that  article,  tor  it  is  composed  of  different  nations ;  many  Germans  and  Scotch  have 
successively  come  to  establish  themselves  here,  and  intermarried  with  the  natives :  in  ge- 
neral the  men  are  strong  and  robust,  little  polished,  although  affable  to  strangers  from 
interest.  There  is  but  little  nobility  at  Berghen  ;  most  of  the  inhabituiits  are  merchants 
or  tradesmen,  dealing  by  wholesale  oi  retail.  There  are  however  some  distinguished 
families,  but  they  are  very  few  in  number. 

The  women  arc  in  general  fond  of  work  :  they  employ  ♦hemselves  in  their  household 
sffsard,  and  in  commerce;  they  are  not  addicted  to  luxury;  they  receive  strangers,  to 
whom  they  are  partial,  with  courtesy,  and  particularly  the  French,  who  are  very  wel- 
come visitants;  which  occasions  on  the  part  of  the  husbands  a  great  jealousy  of  them. 
The  Norwegian  women  are  handsome,  but  not  well  informed  :  more  iK>liteness  is  met 
with  in  other  parts  of  Norway,  but  throughout  the  country  Bacchus  and  Ceres  find 
more  votaries  among  the  men  than  Venus.  They  are  fond  of  spirits,  and  smoke  a  great 
deal.  They  make  up  assemblies,  consisting  wholly  of  men,  and  prefer  them,  which 
they  call  estaminet,  to  the  society  of  the  ladies ;  this  engages  them  in  turn  to  revenge 
themselves  without  ceremony,  by  the  help  of  more  amiable  and  gallant  strangers. 

The  garrison  of  Berghen  is  composed  of  one  battalion  of  regular  troops,  one  free  com- 
pany of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and  a  small  detachment  of  artillery,  making  together 
ax  hunoi'ed  men. 

The  commerce  of  the  city  of  Berghen  consists  of  all  sorts  of  fish,  fat  merchandise, 
skins  and  wood.  These  commodities  are  produced  in  the  provinces  north  of  Berghen. 
The  haven  is  safe  and  good,  and  can  hold  a  lai^  number  of  vessels  of  every  dimension. 
It  has  an  additional  advantage  of  never  freezing,  and  being  always  navigable.  The 
burghers  of  Berghen  have  about  eighty  vessels  employed  in  external  commerce,  and 
with  which  they  trade  through  the  ocean,  in  the  Mediterranean,  in  the  North  Sea,  and 
in  the  Baltic.  Besides,  upwards  of  one  thousand  vessels  of  different  nations  arrive  there, 
bringing  &^t,  grain,  flour,  brandy,  and  other  commodities.    They  also  send  several 


kf 


766 


KERGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  KORTII. 


vessels  to  Greenland  to  fish  for  seals,  the  fat  of  which  serves  to  make  oils,  very  much 
esteemed  for  lamps.  A  very  considerable  truific  in  grain  of  every  description  is  carried 
on  at  Bcrghcn,  on  account  of  the  ground  throughout  the  bailiwick  being  poor  and  ste- 
rile. Its  inhabitaiits,  particularly  on  the  coast,  are,  generally  speaking,  fishermen  :  they 
iire  obliged  to  furnish  themselves  with  what  grain  they  may  have  occasion  for  from  inn 
warehouses  in  the  city,  which  are  always  abundantly  supplied.  All  the  inhabitants  to 
the  north  of  Berghen  resort  there,  from  the  distance  even  of  three  hundred  leagues,  to 
lay  in  thcjir  stock  of  corn  and  other  commodities,  Drontheim  not  possessing  equal  advan- 
tages :  in  short,  Berghen  is  the  granary  of  Norway.  The  river  of  Berghen,  and  all  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  coast,  abound  in  fish.  The  most  considerable  and  profitable  fishe- 
ries arc  those  of  the  cod  and  herring ;  it  is  from  the  produce  of  these  that  the  Danish 
and  foreign  vessels  take  in  their  loading  for  all  parts  of  Europe.  These  are  the  gold 
mines  of  the  country.  The  stock-fish  prepared  at  Berghen  is  m  great  esteem  through- 
out the  ports  of  Spain,  Italy,  Holland,  Flanders,  and  even  England.  It  is  also  exported 
to  the  Baltic,  as  well  as  cod  dried  and  barrelled,  which  the  Nurwegians  send  all  over  Eu- 
rope. A  very  large  quantity  of  fish  oil  as  well  is  shipped  at  Berghen,  besides  goats* 
skins,  sheep  skins,  taliuw,  pitch  and  plunking. 

I  have  now  to  mention  the  trade  in  roG;ue,  of  which  there  is  a  great  consumption  in 
Brittany  :  rogue  is  the  roes  of  cod-fish ;  it  is  a  bait  without  which  there  is  no  fishing  for 
sardines:  The  cod  fishery,  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  the  roes,  is  carried  on  on  the 
coasts  of  Norway  from  the  beginning  of  January  to  the  middle  of  April.  Cod  is  taken 
at  other  times  of  the  year ;  but  it  is  within  these  periods  only  that  the  roe  is  found. 
The  fishery  begins  in  January  on  the  coast  of  Nordland  and  Finmark,  more  than  an  hun- 
dred leagues  north  of  Berghen.  The  fish  descend  successively  along  the  coasts,  always 
towards  the  south,  as  far  as  Berghen,  and  thirty  leagues  beyond  to  Schuttness,  where  the 
fishery  ends  with  the  month  of  April,  on  account  of  the  cod  then  leaving  the  shore  for 
the  sea,  in  order  to  lay  its  eggs.  The  fishery  does  not  begin  at  Berghen  before  the  end 
of  March.  The  Norwegian  fishermen  carry  on  this  fishery  in  close  places  only :  they 
use  small  boa  s  of  six  or  eight  tons  burthen.  They  have  small  wooden  storehouses  on 
shore,  where,  after  opening  the  fish  and  taking  out  the  roe,  they  salt  and  lay  it  in  pyra- 
midal piles,  and  transport  it  to  Berghen  after  tlie  end  of  the  fishery  in  April.  The  mer- 
chants then  buy  the  roes  uf  the  fishermen,  and  barrel  it.  This  fishery  is  seldom  consi- 
deruble  in  the  bailiwick  of  Berghen,  although  it  be  of  seventy  leagues  extent ;  it  is 
deemed  large,  when  it  extends  to  four  thousand  barrels.  But  the  best  fishing  is  on  the 
coast  of  Nordland,  the  sea  on  which  coast  affords  more  fish  than  any  other.  The  inha- 
bitants of  these  northern  countries  bring  to  Berghen,  the  most  con^derable  port  in 
Norway,  and  that  which  is  most  resorted  to  by  foreigners,  the  whole  produce  of  their 
fishery,  as  well  the  fish  as  the  roe,  in  vessels  of  from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  tons 
burthen.  The  ice  and  storms  hinder  the  arrival  of  these  vessels  before  the  month  of 
May,  so  that  it  is  impossible  before  that  time  to  fix  the  price  of  rogue.  In  tolerable 
yeai^,  at  the  beginning  of  June,  there  are  commonly  fifteen  or  sixteen  thousand  tuns  of 
rogue  in  the  warehouses  of  Berghen  (the  measure  of  the  tun  is  about  twenty  .eight  gal- 
lons Winchester)  the  price  of  which  is  commonly  three  or  four  rix-dollars,  from  twelve 
to  fifteen  shillings  of  our  money ;  and  in  plentiful  years,  as  low  as  two  rix-dollars,  or 
eight  shillings  nearly.  It  has  even  been  known  as  low  as  a  dollar,  or  three  shillings  and 
ninepence  per  tun  ;  but  in  1767  and  1768  the  price  was  excessive.  Never  was  it  known 
so  high,  owing  to  a  competition  among  the  buyers ;  it  was  sold  at  from  five  to  six  dol- 
lars. This  price,  which  is  without  example,  makes  it  desirable,  for  prevention  in  future, 
and  for  t-     benefit  of  Brittany,  that  a  single  company  should  possess  the  privilege  of 


~~->^'^^^?^!«i*»^>V«WM»»f*^?^'^^ 


KLUCiUELEN'S  VOYA(JE  TO  TIHS  NORTH. 


'fa' 
40t 


selling  the  rocs  to  the  fishers  of  sardines  upon  the  coasts  of  that  province.  It  is  to  be 
noticed,  on  packing  the  tuns  sworn  guagcrs  attend  to  sec  them  well  packed  and  filled. 
Thirteen  of  tncse  tuns  go  to  a  hist,  or  two  tuns  English  ;  weight  is  out  of  question.  The 
freight  paid  at  Brest,  or  any  other  port  of  Briltan\ ,  is  about  twenty-five  shillings  per  last, 
with  ten  per  cent,  of  average.  The  duties,  which  are  trifling,  and  all  the  expences  in- 
cluded, do  not  amount  tosevcnpencc-halfpenuy  per  barrel.  This  is  all  the  information 
which  1  can  give  of  the  trade  of  Bc-rghcn  and  Norway. 

I  shall  now  sketch  out  an  idea  of  the  manufactures,  and  branches  of  external  trade, 
existingin  Norway  :  I  shall  explain  its  mode  of  administration ;  but  as  it  is  united  to 
that  of  Denmark,  and  as  privilcgicl  companies  formed  at  Copenhagen  direct  the  external 
trade  of  the  two  countries,  I  shall  first  enter  into  a  detail  of  the  government  and  forces  of 
Denmark. 

The  goverment  is  despotic,  but  mild,  and  tempered  by  its  solid  and  fixed  constitu- 
tion. 1  he  provinces  are  governed  by  baililTs,  charged  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
laws,  the  inspection  of  the  king's  revenues,  and  the  special  protection  of  the  country 
people.  They  have  no  jurisdiction  over  them  but  in  matrimonial  cases  ;  in  any  others 
they  can  act  only  as  mediators :  they  cannot  prevent  access  to  the  throne,  nor  even 
keep  those  from  appealing  to  superior  tribumils,  who  may  have  complaints  to  prefer 
agamst  them,  which  occasions  great  mildness  in  the  administration  of  law  in  the  provin- 
ces. The  king  is  the  soul  of  jusuce ;  he  reserves  to  himself  the  approbation  of  all  de- 
cisions. No  sentence  can  be  put  in  efiect  before  it  has  obtained  his  signature,  whether 
it  aflfect  the  life  or  credit  of  the  individual.     In  this  is  seen  an  important  law,  which 

E roves  the  wisdom  of  the  legislator ;  it  is  found  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  first 
ook  of  the  Danish  code.  "  Any  person  accused  of  a  crime,  of  whatsoever  description 
it  may  be,  may,  on  giving  surety,  come  to  court,  and  return ;  enjoying  all  necessary  free- 
dom  for  his  defence." 

I  have  already  observed  that  the  Lutheran  is  the  only  religion  authorised  by  law,  but 
that  every  other  is  tolerated.  The  king,  in  tlie  same  manner  as  all  protestant  princes, 
is  head  of  the  church  in  his  dominions :  his  sentence  in  any  matter  relative  to  the  church 
and  the  exterior  mode  of  worship  is  conclusive.  The  authority  of  the  bishops,  a  re- 
straint upon  the  clergy,  only  extends  to  the  conferring  holy  orders,  and  keeping  the  priests 
to  their  duty:  they  have  no  temporal  jurisdiction,  nor  other  rights,,  than  such  as  arc 
necessary  for  preserving  proper  discipline  and  regularity  in  the  church. 

The  Danes  and  Norwegians  love  ♦iK-ir  king ;  but  the  former  are  better  instructed,  and 
of  more  gentle  manners.  This  is  the  result  of  an  examination  which  is  practised  in  the 
towns  of  Denmark,  by  persons  selected  by  the  magistrate  to  watch  over  the  education 
of  the  children,  and  the  administration  of  the  property  of  the  pupils :  they  can  of  their 
own  authority  dispose  of  children  neglected  by  their  parents,  and  put  them  out  to  em- 
ployments. The  law  even  allows  them  to  reimburse  themselves  by  execution  for  the  ad- 
vances which  they  make  for  the  children;  and  if  the  family  be  indigent,  the  alms-houses 
are  obliged  from  their  funds  to  reimburse  them.  The  same  people  are  obliged  to 
watch  over  the  property  of  minors,  and  exact  a  just  account ;  and  for  the  butter  security 
of  the  pupils,  the  law  requires  of  those  who  dwell  in  a  house,  or  in  the  neighbourhood, 
where  a  father  dies,  having  orphan  minors,  to  make  a  declaration  as  early  as  possible  lie- 
fore  a  magistrate,  under  a  severe  penalty. 

With  respect  to  the  external  commerce  of  the  Danes,  Christian  the  Fourth  was  the  first 
of  their  kings  who  established  in  his  states  an  £:ist  India  company.  Christian  Fifth  new- 
modflled  it,  and  gave  it  a  charter,  the  twenty-eighth  of  November  1670.  It  fell  to  the 
ground  under  Frederick  the  fourth,  who  used  great  efforts  towards  supporting  it.  Chris- 
tian Sixth,  in  1732)  set  it  on  foot  again :  this  is  the  epoch  of  the  present  establishment. 


1 

I'-. 


768 


KERCUELEM'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTIL 


The  insurance  company  was  formed  in  1727 ;  it  b  divided  into  shares  of  a  thousand 
crowns. 

The  bank,  which  may  be  esteemed  the  spring  of  the  "Danish  trade,  owes  its  existence 
to  a  company,  which  by  this  establishment  rendered  a  signal  service  to  the  two  king- 
doms of  Denmark  and  Norv\'ay. 

The  African  company  was  established  in  1755,  to  continue  a  branch  of  commerce 
bcgim  by  individuals :  its  charter,  granted  for  forty  years,  allows  an  exclusive  right  to 
this  trade  from  the  22  **  to  the  36^  of  latitude.  Hitherto  the  trade  has  been  carried  on 
chiefly  with  SafTy,  Sallee,  and  Santa  Cruz.  The  company  import  wool,  copper,  wax, 
and  leather ;  it  exports  thither  linen  and  woollen  cloths,  spices,  and  other  commodities 
which  Europe  furnishes  to  Africa.  The  same  company  exports  to  the  West  Indies,  that 
is  to  say,  to  the  island  of  St.  Thomas,  St.  John,  and  Santa  Cruz ;  it  is  composed  of  five 
hundred  shares,  each  of  five  hundred  crowns. 

I  have  previously  noticed  the  company  which  carries  on  exclusively  the  trade  of  Ice- 
land.  I  have  a  few  words  to  say  of  the  manufactories.  Frederic  the  Fiflh  neglected 
nothing  to  establish  them  in  Denmark  and  Norway.  They  manufacture  sail-cloth, 
ordinary  linens,  cambric,  paper,  tobacco,  stuffs,  refined  sugar,  earthen  ware,  porcelain, 
allum,  and  soap.  At  Copenhagen  they  make  lace,  gold  and  silver  fringe,  all  sorts  of 
jewellery,  arms,  muskets  for  the  army,  blankets,  and  silk  stuffs,  stained  and  painted  car- 
pets, wove  stockings,  hats,  and  velvet.  Their  industry  in  tanning  of  leather  promises 
them  success.  The  gloves  of  Runder  and  Odensu  are  famous ;  in  short,  manufactures 
increase  and  mend  daily  :  whatever  foreign  merchandise  can  be  dispensed  with  is  regu- 
larly prohibited. 

In  Zealand  and  Norway  are  cannon  and  other  founderies.  This  is  the  roll  of  the  land 
forces  of  Denmark,  according  to  the  regulation  of  1763. 


Horse  and  foot  guards 

Cliirassiers 

Dragoons 

Hussars 

Infantry 

Artillery 

Engineers 


704 

4380 

2920 

600 

20,020 

1158 

31 

Total   29,813 


Besides  these,  in  Denmark  and  in  Norway  are  thirty  thousand  national  guards,  among 
which  is  a  body  of  skaters,  of  six  hundred  men,  very  dangerous  enemies ;  who,  by 
means  of  a  particular  kind  of  skate,  get  forward  over  the  ice  and  snow  with  incredible 
,viftness. 

The  king  of  Denmark  in  1763  had  twenty-six  sail  of  ships,  carrying  from  forty  to 
ninety  guns,  and  seven  or  eight  frigates.  The  sailors  designed  for  the  royal  navy  are 
of  two  classes.  Those  who  dwell  by  the  sea-side  are  classed,  and  their  number  is  about 
twenty-five  thousand.  These  men  serve  the  king  in  all  extraordinary  armaments,  and 
almost  always  in  partial  equipments.  The  second  class,  which  is  more  intimately  united 
to  the  the  royal  navy,  is  composed  of  four  divisions :  each  division  has  its  chief,  and  ten 
companies,  each  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen  men.  The  companies  are  commanded 
by  captains  of  ships,  who  have  two  subaltern  officers  under  them.  It  is  in  imitation 
of  this  corps  that,  at  the  end  of  the  war,  sixteen  companies  of  soldier-sailors  were  formed 
in  France,  under  the  name  of  the  regiment  of  Dunkirk.    This  second  class  of  sailors 


•*-^"***te«»««iiai*w^ 


^v>r,i'".--' 


/ 


/ 


KRRC.UELEN'S  >OVAr;E  TO  Till:  NUUTH. 


r6!> 


consists  of  four  thousand  seven  Iiundrcd  and  twenty  men.  It  furnishes  complements  of 
men  for  common  occasions,  and  workmen  for  the  dockyards  ;  a  commission  was  esta- 
blished in  1739,  charged  with  the  direction  of  the  building  of  vessels ;  it  is  composed  of 
three  captains  of  ships  and  three  builders.  B^  this  wise  establishment  no  vessel  is  built, 
the  construction  of  which  has  not  been  previously  planned,  and  none  are  constructed  in 
opposition  to  the  remonstrances  of  experienced  officers,  such  as  have  frequently  in  France 
been  occupied  through  an  entire  voyage  in  endeavouring  to  remei'y  the  faults  of  the 
builder. 

There  is  a  company  of  cadets  living  at  Coi^cnhagen,  in  an  edifice  erected  by  Fre- 
derick Fourth  in  1701.  This  company  is  the  seed-bed  of  officers,  as  the  Royal  Ma- 
rine Establishment  is  in  France.  The  director  of  navigation  teaches  them  that  art,  and 
geometry ;  an  officer  of  artillery  gives  them  lessons  in  that  branch.  They  have  other 
masters  for  arithmetic,  geography,  history,  the  English  and  French  languages,  drawing, 
dancing,  and  fencing.  The  first  builder  explains  to  them  the  construction  of  a  vessel.  Iii 
order  to  combine  practice  with  theory,  every  ^ear  a  frigate  is  afforded  them,  on  board 
of  which  they  successively  go  through  the  duties  of  sailors,  pilots,  and  officers.  The 
marine  department  is  directed  by  a  council,  under  the  title  of  The  United  College  of  Ad- 
miralty and  Commissariat  General.  It  is  composed  of  three  civil  officers ;  t|^  first  of 
which  is  secretary  of  state,  and  chief  of  the  department,  and  of  four  admirals.  ^ 

I  forgot  to  mention  that  the  war  department  is  generally  given  to  a  general  officer, 
who,  as  soon  as  he  obtains  this  dignity,  renounces  his  command.  All  memorials  re- 
specting the  advancement  of  officers,  the  administration  of  justice,  and  the  maintenance 
of  discipline,  are  addressed  to  him.  He  signifies  what  are  the  orders  of  his  majesty. 
There  b  a  particular  department,  called  the  Commissariat  General  of  War,  composed  of 
six  persons,  the  chief  of  whom  is  the  minister ;  its  functions,  to  look  to  every  thing  which 
regards  the  pay  and  clothing  of  the  troops,  providing  for  them,  and  directing  their  sta- 
tions. 

I  shall  terminate  this  article  with  an  enumeration  of  the  towns  and  inhabitants  of  Den- 
mark and  Norway.  There  are  in  the  kingdom  of  Denmark  sixty-eight  towns,  twenty- 
two  burghs,  five  hundred  and  eighty-three  noblemens'  estates,  sixteen  baronies,  and 
fifteen  lordships.  In  Denmark  and  Sckleswick  thirty-three  thousand  two  hundred  and 
fifly-nine  children  were  born  in  1776,  and  twenty-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty- 
nine  persons  died :  from  which  may  be  inferred,  with  likelihood,  that  the  population  of 
Denmark  is  about  one  million. 

There  are  but  eighteen  towns  in  all  Norway.  In  1766  twenty  two  thousand  three 
hundred  and  seventy  children  were  born,  twenty  thousand  and  ten  persons  died  ;  the 
enumeration  of  its  inhabitants  may  consequendy  be  estimated  at  about  seven  hundred 
thousand. 

On  spewing  of  the  roe  of  the  cod,  I  did  but  mention  the  names  of  Nordland  and  Fin- 
mark,  it  may  be  well  to  say  something  more  of  them.  Nordland  and  Finroark  are  two 
bailiwicks  north  of  Drontlieim,  which  is  but  the  second  commercial  town  of  Norway, 
although  looked  upon  as  the  capital.  Drontheim  was  formerly  the  residence  of  the  kings 
of  Norway ;  it  has  an  excellent  port,  and,  next  to  Berghen,  produces  more  articles  requi- 
site for  shipping  than  any  port  in  the  north.  The  bailiwick  of  Nordland  extends  from 
Nummedal  to  Finmark ;  it  comprehends  the  provostship  of  Heligeland,  formerly 
Halogia ;  Ramus  endeavours  to  maintain  that  this  country  b  the  Ogy^a  of  Homer, 
and  Ulysses  the  god  Outin :  the  result  in  such  case  would  be,  that  this  province 
must  have  been  inhabited  immediately  subsequent  to  the  siege  of  Troy.  It  furnishes 
fat  articles  and  fi^;   good  j>astures  are  met  with  herie,  and  large  forests.    At  the 

VOL.   I.  5    F 


f. 


l\- 


770  KEROUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 

end  of  this  provostship  is  a  mountain  with  seven  points,  ver)'  highly  elevated,  and  which 
are  distinguishable  twenty  leagues  from  shore.  The  inhabitants  arc  principally  engaged 
in  the  tishcry,  us  well  as  those  of  Finmark.  Finmark  is  divided  into  eastern  and  western. 
The  first  part  includes  the  mountain  called  Nord  Kin,  ten  Danish  miles  from  the  North 
Cape,  at  the  extremity  of  the  main  land ;  it  comprehends  the  isle  of  Wardfx;  as  well, 
situated  about  an  English  mile  from  shore  :  beside  a  port  of  this  island  is  the  town  of 
Wardhuys,  which  is  the  most  northerly  fortress  in  the  world.  The  second  part  of 
Finmark,  the  western,  comprises  the  isle  of  Mageroe,  in  which  is  the  most  northern 
mountain  of  Europe,  called  the  North  Cape.  On  all  these  shores,  ports,  or  excellent 
anchorage,  is  met  with.  It  seems  as  if  nature  took  pleasure  in  forming  retreats  of 
greatest  security  in  the  most  frightful  quarters  of  the  universe,  and  in  the  mostungenial 
climes ;  any  vessel,  tempest  tost,  which  should  be  under  the  necessity  of  making  for 
the  coast,  is  everywhere  secure  of  an  asylum,  whatever  wind  may  blow.  The  reader 
has  to  be  informed  that  every  fisherman  is  a  pilot,  and  that  thev  proceed  two  leagues 
out  to  sea  to  pilot  a  vessel,  however  high  the  wind  may  be.  It  is  further  to  be  under, 
stood,  that  notwithstanding  these  coasts  have  a  most  tremendous  ap|)earance,  they  are 
much  less  dangerous  than  they  seem,  on  account  of  all  the  peril  being  visible  and  navi- 
gation safe  everywhere,  except  where  there  are  breakers  seen.  What  I  have  mentioned 
of  the  coasts  and  inhabitants  of  Nordland  and  Finmark  may  be  said  of  the  coasts  and 
neighbouring  nations,  all  of  whom  trade  in  tallow,  butter,  oil,  fish,  and  wood ;  they 
follow  the  same  mode  of  living,  and  are  far  from  being  so  cowardly  as  some  authors 
have  reported.  On  the  contrary,  all  these  people  are  brave.  Oftentimes  they  have 
been  seen  to  wait  steadily  for  the  famished  bear  advancing  to  seize  them :  others,  with- 
out any  other  wcaix)n  than  a  knife,  pursue  these  animals,  at  the  risk  of  being  strangled 
and  torn  to  pieces,  which  frequently  happens. 

Detailed  accounts  of  the  Laplanders  and  Samoiedes  are  not  wanting,  but  they  agree 
in  so  few  points,  that  the  reader  is  at  a  loss  what  to  believe ;  add  to  this,  they  are  so 
much  encumbered  with  childish  fables,  that  I  consider  it  to  be  obliging  the  public  by 
undeceiving  it  on  those  matters,  false  or  doubtful,  which  relate  to  these  savages. 
The  particulars  I  am  about  to  detail  were  afforded  by  a  learned  man,  who  has  made 
several  voyages  to  Arcl  aigel,  and  who  translated  for  me  into  Latin  all  the  observations 
which  he  had  written  in  German.  Nothing  is  so  important  for  the  natural  history  of 
mankind,  as  to  obtain  exact  acquaintance  with  these  northern  nations,  in  which  is  still 
to  be  traced  the  original  character  of  man  in  his  primitive  state  of  nature  ;  whence  may 
be  calculated  the  progress  of  instruction  and  the  value  of  society. 

Many  journals  of  voyages  to  Russia,  and,  above  all,  the  observatiDns  on  the  Samoiedes 
published  at  Petersburg  in  1732.  fix  the  earliest  establishment  of  these  people  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Arcnangel.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  fact  that  they  are  not  to  be 
met  with  nearer  than  three  hundred  wersts,  or  two  hundred  and  ten  miles  English  from 
this  town  ;  what  gave  rise  to  this  error  was  the  circumstance  of  some  Samoiedes  bring, 
ing  fish,  oil,  and  merchandise  to  Archangel,  for  the  account  of  different  merchants,  who 
maintain  them  as  well  as  their  rein-deer ;  this  also  has  induced  others  to  assert,  that 
the  fishery  for  seals  and  sea-calves  upon  the  coasts  of  the  White  Sea,  from  which  oil  is 
extracted,  is  carried  on  by  Laplanders  and  Samoiedes  inhabiting  the  shores  of  that  sea. 
This  assertion  is  devoid  of  truth.  The  Russians  alone  carry  on  that  laborious  and 
dangerous  fishery  ;  neither  Laplanders  or  Samoiedes  ever  inhabited  the  banks  of  the 
White  Sea.  Their  first  habitatbns,  which  are  not  stationary,  are  found  on  the  district 
of  Mezene,  beyond  the  rivers  of  that  name.  This  colony  consists  of  three  hundred  fa- 
milies, all  of  which  are  descended  from  two  different  tribes ;  one  of  which  is  called  Laghe, 


KERGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


771 


and  the  Other  Wanouta ;  a  distinction  minutely  observed  amonj;  them.  This  colony 
bears  the  name  of  Objondirc ;  another  which  udjoins  it  that  oi'  Tihijondirc,  while  thui 
in  the  neighbourho(xl  of  Poustozer,  omiositc  to  the  strait  of  Weigats,  commonly  called 
Gougorskoi,  gives  itself  the  name  of  Guaritzi.  This  savage  nation  occupies  the  ex- 
tent of  more  than  30°  of  longitude,  along  the  northern  coasts  of  the  Ocean  and  Frozen 
Sea,  between  66°  and  70°  of  north  latitude,  and  reckoning  from  the  river  Mczcnt- 
towards  the  east,  beyond  the  Oby  as  fur  as  Gucnisee.  All  these  Samoiedcs,  notwith- 
standing their  being  dispersed  over  so  great  an  extent,  and  divided  into  different  fami- 
lies, have  doubtless  a  common  origin  ;  as  appears  from  their  physiognomy,  their  man- 
ners, their  mode  of  living,  and  their  language. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  White  Sea  the  Laplundprs  inhabit  a  wide  spread  countrj', 
from  Kandalax  to  Kola ;  and  from  the  frontiers  of  Swedish  and  Danish  Lapland  to  the 
straits  of  the  White  Sea,  they  occupy  more  than  a  thousand  wcrsts,  or  seven  hundred 
miles.  Nevertheless,  all  this  large  track  of  country  is  peopled  by  no  more  than  twelve 
hundred  families  of  Laplanders.  I  have  united  in  this  account  the  Laplanders  and  Sa- 
moiedes,  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  designate  the  exact  position  of  the  country,  and 
the  districts  inhabited  by  each.  I  am  far  from  imagining,  with  others,  that  these  two 
people  compose  but  one  nation.  The  gentleman  from  whom  I  hold  these  particu- 
lars assures  me  of  the  contrary ;  and  further  he  added,  that  M.  Builbn  is  cgregtously 
mistaken  in  his  Natural  History,  when  he  reckons  the  Laplanders,  the  Zemblians, 
the  Borandians,  the  Samoiedes,  and  all  the  Tartars  of  the  north,  to  be  the  same  race  of 
people.  On  this  subject  he  observed  to  me,  that,  in  speaking  of  the  Zemblians,  he  spoke 
of  an  imaginary  nation ;  it  l)eing  well  known,  that  the  country  denominated  Nova 
Zembla  never  had  inhabitants,  navigators  mistaking  for  inhabitants  of  the  country 
the  crews  of  some  Russian  vessels ;  particularly  as  the  Russians,  who  go  there  to  fish 
for  seals,  are  accustomed  to  dress  m  the  same  manner  as  the  Samoiedes.  Another 
probability  in  favour  of  this  opinion  is,  that  the  Russians  who  passed  the  winter  there 
never  once  met  with  the  least  trace  of  man,  seeing  no  living  creatures  except  white 
bears,  white  foxes,  and  rein-deer,  which  feed  on  moss  and  fish  that  the  sea  threw  on 
shore.  As  for  the  Borandians,  the  name  is  utterly  unknown  in  the  north.  I  have  as 
well  Ijeen  informed,  that  the  crew  of  a  vessel  desirous  of  wintering  there  some  years 
after  had  entirely  perished.  The  twenty-four  men,  of  which  it  was  composed,  were 
found  dead,  on  the  spot  fixed  upon  for  their  winter  (Quarters.  For  a  long  time  it  was 
imagined  that  they  perished  from  extreme  cold ;  but  it  was  satisfactorily  shewn,  that  it 
was  owing  to  the  th^ck  and  unwholesome  fogjs,  occasioned  by  the  putrefaction  of  vege- 
tables and  moss  on  the  sea-shore,  which  poisoned  and  destroyed  them.  What  con- 
fii'ms  this  which  I  am  stating  is,  that  a  colony  from  Mezene,  composed  of  twenty  per- 
sons, who  had  established  their  dwelling  at  a  place  twenty  leagues  from  the  others, 
suflfered  extremely  from  the  same  fogs.  Although  none  of  them  died,  they  were 
all  ill.  The  terrible  pestilence,  which  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  depopu- 
lated Iceland,  was  no  other  visitation  than  one  of  these  fogs. 

Some  authors  relate  that  silver  has  been  found  in  certain  places  of  Nova  Zembla.  This 
is  not  unlikely,  since  it  is  current  throughout  Russia,  that  in  the  reign  of  the  empress  Ann 
several  rocks  were  discovered  in  a  desert  island,  encrusted  with  me  finest  silver.  Bars 
of  it  were  sent  to  Petersburg.  Great  riches  were  looked  for  from  this  discovery  ;  the 
rocks  were  bored,  but  the  interior  was  n(^  found  to  contain  any  of  this  precious  metal ; 
that  which  had  been  met  with  being  only  a  simple  crust,  possibly  as  old  as  the  creation. 

The  Samoiedes  are  for  the  most  part  below  the  common  size,  they  have  a  stout, 
nervous  frame,  broad  shoulders,  and  short  legs,  small  feet,  a  short  neck,  a  very  large  head, 

5  F  2 


772 


KEnOU£LF.N'9  VOTAGR  TO  TUB  NOUTll. 


a  flat  face,  little  black  eyes,  a  sunk  noac,  wide  mouth,  and  thin  lip«  ;  their  strong  black 
hair  hangs  over  their  8lM)uldcni,  their  complexions  arc  olive  brown,  and  their  earn  very 
large,  'rhcy  have  little  or  no  beard.  The  physiognomy  of  the  women  bears  rescm- 
blance  to  that  of  tlic  men ;  they  Iwwevcr  have  rather  more  delicate  features,  and  smaller 
feet :  but  as  the  two  sexes  dress  alike,  it  is  dilHcult  to  distinguish  them.  Both  one  and 
the  other  wear  dresses  made  of  rein-deer  skins,  turned  inside  out,  which  bind  round  and 
cover  their  bodies. 

As  to  what  relates  to  the  Laplanders,  scarcely  any  resemblance  is  to  be  found  be- 
tween them  and  the  Sumoicdes,  unless  it  be  their  dress,  which  is  nearly  the  same,  their 
wandering  life,  and  their  common  use  of  the  rein-deer.  The  Laplanders  pretty  much 
resemble  the  Europeans,  and  partimlaily  the  Fins;  they  have  however  the  upper  jaw- 
bone rather  longer  and  more  high.  Their  hair  is  of  various  colours ;  and  tts  for  what 
regards  the  women,  tlici-c  are  some  among  them  who  would  puss  for  handsome  in  any 
nation.  The  Laplanders  further  difllr  from  the  Samoiedes  in  their  beard,  which  the 
former  have  very  thick  and  bushy.  The  Laplanders  are  esteemed  to  be  descendants 
of  the  Fins,  and  the  Samoiedes  of  some  Tartar  race,  anciently  inh'ibiting  Siberia,  which, 

{)rei>sed  upon  by  other  liordes,  retreated  to  the  extremity  of  the  continent.  The  Lap- 
andcrs  do  not,  as  is  mentioned  in  different  relations,  use  the  javelin,  they  are  even  igno- 
rant of  the  use  of  it ;  they  have  muskets,  and  buy  their  powder  at  Kola.  Tliey  do  not 
cat  their  meat  and  fish  raw  like  the  Samdedes,  they  do  not  make  flour  of  pounded  llsh 
bones,  this  custom  is  usual  among  the  Fins  of  Corelia ;  but  the  Laplanders  make  use  of 
the  line  pellicle  which  i^  under  the  bark  of  the  fir-tree  ;  they  lay  in  a  stock  of  it  in  the 
month  of  May,  dry  it,  reduce  it  to  dust,  and  mix  it  .with  flour  of  which  they  make 
bread ;  they  pretend  it  a  sovereign  remedy  against  the  scurvy.  They  do  not  make  flsti- 
oil  their  beverage.  It  is  not  true  that  polygamy  is  allowed  among  them,  any  more  tlian 
the  reputed  practice  of  marrying  without  regard  to  affinity.  They  do  not  offer 
their  wives  and  children  to  strangers  ;  this  charge  is  void  of  proof.  Much  has  been  said 
of  the  witchcraflofthe  Laplanders,  but  all  the  talcs  on  that  subject  arc  much  exaggerat. 
cd.  Although  the  greater  part  of  tliem  profess  Christianity,  they  have  nothing  of  it  among 
them  but  the  name.  They  find  great  difficulty  in  changing  their  manners,  and  quitdng 
their  idols.  Neither  the  Laplanders  nor  the  Samoiedes  are  so  short  as  they  have  been  re. 
puted  by  historians,  who  have  been  desirous  of  making  them  pass  for  pygmies ;  however, 
they  are  very  little  more  than  from  four  feet  three  to  four  feet  five  in  height.  The  life 
of  the  Laplanders  is  an  imap;e  of  the  life  of  our  first  parents.  They  live  without  houses, 
without  farms,  without  sowing,  without  planting,  without  sewing,  or  making  cloth,  &c. 
Providence  has  afforded  them  an  animal  which  rer^uireji  little  or  no  care,  and  this  satisfies 
all  their  wants.  The  rein-deer  is  the  least  expensive  of  all  domestic  animals,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  useful ;  it  feeds  and  takes  care  of  itself ;  in  summer  it  lives  on  moss, 
leaves,  and  herbage,  which  it  meets  with  on  the  mountains ;  in  winter  it  scratches  up 
the  snow  with  its  feet  to  get  to  the  moss,  which  instinct  points  out  to  it.  When  a 
rein-deer  has  been  running  all  day,  his  master  does  no  more  than  let  him  loose,  or  tie  it 
to  a  tree,  and  carry  it  a  couple  of  handfuls  of  moss :  it  has  a  strong  resemblance  to  the 
stag,  but  differs  in  its  horns  projecting  forward.  Thb  animal  serves  the  Laplander  in. 
stead  of  fields,  meadows,  horses,  and  cows.  Its  flesh  and  its  milk  form  he  principal 
food ;  its  skin  he  uses  for  clothing  in  winter,  and  in  summer  he  sells  it,  or  exchanges  it 
for  a  tent,  which  serves  him  to  dwell  m.  Of  its  hair  thread  is  made,  its  bones  and 
horns  make  furniture  and  tools,  its  skin  provides  him  with  a  bed,  and  to  sum  up  the 
whole,  its  milk  makes  him  excellent  cheese.  Thus  does  the  rein-deer  make  the  for. 
tune  of  a  I^plander.  Several  of  them  keep  as  many  as  a  thousand ;  and  know  them 
all  by  their  names.    When  tliey  travel,  or  are  desirous  of  transporting  their  effects, 


Hr.KGUBLKN'll  VOVACK  TO    IIIK   NOIll  II.  JJ^ 

they  uhc  u  slc(l((c  in  form  of  u  boat :  the  wutcr  cunnut  penetrate  it,  and  the  traveller  in  it 
is  itheJtcraJhfrom  cold.  These  slcdf^'s  arc  drawn  by  the  rcin-decr  with  so  much  swiltncHti, 
they  that  seem  almost  tu  fly  over  the  mountains  and  valleys,  and  through  the  forests  : 
they  are  used  only  upon  ice  and  snow.  The  Laplanders,  as  well  as  the  F iiui,  make  use 
of  a  singular  kind  of  skate  peculiar  to  themselves ;  it  is  made  of  planks  six  or  seven  feet 
long,  and  nearly  a  foot  broad  :  this  plank  is  pointed,  and  turned  up  before.  A  similar 
plank  is  fastened  to  each  foot,  and  taking  a  long  »tick,  the  bottom  of  which  has  a  Hat 
circle  attached  to  it,  to  prevent  its  sinking  into  the  snow,  they  skate  with  such  velocit} 
as  to  overtake  liears  and  wolves.  This  is  the  whole  whicli  in  detail  can  be  said  of 
these  northen  people.     1  return  now  to  Bcrghen. 


FOURTH  PART. 

CONTAINING  THE  COUKSE  FROM  BEHCHEN  TO  THE  EASTERN  COAST  OF  ICELAND  i  A  DE- 
8CRIFT10N  OF  THE  FORTS  IN  THOSE  FARTS  i  OF  THE  ISLANDS  OF  FEHRO,  SHETLAND,  AND 
THE  ORCADCSi  AND  RETURN  TO  FRANCE. 

AiTER  taking  in  refreshments  at  Berghcn  for  my  ship's  company,  and  completing 
e  necessary  repairs  to  my  frigate  for  fitting  her  for  sea,  I  made  ready  to  sail.  The 
wind  was  adverse  for  several  days.  I  was  desii-ous  of  a  south  wind,  in  order  to  get  out 
by  one  of  the  passes  north  of  Berghcn,  and  continue  my  course  direct  towards  the  coasts 
of  Iceland ;  but  the  wind  did  not  come  round  to  the  south  before  die  tenth  of  August, 
at  three  in  the  morning,  and  at  four  o'clock  wc  weighed  anchor,  the  wind  weak,  and  the 
sky  overcast,  with  small  rain.  We  hoisted  all  our  sails,  and  ran  six  leagues  on  tlie 
N.  N.  W.  to  N.  W.  tacks,  keeping  the  land  to  leeward,  that  is  to  say,  the  south,  on  ac- 
count of  the  winds  from  shore.  After  ruiming  this  distance,  we  perceived  an  opening 
in  the  northern  bank  of  the  river ;  we  made  for  it  immediately,  in  order  to  keep  the 
cape  at  N.  £.  and  pass  through  it.  We  coasted  along  a  small  isle  to  leeward,  within 
plstol'Shot,  in  order  to  avoid  a  rock  under  water,  which  was  still  nearer  to  us,  to  judge 
from  the  eddy,  and  which  die  pilot  pointed  out.  After  passing  this  rock,  wc  steered  N. 
tlien  N.  quarter  N.  W.  afterwards  N.  N.  W.  in  order  to  double  several  small  islands 
or  rocks  which  wc  left  to  leeward.  Alter  doubling  all  these  islands,  we  found  ourselves 
in  a  little  road,  close  as  a  basin ;  the  cntrdiice  of  wnich,  and  the  way  of  getting  out,  was 
invisible.  A  squadron  of  four  or  five  vessels  might  anchor  here  in  seven  fathoms  water, 
sandy  bottom  ;  vessels  have  wintered  here.  On  all  sides  iron  rings  are  seen,  for  the  pur. 
pose  of  mooring.  We  went  out  of  this  basin  through  a  gullet  or  narrow  strait,  wherein 
two  vessels  could  scarcely  pass  abreast,  and  found  ourselves  afterwards  in  a  bay  of  more 
than  twelve  leagues  in  circumference,  and  which  had  no  apparent  opening  but  to  the 
N.  W.  three  leagues  before  us.  I  then  shipped  my  oared  cutter,  and  carried  all  the 
sail  I  could,  steering  N.  W.  in  order  to  get  out  of  the  bay  by  the  opening  we  saw.  At 
noon  we  were  between  the  two  islands  which  form  this  passage,  which  is  called  the  pas- 
sage of  Hennegat,  or  Hennefiord  ;  hence  the  Norwegian  pilots  returned,  and  I  steered 
W.  N.  W.  in  full  sail,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  land.  It  may  be  observed,  tliat  this  way 
out  of  the  river  of  Berghen  b  long,  but  it  is  not  difficult.  It  is  ten  French  leagues 
from  Berghen  to  this  pass,  called  Hennegat ;  but  in  these  ten  leagues  there  is  no  more 
than  half  a  league  of  difficult  navigation.  Two  anchorages  are  to  be  met  with  for  large 
vessels,  and  several  for  small,  between  Bei^hen  and  the  entrance  of  the  litUe  basin,  of 
which  I  have  before  made  mendon,  where  ships  may  ride  in  safety,  whether  the  wind 
be  contrary,  or  too  violent,  to  go  to  sea.  This  road-stead  is  even  more  happily  situated 
for  vesseb  coimng  from  sea,  which  find  themselves  upon  the  coast  in  bad  weather ;  for 


1 


774 


KEHGUCLKN'S  VOYAOK  TO  TUB  KORTII. 


they  find  a  siifc  asyliinn-ntatio  [ycM  tula  carlnl^.  Thin  way  out  IVom  Bcrghrn  by  the 
nurth,  allhouL^h  longer,  m  a  much  Finer  one  than  that  by  the  Houth,  called  the  l^assa^;^  of 
Cruxfiurd,  which  iii  only  six  leagues  from  Uerghen.  '1  he  countc  by  Cruxfiord  is  shorter, 
but  it  is  narrower  also,  and  the  anchonigen  arc  not  so  go(xl ;  in  other  respects  the  wind, 
and  (he  destination  of  the  ship,  must  decide  which  to  prefer,  for  on  the  iiide  of  the  pas- 
hiiges  of  Hennegat,  or  Holnwtord,  more  to  the  north,  the  ground  or  rocks  which  Ibrm 
tite  beds  of  the  water  are  very  low  ;  there  is  no  good  land- mark,  and  the  continental 
objects  an*  very  distant.  No  danger  however  can  occur  from  making  land  towards  the 
north,  particularly  in  fuic  weather;  pilots  are  met  with  everywhere;  there  are  even  four 
in  the  two  islands  which  form  the  passage  of  Hennegat.  These  pilots,  who  follow  the 
trade  of  fishermen  as  well,  are  always  at  sea.  When  the  weather  allows,  as  soon  as 
they  descry  a  ship,  they  hoist  all  sail,  or  row  w  ith  all  their  might,  to  reach  her.  This 
passage  is,  according  to  my  estimate,  in  lat.  60°  40'. 

I  Ixfore  observed,  that  on  leaving  the  pass  I  steered  VV.  N.  W.  to  leave  the  land,  and 
enable  myself  to  take  advantage  of  whatever  wind  might  blow.  We  had  had  a  S.  and  S. 
S.  W.  wind,  and  it  might  possibly  get  round  to  W.  I  run  fifteen  leagues,  steering  W. 
N.  W.  and  N.  W.  quarter  N.  The  eleventh  I  was  in  lat.  61"  20*,  long.  1°  34',  W.  of 
Paris.  I  ought  not  to  forget  to  remark,  that  being  by  estimation  twelve  leagues  from 
Norway,  I  sounded,  but  found  no  bottom  ;  but  after  proceeding  eight  or  ten  leagues  far- 
ther I  found  one  hundred  fathoms  water,  with  a  muddy  gray  sand,  which  confirms  the  ob- 
servation before  made,  that  the  more  one  nears  the  coast  of  Norway  the  greater  the 
depth  of  water,  the  bottom  becoming  muddy  ;  and  that  the  more  one  approaches  the 
coast  of  Shetland,  the  more  gravelly  the  bottom,  mixed  with  black  stones ;  and  that  in 
mid-channel  there  is  seventy  fathoms  water,  with  a  fine  sandy  bottom. 

The  twelfth,  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth,  little  wind,  continually  changing 
all  round  the  compuss.  According  to  the  variations  I  directed  my  course,  and  the  fif- 
teenth, at  noon,  I  found  the  lat.  6'°  20',  long.  10°  5',  from  Paris.  During  the  whole 
of  these  four  days  the  sky  was  overcast,  but  with  a  fine  sea.  The  twelfth,  we  observed 
17°  of  variation,  and  we  saw  a  prodigious  bank  of  little  r<  d  fish,  which  had  the  appear- 
ance of  a  sand- bank,  over  whicn  the  sea  broke  for  in  t  xtent  of  two  leagues.  Similar 
heaps  offish  are  frequently  met  with  in  these  seas,  whic':  may  cause  anxiety  to  navigators 
nt  tne  first  sight,  the  more  so  from  their  attracting  prodigious  flocks  of  sea-fowls,  as  is 
noticeable  on  sand  banks.  These  seas  are  also  well  peopled  with  whales.  On  the  fifteenth, 
in  the  morning,  I  saw  a  bird  which  merits  description  :  it  was  as  large  as  a  goose, 
with  a  white  boidy  ;  but  its  head,  its  tail,  its  neck,  and  the  end  of  its  wings,  were  of  a  jet 
black. 

The  sixteenth,  the  wind  blew  hard  from  the  N.  E.  with  a  heavy  sea ;  I  made  a  tack 
under  main  and  fore-sail,  conceiving  myself  to  be  E.  quarter  S.  E.  of  the  point  of  Lan« 
gerness,  and  eighteen  leagues  distant.  I  kept  on  the  N.  W.  and  N.  N.  W.  tack,  and 
made  the  point  '^''Langcrness  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  bearing  N.  N.  W.  six  leagues 
distant.  As  I  was  threatened  with  bad  weather  I  made  another  tack,  lest  the  wind  should 
get  more  to  the  E.  I  saw  many  fishing  vessels  lufling  up  to  shore.  By  night  the  wind 
blew  high,  with  a  dreadful  sea. 

The  eighteenth,  the  \vind  somewhat  subsided,  and  the  sea  became  calm  ;  this  is  what 
always  happens  in  these  climates :  the  sea  swelling  and  subsiding  continually  with  the 
wind,  I  steered  N.  W.  to  make  the  land.  I  spoke  to  several  Dutch  vessels,  and  to  one 
Dunkirker,  who  informed  me  there  was  nothing  new  in  the  fleet.  At  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  the  weather  serene  and  clear,  I  made  the  point  of  land  S.  of  Burgerfiord,  at 
S.  E.  computedly  distant  eight  leagues.    It  is  to  be  remarked,  that  although  the  land- 


ItnOtBLRN'S  VOYAfiR  TO  TIIK  NORTH.  775 

murks  of  Icclamlbc  very  high,  you  munt  Ix;  near  to  them  to  sec  them,  owingj  to  their 
summits  l)cing  covered  with  snow,  and  lost  in  fogs  frequently,  as  I  have  (I  behcv  >  be- 
fore observed.  I  sounded,  on  taking  the  bearing  Ix-'forc  described,  and  met  with  one 
hundred  ;ind  five  fathoms  water,  witli  a  muddy  bottom.  I  observed  with  care  the  same 
day  the  variation  of  the  needle,  which  I  found  to  be  2i>".  I  was  then  within  sight  of  land, 
intijo  of  latitude. 

The  nineteenth,  twentieth,  and  twenty.first,  the  wind  variable,  sometimes  weak,  at 
others  violent.  I  bore  under  various  gales,  to  observe  the  bearings  of  the  land,  and  look 
for  the  French  fishing  vessels,  which  usually  are  widely  dispersed. 

The  twenty-second,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  wind  E.  the  sky  serene,  I 
lx>re  to  die  north  as  fur  us  69°  of  latitude.     I  then  applied  to  myself  the  lines  of  V^irgil : 

Hie  vertex  nobis  semper  lublimis  ;  at  ilium 

Sub  pcdibus  stix  atra  vidat,  manesque  profundi 

Maximus  hie  flexu  linuoso  dubitur  ant^uis 

Circum,  per(|ue  duas  in  morem  flumitiis  arclos 

Arctus,oceani  metuentcscquorc  tingi.  Lib.  I.  (icori;. 

The  fog  thickening,  and  the  wind  changing  to  the  south,  I  made  a  tack  to  S.  S.  \V. 
for  fear  oi  lx;ing  surrounded  by  the  ice,  owing  to  the  fog  and  currents.  Towards  ten 
at  night  the  wind  became  violent,  nevertheless  I  carried  the  two  lower  sails.  In  the 
night  the  tuck  and  false  tack  of  the  main-sail  gave  way,  the  small  stay-sail  wau  carried 
away  ;  at  the  same  time  a  r^rgc  struck  the  prow  violently,  and  knocked  olTune  of  the 
bumpkins. 

The  twenty-third,  twenty. fourth,  and  twenty-fifth,  it  blew  N.  and  N.  E.  a  gentle  gale, 
with  a  fine  s<>a,  but  rfintinmllj'  fi  th'wV  fog.  T  stffrrd  .S.  iinHcr  easy  sail,  and  soundiiig 
every  two  hours.  This  precaution  was  necessary,  for  as  we  had  foggy  weather  for  several 
days,  and  the  Dutch  charts  notice  that  the  currents  run  west  at  the  north  of  Langemess, 
I  might  very  easily  have  encountered  the  shore ;  but  after  sounding  from  time  to  time, 
I  found  I  had  nothing  to  fear  in  steering  to  the  south,  as  there  are  forty  fathoms  water 
four  leagues  from  shore  to  the  north  of  Langerness. 

The  twenty -sixth  we  had  a  fresh  breeze  from  the  N.  W.  and  "ine  .eather;  I  observ- 
ed and  found  the  latitude  65**  57'.  In  the  evening  I  spoke  with  several  French  and  Dutch 
fishermen,  and  saw  two  corvettes  from  Dunkirk,  which  were  leaving  the  fishery  and  re- 
turning to  France. 

The  twenty-seventh,  twenty-eighth,  and  twenty-ninth,  the  wind  changeable,  rounding 
the  compass,  the  heavens  overclouded,  and  fog  at  intervals.  As  all  the  fishing  vessels 
are  accustomed  to  leave  the  fishery  between  the  twenty-fifth  and  thirtieth  of  August,  I 
made  ready  for  my  return  as  well  to  Brest,  the  more  willingly  from  the  continual  reign 
of  ^oggy  weather  and  the  incessant  bad  weather,  which  put  it  out  of  my  power  to  be  of 
any  service.  These  latter  days  were  occupied  iri  my  seeking  the  island  Lnkhuysen.  I 
)t  into  its  latitude,  and  bore  on  different  tacks,  E.  and  W.  In  order  to  fall  in  with  it, 
mtiuvain.  In  the  night  of  the  tv/enty -eighth  we  were  under  some  uneasiness:  it  was 
very  dark,  and  perfectly  calm  :  the  officer  on  watch  came  to  wake  and  tell  me  that  they 
heard  an  unusual  noise.  I  immediately  went  upon  deck,  and  effectively  heard  sounds 
like  those  made  by  the  sea  on  breaking  over  rocks.  I  immediately  hove  the  lead«  and 
payed  out  one  hundred  fathoms  without  finding  a  bottom.  Nevertheless,  the  noise  con- 
tinued about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  after  which  we  heard  no  more  of  it.  I  imagine  the 
noise  to  have  been  occasioned  by  a  swarm  of  fish  about  the  frigate ;  and  consider  that 
there  is  room  for  beUjving  that  Enkhuysen  island  is  no  longer  in  exbtence,  since  of  five 


776 


KEROUELKN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


W'.* 


hundred  fishing  vessels,  which  annually  resort  to  the  fishery,  not  .Miy  for  these  thirty  years 
past  have  fallen  in  with  it.  This  island  has  (perhaps  been  swallowed  up  by  some  similar 
revolution  to  that  of  the  Goubermans;  or,  possibly,  owing  to  tlie  fog  or  bad  weather, 
an  ice-bank  may  originally  have  been  mistaken  for  an  island. 

I  promised  to  speak  of  the  ports  situated  on  the  eastern  side  of  Iceland.  As  I  am  on  the 
point  of  leaving  that  station,  it  may  not  bo  an  improper  place  to  introduce  to  the 
reader  the  information,  on  that  head,  I  have  been  enabled  to  obtain.  I  shall  begin  with 
the  first  anchorage  south  of  Langcrness,  and  surccbsivcly  descend  to  the  lower  part  of 
the  coast.  Langerness  is  a  very  Icng  tongue  of  land,  and  very  even  faced;  it  may  be 
discerned  six  or  eight  leagues  out  at  xa.  It  is  situ  ited  exacUy  under  the  polar  circle. 
South  of  it  is  a  place  where  any  vessel  may  .anchor  in  t<^n  or  fifteen  fathoms,  sandy  bot- 
tom, sheltered  to  t'le  north,  and  on  the  ..est.  On  coming  (iom  the  east  to  this  anchor- 
age,  whether  to  take  shelter  from  bad  weather,  or  to  take  in  water,  a  ship  must  keep 
close  to  slore  ;  it  is  very  safe,  and  may  be  coasted  securely  at  musquet-shot  dbtance. 
The  first  objec*  distinguished  is  a  mast,  or  flag  staft,  on  three  or  four  houses  or  cabins. 
She  may  anchor  opposite  these,  but  it  is  better  to  j>rocecd  higher  up,  and  leaving  these 
houses  on  the  starboard  quarter,  proceed  till  other  houses  are  seen  on  a  hillock  fronting 
the  sea  ;  it  is  here  she  si  ould  make  ready  to  anchor.  Fishing  vessc^Is  generally  anchor  a 
quarter  of  a  league  from  bhcr,  opposite  these  second  houses ;  but  a  v'essel  of  war  will  lay 
very  well  half  a  league  from  si.ore ;  when  the  wind  is  northerly  or  westerly,  a  vessel  is 
safe  at  this  anchorage  ;  but  if  thctt:  be  sppearance  of  u  south  oi  cast  wind,  she  must  set 
sail. 

Vapenfiord  is  a  good  bay  foi  fishing  vessels  of  all  dimen<;ions ;  the  anchorage  is  oppo- 
site some  huts,  in  fifteen  to  eighteen  fathoms  wa.ter,  bottom  of  muddy  sand ;  but  as  there 
are  two  rocks  in  the  middle  of  the  bay.  Tirgc  vessels,  which  cannot  tack  quickly,  should 
not  enter,  unless  with  a  favorable  wind. 

Zand-boek  is  a  road  where  a  vessel  is  sheltered  from  all  winds  from  to^vards  the  south, 
anchoring  on  the  south  side  opposite  the  Icelanders*  huts.     There  are  rocks  in  the  north 

Eartofthebjy.  Between  these  two  ports  there  is  n  small  and  very  safe  island,  called 
tourhick. 

Burgerfiord  is  a  good  road  for  small  frigates  and  corvettes.  When  eight  leagues  from 
shore  or  thereabouts,  you  perceive  a  niountair.  which  has  the  appearance  of  the  embra- 
zure  of  a  sannon,  and  which  serves  asa  landmark  for  this  part  of  the  coast,  being  placed 
between  the  two  bays  I  have  just  mentioned. 

Lommer-fiord  is  a  very  good  port  tor  frigates  :  they  must  anchor  to  starboard  on  en- 
tering, at  the  foot  of  some  fishermens'  huts,  in  ten  fathoms  water,  a  cable's  length  from 
shwe.   Behind  this  bay,  there  is  also  a  mountain,  which  at  a  distance  resembles  a  crown. 

Zuider' fiord,  a  small  road  for  fishing- vessels,  or  very  small  corvettes.  ^  ,^ 

Meuve-fiord,  a  small  road,  open  to  the  east  wind,  which  blows  full  upon  it. 

Ru;der-klip,  without  dispute  the  best  haven  on  all  the  coast  of  Iceland.  It  as  indeed 
a  road ;  it  is  exacdy  closed,  and  fifty  vessels  of  war  might  anchor  in  it,  with  ease,  in  per- 
fect safety.  It  may  be  entered  with  any  wind  from  the  eastward.,  a  vessel  may  anchor 
any  where  in  the  bay  in  twenty-five  to  thirty  fiithoms  water,  muddy  bouom  ;  but  the  best 
anchorage  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  on  the  north  side,  aftct  passing  or  doubling  a 
point  of  gravel,  which  looks  red  at  a  distance,  and  which,  advancing  into  the  bay,  forms 
a  creek  in  which  there  is  excellent  anchorage.  Thee  is  fifteen  to  eighteen  fathoms  wa- 
ter, with  sandy  bottom.  A  sl^ip  may  moor  across,  sending  a  towing  rope  wi*h  a  small 
anchor  ashore,  which  care  must  be  taken  in  sir  king  into  the  ground,  or  otherwise  secur- 


ing. 


''M 


n 

■)■' 


KEROUELBN'8  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


777 


urty  years 
ne  similar 
I  weather, 

am  on  the 
ce  to  the 
)egin  with 
cr  part  of 
it  may  be 
liar  circle, 
andy  bot- 
is  anchor- 
nust  keep 
:  dbtance. 
or  cabins, 
ving  these 
]£.  fronting 
r  anchor  a 
ar  will  lay 
A  vessel  is 
:  must  set 

;eisoppo- 
It  as  there 
ly,  should 

the  south, 

the  north 

nd,  called 

l^es  from 
le  embra. 
ng  placed 

rd  on  en- 

gth  from 

a  crown. 


is  indeed 
se,  in  per- 
ay  anchor 
t  the  best 
mbling  a 
ay,  forms 
loms  wa- 
h  a  small 
se  secur> 


Kolholm  ih  a  bay  which  has  good  anchorage,  but  the  entrance  is  difhcult ;  you  have 
to  pass  to  the  south  of  an  island  called  Schorres,  which  is  before  the  bay,  because  in  the 
north  part  there  is  a  reef  which  extends  very  far,  and  renders  the  passage  to  the  nortli  of 
hb  island  almost  impracticable. 

Papei'fiord  is  an  open  road,  to  which  the  island  Papei,  which  lays  at  the  entrance,  has 
given  name. 

Preister-bay,  and  Ingelse-buy,  are  two  other  roads  ;  this  last  is  so  denominated,  from 
its  being  much  frequented  by  the  English :  on  the  parallel  of  these  two  bays,  six  or 
eight  leagues  out  at  sea,  there  is  a  large  flat  rock  called  Walsboc,  looking  Ifke  the  back 
of  a  whale.  As  fishermen  have  informed  me  that  there  are  dreadful  currerts,  and  terri- 
ble eddies  between  this  rock  and  the  land,  I  am  given  to  think  there  .  ,  be  a  chain 
under  water,  extending  firom  this  rock  to  the  shore ;  and  that  there  would  !:>e  danger  in 
passing  between  :  notwithstanding  fishing  vessels  have  frequently  passed.  May  it  not 
also  be  conceived  that  Enkhuysen,  which  is  placed  under  the  same  parallel,  is  no  other 
than  the  island  or  rock  Walsboc,  seen  through  a  fog  bv  fishermen  who  couM  not  distin- 
guish the  land,  and  who  were  ignorant  of  the  dbtance  they  were  away  from  it  This  is 
the  more  probable,  in  so  much  as  the  greater  part  of  the  masters  can  neither  read  nor 
write,  and  are  not  qualified  to  make  a  good  observation. 

The  blands  of  Ferro  are  situated  in  the  North  Sea,  between  61°  and  63*>  of  latitude, 
and  between  S^  and  10**  of  longitude,  west  of  Paris.  The  exact  time  when  these  islands 
were  discovered  is  not  known,  but  it  is  known  that  under  Harold  Haoi  ~ag;er,  king  of 
Norway,  they  were  inhabited  and  frequented  by  foreigners.  Towards  the  eleventh 
century  the  christian  religion  was  preached  here.  Christian  Third  having  introduced  the 
reformation  into  his  states,  governed  the  isles  of  Ferro  by  a  provost,  who  depends  on  the 
Ushop  of  Zealand,  and  has  seven  priests  under  his  direction,  who  do  duty  in  forty 
churches.  These  islands  are  under  the  bailiwick  of  Iceland.  They  have  besides  a 
provincial  judge,  k  seneschal,  two  subaltern  magistrates,  and  a  receiver  general  for  the 
king*s  lands,  who  b  as  well  the  director  of  the  commerce  of  these  islands  with  Copen- 
hagen. The  trade  is  carried  on  for  the  king's  account,  by  the  chamber  of  finances. 
These  blands  are  twenty-five  in  number,  seventeen  of  which  are  inhabited  and  cultivated. 
They  are  divided  into  six  parishes :  1.  Norderoe,  which  comprises  the  foUowii^  is!e^ 
and  churches.  Videroe,  called  on  the  Neptune  Vidro.  Fulgloe,  or  Fuloe,  two^anish 
miles  in  circumference.  Suinoe,  of  the  same  size.  Bordoe,  which  has  a  ^oooport  in 
the  N.  W.  Canoe,  three  miles  in  circumference ;  and  Calloe,  or  Kalsoe,  of  the  same  ex- 
ttnt.  2.  Ostroe,  eighteen  miles  in  circumference;  it  has  seven  churches,  and 
two  ports,  called  Fugle-fiord,  and  Kons  gaven :  tlib  last  port  b  in  the  gulf  of  Skaale. 
3.  Stromoe,  this  bland  is  twenty  miles  in  circumference.  It  is  divided  into  two 
parts ;  the  northern,  which  comprehends  the  principal  church  of  Kolde-fiord,  and 
the  ports  of  Wertmanhan  and  Haldersviig :  and  the  southern,  which  comprises  the  town 
of  T horshan,  which  has  a  commodious  po.  t,  defended  by  a  redoubt.  It  is  the  principal 
place  of  all  the  islands,  and  the  only  one  where  there  is  a  market ;  the  seneschal,  and  the 
director  of  trade,  reside  there.  There  is  generally  a  hundred  men  in  garrison.  Kirig 
Christian  the  Third  establbhed.  a  college  here,  which  was  perfected  by  Christian  the 
Fdurth.  M.Thurot  came  in  here  to  refit  in  the  last  war,  commander  of  the  privateer  call- 
ed the  Marshal  Bellisle,  being  entirely  dismasted  for  the  third  time.  4.  Waagoe,  this 
island  b  six  miles  in  circumference.  Its  principl  chufch  is  near  the  port  of  Mid- 
vai^.  This  island  \m3  besides  another  port  called  Sorvaag,  which  as  weU  as  the  for- 
mer is  in  the  south  part  of  the  island.  Waagoe  is  that  island,  which  on  the  Neptune 
b  marked  Wage.    5.  Sandoe,  thb  bland  is  eight  miles  in  circumferen^.e.    There 

5  G 


VOL.    I. 


778 


KERniJELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


is  a  frightful  currrcnt  south  of  this  island,  near  the  islets  or  rocks  called  Daslnipen  and 
Dubflcts.  Soutli  of  the  island  Sundoe  are  two  smuU  islands,  called  Skuoe  and  Stoeredi- 
men.  This  last,  which  is  a  mile  in  circumference,  is  a  round  rock,  so  ru^;cd  as  to  be  in< 
accessible.  South  of  this  is  Lutteldimen,  where  as  often  as  white  sheep  are  put,  they 
turn  black  at  the  end  of  three  months.  6.  Suderoe,  this  island  is  about  twenty 
miles  in  circumference.  Here  is  the  jxjrt  of  Lobroe,  at  the  lx)ttom  of  the  small  gulf  of 
Vaago-fiord.  This  port  is  one  of  the  safest  and  most  commodious  in  the  island.  There 
is  a  very  violent  and  dangerous  current  at  the  south  of  this  island,  near  to  Somboe,  and 
round  a  rock  called  the  Monk,  which  is  a  league  and  a  half  from  shore;  and  which 
must  not  be  neared  too  closely,  for  I  have  seen  breakers  which  extended  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  league.  'T:s  said  there  is  a  mountain  called  Famogen,  in  the  island 
Suderoe,  on  which  is  a  lake  tii:>t  ebbs  and  flows  at  the  same  time  as  the  sea  at  Lobroe.  It 
is  high  water  at  the  Ferro  islands,  at  new  and  full  moon,  at  twelve  o'clock.  These  islands 
are  subject  to  fogs,  which  cause  colds,  scurv)^,  and  other  maladies,  resulting  from  damp 
They  are  nothing  but  rocks  covered  with  a  little  earth,  fertile  enough,  however,  to  ren- 
der twenty  for  one.  Their  only  crop  is  barley.  Flocks  of  sheep  form  the  riches  of  the 
inhabitants,  who  are  reckoned  at  twenty  thousand  souls.  The  whole  trade  of  these 
islands  consists  in  tallow,  skins,  salted  m'Uton,  leathers,  tider-dowii,  stockings,  and  wool- 
len caps,  and  shirts.  These  islands  are  p.etty  well  set  down  on  the  Neptu.ie,  as  well  as 
on  the  chL  .  of  M.  Bellin.  I'he  rock  called  the  Munk,  which  is  south  of  these  islands, 
and  which  from  a  distance  appears  like  a  building,  is  in  longitude  9'  5'  west  of  Paris. 
Upon  taking  observations  on  a  line  running  E.  and  W.  through  the  rock,  I  found  it  to 
lay  in  61°  17'.  I  compute  the  variation  to  the  south  of  the  islands  of  Ferro  to  have 
been  19**. 

The  Orcades  are  a  heap  of  islands  lyin^  north  of  Scotland,  from  v/hich  they  are 
separated  only  by  the  strait  of  Pcntland,  which  is  two  leagues  and  a  half  broad,  and  four 
leagues  long;  there  are  sixty-seven  of  them,  of  which  twenty-eight  are  inhabited. 
These  islands  were  very  little  known  to  the  ancients,  for  histories  do  not  agree  upon  their 
number.  Pliny  and  Pompenius  Mela  do  not  reckon  more  than  forty.  They  doubt- 
less considered  some  of  these  islands  called  Holms  by  the  inhabitants,  and  which  are  very 
oiT»ail  as  rocks,  which  however  yield  excellent  pasture.  These  islands  were  formerly 
governed  by  separate  kings,  but  the  Scotch  dethroned  them,  and  became  masters ;  the 
Danes,  Or  rather  the  Norwegians,  afterwards  seized  upon  them,  but  in  1472  the  Scotch 
re-took  them.  They  are  now  a  province  of  England ;  they  belong  to  lord  Merton : 
their  contribution  to  the  state  is  no  more  annually  than  five  hundred  pounds  sterling. 
The  climate  is  healthy,  but  cold  and  damp.  Their  crops  are  chiefly  barley,  which 
thrives  abundantly.  The  inhabitants  have  plenty  of  cattle,  and  are  much  given  to  fish- 
ing ;  so  that  fish  and  salt  beef  form  the  principal  trade  of  the  islands.  Nevertheless  thfy 
furnish  tallow,  leather,  salt,  rabbit-skins,  barley,  and  woollen  stuffs.  The  coasts  of  these 
islands  possess  excellent  bays  and  creeks,  but  they  must  be  known  to  be  entered  with- 
out danger,  for  the  tides  are  strong,  and  the  currents  violent.  The  master  of  a  Dun- 
kirker  related  to  me  a  striking  anecdote  of  the  currents  of  the  Orcades :  he  told  me  that 
being  becalmed  in  a  ptivateer  belonging  to  Dunkirk,  nearly  two  leagues  from  shore  on 
the  northern  side,  the  privateer  was  drawn  by  the  current  into  the  midst  of  the  islands ; 
upon  this  he  cast  anchor,  but  his  cable  was  cut  in  an  instant,  and  the  vessel  was  on  the 
brink  of  being  los%  when  some  fishermen  came  on  board,  who,  by  the  help  cf  a  light 
breeze,  conducted  her  out  to  the  west  of  the  islands,  after  having  passed  through  much 
danger,  and  by  dreadful  eddies.  The  mariner  from  whom  I  gathered  this  confessed  to 
me  that  they  were  mortally  afraid  that  their  pilots,  with  whose  nation  they  were  at  war, 


!',Es-fvwr:;mr^,5S;,- 


KERGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


779 


they 


were  about  to  conduct  them  into  some  port,  where  they  should  be  made  prisoners ;  and 
that  they  were  much  ustuni^slied  at  getting  rid  of  the  islands  so  cheaply,  it  costing  them 
no  more  than  five  gallons  of  brandy,  which  was  the  price  agreed  upon.  This  priva- 
teer was  ignorant,  without  doubt,  that  there  is  a  resolute  conduct  to  be  held  on  such  an 
occasion,  the  pilot  biiiig  a  foreigner  ;  it  is  to  promise  a  handsome  reward  for  putting 
the  vessel  out  of  danger,  and  to  make  him  responsible  with  his  life  for  any  accident 
which  may  befal  the  vessel. 

I  am  unable  to  describe  all  the  ports  and  anchorages  of  the  Orcades.  Not  having 
been  within  reach  of  examining  them,  I  could  but  take  soundings  and  views ;  I  shaU 
therefore  only  observe  in  this  place,  that  in  the  north  of  the  Orcades,  where  I  sounded, 
thv-^re  are  fifty  fathoms  water,  rocky  bottom,  at  scarcely  two  leagues  from  the  shore ; 
and  that  I  was  informed  there  were  thirty  fathoms  water  a  quarter  of  a  league  from 
land.  Therefore,  when  less  than  fifty  fathoms  water  are  met  with,  it  is  high  time  to 
tack,  in  order  to  avoid  the  currents.  I  shall  observe,  that  having  taken  the  latitude  with 
an  excellent  sextant  pretty  close  to  land,  for  better  security  of  exactness  in  my  bearings 
nnddistance,!  found  these  islands  lay  six  minutes  more  south  than  they  are  marked  in 
the  Neptune.  This  is  the  whole  of  the  observatJ'^ns  I  made  respecting  these  islands  : 
what  I  was  erabled  to  gaiher  beyond,  from  different  navigators,  agrees  pretty  well 
with  what  Mr.  Bellin  saysofthem  inhis  Essiii  sur  les  Isles  firitanniqnes,  and  with  a 
chart  on  &  large  scale  of  these  islands  and  those  of  Shetland,  which  was  given  me  at 
Berghen  by  the  captain  of  a  merchant  vessel,  who  every  year  takes  a  trip  to  the  Or- 
cades, and  to  Shetland.  1  have  thought  proper  to  state  here,  notes  of  what  Mr.  Beliin 
says  of  these  islands,  after  making  the  necessary  corrections,  and  adding  whatever  is 
useful. 

Pomona,  or  Pomonia,  is  the  largest  and  principal  of  all  the  islands.  The  lands  are 
very  high  on  the  western  side.  It  is  in  this  island  the  town  of  Kirkwall  is  situated,  the 
capital  of  the  Orcades,  and  residence  of  a  bishop.  This  town  is  on  the  north  side,  it 
has  a  port  and  roadstead,  but  the  most  considerable  ports  of  the  island  are  Schappa,  oppo- 
site to  Kirkwall,  Cairston,  Carston,  and  Dursound. 

Theport  of  Cairston  is  on  the  S.  W.  of  Pomona.  It  is  a  very  safe  port,  and  fit  for 
the  navigation  of  the  western  side,  there  are  several  passages  to  it  between  the  islands. 
The  passage  called  Hamsound,  which  is  south  of  Pomona,  is  very  good  for  vessels 
coming  from  the  east  This  passage  is  navigated  by  leaving  the  point  of  Ross- ness  to 
starboard,  which  must  not  be  neared  too  close,  as  a  reef  runs  out  from  it,  although  to 
no  great  distance.  This  point  of  Ross- ness  is  south  of  Pomona.  Afterwards  the  little 
island  of  Lamholm  is  left  to  larboard,  whence  you  coast  along  Pomona ;  and  if  with  con- 
trary winds,  tnere  is  anchorage  in  a  creek  to  the  south  of  Pomona  in  six  fathoms  water, 
called  Schappa-roads.  If  the  weather  be  favourable,  you  coast  along  Pomona  ;  on  the 
way  a  little  island  is  passed,  which  the  country  people  call  Burrer  Botter ;  it  is  safe,  and 
may  be  passed,  according  to  the  wind,  either  on  the  larboard  or  starboard  quarter. 
Carra  is  then  passed  to  the  northward,  and  afterwards  a  small  island,  both  very  safe,  and 
at  equal  distance  between  Carra  and  Pomona ;  whence  steering  N.  W.  quarter  W.  you 
arrive  at  the  port  of  Cairston,  where  there  is  anchorage  in  the  road  in  seven  fathoms  wa- 
ter ;  but  if  desirous  of  proceeding  higher  up  and  getting  in  shore,  you  may  anchor  in  four 
fathoms,  perfectly  sheltered  from  all  winds,  and  without  any  currents  or  tides  to  molest 
you. 

Cairston  is  a  small  town,  at  the  bottom  of  the  port ;  provisions  may  be  obtained 
there.  It  is  most  easy  to  approach  Cairston  from  the  west,  and  the  road  is  much 
the  shortest ;  but  care  must  be  taken  not  to  near  the  southern  point  of  Pomona,  its  there 

5  o2 


780 


KEROUELEN'8  VOTAGB  TO  THB   *(ORTII. 


is  a  ridge  of  rocks  about  it.  There  b  also  a  good  passage  to  it  between  the  islands  (^ 
Soult  Ronalza  and  Buna,  but  it  is  very  narrow.  It  is  dangerous  to  attempt  it,  unless 
with  a  sure  and  favourable  wind.  South  of  Pomona  the  tide  runs  S.  £.  at  new  and 
full,  and  the  diiference  of  high  and  low  water  is  twelve  feet. 

The  port  of  Dursound  is  on  the  N.  £.  of  Pomona,  within  Mull-head,  the  most  eastern 
|x>int,  and  a  league  from  the  W.  of  the  point.  Mull-head  is  a  very  high  and  distin- 
guishable land ;  it  is  besides  healthy  and  rugged.  There  are  two  rocks  to  the  £.  and 
two  others  to  the  N.  N.  W.  but  they  are  very  nigh  the  shore.  The  entrance  of  the  port 
of  Dursound  is  nearty  a  mile  wide ;  the  middle  must  be  taken,  on  account  of  some  rocks 
under  water  close  to  land,  particularly  tr -'prds  the  point  to  larboard  of  the  entrance. 
After  doubling  this  point  you  enter  the  j^  ;  "Sere  ihere  is  anchorage  everywhere; 
but  to  be  best  shelti-red  vessels  lay  west  of  tii.  X  of  Nestin,  which  is  that  of  the  star- 
board on  entering,  where  you  anchor  in  five  i(&...oms  water.  Small  vessels  go  to  the 
Bouth  of  Dursound,  into  a  creek  called  Market-bay,  where  they  anchor  in  three  fathoms. 
Cure  must  be  taken  respecting  the  height  of  tide  on  entering  tlus  creek ;  for  in  the 
middle  of  it  there  is  a  bank,  on  which  there  is  no  more  than  five  feet  depth  at  low  water. 
Neap  and  spking-tides  rise  twelve  feet  at  Dursound,  ordinary  tides  but  eight  feet. 

The  Port  of  Kirkwall  is  north  of  Pomona ;  to  get  at  it  by  the  east  you  must  take  the 
passage  of  Stronsafirth,  south  of  the  island  Stronsa,  and  north  of  MuU-head.  You  must 
neartlie  cape  pass  before  Dursound,  between  the  north  ofPon>ona  and  the  south  of  the 
isle  of  Schapin&ha,  leaving  the  islanil  caHed  Elgarholm  to  starboard,  and  that  of  Thieves^ 
holm  to  larboard.  As  soon  as  you  haVe  passed  the  latter  island  steer  S.  S.  W.  to  avtnd 
a  rock  a  mile  to  the  N.  W.  of  I'hieve^olm,  on  which  there  is  but  six  feet  at  low  water. 
Afterwards  steer  S.  quarter  S.  W.  to  enter  the  road  of  Kirkwall,  where  yoj  anchor  in 
six  or  eight  fathoms  water.  You  may  get  nearer  the  town  at  the  bottom  of  the  L  y ; 
there  is  better  shelter,  but  it  is  not  so  eligible  a  station  to  sail  from.  There  is  excellent 
anchorage  a  league  and  a  half  to  the  west  of  Kirkwall,  called  Monoo's  Bay  :  but  as 
there  are  rocks  to  starboard  and  larboard  on  entering,  the  middle  of  the  channel  must  be 
kept :  it  would  even  be  a  prudent  precaution  to  take  a  practised  pilot  of  the  place  on 
board ;  they  are  always  to  be  found.  <- 

The  island  Rousa  is  north  of  Pomona;  it  is  of  small  extent,  but  the  lands  are  \efj 
high.     Between  Rousa  and  Pomona  the  currents  are  very  violent. 

East  of  Rousa  is  the  anchorage  called  Wire-sound :  to  enter  it,  coming  from  the  east, 
you  must  pass  through  Stronsafirth ;  but  instead  of  keeping  to  the  south  of  Shapinsha, 
you  must  keep  to  the  north,  having  the  islands  Warms  ar^  Grain  to  starboard,  after 
which  you  steer  W.  S.  W.  to  have  the  island  of  Egilsha,  and  those  of  Wire  and  Rousa, 
to  larboard ;  it  b  between  Rousa  and  Egikha  that  the  anchorage  of  Wire-sound  b  in  six 
or  seven  fathoms  water.  The  entrance  of  this  anchorage  is  without  danger ;  aH  that 
is  necessary  is  to  avoid  certain  rocks  which  extend  a  mHe  from  shore  to  the  south  of 
Egilsha :  to  clear  them  it  is  requisite  to  keep  half  a  league  from  the  point,  and  to  keep 
close  to  the  isle  of  Wire,  which  has  given  name  to  the  Sound.  To  anchor  well  in  Wire- 
sound,  you  must  keep  St  Agnes  church,  in  the  isle  of  Egilsha,  at  N.  E.  and  t^  £.  The 
tide  does  not  run  strong  in  thb  road,  which  is  greatly  frequented  by  fishermen,  who 
resort  to  Iceland.  You  may  get  out  r^  Wire-sound  by  a  small  passage  north  of  the  an- 
chorage, between  the  bland  d[  Ro'*3a  and  the  islet  of  Stockness.  In  this  passage  there 
are  four  fathoms  water,  but  it  is  very  narrow.  On  leaving  this  f.<as  you  enter  Westra- 
firth,  or  the  strait  of  Westra :  the  currents  are  very  violent,  particularly  at  high  tides. 
Qn  going  through  the  canal,  attention  must  be  paid  to  keejMng  close  to  Rousa,  because 
towards  the  middle  of  it,  S.  W.  of  Westra,  there  are  very  dangerous  rocks  under  water. 
When  desirous  of  leaving  Wire-sound  towards  the  west,  keeping  the  isles  of  Wire  and 


■*' 


KERGUELEITS  VOYAGE  TO  THK  NORTH. 


781 


Pomona  to  larboard,  care  must  be  taken  to  keep  in  with  Rousa ;  and  when  an  island  is 
perceived,  called  by  the  natives  Inballa,  you  must  steer  to  come  up  to  it  on  the  south, 
and  leave  it  to  r  vboard,  on  account  of  there  being  no  passage  north  of  the  island :  it 
requires  a  good  oeal  of  wind  to  stem  the  current  in  this  passage.  You  ma^  also  reach 
\Vire-soui^  coming  from  the  east  by  the  passage  of  Sanda-sound.  This  passage  is 
between  the  islands  of  Sanda  and  Stronsa,  leaving  Sanda  and  £da  to  starboard,  and  Stren- 
sa  and  Schapinsha  to  larboard. 

After  describing  the  passages  and  anchoring-places  which  are  in  the  interior  of  the 
Orcades,  I  shall  make  mention  of  what  concerns  the  exterior,  which  is  not  less  impor- 
tant to  vessels  wluch  may  be  driven  upon  the  coasts.  I  shall  begin  by  the  southern  part, 
or  strait  of  Pentland,  which  is,  as  I  believe  I  mentioned,  between  Scotland  and  the  Or- 
cades. On  corniing  from  the  east  to  make  this  passage,  an  island,  which  is  at  the  en> 
trance,  must  be  kept  at  a  mile's  distance ;  it  is  the  same  thing  whether  a-head  of  it 
north  or  south.  After  passing  thu  island  it  is  requisite  to  steer  through  mid-channel,  and 
rather  keep  close  to  the  Orcades  than  the  Scotch  coast,  on  account  of  many  rocks  under 
water  on  tne  Scotch  side ;  but  after  reaching  the  south  side  of  the  ble  of  Hoy,  an  island 
in  the  middle  of  the  strait  is  to  be  kept  at  W.  quarter  S.  W.  When  at  no  greater 
dbtance  than  a  league  and  a  half  from  thb  island,  nothing  remains  to  be  apprehended 
finom  the  Scotch  side :  it  b  the  same  whether  this  island  be  passed  on  the  north  or  south 
aide,  there  being  f  .ren^-five  fathoms  water  on  both  sides.  When  thb  island,  called 
Stroma,  is  passed  by,  the  channel  opens,  and  the  currents  are  less  forcible.  Stroma  must 
not  be  coasted  too  near,  as  it  b  surrounded  with  rocks.  N.  N.  £  of  Stroma,  in  the  isle 
of  Hoy,  there  b  a  creek  with  anchorage  in  four  fathoms  water.  On  the  east  side  of  the 
Orcades  the  shores  are  tolerably  safe ;  almost  everywhere  there  is  tturty  fathoms  water 
at  half  a  league  from  the  shore.  On  luffing  near  her  shores,  one  may  prolong  a  tack 
without  apprehension  when  the  wind  b  strong;  but  when  there  is  a  chance  of  a  calm  a 
greater  dbtance  must  be  kept,  for  fear  of  being  carried  away  by  the  currents.  On  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Orcades,  the  point  of  Sanda  b  the  only  dangerous  one ;  nevertheless 
the  rocks  from  thb  point  advamse  no  more  than  half  a  league  to  sea  towards  the  N.  £. 
North  of  thb  point  mere  b  a  small  bland,  which  is  only  safe  on  the  south  side ;  tliere  a 
vessel  n^  anchor,  to  take  shelter  from  a  north  wind.  This  island  is  called  North  Ro- 
nakba.  North  of  the  isle  of  Sanda  there  are  two  rocks  under  water  near  to  shore ;  but  two 
leagues  from  the  north  point,  and  N.  quarter  N.  W.  of  it,  there  b  a  dangerous  rock 
above  low  water. 

Any  vessel  may  anchor  north  of  the  isle  of  £dda,  south  of  a  small  and  perfectly  safe 
bland,  called  Kale  of  £dda.  At  the  north  point  of  Westra  there  are  rocks  a  quarter  of 
a  league  fttim  shore ;  but  the  south  part  of  ttus  point  affords  a  creek  open  to  the  east, 
where  a  frigate  may  anchor  under  shelter  from  the  W.  or  N.  W.  A  league  N.  £.  of  thb 
anchorage  is  the  idand  of  Papa  Westca,  surrounded  by  rocks  on  the  west,  north,  and 
east:  they  extend  more  than  a  quarter  dfa  league  on  the  eastern  side.  The  western 
shores  of  the  Orcadea  are  for  the  moat  pwrt  very  safe :  they  may  be  coasted  as  close  as 
you  please ;  but  care  must  be  taken  of  the  currents  which  run  through  the  straits.  I 
observed  in  1768  on  these  coasts  20°  40'  of  variation  in  the  needle.  I  must  not  forget 
to  notioe  thai  there  are  rocks,  about  ten  leagues  west  of  the  Orcades,  about  lat  59*'  Of 
or  3' :  there  bone  above  water ;  they  are  cadled  the  Stacks.  A  league  north  of  these 
are  others,  three  &thoni8  under  water.  It  b  high  water  at  the  Orcades,  at  full  and  new 
moon,  atfor^-five  minutes  past  two. 

Between  the  Ocades  suid  Shetland  there  b  a  small  bbnd,  called  Fair-isle.    As  thb 
iskuid  n  in  the  middle  of  a  much  frequented  passage,  called  the  Tun,  I  paid  particular  at- 


'J 


Y 


.''^•rif  -  ?»»?:sEiT-*"i^*iA»-' 


■  'i^v 


782 


KEROUELBN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


tention  to  it.  Fuir-isle  b  placed  on  the  chart  of  M.  Bellin,  engraved  in  1757,  in  lat  59* 
30'.  According  to  my  observations  it  is  3'  more  southerly.  This  island  is  pretty  high^ 
it  may  be  seen  ten  leagues  off  in  fine  weather ;  it  is  safe,  particularly  towards  the  south 
and  east.  On  the  north  and  west  side  there  are  some  rucks,  but  they  are  near  the  shore. 
On  my  second  voyage  1  coasted  this  island,  a  short  league  from  shore,  on  its  south  side, 
and  remarked  a  beautiful  verdant  plain  and  several  houses,  the  latter  of  which  were  dis- 
tinguished by  their  whiteness.  It  appeared  to  me  that  it  is  in  this  spot,  at  the  foot  of  the 
hill,  that  the  anchorage  is  as  marked  in  the  Dutch  charts ;  for  the  coast  goes  shelving  in 
this  place,  so  that  a  \'essel  must  necessarily  be  sheltered  from  all  winds  from  the  N. 
\y.  round  to  the  N.  £.  Fair>isle  may  be  about  six  leagues  round.  The  houses  which 
I  saw  on  this  island  announce  its  being  inhabited ;  and  sea-faring  men  have  assured  me, 
tliat  finding  themselves  in  fine  weather  within  a  league  of  shore,  the  inhabitants  had 
come  off  in  boats  to  the  privateer,  on  board  which  they  were  to  sell  them  eggs  and  fowls, 
and  oft'ering  them  sheep  very  cheap.  We  know  besides  that  Fair-isle  is  fertile  in  barley, 
and  in  good  pastures.  According  to  my  observations,  the  variation  at  Fair-isle  was  19**, 
and  its  long,  west  of  Paris,  3**  29'. 

North  of  Fuir-isle  are  situated  the  Shetland  isles,  which  are  but  seven  or  eight  leagues 
distant.  These  are  very  lofty ;  they  are  variously  laid  down  in  the  Dutch,  French,  and 
English  charts,  so  much  as  to  agree  in  no  shape  one  with  the  other.  Many  days  are 
required  to  be  passed  upon  the  coasts  in  examining  them,  in  taking  their  bearings,  and 
in  making  observations  of  latitude  and  longitude,  in  order  to  appreciate  the  defects  of 
their  different  plans,  and  make  corrections  ot  the  islands.  I  was  not  able  to  effect  these 
purposes,  having  a  distinct  mission  to  attend  to ;  but  from  such  remarks  as  I  was  enabled 
to  make,  and  the  conversations  I  have  had  with  different  navigators,  whose  accounts  I 
hav^  ".ompared  with  the  notes  of  M.  Bellin,  and  those  of  Routier  the  Dutchman,  I  have 
beeu  able  to  give  some  insight  to  the  navigation  of  the  coasts,  and  the  entry  of  the  dif- 
ferent ports.  As  to  the  difference  in  respect  of  the  position  and  figure  of  the  islands, 
according  to  the  French  Neptune  and  the  Dutch  chart,  I  shall  remark  that  the  French 
chart  is  more  exact  in  the  latitude ;  but  that  I  {^ve  the  prefl!rence  to  the  Dutch  for  the 
representation  of  the  figure,  and  tsearings  of  the  la.  'I,  of  as  many  as  I  had  the  opportu. 
nity  of  seeing.  Nevertheless,  Fulo  is  very  ill  placed  in  the  Neptune  of  1757,  with  respect 
to  its  latitude.  Thb  island  is  there  laid  down  in  60°  19" ;  and  from  three  successive 
observations,  made  insight  of  and  very  near  the  land,  I  found  it  lay  inlat.  60<*3'. 
Fulo  island  is  ten  miles  west  of  the  Shetland  islands ;  it  is  very  high,  we  descrying  it  at 
sixteen  leagues  distance.  It  is  the  most  remarkable  and  best  land-mark  of  all  the  Shet- 
land  islands :  when  seen  at  eight  or  ten  leagues  distant,  it  has  the  resemblance  of  a  slip- 
per ;  it  is  very  healthy,  and  a  vessel  may  boldly  pass  between  it  and  the  other  Shetland 
islands,  for  in  the  channel  there  is  more  than  two  leagues  to  luff  up  in.  On  this  island 
I  observed  the  variation  of  the  needle  was  18"  30*.  Eighteen  leagues  west  of  Fulo  I 
have  met  with  eighty  fathoms  water,  with  bottom  of  large  sand,  of  a  grey  colour,  with 
black  spots :  as  you  approach  the  land,  the  sand  is  more  mixed  with  gravel  and  stone ; 
and  at  four  leagues  from  the  island  there  are  seventy  fathoms  water,  bottom  gravel  and 
black  stones.  East  of  this  island  are  the  Shetland  blands,  on  the  number  of  which  au- 
tiiors  do  not  agree  ;  but  there  are  only  three  large  ones,  the  principal  of  which  b  called 
the  Mainland.  The  climate  of  these  islands  is  similar  to  that  of  the  Orcades ;  the  land 
produces  equally  well  both  barley  and  oats ;  the  pastures  are  very  good.  Fbhing,  herds 
of  cattle,  flocks  of  sheep,  and  cows,  make  up  the  wealth  of  the  inhabitants.  These 
islanders  are  of  Norwegian  origin.  Their  language  is  a  Gothic  dialect,  partaking  of  the 
Danish,  and  particularly  of  the  English  language.     They  make  turf-fires,  as  there  is  no 


KEUGUELEN'S  VOYAGIi  TO  THE  NORTH. 


783 


wood  grows  on  any  of  the  islands.  They  follow  the  reformed  religion.  These  Islands 
are  well  peopled ;  above  all,  round  the  coasts,  which  prcscMit  several  bays,  creeks,  ports, 
and  anchora^ps. 

Mainland  island  is  seventeen  leagues  long  from  N.  to  S.  and  five  leagues  from  E.  to 
W.  at  an  average.  This  island  alone  includes  more  ports  and  anchorages  than  the 
islands  of  Yelle,  Unst,  and  all  the  others  together.  I  shall  speak  of  those  only  even 
which  are  in  Mainland,  the  others  not  being  frequented,  nor  fit  to  receive  vessels  of  any 
burthen,  as  well  that  ships  of  any  description  absolutely  require  pilots  of  the  place 
for  steering  them.  Let  us  begin  with  the  southern  part  of  Mainland,  where  there  is 
anchorage  for  a  squadron  of  ten  vessels  north  of  a  small  island  called  Pard  isle.  The  en- 
trance into  this  road  is  either  by  the  E.  or  W.  of  this  island,  which  is  safe ;  and  the  an- 
chorage is  in  twelve  tu  sixteen  fathoms  water,  bottom  of  large  sand.  This  roud  is  at 
the  extremity  of  a  very  high  and  distinguishable  cape,  called  Swineburger-head.  This 
is  the  best  in  this  part.  Mr.  Bellin  designates  three  other  anchorages  between  this  cape 
and  cape  Fitzul,  which  is  the  most  western  point  of  the  southern  lands,  but  these  an- 
choring-places  are  bad,  being  exposed  to  hurricanes  of  wind,  which  render  the  seas 
dreadful.  There  is  only  Quendule-bay  which  can  receive  large  vessels.  It  is  larot: 
and  spacious ;  there  is  an  easy  entrance,  and  an  easy  way  out.  On  all  the  western  side 
there  is  only  one  road  fit  to  receive  vessels  of  war,  it  is  that  which  the  Dutch  call  Magny 
fiord.  Its  entrance  is  three  leagues  N.  of  the  cape,  called  Fitzul  by  the  French.  On 
the  eastern  part  are  the  best  ports  and  anchorages.  Four  leagues  N.  of  Swineburger- 
head,  towards  the  E.  a  little  island  is  seen,  called  Connix  isle,  which,  with  the  large 
island,  forms  an  excellent  road,  called  Hambui^r-haven ;  there  is  eight  fathoms  wa- 
ter ;  it  may  be  entered  by  the  N.  or  by  the  S.  but  the  best  harbour  of  the  whole 
of  the  Shetland  isles  is  that  of  Laerwyck,  which  is  four  leagues  more  to  the  N.  than 
the  last.  The  roads  of  Laerwyck  would  contain  a  whole  fleet.  Every  year,  about  St. 
John's  day,  five  hundred  fishing  vessels  are  seen  anchored  before  the  town  of  Laerwyck. 
The  Dutch,  who  every  year  resort  to  these  coasts  for  the  herring  fishery,  cali  these  roads 
the  Great- bay,  or  Brassa-sound,  on  account  of  the  island  of  Brassa,  which  forms  the 
harbour  and  protects  it  from  the  east  winds.  To  enter  Brassa-sound  from  the  south, 
Brassa  must  be  left  to  starboard  at  a  cable's  length,  and  the  course  be  continued  up 
the  channel  till  you  come  before  the  town  of  Leerwick,  where  there  is  anchorage  in 
five,  ten,  or  fifteen  fathoms,  according  as  you  go  near  to  or  keep  distant  from  shore. 
North  of  the  town  are  the  vestiges  of  a  fort  which  commanded  the  roads,  and  which  was 
destroyed  by  Mr.  Bart.  The  entrance  of  the  road  of  Laerwyck  is  easily  known  by  Noss 
island,  which  is  also  called  Hanging-cliff,  on  account  of  a  remarkable  rock,  which  hangs 
oyer  into  the  sea,  forming  a  natural  vault.  This  island  is  east  of  Brassa,  and  server  as  r 
land-mark  for  the  port  of  Laerwyck ;  the  fleet  enters  south  of  Brassa,  and  the  eddy 
consequently  carries  them  to  the  south.  The  tide  is  stronger  towards  the  north  of  the 
channel,  and  the  passage  more  difiicult  This  is  the  mode  of  getting  out  through  the 
passage  called  North  Sound,  and  these  the  precautions  necessary  to  be  taken.  I  ob- 
served that  the  flood  bore  to  the  north.  You  steer  so  as  to  leave  to  starboard  a  small 
island  called  the  Holm  of  Cruester,  at  about  a  mile's  distance,  on  account  of  the  rocks 
which  are  under  water  at  half  a  quarter  of  a  league  to  the  west  of  the  island.  When 
this  island  is  past,  and  bears  £.  quarter  S.  £.  there  is  nothing  further  to  be  ap- 
jM^hended  from  the  rocks  called  Fabarre.  You  continue  your  course,  keeping  mid- 
channel,  until  you  perceive  the  channel  begin  to  narrow ;  then,  in  order  to  avoid  a 
bank,  which  is  in  the  middle  of  the  narrowest  part  of  the  channel,  and  over  which  there 
is  but  twelve  feet  at  low  water,  you  must  pass  by  either  on  the  one  or  the  other  side- 


784 


KBRGUELKM'S  VOYAOB  TO  TIIE  NORTH. 


( 


of  this  bank  :  if  you  near  the  island  of  Brassa,  you  must  keep  at  two  cables  distance, 
but  if  the  western  side  be  kept,  you  may  near  the  shore  to  within  half  a  cable,  on  ac- 
count  of  its  being  very  safe  ;  when  through  this  channel,  the  road  becomes  wide,  but 
soon  after  it  becomes  much  narrower  than  before.  It  is  requisite  then  to  steer  well,  and 
sail  by  an  islet  or  rock  called  Scodand«  in  preference  to  coasting  of  Brassa ',  because  in 
this  part  Brassa  has  rocks  under  water  about  it,  which  extend  for  a  mile  from  shore. 
When  you  have  douUed  Scotland  and  the  most  northern  point  of  Brassa,  the  passage  is 
very  good  between  the  rocks  called  the  Brothers  and  Green-island,  which  you  have  to 
larboard,  and  the  island  of  Beoster,  north  of  Brassa,  which  is  left  to  starboard.  When 
the  island  of  Beoster  is  sailed  by,  the  passage  of  North  sound  u  gone  through,  and  you 
are  at  liberty  to  take  what  course  may  suit. 

North  of  Brassa  island,  between  it  and  the  point  of  Mainland,  called  Mull  of  Enwick, 
the  sea  forms  a  large  bay,  where  arc  four  good  anchoring-places,  called  Deals-woe, 
Laxford-woe,  Webster-woe,  and  Catford-woe.  I  shall  not  give  a  description  of  the 
three  first,  which  can  only  receive  merchant  vessels  or  corvettes  ;  but  the  anchorage  of 
Catford-woe,  which  is  the  most  northerly  of  the  four,  is  also  the  most  conuderable  ;  it 
forms  three  creeks,  which  afford  three  good  ports  ;  the  one  is  E.  S.  £.  the  other 
W.  N.  W.  and  the  third  N.  These  norts  can  receive  any  vessels  of  war,  and  aflbixl 
shelter  from  all  winds.  The  anchorage  b  in  from  three  to  fifteen  fathoms  water,  accord, 
ing  as  you  near  the  land.  When  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  Shetland  islands  you  are 
desirous  of  entering  one  of  these  ports,  you  must  steer  for  the  isle  of  Noas  and  the 
Hanging  cliff,  afterwards  bear  N.  W.  to  pass  between  Green-bland,  wliich  b  left  to 
starboard,  and  the  rocks  called  the  Brothers,  which  are  left  to  larboard.  Or,  if  the 
wind  serve  better,  you  may  pass  between  Green-island  to  larbouid,  and  House  Stack  and 
Glatness  to  starboard.  From  Swineburger-head  to  Noness,  the  flood-tide  runs  to  the 
north ;  from  Noness  to  Brassa,  and  from  Brassa  to  Catford-woe,  S.  S.  E.  The  ebb> 
tide  runs  in  a  contrary  direction.  On  the  western  side  the  flood-tide  runs  south  from 
Swineburger-head  to  Scalluwa,  and  the  ebb-tide  runs  nonh. 

I  have  now  to  speak  of  the  soundings  for  makinp;  land.  I  have  already  observed, 
that,  on  approaching  these  islands,  the  bottom,  which  b  always  large  saral,  b  more 
mixed  with  gravel  and  stones.  AU  round  these  islands,  at  about  four  leagues  distance, 
there  are  seventy-five  fathoms  water.  It  must  however  be  observed,  that  on  the  eastern 
side  there  are  three  or  four  pits  or  wells,  where  there  b  more  than  a  hundred  fathoms 
water.  Four  leagues  north  of  the  Unst  bland,  the  most  northern  of  the  Shetland 
blands,  during  my  second  voyage,  I  took  an  observation  in  fine  weather,  and  found  that 
the  most  normerly  highlands  of  Unst  lay  in  latitude  60°  44'.  The  highlands  of  Shet- 
land are  not  very  loft}' ;  they  may  however  be  discerned  ten  leagues  at  sea.  Twelve 
leagues  east  of  these  blands  I  noticed  the  variation  18**  42'.  I  now  take  up  my 
journal. 

The  twenty-ninth'of  August  I  was  for^  leagues  firom  the  blands  of  Ferra  The 
rock  at  the  north  of  these  blands,  called  the  Bbhop,  was  south  of  me,  dbtant  as  de- 
scribed. 

The  thirtieth,  weak  winds,  varying  from  S.  £.  to  S.  W.  a  fine  sea,  and  continuation 
of  fog^  weather.  I  kept  the  closest  I  could,  whether  the  larboard  or  starboard  tack, 
to  make  the  south,  and  endeavour  to  fall  in  with  the  island  Enkhuysen.  I  sounded  every 
now  and  then,  because  I  saw  eddies  or  whirlpools  made  by  the  tidcj^  but  1  could  find  no 
bottom.  :'•"  ,  i"'.*.«*.v.i  >«»>•  *=&' vk-w;*j'.^»«c(^-*,t 

The  thirty. first,  a  soudi  wind  rather  firesh,  a  thick  fi:^ ;  I  ordored  the  officer  '  i  watch 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nig^t  to  bring  to  tiU  morning,  but  if  the  wind  incinkased  to 


RRR0UBLBN*8  VOYAOR  TO  THE  NORTH. 


r85 


haul  it.  The  wind  getting  round  to  the  east  and  blowing  hard,  the  officer  of  the  watch 
came  to  inform  me  that  he  had  taken  in  the  foresail,  on  account  of  its  blowing  hard 
from  the  east  to  £.  S.  £.  with  a  very  high  sea.  As  the  wind  was  favourable  for  re 
turning  to  France,  as  I  had  not  seen  any  thing  of  tlie  fishing  vessels  for  some  days,  an 
the  season  for  the  fishery  was  far  advanced,  and  the  continual  fogs  did  not  allow  of  mj 
rendering  any  further  assistance  to  the  French  ships,  I  steered  W.  S.  W.  forestiili  arid 
topsails  set,  to  pass  between  Iceland  and  the  islands  of  Ferro,  and  tlience  to  continue  ni) 
course  for  Brest 

The  first  of  Septemlier,  the  wind  east,  very  fresh  at  noon,  I  took  an  observation,  and 
found  mvself  in  latitude  60«  8' and  in  longitude  by  reckoning  15«>  58'  W.  of  PuriH. 
The  middle  of  the  bank  of  which  I  sjwke  in  the  beginning  of  my  journal  bore  VV. 

Siuarter  S.  W.  cxacdy,  twenty-five  lei^ues  distant,  and  the  island  of  Rokol  at  the  S. 
orty-five  leagues  distant :  the  island  of  Rokol  is  not  marked  in  any  French  chart,  but  I 
am  certain  of  its  existence.  I  have  requested  M.  Bellin  to  insert  it ;  its  situation  is  in 
latitude  57^  SCV,  and  longitude  16*  0'  W.  This  island  is  very  healthy ;  it  is  a  sharp  rock, 
which,  at  four  leagues  distance,  looks  like  a  ship ;  it  has  frequently  been  mistook  for 
one.  East  of  Rokol  island,  a  quarter  of  a  league  away  fi-om  shore,  is  a  rock  under 
water,  with  breakers.  Under  nearly  the  same  latitude  as  Rokol,  but  much  more  to 
the  W.  is  another  island.  It  is  Buss  Island ;  it  is  not  either  on  the  French  charts,  but 
it  exists  in  latitude  58*  0',  longitude  28"  W.  On  the  night  between  the  fii-st  and  the 
second,  we  saw  an  Aurora  Borealis,  which  afforded  us  the  most  beautiful  spectacle  that 
nature  can  display.  From  ten  in  the  evening  until  one  in  the  morning,  the  heavens 
were  on  fire  throughout  the  arctic  hemisphere  ;  the  night  was  as  brilliant  as  the  day  ;  I 
read  a  letter  at  midnight  as  easily  as  I  could  have  done  at  noon.  We  first  of  all  saw  a 
luminous  cloud  in  the  form  of  an  arch,  which  occupied  half  the  firmament.  From  this 
about  eleven  o'clock  rose  columns  perpendicular  to  the  horizon,  and  alternately  white 
and  red.  The  upper  part  of  these  columns  towmxls  midnight  changed  into  sheaves  of 
a  flame  colour,  fix)m  the  centre  of  which  arrows  of  light  issued  into  the  air  like  rockets ; 
at  length,  after  midnight,  these  columns,  which  were  arranged  with  such  admirable  sym- 
metry, were  confounded  all  at  once  in  a  brilliant  chaos  of  cones,  pyramids,  radii, 
dieaves,  and  riobes  of  fire.  This  celestial  appearance  disappeared  gradually ;  but  the 
air  was  full  of  light  even  till  day. 

Phenomena  of  tlus  description  have  been  seen  in  all  ages  and  countries ;  but  what  are 
their  origin  ?  Why  are  they  observed  towards  the  north  ?  As  every  one  is  allowed  to  have 
his  own  system,  I  shall  hazard  a  conjecture  on  the  probable  cause  of  the  aurora  borealis, 
called  so  from  its  luminousness  resembling  that  of  dawn,  although  more  commonly 
knoKn  by  the  name  of  the  northern  lights,  on  account  of  their  being  seen  in  the  north. 
1.  I  imagine  the  matter  of  the  aurora  borealis  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  lightning  or  elec- 
tricity. 2.  That  the  diurnal  motion  of  the  earth  occasions  a  continual  flux  of  this  mat- 
ter towards  the  poles ;  which  makes  these  meteors  most  vbible  in  the  neighbouring  re- 
^ons.  3.  That  a  certain  density,  temper,  and  particular  consdtution  of  air  be  requi- 
site to  cause  to  approach,  heap  leather,  and  compress  the  igneous  pardcles,  so  as  by  their 
fermentation  to  produce  those  shiei  'es,  rockets,  and  luminous  columns  which  arc  pecu- 
liar  to  die  aunna  borealis.  4.  That  vM  the  rapid  movements,  the  lateral  divergencies, 
the  sudden  appearance  of  columns.  Sec.  result  irom  their  mutual  and  alternate  atu-action 
and  repulsion,  a  natural  property  of  electric  fire,  as  is  proved  by  the  alternate  attraction 
and  repulsion  of  gold  leaves  and  '  ;ht  bodies  by  electrical  globes.  5.  That  if  this  me- 
teor appear  but  rarely,  it  is  because  the  air  possesses  seldom  the  requisite  density,  or  is 
property  constituted  to  produce  it. 

VOL.  I.  5   H 


Wm^0!Si^ 


-9:y 


i'l 


786 


KEnOUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


II 


il 


»l 


The  most  celebrated  philosophers  have  long  maintained  an  opinion  that  the  element  of 
fire  was  dispersed  throughout  existence,  and  that  solid  and  fluid  bodies  were  abundantly 
imprcgtuited  with  igttcou»  particles.  I  conceive  that  the  aether  of  Newton,  the  ele- 
mentary fire  of  Bocrhaavc,  and  electric  fire,  arc  the  same  substance,  whose  diiTcrent 
cflTccts  varv  in  proportion  to  the  impulse,  agitation,  direction,  strength,  and  quantity  of 
the  assembled  matter :  hence  the  action  of  the  sun  on  this  substance  produces  the  double 
advantage  of  light  and  heat.  Thus  the  attrition  of  •  globe  of  glass  reunites  a  certain 
quantity  of  it,  which,  managed  and  directed  with  art,  produces  tne  various  phenomena 
of  electricity.  Thus  the  sudden  and  violent  collision  of  two  hard  bodies  elicits  sparks, 
and  the  cotitinual  friction  of  two  bodies,  of  whatsoever  description  they  may  be,  excites 
and  originates  elementary  fire,  in  sufficient  quantity  to  inflame  and  consume  any  com- 
bustible matter  exposed  to  its  action. 

When  f\  great  quantity  of  particles  of  fire  is  accumulated  in  condensed  clouds,  which 
compress  and  drive  them  together,  the  particles  of  fire  then  striking  the  one  against  the 
other,  inflame,  snorkle,  kindle  into  a  blaze,  and  burst  with  explosion  the  prison  which 
incloses  them.  Hence  the  flash  of  lightning  and  the  thunder  clap ;  and  if  the  lightning 
be  seen  before  the  thunder  be  heard,  it  is  because  the  vibrations  which  expand  from  the 
igneous  matter  are  more  rapid  of  flight  than  the  undulations  of  the  air  which  bring 
us  the  sound. 

When  clouds  have  less  density ;  when  they  pass  over  space  more  lightly  and  more 
freely ;  when  they  contain  only  a  small  quantity  of  the  particles  of  fire,  then,  should  they 
unite  and  clash  together,  they  kindle  into  flame  without  explosion  ;  thev  produce  tliat 
silent  lightning,  and  those  falling  stRrs,  which  shine  and  disappear.  When  the  atmos- 
phere is  not  too  much  overspread  with  clouds,  and  that  they  have  no  more  Uian  the 
density  requisite  for  sustaining  and  leading  on  the  particles  of  fire  in  their  sphere  of  mu- 
tual attraction,  without  keeping  them  in,  without  heaping  or  pressing  them,  then  no  ex- 
plosion succeeds ;  but  the  particles  of  fire  inflame  in  the  open  air,  and  according  to  the 
different  figures,  though  different  consistence  of  the  inflammable  matter,  and  the  differ- 
i:nt  refractions  of  light,  those  globes,  pyramids,  radii,  sheaves,  and  columns  differently 
coloured  of  the  aurora  borealis,  are  seen.  The  identity  of  the  essence  of  lightning  and 
that  of  electricity,  which  has  latterly  been  discovered,  and  whose  respective  effects  are 
very  various,  greatly  supports  the  hypothesis,  that  the  light  of  the  sun,  of  lightning, 
electric  phenomena,  common  fire,  are  only  different  effects  of  the  same  cause,  differentTy 
acted  upon,  disposed,  modified  and  circumstanced.  These  aurorae  boreales  are  greatly 
useful  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  polar  regions ;  it  seems  as  if  nature  was  desirous  by 
them  to  make  amends  for  the  absence  of  the  sun,  and  the  privadon  of  his  beams. 

The  second  of  September,  having  steered  S.  W.  for  twenty-four  hours,  the  wind 
going  round  from  S.  £.  to  N.  by  degrees,  I  took  tl^e  latitude  at  noon,  and  found  it  58^ 
2',  and  longitude  I?*'  10'  W.  by  reckoning.  I  was  too  much  to  the  west  to  make  Ro- 
kol  island,  which  is  distinguishable  at  no  greater  distance  than  four  or  five  leagues.  Not 
seeing  this  island,  I  conjectured  that  my  reckoning  was  good,  for  had  I  been  ten  leagues 
more  to  the  east,  I  must  have  seen  it ;  and  if,  on  the  contrary,  I  had  been  the  same  dis- 
tance more  to  the  west,  I  should  have  seen  some  part  of  Iceland. 

The  third,  fourth,  and  fifth,  and  the  sixth,  the  wind  veered  backwards  and  forwards 
from  south  to  west,  blowing  very  fresh  and  a  strong  sea.  When  it  blew  from  the  west 
I  steered  south,  when  from  the  south,  west,  in  order  to  take  advantage  of  the  W.  and 
S.  W.  winds.  The  sixth,  at  noon,  the  wind  skipped  round  to  the  W.  N.  W.  in  an  in- 
stant. Latitude  Sl^  -10',  longitude  16<>  52',  W.  of  Paris.  Aftdr  taking  the  latitude,  I 
steered  S.  quarter  S.  W.  in  order,  before  night-fall,  to  get  south  of  the  rocks  called 


S^^ 


KKROUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


787 


Braail,  which  arc  laid  down  in  the  Dutch  charts  in  latitude  52°,  and  in  those  oi  M.  Bel. 
linin  51®.  At  six  o'clock,  the  wind  blowing  fresh  (rom  the  N.  VV.  having  pawed  tho 
latitude  of  Brazil,  I  steered  S.  S.  E.  keeping  ratltcr  more  to  the  east  as  I  advuuccd  tu. 
wards  the  south. 

The  seventh,  at  noon,  I  was  in  latitude  48«  50' ;  Ushant  bearing  E.  4°  S.  seventy-eight 
leagties  distant. 

The  eighth,  ot  eight  in  the  morning,  having  steered  continually  E.  S.  E.  from  yes- 
terday  noon,  the  wind  W.  and  fresh,  I  changed  my  course  to  S.  E.  quarter  E.  on  uc 
count  of  the  wind  veering  to  S.  W.  and  the  possibility  of  its  getting  to  the  S.  as  well 
liecause  I  had  to  mistrust  the  cunx>nts  of  the  channel,  that  is  to  suy,  of  the  flood-tide, 
which  is  stronger  than  the  ebb :  I  sounded  at  four  in  the  morning,  and  met  with  one 
hundred  fathoms  water,  bottom  red  !«and,  with  pieces  of  broken  shining  sliells.  At  noon 
I  was  in  latitude  48^  21',  Ushant  bearing  E.  4°  N.  twenty-seven  leagues  distant.  I 
continued  steering  S.  £.  quarter  E.  till  half  past  four,  when  I  sounded.  I  found  ninety 
fathoms  water,  bottom  of  sand,  not  red,  and  shells  not  so  much  broken  as  in  the  morning. 
This  sounding  and  my  reckoning  placed  me  in  the  direction  of  VV.  quarter  S.  W.  of 
Ushant,  eighteen  to  twenty  leagues  distant  At  seven  ')'clock  the  wind  became  W. 
the  weather  milder,  the  sky  clear,  I  steered  north,  in  orucr  to  keep  before  the  ebb-tide, 
and  at  ten  o'clock  S.  S.  W.  to  take  advantage  of  the  flood.  At  the  opening  of  the 
Iroise  the  tides  run  S.  W.  and  N.  E. 

The  ninth,  at  two  in  the  mornins;,  I  sounded ;  finding  the  same  depth,  and  same  bottom 
I  steered  E.  quarter  S.  E.  the  wind  blowing  W.  N.  W.  very  fresh,  a  fine  sea,  but  cloudy 
weather,  with  some  rain  falling  at  the  bounds  of  the  horizon,  which  the  wind  was  bring, 
ing  towards  us.  At  noon  I  fell  in  with  Ushant,  laying  N.  E.  five  leagues  distant,  there 
was  one  hour  of  flood  to  come,  I  hoisted  all  sail  to  take  advantage  of  the  tide,  and  anchor- 
ed in  Brest  roads  at  five  o'clock. 

Thus  finished  my  first  voyage,  in  which  I  have  inserted  some  observations  made  on 
my  second  voyage :  but  as  1  could  not  include  the  whole,  I  have  subjoined  them  in  the 
form  of  a  supplement  to  the  four  parts,  which  have  been  read  before. 


"T* 


SUPPLEMENT 


.».•#'• 


;.  ,  f. ,  f ,      ..  TO  THE  rOUB  PAHT8  07  fia  RELATION  OT  A  VOYAOE  TO  THE  KORTII  SEA. 

Containing^  return  to  Iceland;  passing  between  Birds  island;  abridged  Account  qf 
Oreenland;  Description  qf  the  port  qf  Brandsoom  in  Norway;  Remarks  on  the 
^  Soundings,  and  Navigation  qfthe  Dogger-Bank  ;  Entrance  into  Ostend;  Notes  rela- 
\  five  to  entering  the  Port ^  and  that  of  Dunkirk  ;  Return  to  Brest  through  the 
Channel. 

-  AS  soon  as  the  frigate  La  FoUe  was  dismantled,  I  set  off  to  render  an  account  of  my 
mission  to  the  duke  de  Praslin.  This  minister  informed  me  that  I  must  make  ready  to 
repeat  the  voyage  in  the  spring.  I  requested  of  him  in  preference  to  a  frigate  the  cor- 
vette I'Hindrolle,  of  sixteen  six-pounders,  with  a  complement  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  men ;  on  account  of  such  a  vessel  being  the  fittest  for  the  operations  which  I  had 
planned.    I  repaired  to  Brest  at  the  end  of  April  to  begin  equipping  the  vessel. 

The  tenth  cS  May  I  was  in  the  roads,  and  I  only  waited  for  a  rair  wind  to  set  sail. 
The  duke  de  Praslin  was  so  obliging  as  to  grant  me  the  two  first  officers  I  had  on  board 
La  FoUe,  Messrs.  Duchatel,  and  the  chevalier  Ferron,  two  officers  full  of  zeal  and 
geoius ;  M.  le  Chev.  Bernard  de  Marigny,  an  officer  of  distinguished  merit,  gave  proofs 

5  H  2 


w 


vSM' 


m\ 


' 

tti' 

1 

VMi' 

( 

IB' 

• 

I^^K 

^^^■^ 

. 

iflH. 

Si 

B< 


In 


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' 


768 


iu:k«uelcn'i  votagr  to  the  north. 


! 


of  his  attachment  to  the  service  in  joining  us.  He  had  recently  commandetl  a  king's 
•hip,  nnd  the  tiitigiic  of  a  new  voyugr,  full  of  hardnhipi,  had  nothing  in  it  to  deter  him. 
I  had  for  the  fourth  officer  M.  Soycr  dc  Vuucoulcur,  niuittcr  of  u  fire-ship,  who  had  com- 
mandtd  several  privateers,  u  muuof  tlir  Ixttt  distponition. 

I  left  Brc&t  the  fifteenth  of  May,  1738,  with  u  weak  E.  wind  ;  my  intention  was  to 
pasH  t)y  St.  George's  channel,  but  the  wind  which  cnmc  round  to  the  N.  blowing  very 
fresh,  and  continuing  several  days,  prevented  me  :  f  passed  to  the  west  of  Ireland,  as  on 
my  first  voyage  ;  I  kept  however  more  closely  in  shore,  on  account  of  the  iMnks  and 
high  bottoms,  which  1  before  noticed. 

Nothing  interesting  occurred  ixfore  the  twenty-seventh,  at  eight  in  the  evening.  We 
liad  a  fresn  gale  fiom  the  west,  with  a  heavy  scu;  and  were  steering  north,  when  we 
perceived  before  us  a  tidc>bcd,  covered  with  sea-  weed  nnd  foam  ;  wc  were  shortly  in  the 
midst  of  it,  and  the  sea,  everywhere  else  running  very  high,  was  here  as  calm  and  as  even 
as  in  a  pond ;  except  the  surface  of  the  sea's  trtmbling  and  boiling  up  the  current,  bear- 
ing us  with  rapidity  to  windward.  I  immediately  brought  to  una  sounded  ;  we  found 
no  bottom ;  but  I  am  persuaded  we  wen:  in  the  neighbourhood  of  rocki,  the  more  so 
from  our  being  by  reckoning  between  Rokol  nnd  St.  Kilda  islands  ;  there  is  anchorage 
in  eighteen  fathoms  water  south  east  of  the  largest  of  the  St.  Kilda  islands,  and  a  pas/^oge 
between  that  and  the  one  which  lays  N.  quarter  N.  £.  of  it.  In  case  of  need  a  vessel 
may  anchor  in  this  channel  in  twenty  six  tathoms  water,  siind  r*nd  stony  bottom. 

The  thirty -first,  steering  north  to  make  land,  cape  Hecklu  bearing  by  estimation  N. 
W.  twenty  leagues  distant,  we  encountered  a  furious  gale  of  wind  from  the  eastv^rd, 
with  a  thick  fog.  As  the  weather  was  unseasonabk:  for  making  land,  and  as  I  had  a 
long  way  to  make  to  the  west,  I  resolved  on  bearing  W.  N.  W.  and  N.  W.  quarter 
W.  before  the  wind,  till  the  weather  should  change  and  the  sky  appear.  My  intention 
being,  in  case  the  weather  should  not  clear  up,  to  steer  under  bare  poles,  and  stand  to  sea 
till  such  time  as  I  should  find  myself  in  the  longitude  of  Birds'  islands. 

The  first  of  June,  the  wind  fell  towards  night,  but  the  fog  continued  very  thick,  which 
caused  me  to  keep  on  the  same  tack,  under  easy  sail. 

The  second,  in  the  morning,  the  sky  being  somewhat  clear,  the  wind  still  £.  I  steer- 
ed N.  £.  quarter  N.  in  order  to  make  land.  At  noon  I  found  myself  in  latitude  63<*  20', 
and  continued  the  same  course ;  at  length,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  we  made  the 
Birds'  islands.  That  which  is  nearest  to  shore  bore  N.  E.  quarter  E.  four  leagues  dis. 
tant,  and  another  west  of  the  former  bore  N.  W.  I  continued  some  time  steering  N.  E. 
quarter  N.  for  the  purpose  of  getting  in  shore,  at  length  I  bore  away  at  N.  quarter  N. 
£.  to  fall  in  with  the  islands,  and  pass  between  the  first  and  the  second,  on  tlie  side  of 
the  main  land.  The  two  islands  are  full  two  leagues  asunder.  I  found  in  this  passage 
tide-beds  and  eddies,  which  made  a  dreadfiil  noise.  The  direction  or  course  of  the 
tides  is  N.  W.  and  S.  £.  North  of  the  two  islands  Ijetween  which  I  sailed,  I  perceiv- 
ed the  passage  between  the  main  land  and  the  first  island ;  it  appeared  to  me  scarcely  a 
league  wide ;  on  account  of  the  currents,  it  ought  not  to  be  attempted,  except  with  a 
strong  and  leading  wind.  A  little  north  of  these  two  islands,  I  saw  three  others  at  sea, 
which  appeared  to  me  to  bear  W.  quarter  N.  W.  of  the  former.  All  these  islands  are 
but  sharp  and  inaccessible  rocks.  I  continued  my  course  N.  quarter  N.  £.  to  fidl  in 
with  Mount  Jeugel,  and  afterwards  get  under  Bredervick  point,  where  ail  the  fishermen 
were  assembled. 

The  fourth  I  anchored  at  Patrixfiord,  where  I  remained  some  days,  to  ^ve  to  the 
French  vessels  what  assistance  they  needed.  I  say  nothing  here  of  the  bearings  of  the 
anchorage,  or  what  relates  to  it,  having  already  mentioned  it  before.    After  remaining 


RRROtrp.LRN'S  VOYAflB  TO  TIIR  WORTH. 


799 


E. 


tight  days  at  Patrixflord,  I  made  ready  to  depart  for  Bcrffhen  in  Norway,  to  take  in  a 
month'H  provisions ;  but  before  I  leave  the  western  part  of  Iceland,  it  will  Ix."  proper  to 
say  something  of  Greenland,  the  land  most  contiguous  to  Iceiatid. 

Respecting  Greenland  wc  have  only  an  imjxrrfcct  knowledge.  Some  geographers 
look  upon  it  to  this  day  as  an  island,  others  as  a  peninsula.  This  country  was  dis- 
covered by  a  person  of  the  name  of  Gunbiorn,  and  made  more  particularly  known  by 
Eric,  surnamed  Red-head,  in  982.  The  green  nasturcs  of  the  cotmtry  aiused  him  to 
call  it  Greenland.  He  saw  savages  there,  who  doubtless  had  passed  over  there  from 
America,  but  of  the  orij^in  of  wiiich  there  is  nothing  certain.  The  king  of  Norway 
txriiig  informed  of  this  discovery,  caused  missionaries  to  be  si'nt  over  with  a  colony. 
The  Grcenlanders,  in  1256,  revolted  against  king  Magnus,  but  this  prince,  assisted  bv 
the  Danes,  reduced  them  again  to  subjection  in  1261.  The  black  plague  which 
ravaged  all  the  north  interrupted  navigation  to  Greenland,  and  for  two  v<ges  the  coun- 
try remained  entirely  forgot.  Martin  Frobisher  left  England  in  1576,  to  attempt  to 
reach  Greenland,  but  the  ice  did  not  allow  of  his  landing  until  1577.  He  gave  his 
name  to  a  strait  in  latitude  dd''.  a  1585  John  Davis  went  more  to  the  north,  and  gave 
his  name  to  a  strait  which  he  discovered.  Christian  the  Fourth,  ia  1605,  sent  three  vessels 
thither,  which  established  a  trade  with  the  Greenlanders,  five  of  whom  were  brought 
to  Copenhagen,  but  died  of  grief  at  being  separated  from  their  country ;  the  next  year 
five  ships  were  dispatched,  and  in  1616  this  prince  dispatched  captain  Munck  with  two 
vessels  for  Hudson's  Bay,  in  order  to  discover  a  north-west  passage.  It  is  captain 
Munck  who  gave  the  name  of  Farewell  to  the  cape,  which  forms  the  south  part  of 
Greenland.  In  1636  some  merchants  of  Copenhagen  sent  two  vessels  to  Davis's  straits, 
who  trafficcd  with  the  Greenlanders,  and  brought  back  a  large  quantity  of  gold  dust. 
It  is  not  known  for  what  reason  this  trade  was  discontinued  by  the  Danes  to  1718,  when 
a  clei^men,  full  of  zeal,  obtained  an  order  from  the  king  to  go  over  to  Greenland  with 
ail  his  family.  His  name  was  Egede,  and  all  the  Greenlanders  to  whom  he  preached 
the  gospel  had  the  highest  veneration  for  him.  In  1731  the  king  of  Denmark  recalled 
all  hb  subjects  from  Greenland.  Egede  alone  remained  with  all  nls  family.  The  king 
sent  ^thither  again  in  1734,  and  at  this  time  the  commerce  of  Greenland  is  carried  on  by 
the  general  company  of  Copenhagen,  which  every  year  dispatches  three  ships  to  that 
country. 

The  coasts  ofGreenkind  are  difficult  of  access,  on  account  of  the  shelves  and  ice  which 
surround  them.  It  is  even  affirmed  that  Frobisher's  straits  are  at  this  day  so  full  of  ice, 
that  its  existence  is  disputed.  The  eastern  part  of  Greenland,  which  is  opposite  to  Ice- 
land, is  entirely  inaccessible,  owing  to  the  ice  floats  wMch  come  fit)m  Spitsbergen,  and 
which  even  shut  the  passage  sometimes  between  Iceland  and  Greenland,  which  is  thirty- 
five  leagues  wide.  This  happened  in  1 766 ;  in  that  year  it  has  been  already  observed  the 
fishing  vessels  were  never  able  to  double  cape  North. 

The  climate  of  Greenland  is  cold,  and  the  weather  very  inconstant  and  variable.  In 
the  vallies,  the  ground  consists  of  marshes  and  turf,  and  the  mountains,  which  are  so 
many  shaip  rocks,  are  covered  with  ice  and  snow ;  trees  are  met  with  here  in  no 
greater  abundance  than  in  Iceland.  There  are  in  Greenland  several  mountains  of 
Amianthus.  Very  small  white  hares  are  found  here,  nnd  rein-deer,  but  which  have 
no  resemblance  to  the  Lapland  rein.deer.  The  foxes  there  are  gray,  white,  and  blue ; 
bears  are  met  with,  but  which  no  ways  resemble  the  bea^s  of  other  countries ;  they  have 
more  suppleness^and  are  mare  nimble.  No  other  birds  are  seen  but  those  called  Riper 
by  the  Icelanders,  vrhich  build  their  nests  in  the  highest  rocks ;  but,  as  well  as  in  Iceland, 


i\ 


>Jmn 


<mM' 


I 


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fl' 


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M7 


:iCiM„iVr 


I 


790 


KERGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


there  are  quantities  ot  hquatic  fowl.    The  rivers  are  full  of  trout  and  salmon,  and  on  the 
coast  plenty  offish  and  whales  are  caught. 

The  Greenhnders  are  small  of  stature,  gross  and  fat,  they  have  all  of  them  black 
hair,  and  red  and  brown  countenances ;  they  are  subject  to  colds  in  the  head,  to  the 
scurvy,  to  coniplaints  of  the  eyes  and  the  breast.  They  know  nothing  either  of  phy- 
sic' ^ns  or  surgeons,  they  liave  pnv.6ts,  who  serve  them  as  well  for  philosophers  and  doc- 
tors,  for  whom  they  entertain  the  highest  respect,  zud  whom  they  frequently  consult. 
The  language  of  the  Greenlanders  much  resembles  that  of  the  Esquimaux  Indians,  who 
inhabit  North  America.  Their  dresses  are  made  of  birds  feathers^  reii-deer  skins,  and 
seals  skins,  sewed  together  with  the  guts  of  them.  The  Greenlanders  have  huts  for  the 
winter,  and  m  the  summer  live  in  tents ;  their  huts  are  similar  tc  diose  of  the  poor  Ice- 
landers ;  their  tents  are  made  of  seals  skins.  They  make  but  one  meal,  which  is  at 
night.  They  live  upon  hares,  kids,  sea-dogs,  different  sorts  of  birds,  and  fish,  and 
drink  nothing  but  wate..  Neither  arts  ncr  sciences  are  to  be  met  with  among  the 
Greenlanders ;  their  trade  consists  in  lard,  whalebone,  unicorns  horns,  kid  skins,  rein- 
deer, sea-dogs,  and  foxes.  They  take,  in  barter,  linen  and  other  necessaries.  These 
people;  have  a  sort  of  religion ;  they  acknowledge  a  Supreme  Being,  believe  the  souls  of 
the  dead  ascend  to  Heaven,  and  go  a  hunting  there,  and  that  the  bodies  remain  to  rot  in 
the  earth  ;  women  are  buried  alive  as  soon  as  they  appear  to  be  in  a  dying  state. 

The  above  is  aU  that  is  most  uiteresting  of  the  hbtory  an*!  manners  of  the  Green, 
landers ;  there  remains  I  should  speak  of  their  boats  for  fishing,  and  their  manner  of 
fishing  and  navigating.  Hunting  and  fishing  are  the  only  occupations  of  a  Greenlander. 
They  fish  in  their  lakes,  rivers,  and  rivulets,  but  their  principal  fishing  is  in  the  sea ; 
where  they  catch  whales,  unicorns,  and  sea-dogs,  cod,  and  other  fish,  which  abound 
upon  the  coast.  Their  hooks  were  formerly  of  bone,  but  they  have  steel  hooks  now, 
which  the  Danes  bring  them.  Their  lines  are  made  of  small  splinters  of  whalebone, 
and  their  casting  nets  of  deer's  guts  twisted,  the  harpoon  which  they  use  for  striking  the 
whales  is  furnished  widi  a  forked  bone,  or  a  pointed  stone,  some  have  also  harpoons 
of  iron,  which  they  barter  for  with  the  Danes,  giving  them  oil  and  grease  in  exchange. 
As  these  poorpc^ople  have  but  little  wood  and  iron,  vdy  make  use  of  the  precaution  of 
fastening  to  the  middle  of  every  harpoon  which  they  throw  the  bladder  of  a  sea-dog, 
that  if  the  harpoon  should  not  strike  the  fish,  or  detach  itself  from  it,  it  may  float  on  the 
water,  and  be  reiidily  found  agitin ;  thb  expedient  was  known  to  the  fishermen  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  tbrOpien  in  his  Halieudcon  speakt:  of  it,  lib.  V.  v.  177.  "They  dart, 
says  he,  large  sacks  blown  up  by  the  breath,  and  fastened  to  a  cord,  immediately  at  the 
fish,  as  it  is  abont  to  plunge."  The  arrows  which  the  Greenlanders  use  are  armed  as  well 
either  with  bone  or  sharp  stones,  and  they  exercise  themselves  in  drawing  the  bow, 
from  their  tenderest  infancy.  The  inhabitants  of  the  new  island  on  which  M.  Bougain- 
ville landed  lately  in  the  South  Sea,  not  having  any  iron,  make  use  of  bone  for  hewing 
their  arrows,  of  scales  and  shells  for  knives,  and  sharp  stones  for  felling  of  trees ;  these 
examnles  shew  that  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,  and  that  industry  is  every  where 
alike.  The  canoes  or  boats,  in  which  the  Greenlanders  embark  for.tho  fishery,  are 
irade  of  wood  fastened  together  by  traverses,  joined  with  thin  slips  of  whaicbt^ne  at  dif- 
ferent distances.  They  are  lined  with  the  skm  of  seals,  well  sewed  together  witii  ani- 
mal fibres  instead  of  thread,  and  the  joints  are  well  greased,  to  prevent  water  from  pene- 
•rating.  These  canoes  are  of  different  sizes.  Some  are  capable  of  carrying  twenty  per- 
f>ons,  with  their  arms  and  ba^;age,  and  a  good  quantity  of  fish  or  whale&'  blubber. 
These  canoes  have  a  sail  made  of  the  bowels  of  the  whale,  split  and  dried,  and  sewed 


KEUGUELEK'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


\n 


black 


one  to  the  otlier.  Historians  inform  us,  that  this  mode  of  navigating  is  comriion 
among  all  the  northern  people  that  have  been  discovered.  Scheffer  cites  several  examples 
in  his  work,  De  Militia  Navali  Veterum.  The  Miisoeum  Regium  Danicum,  and  the 
authors  which  M.  Hasseus  refers  to  in  his  dissertation  de  Leviathan  Jobi,  may  be  con- 
sulted. I  have  observed  that  the  Greenlandcrs  had  no  knowledge  of  arts  and  sciences. 
They  are  unable  to  count  farther  than  twenty -one.  They  count  by  moons.  It  is  by 
the  course  of  that  planet  they  compute  the  return  of  the  whales,  and  other  fish^  to  their 
coast. 

The  fifteenth  of  June  I  sailed  from  Patrixfiord,  to  go  to  Norway ;  it  was  during  this 
run  that  I  sounded,  and  made  the  observations  on  the  Shetland  islands,  and  the  Orcades, 
which  I  have  before  detailed  to  the  reader ;  I  passed  south  of  Fair  isle  in  the  little  Tuns, 
and  afterwards  directed  my  course  towards  the  shores  of  Norway. 

The  first  of  Julv,  in  the  morning,  I  made  land.  I  took  the  latitude  at  noon,  five 
leagues  north  of  the  rocks  or  island  which  are  called  Utsires ;  and  found  these  islands 
to  be  placed  too  far  south  by  15'  in  the  Neptune.  On  the  Utsires,  pilots  are  to  be  met 
with  for  the  Berghen  roads.  I  shall  not  enter  into  any  further  account  of  the  bearings 
of  thb  coast,  all  that  ^vas  necessary  to  say  having  been  mentioned  before.  At  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  being  about  three  leagues  from  shore,  Norwegian  pilots  came 
on  board,  who  made  me  luir  up  to  make  the  passa^  of  Rooth>holm ;  but  the  wind, 
which  blew  but  gently  from  the  north,  at  length  entirely  died  away,  and  we  had  calm 
all  the  night  long.        '.  1-  ;,. 

The  second,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  a  feeble  wind  arose  in  the  N.  £.  with 
a  thick  fog :  we  luffed  under  the  land,  keeping  always  a  league  from  shore ;  and  by  ten 
o'clock,  it  clearing  up,  we  entered  the  above.mentioned  passage  of  Rooth-holm,  through 
which  I  passed  the  year  before ;  but  instead  of  proceeding  up  it  as  far  as  Ingeson,  as  on 
our  first  oyage,  we  anchored  in  the  port  of  Brandsoom,  wluch  is  west  of  Ingeson  :  it  is 
larger,  and  the  entrance  more  commodious.  The  entrance  of  Brandsoom  is  known  by 
an  island,  in  the  shape  of  a  pye,  at  the  opening  of  the  port,  and  which  is  very  healthy  : 
three  vessels  of  war  may  moor  there  in  safety.  There  is  always  a  fine  sea,  and  no  wind 
is  felt  there.  This  port  is  to  starboard  on  passing  to  the  north  of  Bomel ;  it  is  pos> 
sible  to  enter  it  by  any  wind  from  the  N.  W.  to  the  E.  A  vessel  mooring  there  should 
cast  anchor  in  fifteen  to  twenty  fathoms,  with  gravelly  bottom,  and  send  a  small  anchpr 
with  a  tow-line  on  shore  from  the  stern,  south  of  the  stream-anchor. 

The  third,  it  rained,  the  sky  was  overcast,  and  the  wind  blew  fresh  from  the  south. 
I  sailed  '4t  two  in  the  afternoon  to  get  up  to  Berghen.  After  proceeding  three  or  four 
leagues  a  calm  came  on,  and  wc  were  obliged  to  be  towed  by  all  our  boats,  to  get  to  an 
anchorage. 

The  fourth,  in  the  morning,  a  light  wind  arose  from  the  S.  S.  W.  I  got  under  sail, 
and  anchored  at  Beigi^en  at  half  past  two,  in  the  same  place  I  had  done  in  the  frigate 
La  Folle.  After  having  taken  in  what  provisions  and  refreshments  I  required,  i  left 
Berghen  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  July,  and  went  out  through  the  northern  passage,  as  I 
had  done  the  year  before,  to  return  to  Iceland. 

The  thirtieth,  at  night,  considering  myself  twelve  leagues  S.  E.  of  Langemess,  the 
wind  northerly,  with  fog,  I  sounded,  but  found  no  bottom,  and  brought  to.  I  ordered 
the  officer  of  the  watch  to  sound  every  two  hours  during  the  fog,  and  to  steer  W.  N.  W, 
if  it  dispersed  sufficiently  for  discerning  the  distance  of  three  leagues. 

The  thirty-first,  at  five  in  the  morning,  we  saw  land ;  I  continued  my  course  to  get 
near  it,  but  the  wind  blew  very  faintly  from  the  north.  At  noon  I  found  "he  latitude 
66**  26' .  We  saw  in  the  afternoon  a  number  of  doggers,  or  fishing  vessels,  all  of  whom 


■ii 


7S2 


KBRGUELEN'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


I 

I 


that  I  spoke  told  me  there  was  nothing  new  in  the  fleet.  We  had  seven  or  eight  days  of 
fine  weather,  which  I  employed  in  sounding  and  taking  bearings. 

The  tenth  of  August,  seeing  the  appearance  of  bad  weather,  I  eot  off  the  coast. 

The  twelfth  and  th'ilesnth.  we  had  a  gale  of  wind  from  the  S.  W.  with  a  terrible  sea. 
We  brought  to  with  the  stay-sails  set,  and  in  this  attitude  my  vessel  bore  very  well. 
From  the  thirteenth  the  wind  was  continually  clutnging,  with  foggy  weather ;  at  length, 
on  the  nineteenth,  seeing  the  weather  did  not  clear  up,  and  that  the  season  was  ad*'anced| 
I  run  for  the  Shetland  islan  Js. 

The  twenty.fourth,  being  by  log  fifteen  leagues  S.  N.  E.  of  Boqueness,  I  sounded,  and 
found  sixty  fathoms  water,  muddy  bottom.  I  continued  my  course  four  leagues,  on 
the  W.  N.  W.  tack,  and  found,  on  sounding,  seventy  fathoms  water,  with  a  muddy  sand. 
I  pursued  my  way  under  the  same  breeze,  and  consideied  myself  four  leagues  east  of  the 
middle  of  cape  Boqueness ;  I  did  not  perceive  it ;  I  sounded,  and  found  fifty  fathoms 
water,  bottom  fine  sand  mixed  with  mud :  I  then  steered  S.  quarter  S.  E.  to  &U  in  with 
the  Dogger-bank,  with  a  very  fresh  breeze  from  the  north  :  as  the  horizon  was  clear, 
and  cape  Boqueness  very  high,  and  as  I  had  spoken  to  several  herring-fishers,  who  told 
me  they  were  twelve  leagues  from  land,  I  am  surprised  at  not  having  seen  Boqueness,  and 
I  thence  conceive  it  to  be  more  north  than  is  marked  in  the  French  chart.     This  chart 

E laces  it  in  lat.  57^  32',  but  the  Dutch  charts  place  it  in  lat  ST*  58'.  At  the  point  of 
toqueness  is  a  small  bank,  which  the  Dutch  call  Vatterbui^g^,  which  signifies  rat's-tail, 
on  account  of  its  figure  On  this  bank  there  is  at  low  water  tluee  fathoms  water ;  there  is 
a  passage  a  league  wide  between  the  bank  and  the  shore.  South  of  Boqueness  an  island  is 
perceived,  and  several  rocks,  and  near  them  there  b  anchorage  in  ten  fathoms  water,  shel- 
tered from  all  winds  from  the  north.     The  currents  run  south  along  all  these  coasts. 

The  twenty-sixth,  at  noon,  I  took  the  soundings  on  the  i)ogger>bank,  and  from  that 
instant  I  did  not  ceap  j  heaving  the  lead  till  I  reached  the  banks  of  Ostend.  As  the  detail 
of  the  different  courses  I  took  in  soundisig  would  be  tedious,  I  shall  only  describe  the 
sounding,  and  the  points  of  latitude  and  longitude. 

TABLE  OF  SOUNDINGS,  FROM  THE  NORTH-WEST  EXTREMITY  OF  THE  DOGGER.BANK 

TO  THE  BANKS  OF  OSTEND. 


Lat. 

Long. 

w. 

55«> 

9' 

0 

59 

55 

3 

0 

55 

54 

59 

0 

52 

54 

56 

0 

50 

54 

53 

0 

47 

54 

50 

0 

39 

54 

53 

0 

34 

54 

54 

0 

19 

54 

48 

0 

21 

54 

44 

0 

14 

54 

39 

0 

7 

54 

35 

E. 

2 

54 

33 

0 

6 

54 

31 

0 

9 

54 

30 

0 

18 

54 

20 

0 

33 

from  Paris, 
gray  sand  vith  black  spots 
same  bottom 
same 

flint  and  small  stones 
ditto        •        . 
ditto  '     -       '     - 

ditto      »     .     -    '  '       - 
<tttto  f 

ditto  "  -  '-  ' 

ditto     ■\,  •-:^  y'\  2' 

ditto        '■      -'    ■       'J  ■' 

ditto       -^^^--'K"''' 

fine  sand  and  shells 

fine  sand 

same,  extremity  of  Do^^r-bank 

fine  white  sand  ^  sheUs 


I  ..  J' ■ 
Fathoms. 
26 


,  « 


KEBOUELEN'8  VOYAGE  TO  THE  NORTH. 


7M 


Ut. 

Loot.  ■.  ftom  Pull. 

VMbeiM. 

54» 

T 

0 

41 

large  sand  and  small  pebbles 

28 

53 

54 

0 

40 

same  bottom 

24 

53 

50 

0 

40 

muddy  sand 

31 

53 

47 

0 

39 

same 

22 

53 

35 

0 

32 

same            .            .            .            . 

20 

53 

17 

0 

23 

fine  red  sand  mixed  with  black 

18 

53 

10 

0 

21 

the  same      .            .            .            . 

25 

53 

7 

0 

21 

the  same 

20 

53 

5 

0 

20 

fine  wliite  sand  (white  bank) 

17 

53 

0 

0 

18 

the  same 

22 

52 

46 

0 

15 

fine  gray  sand 

28 

52 

26 

0 

46 

red  and  gray  sand 

25 

52 

14 

0 

47 

same  bottom 

17 

52 

10 

0 

40 

fine  sand 

19 

51 

50 

0 

28 

sand  and  small  gravel 

20 

•     » 

,  ■-.   • 

The  variation  of  the'needle  19*>. 

I  traversed  the  Dogger-bank,  and  the  banks  south  of  this,  first,  taking  soundings 
eveiy  hour,  of  which  the  table  b  annexed.  Vessels  which  arc  passing  over  the  Dog- 
ger-bank should  take  the  middle  of  it  as  much  as  possible,  for  on  the  eastern  side  the 
currents  are  violent,  and  run  to  the  Categat;  and  on  the  western  side  there  is  no 
more  than  eight  or  nine  fathoms  water,  wliich  occasions  surges  so  much  the  more  dan- 

girous,  as  the  bottom  is  larg^  gravel  and  small  pebbles.  South  of  the  middle  of  the 
ogger-bank  there  is  twenty-five  thirty  fiithoms  water,  muddy  bottom.  Ten  leagues 
south  of  the  middle  of  the  Doggei  k  is  the  white  water  :  the  bottom  is  of  white  sand, 
and  there  is  sixteen  or  seventeen  fattioms  water.  Five  leagues  is  of  this  bank  the 
Well-bank  is  met  with,  the  bottom  of  which  .:>  of  stone ;  there  are  eighteen  fathoms 
water  on  it.  West  of  this  bank  the  bottom,  whi'^h  is  a  yell  >w  sand  and  black  gravel, 
increases  to  twenty-two  fathoms.  A  little  lower  down  are  the  Lemon-banks,  very  dan- 
gerous; on  these  there  is  no  more  than  one  fathom  at  low  wate  Man}'  vessels  are 
annually  lost  there.  The  middle  of  Lemon  is  about  se  mi  leagues  N.  N.  £.  of  Yar- 
mouth. The  banks  of  Yarmouth  also  art  to  be  guard'  .  against  By  all  that  I  have 
observed,  it  mustiie  evident  that  the  west  ^e  of  the  Dogger-bank  is  very  dangerous. 
In  calms,  ships  anchor  on  the  Dogger-bank  to  wait  for  wind  and  tide.  The  fishing  ves- 
sels of  Dunkirk,  decked  boats  of  mirty-five  tons,  anchor  there  all  weathers ;  they  pay 
out  three  hundred  fathoms  of  cable,  and  meet  frequently  oiul  gales  of  wind  while 
at  anchor.  By  accident  sometimes  a  vessel  is  lost  in  this  nicuuier :  the  vessels  on  tacking 
fall  foul  of  their  cable,  and  on  the  after-tack  run  ^ain  upon,  when,  should  the  cable  pass 
under  the  keel,  the  vessel  is  sometimes  ovR*^t. 

The  twenty-eighth  of  August,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  having  sounded,  and 
found  twenty-four  fiithoms  water,  with  sandy  bottom,  and  being  witiiin  the  first  of  the  Fle- 
mish banks,  I  cast  out  a  small  anchor  to  wait  for  the  tide.  At  six  o'clock  the  wind  blew 
fresh  from  the  £.  S.  E.  I  set  sail  and  steered  S.  S.  W.  At  nine  o'clock  I  saw  the  towers 
of  Ostend,  which  bore  S.  quarter  S.  W.  five  leagues  dbtant  I  continued  running 
S.  S.  W.  on  account  of  the  flood  running  strongly  Xo  the  east  At  noon  the  towers 
bore  south,  tw\xthirds  of  a  league  from  me.  I  fired  three  gims  to  cause  pilots  to  come 
on  board,  viio  were  remiss ;  mi  at  half  past  noon  I  entered  between  the  jetties.  The 
tide  began  to  «bb  from  die  port,  wluch  made  me  run  the  ha2»rd  of  being  driven  on  a 

VOL.  i.  '  '5  I 


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KBRUUKLEN'S  VOYAOB  TO  THB  NOBTH. 


bank  to  starboard  on  entering.  Luckily  a  sloop  belonging  to  the  port  was  there,  which 
quickly  carried  a  lashing  to  ihe  moorings  of  the  eastern  or  larboard  side  of  the  jetties  on 
entering.  On  coming  from  the  north  to  make  Os(tendt  two  towers  at  first  are  distin- 
guished, the  largest  of  which  has  a  steeple,  and  belongs  to  the  parish  church;  ihe  other, 
which  is  terminated  by  a  gallery,  is  that  of  the  clock  of  the  town-house.  In  makinr  the 
land,  the  one  must  be  kept  in  line  with  the  other  until  you  reach  the  buoy,  which  is  at 
the  western  extremity  of  the  traverse,  on  which  is  a  litde  red  flag ;  this  must  be  kept  to 
larboard  :  you  then  stc^r  for  the  eastern  jetty,  which  is  the  safest,  and  which  you  must 
keep  close  to,  whether  in  coming  in  or  going  out.  At  hi^  water  you  pass  over  the 
Stroom  and  the  Traverse :  on  these  two  banks  the  water  rises  eighteen  feet.  A  pilot, 
kept  for  the  purpose,  takes  care  at  half  flood  to  hofst  a  small  blue  flag,  in  order  to  shew 
that  small  vessels  can  enter.  I'o  give  information  to  large  vessels  that  they  may  enter, 
he  hoists  a  large  blue  flag,  on  which  there  is  an  eagle.  When  none  is  hoisted,  it  is  a 
sign  of  there  not  being  sufficient  water ;  in  that  case,  if  the  ship  be  at  sea,  she  must  either 
tack  or  cast  anchor:  a  vessel  may  anchor  in  the  roads,  or  moor  on  the  Stroom,  and 
W.  N.  W.  of  the  Traverse,. in  six  or  seven  fathoms  water,  with  sandy'bottom.  The 
spring-tides  rise  nineteen  feet,  and  neap-tides  fourteen  feet.  At  low  water  there  is  but 
SIX  or  seven  feet  on  the  Stroom.  The  mode  of  avoiding  it  is  to  keep  the  two  towers 
open,  by  about  the  space  of  the  size  of  the  largest  tower,  which  must  be  kept  to  the  east. 
At  the  eastern  point  of  that  bank  there  are  three  fathiftns  water.  There  is  only  three 
feet  water  on  the  Traverse,  or  bar,  and  even  but  two  a  little  east  of  the  jettv,  at  the  end 
of  the  moorings.  In  'short,  to  enter  Ostend,  grrat  attention  must  be  paid  to  the  time 
of  high  water,  which  is  at  twelve  o'clock  in  that  port,  and  new  and  full  at  three  o'clock 
upon  the  banks  out  at  sea.  Attention  must  be  paid  as  well  to  the  flood  running  with 
rapidity  £.  N.  £.  on  which  account  a  ship  should  steer  a  little  within  the  eastern  jetty, 
and  manage  the  sails  according  to  the  wind.  The  entrance  of  the  port,  or  of  the  jetties, 
is  S.  S.  E.  and  N.  N.  W.  but  after  having  passed  the  bank  on  the  starNird  quarter  on 
entering,  tie  port  makes  an  elbow,  and  bears  to  the  S.  S.  W.  If  a  vessel  be  obliged  to 
enter  into  port  without  a  pilot,  and  if  the  wind  be  strong,  she  must  be  ready  to  cast  an- 
chor on  the  starboard  side,  as  soon  as  she  has  passed  the  bank  which  is  at  the  entrance  of 
'  the  port,  and  laid  the  vessel  S.  S.  W.  for  in  case  of  not  anchoring,  she  would  be  carried 
away  by  the  current  to  the  mud-banks  at  the  bottom  of  th  port.  Ostend  is  very  com- 
modious for  every  ship  under  forty  guns ;  but  it  keeps  fillnig  up  eveiy  day,  particularly 
since  a  dam  has  been  thrown  up  to  prevent  the  overflowing  of  Polder  St.  Catharine, 
which  is  nearly  two  thousand  five  hundred  acres  of  new  well  cultivated  hind.  In  this 
space,  lately  overflowed  by  the  tide,  the  finest  basin  in  the  universe  might  be  constructed, 
by  forminga  sluice  in  the  middle  of  the  dam  made  thirty  years  ago,  to  oppose  the  inuil- 
dation.  The  Ostenders  will  be  able  to  cleanse  and  excavate  their  port  as  much  as  they 
please,  by  means  of  the  waters  which  they  may  dam  up  after  flood  in  the  Sandfort.  In 
respect  to  the  bank  on  the  inside  of  the  jetties  .o  starboard  on  entering,  it  is  easy  to 
destroy  it,  by  making  an  elbow  upon  the  eastern  jetty,  to  change  the  direction  of  the 
drifts,  by  an  anrie  of  reflection  equal  to  the  angle  of  incidence:  the  waters  of  the  fine 
sluice  of  Schlick,  although  very  distant  and  badly  placed,  would  be  ufficient  to  cany 
away  the  bank.  If  this  duice  had  been  placed  nearer  to  the  trading  port  at  the  entrance 
of  the  canal  of  Bruges,  its  defence  and  its  use  would  have  been  tmited ;  instead  of  which, 
it  is  of  very  little  service  where  it  is  towards  cleansing  the  port,  and  very  difficult  to  pro- 
tect from  the  attacks  of  an  enemy.  The  town  of  Ostend  is  small,  but  vpry  pretty ;  it 
rendered  itself  famous  during  the  wars  of  the  Low  Countries.  Ostend  takes  its  name 
from  its  situation ;,  as  it  is  at  the  extretrJty  of  Flanders,  on  the  eastern  side,  it  is  called 


^rn^ 


KERGUELBN*8  VOYAGK  TO  THE  NORTH. 


795 


Ostend  (East-end.)  Ostend  particularly  signalized  itself  by  the  siege  which  it  sustained 
in  1601  against  the  archduke.  Thissie^,  which  lasted  three  years,  began  in  the  month 
of  July  1601 ;  and  the  town  did  not  capitulate  until  September  1604.  There  perished 
during  the  siege  fifteen  cdonels,  seven  marshals,  five  hundred  and  sixty-five  captains, 
eleven  hundred  and  sixty-six  lieutenants,  three  hundred  and  twenty-two  ensigns,  four 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  eleven  Serjeants,  nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixt^-six 
corporals,  ux  hundred  and  ten  anspassades,  fifty-four  thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
»x  soldiers,  six  thousand  and  eleven  sailors,  eleven  hundred  and  ninety-six  women  and 
children ;  making  in  the  whole  seventy-eight  thousand  persons  and  upwards.  Ostend 
only  began  to  be  fortified  in  1572.  It  was  however  a  town  known  for  several  ages  be- 
fore ;  for  it  is  seen  in  the  grand  Flanders  Chronicle,  that  Robert  de  Frise,  eighteenth 
count  of  Flanders,  died  in  1093,  after  reigning  twenty-two  years,  and  built  thirty  cnurches 
dedicated  to  St.  Peter,  the  first  of  which  was  erected  at  Chtend.  The  abridgment  of  the 
Flemish  Chronicle  speaks  also  of  Ostend,  in  me  itioning  Philipes  Elsaten,  sixteenth  count 
of  Flanders,  who  died  in  1191«  and  who  caused  to  be  hung  and  exposed  along  the  coast, 
from  Qlankembei^  to  Ostend,  eighty  Norman  gentlemen,  who  had  seized  upon  some 
ships  belonging  to  the  Princess  of  Portugal,  his  vafe.  In  the  time  of  Philipes  illsaten, 
there  was  Wan  on  the  coast  near  Ostend  a  sea-monster,  forty  feet  long,  with  eif  ,ht  lara;e 
fins.  Jaques  Marchantiers,  in  his  description  of  Flanders,  book  I.  pge  79,  says«  m 
speaking  of  this  monster,  Uostro  aquilino,  cristi  gladiata;  the  expression  cristi  gladiata 
makes  me  conceive  it  to  have  been  a  kind  of  sword-fish ;  perhaps  it  was  a  particular  spe- 
cies, .•^.i,..,;^?      '  ^. '.,;„  .;».  \  iK.^J  .  w\  ;V''  ,'  .  '" 

After  repairing  my  vessel  at  Ostend,  and  refreshing  my  crew,'  I  made  dispositions  to 
continue  my  course  to  Brest,  the  twelfth  of  September. 

The  thirteenth,  at  noon,  the  wind  blew  pret^  fresh  from  the  east,  the  weather  over- 
cast, I  left  the  port,  keeping  close  to  the  eastern  jett^.     When  outside  the  jetties  we 
steered  west,  to  pass  to  the  south  of  the  buoy,  which  is  at  the  extremity  of  the  bank  be- 
fore the  port    After  passing  this  buoy  we  bore  W.  N.  W.  and  W.  S.  W.  coasting  along 
shore,  three  qpulers  of  a  league  dbtant,  till  we  got  opposite  to  Nieuport,  which  we 
rounded,  keeping  rather  ftuther  from  sKore.    At  four  o'clock  we  directed  our  course, 
south,  to  avoid  the  point  to  die  east  of  Brae,  and  gain  the  entrance  of  the  road  of  Dun- 
kirk  on  the  eastern  ude.    When  wide  of  the  Brae  on  the  east,  a  vessel  is  desirous  of 
nearing  the  land  to  gain  the  chamiel,  the  tower  of  St.  'Catherine  should  be  kept  in  line 
with  the  two  towers  of  Berg^es,  keeping  however  those  of  Bergues  a  little  to  the  east  of 
that  of  St.  Catherine,  which  is  the  only  tower  on  the  coast  in  this  neighbourhood. 
Knowing  by  sounding,  or  the.inctcased  depth  of  water,  that  we  had  passed  the  point  east 
of  the  Brae,  and  that  we  were  in  the  channel  at  the  entrance  of  rhe  road,  we  steered  N. 
W.   and  N.  quarter  W,  under  top-sails,  to  look  for  our  anchorage.     At  half  past 
four  o'clock  we  cast  anchor  in  seven  fathoms  water,  with  a  bottom  (/muddy  sand,  and 
we  moored  east  and  west,  the  same  bottom  and  same  sounding    Being  moored,  the 
JMitteiy  boreS.  quarter  S.  W.  and  the  tower  of  Dunkirk  S.    I  ought  not  to  forget  to 
observe,  that  in  going  from' Ostend  to  Dunkirk  there  is  a  channel  more  secure  and  easy 
tbfm  that  which  we  took,  particularly  for  a  vessel  like  I'Hirondelle :  a  vessel  has  need  to 
^oast  the  shore  at  no  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  league  distant,  and  take  care  in  rounding  the 
bank  which  is  at  the  entrance  of  Kieuport.    The  road  of  Dunkirk  is  good,  on  account 
of  there  beina;  butlittl'^  water  (six,  seven,  tight,  and  nine  fathoms)  and  the  eround  hold- 
ing, well.    This  road  would  hold  the  lai^est  fleet ;  it  is  shut  only  by  a  sand-bank,  called, 
the  Brae,  on  which  at  low  water  there  is  but  one  fathom  water,  and  which  in  some 
places  even  b  dry.    The  Mdnds  the  most  to  be  apprehended  m  this  road  are  those  from 

5  I  2 


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KERGUBUUfS  VOYAGE  TO  THB  MODTR. 


the  W.  Ni  W.  to  the  K.  E.  The  sra  there  frcquentlr  runs  very  hi^h,  partkularlf 
when  the  wind  blows  from  the  W.  N.  W.  on  account  of  the  surges  entering  by  the  wes* 
tern  passage.  This  is  the  most  likely  wind  to  make  the  anchors  drive  and  break  the 
cables,  especially  in  Bowing  tides,  for  men  ships  have  at  the  same  time  to  sustain  the  pow. 
er  of  the  wind  and  the  impulse  of  the  fk)od. 

Dunkirk  *s  celebrated  tor  its  antiquity,  its  port,  and  the  revolutions  it  has  undergone. 
About  sixty  years  before  the  Christian  sera,  the  people  inhabiting  the  coasts  of  the  sea 
where  Dunku*k  now  b  situated  were  called  Diabintes.  This  name,  which  is  latinized, 
is  derived  from  the  German,  in  which  language  it  is  thus  written :  Die  hap  inden  ;  sig. 
nifying,  navigating  in  a  port  of  a  secure  form,  or  navigating  in  a  port  of  the  shape  of  a 
hatchet.  The  Nlorini  were  their  neijghbours,  that  b  to  say,  the  people  of  Boulogne, 
Calais,  St.  Omer,  Therouane,  and  Aire ;  and  those  of  Bergues,  Honschoot,  Fumes, 
Dixmude,  and  Nieuport,  were  called  Menapii :  these  three  people  went  to  meet  CsBsar 
on  his  conc^uering  Gaul,  and  gave  him  battle  on  the  banks  of  the  Sambre ;  it  remained 
for  a  long  time  undecided,  and  Caesar  gained  it  only  by  means  of  a  considerable  rein, 
forcement  which  he  had  received  during  the  engagement ;  notwithstandino;  this,  hb  loss 
was  so  great,  that  he  was  unable  to  subjugate  these  people  until  the  following  year,  when 
he  again  fought  with  and  defeated  them.  Caesar  conquering  them,  feft  them  Corvinius 
for  governor.  The  Romans  constructed  several  fortresses,  among  others  that  of  Cassel, 
six  leagues  from  Dunkirk  inland,  where  the  governor  of  the  Low  Countries  used  to 
reside.  The  village  of  Mardyck,  which  has  been  made  a  good  fortress,  b  situated  a 
league  and  a  half,  or  thereabouts,  from  Dunkirk ;  it  has  riven  the  name  to  several 
camps  and  batties :  it  was  formerly  the  celebrated  Portus  Iccius,  of  which  Caesar  speaks 
in  his  Commentaries,  who  has  even  retained  the  name :  tlie  Sieur  Chifflet  has  drawn 
a  plan  of  it,  with  an  ample  description.  He  says,  that  in  the  time  of  Ctesar  die  greater 
part  of  this  country  was  covered  with  wood,  and  overflowed  in  difierent  parts,  and  that 
there  were  only  some  banks  or  roads  raised  above  the  marshes,  which  led  to  the  sea« 
shore ;  the  sea  then  extended  as  far  as  to  a  town  called  Cithieu.  This  town  was  after, 
wards  named  St.  Omer's,  fron^  the  name  of  a  bbhop  of  Therouane,  who  built  a  church 
and  several  houses  there,  for  the  residence  of  the  poor  of  his  diocese,  and  to  enable  tlKm 
to  live  by  the  trade  of  the  place.  After  hb  death,  the  relics  of  the  saint  being  transported 
to  Ciihieu,  his  name  was  given  to  the  church,  and  the  town  which  was  silerwards 
built.  '[V;  '  ■;;:'li':T  f''--;'';  V;  -'"  -  -:;;*•' 

St.  Victricius,  bbhop  of  Rouen,  was  the  first  who  came  tt^  pf@{U:h  the  Christian  teli. 
gion  on  the  coast  of  Dunkirk,  in  396.  The  last  of  the  Romans  were  driven  out  by  Me. 
roue«  wbc>  subjugated  this  province  to  France  in  450.  St.  EUA  came  to  preach  the  faith 
in  646,  ard  made  some  stay  there,  which  brought  over  a  number  of  proselytes ;  he  built 
a  pretty  large  church  there  on  the  downs,  where  for  some  time  a  number  of  fis^rmcn 
and  poor  people  were  collected  together.  Thb  place  was  soon  frequented  by  a  number 
of  the  Christians  of  the  neighbourhood :  the  name  of  Dunkirk  was  givea  to  this  church, 
and  to  the  town  which  was  afterwards  built  on  that  spot;  the  word  kerke  signifying 
church  in  the  Teutonic  language,  from  which  the  Flemish  is  derived. 

The  Low  Countries  were  governed  for  a  loi^time  by  foresters  appointed  by  the  kings 
of  France.  Baldwin,  in  864,  was  forester  of  Flanders,  or  the  Low  Countries,  having 
run  way  with  and  nuurried  Judith,  daughter  «of  Cl^arles  the  Bald,  who  forgave  him  hb 
conduct  and  sanctioned  hb  marriage ;  he  became  the  first  count  of  Flaixfers,  the  king 
iDtaking  tlus  country  a  coun^,  reserving  a  homage  to  France.  The  number  of  the  inha- 
bitants of  Dunkirk  au^entu^  every  day,  Srotn  the  commodiousness  of  its  natuial  port, 
Baldwin  Third  surrounded  it  with  a  wall  in  906,  to  protect  die  inhabitants  from  the  inroads 


KEUOUBLEN'S  VOYAOK  TO  THE  NORTH. 


797 


ofbanditti.  They  addicted  themselves  to  trade  and  fishing,  and  embellished  and  added 
to  the  convenience  of  the  port.  Philip  of  Alsace  built  several  veasels  of  war  there,  to 
ffo  with  to  the  Holy  Land*  In  1170  the  Norman  pirates,  for  the  moat  part  gentlemen, 
mterrupted  their  commerce,  by  stopping  their  vessels  in  the  channel ;  they  detained  and 
even  plundered  the  Princess  of  Portugal,  who  was  on  her  voyag^  to  mar^  Count  Phi- 
lippes  in  Flanders.  Philippes  fitted  out  a  strong  fleet  at  Dunkirk,  wUch  he  sent  after 
them,  and  was  fortunate  enough  to  take  them  all  and  carry  (hem  into  Dunkirk,  where 
they  were  condemned  to  death,  as  I  have  before  observed  in  speaking  of  Ostend.  This 
defeat  endeared  the  Dunkirkera  to  their  sovereign,  who  granted  them  many  privileges 
and  exemptions.  In  1232,  Dunkirk  being  sold  to  Godfrey  de  Conde,  bishop  of  Cam- 
bray,  on  condition  of  reverting  after  hb  d^th  to  the  count  of  Flanders,  he  very  much 
enlarged  and  deepened  the  port,  and  constructed  two  jetties^  proceeding  a  good  distance 
out  to  sea. 

Dunkirk  was  separated  flrom  the  county  of  Flanders,  and  erected  into  a  private  lord, 
ship  by  Robert  of  Bethune,  in  favoui  of  Robert  of  Cassel,  his  son,  who  built  a  castle,  and 
established  a  magistracy.  He  founded  three  brotherhoods  of  cross-bow-men,  bow-men, 
and  gunners,  to  exercise  the  citizens,  and  perfect  them  in  the  use  of  arms :  dying  without 
a  son,  his  only  daughter  Jolanda  marri<,d«  diUee  of  Bar.  This  alliance  gave  its  first  arms 
to  Dunkirk. 

In  1S82,  the  people  of  Ghent  revo'dns  from  their  sovereign  called  the  English  to  their 
assistance,  and  seized  upon  the  town  of  Dunkirk ;  but  Charles  the  Sixth,  king  of  France, 
retook  it  the  same  year,  and  restored  it  to  its  lord. 

In  1403,  the  walls  and  fortifications,  damaged  by  the  sieges  it  had  sustained,  were  re- 
paired,  and  the  ditches  greatly  deepv-^ned.     . 

In  1436,  the  English  took  Dunkirk. 

In  1440,  a  charch  was  built  at  the  fa'>t  of  the  tower  built  a  short  time  before,  to  serve 
as  a  pharos  and  belfry  for  the  parish. 

Amo;;v  many  great  men  which  thiu  town  has  produced  is  Nicholas  Vanderhelle,'a 
g^at  theologian,  four  times  recteur  ina|(nifique  of  the  university  of  Louvmn ;  Cornelius 
Schepper,  a  great  phikMsopher  and  polUician,  who,  under  Francis  the  First,  was  professqr 
of  philosophy  and  mathematics  at  rails.  He  was  chosen  by  Charles  the  Fifth  to  watch 
over  his  interests  with  the  major  part  of  the  princes  of  Europe,  and  was  twice  appointed 
ambassador  to  Sultan  Solyman :  he  vras  greatly  beloved  by  the  learned. 

The  fishery  being  from  earliest  time  the  principal  trade  of  the  town,  in  1532  five  hun- 
dred busses  or  vessels,  from  fifty  to  sixty  tqns,  designed  for  fishing  in  the  north,  belonged 
to  tlus  port :  every  one  of  these  vessels  had  among  the  lines  with  which  they  fished,  one 
called  the  holy  line ;  all  the  fish  caught  by  it  were  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  church : 
out  of  these  gifts  the  church,  which  was  burnt  in  1558,  was  rebuilt  in  1560. 

In  the  war  between  France,  Sptdn,  and  England,  in  1558,  marshal  Termes  witli  seven, 
teen  thousand  miMi  set  down  before  Dunkirk :  there  were  in  garrison  in  the  place  at  the 
time  no  more  than  four  hundred  men ;  it  was  taken  by  assauU,  and  pillaged,  and  many 
of  the  citizens  were  massacred.  Bergues  suffered  the  same  fate.  The  pillage  in  these 
towns  and  in  the  neighbourhood  was  so  great,  that  a  cow  was.  sold  in  the  French  camp 
for  two  pr  three  sous,  and  thirt}%eight  homed  beasts  for  a  gold  crown :  the  bells  were 
even  broken,  in  order  to  take  away  the  pieces :  the.  enemies  of  France  having  collected 
an  army  in  the  neighbburhood  of  St.  Omer's,  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  the  French, 
Mars'tal  Termes  was  ^sposed  to  retreat,  and  set  fiit  to  several  parts  of  the  town,  in 
oirder  to  complete  the  destruction  of  what  had  escaped  the  rage  of  the  solcfiery ;  the 
ehurch,  the  convents,  and  almost  the  whde  town,  were'consumed  by  theftames,  as  w^U 


KS*^ 


i 


798 


KERGUELEN*8  TOYAGB  TO  TIIE  NORTH. 


! 


as  several  vessels  were  laden  with  booty,  which  were  detained  bjr  contrary  winds  in  the 
port  After  these  excesses  he  departed  to  join  the  main  army,  but  Count  Egment,  the 
general  of  the  Spaniards,  came  up  with  fifteen  thousand  troops,  and  a  larve  number  of 

Eeasants,  who  cut  to  pieces  the  army  of  Marshal  Termes,  making  him  wim  the  chief  of 
is  staff  prisoners. 

In  1583  the  town  of  Dunkirk  was  taken  by  the  confederates,  and  retaken  the  same 
year,  by  the  Duke  of  Parma,  who  greatly  repaired  the  port,  und  built  there  several 
vessels  of  war,  among  others,  fourteen  commanded  by  vice-admiral  Wacken,  which 
made  many  Dutch  prizes ;  the  following  ^ear,  the  prqprietors  of  these  vesseb  made  a 
number  of  prizes,  which  they  conducted  into  port,  notwithstanding  it  was  blockaded 
by  a  Dutch  squadron.    Chartes  Dauwere  and  his  son  John  were  the  chiefs  of  these  Oeets 
of  privateers ;  they  were  both  of  them  intrcpidi  and  very  skilful  in  manceuvros.    This 
caused  the  squadron  of  the  Dutch,  which  had  cost  a  crcat  deal  for  little  advantage,  to 
draw  off.    About  this  time  the  Spanish  fleet  arrived  in  the  channel,  named  the  Invincible, 
which  was  dispersed  by  a  storm ;  many  ships  perished  at  sea,  othera  were  lost  on  the 
shores  of  France  and  England,  and  the  sad  remains  of  tliu  fleet  were  fortunately  con- 
ducted back  to  Spain  through  the  skill  of  Michael  Jacobs,  a  Dunkirker,  an  excellent 
seaman ;  nevertheless  the  Dunkirkers  did  not  rxaac  fitting  out  privateers,  and  making 
considerable  prizes  of  Dutchmen  and  Zealanders.     These  riches  drew  a  number  of  fo> 
reign  sailors  to  Dunkirk.    The  ardour  of  the  Dutch  for  bldckading  Dunkirk  was  re- 
doubled, sending  even  a  hundred  vessels  before  it ;  which  however  did  not  hinder  the 
privateers  from  stealing  out  under  favour  of  night,  and,  owing  to  the  lightness  of  their 
vessels,  proceeding  in  making  prizes  in  the  Nonh  Sea.    They  were  attacked  by  a  lai^ 
ship  of  war,  commanded  by  the  vice-admiral  Anthonisen,  but  who  was  not  then  on  board. 
In  his  absence,  the  commander,  seeing  himself  disabled,  half  his  crew  wounded,  and  the 
enemy  already  boarding  his  ship,  set  fire  to  the  powder-room,  and  blew  himself  up ;  at 
the  same  time  doing  considerable  damage  to  the  Dunkirii:er8.    The  town  was  fortified 
with  new  works,  and  privateering  continued.     In  1595,  one  captain  of  a  privateer 
brought  into  the  port  of  Dunkirk  as  many  as  thirtv  masters  of  busses  and  other  vessels, 
which  he  was  satisfied  with  ransoming  for  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  livres ;  an 
enormous  sum  for  that  age.    Another  named  Koster,  returning  to  Dunkiric  after  ran-, 
soming-several  vessels,  was  surrounded  bv  a  Dutch'  fleet ;  he  fought  desperately,  and 
disabled  several  vessels ;  at  length,  pressed  upon  at  all  sides,  he  set  hrt  to  the  magazihCi 
and  blew  himself  up,  togettier  with  the  ships  which  were  boarding^him. 

The  Cardinal  Archduke  Albert  of  Austria,  who  replaced  the  Duke  of  Parma,  being 
desirous  of  signalizing  his  accession  to  the  government  of  the  Low  Countries,  Uud  siege 
to  Calais  in  1596,  which  he  carried  in  a  little  time ;  this  acquisition  was  of  great  ikdvan- 
tage  to  cruizing  against  the  enemy.  The  Dutch,  interested  in  hindering,  sent  fourteen 
large  vessels  to  anchor  before  Dunkirk,  while  nine  others  kept  the  sea,  to  intercept  the: 
vessels  desirous  of  entering*  Calais  was  ^ven  up  to  the  French  by  the  treaty  cotf> 
eluded  in  1598,  between  France  and  Spain ;  in  spite  of  the  Dutch  squadron  prizes  arrived 
in  safety,  and  the  engagements  which  took  plac<:  were  fc^gfat  witn  sQ.rou9b .  the  toon 
obstinacy  from  each  party  hanging  their  prisoners.  *  ^?*,^r*t  >!'''/* : 

;  In  1609  a  truce  was  concluded  for  twelve  ^ears  between  the  Dutch'  and  S^hiards. 
At  the  end  of  it  the  privateers,  assisted  by  nine  Spanish  vesMla,  ruined  the  Dutch  'com> 
merce.  .■.■■••  -;■  :-.     ,  ■./,  '  ■     ■  '■.  "    •;;;  • 

In  1622  the  citadel  of  Mardyck  was  constructed,  to  shelter  Dunkirk  m^  the  insulb 
of  13  enemies.  In  this  year  John  Jacobson  of  Dunkirk,  a  captsSoi  iii  the  navy,  com- 
mancting  the  St.  Vincent,  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  nien,  on  going  out  of  port  wiUi  two  ' 


KCROUBIXM'I  VOYAGE  TO  1  HE  NORTH. 


799 


Spanish  vessels  commanded  by  Spaniards,  was  attacked,  about  four  hours  after  leaving 
the  jetties,  by  nine  Dutch  men  of  war,  whith  surrounded  und  engaged  tk>e  St.  Vincent ; 
his  two  companions  made  their  escape.  Jacobson  maintained  the  unequal  6ght  for  thir- 
teen hours,  sunk  two  of  the  vessels,  and  did  great  damaec  to  the  others,  but,  reduced  to 
two  or  three  men,  the  rest  being  either  killed  or  wounded,  he  was  boarded  by  Tfty  of  the 
enemy,  when  he  set  fire  to  the  maKuzine,  and  blew  them  up  with  himself :  the  explosion 
was  so  vioknt,  that  one  of  the  Dutch  vessels  was  dismasted,  ^nd  another  waii  in  great 
danger  from  the  falling  of  some  heavy  pieces  of  brass  cannon  which  had  been  bkown  up, 
and  alighted  on  the  £ck ;  all  the  rest  were  in  a  sad  plight  The  enemy  in  r!ii8  euKage- 
roent  lost  more  than  four  hundred  men.  This  loss,  far  from  dispiriting  the  Dunkincers, 
only  inflamed  th?m  with  a  desire  to  revenge  their  companions.  The  Sieurs  Wandrwalle, 
father  and  son,  equipped  eighteen  vessels,  which,  in  conjunction  with  others,  made  more 
than  six  hundred  prizes,  or  which  six  were  vessels  of  war  ci  the  largest  size ;  from 
the  prizes  captured  by  four  vessels  only  of  Wandewalle,  the  tenth,  which  belonged  to 
the  king  of  Spain,  came  to  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  florins;  and  in  spite  of  the 
blockade  of  the  town,  which  the  Dutch  maintai*  d  continually,  the  cruizers  ruined  their 
fishery  and  their  trade.  In  1626  the  profits  d  wn* ;  privateering  were  estimated  at  more 
than  10,000,000  f.  In  1629  tlie  Dunkirkers  fiiade  prize  of  ninety-one  vessels  richly 
laden ;  without  including  ransoms,  and  ships  wfiich  they  burnt  in  Norway  and  other  pla- 
ces. 

Matthew  Rombout,  a  Dunkirker,  vice-admira  of  the  Spaniards,  fought  Admiral  Peter 
Hein ;  the  latter  lost  his  life.  He  was  much  re^tted  by  the  Dutch.  Tired  at  length 
with  their  continual  losses,  after  depriving  Admiral  Drop  of  his  commission,  who  com- 
manded before  Dunkirk,  the^  augmented  their  fleet  to  eighty  sail,  in  order  to  blockade 
the  place  entirely ;  but,  getting  two  close  to  Mardyck,  the  cannon  from  the  fortress 
played  on  them  with  so  well  directed  a  fire,  they  were  fain  to  retire,  after  sustaining  con- 
siderable damaffe. 

.  War  being  declared  in  1635  between  France  and  Spain,  the  Dunkirkers  made  prize 
of  fourteen  French  ships  at  once,  laden  with  wine ;  and  some  days  after,  Captain 
Nordman  captured  eleven  others.  Admiral  Colaert,  a  Dunkirkman,  commanding  se- 
venteen vessels  of  war,  burnt  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  Dutch  busses,  convoyed 
by  a  squadron ;  the  admiral's  ship  itself  was  destroyed,  and  the  vice-admiral  was  carried 

frisoner  to  Dunkirk.  One  of  tne  most  considerable  prizes  was  that  of  the  famous 
'rench  pirate  Loutre;  she  mounted  eighteen  guns,  had  made  prize  of  seventeen  vessels, 
which  had  been  sunk,  after  taking  out  their  most  precious  effects ;  there  was  on  board 
thb  vessel  seventeen  thousand  florins,  six  thousaixl  piastres,  one  hundred  and  twenty - 
two  pounds  of  silver  in  ingots,  a  coffer  full  of  silver  plate,  and  a  great  quantity  of  precious 
stones. 

In  1636  the  same  Colaert  took  and  conducted  to  Dunkirk  the  Dutch  admiral  Haute 
Been,  or  Wooden-leg.  This  Colaert  was  in  the  Spanish  service  for  thirty-six  years,  took 
&Qm  the  enemy  one  nupdred  and  nine- vessels,  and  twenty-seven  ships  of  war,  bearing 
coUectively  more  than  one  thousand  five  hundred  pieces  of  cannon;  he  died  at  Dun- 
kirk in  1637.  The  great  number  of  prisoners  brought  into  the  town  caused  a  plague, 
by  which  numbers  of  persons  perished.  The  owners  of  privateers  made  fortunes,  not- 
withstMidv^  Van  Tromp  commanded  the  blockade  of  the  port.  In  1640  .the  circumfer- 
eace  of  the  Tower  town  was  enlarged,  in  order  to  furnish  dwellings  for  the  increased  num- 
ber of  inhabitants ;  so  greatly  did  the  equipments  from  the  place  attract  populadon. 

It  was  m  1641  that  ikm  Pedro  de  Leob,  governor  of  Dunkirk,  obliged  Vice-admiral 
Matthew  Roinbout  togo  out  of  port  with  his  squadron,  to  assist  the  Spaniards  against 


\t 


■.ii  I 


I'lM ' 


■■■n'- 


800 


KBROtTEUIlCS  TOYAORTO  THB  NOATH. 


! 

I 

i 
» 

I 

I 


i 

I 


the  PortuKueae,  who  had  revoked  This  ffovcmor,  a  ffcneral  oflker  on  shore,  knew 
^nothing  of  the  difHcuky  of  pAMing  through  the  eneny's  Sccu  superior  in  number,  which 
laid  between  Gravelines  and  the  town.  He  would  noC  liaten  to  the  repratentatioim  of 
Rombout,  who,  forced  to  obey,  was  defeated,  oa  he  had  predicted,  and  kilted  in  the 
engagement,  after  having  fought  with  the  greatest  resolution.  A  part  of  his  souadron 
was  taken,  the  other  was  obliged  to  6y.  His  death  gave  as  much  ooncera  to  the  Spa. 
niards,  as  pleasure  to  the  Dutch,  who  feared  him  greatly.  A  descendant  in  a  direct 
line  of  this  Admiral  Rombout  went  two  voyages  with  me  as  a  pilot. 

In  1643  Joseph  Picters,  vice  admiral,  being  with  five  vessels  and  a  long-boat  in  the 

-four 
guns, 
.  during 
which  the  Dunkirk  man  made  shiTt  to  escane  with  his  «x  vessels. 

In  1645,  the  French  attacked  the  fort  of  Manfyck,  which  capitulated  after  six  weeks 
siege.  But  the  ^vemor  of  Dunkirk  having  assembled  all  the  seamen  and  some  troops, 
took  it  aeain  dunng  a  winter's  night.  It  was  taken  again  by  the  French  in  1646,  after 
a  siege  of  twenty-one  days.  That  of  Dunkirk  immediately  succeeded  ;  the  Prince  of 
Condi  made  himself  master  of  it  In  less  than  a  month,  notwithstanding  it  was  vigorously 
defended  by  the  Marquis  de  Lede,  who  was  obliged  to  capitulate,  all  sucootu  being  cut 
off  both  by  sea  and  land.    He  surrendered  with  militanr  honours.   ...  /.    >« .. 

In  1652,  durinff  the  civil  wars  of  France,  the  Archduke  Leopold  idot.  I  It,  and  gave 
the  government  a?  it  to  the  Marquis  de  Lede,  who  had  before  so  well  defeoded  it 

In  1656,  the  Endish,  united  with  French  and  Dutch,  made  war  with  Spain.  The 
Dunkiricers,  joined  to  those  of  Ostend,  took  a  whole  fleet  of  English  slups,  cooustiog 
of  forty.four  sail,  and  a  few  days  after  thirty-three  others. 

In  1657,  Marshal  Turenne,  with  some  English  Uvops,  took  the  fort  of  Mardyck.  He 
rave  it  up  to  the  English,  who  sent  there  a  fleet  laden  infith  a  ouantitv  of  naaterials,  to  for* 
ufy  and  render  it  in  some  measure  impregnable.  They  put  fifteen  hundred  men  in  gar. 
rison  in  it 

In  1658,  Marshal  Turenne  invested  Dunkirk,  the  ksi^  joined  him  with  a  powerful 
army.  The  Spaniards,  under  the  conduct  of  Don  John  d  Austria  and  the  Priqoe  of 
Cond6,  endeavoured  to  throw  succours  into  the  place,  but  they  lost  the  battle  of  the 
Downs ;  and  the  Marquis  de  Lede  dying  of  the  wounds  which  he  received,  the  nnison 
capitulated  on  the  twenty-fifUi  of  June,  after  six  weeks  siege.  The  next  day  the  Spanish 
garri^  went  The  king  entered  it  the  same-day  in  the  momkig,  and  in  the  afternoon 
gave  up  the  place  to  the  Englbh,  on  condition  of  sufiering  die  town  to  eiuoy  all  its 
privileges ;  thus  in  less  than  a  day  it  saw  itself  succeqsivefy  under  the  donunation  of 
three  crowns.  The  privateers  of  Dunkirk  and  Ostend  had  taken  durine  the  war  mors 
than  two  thousand  five  hundred  vessdb.  The  English  caused  a  strong  citadel  to  oe  oon- 
stnioed,  instead  of  Fort  Leon,  and  greatly  strengthened  the  town,,  which  was  soU  to 
the  French  in  1662  for  the  sum  of  five  mil'ions  of  livrea,  thiHMigfa  the  negotiation  of  the 
ConUe  D'Estrades.  The  king  made  his  enirv  into  it  <die  seomd  of  Deoember,  main, 
t^ned  its  privileffes,  and  made  it  a  free  port  fn  1665  new  loitifiaitions  were  construct, 
ed,  and  the  citadel  improved.  In  1680  the  foundationfiof  the  Foet  Risbau,  Fort  Veitl, 
and  Fort  de  Bonne  Esperance  were  laid,  which  were  perfected,  md  projected  &r  out  to 
sea.  The  king  often  came  to  see  the  worits,  which  latted  from  ten  to  elev*en  years.  The 
bason  was  constructed  in  1686. 

In  1688  France  was  at  war  virith  the  Dutch,  the  Engtish,  and  die  Spaniards,  during 
which  the  Dunkirkers  fitted  out  a  number  of  privateers.    In  1^9  M.  Bart,  ordered  to 


U 


*%.  .«,■■» 


KRR0UBLKN*8  VOYAGB  TO  THE  NORTH. 


801 


escort  a  fleet  of  fourteen  merchant  vessels  to  Havre,  went  on  board  a  frigate  of  twenty- 
eight  guns,  and  with  M.  Forbin  under  his  orders,  of  sixteen  guns,  they  met  witl^  ^^^^ 
I' nglish  ships  of  forty-eight  and  forty-two  guns,  aixl  fou^t  them  suificicritly  long 
to  give  time  to  the  convoy  to  pursue  its  course ;  t)ut,  both  wounded,  one  hundred  and 
forty  men  disabled,  and  their  vessels  complete  wrecks,  thev  were  taken.  The  loss  of 
the  £nglish  vessels  was  so  great,  tliat  the  command  of  theu*  vessels  devolved  to  a  boat- 
swain's  mate,  all  the  officers  being  killed  in  the  ensagement.  The  two  French  cajituinH 
escaped  from  prison  some  time  afterwards.  The  first  fitted  out  a  vessel  and  made  muny 
prizes.  He  entirelv  destroyed  the  fishery  of  the  Dutch,  and  made  a  descent  iii  England, 
near  Newcaallc,  with  seven  frigates,  burnt  there  two  hundred  hous(!s,  and  carried  back 
booty  to  Dunkirk  of  the  value  of  fiAy  thousand  livrcs.  Some  days  after  he  sailed  again 
with  three  frigates,  cruised  in  the  north,  where  he  took  a  Dutch  fleet,  escorted  bv  three 
vessels  of  war,  fought  the  latter,  took  one,  and  put  the  other  two  to  flight,  after  having 
greatly  damaged  t}Km.  He  came  back  to  Dunkirk  with  the  whok  fleet,  laden  with 
wheat,  barley,  iron,  pitch,  &c. 

France  having  purchased  a  large  quantity  of  wheat  in  the  north  in  1694,  M.  Bart 
was  ordered  to  go  and  convoy  the  fleet,  consisting  of  a  hundred  and  odd  sail  of  ves^scls. 
This  fleet  sailed  under  escort  of  three  Swedish  and  Danish  ships,  and  was  taken  near  the 
Texd  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  by  the  commodore  Hidde  Vries,  commanding  a 
squadron  of  eight  shipa  of  war  t  but  the  twenty -ninth  of  June,  M.  Bart  fidling  i**  with  it, 
attacked  the  Dutch  with  so  much  bravery,  that  in  less  than  half  an  hour  the  coiumodore 
was  taken,  cinnmonding  a  vessel  of  fifty -eight  guns ;  another  of  fifty,  and  a  third  of  thirty - 
six,  were  captured,  as  well  as  the  five  others  much  shattered,  which  betook  themselves  to 
flight  and  escaped.  He  retook  the  whole  fleet  {  he  conducted  to  Dunkirk  the  three  vesseh 
and  thirty  of  tne  merchantmen,  the  rest  made  for  their  destination  in  different  ports  of  . 
France.  The  commodore  died  of  his  wounds  shortly  after  his  arrival.  This  service 
rendered  to  France,  at  a  time  of  extraordinary  scarcity  of  wheat  corn,  engaged  his 
majesty  to  ennobte  M.  Bart,  wlio  had  been  honoured  with  the  cross  of  St.  Louis  some 
time  before  for  other  exju^oits. 

The  eleventh  of  Aunist  1695,  the  enemy  with  one  hundred  and  fourteeen  sail,  under 
the  ordersof  Admiral  Barclay,  attenipted  to  bombard  the  town,  they  sent  m  several 
fire-ships  loaded  with  combustibles  for  burning  the  forts  and  jetties ;  but  they  were 
driven  baok  by  the  well  sustained  fire  of  the  forts,  and  by  the  vigilance  of  M.  Derlingue, 
who  commanded  in  the  harbour,  and  went  out  with  several  boats  to  grapple  the  fire- 
ships  launched  against  the  forts  and  jetties,  and  conduct  them  to  stations  where  they 
mi|^t  bum  out,  without  doing  any  injury.  M.  Bart  commanded  at  Fort  Esperance, 
M.  de  St.  Claire  at  Chateau  Verd.  The  enemy  threw  more  than  one  thousand  two 
hundred  bombs,  and  a  number  of  carcasses,  between  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  and 
seven  in  the  evening,  without  doing  any  damage :  ten  bombs  fell  in  the  Risban,  they 
lulled  an  officer  there ;  another  bomb  which  ^1  in  Fort  Verd  did  no  more  than  dig  its 
grave ;  one  of  the  enemy's  frigates  having  grounded  on  a  bank  at  k>w  water,  M.  Der- 
fingue  virnt  with  his  boats  to  it,  and  made  prisoners  of  its  crew«  in  spite  of  the  firing  of 
the  enemy.  This  expeditbn  was  expensive  to  the  enemy  without  profit  The  prece- 
ding year  tho'  made  a  similar  attempt. 

In  1696,  M.  Bart  sailed  fix)m  Dunkirk,  and  took  a  Dutch  fleet  in  the  north,  of  one 
hundred  and  six  sail ;  sixty-one  of  which  be  ransomed,  after  carrying  by  boarding  five 
vessels  of  war,  which  convoyed  the  fleet.  Ht  was  made  Chef  d'Escadre  in  1697 ;  and 
sailed  the  fifth  of  September  with  six  vessels  and  a  frigate,  to  transport  the  Prince  de 
Conti  to  Poland,  notwithstanding  an  enemy's  squa^on  superior  in  number,  which 

VOL.  I.  5  k  V  •         ,  ,. 


I 


'ill 


•^ 


^^5?S^#^M*if^^«^rB' :,  b*f^  "i , 


802 


KKMUimLKN'H  VOYAGE  TO  TIIM  NUUTIi. 


could  not  cut  him  off,  he  arrived  at  Dantsig  the  twenty.»ixth,  and  brought  this  prince 
4)ack  again  to  Dunkirk  November  the  eleventh  following  (  circumatanccs  not  having 
answered  the  hopes  which  the  Poles  had  made  this  prince  conceive.  While  this  was 
happening,  the  peace  of  RyHwick  wuh  made ;  during  this  war  the  privateers  of  Dunkirk 
had  made  prizes  of  the  collective  value  of  twenty-two  millions  of  livres. 

In  1701  war  broke  out  afresh  ;  Furt  Blanc  was  constructed.  M.  Bart  being  ordered 
to  fit  out  a  squadron,  applied  himself  to  it  with  such  activity,  that  a  pleurisy  carried 
him  to  the  grave  the  twenty-seventh  of  April  1702,  a^d  fifty 'two  years,  and  general* 
ly  regretted.  His  son  Andrew  followed  the  stepti  of  his  father  ;  he  distinguished  him* 
self  under  M.  de  St.  Pol,  who  commanded  a  squadron  in  the  north,  and  under  M.  de 
Forbin,  who  succeeded  M.  de  St.  Pol,  he  being  killed  in  1705,  in  an  engagement  in 
which  his  squadron  had  the  advantage.  M.  Bart,  by  his  services,  reached  the  rank  of 
vicc-admirul. 

In  1712,  peace  being  concluded,  the  sluices,  forts,  and  fortificationa  of  Dunkirk 
were  demolished.  Durinff  this  wflr  the  Dunkirkers  brought  in  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred prizes  ;  which  sold  for  more  than  thirty  millions  of  livrea,  exclusive  of  vessels 
carried  into  other  ports  of  France. 

,  In  1714,  the  canal  and  port  of  Mardvck  were  dug,  to  carry  off  the  waters  of  the 
country  ;  this  pOrt  is  half  a  league  from  Dunkirk  to  the  west,  beside  the  ancient  Mar- 
dyck.  Two  sluices  were  made  to  admit  ships,  but  in  1717  the  largest  was  destroyed, 
and  only  the  smaller  one  of  sixteen  feet  was  preserved,  for  letting  off  the  water.  By 
this  canal,  which  ended  at  Dunkirk,  commerce  was  carried  on,  but  at  a  heavy  expenoe, 
in  spite  of  the  English.  A  dam  had  been  throvm  across  the  port,  between  the  town 
and  citadel,  but  a  furious  wind  having  driven  the  sea  with  violence  against  it,  it  gave 
way  shortly  before  1720,  and  was  entirely  carried  away.  Navigation  waa  begun  upon 
it,  and  forts  and  jetties,  in  fascinage,  were  constructed  on  it  in  1744,  and  the  town  was 
surrounded  with  a  rampart  of  turf;  but  the  forts  were  demolished  at  the  peace  of 
1748.  After  this  peace,  a  dyke  was  made  to  carry  off  the  water  ft-om  the  ditcluis  of  the 
town,  which  had  oecome  stagnant.  The  last  war  the  sluice  of  Berg^es  waa  re-esta- 
blished, and  the  basin  and  forts,  in  fascinage,  were  constructed  close  to  the  sea ;  but  at 
the  peace  the  fbrts  were  demolished,  the  basin,  and  the  dyke,  leaving  the  sluice  of  Ber- 
gues  for  carrying  off  the  water. 

The  twenty-fourth  of  September,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  having  two  thirds  of  flood- 
tide,  the  wind  weak  from  the  south,  I  sailed  from  the  road  of  Dunkirk,  to  return  to 
Brest,  by  the  channel.  We  steered  at  first  W.  quarter  N.  W.  and  W.  N.  W.  to  get 
out  of  the  road,  which  terminates  £.  and  W.  with  the  points  of  Brae.  A  vessf.Iia 
known  to  be  west  of  Brae,  when  the  belfry  de  petite  Samte  is  in  a  line  with  the  buoy 
of  Mardyck,  as  well  that  it  is  east  of  Brae,  when  the  belfiy  of  St.  Catherine  is  in  a  line 
with  the  towers  of  Bergues.  After  going  out  of  the  roads  by  the  passaffc  of  the  west, 
and  about  to  make  for  the  Straits  of  Dover,  you  must  steer  W.  N.  \V.  and  N.  W. 
quarter  W.  to  avoid  the  Snow,  a  bank  Which  is  dry,  and  which  must  be  left  to  larboard; 
you  must  neither  steer  more  N.  than  N.  W.  quarter  W.  for  fear  of  falling  in  with  the 
Breban,  on  which  there  is  but  three  feet  of  water,  in  certain  partS|  at  low  water ;  but  no 
risk  is  nin  in  f  teering  W.  N.  W.  and  N.  .W.  quarter  W.  You  know  that  yon  are 
clear,  that  is  to  say,  W.  of  the  banks,  when  you  nave  the  tower  of  St.  George,  which  is 
flat,  in  a  line  with  a  small  down,  which  looks  like  an  island,  or  when  the  great  tower  of 
Gravelines  bears  S.  quarter  S.  W.  of  the  compass.  At  noon  on  the  twenty  fourth  I 
was  in  that  position,  light  wind;  but  having  the  ebb  for  me  I  made  way.  The  tides  are 
tv/elve  hours  long  at  Dunkirk,  eleven  and  half  at  Calais,  and  three  in  the  middle  of  the 


er*-a-;i>>'-:;  -.wr 


KKROUKLBN'S  VOYAGE  TO    I'lfK  NOUTll. 


»03 


Itnit  From  noon  to  six  o'clock  I  bore  west,  all  sails  set,  the  wind  S.  £.  weak.  At  six 
(/dock  I  mude  Cape  Grines,  bearing  S.  4**  VV.  three  buiguea  distant,  and  the  castle  ol' 
Dover  bearing  N.  N.  W.  four  leagues  distant ;  whenoe  I  took  my  departure,  steering 
W.  quarter  S.  W.  and  W.  S.  W. 

The  twenty-fifth,  at  day-break,  I  was  five  lea^s  from  the  English  coast,  and  by  log 
I  ought  to  have  been  eight  leagues ;  the  flood-tide,  which  we  had  from  seven  o'clock  till 
midnight,  had  doubtless  carried  us  to  the  north.  At  noon  Beachy.head,  on  the  coast  of 
England,  bore  north  by  the  comoaaa,  disumt  four  leagues  and  a  half;  I  observed  the 
varuition  19<>  53^.  From  noon  till  two  o'clock  we  had  a  weak  S.  S.  W.  wind :  I  steered 
west ;  at  two  o'clock,  the  wind  getting  round  to  the  W.  and  the  tide  ebbing,  I  steered 
S.  S.  W.  At  six  o'ckKk  Beachy.head  bore  N.  N.  E.  eight  leagues  distant.  At  seven 
o'clock,  being  high  water,  andp^-ifectly  calm,  I  anchored  a  small  anchor  in  twenty-six 
fathoms  water,  bottom  gravel  and  broken  shells.  I  then  cast  the  loe,  which  shewed  me 
tlie  tide  ran  three  knots.  At  eleven  o'clock,  the  wind  blowing  S.  S.  W.  I  sailed,  steering 
west. 

The  twcnty.uxth,  at  noon,  I  made  Cape  Barfleur,  which  bore  S.  W.  quarter  W.  seven 
leagues  distant  I  took  the  altitude,  and  found  myself  in  latitude  50<*  0',  longitude 
0*>  18'  W.  of  Paris.  From  noon  to  five  o'clock  a  wnk  S.  wind.  I  steered  W.  quar- 
ter N.  W.  with  all  sails  set  At  five  o'clock,  being  the  beginning  cf  flood,  I  casttlie 
iftieam  anchor  in  thirty  seven  fiithoms,  bottom  imaU  pebbles  and  shells.  Being  at  anchor 
cape  La  Hogue  bore  S.  S.  W.  5^  W.  six  leagues  distant  The  tkle  ran  five  knots  at 
hatf  past  seven. 

At  eight  o'clock,  my  anchor  breaking  at  the  middle  of  the  shank,  I  set  all  sails ;  at  the 
same  time  coiling  all  my  towing  ropes.  I  steered  W.  quarter  N.  W.  to  stem  the  cur- 
rent ;  «t  ten  o'ckick  1  steered  W.  N.  W.  and  N.  W.  Quarter  W.  not  to  get  near  the 
Caskets ;  at  midnight  perceiving  distincdy  the  fires  of  the  Caskets,  I  steered  W.  N.  W. 
at  fouro'ck)ck  I  made  a  tack  to  the  W.  S.  W.  and  at  seven  o'clock,  the  wind  being 
8.  £.  I  steered  &  W.  to  make  the  coast  of  Brittany.  The  twen^-seventh  at  noon,  I 
was  in  latitude  49^  3(y,  and  longitude  6"  3'.  The  same  dav  at  sunnse  I  found  the  vari- 
ation 190  45'.  From  noon  till  four  o'clock  1  steered  S.  W.  The  wind  fresh  from  the 
S.  £.  At  four  o'ck)ck  perceiving  land,  which  by  the  tack  I  was  upon  I  kept  from,  I 
stood  closer,  in  order  to  make  it  before  ni^ht  At  six  o'clock,  the  largest  of  the  seven 
islands  bearing  S.  S.  E^four  leagues  distant,  I  steered  W.  and  kept  all  night  under 
easy  sail  W 

~  Tliel  twenty.«ighth,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  I  kept  close  to  shore.    At  seven 

o'clock  I  lud'N.  and  S.  of  Abrevrack.  I  continued  running  along  the  coast,  and  at  nine 

o'clock  I  gpjt  into  Le  Four,  where,  meeting  with  contrary  winda,  I  luffinl  till  eleven 

o'clock,  when  the  flood  obliged  me  to  cast  a  small  anchor  in  twenty  ux-fiithoms  water. 

giavetty  bottom,  a  league  to  the  8.  S.  W.  of  a  rock  called  le  Four.    I  sailed  at  five 

« ..o'clock  in  tl^  afternoon,  but  night  obliged  me  to  cast  anchor  tit  the  Blanc  Sablon. 

'J:'  The  twenty-ninth,  at  seven  in  the  morning,  weak  and  variable  winds  fiom  the  sotith 

side,  I  suled,  and  passed  by  fiivour  of  the  current  against  the  wind  the  gn^at  and  little 

.  VInotiene.    I  anchored  in  Brest  roads  at  ux  in  the  evening,  and  thd  next  day  my  vessel 

,«l|^eBe^intop(»t  to  be  disarmed. 


-■-V      r.«'.j».wi,. 


\* 


l<i 


if: 


iWr 


% 


THE  VOYAGE  OF  THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  GEORGE  EARL  OF  CUMBERLAND 
TO  THE  AZOHLS,*  ETC.  WRITTEN  3Y  THE  EXCELLENT  MATHEMATICIAN  AND 
ENGINEER  MASTER  EDWARD  WRIGHT.     • 


HACKI.UYl-.  tr.  \n.  SECONH  PART. 


■7. 


THE  right  honourable  the  earl  of  Cumberland  having  at  his  own  charges  prepared 
his  small  fleet  of  four  sails  only,  viz.  the  Victory,  one  of  the  queen's  ships  royal ;  the 
Meg  and  Margaret,  small  ships  (one  of  which  also  he  was  forced  soon  after  to  send  home 
again,  finding  ner  not  able  to  endure  the  sea)  and  a  small  caravel ;  and  having  assembled 
together  about  four  hundred  men  (or  fewer)  of  gentlemen,  soldiers,  and  sailors ;  em- 
barked himself  and  them,  and  set  sail  from  the  Sound  of  Plymouth,  in  Devonshire,  the 
eighteenth  day  of  June  1589,  being  accompanied  with  these  captains  and  gentlemen  which 
hereafter  follow : 

Cuptam  Christopher  Lister,  a  man  of  great  resolution,  captain  Edward  Careless,  alias 
Wright,  who  in  Sir  Francis  Drake's  West  Indian  voyage  to  St.  Domingo  and  Carthagena 
was  captain  of  the  Hope ;  captain  Boswell,  M.  Mervin,  M.  Henry  Long,  M.  Partridge, 
M.  Norton,  M.  WiUiam  Mounson,  captain  ot  the  Meg,  and  bis  vice-admiral,  now  Sir 
William  Mounson,  M.  Pigcon»  captain  of  the  caravel. 

About  three  days  after  our  departure  from  Plymouth  we  met  mth  three  French  ships, 
wliercof  one  was  cdf  Newhaven,  another  of  St.  Malo's,  and  no  finding  diem  to  be  leaguers 
and  lawful  prizes  we  took  them,  and  sent  two  of  ihem  for  England,  with  all  their  load- 
ing, which  was  fish  for  the  most  part  from  Newfoundland,  saving  that  there  was  part 
thereof  distributed  amoi^t  our  small  fleet,  as  we  could  find  stowage  for  the  same;  and 
in  the  third  all  their  men  were  sent  home  into  France.  The  same  day  and  the  day  fol- 
lowing we  met  with  some  other  slup&>  whom  (when,  after  some  conference  had  with  them, 
we  perceived  plainly  to  be  of  Rotterdam  and  Fjnbden,  bound  fur  RocheUe)  we  dis- 
missed. 

The  twenty-eighth  and  twenty-iunth  days  we  met  divers  of  our  English  ships,  return- 
ing from  the  Portugal  voyage,  which  my  lord  relieved  with  victuals.  The  thirteenth  day 
of  July,  being  Sunday ,  in  the  morning  we  espied  eleven  ships  without  aght  of  the  coast 
of  Spain,  in  the  height  of  39**,  v/hom  we  presently  prepared  for,  and  provided  to  meet 
them,  having  first  sent  forth  captain  Mounson  in  the  IVfeg  before  us,  to  descry  whence  they 
were.  The  Me^  approaching  near,  there  passed  rome  shot  hetwist  them,  whereby,  as 
aly)  by  their  admiral  and  vice-admiral  puttin{»  forth  their  fla^i,  we  perceived  that  some 
fight  was  likely  to  follow.  Having  therefore  fitted  ourselves  for  ttem,  we  made  what 
haste  we  could  towards  them,  with  regard  always  to  get  the  wmd  of  tfacm,  and  about 
ten  or  ekven  of  the  clock  we  came  up  to  them  widi  the  Victory.  But,  after  some  few 
shot  and  some  little  fight  passed  betwixt  us,  Uiey  yielded  themselves,  and  the  masters  of 
them  all  came  aboaird  us,  shewing  tlieir  several  passports  from  the  citie&  of  Hamburg  and 
Lubeck,  fi^om  Bremen,  Pomerania,  and  Caltce. 

They  lud  in  them  certain  bags  of  pepper  and  cinnamon,  which  they  confessed  to  be 
die  goods  of  a  Jtew  in  Lisbon,  which  should  have  been  tiartied  by  then*  into  idieh: 
country  to  his  factor  t!>iere :  and.so  fincfing  it  by  their  owui  confession  to  be  lawfijl  prize, 
the  same  was  soon  after  taken  and  divided  amongst  our  whole  company,  die  value  where- 
of was  esteemed  to  be  about  four  (thousand  five  hundred  pounds,  at  two  shillings  the 
pound.  ^.  „ 


*  These  isles  properly  belong  to  Europe,  as  lying  nearer  Portugal  than  any  other  country, 
orton's  Modern  Geog.  vol.  i.  p.  601.  v    . 


See  Pink- 


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COBVO 


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w'fe''«VVifl^  W'.^S.  "^T- 


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h'i^^-^'f^'^r^''''^^-- . 


•If  mi'  fa«tf*i »» isJit.  iwxt*;  Ijiyiv'i  isB^'jii c<ic riht'  ft  w  J*J'>  «v?t.^«  Us'Hi  Jyt-n;.M  )^- 

..  -p— ---  -  ---^ -■::•■ --'.■":  —--—;■  "■•■^-  .;-  r:" :. -:7-'"nr  ^':;"^;: wKfBi-t 

iW ''''■  ,  ■«  i'  I'll,.     r'r."*N''-  '  ■'J/»irKt!n%  a/HV'-»»iM'iifii' ',»#'»SP4J*4.  .?<^,t(io«fn»4^'»' 
b^A  fww^i^c  £!..'ijr-.iltffcl^K-l''t(.»l  if;'ji»'A'  i>*!:-,;j^>*  fcuw.'.inu-iJ  "j^coj 'jv/,  rj^t'wj  tii'-: 


aiu.cio« 


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t:inttiu-it 


rtf  ,^uA  ibdi  i!i-K.'i  ;^n"jMj<j  Imiinhiusyn  bat.  brilmhti  h-mi 

..i'«-i3ifiU'rft[;i'-»«i  'fe?  r^&^■lmfih^.■  m^nH  ni  -^  ■ 

:(iii-«iii  ij(.Uii>iaft«-itf  miwq^  i,iff3<h  ,%i»j.^i  «^^^ 
•u>ti  l<f^jauJ$  b'ibii'Jbbstfi  o^dtet  tj/J*  no<xf  juio < 


im 


■vxrsr—  rttrar  -•  i«.iiar— ■ 


"uiBai      snc* "" ssMk'.'  'iswAv 


R*<NB9S 


~1i'li'i8i 


•.,s:.-..1  trrs.',.'!  ,    .jcjii,  „c — :rra-' 


OlLACIOaA 


4.  H  Ol.ULItU- 


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"ii^'iYJT     " 'ii  iimi'i   '.I  Em 


"'BTflEw-'.' 


CUMBERLAND'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  A/OItEU. 


«05 


The  seventeenth  day  the  aforesaid  ships  were  dismissed,  but  seven  of  their  men  that 
were  willing  to  go  a  long  with  us  for  sailors  we  took  to  help  us,  and  so  held  on  our  course 
for  the  Azores. 

The  first  of  August,  being  Friday,  in  the  morning,  we  had  sight  of  the  island  of  St, 
Michael,  being  one  of  the  easternmost  of  the  Azores,  towards  which  we  sailed  all  that 
day,  and  at  night  having  put  forth  a  Spanish  Aug  in  our  main  top,  that  so  they  might  the 
less  suspect  us,  we  approached  near  to  the  chief  town  and  road  of  that  island,  where  wc 
espied  three  ships  riditig  at  anchor  and  some  other  vessels ;  all  which  we  determined  to 
take  in  the  dark  of  the  night,  and  accordingly  attempted  about  ten  or  eleven  of  the  clock, 
sending  our  boats  well  manned  to  cut  their  cables  and  hawsers,  and  let  them  drive  into  the 
sea.  Our  men  coming  to  them  found  that  one  of  those  greatest  ships  was  the  Falcon,  of 
London,  being  there  under  a  Scottish  pilot,  who  bore  the  name  of  her  as  his  own.  But 
three  other  small  ships  that  lay  near  under  the  eastle  there  our  men  let  loose,  and 
towed  them  away  unto  us,  most  of  the  Spaniards  that  were  in  them  leaping  overboard, 
and  swimming  to  shore  with  loud  and  lamentable  outcries ;  which  they  of  the  town  hear- 
ing were  in  an  uproar,  and  answered  with  the  like  crying.  The  castle  discharged  some 
great  shot  at  our  boats,  but  shooting  without  mark,  by  reason  of  the  darkness,  they  did 
us  no  hurt.  The  Scots  likewise  discharged  three  great  pieces  into  the  air,  to  make  the 
Spaniards  think  they  were  their  friends  and  our  enemies,  and  shortly  after  the  Scottish 
master,  and  some  other  with  him,  came  aboard  to  my  lord,  doing  their  duty,  and  of- 
fering their  service,  Sec.  These  three  ships  were  fraught  with  wine  and  sallad-oil  from 
Sivil. 

The  same  day  our  caravel  chased  a  Spanish  caravel  to  shore  at  St.  Michael,  which  carri- 
ed letters  thither,  by  which  we  learned,  that  the  caraks  were  departed  from  Tercera  eight 
days  before. 

The  seventh  of  August  we  had  sight  of  a  little  ship,  which  we  chased  towards  Tercera 
with  our  pinnace  (the  weather  being  calm)  and  towards  evening  we  overtook  her ;  there 
were  in  her  thirty  tons  of  good  Madeira  wine,  certain  woollen  cloth,  silk,  taffeta^  &c.  The 
fourteenth  of  August  we  came  to  the  island  of  Flores,  where  we  determined  to  take  in 
some  fresh  water  and  fresh  victuals,  such  as  the  bland  did  afford.  So  we  manned  our 
bouts  with  some  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  and  rowed  towards  the  shore ;  whereto 
when  we  approached,  the  inhabitants  that  were  assembled  at  the  landing-place  put  forth  a 
flag  of  truce,  whereupon  we  also  did  the  like. 

When  we  came  to  them,  my  lord  Mve  them  to  understand  by  his  Portugal  interpre- 
ter,  that  he  was  a  friend  to  their  king  Don  Antonio,  and  came  not  any  way  to  nijure  them, 
but  that  he  meant  only  to  have  some  fresh  water  and  fresh  victuals  of  them,  by  way  of  ex- 
change for  some  provision  that  he  had,  as  oil,  wine,  or  pepper,  to  which  they  presently 
agreed  willingly,  and  sent  some  of  their  company  for  b^ves  and  sheep,  and  we  in  the 
mean  season  marched  southward  about  a  mile  to  Villa  de  Santa  Cruz,  from  whence  all  the 
inhabitants  young  and  old  were  departed,  and  not  any  thing  of  value  left.  We  demanding 
of  thenti  what  was  the  cause  hereof,  they  answered,  fear ;  as  their  usual  manner  was,  when 
any  ships  came  near  their  coast.  « 

We  found  that  part  of  the  island  to  be  full  of  great  rocky  barren  hills  and  mountains, 
tittle  inhabited,  bj*  reason  that  h  is  molested  with  ships  of  war,  which  might  partly  appear 
by  this  town  of  Santa  Cruz  (bein^  one  of  their  chief  towns)  which  was  all  ruinous,  and  (as 
it  were)  but  the  relicks  of  the  ancient  tovVn,  which  had  been  burned  about  two  yeart;  befwe 
by  certaui  English  ships  of  war,  as  the  inhabitants  there  reported. 

At  ev6nin^,  as  we  were  rowing  towards  the  Victory,  a  huge  fish  pursued  us  for  the 
space  well  nigh  <rf  two  miles  together,  distant  for  the  most  part  from  the  boat's  stem 


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CUMBERLAND'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZOUEb 


not  a  spcur's  length,  and  sometimes  so  near  that  the  boat  struck  upon  him,  the  tips  of 
whose  fins  about  the  gills  (appearing  ofiinies  above  the  water)  were,  by  estimation, 
four  or  five  yards  asunder,  and  his  jaws  gaping  a  yard  and  a  half  wide,  which  put  us  ia 
fear  of  overturning  the  pinnace,  but,  God  be  thanked  (rowing  as  hard  as  we  could) 
we  escaped. 

When  we  were  about  Flores,  a  little  ship,  called  the  Drake,  brought  us  word  that  the 
caraks  were  at  Tercera,  of  which  news  wc  were  very  glad,  and  sped  us  thitherward  with 
all  the  haste  we  could ;  and  by  the  way  we  came  to  Fayal  Road  the  seven  and  twentieth 
day  of  August,  after  sunset^  where  we  espied  certain  ships  riding  at  anchor,  to  whom  we 
sent  in  our  skiiF,  with  captain  Lister  and  captain  Mounson  in  her,  to  discover  the  roaders: 
and,  lest  any  danger  should  happen  to  our  boat,  wc  sent  in  likewise  the  Sawsie-Jack  and 
the  small  caravel ;  but  the  wind  being  off  the  shore,  the  ships  were  not  able  to  fetch  it 
so  nigh  as  the  Spaniards  ride,  which  nevertheless  the  boat  did,  and  clapped  a  ship  aboard, 
of  two  hundred  and  fifly  tons,  which  carried  in  her  fourteen  cast  pieces,  and  continued 
to  fight  alone  with  her  for  the  space  of  one  hour,  until  the  coming  up  o/*  other  boats  to 
the  rescue  of  her,  which  were  sent  from  the  ships,  and  then  a(resh  boarding  heraeain, 
one  boat  in  the  quarter,  another  in  the  hawse,  we  entered  her  on  the  one  side,  and  all 
the  Spaniards  leaped  overboard  on  the  other,  save  Juande  Palmathe  captain  of  her,  and 
two  or  three  more,  and  thus  we  became  possessors  of  her.  This  ship  was  moored  to  the 
castle,  which  shot  at  us  all  this  while  :  the  only  hurt  which  we  received  of  all  this  shot 
was  this,  that  the  master  of  our  caravel  had  the  calf  of  his  leg  shot  away.  This  ship  was 
laden  with  sugar,  ginger,  and  hides,  lately  come  from  St.  Juan  de  Puerto- Rico;  after 
we  had  towed  her  clear  off  the  casde,  we  rowed  in  again  with  our  boats,  and  fetched  out 
five  small  ships  more ;  one  ladien  with  hides,  another  with  elephant's  teeth,  grains,  cocoa- 
nuts,  and  goats'  skins,  come  from  Guinea,  another  with  woad,  and  two  with  dog-fish ; 
which  two  last  we  let  drive  in  the  sea,  making  none  account  of  them.  The  other  we 
sent  for  England  the  thirtieth  of  August. 

At  the  taking  of  these  prizes  were  consorted  widi  us  some  other  small  men  of  war,  as 
master  John  Davis,  with  his  ship,  pinnace,  and  boat,  captain  Markesbury,  with  his  ship, 
whose  owner  was  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  the  bark  of  Lime,  which  was  also  consorted  with 
us  before. 

The  last  of  August,  in  the  morning,  we  came  in  si^htof  Tercera,  being  about  some 
nine  or  ten  leagues  from  shore,  where  we  espied  coming  towards  us  a  small  boat  under 
sail,  which  seemed  somewhat  strange  unto  us,  being  so  far  from  land,  and  no  ship  in 
sight,  to  which  they  might  belong ;  but  coming  near,  they  put  us  out  of  doubt,  shewing 
they  were  Englishmen  (eight  in  number)  that  had  lately  been  prisoners  in  Tercera,  and 
finding  an  opportunity  to  escape  at  that  time,  with  that  small  boat,  committed  themselves 
to  the  sea,  under  God's  providence,  having  no  other  yard  for  their  main-sail  but  two 

Eipe  staves  tied  together  by  the  ends,  and  no  more  proviaon  of  victuals  than  they  could 
ring  in  their  pockets  and  bosoms.  Having  taken  them  all  into  the  Victory,  they  gave 
us  ceitain  intelligence,  that  the  caraks  were  departed  from  thence  about  a  week 
before.  ^ 

Thus,  being  mthoiit  uiy  further  hopes  of  those  caraks,  we  resolved  to  return  for  Fay- 
al, with  intent  to  surprise  me  town ;  but  until  the  ninth  of  September  we  had  either  the 
wind  so  contrary,  or  the  weather  so  calm,  that  in  all  that  time  we  made  scarce  nme  or 
ten  leagues  way,  lingering  up  end  down  not  far  from  Pico. 

The  tenth  of  September,  being  Wednesday,  in  the  afternoon,  we  came  again  to  Fayal 
Road.  Whereupon  immediately  my  !ord  sent  captain  Lister,  with  one  of  Graciosa, 
(whom  captain  Mounson  had  before  t'lken)  ^and  some  others,  towards  Fayal,  whom  cer- 


CUMBEHLANIVS  VOYAGE  TO  TUB  AZORKS. 


807 


tain  of  the  inhabitants  met  in  a  boat,  and  came  with  captain  Lister  io  my  lord,  to  whom 
he  gave  his  choice  ;  cither  to  suffer  him  quietly  to  enter  into  the  platform  there  with- 
out  resistance,  where  he  and  his  comrany  would  remain  a  space  without  offering  any 
injury  to  them,  that  they  (the  inhabitants)  might  come  unto  him,  and  compound  for  the 
ransom  of  the  town :  or  else  to  stand  to  the  hazard  of  war. 

With  these  words  they  returned  to  the  town ;  but  the  keepers  of  the  platform  an. 
swered,  that  it  was  against  their  oath  and  allegiance  to  king  Philip  to  give  over  without 
fight.  Whereupon  my  lord  commanded  the  boats  of  every  ship  to  be  presently 
manned,  and  soon  after  landed  his  men  on  the  sandy  shore,  under  the  side  of  an  hill, 
about  half  a  league  to  the  northward  from  the  platform :  upon  the  top  of  which  hill 
certain  horsemen  and  footmen  shewed  themselves,  and  other  two  companies  also  appear- 
ed, with  ensigns  displayed,  the  one  before  the  town  upon  the  shore  by  the  sea- side, 
which  marched  towards  our  landing-place,  as  though  they  would  encounter  us ;  the 
other  in  a  valley,  to  the  southwards  of  the  platform,  as  if  they  would  have  come  to  help 
the  townsmen :  during  which  time  they  in  the  platform  also  played  upon  us  with  great 
ordnance.  Notwithstanding,  my  lord  (having  set  his  men  in  order)  marched  along  the 
sea-shore,  upon  the  sands,  betwixt  the  sea  and  the  town,  towards  the  platform,  for  the 
space  of  a  mile  or  more,  and  then  the  shore  growing  rocky,  and  permitting  no  further 
progress  without  much  difficulty,  he  entered  into  the  town,  and  passed  through  the  street 
without  res'istance  unto  the  platform;  for  those  companies  before  mentioned,  at  my  lord's 
approaching,  were  soon  dispersed,  and  suddenly  vanished. 

Likewise  they  of  the  platform  being  all  fled,  at  my  lord's  coming  thither,  left  him 
and  his  company  to  scale  the  walls,  to  enter  and  take  possession  without  resistance. 

In  the  mean  time  our  ships  ceased  not  to  batter  the  foresaid  town  and  platform  with 
great  shot,  till  such  time  as  we  saw  the  red  cross  of  England  flourishing  upon  the  fore- 
front thereof. 

This  Fayal  is  the  priu'  'pal  town  in  all  that  island,  and  is  situate  directly  over  against 
the  high  and  mighty  mountain  Pico,  lying  towards  the  W.  N.  W.  from  that  mountain, 
being  divided  therefrom  by  a  narrow  sea,  which  at  that  place  is  by  estimation  about  some 
two  or  three  leagues  in  breadth,  between  the  isles  of  Fayal  and  Pico. 

The  town  contained  some  three  hundred  households ;  their  houses  were  fair,  and 
strongly  builded  of  lime  and  stone,  and  double  covered  with  hollow  tiles,  much  like  our 
roof-tiles,  but  that  they  are  less  at  the  one  end  than  at  the  other. 

Every  house  almost  had  a  cistern  or  well  in  a  garden  on  the  back-side :  in  which  gar- 
dens grew  vines  (with  ripe  clusters  of  grapes)  making  pleasant  shadows,  and  tobacco, 
now  commonly  known  and  used  in  England,  wherewith  their  women  there  dye  their 
faces  reddish,  to  make  them  seem  fresh  and  young :  pepper,  Indian  and  common ;  fig. 
trees  bearing  both  white  and  red  figs :  peach-trees  not  growing  very  tall :  oranges^ 
lemons,  quinces,  potatoe  roots,  &c.  Sweet  wood  (cedar,  I  think)  is  there  very  com- 
mon  even  for  building  and  firing. 

My  lord  having  possessed  himself  of  the  town  and  platform,  and  being  careful  of  the 
preservation  of  the  town,  gave  commandment,  that  no  mariner  nor  soldier  should  enter 
mto  any  house  to  make  any  spoil  thereof.  But  especially  he  was  careful  that  the  churches 
and  houses  of  reli^on  there  should  be  kept  inviolate,  which  was  accordingly  performed, 
through  his  appointment  of  guarders  and  keepers  for  those  places :  but  the  rest  of  the 
town,  either  for  want  of  the  former  inhibition,  or  for  desire  of  spoil  and  prey,  was  rifled, 
and  ransacked  by  the  soldiers  and  mariners,  who  scarcely  left  any  house  unsearched, 
out  of  which  they  took  such  things  as  liked  them,  as  chests  of  sweet  wood,  chairs,  cloth, 
coverlets,  hangings,  bidding,  apparel :  and  further  ranged  into  the  countr}',   where 


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CUMDEIlLANIk'S  VOYAfiB  TU  TUB  AZ0UR8. 


some  of  them  also  were  hurt  by  the  inhabitants.  The  friary  there  containing  and 
maintaining  thirty  Franciscan  friars  (among  whom  we  could  not  find  any  one  able  to 
siK'ak  true  Latin)  was  builded  by  a  friar  of  Angra,  in  Tercera,  of  the  same  order,  about 
the  year  of  our  Lord  1506.  The  tables  ii\  the  hall  had  seats  for  the  one  s;de  only,  and 
were  always  covered,  as  ready  at  all  times  for  dinner  or  supper. 

From  Wednesday  in  the  afternoon,  at  which  time  we  entered  the  town,  till  S;iturday 
night,  we  continued  there,  until  the  inhabitants  luid  agreed  and  paid  for  the  ransom  of 
the  town  two  thousand  ducats,  most  part  whereof  was  chu'-ch-plate. 

We  found  in  the  platform  eight-and-fifty  iroti  pieces  of  ordnance,  whereof  three- 
and-twenty  (as  I  remember)  or  more,  were  ready  mounted  upon  their  carriages,  be- 
tween barricadoes,  upon  a  platform  towards  the  sea-side ;  all  which  ordnance  we  took, 
and  set  the  platform  on  fire,  and  so  departed ;  my  lord  having  invited  to  dinner  in  the 
Victory,  on  the  Sunday  following,  so  many  of  the  inhabitants  as  would  willingly  come 
(save  only  Diego  Gomes,  the  governor,  who  came  but  once  only  to  parley  about  the 
ransom ;)  only  tour  came,  and  were  well  entcitained,  and  solemnly  dismissed  with  sound 
of  drum  and  trumpets,  and  a  peal  of  ordnance :  to  whom  my  lord  delivered  his  letter, 
subscribed  with  his  own  hand,  importing  a  request  to  all  other  Cnglishnaeo  to  abstain 
from  any  further  molesting  them,  save  Qnly  fqr  Jcefih  water  and  victuals  necessary  for 
their  intended  vovage.  During  our  abode  here  (viz.  the  eleventh  of  September)  two 
men  came  out  of  Pico,  which  had  been  prisoners  there :  also  at  Fayal  we  set  at  liberty 
a  prisoner  translated  from  St.  Jago,  who  was  cousin  to  a  servant  of  Don  Antonio,  king 
of  Portugal,  in  England :  these  prisoners  we  detained  with  us. 

On  Monday  we  sent  our  boats  ashore  for  fresh  water,  which  (by  reason  of  the  rain 
that  fell  the  former  night)  cante  plentifully  running  down  the  hills,  and  would  otherwise 
have  been  hard  to  be  gotten  there.  On  Tuesday  likewise,  having  not  yet  sufficiently 
ser>'ed  our  turns,  we  sent  again  for  fresh  water,  which  was  then  not  so  easy  to  be  gotten 
as  the  day  before,  by  reason  of  a  great  wind;,  which  in  the  afternoon  increased  also  in 
such  sort,  that'  we  thought  it  not  safe,  tKf}4^  9f>  near  the  land ;  whereupon  we  weighed 
anchor,  and  so  depaited  N.  W.  and  by  W;  alwig  the  coast  of  Fayal  island.  Some  of  the 
inhabitants  coming  on  board  to  us  this  day,  told  us,  that  always  about  that  time  of  the 
year  such  winds,  W.  S.  W.  blew  on  that  coast 

This  day,  as  we  sailed  near  St.  George's  Island,  a  huge  fish  lying  still  a  little  un- 
der water,  or  rather  even  therewith,  appeared  hard  by,  ahead  of  us ;  the  sea  break- 
ing upon  his  back,  which  was  black  coloured,  in  such  sort  as  deeming  at  the  first  it 
had  been  a  rock,  and  the  ship  stemming  directly  with  him,  we  were  put  in  a  sudden 
fear  for  the  time :  till  soon  a(|^  we  sew  him  move  out  of  l||^  way..    .; 

The  sixteenth  of  Septonher,  In  the  night,  it  lightened  nML  Ufboiupon  there 
followed  great  winds  and^ittint  which  continued  the  seventeM»'«ig»enth,  nine- 
teenth, twentieth,  and  twentpfirst  clothe  nune.  The  t^tilff.lllMwKlN^oer  we  came 
again  into  Fayal-road  to  weigh  an  anchor,  which  (for  haste  and  fear  of  foul  feather  we  had 
left  there  before,  where  we  went  on  shore  to  see  the  town,  the  people  (as  we  thought) 
having  now  settled  themselves  there  again :  but  notwithstanding  many  of  them  through 
too  much  distrustfulness  departed,  and  prepared  to  depart  with  their  packets,  at  the 
first  sight  oC  us ;  until  such  dme  as  they  were  assured  by  my  lord,  that  our  coming 
was  not  any  way  to. injure  them,  but  espccitUy.tO'havc  fiiesh  WJ^ti||;«t^^Qn¥^Qther  things 
needful  for  us,  contenting  them  for  the  same. 

So  then  we  viewed  the  town  quiedy,  and  bought  such  things  as  we  desired  for  our 
money,  as  if  we  had  been  in  England.  And  they  helped  to  $11  us  in  fi-esh  water,  receiving 
-for  their  pains  such  fatisfaction  as  contented  them.  >. 


ing  and 
:  able  to 
r,  uboiit 
niv,  and 

lyturday 
niiuin  of 

of  thrce- 
ges,  be- 
kve  took, 
cr  in  the 
;ly  come 
bout  the 
th  sound 
lis  letter, 
3  abstain 
isary  for 
bcr)  two 
It  liberty 
lio,  king 

the  rain 
>therwisc 
ifficiently 
begotten 
d  also  in 
weighed 
me  of  the 
ne  of  the 

little  un- 
?a  break- 
he  first  it 
a  sudden 

on  there 
th,  nine- 
we  came 
sr  we  hud 
thought) 
(1  through 
tSy  at  die 
r  coming 
iier  things 

d  for  our 
receiving 


M- 


{  .. 


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«xi>t,.  •*. ^ 


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V 


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CUMBKHLANI/S  VOYAUK  TO  TUB  AtORIUt. 


HU9 


The  twenty- fifth  day  we  were  forced  again  to  depart  from  thence,  before  wc  hud 
suflii  icntly  Wtttcrcd,  by  n:iUto<i  of  u  grt;tt  tcmpciit  that  liuddcnly  aro.^e  in  the  nifrltl, 
inoomuch,  that  my  lord  himself,  soon  afur  midnight,  raised  our  men  out  gf  their  cabiiiH 
to  weigh  anchor,  hinibelf  also  together  with  them  hauling  at  the  capsten,  and  after  chccr< 
itig  them  up  with  wine. 

The  next  diiy  wc  (tent  our  caravel  atul  the  Suwsic'Jack  to  the  road  of  St.  Michael,  to 
see  what  they  could  espy  :  we  following  after  them,  upon  the  twenty-^vcnth  day,  l>lying 
to  uiid  fro,  came  within  sight  of  St.  Michael,  but  by  contrary  wind'i,  the  twenty- 
eighth,  twenty -ninth,  and  thirtieth  days,  wc  were  driven  to  leeward,  am.  could  nut  get 
near  the  iUand. 

The  firbt  of  October  wc  sailed  alongst  Tcrccra,  and  evei?  against  Brazil  (a  pro- 
moniory  near  to  Angra,  the  strongest  town  in  tliat  island)  we  espied  some  boats  coming 
to  the  town,  and  nude  out  towards  them ;  but  tieiiig  near  to  land,  they  ran  to  shore, 
and  escaped  us. 

In  the  utternoon  we  came  near  to  Gracioiia,  whereupon  my  lord  forthwith  sent  cap. 
tain  Lister  to  the  islanders,  to  lei  them  understand  that  his  desire  was  only  to  have  water 
and  wiiieof  them,  and  some  fresh  victuals,  and  not  any  further  to  trouble  them.  They 
answered  they  could  give  no  resolute  answer  to  this  dematid,  until  the  governors  of  the 
island  had  consulted  thereupon,  and  therefore  desired  him  to  send  again  to  them  the  next 
day. 

Upon  the  second  day,  early  in  the  morning,  wc  sent  forth  our  long  boat  and  pin- 
nace, with  empty  casks,  and  about  some  50  or  60  men,  together  with  the  Margaret, 
and  captain  Davis  his  ship ;  for  we  now  wanted  all  the  rest  of  our  consorts.  Just  when 
our  men  would  have  landed,  the  inlanders  shot  at  them,  and  would  not  suffer  them. 
And  troops  of  men  appeared  upon  land,  with  ensigns  displayed,  to  resist  us :  so  our 
boats  rowed  alongst  the  shore  to  find  some  place  where  they  might  land,  not  with  too 
much  disadvantage ;  our  ships  and  they  still  shooting  at  the  islanders :  but  noplace  could 
be  tbund  where  they  might  land  without  great  peril  of  losing  many  of  their  lives,  and  so 
were  constrained  to  retire  without  receiving  any  answer,  as  was  promised  the  day  before. 
We  had  three  men  hurt  in  this  conflict,  whilst  our  boats  were  together  in  consulting 
what  was  best  to  be  done  :  two  of  tliem  were  struck  with  a  great  snot  (which  the  islan- 
ders drew  from  place  to  place  with  oxen)  wherewith  the  one  lost  his  hand,  and  the  other 
his  life,  within  two  or  three  days  after :  the  third  was  shot  into  his  neck  ^vith  a  small  shot, 
without  any  great  hurt. 

With  these  news  our  company  returned  back  again  at  night,  whereupon  prepara- 
tion was  made  to  go  to  them  again  the  next  day  ;  but  the  day  was  far  spent  before  we 
coidd  come  near  them  with  our  ship :  neither  could  we  find  any  good  ground  to  an- 
chor in,  where  we  might  lie  to  batter  the  town,  and  further  we  could  find  no  landing 
place,  wiUiout  great  danger  to  lose  many  men ;  which  might  turn  not  only  to  the 
overthrow  of  our  voyage,  but  also  put  the  queen's  ship  in  great  peiil,  for  want  of  men 
to  bring  her  home,  fherefi^re  my  lord  thought  it  best  to  write  to  them  to  this  eflect : 
that  he  could  not  a  little  marvel  at  the  inhumamtr  and  cruelty  which  they  had  shew- 
ed towards  his  men,  seeing  they  were  sent  by  him  unto  them  in  peaceable  manner, 
to  receive  their  answer,  miich  they  liad  promised  to  give  the  day  before:  and  that , 
were  it  not  for  Don  Antonio,  their  lawful  king,  his  sake,  he  could  not  put  up  so  great 
injury  at  their  hands,  without  just  revengement  upon  them:  notwiUistanding,  for  Don 
Autdnio  his  sake,  whose  friend  he  was,  he  was  yet  content  to  send  to  them  once  again 
for  tlieir  answer:  at  night  captain  Lister  returned  witn  this  answer  from  them ;  that 
their  gunner  shot  off  one  of  their  pieces,  which  was  charged  with  powder  only,  and 

vot.  I.  5  L 


I 


I 


!l 


t 

!( 


<i 


810 


Ct'MliKKLANU'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AXUUE8. 


.t 
l\ 
(I 


'i 


W(Ut  stomtcd  ;  which  uur  men,  thinking  it  had  been  shot  nt  them,  shut  again,  and  so 
iKgan  the  tight :  and  that  the  next  morning  they  would  send  my  lord  a  resolute  answer 
to  his  diotnod,  fur  as  yet  they  could  not  KnoM-  their  governor's  mind  herein.  The 
next  morning  there  cumc  unto  uh  a  txxit  from  tiiitc  shore  with  u  flag  of  truce,  wherein 
were  three  o?  the  eltief  men  of  the  island,  who  agreed  with  my  lord  that  he  should 
have  of  them  60  butts  of  wine,  and  fresh  victuals,  to  refresh  himself  and  his  company 
withul :  but  as  for  fresh  water  they  could  not  s;itisfy  our  need  thcrc^in,  having  them- 
selves little  or  none,  saving  such  as  they  saved  in  vessels  or  cisterns  when  it  rained,  and 
that  they  had  rather  >^ivc  us  two  .uns  of  wine  than  one  of  water ;  but  they  requested 
that  our  soldiers  miglit  not  come  on  shore,  for  they  themselves  would  bring  all  they 
had  promised  to  the  water-side,  which  retiuest  was  granted,  we  keeping  one  of  them 
aboard  with  us  until  their  promise  was  performed,  and  the  others  wc  sent  to  shore 
with  our  empty  casks,  and  some  of  our  men  to  lielp  to  fill  and  bring  them  uwav,  with 
Mich  other  provision  U3  was  promised :  so  the  Margaret,  captain  Davis  his  ship,  and 
another  of  Weymouth,  staid  riding  ut  anchor  before  the  town,  to  take  in  our  provi- 
sion. This  ship  of  Weymouth  cumc  to  uh  the  day  before,  and  had  taken  a  rich  prize, 
as  it  was  reported)  worth  sixteen  thousand  pounds,  whicli  brought  us  news  that  the 
Vest  Indian  fleet  was  not  yet  come,  but  would  come  very  shortlj'.  But  we  with  the 
Victory  put  off  to  sea,  and  upon  Saturday,  the  fourth,  wc  look  a  French  ship  of  St. 
Male  (u  city  of  the  un^wly  league)  laden  widi  fish  from  Newfoundland,  which  had 
been  in  so  great  atempe^;,  that  she  was  constrained  to  cut  her  main  mast  overboard  for 
her  safety,  and  was  now  coming  to  Graciosa  to  repair  herself.  But  so  hardly  it  befell 
her,  that  she  did  not  only  not  repair  her  former  losses,  but  lost  all  that  remained  unto 
us.  The  chief  of  her  men  we  took  into  our  own  ship,  and  sent  some  of  our  men,  mori- 
ners  and  soldiers,  into  her,  to  bring  her  into  England. 

Upon  the  Sunday  following,  ut  night,  all  our  promised  provision  was  brought 
unto  us  from  Graciosa ;  !\nd  we  friendly  dismissed  the  islanders  with  a  peal  of  ord- 
nance. 

Upon  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday,  we  plyed  to  and  fro  about  these  islands, 
being  very  rough  weather.  And  upon  Thuraday  at  night,  being  driven  some  three  or 
four  leagues  trom  Tercera,  wc  saw  15  sail  of  the  West  Indian  fleet  coming  into  the 
liaven  ut  Angra  in  Tercera.  But  the  wind  was  such,  that  for  the  space  of  four  days 
lifter,  though  we  lay  as  close  by  the  wind  as  possible,  yet  we  could  not  come  near 
them.  In  this  time  we  lost  our  late  French  prize,  not  being  able  to  lie  so  near  the 
wind  as  we,  and  heard  no  more  of  her  till  we  came  to  England*  where  she  safely  ar- 
rived. Upon  Monday  we  came  very  near  the  haven's  mouth,  being  minded  to  have 
run  in  amongst  them,  and  to  have  fetched  out  some  of  them,  if  it  had  been  possible: 
but  in  the  end  this  enterprise,  was  deemed  too  dangerous,  considering  the  strength  of 
the  place  where  they  rode,  being  haled  and  towed  in  nearer  the  town,  at  the  first  sight 
of  our  approaching,  and  lying  under  the  protection  of  the  castle  of  Brazil  on  the  one 
side  (having  in  it  five  and  twenty  pieces  of  ordnance)  and  a  fort  on  the  other  side, 
wherein  were  thirteen  or  fourteen  great  brass  pieces.  Besides,  when  we  came  near 
land,  the  wmd  prored  too  scant  for  us  to  attempt  any  such  enterprise. 

Upon  Tuesday  the  fourteenth,  we  sent  our  boat  to  the  road  to  sound  the  depth,  to 
see  if  there  were  any  anchoring  place  for  us,  where  we  might  lie  without  shot  of  the 
castle  and  fort,  and  within  shot  of  some  of  those  ships,  that  we  might  either  make  them 
come  out  to  us,  or  sink  them  where  they  lay.  Our  boat  returned,  having  found  out 
such  a  place  as  we  desired,  but  the  wind  would  not  suflPer  us  to  come  near  it,  and  again, 
if  we  could  have  anchored  there,  it  was  thought  likely  that  they  would  rather  run  them- 


CUMDERLAND'S  VOYAOK  TO    lilt   /VZORti*. 


ijll 


to 
a/. 


,  uiid  so 
answer 
.     The 
wherein 
Hhotikl 
ompany 
>g  them- 
ntd,  and 
quested 
all  they 
of  them 
shore 
with 
lip,  and 
ir  provi' 
:h  prize, 
that  the 
with  the 
of  St. 
lich  hud 
oard  for 
it  befell 
led  unto 
n,  mari< 

brought 
I  of  ord- 

islands, 
three  or 
into  the 
>ur  days 
ne  near 
near  the 
ifely  ar- 
to  have 
sssible : 
ngth  of 
St  sight 
the  one 
T  side, 
ic  near 

pth,  to 

of  the 
ethem 
nd  out 

again, 

them. 


selves  a-ground  to  save  their  lives  and  lil)crties,  and  some  of  ilicii'  gu<xU,  ili.iii  come 
forth  to  lose  their  liberties  and  tlicir  goods  to  us  their  enemies.  So  wc  shot  at  tlum, 
to  see  if  we  could  reach  them,  but  it  fell  far  short.  And  thus  we  departed,  thinking 
it  not  probable  that  they  would  come  forth  so  long  as  we  watched  them  before  the  ha- 
ven's mouth,  or  within  sight  of  them.  For  thespivceof  five  days  after  wc  put  oft' to 
kea,  and  lay  without  sight  of  them ;  and  sent  a  pinnace  to  lay  out  of  sight  close  by  the 
shore,  to  bring  us  word  if  they  should  come  forth.  After  a  while  the  pinnace  returned, 
and  told  us,  that  those  ships  in  the  haven  had  taken  down  their  sails,  and  letdown  their 
top-masts  :  so  that  we  supposed  they  would  never  come  forth,  till  they  perceived  us  to 
be  quite  gone. 

Wherefore,  upon  the  twentieth,  hearing  that  there  were  certain  Scottish  ships  at 
St.  Michael,  we  sailed  thither,  and  found  there  one  Scottish  rouder,  and  two  or 
three  more  at  Villa  Franca,  the  next  road,  a  league  or  two  from  the  town  of  St.  Mi- 
chael, to  the  eastwards  :  of  whom  we  had  fur  our  relief  some  small  quantity  of  wine 
(viz.  some  five  or  six  butts  of  them  all)  and  some  fresh  water,  but  nothing  sutficicnt  to 
serve  our  turn. 

Upon  Tuesday  the  one>and<twentieth,  we  sent  our  long-boat  to  shore  for  fresh 
water  at  u  brook,  a  little  to  westwards  from  Villa  Franca. 

But  the  inhabitants,  espying  us,  came  down  with  two  ensigns  displayed,  and  about 
some  hundred-and-fifty  men  armed,  to  withstand  our  landing.  So  our  men,  having 
spent  all  their  powder  upon  them  in  attempting  to  land,  and  not  being  able  to  prevail  at 
so  great  odds,  returned  frustrate. 

From  hence  we  departed  towards  St.  Mary's  island,  minding  to  water  there,  and 
then  to  go  for  the  coast  of  Spain.  For  we  had  intelligence  that  it  was  a  place  of  no 
great  force,  and  that  we  might  water  there  very  well :  therefore,  upon  Friday  follow- 
ing, my  lord  sent  captain  Lister,  and  captain  Amias  Preston,  now  sir  Amias  Preston 
(who  not  long  before  came  to  us  out  of  his  own  ship,  and  she  losing  us  in  the  night,  he 
was  forced  to  tarry  still  with  us)  with  our  long-boat  and  pinnace,  and  some  sixty  or 
seventy  shot  in  them,  with  a  friendly  letter  to  tne  islanders,  that  they  would  grant  ur 
leave  to  water,  and  we  would  no  further  trouble  them. 

So  we  departed  from  the  Victory  for  the  island,  about  nine  of  the  clock  in  the  fore- 
noon, and  rowed  freshly  until  about  three  o'clock  afternoon.  At  which  time  our  men 
being  somewhat  weary  of  rowing,  and  being  within  a  league  or  two  of  the  shore  and 
four  or  five  leagues  from  the  Victory,  they  espied  (to  their  refreshing)  two  ships  riding 
at  anchor,  hard  under  the  town ;  whereupon,  having  shifted  some  six  or  seven  of 
our  men  into  captain  Davis  his  boat,  being  too  much  pestered  in  our  own,  and  detain- 
ing with  us  some  twenty  shot  in  the  pinnace,  we  made  way  towards  them  with  all  the 
speed  we  could. 

By  the  way,  as  we  rowed,  we  saw  boats  passing  between  the  readers  and  the  shore,  and 
me.i  in  their  shirts  swimming  and  wading  to  shore,  who,  as  we  perceived  afterwards, 
were  labouring  to  set  those  ships  fast  on  ground,  and  the  inhabitants  as  busily  preparing 
themselves  for  the  defence  of  those  roaders,  their  island,  and  themselves.  When  we 
came  near  them,  captain  Lister  commanded  the  trumpets  to  be  sounded,  but  prohi. 
bited  any  shot  to  be  discharged  at  them,  until  they  had  direction  from  him :  but  some 
of  the  company,  either  not  well  perceiving  or  regarding  what  he  siiid,  immediately 
upon  the  sound  of  the  trumpets  discharged  their  pieces  at  the  islanders,  which,  for  the 
most  part,  lay  in  trenches  and  fortified  places,  unseen,  to  their  own  best  advantage, 
who  immediately  shot  likewise  at  us,  both  with  small  and  great  shot,  without  danger 
to  themselves :  notwithstandingi  captain  Lister  earnesdy  hastened  forward  the  sailors 

5  L  2 


r 


812 


CUMBERLAND'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZOBES. 


that  rowed,  who  began  to  shrink  at  that  shot  Bying  so  fast  about  their  ears,  and  him- 
Nelf  first  entering  one  of  the  shipa  that  lay  a  little  farther  from  the  shore  than  the  other, 
we  speedily  followed  after  him  into  her,  still  pi}  ing  them  with  our  shot.  And  having 
cut  in  sunder  her  cables  and  hawsers,  towed  ner  away,  with  our  pinnace.  In  the  mean 
time  captain  Daviy  his  boat  overtook  us,  and  entered  into  the  other  ship,  which  also 
(as  the  former)  was  forsiiken  by  all  her  men :  but  they  were  constrained  to  leave  her, 
and  to  come  again  into  their  boat  (whilst  i  hot  and  stones,  from  shore,  flew  fast  among 
them)  finding  her  to  stick  so  fast  a- ground  that  they  could  not  stir  her;  which  the 
townsmen  also  perceiving,  and  seeing  that  they  were  but  few  in  number,  and  us  (busi- 
ed about  the  other  ship)  not  coming  to  aid  them,  were  preparing  to  have  come  and 
taken  them.  But  they  returned  unto  us,  and  so,  together,  we  came  away  towards 
the  Victory,  towing  after  us  the  prize  that  we  had  now  taken,  which  was  lately  come 
from  Brazil,  laden  with  sugar. 

In  this  fight  we  had  two  men  slain,  and  sixteen  wounded :  and  as  for  them,  it  is  like 
they  had  little  hurt,  lying,  for  the  most  part,  behind  stone  walls,  which  were  buikied 
one  above  another  hard  by  the  sea  side,  upon  the  end  of  the  hill,  whereupon  the  town 
stood,  betwixt  two  vallies.  Upon  the  top  of  tite  hill  lay  their  great  ordnance  (such  as 
they  had)  wherewith  they  shot  leaden  bullets,  wherw*of  one  pierced  through  our  prize's 
side,  and  lay  still  in  the  ship,  without  doing  any  more  harm. 

The  next  day  we  went  again  to  the  same  island,  but  not  knowing  before  the  incon- 
venience  and  disadvantage  of  the  place  where  we  attempted  to  land,  we  returned  frus- 
trate. 

The  same  night,  the  twenty  fifth,  wt  Jeparted  for  St.  George's  Island,  for  fresh 
water,  whither  we  came  on  Nlonday  following  October  twenty-seven  ;  and  having  es- 
pied where  a  spout  of  water  came  running  down,  tht  pinnace  and  long-boat  were  pre- 
sently manned,  and  sent  under  the  conduct  of  cap*:uin  Preston  and  captain  Munson, 
by  whom  my  lord  sent  a  letter  to  the  islanders  as  brfore,  to  grant  us  leave  to  water 
only,  and  we  would  no  further  trouble  them :  notwithstanding,  our  men  coming  on 
shore,  found  some  of  the  poor  islanders,  which,  for  fear  of  us,  hid  themselves  amongst 
the  rocks. 

And  on  Wednesday  following  our  boats  returned  with  fresh  water,  whereof  they 
brought  only  six  tuns  for  the  Victii",  alltdgmg  they  could  get  no  more,  thinking 
(as  it  was  supposed)  that  my  lord,  ^i  ving  no  more  provision  of  water  and  wine  but 
only  12  tuns,  would  not  go  for  the  coest  of  Spain,  but  straight  fer  the  coast  of  Eng- 
land, as  many  of  our  men  greatly  desired :  notwithstanding  my  lord  was  unwilling  so 
to  do,  and  wo  s  minded  the  next  day  to  have  taken  in  more  water  :  but  througli 
roughness  of  the  seas  and  wind,  and  unwillingness  oi  his  men,  it  was  not  done.  Yet 
his  honour  purposed  not  to  return  with  so  much  provision  unspent,  and  his  voyage  (as 
he  thought)  not  yet  performed  in  such  sort,  as  might  gi^e  some  reasonable  contentment 
or  satisfaction  to  himself  and  others. 

Therefore,  because  no  more  water  could  now  conveniently  be  gotten,  and  being  un- 
certain when  it  would  be  gotten,  and  the  time  of  our  stayir^  aboard  also  uncertain, 
the  matter  being  referred  to  the  choice  of  the  whole  company,  whether  they  would 
tarry  longer  till  we  might  be  more  sufficiently  provided  of  fresh  water,  or  go  by  the 
const  of  Spain  for  England,  with  half  so  much  allowance  rif  drink  as  before,  they  wil- 
lingly agreed  tliat  every  mess  should  be  allowed  at  one  meal  but  half  so  much  drink 
as  they  were  accustomed  (except  them  that  were  sick  and  wounded)  and  so  to  go  for 
England,  taking  the  coast  of  Spain  in  our  way,  to  see  if  wecouki  that  way  make  up 
our  voyage.  .^,  ...  ..      ,..       .:/.-  ■-:■' 


4'ir  '• 


CUMRRRLAND'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZORES. 


813 


ng  un- 
certain, 

would 
by  the 
y  wiU 

drink 
go  for 
ike  up 


Upon  Saturday  thirty-first,  we  sent  the  Margaret  (because  she  leaked  much)  directly 
for  Lnglmid,  together  wliii  the  prize  of  Brazil  which  we  took  at  St.  Mary,  and  in  them 
some  of  our  hurt  and  wounded  men,  or  otherwise  sick,  were  sent  home  as  they  desired 
for  England :  but  captain  Munson  was  taken  out  of  the  Megg  into  the  Victory. 

So  we  held  on  our  course  for  the  coast  of  Spain,  with  a  fair  wind  and  a  large,  which 
before  we  seldom  had.  And  upon  Tuesday  following,  being  the  fourth  of  November, 
we  espied  a  sail  right  before  us,  which  we  chased  till  about  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, at  which  time,  we  overtaking  her,  she  struck  sail,  and  being  demanded  who 
was  her  owner,  and  from  whence  she  was,  they  answered,  a  Portugal,  and  from  Per- 
nanbuck  in  Brazil.  She  w:  x  ship  of  some  hundred  and  ten  tons  burden,  freighted 
with  four  hundred  and  ten  <.  nests  of  sugar,  and  fifty  kintals  of  Brazil-wood ;  every 
kintal  containing  one  hundred  pound  weight :  we  took  her  in  latitude  nine-and-twenty 
degrees,  and  about  two  hundred  leagues  from  Lisbon,  westwards  :  Captain  Preston  was 
presently  sent  unto  her,  who  brought  the  principal  of  her  men  aboard  the  Victory, 
and  certain  of  our  men,  mariners  and  soldiers,  were  sent  aboard  her.  The  Portugal! 
of  this  prize  told  us  that  they  saw  another  ship  before  them  that  day,  about  noon. 
Having  therefore  dispatched  all  things  about  the  prize  aforesaid,  and  left  our  long-boat 
with  captain  Davis,  taking  his  lesser  boat  with  us,  we  made  way  after  this  other  ship  with 
all  the  sails  we  could  bear,  holding  on  our  course  due  £.  and  giving  order  to  captain 
Davis  his  ship  and  the  prize,  that  they  should  follow  us  due  E.  and  that  if  they  had 
sight  of  us  the  morning  following,  they  should  follow  us,  if  not,  they  should  go  for 
England. 

The  next  morning  we  espied  not  the  sail  which  we  chased,  and  captain  Davis 
his  ship  and  the  prize  were  behind  us  out  of  sight :  but  the  next  Thursday,  the  sixth, 
(being  in  latitude  38°  30',  and  about  60  leagues  from  Lisbon,  westwards)  early  in  the 
morning  captain  Preston  descried  a  sail,  some  two  or  three  leagues  a-head  of  us,  after 
which,  we  presently  hastened  our  chase,  and  overtook  her  about  eight  or  nine  of  the 
dock  before  noon.  SKl  came  lately  from  St.  Michael's  road,  having  been  before  at 
Brazil,  laden  with  sugar  and  brazile.  Having  sent  our  boat  to  bring  some  of  the  chief 
of  their  men  aboard  the  Victory,  in  the  mean  time,  whilst  they  were  in  coming  to  us, 
one  out  of  the  mam  top  espied  another  sail  a-head,  some  three  or  four  leagues  from  us. 

So,  immediately  upon  the  return  of  our  boat,  having  sent  her  back  again  with  some 
of  our  men  aboard  the  prize,  we  pursued  speedily  this  new  chase,  with  all  the  sails  we 
could  pack  on,  and  about  two  6*clock  in  the  afternoon  overtook  her :  she  h^d  made 
provision  to  fight  with  us,  having  hanged  the  sides  of  the  ship  so  thick  with  hides 
(wherewith  especially  she  was  laden)  that  musket  shot  would  not  have  pierced  them  : 
but  when  we  had  discharged  two  great  pieces  of  our  ordnance  at  her,  she  struck  sail,  and 
approaching  nearer,  we  asking  of  whence  they  were,  they  answered  from  the  flast 
Indies,  from  Mexitd,  and  St.  Joan  de  Lowe  (truly  called  Ulkua.)  This  ship  was  of 
some  three  or  four  hundred  tons,  and  had  in  her  seven  hundred  hides,  worth  ten  shil- 
lings  a  piece :  six  chests  of  cochineal,  every  chest  holding  one  hundred  pound  weight, 
and  every  pound  worth  six  and  twenty  shillings  and  eight  pence,  and  certain  chests  of 
sugar  and  China  dishes,  with  some  plate  and  silver. 

The  captain  of  her  was  an  Italian,  and  by  his  behaviour  seemed  to  be  a  grave,  wise, 
and  civil  man ;  he  had  put  in  adventure  in  this  nhip,  five  and  twenty  thousand  ducats. 
We  took  him  with  certain  other  of  her  chiefeat  men  (which  were  Spaniards)  into  the 
Victory  ;  and  captain  Lister  with  so  many  other  of  the  chiefest  of  our  mariners,  soldiers, 
and  sailors,  as  were  thought  sufficient,  to  thfe  number  of  twenty  or  thereabouts,  were  sent 
into  her.    In  the  mean  time  (we  staying)  our  prizes,  which  followed  after,  came  up  te 


■■ 


814. 


CL'.MBEUL\ND'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZORES. 


US.  And  now  we  had  our  hands  full,  and  with  joy  shaped  our  course  for  England; 
for  so  it  was  thoueht  meetest,  having  now  so  many  Portugals,  Spaniards,  and  French- 
men amongst  us,  That,  if  we  should  have  taken  an\  more  prizes  afterwards,  we  had  not 
been  well  able  to  have  manned  them  without  endangering  ourselves.  So  about  six  of  tlit 
clock  in  the  afternoon  (when  our  other  '/rize  had  overtaken  us)  we  set  sail  for  Eng- 
land. But  our  prizes  not  being  able  to  bear  us  company  without  sparing  them  many 
of  our  sails,  which  caused  our  ship  to  roll  and  wallow,  that  it  was  not  only  very  trou- 
blesome to  us,  but,  as  it  was  thought,  would  also  have  put  the  main  mast  in  danger  of 
falling  overboard :  having  acquainted  them  with  these  inconveniences,  we  gave  them 
direction  to  keep  their  courses  together,  following  us,  and  so  to  come  to  Portsmouth. 
We  took  this  last  prize  in  the  latitude  of  39°,  and  a'x)ut  forty-six  leagues  to  the  westwards 
from  the  Rock. 

She  was  one  of  those  sixteen  ships  which  we  saw  going  into  the  haven  at  Angra  in  Ter- 
cera,  October  eighth.  Some  of  the  men  that  we  took  out  of  her  told  us,  that  whilst 
we  were  plying  up  and  down  before  that  haven,  as  before  was  shewed,  expecting  the 
coming  forth  of  those  ships,  three  of  the  greatest  and  best  of  them,  at  the  appointment 
of  the  governoi  of  Tercera,  were  unladen  of  their  treasure  and  merchandise,  and  in 
every  of  them  were  put  three  hundred  soldiers,  which  were  appointed  to  have  come  to 
lay  the  Victory  aboard  in  the  night,  and  take  her ;  but  when  this  should  have  been 
done,  the  Victory  was  gone  out  of  their  sight. 

Now  we  went  merrily  before  the  wind  with  all  the  sails  we  could  bear,  insomuch^ 
that  in  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours  we  sailed  near  47  leagues,  that  is  seven  score 
English  miles,  betwixt  Friday  at  noon  and  Saturday  at  noon  (notwith^^tanding  the 
ship  was  very  foul,  and  much  grown  with  long  being  at  sea)  which  caused  some  of 
our  company  to  make  accompt  they  would  see  what  running  at  tilt  there  should  be  at 
Whitehall  upon  the  queen's  day.  Others  where  imagining  what  a  Christmas  they  would 
keep  in  England  with  their  shares  of  the  prizes  we  had  taken.  But  so  it  befell,  that 
we  kept  a  cold  Christmas  with  the  Bishop  and  his  Cle>ks  (rocks  that  lie  to  the  west- 
wards from  Sylly,  and  the  western  parts  of  England:)  for  soon  after  the  wind  scanting 
came  about  to  th^  eastwards  (the  worst  part  of  the  heavens  for  us  from  which  the 
wind  could  blow)  in  such  sort,  that  we  could  not  fetch  any  part  of  England.  And 
liereupon  also  our  allowance  of  drink,  which  was  scant  enough  before,  was  yet  more 
scanted,  because  of  the  scarcity  thereof  in  the  ship.  So  diat  now  a  man  was  allowed 
but  half  a  pint  at  a  meal,  and  that  many  times  cold  water,  and  scarce  sweet.  Not- 
withstanding, this  was  a  happy  state  in  comparison  of  that  which  followed ;  for  from 
half  a  pint  we  came  to  a  quarter,  and  that  las  ed  not  long  neither;  so  that  by  reason 
of  this  great  scarcity  of  drink,  and  contrarieiy  of  wind,  we  thought  to  put  into  Ire- 
land, there  to  relieve  our  wants.  But  when  we  came  near  thither,  lying  at  Hull  ril 
night  (tarrying  for  the  day-light  of  the  next  morning,  whereby  we  might  the  safe- 
lier  bring  our  ship  into  some  convenient  harbour  there)  we  were  driven  so  far  to  lee- 
ward that  we  could  fetch  no  part  of  Ireland,  so  as  with  heavy  hearts  and  sad  cheer  we 
were  constrained  to  return  back  again,  and  expect  till  it  should  please  God  to  send  us 
a  fair  wind  either  for  England  or  Ireland.  In  the  mean  time  we  were  allowed  every 
man  three  or  four  spoo;isfull  of  vinegar  to  drink  at  a  mefll ;  for  other  drink  we  had 
none,  saving  only  at  two  or  three  meals,  when  we  had  instead  thereof  as  much  wine, 
which  was  wringed  out  of  wine-lees  that  remained;  With  this  hard  fare  (for  by  rea- 
son of  our  great  want  of  drink  we  durst  eat  but  very  little)  we  continued  for  the  space 
of  a  fortnight  or  thereabouts ;  saving  that  now  and  then  we  feasted  for  it  in  the  mean 
time ;  and  that  was  when  there  k\l  any  hail  or  rain :  the  hail-stones  we  gathered  up, 


1 


CUMDBULAND'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZORES. 


815 


Mild  did  eat  them  more  pleasantly  than  if  they  had  been  the  sweetest  comfits  in  the 
world  ;  the  rain>drops  were  so  carefully  saved,  that,  so  near  as  we  could,  not  one  was 
lost  in  at!  our  ship.  Some  hanged  up  sheets  tyed  with  cords  by  the  four  corners,  and 
a  weight  in  the  midst,  that  the  water  might  run  down  thither,  and  so  be  received  into 
some  vessel  set  or  hanged  underneath  ;  some  that  wanted  sheets  hanged  up  napkins  and 
clouts,  and  watched  them  till  they  were  thorough  wet,  then  wringing  and  sucking  out 
the  water.  And  that  water  which  fell  down  and  washed  the  filth  and  soiling  of  the  ship, 
trod  under  foot,  as  bad  as  running  down  the  kennel  many  times  when  it  raincth,  was 
not  lost  I  warrant  you,  but  watched  and  attended  carefully  (yea  sometimes  with  strife 
and  contention)  at  every  scupper  hole,  and  other  place  where  it  ran  down,  >vith  dishes, 
pots,  cans,  and  jars,  whereof  some  drank  hearty  draughts  even  as  it  was,  mud  and  all, 
without  tarrying  to  cleanse  or  settle  it :  others  cleansed  it  first,  but  not  often,  for  it  was 
,  so  thick  and  went  so  slowly  through,  that  they  might  ill  endure  to  tarry  so  long,  and 
were  loth  to  lose  too  much  of  such  precious  stuff;  some  licked  with  their  tongues 
(like  dogs)  the  boards  under  feet,  the  sides,  raits,  and  masts  of  the  ship ;  others,  that 
were  more  ingenious,  fastened  girdles  or  ropes  about  the  masts,  daubing  tallow  betwixt 
them  and  the  masts  (that  the  rain  might  not  run  down  between)  in  such  sort,  that  those 
ropes  or  girdles  hanging  lower  on  the  one  side  than  on  the  other,  a  spout  of  leather 
was  fastened  to  the  lower  part  of  them,  that  all  the  rain  drops  that  came  running  down 
the  mast  might  meet  together  at  that  place,  mid  there  be  received. 
.  He  that  got  a  can  of  water  by  these  means  was  spoken  of,  sued  to,  and  envied,  as  a  rich 
man,  "  Quam  pulchrum  digito  monstrari  et  dicier  hie  est  ?"  Some  of  the  poor  Spaniards 
that  we  had  taken  (who  notwithstanding  had  the  same  allowance  that  our  own  men  had) 
would  come  and  crave  of  us,  for  the  love  of  God,  but  so  much  water  as  they  could  hold 
in  the  hollow  of  their  hand  ;  and  they  had  it,  notwithstanding  our  great  extremity,  to  teach 
them  some  humanity,  instead  of  their  accustomed  barbarity,  both  to  us  and  other  nations 
heretofore.     They  put  also  bullets  of  lead  into  their  mouths,  to  slake  their  thirst. 

Now  in  every  comer  of  the  ship  were  heard  the  lamentable  cries  of  sick  and  wounded 
men,  sounding  woefully  in  our  ears,  crying  out,  and  pitifully  complainir.g  for  want  of 
drink,  being  ready  to  die,  yea  many  dying  for  lack  thereof;  so  as  by  reason  of  this 
great  extremity  we  lost  many  more  men,  than  we  had  done  all  the  voyage  before : 
having  before  this  time  been  so  well  and  sufficiently  provided  for,  that  we  lived  in  a 
manner  as  well  and  healthfully,  and  died  as  few,  as  if  we  had  been  in  England,  whereas 
now  lightly  every  day  some  were  cast  overboard. 

But  the  second  day  of  December,  1589,  was  a  festival  day  with  us,  for  then  it  rained 
a  good  pace,  and  we  saved  some  pretty  store  of  rain  water  (though  we  were  well  wet 
for  it,  and  that  at  midnight)  and  filled  our  skins  full  besides ;  notwithstanding  it  were 
muddy  and  bitter  with  washing  the  ship,  but  (with  some  sugar  which  we  had  to  sweeten 
it  withal)  it  went  merrily  down,  yet  remembered  we,  and  wished  for  with  all  our  hearts, 
many  a  conduit,  pump,  spring,  and  stream  of  clear  sweet  running  water  in  England ; 
and  how  miserable  we  had  accounted  some  poor  souls,  whom  we  had  seen  driven 
for  thirst  to  drink  thereof,  and  how  happy  we  would  now  have  thought  ourselves,  if 
we  might  have  had  our  &\h  of  the  same  ;  yet  should  we  have  fared  the  better  with 
this  our  poor  feasting,  if  we  might  have  had  our  mt^at  and  drink  (such  and  so  much  as  it 
was)  stand  quietly  before  us :  but  besides  all  the  formti  i  k  t  remities,  we  were  so  tossed  and 
turmoiled  with  such  horrible  stormy  and  tempestuous  weather,  that  every  man  had  best 
hold  fast  his  can,  cup,  and  dish,  in  his  hands,  yea  and  himself  too,  many  times,  by  the 
ropes,  rails,  or  side  of  the  ship,  or  else  he  should  soon  find  all  under  feet. 


HpimT-in" 


816 


CUMBRRLANiyS  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZORKS. 


Herewith  our  main  sail  was  tore  from  the  yard,  and  blown  overboard  quite  away  into 
the  sea,  without  recovery,  and  our  other  sails  so  rent  and  torn  (from  side  to  side,  some 
of  them)  thut  hardly  any  of  them  escaped  whole.  The  raging  waves  and  foaming  surges 
of  the  sea  came  rolling  like  mountains  one  afler  another,  and  overraked  the  waste  of 
the  ship  like  a  mighty  river  running  over  it,  whereas  in  fair  weather  it  was  near  twenty 
feet  above  the  water,  that  now  we  might  cr)'  out,  with  the  princely  prophet.  Psalm 
107,  V.  xxvi.  ♦*  They  mount  up  to  Heaven,  and  descend  to  the  deep,  so  that  their  soul 
melteth  away  for  trouble :  they  reel  to  and  fro,  and  stagger  like  a  drunken  man,  and 
all  their  cunning  is  gone."  With  this  extremity  of  foul  weather  the  ship  was  so  tossed 
and  shaken,  that  b)-  the  cracking  noise  it  made,  and  by  the  leaking,  which  was  novip 
much  more  than  ordinary,  we  were  in  great  feur  it  would  have  shaken  in  sunder,  so  that 
now  also  we  had  just  cause  to  pray  a  little  otherwise  than  the  poet,  though  marring  the 
verse,  yet  mending  the  meaning. 

Deus  maris  et  call,  quid  enim  nisi  vota  supersunt 

Solvere.,  quassata  parcito  membra  ratis.  ..  - 

Notwithstanding  it  pleased  God,  of  his  great  goodness,  to  deliver  us  out  of  this  dan- 
ger. Then  forthwith  a  new  main  sail  was  made  and  fastened  to  the  yard,  and  the  rest 
repaired  as  time  and  place  would  suffer,  which  we  had  no  sooner  done,  but  yet  again  we 
were  troubled  v/ith  as  great  extremity  as  before,  so  that  again  we  were  Hke  to  have 
lost  our  new  main  sail,  had  not  master  William  Anthony,  the  master  of  the  ship,  him- 
self (when  none  else  would  or  durst)  ventured,  with  danger  of  drowning,  by  creeping 
along  upon  the  main  yard  (which  was  let  down  close  to  the  rails)  to  gather  it  up  out  of 
the  sea,  and  to  fasten  it  thereto,  being  in  the  mean  while  oft-times  ducked  over  head  and 
cars  into  the  sea.  ;•  - 

These  storms  were  so  terrible,  that  there  were  some  in  our  company  which  confessed 
that  they  had  gone  to  sea  for  the  space  of  twenty  years,  and  had  never  seen  the  like, 
and  vowed  that  if  ever  they  returned  safe  home,  they  would  never  come  to  sea 
again.  *  v 

The  last  of  November,  at  night,  we  met  with  an  English  ship,  out  of  which  (because 
it  was  too  late  at  night)  it  was  agreed  that  we  should  have  had  the  next  morning  two  or 
three  tuns  of  wine,  which,  as  they  said,  was  all  the  provision  of  drink  they  had,  save 
only  a  butt  or  two,  which  they  must  needs  reserve  for  their  own  use :  but  after  that,  we 
heard  of  them  no  more,  till  they  were  set  upon  ground  on  the  coast  of  Ireland,  where  it 
appeared  that  they  might  have  spared  us  much  more  than  they  pretended  they  coukl, 
so  as  they  might  well  have  relievctl  our  great  necessities,  and  have  had  sufficient  for  them- 
selves besides,  to  bring  them  into  En^and. 

The  first  of  December,  at  night,  we  spake  with  another  English  ship,  and  had  some 
beer  out  of  her,  but  not  sufficient  to  carry  us  into  England,  so  that  we  were  constrained 
to  put  into  Ireland,  the  wind  so  serving. 

The  next  day  we  came  to  an  anchor,  not  far  fixim  the  St.  K^lraes,  under  the 
land  and  wind,  where  we  were  somewhat  more  quiet,  but  (that  being  no  safe  harbour 
to  ride  in)  the  next  morning  we  went  about  to  weigh  anchor,  but  having  some  of  our 
men  hurt  at  the  capsten,  we  were  fcun  to  give  over,  and  leave  It  behind,  holding  on 
our  course  to  Ventre  haven,  where  we  safely  arrived  the  same  day,  that  place  being 
'  a  very  safe  and  convenient  harbour  for  us,  that  now  we  might  sing,  as  we  had 
just   ausc,  "they  that  go  down  to  the  sea,"  &'.c.    •    \  "■  ;     '^«^.5»^^.  -^  -    iy%*?|  j--^^' 


CUMBERLAND'S  VOYAGE  TO  TUB  AZOHES. 


817 


So  soon  as  we  had  anchored  here,  my  lord  went  forthwitli  to  shore,  and  brought 
fresh  water,  and  fresh  victuals,  as  muttons,  pigs,  hens,  &c.  to  refresh  his  company  withal. 
Notwithstanding  himself  had  lately  been  very  weak,  and  tasted  of  the  same  extremity 
that  his  company  did  :  for  in  the  time  of  our  former  want,  having  a  little  fresh  water 
left  him  remaining  in  a  pot,  in  the  night  it  was  broken,  and  the  water  drunk  and  dried 
up.  Soon  after  the  sick  and  wounded  men  were  carried  to  the  next  principal  town, 
called  Dingenacush,  being  about  three  miles  distant  from  the  foresaid  haven,  where  oiu- 
ship  rode,  to  the  eastward,  that  there  they  might  be  the  better  refreshed,  iind  had  the 
chirurgions  daily  to  attend  upon  them.  Here  we  well  refreshed  ourselves,  whilst  the 
Irish  harp  sounded  sweetly  m  our  ears,  and  here  we,  who  for  the  former  extre- 
mities were  in  a  manner  half  dead,  had  our  lives  (as  it  were)  restored  unto  us 
again. 

This  Dingenacush  is  the  chief  town  in  all  that  part  of  Ireland,  it  consistcth  but  of 
one  main  street,  from  whence  some  smaller  do  proceed  on  either  side.  It  hath  had  gates 
(as  it  seemeth)  at  either  end,  to  open  and  shut  as  a  town  of  war,  and  a  castle  also. 
The  houses  are  very  strongly  built  with  thick  stone  walls  and  narrow  windows,  like 
unto  castles ;  for  as  they  confessed,  in  time  of  trouble,  by  reason  of  the  wild  Irish,  or 
otherwise,  they  used  their  houses  for  their  defence,  as  castles.  The  castle,  and  all  the 
houses  in  the  town,  save  four,  were  won,  burned,  and  ruinated  by  the  earl  of  Desmond. 
These  four  houses  fortified  themselves  against  him,  and  withstood  him  and  all  his  power 
per  force,  so  as  he  cotvd  not  win  them. 

There  remaincth  yet  a  thick  stone  wall  that  passeth  overthwart  the  midst  of  the  street, 
which  was  a  part  of  their  fortification.  Notv  ithstanding,  whilst  they  thus  defended 
themselves,  *>  some  of  them  yet  alive  confessed  they  were  driven  to  as  great  extremities 
as  the  Jews,  besieged  by  Titus,  the  Roman  emperor,  insomuch  that  they  were  constrain- 
ed to  eat  dead  men's  carcasses  lor  hunger.  The  town  is  now  again  somewhat  repaired, 
but  in  effi*ct  there  remain  but  the  ruins  of  the  former  town.  Commonly  they  have 
no  chimnies  in  their  houses,  excepting  them  of  the  better  sort,  so  that  the  smoke  was 
very  troublesome  to  us,  while  we  continued  there.  Their  fuel  is  turfs,  which  they 
have  very  good,  and  whins,  or  furs.  There  growcth  litde  wood  thereabouts,  which 
xnaketh  building  chargeable  there  :  as  also  want  of  lime  (as  they  reported)  which  they 
are  fain  to  fetch  from  for,  when  they  have  need  thereof.  But  of  stones  there  is  store 
enough,  so  thac  with,  them  they  commonly  make  their  hedges,  to  part  each  man's  ground 
from  other ;  and  the  ground  seemeth  to  be  nothing  else  within  but  rocks  and  stones ; 
yet  it  is  very  fruitful  and  plentiful  of  grass  and  grain,  as  may  appear  by  the  abundance 
of  kinc  and  cattle  there :  insomuch  that  we  had  good  muttons  (though  somewhat  less 
than  oms  in  England)  for  two  shillings  or  five  groats  a  piece,  good  pigs  and  hens  for 
three  pence  apiece. 

The  greatest  want  is  industrious,  painful,  and  husbandly  inliabitants>  to  till  and  trim 
the  ground  :  fbr  the  common  sort,  if  they  can  provide  sufficient  to  serve  from  hand  to 
mouth,  take  no  further  care. 

Of  money  (as  it  seemeth)  there  is  very  small  store  amongst  them,  which  perhaps 
was  the  cause  that  made  them  double  and  treble  the  prices  of  many  things  we  bought 
of  them,  more  than  they  were  beRire  our  coming  thither. 

Good  land  was  here  to  be  had  for  four  pence  the  acre,  yearly  rent.  There  are  mines 
of  alhim,  tin,  brass,  aiKl  iron.  Stones  we  saw  there  as  clear  as  crystal,  natually  squared 
like  diamonds. 

That  part  of  the  country  is  all  full  of  great  mountains  and  hilis,  from  whence  came 
running  down  the  pleasant  streams  of  sweet  fresh  running  water.     The  natural  hard- 


VOL.    I. 


5  M 


Mumm 


mmmmmmmm 


>««i 


HWHIIWIj 


iSffili 


818 


GUMBERLAND*S  VOYAGB  TO  THE  AKOIIES. 


iK'ss  of  that  nation  appeared  in  this,  that  their  small  children  run  usually  in  the  midst  of 
winter  up  and  down  the  streets  bare-footed  and  bare-legged,  with  no  other  apparel  (many 
times)  save  only  a  mantle  to  cover  their  nakedness. 

'J'he  chief  officer  of  their  town  they  call  their  sovereign,  who  hath  the  same  office 
and  authority  among  them  that  our  mayors  have  with  us  in  England,  and  hath 
his  Serjeants  to  attend  upon  him,  and  bear  the  mace  before  him,  us  our  mayors. 

We  were  first  entertained  at  the  sovereign's  house,  which  was  one  of  those  four  that 
withstood  the  earl  of  Desmond  in  his  rebellion.  They  have  the  same  form  of  common 
prayer,  word  for  word,  in  Latin,  that  we  have  here  in  England.  Upon  the  Sunday  the 
sovereign  cometh  into  the  church,  with  his  serjeant  before  him,  and  the  sheriiFand  others 
of  the  town  accompany  him,  and  there  thejr  kneel  down  every  man  by  himself  privately, 
to  make  his  prayers.  After  this  they  rise  and  go  out  of  the  church  again  to  drink, 
which  being  done.  «hey  return  again  into  the  church,  and  then  the  minister  beginneth 
prayers. 

Thtir  manner  of  baptising  diffi^reth  something  from  ours  :  part  of  the  service  belong- 
ing thereto  is  repeated  in  Latin,  and  part  in  Irish.  The  minister  taketh  the  child  in 
his  hands,  and  first  dippeth  it  backwanls,  and  then  forwards,  over  head  and  ears,  into 
the  cold  water,  in  the  midst  of  winter,  whereby  also  may  appear  their  natural  hardiness, 
(as  before  was  specified.)  They  had  neither  bell,  drum,  nor  trumpet,  to  call  the  parishion- 
ers together,  but  they  expect  till  their  sovereign  come,  and  then  they  that  have  any  de« 
votion  follow  him. 

They  make  their  bread  all  in  cakes,  and  for  the  tenth  part  the  bakers  bake  for  all  the 

We  had  of  them  some  ten  or  eleven  tuns  of  beer  for  the  Victory,  but  it  proved  like  a 
present  purgation  to  them  that  took  it,  so  that  we  chose  rather  to  drink  water 
than  it. 

I'he  twentieth  of  December  we  loosed  from  hence,  having  well  provided  ourselves  of 
fresh  water,  and  other  things  necessary  ;  being  accompanied  with  sir  Edw.  Dennie,  his 
lady,  and  two  young  sons. 

This  day,  in  the  morning,  my  lord  going  ashore  to  dispatch  away  speedily  some  fresh 
water,  that  remained  for  the  Victory,  the  wind  being  very  fair  for  us,  broucht 
us  news  that  there  were  sixty  Spanish  prizes  taken  and  brought  to  England.  For 
two  or  three  days  we  had  a  fair  wind,  but  afterwards  it  scanted  so,  that  (as  I  said 
before)  we  were  fain  to  keep  a  cold  Christmas  with  the  Bishop  and  his  Clerks. 

After  this  we  met  with  an  l!Lnglisli  ship,  that  brought  us  joyful  news  of  ninety-one 
Spanish  prizes  that  were  come  to  England,  and  sorrowful  news  withal,  that  the  last 
and  best  prize  we  took  had  suffered  shipwreck  at  a  place  upon  the  coast  of  Cornwall, 
which  the  Cornish  men  call  Als  Effisrne,  that  is  Hell-cliff,  and  that  captain  Lister  and 
all  the  men  in  the  ship  were  drowned,  save  five  or  six,  the  one  half  English,  the  other 
Spanish,  that  saved  themselves  with  swimming ;  but  notwithstanding  much  of  the  goods 
were  saved,  and  reserved  for  us,  by  sir  Francis  Godolphin,  and  the  worshipful  gentle- 
men  of  the  countr}'  there.  My  lord  was  very  sorry  for  captain  Lister's  death,  wishing 
that  he  had  lost  his  voyage  to  have  saved  his  life. 

The  twenty-ninth  we  met  with  another  ship  that  told  us  the  same  news,  and  that  sir 
Martin  Frobisher  and  captain  Reymond  had  taken  the  admiral  and  vice-admiral  of  the 
fleet  that  we  espied  going  tc  Tercera  haven.  Byut  the  admiral  was  sunk  with  much 
leaking,  near  to  the  Idy  Stone,  a  rock  that  lieth  over  against  Plymouth  sof  nd,  and  the 
men  were  saved.  -i      y 


smt  Jr^jrr-^  js-»-?-.-ar* 


office 
hath 


BVESHAM'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZORES.  gjg 

This  ship  also  certified  us  that  captain  Preston's  ship  had  taken  a  prize  laden  with  sil- 
ver. My  lord  entered  presently  into  this  ship,  and  went  to  Falmouth,  and  wc  held  on 
our  course  for  Plymouth.  At  night  wc  came  near  to  the  Ram-head  (the  next  cape 
westwards  from  Plymouth  sound)  but  we  were  afraid  to  double  it  in  the  nig! it,  misdoubt- 
ing the  scantiness  of  the  wind.  So  wc  stood  off  to  sea  half  the  night,  and  towards  the  morn- 
ing had  the  wind  more  large,  and  made  too  little  spare  thereof,  that  partly  for  this  cause, 
and  partly  through  mistaking  of  the  land,  we  were  driven  so  much  to  leewards,  that  we 
could  not  double  that  ca^K  :  therefore  we  returned  back  again,  and  came  in  Falmouth 
haven,  where  we  struck  on  ground,  in  seventeen  feet  water ;  but  it  was  a  low  ebb,  and 
ready  a^ain  to  flow,  and  the  ground  soft,  so  as  no  hurt  was  done.  Here  with  gladness 
we  set  foot  again  upon  the  English  ground  (long  desired)  and  refreshed  ourselves  ^vith 
keeping  part  of  Christmas  upon  our  native  soil. 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZORES  WITH  TWO  PINNACES,  THE  ONE  CALLED 
THE  SERPENT,  AND  THE  OTHER  THE  MARY  SPARKE  OF  PLYMOUTH, 
BOTH  OF  THEM  BELONGING  TO  SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH  ;  WRITTEN  BY 
JOHN  EVESHAM,  GENTLEMAN,  WHEREIN  WERE  TAKEN  THE  GOVER- 
NOR OF  THE  ISLE  OF  SAINT  MICHAEL,  AND  PEDRO  SARMIENTO,  GO- 
VERNOR OF  THE  STRAITS  OF  MAGALANES,  IN  I'HE  YEAR  1586. 

tHACKLUYT,  VOL.  It  P.  130,  SECOND  PAHT.] 

THP^  tenth  of  June  1586  we  departed  from  Plymouth,  with  two  pinnaces,  the  one 
named  the  Serpent,  of  the  burden  of  thirty  five-tons,  and  the  other  the  Mary  Sparke  of 
Plymouth,  of  the  burden  of  fifty  tons,  both  of  them  belonging  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
knight :  and  directing  our  course  towards  the  coast  of  Spain,  and  from  thence  towards 
the  Isles  of  the  Azores,  we  took  a  small  bark  laden  with  sumack  and  other  commo- 
dities, wherein  was  the  governor  of  St.  Michael's  Island,  being  a  Portugal,  liaving  other 
Portugals  and  Spaniards  with  him.  And  from  thence  we  sailed  to  the  Island  of  Gra- 
ciosa,  to  the  westward  of  the  Island  of  Tercera,  where  we  descried  a  sail,  and  l)earing 
with  her,  we  found  her  to  be  a  Spaniard  :  but  at  the  first,  not  greatly  respecting 
whom  we  took,  so  that  we  might  have  enriched  ourselves,  which  was  the  cause  of  this 
our  travail,  and  for  that  we  would  not  be  known  of  what  nation  we  were,  we  displayed  a 
white  silk  ensign  in  our  maintop,  which  they  seeing,  made  accompt  that  we  had  been 
some  of  the  king  of  Spain's  armadas,  lying  in  wait  for  English  men  of  war :  but  when 
we  came  within  shot  of  her,  we  took  down  our  white  flag,  and  spread  abroad  the  cross  of 
St  George,  which  when  they  saw,  it  made  them  to  fly  as  fast  as  they  might :  but  all  their 
haste  was  in  vain,  for  our  ships  were  swifter  of  sail  than  they,  which  they  fearing,  did 
presently  cast  their  ordnance  and  small  shot,  with  many  letters,  and  the  draft  of  the 
Straits  of  Magelan,  into  the  sea,  and  diereupon  immediately  we  took  her  :  \vherein  we 
also  took  a  gentleman  of  Spain,  named  Pedro  Sarmiento,  governor  of  tht>  Straits  of 
Magelan :  which  said  Pedro  we  brought  into  England  with  us,  and  presented  him  to 
our  sovereij^  lady  the  queen. 

After  this,  lying  off  and  about  the  islands,  we  descried  another  sail,  and  bearing 
after  her,  we  spent  the  main  mast  of  our  admiral ;  but  yet  in  the  night  our  vice  ad- 
miral took  her,  being  laden  with  fish  from  Cape  Blank,  the  which  ship  we  let  go  again, 

5  M  2  ^  ' 


fl 
11- 

I' 

51 


i 


820 


EVESHAM'S  VOYAC.E  TO  THE  AZORES. 


M 


»> 


1' 


I 


I 


V  • 


for  want  of  men  to  bring  her  home.  The  next  day  we  descried  two  other  sails,  the  one 
a  ship,  and  the  other  a  caravel,  to  whom  we  gave  chase,  which  they  seeing,  with  all 
speed  made  in  under  the  isle  of  Graciosa,  to  a  certain  fort  there  for  their  succour, 
where  they  came  to  an  anchor,  and  having  the  wind  of  us,  we  could  not  hurt  them 
with  our  ships, !  t  v  having  a  small  boat,  which  we  called  a  light-horseman,  wherein 
myself  was,  beii  'squeteer,  and  four  more  with  calivers,  and  four  that  rowed, 

came  near  imto  ti  .e  against  the  wind,  which,  when  they  saw  us  come  towards 

them,  they  carried  a  great  part  of  their  merchandise  on  land,  whither  also  the  men  of 
both  vessels  went  and  landed,  and  as  soon  as  we  came  within  musket  shot,  they  began 
to  shoot  at  us  with  great  ordnance  and  small  shot,  and  we  likewise  at  them  :  and  in 
the  end  we  boarded  one  ship,  wherein  was  no  man  left,  so  we  cut  her  cables,  hoisted 
her  sails,  and  sent  her  away  with  two  of  our  men,  and  the  other  seven  of  us  passed 
more  near  unto  the  shore,  and  boarded  the  caravel,  which  did  ride  within  a  stone's 
cast  from  the  shore,  and  so  near  the  land  that  the  people  did  cast  stones  at  us,  but  yet  in 
despight  of  them  all  we  took  her,  and  one  only  negro  therein ;  and  cutting  her  cables 
in  the  ha\  se  we  hoisted  her  sails,  and  being  becalmed  under  the  land,  we  were  con- 
strained to  row  her  out  with  our  boat ;  the  fort  still  shooting  at  us,  and  the  people  on 
land  with  muskets  and  calivers,  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  thereabout, 
and  we  answered  them  with  the  small  force  we  had ;  in  the  time  of  which  our  shooting, 
the  shot  of  my  musket  being  a  cross- bar- shot,  happened  to  strike  the  gunner  of  the 
fort  to  death,  even  as  he  was  giving  level  to  one  of  his  great  pieces,  and  thus  we  part- 
ed from  them  without  any  loss  or  hurt  on  our  side.  And  now,  having  taken  these  five 
sails  of  ships,  we  did,  as  before,  turn  away  the  ship  with  the  fish,  without  hiuting  them, 
and  from  one  of  the  other  ships  we  took  her  main  mast  to  serve  our  admiral's  turn,  and 
so  sent  her  away,  putting  into  her  all  the  Spaniards  and  Portugals  (saving  that  gen- 
tleman, Pedro  Sarmiento,  with  three  other  of  the  principal  men  and  two  negroes) 
leaving  them  all  within  sight  of  land,  with  bread  and  water  sufficient  for  ten  days,  if 
need  were. 

Thus  setting  our  course  for  England,  being  oflFthe  islands,  in  the  height  of  41°  or 
thereabout,  one  of  our  men  being  in  the  top,  descried  a  sail,  then  ten  sail,  then  fifteen, 
whereupon  it  was  concluded  to  send  home  those  prizes  we  had,  and  so  left  in  both  our 
pinnaces  n  Dt  above  sixty  men.  Thus  we  returned  again  to  the  fleet  we  had  descried, 
where  we  1  ^und  twenty-four  sail  of  ships,  whereof  two  of  them  were  caraks,  the  one  of 
twelve  hundred,  the  other  of  a  thousand  tons,  and  ten  gaiions  ;  the  rest  were  small 
ships  and  caravels,  all  laden  with  treasure,  spices,  and  sugars,  with  which  twenty-four 
ships,  we,  with  two  small  pinnaces,  did  fight,  and  kept  company  the  space  of  thirty-two 
hours,  continually  fighting  with  them,  and  they  with  us ;  but  the  two  caraks  kept  still 
betwixt  the  fleet  and  us,  that  we  could  not  take  any  one  of  them;  so^  wanting  powder, 
we  were  forced  to  give  them  over  against  our  wills,  for  that  we  were  all  wholly  bent 
to  the  gaining  of  some  of  them,  but  necessity  compelling  us,  and  that  only  for  want  Of 
powder,  without  loss  of  any  of  our  men  (which  was  atningto  be  wondered  at,  consi- 
dering the  inequality  of  number)  at  length  we  gave  them  over.  Thus  we  again  set 
our  course  for  England,  and  so  came  to  Plymouth  within  six  hours  after  our  prizes, 
which  we  sent  away  forty  hours  before  us,  where  we  were  received  with  triumphant  joy, 
not  only  with  great  ordnance  then  shot  off,  but  with  the  willing  hearts  of  all  the  people 
of  the  town  and  of  the  country  thereabout;  and  we  not  sparing  our  ordnance  (with 
the  powder  we  had  left)  to  requite  and  answer  them  again.  And  firom  thence  we 
brought  our  prizes  to  Southampton,  where  sir  Walter  Raleigh,  being  our  owner,  re- 
warded us  with  our  shares.  . 


VLICKE'S  VOYAGE  TO  THE  AZORES. 


181 


Our  prizes  were  laden  with  stiKurs,  clcphantii'  teeth,  wax,  hides,  rice,  Brnsil,  and 
cuser,  as  by  the  testimony  of  John  Evesham  himself,  captain  Whiddon,  Thomas 
Rainford,  Benjamin  Wood,  William  Cooner,  master,  William  Cornish,  master,  Thomiis 
Drake,  corporal,  John  Ladd,  gunner,  William  Warefield,  gunner,  Richard  Moon, 
John  Drew,  Richard  Cooper  of  Harwich,  William  Deares  of  Ratcliflfe,  John  Row  of 
Saltash,  and  many  others,  may  appear. 


if 


A  REPORT  OF  MASTER  ROBERT  FLICKE,  DIRECTED  TO  MASTER  THO- 
MAS  BROMLEY,  MASTER  RICHARD  STAPER  /VND  MASTER  CORDALL, 
CONCERNING  THE  SUCCESS  OF  A  PART  OF  THE  LONDON  SUPPLIES 
SENT  TO  MY  LORD  THOMAS  HOWARD  TO  THE  ISLES  OF  THE  AZORES, 
1591. 

[UACKLCYT,  VOL.  IL  P.  17«.  SECOND  PART.] 

WORSHIPFUL,  my  hearty  commendations  unto  you  premised ;  by  my  last  of  the 
twelfth  of  August  from  diis  place,  I  advertised  you  particularly  of  the  accidents  of  our 
fleet  until  then.  It  remaineth  now  to  relate  our  endeavours  in  accomplishing  the  order 
received  for  the  joining  with  my  lord  Thomas  Howard,  together  with  the  success  we 
have  had.  Our  departure  from  hence  was  the  seventeenth  of  August,  the  wind  not 
serving  before.  The  next  day  frjllowing  I  caused  a  flag  of  counsel  to  be  put  forth, 
whereupon  the  captains  and  masters  nfevtry  ship  came  aboard,  and  I  accjuainted  them 
with  my  commission,  firmed  by  the  right  no|i"'(»iifjle  Ihr  lords  of  her  majesty's  coun- 
cil; and  with  all  the  advertisements  of  sir  PAwnitl  nt-nin,  of  my  lord's  determination 
to  remain  threescore  leagues  to  the  west  of  Faval,  spt^tufling  north  and  south,  betwixt 
thirty. seven  and  a  half,  or  thirty  eight  and  a  half  drgrees.  And  not  finding  him  in  this 
height,  to  repair  to  the  isles  of  Fhires  nii(\  ('iih'<>  '^l"^re  a  pinnace  of  purpose  should 
stay  our  coming  until  the  last  of  August,  ti/|lli  h  '  '<er  (hat  day  to  repair  to  the  coast 
of  Spain,  about  the  height  of  i|))P:  fni'M,  sotnfc  I  jf  thirty  leagues  off  the  shore. 

The  which  Ix'ing  advisedly  considc/t  it  of,  having  rep;  J  unto  the  shortness  of  time,  by 
reason  of  oui  l<ingab(»<j{  in  fhit^  pjace,  ami  tut-  Ulll^Flhw^h  nf  thp  weather  to  favour  us, 

<ny  lord,  to  bear 

bi,  and  so  directly  for 

The  twenty-eighth 


it  was  generally  holden  for  the  best     ii/|  v  /  id  st    t ,. 
with  the  height  of  the  Rock,  without  »n  ' 
the  islands,  which  was  accordingly  fulh 


i'liucd. 


UilV    UMIV...I 

day  we  liad  sight  of  the  Burling.s,  iind  t//(  tivf^nty  iilntfi,  being  thwart  of  Peniche,"the 
wind  serving  us,  without  any  stay  we  difccf  course  west  for  the  islands.     The 

thirtieth  day  we  met  with  captain  Roydeniniii  li  d  Rose,  sometime  called  the  Golden 
Dragon,  separated  from  my  If/fd  of  Cumberlniiu  in  a  storm:  who  certified  us  of  fifty 
sails  of  the  Spanish  king's  armadas  to  be  gon;  for  the  islands,  but  could  not  inform  us 
any  news  of  my  lord  Thomas  Howard,  otherwise  than  upon  presumption  to  remain 
about  the  islands,  and  so  we  coruinucd  our  course,  the  wind  standing  with  us. 

The  fourth  of  September  we  recovered  Terccra,  and  ranged  along  all  the  islands, 
both  on  the  south  and  nort)i  sides  the  space  of  four  days :  during  which  time  it 
was  not  our  hap  to  meet  with  any  shipping,  whereby  either  to  understand  of  my  lord, 
or  of  the  Indian  fleet :  hereupon  wc  directed  our  course  to  the  west  from  Fayal,  ac- 
cording  to  the  instructions  of  sir  V  dward  Denny.  The  eleventh  day  in  the  plying  to 
the  westwards  we  descried  a  sail  out  of  our  main  top,  £Uid  in  the  afternoon,  between  two 


'I 


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1  > 


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i' 


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822 


t'LlCKE'S  VOYAGE  TO  HIE  A'/ORtrt. 


and  three  of  the  clock,  having  raised  her  hull,  the  weather  became  calm,  so  thiit  the  ship 
could  not  fetch  her.     I  sent  off  my  skiff  thoroughly  manned,  furnished  with  shot  and 
swords,  the  Cherubin,  and  the  Margaret  and  John  doing  the  like.     Upon  this  the  sail 
stood  off  again,  and  the  night  approaching,  our  boats  lost  her,  and  so  returned.    In  this 
our  pursuit  after  the  sail,  the  Centurion  being  left  astern,  the  next  morning  we  mi*w'd 
her,  and  spent  that  day  plying  up  and  down  seeking  her.     And  for  as  much  as  every  of 
the  ships  had  received  order,  that,  if  by  extremity  of  weather  or  any  other  mischau'  u 
they  should  be  severed  from  our  fleet,  they  should  meet  and  join  at  Flores,  we,  accord^ 
ing  to  the  instructions  of  Sir  Edward  Dcnnic,  proceeded  to  the  finding  of  my  lord  'I'bo. 
mas  Howard,  l^eing  in  the  height  appointed,  and  not  able  to  hold  the  same,  by  reason  of 
extreme  tempests,  which  forced  us  to  the  isles  of  Flores  and  Corvo,  which  we  made  the 
fourteenth  day  in  the  morning,  and  there  also  joined  again  with  the  Centurion,  whose 
company  before  we  had  lost :  who  declared  unto  us,  that  the  twelfth  dav,  being  the  sanK 
day  they  lost  us,  they  met  with  five.and'forty  sails  of  the  Indian  fleet.     The  sam  . 
night,  upon  these  news,  we  came  to  an  anchor  between  Flores  and  Corvo,  and  the  moi 
row  following,  at  the  break  of  day,  a  flag  of  council  being  put  out,   the  captains  and 
masters  came  aboard  me :  where,  for  the  desire  to  understand  some  tidings  of  my  lord, 
as  also  the  supplying  our  want  of  water,  it  was  thought  good  to  send  our  boats  furnished 
on  shore,  under  the  conduct  of  captain  Brothers,  ai^  then  it  was  also  ordered,  after  our 
departure  thence,  to  range  along  the  south  sides  of  the  islands,  to  the  end  we  might  either 
understand  of  my  lord,  or  else  Tight  on  the  Indian  fleet;  and,  in  the  missing  of  our  pur- 
pose, to  direct  our.  course  for  cape  Saint  Vincent. 

The  boats,  according  to  the  foresaid  determination,  being  sent  on  shore,  it  chanced 
that  the  Costly,  riding  uttermost  in  the  road,  did  weigh,  to  bring  herself  more  near 
among  us,  for  the  succour  of  the  boats  sent  off,  and  in  opening  the  land  discovered  two 
sails,  which  we  in  the  roads  could  not  perceive ;  whereupon  she  gave  us  a  warning- 
piece,  which  caused  us  to  wave  off  our  boats  back,  and  before  they  could  recover  our 
ships,  the  descried  ships  appeared  unto  us,  towards  the  which  we  made  with  all  haste, 
and  in  a  very  happy  hour,  as  it  pleased  God.  In  that  we  had  not  so  soon  cleared  the 
land,  and  s]X)ken  with  one  of  them,  which  was  a  bark  of  Bristol,  who  had  also  sought 
my  lord  in  the  heights  appointed,  and  could  not  find  him,  but  a  violent  storm  arose, 
in  such  a  manner,  as  if  we  had  remained  in  the  road  we  had  been  in  danger  of  perishing : 
and  the  same  extremely  continued  during  the  space  of  threescore  hours.  In  wkich  storm 
I  was  separated  from  our  fleet,  except  the  Cherubin  and  the  Costly,  which  kept  company 
with  me.  And  so  sailing  among  the  islands,  I  viewed  the  road  of  Fayal,  and  finding  no 
roaders  there,  went  directly  for  the  isle  of  Tercera. 

The  nineteenth  in  the  morning,  coming  unto  the  same  with  intent  to  edge  into  the  road, 
a  tempest  arose  and  scanted  the  wind,  that  we  could  not  seize  it ;  from  the  which  being 
driven,  we  fell  among  certain  of  the  Indian  fleet,  which  the  said  storm  dispersed,  and  put 
them  from  the  road :  whereupon  myself  with  the  other  two  shi[)8  in  company  gave  several 
chases,  and  thereby  lost  the  company  of  each  other. 

In  folbvving  our  chase  above  noon  we  made  lier  to  strike  and  yield,  being  a  Portugal, 
laden  with  hides,  salsa-parilla,  and  anile.  At  this  very  instant  we  espied  another,  and 
taking  our  prize  with  us  followed  her,  and  somewhat  before  night  obtained  her,  named  the 
Conception,  Francisco  Spinola  being  captian,  which  was  laden  with  hides,  cochonillio, 
and  certain  raw  silk;  and  for  that  the  seas  were  so  growen,  as  neither  with  boat  nor  ship 
they  were  to  be  boarded,  we  kept  them  till  fit  opportunity.  Tlie  same  night,  a  little  be- 
fore day,  there  happened  another  into  our  company,  supposing  us  by  our  two  prizes  to 
beof  their  fleet,  which'we  until  the  morning  dissembled..        .,..., 


PLICKK'fl  VOYAfiB  TU  TIIU  AZURtSl. 


823 


The  twentieth  day,  in  the  mornin}^,  the  swiil  heinpj  shot  somcwhiit  a-hcad  of  iis,  hav- 
ing  a  Npcciul  care  for  the  safe  keeping  of  the  two  former,  wc  purpoiicd  to  cause  our 
prizes  to  put  out  more  sail,  thereby  to  keep  them  near  in  giving  chusc  to  the  other  : 
unto  the  which  the  master  would  not  hearken,  nor  be  persuaded  but  Uiat  they  would 
follow  us  ;  by  the  which  his  w  ilfuHncss,  Ivy  such  time  as  we  had  caused  the  other  to  yield, 
and  sent  men  on  board,  the  Conception,  Francisco  Spinola  captain,  being  brought  astern 
and  having  gotten  the  wind  of  us,  stood  oft' with  all  her  sails  bearing,  so  as  wc  were  forced 
to  make  a  new  chase  of  her  ;  and  had  not  the  wind  enlur  gcd  uixni  us  we  had  lost  her. 
In  the  pursuit,  Ixforc  we  recovered  her,  and  brought  ourselves  again  in  comp.iny  of  our 
other  prizes,  the  whole  day  was  spent,  andby  thiis  means  we  lost  the  opportunity  of  that 
day,  tne  weather  fitly  serving  to  board  the  Portugal  prize,  which  was  in  great  distress, 
and  made  request  to  take  them,  being  ready  to  sink,  and,  as  we  well  jK-rceivicd,  they 
ceased  not  to  pump  day  and  night ;  the  which  ship  to  all  our  judgments  the  same  niglit 
perished  in  the  sea. 

The  one-and-twentieth  day,  the  Conception,  whereof  Francisco  Spinola  was  captain, 
being  also  in  a  leak,  and  the  same  still  increasing,  notwithstaiMding  tlic  continual  pump- 
ing, in  such  sort  as  not  to  be  kept  long  above  water,  I  took  and  discharged  out  of  her 
two-and-forty  chests  of  cochonillio  and  silks,  and  so  left  her  with  eleven  feet  water  in 
her  hold,  and  her  furniture  and  four  thousand  seven  hundred  hides,  unto  the  seas. 

The  other  prize,  which  we  have  brought  into  the  harbour,  is  named  Nostra  Sennora 
dc  los  Remedios,  whereof  Francisco  Alvares  is  captain,  laden  with  sixteen  chests  of 
cochonillio,  ccrtuin  fardeh  of  raw  silk«  and  about  four  thousand  hides.  Upon  the  dis> 
charge  of  the  gwods  vour  worships  shall  be  particularly  advertised  thereof. 

In  the  boardin  ■  or  the  prizes  the  disorder  of  the  company  was  such,  as  that  they  letted 
not  presently,  bes  'es  the  rifling  of  the  Spaniards,  to  break  open  the  chests  and  to  purloin 
such  money  as  wat  in  them  :  notwithstanding  that  it  was  ordered  at  convenient  leisure 
Id  have  gone  aboard  myself,  and  therf ,  in  the  j.  '^escnce  of  three  or  four  witnesses,  to  have 
taken  a  just  ;iccount  thereof ,  mik.'  the  same  to  have  put  in  safe  keeping,  according  to  the 
effects  of  articles  received  in  this  behalf. 

And  whereas  here  were  also  certain  sums  of  money  taken  from  the  company,  which 
they  had  thus  purloined  and  embezzled,  aid  the  same  with  some  other  parcels  brought 
aboard  my  ship,  amounting  unto  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  pezoes 
and  a  half,  the  company,  as  pillage  due  unto  them,  demanded  to  have  the  same  shared, 
which  I  refused,  and  openly  at  the  main- mast  read  th^:  articles  formed  by  my  lord  trea- 
surer and  my  lord  admiral,  whereby  we  ought  to  be  directed,  and  that  it  was  not  in  me 
any  way  to  dispose  thereof  until  the  same  were  finally  determine  at  home.  Hereupon 
thfj  n  )*5nied,  and  at  last  grew  into  such  fury,  as  that  they  would  have  it,  or  else  break 
down  tI>o  cabin,  which  they  'vere  also  ready  to  put  in  practice,  whereby  I  was  forced  to 
jit\d.  It  ;t  the  Spaniank  which  wt  had  aboard,  being  many,  perceiv  ig  the  same,  might 
have  I' .  a  fit  opportunity  to  rise  against  us,  which,  after  their  brawls  w  re  appeased,  thev 
sought  to  have  put  in  execution. 

By  the  last  advice  from  Castile,  the  general  of  the  king's  armada,  whi  h  is  lately  come 
to  sea,  hath  received  commandment  to  ioin  his  fleet  with  those  of  the  Lh  tes,  and  for  to 
stay  altogether  at  Tercera  till  the  fifteenth  of  October ;  for  that  six  patacli  s,  with  seven 
or  eight  millions  of  the  king's  treasure,  will  come  by  that  time,  or  else  th.  v  stay  their 
a>ming  fnsm  Havanna  until  January  next,  or  the  king's  further  pleasure  herein  to 
be  known.  These  pataches  are  said  to  be  of  three  hundred  toas  the  piece,  and  to  carry 
thirty  pieces  of  brass,  and  also  of  sail  reported  to  have  the  advantage  of  anv  shipping. 


I'  I 


I ' 


■I 


824 


R\LRICH*R  REPORT  OF  AN  ENGAORMBNT. 


There  perished  of  the  Indies  fleet,  sunk  in  the  sea  before  their  coming  to  Flores,  eleven 
8ait»,  whereof  the  general  was  one,  and  not  one  man  saved.  And  it  in  by  the  Spaniards 
themselves  pre-suppoard,  that  the  storms  which  we  had  at  Flores  and  at  Tcrcera  have 
devoured  many  more  of  them,  whereof  in  part  we  were  eyc-witncjises :  and  so,  what  by 
the  seas  and  our  men  of  war,  I  presume  that  of  seventy>6vc  mtils  that  came  from  Havaima, 
half  of  them  will  never  arrive  in  Spain. 

The  eleventh  da^  of  October,  at  night,  we  came  to  anchor  in  the  Sound  of  Plymouth, 
and  the  next  mommg  with  our  prize  came  into  Cattewatcr,  for  which  God  be  thanked  ; 
for  that  a  vehement  storm  arose,  and  with  such  fury  increased,  as  that  the  prize  was 
forced  to  cut  over  her  main  mast,  otherwise,  with  the  violence  of  the  storm,  her  ground- 
tackle  t)t'ing  bad,  she  had  driven  on  shore,  which  was  the  most  cause  that  moved  me  to 
Sut  in  here ;  intending  now  here  to  discharge  the  goods  without  further  adventure,  and 
ave  certified  thus  much  unto  my  lord  admiral,  and  therewith  also  desired  to  under, 
stand  the  direction  of  the  lords  of  the  coinisel,  together  with  yours,  insomuch  as  my  lord 
Thomas  Howard  is  not  returned.  How  the  rest  of  our  consorts,  which  were  separated 
from  us,  have  sped,  or  what  prizes  they  have  taken,  whereof  there  is  much  hope,  by 
reason  of  scattering  of  the  West  Indian  fleet,  as  yet  we  are  able  to  say  nothing.  And 
thus,  expecting  your  answer,  and  for  all  other  matters  referring  me  unto  the  bearer,  cap* 
tain  Furtho,  I  end. 

-       .       »■    •      V    -t    Your  worship's  k>ving  friend, 

ROBERT  FLICKE. 

Plymouth,  October  24, 1591.  •  m/i  ..m  ,»• 


w.^t^'. 


A  REPORT  OF  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  FIGHT  ABOUT  THE  ISLES  OF 
AZORES, THE  LAST  OF  AUGUST  1591,  BETWIXTTHE  REVENGE,  ONE  OF 
HER  MAJESTY'S  SHIPS,  AND  AN  ARMADA  OF  THE  KING  OF  SPAIN  :  PEN- 
NED  BY  THE  HONOURABLE  SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH,  KNIGHT.  ..,, 


-•»»i  j^i--'  \ .  ^••i\ 


£UAcu.innr,  u,  im,  second  part.] 


■-.«^>     »,■»      V4. 


BECAUSE  the  rumours  are  diversely  spread,  as  well  in  England  as  in  the  Low 
Countries  and  elsewhere,  of  this  late  encounter  between  her  majesty's  ships  and  the  ar< 
madaof  Spain;  and  that  the  Spaniards,  according  to  their  usual  manner,  fill  the  world 
with  their  vain>glorious  vaunts,  making  great  appearance  of  victories,  when,  on  the  con* 
trarv,  themselves  are  most  commonly  and  shamefully  beaten  and  dishonoured,  thereby 
hoping  to  possess  the  ignorant  multitude  by  anticipating  and  forerunning  false  reports : 
it  b  agreeable  with  all  good  reason,  for  manifestation  of  the  truth,  to  overcome  falsehood 
and  untruth,  that  the  beginning,  continuance,  and  success  of  thb  late  honourable  en* 
counter  of  sir  Richard  Greenvil,  and  other  her  majesty's  captains,  \yith  the  armada  of 
Spam,  should  be  truly  set  down  and  published,  without  partiality  or  false  imaginations. 
And  it  is  no  marvel  that  the  Spaniards  should  seek  by  false  and  slanderous  pamphlets,  ad. 
visoes,  and  letters,  to  cover  their  own  loss,  and  to  derogate  from  others  their  due  ho. 
nours,  especially  in  this  fig  it  being  performed  far  off;  seeing  they  were  not  ashamed 
in  the  year  1588,  when  they  purposed  Uie  iftvasion  of  this  kuid,  to  publish  in  Sundry  Ian* 


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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

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RALEIGH'S  REPORT  OF  AN  ENGAGEMENT. 


825 


guages  in  print,  great  victories  in  words,  which  they  pleaded  to  have  obtained  against 
this  realm  ;  and  spread  tin  same  in  a  most  false  sort  over  all  parts  of  France,  Italy,  and 
elsewhere.  When  shortly  after  it  was  happily  manifested  in  very  deed  to  all  nations, 
how  their  navy,  which  they  termed  invincible,  consisting  of  140  sail  of  ships,  not  only 
of  their  own  kingdom,  but  strengthened  with  the  greatest  Argosies,  Portugal  caracks, 
Florentines,  and  huge  hulks  of  other  countries,  were  by  30  of  her  majesty's  own  ships 
of  war,  and  a  few  of  our  own  merchants,  by  the  wise,  valiant,  and  advantageous  con- 
duct  of  the  lord  Charles  Howard,  high  admiral  of  Kngland,  beaten  and  shuffled  to- 
gethcr ;  even  from  the  Lizard  in  Cornwall  first  to  Portland,  where  they  shamefully 
left  don  Pedro  de  Valdes,  with  his  mighty  ship ;  from  Portland  to  Cales,  where  they 
lost  Hugo  de  Moncado,  with  the  gallias  of  which  he  was  captain ;  and  from  Cales, 
driven  with  squibs  from  their  anchors,  were  chased  out  of  the  sight  of  Kngland,  round 
about  Scotland  and  Ireland.  Where,  for  the  sympathy  of  their  barbarous  religion, 
hoping  to  find  succour  and  assistance,  a  great  part  of  them  were  crushed  against  the 
rocks,  and  those  other  that  landed,  lieing  very  many  in  number,  were  notwithstanding 
broken,  slain,  and  taken,  and  so  sent  from  village  to  village,  coupled  in  halters,  to 
be  shipped  into  England.  Where  her  majesty,  of  her  princely  and  invincible  disposi> 
tion,  disdaining  to  put  them  to  death,  and  scorning  either  to  retain  or  entertain  them, 
they  were  all  sent  back  a^ain  to  their  countries,  to  witness  and  recount  the  worthy 
acluevements  of  their  invmcible  and  dreadful  navy;  of  which  the  number  of  sol- 
diers, the  fearful  burthen  of  their  ships,  the  commander's  name  of  every  squadron, 
with  all  other  rheir  magazines  of  provisions,  were  put  in  print  as  an  army  and  navy 
unresistible,  and  disdaining  prevention.  With  all  which  so  great  and  terrible  an  osten- 
tation, they  did  not,  in  all  their  sailing  round  England,  so  much  as  sink  or  take  onc; 
ship,  bark,  pinnace,  or  cockboat  of  ours ;  or  even  burnt  so  much  as  one  sheepcot  of 
this  land.  Whereas,  on  the  contrary,  sir  Richard  Drake,  with  only  800  soldiers,  not 
long  before  landed  in  their  Indies,  and  forced  Sant-Jago,  Santo  Domingo,  Carthagena, 
and  the  forts  of  Florida. 

And  after  that  sir  John  Norris  marched  from  Peniche  in  Portugal,  with  a  handful 
of  soldiers,  to  the  gates  of  Lisbon,  being  above  forty  English  miles,  where  the  earl  of 
Essex  himself  and  other  valiant  gentlemen  braved  the  city  of  Lisbon,  encamped  at  the 
very  gates ;  from  whence,  after  many  days  abode,  finding  neither  promised  party, 
nor  provision  to  barter,  they  made  retreat  by  land,  in  despight  of  all  their  garrisons, 
both  of  horse  and  foot.  In  this  sort  I  have  a  little  digressed  from  my  first  purpose, 
only  by  the  necessary  comparison  of  their  and  our  actions :  the  one  covetous  of  ho- 
nour, without  vaont  of  ostentation  ;  the  other  so  greedy  to  purchase  the  opinion  of  their 
own  affairs,  and  by  false  rumours  to  resist  the  blasts  of  their  own  dishonours,  as  they 
will  not  only  not  blush  to  spread  all  manner  of  untruths,  but  even  for  the  least  ad- 
vantage, be  it  but  for  the  taking  of  one  poor  adventurer  of  the  English,  will  celebrate 
the  victory  with  bonfires  in  every  to\vn,  always  spending  more  in  faggots  than  the  pur- 
chase was  worth  they  obtained.  Where,  vs  we  never  thought  it  worth  the  consumption 
of  two  billets,  when  we  have  taken  eigl.i:  or  ten  of  their  Indian  ships  at  one  time,  and 
twenty  of  the  Brazil  fleet.  Such  is  the  difference  between  true  valour  and  ostentation, 
and  between  honourable  actions  and  frivolous  vain-glorious  vaunts.  But  now  to  return 
to  my  purpose. 

The  Lord  Thomas  Howard,  with  six  of  her  ms^esty's  ships,  six  victuallers  of  Lon- 
don, the  bark  Rtleigh,  and  two  or  three  other  pinnaces,  riding  at  anchor  near  unto 
Flores,  one  of  the  westerly  islands  of  the  Azores,  the  last  of  August,  in  the  afternoon, 
had  intelligence  by  one  captain  Middleton  of  the  approach  of  the  Spanish  armada. 

VOL.  I.  5   N 


•fV^  ..^'yAu?.v\.«n»i*»- ;  jrMf«!te*-'»  .V  fltae*i«si>;!ai(W/. .«»« -'.i«i>^^^^^^ 


826 


RALETOH'S  nEPOnX  OF  AN  KXOAGEMRNT. 


Which  Middleton,  being  in  a  verv  good  sailer,  had  kept  tlicm  company  three  days  be- 
fore, of  good  purpose,  both  to  discover  iheir  fo'-ccs  the  more,  as  also  to  give  ad\ice 
to  my  lord  Thomas  of  their  approach.  He  had  no  sooner  delivered  the  news,  hut 
the  fleet  \/as  in  sight :  many  of  our  ships'  companies  were  on  shore  in  the  island,  .nnc 
providing  ballast  for  their  ships;  others  filling  of  water,  and  refreshing  themselves  In.m 
the  land  with  such  things  as  th».y  could  either  for  money  or  by  force  recover.  B\  !ca- 
son  whereof  our  ships  being  all  pestered,  and  ronuiging  every  thing  out  of  D.cicr, 
very  light  for  want  of  ballast,  and  that  which  was  most  to  our  disadvantiige,  the  one 
half  part  of  the  men  of  every  ship  sick,  and  utterly  unserviceable;  for  in  the  Revenge 
there  were  ninety  diseased  ;  in  the  Bonaventure,  not  so  many  in  health  as  could  handle 
her  main-sail.  For  had  not  twenty  men  been  taken  out  of  a  bark  of  sir  George  Ca- 
rey's, his  being  commanded  to  be  sunk,  and  those  appcjinted  to  her,  she  had  hardly 
ever  recovered  England.  The  rest,  for  the  most  part,  were  in  little  better  state.  The 
names  of  her  majesty's  ships  were  these,  as  folUnvtth:  the  Defiance,  which  wasadmi. 
ral,  the  Revenge  vice-admiral,  the  Bonaventure,  commanded  by  captain  Crosse,  the 
Lion  by  George  Fenner,  the  Foresight  by  M.  Thomas  Vavasour,  and  the  Crane  by 
Dufiild.  The  Foresight  and  the  Crane  being  but  small  ships ;  only  the  other  were 
of  the  middle  size ;  the  rest,  besides  the  bark  Raleigh,  commanded  by  captain  Thin, 
were  victuallers,  and  of  small  force  or  none.  The  Spanish  fleet  having  shrouded  their 
approach  by  reason  of  the  island,  were  now  so  soon  at  hand,  as  our  ships  had  scarce 
time  to  weigh  their  anchors,  but  some  of  them  were  driven  to  let  slip  Uieir  cables  and 
set  sail.  Sir  Richard  Grenvill  was  the  last  that  weighed,  to  recover  the  men  that  were 
upon  the  island,  which  otherwise  had  been  lost.  The  lord  Thomas  with  the  rest  very 
hardly  recovered  the  wind,  which  sir  Richard  Grenvill  not  being  able  to  do,  was  per- 
suaded by  the  master  and  others  to  cut  his  main-sail,  and  cast  about,  and  to  trust  to 
the  sailing  of  the  ship ;  for  the  squadron  of  Sivil  were  on  his  weather-bow.  But  sir 
Richard  utterly  refused  to  turn  from  the  enemy,  alledging  that  he  would  rather  choose 
to  die,  ihan  to  dishonour  himself,  his  country,  and  her  majesty's  ship,  persuading  his 
company  that  he  would  pass  through  the  two  squadrons  in  dcspight  of  them,  and  en- 
force those  of  Sivil  to  give  him  way.  Which  he  performed  upon  divers  of  the  fore- 
most, who,  as  the  mariners  term  it,  sprang  their  luff,  and  fell  under  the  lee  of  the 
Revenge.  But  the  other  course  had  been  the  better,  and  might  right  well  have 
been  answered  in  so  great  an  impossibility  of  prevailing.  Notwithstanding,  out  of  the 
greatness  of  his  mind  he  could  not  be  persuaded.  In  the  mean  while,  as  he  attended 
those  which  were  nearest  him,  the  great  San  Philip  being  in  the  wind  of  him,  and  com- 
ing towards  him,  becalmed  his  sails  in  such  sort,  as  the  ship  could  neither  make  way, 
nor  feel  the  helm :  so  huge  and  high  cai^d  was  die  Spanish  ship,  being  of  a  thousand 
and  five  hundred  tons,  who  after  laid  the  Revenge  aboard.  When  he  was  thus  be- 
reft of  his  sails,  the  ships  that  were  under  his  lee  luffing  up,  also  laid  him  aboard ;  of 
which  the  next  was  the  admiral  of  the  Biscaines,  a  veiy  mighty  and  puissant  ship,  com- 
manded by  Brittandona.  The  said  Philip  carried  three  tier  of  ordnance  on  a  side,  and 
eleven  pieces  in  every  tier.  She  shot  eight  forth  right  out  of  her  chase,  besides  those  of 
her  stem  ports. 

After  the  Revenge  was  entangled  with  this  Philip,  four  other  boarded  her ;  two  on 
her  larboard,  and  two  on  her  starboard.  The  fight  thus  be^nning  at  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  continued  very  terrible  all  that  evening.  But  the  great  San  Philip  hav- 
ing received  the  lower  tier  of  the  Revenge,  discharged  with  cross-bar-shot,  shifted 
herself  with  all  diligence  from  her  sides,  utterly  misliking  her  first  entertainment.  Some 
say  that  the  ship  foundered,  but  we  cannot  report  it  for  truth,  unless  we  were  assured. 


nALEir.II'S  REPORT  OF  AN  KNCAGRMRNT. 


827 


The  Spanish  ships  were  filled  with  companies  of  soldiers,  in  some  two  hundred,  besides 
the  mariners ;  in  some  five,  in  others  eight  hundred.  In  ours  there  were  none  at  all 
besides  the  mariners,  but  the  servants  of  the  commanders,  and  some  few  voluntary  gen- 
tlemen only.  After  many  interchanged  vollies  of  great  ordnance  and  small  shot,  the 
Spaniards  deliberated  to  enter  the  Revenge,  and  made  divers  attempts,  hoping  to  force 
her,  by  the  multitudes  of  their  armed  soldiers  and  musketeers,  but  were  still  repulsed 
again  and  again,  and  at  all  times  beaten  back  into  their  own  ships,  or  into  the  seas.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  fight,  the  George  Nobit,  of  London,  having  received  some  shot 
through  her,  by  the  armadas,  fell  under  the  lee  of  the  Revenge,  and  asked  sir  Richard 
what  he  would  command  him  ;  being  but  one  of  the  victuallers,  and  of  small  force,  sir 
Richard  bid  him  save  himself,  and  leave  him  to  his  fortune.  After  the  fight  had  thus, 
without  intermission,  continued  while  the  day  lasted,  and  some  hours  of  the  night,  many 
of  our  men  were  slain  and  hurt,  and  one  of  the  great  gallions  of  the  armada  and  the 
admiral  of  the  huiks  both  sunk,  and  in  many  other  of  the  Spanish  ships  great  slaughter 
was  made.  Some  write  that  sir  Richard  was  very  dangerously  hurt  almost  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fight,  and  lay  speechless  for  a  time  ere  he  recovered.  But  two  of  the  Re- 
venge's own  company,  brought  home  in  a  ship  of  Lime  from  the  islands,  examined  by 
some  of  the  lords,  and  others,  affirmed  that  he  was  never  so  wounded  as  that  he  forsook 
the  upper  deck,  till  an  hour  before  midnight ;  and  then  being  shot  into  the  body  with  a 
musket,  as  he  was  a  dressing,  was  again  shot  into  the  head,  and  withal  his  chirurgion 
wounded  ^o  death.  This  agreeth  also  with  an  examination  takep  by  sir  Francis  Godol- 
phin  of  four  other  mariners  of  the  same  ship,  being  returned,  which  examination  the 
said  sir  Francis  sent  unto  master  William  Killegrue,  of  her  majesty's  privy  chamber. 

But  to  return  to  the  fight,  the  Spanish  ships  which  attempted  to  board  the  Revenge, 
as  they  were  wounded  and  beaten  off,  so  always  others  came  in  their  places,  she  having 
never  less  than  two  mighty  gallions  by  her  sides,  and  aboard  her :  so  that  ere  the 
morning,  from  three  of  the  clock  the  day  befoi^e,  there  had  fifteen  several  armadas  as- 
sailed her ;  and  all  so  ill  approved  their  entertainment,  as  they  were  by  the  break  of  day- 
far  more  willing  to  hearken  to  a  composition,  than  hastily  to  make  any  more  assaults  or 
entries.  But  as  the  day  encreased,  so  our  men  decreased ;  and  as  the  light  grew  more 
and  more,  by  so  much  more  grew  our  discomforts ;  for  none  appeared  in  sight  but  ene- 
mies, saving  one  small  ship  called  the  Pilgrim,  commanded  b^  Jacob  Whiddon,  who  ho. 
vered  all  night  to  see  the  success ;  but  in  the  morning,  bearing  with  the  Revenge,  was 
hunted  like  a  hare  amongst  many  ravenous  hounds,  but  escaped. 

All  the  powder  of  the  Revenge  to  the  last  barrel  was  now  spent,  all  her  pikes  broken, 
forty  of  her  best  men  slain,  and  the  most  part  of  the  rest  hurt.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  fight  she  had  but  one  hundred  free  from  sickness,  and  four  score  and  ten  sick  laid 
in  hold  upon  the  ballast.  A  small  troop  to  man  such  a  ship,  and  a  weak  garrison  to 
resist  so  mighty  an  army.  By  those  hundred  all  was  sustained,  the  vollies,  boardings, 
and  enterings  of  fifteen  ships  of  war,  besides  those  which  beat  her  at  large.  On  the 
contrary,  the  Spanish  were  always  supplied  with  soldiers  brought  from  every  squadron  ; 
all  manner  of  arms  and  powder  at  will.  Unto  ours  there  remained  no  comfort  at  all, 
no  hope,  no  supply  either  of  ships,  men,  or  weapons ;  the  masts  all  beaten  overboard, 
all  her  tackle  cut  asunder,  her  upper  work  altogether  rased,  and  in  effect  evened  she 
was  with  the  water,  but  the  very  foundation  or  bottom  of  a  ship,  nothing  being  left 
overhead,  either  for  flight  or  defence.  Sir  Richard  finding  himself  in  this  distress,  and 
unable  any  longer  to  make  resistance,  having  endured,  in  this  fifteen  hours  fight,  the 
assault  of  fifteen  several  armadas,  all  by  turns  aboard  him,  and  by  estimation  eight 
hundred  shot  of  great  artillery,  besides  many  assaults  and  entries,  and  that  the  ship  and 

5  M  2 


_. ..- 


'^-a^tt^.f.-rKii*.^ 


h 


'f  • 


828 


nALEIOH'S  UEPOHT  OF  AN  ENCAGEMEN'l 


himself  must  needs  be  possessed  by  the  enemy,  who  were  now  all  cist  in  a  ring  round 
about  him  (the  Revenge  not  able  to  move  one  way  or  other,  bi.t  as  she  was  moved  with 
the  waves  and  billows  of  the  sea)  eommanded  the  master  gunner,  whom  he  knew  to 
be  a  most  resolute  man,  to  split  and  sink  the  ship,  that  thereby  nothing  mij;ht  remain 
of  glory  or  victory  to  the  Spaniards ;  seeing  in  so  many  hours  fight,  and  with  so  great 
a  navy,  they  were  not  able  to  take  her,  having  had  fifteen  hours  time,  above  ten  thou- 
sand men,  and  fifty  and  three  sail  of  men  of  war,  to  perform  it  withal ;  and  persuaded 
the  company,  or  as  many  as  he  could  induce,  to  yield  themselves  unto  God,  and  to  the 
mercy  of  none  else  ;  but  as  they  had,  like  valiant  resolute  men,  repulsed  so  many  ene- 
mies, they  should  not  now  shorten  the  honour  of  their  nation,  by  prolonging  their  lives 
for  a  few  hours,  or  a  few  days.  The  master  gunner  readily  condescended,  and  divers 
others ;  but  the  captain  and  the  master  were  of  another  opinion,  and  besought  sir  Richard 
to  have  care  of  them ;  alledging  that  the  Soaniard  would  be  as  ready  to  entertain  a  com- 
position,  as  they  were  willing  to  offer  the  same  ;  and  that  there  being  divers  sufficient  and 
valiant  men  yet  living,  and  whose  wounds  were  not  mortal,  they  might  do  their  country 
and  prince  acceptable  service  hereafter.  And  whereas  sir  Richard  had  alledged  that  the 
Spaniards  should  never  glory  to  have  taken  one  ship  of  her  majesty,  seeing  they  had  so 
long  and  so  notably  defended  themselves ;  they  answered,  that  the  ship  had  six  feet 
water  in  hold,  three  shot  under  water,  which  were  so  weakly  stopped,  as  with  the  first 
working  of  the  sea  she  must  needs  sink  ;  and  was  besides  so  crushed  and  bruised,  as 
she  could  never  be  removed  out  of  the  place. 

And  as  the  matter  was  thus  in  dispute,  and  sir  Richard  refusing  to  hearken  to  any 
of  those  reasons,  the  master  of  the  Revenge  (while  the  captain  won  unto  him  the 
greater  party)  was  conveyed  aboaitl  the  General  Don  Alfonso  Bacan ;  who  (finding 
none  over  hasty  to  enter  the  Revenge  again,  doubting  lest  sir  Richard  would  have 
blo\vn  them  up  and  himself,  and  perceiving  by  the  report  of  the  master  of  the  Revenge 
his  dangerous  disposition)  yielded  that  all  their  lives  should  be  saved,  the  company  sent 
for  England,  and  the  better  sort  to  pay  such  reasonable  ransom  as  their  estate  would 
bear,  and  in  the  mean  season  to  be  free  from  galley  or  imprisonment.  To  this  he 
so  much  the  rather  condescended  as  well,  as  I  have  said,  for  fear  of  further  loss 
and  mischief  to  themselves,  as  also  for  the  desire  he  had  to  recover  sir  Richard  Greenvil, 
whom  for  his  notable  valour  he  seemed  greatly  to  honour  and  admire. 

When  this  answer  was  returned,  anJ  that  safety  of  life  was  promised,  the  common 
sort  being  now  at  the  end  of  their  peril,  the  most  drew  back  from  sir  Richard  and  the 
master  gunner,  being  no  hard  matter  to  dissuade  men  fi-om  death  to  life.  The  mas- 
ter gurmer,  finding  himself  and  sir  Richard  thus  prevented  and  mastered  by  the  greater 
number,  would  have  slain  himself  with  a  sword,  had  he  not  been  by  force  withheld, 
and  locked  into  his  cabin.  Then  the  general  sent  many  boats  aboard  the  Revenge ; 
and  divers  of  our  men,  fearing  sir  Richard's  disposition,  stole  awa)'  aboard  the  General 
and  other  ships.  Sir  Richat^,  thus  overmatched,  was  sent  unto  by  Alfonso  Bacan  to 
remove  out  of  the  Revenge,  the  ship  being  marvellous  unsavoury,  filled  with  blood 
and  bodies  of  dead  and  wounded  men,  like  a  slaughter-house.  Sir  Richard  answered 
that  he  might  do  with  his  body  what  he  list,  for  he  esteemed  it  not,  and  as  he  was 
carried  out  of  the  ship  he  swooned,  and  reviving  again,  desired  the  company  to  pray 
for  him.  The  general  used  sir  Richard  with  all  humanity,  and  left  nothing  unattempted 
that  tended  to  his  recovery,  highly  commending  his  valour  and  worthiness,  and 
greatly  bewailing  the  danger  wherein  he  was,  being  unto  them  a  rare  spectacle^  and  a 
resolution  seldom  approved,  to  see  one  ship  turn  towards  so  many  enemies,  to  endure 
the  charge  and  boaitling  of  so  many  huge  armadas,  and  to  resist  and  repel  the  assaults 


llALBIGIt'S  REPORT  OF  AN  ENCAfiPAIRNT. 


829 


and  entries  of  so  many  soldiers.  All  which  and  more  is  confirmed  by  a  Spanish  cap- 
tain of  the  same  armada,  and  a  present  actor  in  the  fight,  who,  being  severed  from  the 
rest  in  a  storm,  was  by  the  Lion  of  London,  a  small  ship,  taken,  and  is  now  prisoner  in 
London. 

The  general  commander  of  the  armada  was  don  Alfonso  Bacan,  brother  to  the  mar- 
quis of  Santa  Cruz.  Ths  admiral  of  the  Biscaine  squadron  was  Britundona.  Of  the 
squadron  of  Sivil  the  maniuis  of  Arumburch.  The  hulks  and  fly-boats  were  command- 
ed by  Luis  Coutinho.  There  were  slain  and  drowned  in  this  fight  well  near  one  thou- 
sand of  the  enemies,  and  two  special  commanders,  don  Luis  de  Sunt  John,  and  don  George 
de  Prunaria  dt-  Mallaga,  as  the  Spanish  captain  confesseth,  besides  divers  others  of  special 
account,  whereof  as  yet  report  is  not  made. 

The  admiral  of  the  hulks  and  the  Ascension  of  Sivil  were  both  sunk  by  the  side  of  the 
Revenge  ;  one  other  recovered  the  road  of  St.  Michael,  and  sunk  also  there ;  a  fourth 
ran  herself  with  the  shore,  to  save  her  men.  Sir  Richard  died,  as  it  is  said,  the  second  or 
third  day  aboard  the  General,  and  was  by  them  greatly  bewailed.  What  became  of  his 
body,  whether  it  was  buried  in  the  sea  or  on  the  land,  we  know  not :  the  comfort  that  re- 
maineth  to  his  friends  is,  that  he  hath  ended  his  life  honourably  in  respect  of  the  reputation 
won  to  his  nation  and  country,  and  of  the  same  to  his  posterity,  and  that  being  dead,  he 
hath  not  outlived  his  own  honour. 

For  the  rest  of  her  majesty's  ships,  that  entered  not  so  far  into  the  fight  as  tiie  Re- 
venge,  the  reasons  and  causes  were  these.  There  were  of  them  but  six  in  all,  whereof 
two  but  small  ships ;  the  Revenge  engaged  past  recovery  ;  the  island  of  Flores  was  on 
the  one  side  ;  53  sail  of  the  Spanish,  divided  into  squadrons,  on  the  other,  all  as  full 
filled  with  soldiers  as  they  could  contain;  almost  the  one  half  of  our  men  sick,  and  not 
able  to  serve  ;  the  ships  grown  foul,  and  scarcely  able  to  bear  any  sail  for  want  of  bal- 
last, having  been  six  months  at  the  sea  before.  If  all  the  rest  had  entered,  all  had  been 
lost ;  for  the  very  hugeness  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  if  no  other  violence  had  been 
ofitred,  would  have  crushed  them  between  them  into  shivers.  Of  which  the  dishonour 
and  loss  to  the  queen  had  been  far  greater  than  the  spoil  or  harm  that  the  enemy  could 
any  way  have  received.  Notwithstanding,  it  is  very  true  that  the  lord  Thomas  would 
have  entered  between  the  squadrons,  but  the  rest  would  not  condescend ;  and  the 
master  of  his  own  ship  offered  to  leap  into  the  sea,  rather  than  to  conduct  that  her  ma- 
jesty'sship  and  he  rest  to  be  a  prey  to  the  enemy,  where  there  was  no  hope  nor  pos- 
sibility either  of  defence  or  victory.  Which  also  in  my  opinion  had  ill  sorted  or  an- 
swered the  discretion  and  trust  of  a  general,  to  commit  himself  and  his  charge  to  an 
assured  destruction,  without  hope  or  any  likelihood  of  prevailing ;  thereby  to  diminish 
the  strength  of  her  majesty's  navy,  and  to  enrich  the  pride  and  glory  of  the  enemy. 
The  Foresight  of  the  queen's,  commanded  by  M.  Thomas  Vavisor,  performed  a  very 
great  fight,  and  staid  two  hours  as  near  the  Revenge  as  the  weather  would  permit,  not 
forsaking  the  fight  till  he  was  like  to  be  encompassed  by  the  squadrons,  and  with 
great  difficulty  cleared  himself.  The  rest  gave  divers  vollies  of  shot,  and  entered  as 
far  as  the  place  permitted,  and  their  own  necessities,  to  keep  the  weather  gage  of  the 
enemy,  until  they  were  parted  by  night.  A  few  days  after  the  fight  was  ended,  and 
the  English  prisoners  dispersed  mto  the  Spanish  and  India  ships,  there  arose  so  great  a 
storm  from  the  W.  and  N.  W.  that  all  the  fleet  was  dispersed,  as  well  the  Indian  fleet, 
which  were  then  come  unto  them,  as  the  rest  of  the  jirmada  that  attended  their  arrival, 
of  which  14  sail,  together  with  the  Revenge,  and  in  her  200  Spaniards,  were  cast 
away  upon  the  isle  of  3t.  Michael.  So  it  pleased  them  to  honour  the  burial  of  that  re- 
nowned ship  the  Revenge,  not  suffering  her  to  perish  alone,  for  the  great  honour  she 


e  ,'!^»rvv.;rwftp'>  fvu.' .' 


«.-*»•%  <aef«'-r*-'»Ji;-*»'--»»- •-'.I 


,  Trt-*-  .n-^:^nftny^f . 


830 


UALEIGH'S  KEFORT  OF  AN  ENGAGEMENT. 


achieved  in  her  lifetime.  On  the  rest  of  tlic  islands  there  were  cast  away  in  this  storm 
fificcn  or  sixteen  more  of  the  ships  of  war ;  and  of  an  hundred  and  odd  sail  of  the  India 
fleet,  expcclcd  this  jear  in  Spain,  what  in  this  tempest,  and  what  before  in  the  bay 
of  Mexico,  and  about  the  Bermudas,  there  were  70  and  odd  consumed  and  lost,  with 
those  taken  by  our  ships  of  London,  besides  one  very  rich  Indian  ship,  which  set  her- 
self on  firt',  being  boarded  by  the  Pilgrim,  and  five  others  taken  by  master  Wats  his 
ships  of  London,  between  the  Havanna  and  Cape  St.  Antonio.  The  fourth  of  this 
month  of  November  wv  received  letters  from  the  Tercera,  affirming  that  there  are 
three  thousand  bodies  of  men  remaining  in  that  island,  saved  out  of  the  perished  ships ; 
and  that  by  the  Spaniards  own  confession,  there  are  ten  thousand  cast  away  in  this 
storm,  besides  diose  that  are  perished  between  the  islands  and  the  main.  Thus  it  hath 
ple.ised  God  to  fight  for  us,  and  to  defend  the  justice  of  our  cause  against  the  ambitious 
and  bloody  pretences  of  the  Spaniards,  who,  seeking  to  devour  all  nations,  are  themselves 
devoured.  A  manifold  testimony  how  unjust  and  displeasing  their  attempts  are  in  the 
sight  of  God,  who  hath  pleased  to  witness,  by  the  success  of  their  affairs,  his  mislikc  of 
their  blood)  and  injurious  designs,  purposed  and  practised  against  all  christian  princes, 
over  whom  they  seek  unlawful  and  ungodly  rule  and  empire. 

One  day  or  two  before  this  wreck  happened  to  the  Spanish  fleet,  when  as  some  of 
our  prisoners  desired  to  be  set  on  shore  upon  the  islands,  hoping  to  be  from  thence 
transported  into  England,  which  liberty  wjis  formerly  by  the  general  promised,  one 
Morice  Fitz  John,  son  of  old  John  of  Desmond,  a  notable  traitor,  cousin  german  to  the 
late  earl  of  Desmond,  was  sent  to  the  English  from  ship  to  ship,  to  persuade  them  to 
serve  the  king  of  Spain.  The  arguments  he  used  to  induce  them  were  these.  The 
increase  of  pay,  which  he  promised  to  be  trebled  :  advancement  to  the  better  sort :  and 
the  exercise  of  the  true  Catholic  aligion,  and  safety  of  their  souls  to  all.  For  the  first, 
even  the  beggarly  and  unnatural  behaviour  of  those  English  and  Irish  rebels,  that  served 
the  king  in  that  present  action,  was  sufficient  to  answer  that  first  argument  of  rich  pay. 
For  so  poor  and  beggarly  they  were,  as  for  want  of  apparel  they  stripped  their  poor 
countrymen  prisoners  out  of  their  ragged  garments,  worn  to  nothing  by  six  months 
service,  and  spared  not  to  despoil  them  even  of  their  bloody  shirts,  from  their  wounded 
bodies,  and  the  very  shoes  from  their  feet ;  a  notable  testimony  of  their  rich  entertain- 
ment and  great  wages.  The  second  reason  was  hope  of  advancement  if  they  served 
well,  and  would  continue  faithful  to  the  king.  But  what  man  can  be  so  blockishly  ig- 
norant ever  to  expect  place  or  honour  from  a  fnrf-ign  king,  hnving  no  other  argument 
or  persuasion  than  his  own  disloyalty ;  to  be  unnatural  to  his  own  country  that  bred 
him  ;  to  his  parents  that  begat  him ;  and  rebellious  to  his  true  prince,  to  whose  obe- 
dience he  is  bound  by  oath,  by  nature,  and  by  reli^on  ?  No,  they  are  only  assured  to  be 
employed  in  all  desperate  enterprises,  to  be  held  in  scorn  and  disdain  even  among  those 
whom  they  serve.  And  that  ever  traitor  was  either  trusted  or  advanced  I  could  never  yet 
read,  neither  can  I  at  this  time  remember  any  example.  And  no  man  could  have  less 
become  the  place  of  an  orator  for  such  a  purpose  than  this  Morice  of  Desmond.  For 
the  earl  his  cousin  being  one  of  the  greatest  subjects  in  that  kingdom  of  Ireland,  having 
almost  whole  counties  ui  his  possession,  so  many  goodly  manors,  casdes,  and  lordships, 
the  count  palatine  of  Kerry,  five  hundred  gentlemen  of  his  own  name  and  family  to 
follow  him,  besides  others  (all  which  he  and  his  ancestors  possessed  in  peace  for  three 
or  four  hundred  years)  was,  in  less  than  three  years  after  his  adhering  to  the  Spaniards 
and  rebellion,  beaten  from  all  his  holds,  not  so  many  as  ten  gendemen  of  his  name  lefl 
living,  himself  taken  and  beheaded  by  a  soldier  of  his  own  nation,  and  his  land  given 
hy  a  parliament  to  her  majesty,  and  possessed  by  the  English:  his  other  cousin,  sir  John 


KAI.EK.H'S  UEI'OUT  (»!•  AN  KNCACEMENT. 


8.31 


of  Desmond,  taken  by  master  John  Zoiicli,  aiul  liis  body  lianj^cd  over  the  gates  of  his 
native  city,  t(»  be  devoured  by  lavtns:  »l)c  third  brother  sir  Jiiincs  hanged,  cUauii,  and 
quartered  in  the  same  place.  If  he  h.«d  withal  \  united  of  his  suceess  of  his  own  house, 
no  doubt  the  argument  would  have  moved  mueh,  and  wrought  great  ell'eet ;  which 
Ixcause  he  for  tliat  present  forgot,  I  tliought  it  good  to  remember  in  liis  JKhalf.  For 
matter  of  religion  it  would  recjuiie  a  particular  volume,  if  I  should  set  down  how  irre- 
ligiously they  cover  their  greedy  and  ambitious  pretences  with  that  veil  of  piety.  But 
sure  I  um,  that  there  is  no  kingdom  or  commonwealth  in  all  Europe,  but  if  they  be  re- 
formed, they  then  invade  it  for  religion  sake:  if  it  be,  ivs  they  term  Catholic,  they  pre- 
tend title;  as  if  the  kings  of  Castile  were  the  natural  heirs  of  all  the  world:  and  so,  be- 
t\vecn  both,  no  kingdom  is  unsought.  Where  they  dare  not  with  their  own  forces  to 
invade,  they  basely  entertain  the  traitors  and  vagabonds  of  all  nations,  seeking  by 
those,  and  by  their  runnagate  Jesuits,  to  win  parts,  and  havciby  that  means  ruined  many 
noble  houses  and  others  in  this  land,  and  have  extinguished  both  their  lives  and  families. 
What  good,  honour,  or  fortune,  ever  man  yet  by  them  achieved,  is  yet  unheard  of, 
or  unwritten.  And  if  our  English  Papists  do  but  look  into  Portugal,  against  which 
they  have  no  pretence  of  religion,  how  the  nobility  arc  put  to  deatli,  imprisoned,  their 
rich  men  made  a  prey,  and  all  sort  of  people  captived,  they  shall  find  that  the  obedience 
even  of  the  Turk  is  easy  and  a  liberty,  in  respect  of  the  slavery  and  tyraimy  of  Spain. 
What  have  they  done  in  Sicill,  in  Naples,  Millaine,  and  in  the  Low  countries?  who  hath 
there  been  spared  for  religion  at  all  ?  And  it  cometh  to  my  remembrance  of  a  certain 
burgher  of  Antwerp,  whose  house  being  entered  by  a  company  of  Spanish  soldiers,  when 
they  first  sacked  the  city,  he  besought  them  to  spare  him  and  his  goods,  being  a  good 
catholic,  and  one  of  their  own  party  and  faction.  The  Rjpaniards  answered,  that  they 
knew  him  to  be  of  a  good  conscience  for  himself,  but  his  money,  plate,  jewels,  and 
goods,  were  all  heretical,  and  therefore  good  prize.  So  they  abused  and  tormented  the 
foolish  Fleming,  who  hoped  that  an  Agnus  Dei  had  been  a  sufKcient  target  against  all 
force  of  that  holy  and  charitable  nation.  Neither  have  they  at  any  time,  as  they  pro- 
test, invaded  the  kingdoms  of  the  Indies  and  Peru,  and  elsewhere,  but  only  led  there- 
unto,  rather  to  reduce  the  people  to  Christianity,  than  for  either  gold  6r  empire.  When 
as  in  one  only  island,  called  Hispaniola,  they  have  wasted  thirty  hundred  thousand  of 
the  natural  people,  besides  many  millions  else  in  other  places  of  the  Indies;  a  poor  and 
harmless  people,  created  of  God,  and  might  have  been  won  to  his  knowledge,  as  many 
of  them  were,  and  almost  as  many  as  ever  were  persuaded  thereunto.  The  story  whereof 
is  at  lai^e  written  by  a  bishop  of  their  own  nation,  called  Bartholomew  de  las  Casas, 
and  translated  into  English  and  many  other  languages,  intitled,  "  the  Spanish  Cruelties." 
Who  would,  therefore,  repose  trust  in  such  a  nation  of  ravenous  strangers,  and  espe~ 
cially  in  those  Spaniards,  which  more  greedily  thirst  after  English  blood,  than  after  the 
lives  of  any  other  people  of  Europe,  for  the  many  overthrows  and  dishonours  they  have 
received  at  our  hands,  whose  we.ikness  we  have  discovered  to  the  world,  and  whose  forces 
at  home,  abroiid,  in  Europe,  in  India,  by  sea  and  land,  we  have  even  with  handfulls  of 
men  and  ships  overthrown  and  dishonoured.  Let  not,  therefore,  any  Englishman,  of 
what  religion  soever,  have  other  opinion  of  the  Spaniards,  but  that  those  whom  he 
seeketh  to  win  of  our  nation  he  esteemeth  base  and  traitorous,  unworthy  persons,  or 
unconstant  fools;  and  that  he  useth  his  pretence  of  religion  for  no  other  purpose, 
but  to  bewitch  us  from  the  obedience  of  our  natural  prince ;  thereby  hoping,  in  time, 
to  bring  us  to  slavery  and  subjection,  and  then  none  shall  be  unto  them  so  odious  and 
disdained  as  the  traitors  themselves,  who  have  sold  their  country  to  a  stranger,  and  for- 


t  .».»*»»*-V='-»>  ■•--  • 


832 


RAI.P.IOM'S  URl'ORT  OF  AN  ENOACEMENTi 


sikcn  their  faith  and  olx-dicncc,  contrary  to  nature  und  religion  ;  and  contrary  to  that 
immauc  and  ircueral  honour,  not  only  of  christians,  but  of  heathen  and  irrchg.ous  na- 
tions  who  have  always  sustained  what  labour  soever,  and  embraced  even  death  itself, 
for  their  country,  prince,  or  commonwealth.  To  conclude,  it  hath  ever  to  this  day 
pleased  God  to  prosper  and  defend  her  majesty,  to  break  the  purposes  of  malicious  cnc 
mics.  of  forsworn  traitors,  and  of  unjust  practices  and  invasions.  She  hath  ever  been 
honoured  of  the  worthiest  kings,  served  by  faithful  subjects,  and  shaU,  by  the  favour  of 
Gcd  resist,  repel,  and  confound  all  whatsoever  attempts  against  her  sacred  person  or 
kinffdoiu  In  the  mean  time,  let  the  Spaniard  and  traitor  vaunt  of  their  success,  and 
we,  her  true  and  obedient  vassals,  guided  by  the  shining  light  of  her  virtues,  shall  always 
love  her,  serve  her,  and  obey  her,  to  the  end  of  our  lives. 


VOYAGE  TO  TKRCKKA,  UNOFKTAKKN  nYTHKCOMMANUF.U  I)K  CflASTi., 
(;KNTL1:MAN  in  OKDINAHY  of  the  king's  UKU-CHAMIJKK,  and  (.(). 
VKKNOK  lOK  HIS  MAJESTY  OF  HIE  TOWN  ANU  CASTLES  OF  DIKIMM. 
AND  AHQUIS. 

[TRANSITED  mOM  THf,  mENCH  IN  TIIKVENOrS  COLLECTION,  VOL.  IV. 

TIIK  quccii  dowaf^cr  bcinj?  rcMjIvcd  to  oppose  the  expedition  fitted  out  by  ilic  kin{j; 
of  Spain  against  the  islunds  ol  Tercera  and  t'ayal,  comprising  a  great  force  in  icadiness 
and  properly  e(|uip|x^d  at  Lislion,  and  the  diflferent  other  ports  subject  to  him,  for  tlic 
purpose  of  reducing  the  said  islands,  remaining  dependencies  of  the  kingdom  of  Por- 
tugal, and  possessed  by  the  said  king  for  five  or  six  years  before  in  his  right  of  a  strong 
and  cunning  neighbour :  and  Don  Anthony,  elected  king  of  Portugal  .ifter  the 
d  tth  of  his  predecessor  Don  Sebastian,  having  implored  the  assistance  ol  the  (juecn  for 
a  long  time  in  his  distressed  situation,  sojourning  for  that  purpose,  and  following  up 
his  entreaties  in  person  at  the  court  of  the  king  of  Fiance,  her  majesty  promised  to 
aid  him,  for  a  valuable  consideration,  trusting  to  the  assurances  which  he  gave  her  of 
the  island  of  'I'ercera  being  able  to  defend  itself,  with  a  thousand  French,  against  the 
iu*my  of  the  king  of  Spain,  which  he  represented  to  consist  of  five  or  six  thousand  men 
ut  most ;  stating  fiu'ther,  that  there  were  six  or  seven  thousand  fighting  men  belonging 
to  Portugal  on  the  island,  commanded  by  his  viceroy  Uie  coiuit  de  Torrevedros,  and 
five  hutidred  French,  who  had  stopped  there  the  preceding  year  1582  (after  the  bat- 
tIcofMons.  Strossy)  commanded  by  captain  Baptista,  an  Italian  and  serjeant  major, 
and  captain  Carles  of  Bordeaux.  Besides,  he  informed  Ikt  majesty  that  the  island 
of  Tercera  was  eighteen  great  leagues  in  circumference,  that  landing  was  very  dif- 
ficult, and  that  there  were  no  more  than  three  ix)ints  of  access,  which  could  with  ease 
be  fortified. 

Her  majesty,  trusting  to  the  truth  of  what  his  majesty  Don  Anthony  related,  gave 
the  command  of  nine  companies  of  foot,  and  of  the  other  French  who  were  upon  the 
island,  to  the  commander  de  Chaste,  constituting  him  general,  with  order  to  repair  to 
Tercera,  and  defend  the  place.  After  the  said  commander  had  thanked  her  majesty, 
he  most  humbly  entreated  her  to  reflect  on  the  importance  of  the  enterprise,  which  he 
did  not  esteem  of  moment  in  respect  to  the  risque  of  his  own  life>  provided  he  might 
be  able  to  give  aatisfaction  to  her  majesty ;  this  he  considered  difficult  to  effect,  the 
voyage  being  precipitated  at  the  instigation  of  a  poor  and  passionate  king,  in  despair  of 
recovering  his  kingdom  of  Portugal,  of  which  these  islands  were  all  that  remained,  and 
which  he  was  desirous  of  preservij)g  at  the  expence  of  the  honour  and  blood  of  others, 
himself  without  experience  of  war.  The  commander  entreated  jx^rmission  of  her  ma- 
jesty  to  be  allowed  to  embark  alone  in  a  small  vessel,  and  to  allow  a  delay  until  he  could 
himself  reconnoitre  Tercera,  in  order  to  make  a  jierfect  reiwrt  of  its  strength,  and  the 
force  it  might  require  for  its  defence,  Her  majesty  considered  this  re|)resentation  as 
reasonable,  and  agreed  to  the  request  of  the  commander;  nevertheless  delaying  his  de- 
piirture  so  long,  that  she  was  informed  of  the  embarkation  of  the  Spaniards  at  Lisbon, 
and  their  being  ready  to  sail ;  whicii  obliged  the  commiuider  to  proceed  with  all  dis- 
patch  to  Havre  de  Grace  with  his  nine  companies,  in  compliance  with  his  orders,  to 
go  on  board,  which  he  «itected  on  the  17th  of  M.;y,  1583.  On  account  of  calms  and 
storms  they  had  been  24  days  at  sea,  when,  at  the  distance  of  forty  or  fifty  leagues  off 
Tercera,  he  dispatched  a  sloop  belonging  to  his  fleet,  commanded  by  Le  Sii m  Cnsson, 
to  reconnoitre,  and  see  if  tlie  Spaniards  had  made  themselves  masters  of  it ;  and  fuU 


VOL.    I. 


5  o 


834 


l>K  tJllV^TR'S  VOVAr.R  TO  TKMCF.HA. 


lowing  the  !>amc  course,  he  received  certain  advice  that  this  island  was  still  free,  nnd 
arrived  the  11th  day  of  June  following  in  the  port  of  Tercera,  which  joins  the  city  ; 
a  large,  open  place.  He  was  saluted  \>y  several  nieces  oi  ordnance  and  anpiebusses, 
and  was  received  with  (jreat  distinction  by  Mr.  de  Forrevcdros,  the  viceroy,  as  well  hi 
the  I*orfn}.5ucsc,  who  shewed  great  demonstrations  of  joy  on  the  occusion  of  the  ar. 
iiva»  of  the  commander  and  his  troops;  die  people  exclaiming  loudly,  "long  live  Icing 
Anthony,  long  live  the  king  of  France  and  the  commander  de  Chaste,  who  is  come  to 
Kuccour  us."  The  ladies  were  seen  at  the  greatest  part  of  the  windows  of  the  city,  strew, 
ing  over  his  head  abundance  of  roses  and  other  Howcrs,  and  coming  Ix'fore.  threw 
orange  flower  water  in  his  face,  saying,  ••  you  shall  be  sprinkled,  since  you  are  the 
friend  of  our  good  king  Anthony."  This  was  continued  the  whole  length  of  this  city, 
imtil  he  reached  his  abode.  The  poor  French  who  remumed  there  from  the  yeur  Ix;- 
fore  w<  .e  so  much  delighted  nt  seeing  them,  that  they  cried  for  joy,  and  came  to  em- 
brace the  knees  of  their  companions  and  countrymen;  for  they  were  under  appre- 
hension of  being  confined  to  the  island,  where  they  lived  but  badly,  on  account  of  the 
inconveniences  they  experienced  of  every  description. 

Immediately  after  their  arrival,  they  received  advice  from  an  island  called  the  Peak, 
uf  the  Spanish  armament  being  seen,  consisting  of  twenty-five  sail :  Lc  Comte  dc  Tor- 
revedros  came  directly  to  the  commander  to  consult  on  what  should  be  done,  and  to 
propose  to  send  three  hundred  men  to  the  isle  of  Fayal,  where  there  was  no  more  than 
one  French  company  :  to  this  proposition  the  commander  replied,  that  he  trusted  that 
to  hiiT.,  as  he  was  best  acquainted  with  that  island,  and  of  course  knew  what  landing, 
places  it  had,  and  what  number  of  men  were  requisite  for  its  defence ;  giving,  how- 
ever, lo  be  understood  at  the  same  same  time,  fhat  his  orders  were  to  defend  Tercera. 
Upon  this  the  count,  reiterating  his  propositions,  desired  the  three  hundred  men  might 
be  sent,  as  the  island  of  Fayal  was  of  the  greatest  consequence,  since,  if  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  they  might  shelter  their  galleys  there,  and  by  that  means  be  secure  of 
capturing  Tercera.  At  length  it  was  resolved,  that  captain  Carles  of  Bordeaux  should 
proceed  thither  with  four  French  companies,  and  one  company  of  English  ;  it  was  as 
well  resolved  to  retain  the  vessels  which  had  brought  the  commander ;  as  much  to  make 
use  of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  belonging  to  them,  as  to  form  a  chain  of  the  said  vessels, 
traversing  the  harbour  of  Angra,  having  noticed  on  their  arrival  the  small  number  of 
men  there  was  for  the  defence  ol  the  island.  This  being  done,  he  begged  the  count 
to  accompany  him  to  reconnoitre  the  accessible  points  of  landing,  to  which  he  agreed, 
and  they  went  together,  accompanied  bv  some  ciiptains  ;  upon  their  arrival  they  found, 
(juite  contrary  to  the  statement  which  his  majesty  king  Anthony  laid  before  the  queen 
nf  there  being  but  three  landing-places,  that  is  to  say,  Angra,  Porto  Indio,  and 
Praya,  that,  besides  ihese,  there  were  a  number  of  others  which  had  been  badly  for- 
tified,  their  intrenchments  being  made  at  two  great  distance  from  the  sea,  and  very 
weak  :  which  was  the  cause  of  their  separating  the  men,  in  order  to  furnish  a  defence 
at  each  of  the  places  of  access,  in  the  following  manner :  at  Angra,  captain  Baptista 
with  his  company,  consisting  of  90  men,  and  that  of  captain  Brevel  of  80  men,  and 
some  Portuguese,  had  to  prevent  a  descent  at  Angra;  and  from  Brazil  to  th .  fjrts 
St.  Anthony  and  St.  Michael,  a  full  league  and  a  half  of  space,  captainii  B,^:^  ,  and 
Capen  with  their  companies  of  100  men  collectively,  and  two  companies  ot  i^jr. 
tuguese  ;  at  La  Casa  dc  Saloue,  a  quarter  of  a  league  from  Porto  Indio,  and  a  jr/jiju- 
tain  between,  captain  La  Valade  with  his  company  of  forty  men,  and  a  cum |i any 
of  Portuguese ;  at  St.  Catherine,  h  league's  distance  from  La  Casa  de  SaJquc,  and 
a  great  mountain  between,  capttun  Bourguignon  and  his  company  of  fifty  men,  with  two 


DR  r.UKnrm  vovAcir  to  rr.iCKRA. 


8J5 


companies  of  Portup;ucsc ;  at  Port  I'iscard,  hulf  a  IcngiiL-  from  St.  Catherine,  ami  ano. 
thir  niuinituin  iK'twccn,  very  ini.ouvcniently    luiatcci,  an  it  liiiulcreil   the  oliicrviiii^  (a- 
hcariiifr  tliein  ii'  attuckcd,  tu  uH'ord  tliem  assistance,  captain  (irano  with  his  cuniiKi* 
ny  of  sixty  men,  and  a  coujpanv  of  I'ortuj^uesc  ;  ut  St.   Sebastian,   half  a  league  dis. 
tatjce  from  Port  Piseard,  cimtairi  LmiiH  witl>  l>is  comi'Miy  of  forty  men,  and  u  company 
of  Portngnese  :  atCjilIrs  iHrnand^z,  a  great  league  distant  from  St.  Sebastian,  .ind  all 
of  it  accessible,  captain  Campagnol  will)  hiii  company  of  hixty  men,  and  three  conipu 
nies  of  Portuguese ;  at  St.  Marguerite,  a  quarter  of  a  league  from  Gillcs  I''ernande:i:, 
captain  Chouin  with  forty  men,  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  two  companies  of  Portuguese  j 
at  f*orto  Martin,  a  (|uarter  of  a  \:  tj^ue  from  St.   Marguerite,  captain  Campols  with  his 
company  of  eighty  men,  and  a  company  of  Portuguese ;  at  La  Praya,  whicii  was  the 
shore  for  the  greatest  distance  accessible,  and  where  it  was  expected  the  enemy  wonlif 
land,  and  make  an  attempt,  one  league  and  a  half  distant  from  Pc       .•lartin,  the  com- 
mander de  Chaste  posted  himself,  with  the  companies  of  Capios,  Laste,  Armissac,  Lc 
Darre,  und  Lignerol ;  each  of  about  one  hundred  men,  and  four  companies  of  Por. 
tugucsc ;  at  Villanova,  one  great  league  and  u  half  from  Praya,  a  serjeant  belonginj^ 
to  the  company  of  captain  Barrc,  with  fifteen  men  ;  at  Biscuit,  a  league  from  the  (bur 
rivers,  and  two  landing-places,  hilfa  league  distant  from  each  other,  captain  Armand 
with  his  company  of  sixty  men,  the  master  of  the  camp  with  his  company  of  ninety 
men,  with  the  said  count  and  a  thousand  Portuguese,  who  were  to  follow  the  army 
in  the  vineyards  which  were  at  La  Praya  and  i'orto  Indio,  and  captain  Pomync  with 
his  company  of  thirty<five  men,     Orders  were  issued  that  the  sailors  should  be  sepa- 
rated aa  became  necessary;  and  that  sixty  of  the  best  cavalry  of  the  island  should  ic* 
pair  to  the  commander   at  La  Praga,  to  learn  which  would  be  attacked  first ;  and 
that  the  sloop  belonging  to  the  count  should  be  sent  to  speak  the  island  of  St.  Michael, 
kept  by  the  Spaniards  ;    this  on  its  return  brought  intelligence,  that  fiflecn  or  six> 
teen  large  vessels  of  the  armament  had  been  discovered ;  at  the  same  time  arrived  one 
of  those  belonging  to  the  comm;\n<ler's  fleet,  which  had  been  detained  behind  the  rest 
by  bad  weather  at  sea.     Upon  its  arrival,  all  the  captains  of  the  ships  came  to  in- 
treat  the  commander  for  permission  to  return  to  France,  as  the  whole  fleet  had  arriv- 
ed.    This  took  place  in  the  presence  of  the  count,  who  represented  to  the  coinman. 
der,  that  the  forces  brought  to  Terccra  were  nut  suflicient  to  preserve  it,  and  that  he 
protested  against  his  granting  permission    to  the  captains  to  sail;  they  having  dis- 
covered many  landing-places,  wnich  had  not  before  been  attended  to,  and  which  they 
had  neither  leisure  nor  means  of  fortifying,  seeing  the  Spanish  arir^'  was  so  near  at 
hand.      The  commander,  having  listened  to   these  remonstrances,  would  not  allow 
the  captains  to  sail,  but  ordered  them  to  stay  the  event,  and  land  their  crew ;  these, 
after  some  dispute,  agreed  on  obeying  the  oraer ;  so  far  from  attending  to  their  pro. 
mise  however,  the  vessels  of  Captain  La  Haye,  that  of  M.  de  Sarlobut,  the  ship  De  Pou- 
piere,  and  another  called  the  King,  set  sail,  and  departed  without  leave  the  next  day. 
The  commander  followed  Uiem  in  a  sloop  eight  or  ten  leagues  to  sea,  and  again  ordered 
them,  in  the  king's  name,  and  under  pain  of  death,  to  return  to  the  island,  for  the  need 
they  had  of  them  of  importance  to  his  majesty's  sci  vice ;  they  armed  themselves,  and  re- 
plied to  the  commander  by  a  refusal,  afiirming  that  they  would  not  be  lost,  as  he  would 
and  those  who  accompanied  him,  and  were  at  Tercera,  who,  without  doubt,  in  ten 
days  time  would  all  of  them  have  their  throats  cut ;  stating  that  the  Portuguese  them- 
selves would  betray  the  French :  they  then  begged  him  without  assertion  of  authority  to 
leave  them,  which,  being  powerless  of  forcing  them  to  his  orders,  he  did. 

5o2 


tik's 


836 


l)r-  CIIAS  TE'S    VOYAGB  TO   TEUCnilA. 


On  his  rtliirn  lie  sent  iinolhcr  sloop  to  sea  to  reconnoitre,  which  discovered  the  whole 
fleet  under  sail,  directing  its  course  towards  Tercera ;  of  which  being  informed,  the 
count  came  to  the  commander  at  La  Praya,  and  assured  him  that  the  Spanish  fleet 
consisted  of  forty  large  vessels,  twelve  galleys,  two  galleasses,  and  the  remainder  of 
small  vessels  or  sloops,  making  together  a  hundred  sail.  The  commander  immediately 
went  to  reeotnioiti-e  the  forts,  which  were  along  the  shore  of  La  Praya,  and  see  if  they 
were  provided  as  he  had  ordered  ;  when  he  heard  the  sentinels,  on  the  mountains, 
give  signals  of  Uieir  seeing  the  fleet,  by  the  sounding  of  bells.  Being  returned  to  Pra- 
ya, he  learnt  that  the  count  had  retired  to  Angres,  which  was  his  station,  upon  hearing 
the  alarm. 

The  next  morning,  the  twenty-third  of  July,  thewhole  fleet  was  in  sight  before  Praya,  at 
a  league's  distance,  which  continually  nearing,  coasted  along  the  island.  The  commander 
followed  them  as  far  as  St.  Marguerite,  when  they  cast  anchor,  keeping  a  quarter  of  a 
league  from  shore ;  before  the  galleys  anchored,  like  their  admiral,  they  came  very 
near  to  a  landing-place,  where  there  were  only  a  few  Portuguese,  who  fired  a  few  shot 
at  them.  The  commander  du  Mayet,  being  at  hand  with  a  small  number  of  French 
soldiers,  advanced,  and  upon  his  getting  up,  the  galleys  retired,  and  captain  Pomyet  was 
placed  at  the  shore,  with  his  company  of  30  men. 

The  Sunday  following,  at  day-break,  the  galleys  approached  La  Praya  very  near 
to  shore ;  and  fired  a  number  of  guns  and  arquebusses  at  our  trenches,  sending  for- 
ward a  boat  to  examine  the  landing-place ;  which  came  very  near,  as  there  was  no 
moon  up ;  on  sun-rise,  they  returned  to  the  fleet,  and  in  the  afternoon,  they  coasted 
all  along  the  Island  again,  to  reconnoitre  every  place  of  landing ;  firing  guns  wherever 
they  saw  any  people.  The  Maitre  de  Camp  advanced,  to  station  himself  with  his  com- 
pany at  the  landing-places  between  Gillez  Fernandez  and  Port  Pescart.  At  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a  boat,  with  a  white  flag,  was  dispatched  from  the  fleet,  to- 
wards the  quarter  where  the  commander  du  Mayet  was  posted,  who  fired  three  or 
four  guns  at  it,  to  prevent  the  recognizing  of  that  landing-place,  which  caused  it  to  re- 
tire. The  commander  du  Chaste,  who  had  not  yet  observed  the  count  make  his  appear- 
ance, sent  to  tell  him,  that  he  looked  upon  it  as  extraordinary  he  did  not  join  the 
army,  and  that  both  the  Portuguese  and  the  French  thought  very  ill  of  such  demeanor ; 
that  he  begg-ed  him  to  join  them,  and  to  send  the  cavalry  which  was  ordered  to  La 
Praya,  and  a  diflfenent  captain  to  that  who  commanded  the  Portuguese,  on  account  of 
their  having  no  confidence  in  him,  looking  upon  him  as  either  a  coward  or  a  traitor, 
from  his  manner  of  behaviour ;  at  the  same  time  to  provide  the  soldiers  with  bread  ; 
for  from  the  time  of  their  arrival  they  had  so  little,  that  they  were  half  famished. 

The  next  day,  which  was  Monday,  all  the  galleys  came  before  Praya  by  day-break, 
firing  a  number  of  cannon  and  arquebusses,  and  retired  an  hour  after  sun-rise,  keep- 
ing close  to  shore  all  day  long,  to  reconnoitre  nearer ;  the  commander  followed  them 
up  to  the  fleet,  meeting  in  the  way  John  de  Castres,  a  Portuguese,  whom  the  count 
sent  to  command  at  La  Praya,  who  delivered  him  a  letter  from  the  count,  <vhich  he 
had  received  fi-om  the  marquis  de  Santa  Cruz,  admiral  of  the  fleet,  by  two  Pontiguese 
of  Tercera  which  he  had  made  prisoners ;  this  letter  was  fastened  to  the  neck  of  one  of 
them,  who  swam  on  shore ;  a  plan  to  which  the  marquis  stated  he  had  recourse,  as  the 
governor  would  not  allow  a  cartel  to  approach.  The  marquis,  in  this  letter,  endeavoured 
to  persuade  the  count  to  surrender  the  island  to  the  king  of  Spain,  to  whom,  he  stated, 
it  belonged,  assuring  him,  upon  his  honour,  of  a  free  paraon  on  the  part  of  his  majesty 
for  his  past  disobedience ;  in  spite  of  which)  his  wife  and  children,  wlro  were  prisoner 


1>K  CHASTB'S   VOVAl.K  TO  TKKCKllA. 


837 


at  Madrid  in  Spain,  should  be  delivered  up  to  him,  and  be  reinstated  as  well  as  himself 
in  all  their  possessions ;  and  further,  that  his  majesty  would  honour  him  with  valuable 

grants  and  employments :  with  respect  to  the  French  in  the  island,  he  would  forgive 
lem  also,  knowing  well  that  they  at  all  times  were  willing  to  adventure  wherever  a 
good  opportunity  presented  itself  of  making  their  fortune,  and  that  he  had  in  express 
command  from  his  majesty,  to  furnish  them  with  three  months  allowance,  and  aflbrd 
them  a  passage  to  France,  in  the  ships  which  brought  them  ;  and  although  he  had  no 
doubt  of  the  conquest  of  the  island,  he,  nevertheless,  to  shew  that  his  master  was  a 
prince  both  mild  and  benignant,  on  his  pait,  made  these  offers  with  }X)wer  in  his 
hands. 

As  soon  as  the  commander  had  seen  the  subject  of  this  letter,  he  tore  it  in  pieces 
without  communicating  its  contents  to  any  one,  and  in  the  evening  the  count  came 
to  him  at  IVaya  with  the  cavalry,  promising  to  send  him  sixty  horses,  which  he  did  not 
do.  Returning  to  his  station,  he  passed  by  that  of  the  Maitre  de  Camp,  and  the  com- 
mander du  Mayet,  who  informed  him,  it  was  his  opinion  that  the  enemy  meant  to 
make  an  attack  the  nexc  day  on  Porto  Indio,  or  St.  Catherine,  where  there  Were  not  a 
sufficient  number  of  people  to  prevent  a  descent,  and  beseeching  the  count  to  send  him 
the  French  sailors  who  were  at  Angra,  to  place  them :  which  he  promised  to  do, 
assuring  the  Maitre  de  Camp  and  du  Maye't,  that  he  would  proceed  thither  with 
four  thousand  men.  So  txr  from  acdng  thus,  having  met  the  sailors  on  the  road,  he 
conducted  them  back  to  Angra,  and  no  more  was  heard  of  him  till  the  succeeding 
day,  in  the  afternoon,  the  day  of  the  battle.  The  same  evening  the  Maitre  de  Camp 
and  du  Mayet  ordered  captain  Baptista  to  send  his  company  to  sleep,  to  a  mountain 
which  was  between  St.  Catherine  and  Porto  Indio,  to  be  ready  to  succour  either,  as  there 
might  be  occasion ;  which  he  did  not  do,  but  went  to  sleep  at  St.  Sebastian,  a  league 
from  the  spot. 

On  the  succeeding  day,  which  was  Tuesday,  an  hour  before  day,  three  galleys  of 
the  Spanish  fleet  came  to  La  Praya,  and  fired  several  balls  at  a  corps  de  garde,  where 
they  saw  a  fire :  in  the  mean  time,  the  other  galleys,  with  fifteen  or  twenty  large  boats 
accompanying  each,  apjSroached  to  the  shore  of  St.  Catherine,  where  captain  Bour- 

fuignon  was  posted  with  two  companies  of  Portuguese,  who  took  to  their  heels  on  the 
rst  discharge  of  cannon  from  the  galleys;  so  that  the  said  Bourguignon  remained 
with  only  fifty  French  soldiers  belonging  to  his  company.  This  small  force  opposed  the 
landing  vigorously ;  thirty-five  of  his  number  were  killed,  with  the  captain ;  his  lieutenant 
and  his  ensign,  with  the  fifteen  men  who  remained,  being  wounded.  The  Spaniards 
landed  at  once  six  thousand  men,  and  the  rest  of  the  army  filed  after  them,  to  the 
number  of  fifteen  thousand,  in  such  excellent  discipline,  that  their  order  of  battle  was 
formed  immediately  on  landing,  every  one  knowing  his  station.  Du  Mayet  arrived 
there,  and  captain  La  Grave,  shortly  after  the  Maitre  de  Camp  beginning  a  skirmish  ; 
but  were  obliged  to  retreat  for  want  di  men.  As  soon  as  day  appeared,  the  com- 
mander de  Chaste  ordered  .aptain  la  Barre  to  advance  towards  the  army,  expecting 
it  was  about  to  land,  and  at  the  instant  he  heard  a  cannonade  on  the  side  of  St.  Cathe- 
rine, which  caused  him  to  proceed  thence  towards  with  his  companies,  making  them 
march  in  sight  of  each  other ;  and  continuing  in  this  order  ak)ng  the  sea  shore  as  quick 
as  he  coukl,  to  the  place  where  the  enemy  was  advancing,  in  order  that,  if  the  enemy 
were  repulsed,  he  should  not  have  an  opportunity  of  landing  with  his  galleys  in  another 
quarter.  At  the  head  of  his  companies  he  was  informed,  by  a  man  on  horseback, 
whom  be  had  sent  forward,  that  all  the  enemy  had  landed,  and  that,  at  a  little  village 


838 


DE  CHASTE'a  VOYAGE  TO  TERCEBA. 


close  to  them,  seven  or  eight  hundred  munqueteers  and  arquibusiers  were  advancing 
to  take  possession  of  a  spring;  these  the  commander  determined  upon  chargmg,  on 
coming  up  ;  which  he  effected  with  such  spirit  with  the  four  hundred  men  he  cum- 
manded  that  he  repulsed  them,  and  drove  them  buck  to  a  small  mountain,  at  ihe  iuoi 
of  which  was  the  army  in  order  of  battle.  More  than  four  hundred  Spaniards  were 
killed  by  wounds  of  the  sword  and  halbert,  and  the  Maitre  de  Camp,  and  du  Mayet, 
having  rallied  round  the  commander,  the  possession  of  the  mountain  was  mucii  dis- 
puted, and  gained  and  lost  four  or  five  times,  the  commauder  being  at  last  obliged  to 
fall  back,  on  account  of  the  extreme  inequality,  there  not  being  at  most  more  tlian 
five  hundred  French,  of  which,  already,  a  great  number  were  either  killed  or  wound- 
ed ;  the  other  soldiers,  seeing  the  check  they  received,  lost  their  courage ;  as  well  they 
had  had  such  bad  fare  from  the  first  appearance  of  the  army,  and  were  so  much  ha- 
rassed with  the  distance  and  quickness  of  the  march  they  had  made,  in  view  of  oppo- 
sing the  descent ;  some  having  come  one,  some  two,  and  some  three  leagues,  the  heat 
of  the  weather  being  so  great,  as  to  cause  a  number  to  faint  by  the  way.  The  com- 
mander resolved  on  regaining  the  before -mentioned  mountain,  and  formed  a  batallion 
of  his  remaining  men,  attacked  and  drove  the  Spaniards  from  it,  determined  rather 
to  die  than  lose  again  a  single  foot  of  ground ;  his  brave  men  bein^;  jealous  of  the 
fate  of  their  companions  and  friends,  whom  they  saw  expiring  at  their  feet,  and  pay 
their  debt  of  nature,  satisfied  within  themselves  that  a  similar  lot  awaited  them ;  seeing, 
as  well,  that  the  Portuguese  abandoned  them,  who  formed  their  gp:eatest  force,  and 
without  whom  the  commander  preserved  the  mountain  until  night.  From  this  may 
be  judged,  whether  the  French,  in  possession  of  the  advantages  which  the  enemy  en- 
joyed, would  have  been  driven  out  in  such  a  manner.  I  do  not  mean,  however,  to 
insinuate  that  there  were  not,  in  the  Spanish  army,  a  number  of  brave  men  and  old 
soldiers ;  but,  in  good  truth,  they  are  prudent  and  cautious  in  their  conduct ;  and 
knowing  the  nature  of  the  French,  who  charge  the  first,  whether  weak  or  strong,  they  let 
this  fume  evaporate,  which  they  cannot  constrain  without  immense  loss  to  tliemselves. 
In  the  evenuig,  and  after  all  these  engagements,  the  count  arrived  with  a  thousand 
Portuguese,  and  three  or  four  hundred  cows ;  and  assured  the  commander,  that  the 
Portuguese  would  .fight  with  them,  and  that  it  would  be  advantageous,  for  on  a  for- 
mer  landing  of  five  or  six  hundred  Spaniards  on  the  'island,  they  were  defeated  by  the 
cows,  which  had  been  enraged  by  goading.  The  commander  in  answer  observed, 
that  such  a  manner  of  fighting  was  dishonourable ;  that  it  belonged  only  to  rustics  and 
villdns  to  use  such  measures :  that  as  well  they  might  do  them  more  injury  than  benefit, 
if  they  were  to  turn  on  them,  rather  than  attack  the  enemy  ;  and  that  it  would  have 
been  much  more  reputable  of  him  to  have  been  present  at  the  landing  and  tlie  battle, 
as  he  had  promised,  and  his  duty  engaged  him  to  have  been,  than  to  invent  A  cow-defence ; 
that  he  was  the  cause  of  the  loss  of  the  island,  and  the  ruin  of  the  French  ;  but  as  the 
fault  was  committed,  that  he  saw  no  other  remedy,  than  for  him,  with  them,  to  meet 
an  honourable  death,  rather  than  suffer  the  cruelty  which  it  was  usual  for  the  Spaniards 
to  inflict  for  some  time  back  on  the  French,  as  vrell  m  Florida,  as  on  the  occasion  of  the 
voya^,  and  battle  of  Mons,  Strossy,  and  in  other  places,  where  they  hud  bn)ken  their 
promises,  and  caused  several  French  gentlemen  to  be  executed  by  the  hands  of  the 
common  hangman.  The  count,  convicted  of  cowardice,  confessed  he  was  wrong ; 
but  that  he  could  not  go  out  to  battle,  begging  the  commander  to  excuse  him,  saying 
that  God  had  deprived  him  of  all  strength  aiid  understanding;  but  assuring  him  he 
would  make  the  Portuguese  go  whom  lie  had  brought  with  him,  and  thattmy  should 


I 


.^ 


•^ 


DE  CHASTE'S  VOYAGE  TO  TEHCERA. 


839 


t 


die  with  him ;  and  that,  in  the  mean  time,  he  would  attend  to  matters  for  which  he 
was  hetti'r  adapted  than  to  fighting.  Seeing  this,  the  commander  resolved  on  return- 
ing to  battle,  and  assembled  the  remainder  of  his  force. 

Being  advanced  towards  the  enemy,  to  engage  him,  the  count  informed  him  that  it 
would  be  well  to  postpone  his  intention  till  the  next  day,  for  that  night  would  be  hurt- 
ful to  himself  as  well  as  his  people  :  upon  this,  the  commander  went  to  those  Portu- 
guese who  pretended  a  disix)sition  to  fight,  and  begged  of  them  not  to  quit  their  ranks 
until  the  succeeding  day,  in  the  morning,  till  when  the  battle  was  put  off,  which  they 
promised ;  in  the  mean  time  he  went  to  look  after  those  who  were  dead,  and  the 
wounded. 

Officers  killed....Captain  Bourguignon ;  captain  Armissac  ;  captain  Espalingues ; 
the  lieutanant  and  ensign  of  the  Maitre  de  Camp ;  the  lieutenant  of  captain  Campag. 
nol ;  the  ensign  of  captain  La  Grave ;  the  ensign  of  captain  La  Valade ;  the  ensign  of 
captain  Baptista. 

Officers  wounded....The  commander  du  Mayet ;  captain  Brevet ;  captain  Lasto  ; 
captain  de  la  Barre  ;  captain  Louis ;  the  ensign  of  captain  Campagnol ;  the  lieutenant 
and  ensign  of  captain  Bourguignon ;  the  ensign  of  captain  La  Barre ;  the  lieutenant 
and  ensign  of  captain  Loys. 

Volunteers  killed.... Messrs.  de  Montmurat,  Mollin,  and  Besses. 

Gentlemen  volunteers  wounded....Cusson,  Mailhames,  Favet,  Nivaudioux,  Incantz, 
Villaubes,  Tascort,  and  Meremont,  with  many  soldiers  killed  and  wounded. 

The  commander  remained  encamped  very  close  to  the  Spanish  army  until  one 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  by  which  time  he  was  informed  by  the  count  that  the  Portu. 
guese  had  broke  their  ranks,  and  had  fled  into  the  mountains,  and  that  he  advised  him 
thereof,  in  order  to  deUberate  on  what  to  do.  The  commander  asked  his  advice ; 
which  was,  that  he  should  retire  to  a  mountain,  by  means  of  which  a  great  part  of  the 
island  might  be  preserved,  and  some  provision  and  ammunitbn  might  be  earned  thither, 
with  a  train  of  cannon.  The  commandant  replied,  he  would  consult  with  his  compa- 
nions on  the  subject  He  assembled  them  immediately,  but  the  greater  part  were  for 
their  throwing  themselves  into  the  fortress  of  Angra,  sending  them  the  provisions 
which  were  on  board  of  three  French  ships  in  the  harbour,  joining  the  said  fortresses. 
He  informed  the  count  of  this,  who  was  of  a  different  opinion ;  alledging  that  their 
fortressess  could  not  contain  more  than  two  hundred  men,  and  that  they  would  be 
forced  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  battered  to  pieces  with  cannon ;  and  that  he  preferred 
hb  first  recommendation  of  retiring  to  a  mountain.  By  this  he  shewed  the  mbtrust  he 
continually  entertained  of  the  French,  and  the  apprehension  he  was  under,  lest  they 
should  become  masters  of  the  jfbrtresses  ;  which  he  confessed  at  his  death,  of  which  I 
shall  have  to  speak. 

The  commander  being  resolved  to  be  accompanied  to  the  mountains  by  the  count, 
about  one  in  the  morning  he  caused  his  troops  to  begin  their  march,  and  as  he  proceed- 
ed, upon  inquiry  for  the  count,  he  was  not  to  be  f  mnd,  having  departed  without  either 
having  a  guard  or  making  a  rendezvous.  The  commander  did  not,  however,  cease 
to  advance  towards  the  mountain,  endeavouring  to  overtake  him,  and  consult  on  what 
he  had  proposed.  An  hour  before  day-light  he  found  himself  at  a  village  called  Nostre 
Dame  Dager'de  Loup,  where  he  was  informed  that  the  count  had  embarked  in  two 
boats,  and  made  hb  escape.  This  caused  the  commander  to  resolve  on  his  first  inten- 
tion, of  throwing  himself  into  the  fortresses  of  Aogra.  Being  near,  he  sent  to  recon- 
noitre them  by  a  man  on  horseback,  who  reported  that  the  enemy  were  in  possesion  of 
them,  the  Portuguese  having  carried  them,  the  night  before,  the  keys  into  their  camp : 


840 


rm  CUAoTE'S  VOYAGE  TO  TEUCERA. 


this  lie  learnt  from  a  negro  who  htid  escaped  from  a  Spaniard,  and  who  was  fl  ying  to- 
wards  the  mountains.     The  cijiuinander  steiiig  himself  deceived  by  tlie  count,  and  by 
the  Portuguese,  of  which  not  fifty  v»uuld  have  fought,  and  serving  only  to  nourish  panic 
among  the  French,  he  reflected  on  the  expidicnc}   of  returning  to  the  village  of  Nostre 
Dame  Dagar  de  Loup,  in  order  to  entrench  himself,  and  hold  out  with  his  troops  as 
long  as  possible.     Immediately  on  entering  the  place,  he  caused  the  men  to  begin 
working  at  the  barriers  and  entrenchments,  and  assigned  a  station  for  his  captains, 
where,  by  eleven  at  night,  all  the  soldiers  assembled,  and  began  to  make  a  noise,  exclaim- 
ing in  a  loud  voice,  **  To  arms,  to  arms,  we  must  massacre  our  general  and  his  captains, 
they  design  to  save  themselves,  and  leave  ns  in  pledge  :"  and  elected  a  chief  to  conduct 
them  to  the  marquis  de  St.  Croix,  with  their  colours,  meaning  to  throw  themselves  upon 
his  mercy.    The  commander,  upon  observing  this,  left  his  apartment,  entered  the  corps 
de  garde,  where  the  soldiers   were  assembled,  and  inquired  the  cause  of  the  noise. 
They  told  him  they  knew  very  well  that  it  was  his  design  to  save  himself  with  his 
captains,  which  he  denied ;  he  told  them,  if  he  had  been  so  disposed,  he  should  have 
done  so  on  the  day  of  the  batdc ;  that  he  had  had  an  opportunity,  having  been  solicited 
thereto  by  captains  Rosset,  Chaurin,  and  Girard,  of  the  marine,  who  were  not  then 
in  want  of  boats ;  that  they  might  inquire  of  them  the  answer  which  he  had  made  them ; 
which  was,  that  he  would  rather  plunge  his  sword  through  his  heart,  than  be  guilty  of 
such  a  base  action  ;  that  he  would  live  and  die  with  his  companions.     This  the  captains 
of  the  marines  decbred  aloud ;  but  '*  I  see  very  well,"  said  the  commander,  *'  that  there 
are  some  cowards  among  you,  who  have  invented  this  tale  in  order  to  ruin  us ;  some,  who 
prefer  dragging  on  a  miserable  existence  in  the  gallies,  which  is  the  highest  favour  they 
can  expect  from  a  Spaniard,  than  to  die  an  honourable  death."  To  satisfy  them  farther  he 
swore  to  them,  that  he  would  either  lose  his  life  or  place  them  at  liberty,  and  that  he 
would  be  the  last  to  leave  the  island.     The  commander,  thinking  he  had  reasoned  with 
them  enough,  returned  to  his  apartment,  where  a  few  hours  after  he  heard  a  similar 
alarm ;  they  had  elected  for  their  chief  a  serjeant  of  capt.  Armissac's  company,  who  ex- 
claimed aloud,  '*  Let  us,  let  us  kill  our  captains,  I  shall  now  be^n  with  mine,"  he  at  the 
same  time  presented  the  point  of  his  halbert  towards  capt.  Casson,  who  represented 
to  him  the  consequences  of  such  an  alarm ;  but  the  commander  caused  the    man 
to  be  hung  on  board  of  ship,  on  his  return  from  Tercera,  not  being  then  enabled  to  pu- 
nish him,  on  account  of  the  cowards  and  mutineers  being  the  most  numerous,  the 
greatest  part  of  the  good  soldiers  being  either  dead,  wounded,  or  sick  ;  nevertheless, 
he  went  from  his  apartment,  and  exposed  to  them  their  crime,  in  ruining  themselves 
in  such  an  infamous  manner,  and  in  crediting  that  he  should  make  his  escape  ;  an  action 
too  detestable  for  any  man  of  honour  to  follow,  and  which,  in  fact,  were  lie  so  base  as 
to  intend,  he  had  not  the  means  of  effecting ;  but  to  satisfy  them  entirely  on  that  subject, 
he  desired  that  forty  or  fifty  of  diem  should  mount  guard  over  him  at  the  house  where 
he  lodged,  with  seven  or  eight  of  his  wounded  attendants.     This  was  done,  and  tlie  fol- 
lowing day  they  went  to  fetch  captain  Casson,  an  Italian,  whom,  by  entreaty,  they  pre- 
vailed upon  to  go  to  their  commander,  the  general,  to  implore' him  to  send  to  treat 
with  the  marquis  de  Santa  Cniz,  promising  in  case  of  a  refusal  to  die  at  his  feet,  and 
give  no  more  disturbance.     'Vhe  commander,  having  heard  this  from  captain  Casson, 
answered,  that  he  was  not  disposed  to  be  dictated  to  by  such  a  set,  that  he  knew  very  well 
what  it  was  his  duty  to  do;  and  desired  Wm  to  assemble  them  together,  which  having 
been  effected,  he  addressed  them  for  the  third  time  :  •'  Fellow  soldiers,  I  am  sorely  con- 
cerned, that  bearing  ihc  name  of  Frenchmen  you  should  have  so  little  regard  thereto;  lacing 
no  longer  capable  of  bearing  with  your  insolence,  I  am  resolved,  let  what  will  follow,  to 


i 


DE  ClIASTE'S  VOYA».K  TO  lEUCKIlA 


841 


chastise  with  rigour  the  first  who  shall  again  evince  any  such  mutinous  dispobiliou.  and 
separate  those  soldiers  who  behave  with  propriety."  Thchc  he  promised  on  his  liCc  :iiul 
honour  he  would  never  abandon,  but  die  with  them ;  stating  at  the  same  time  his  wil- 
lingncss  to  allow  any  who  had  not  courage  enough  to  follow  him  to  battle  to  declare  them- 
selves, and  allowing  such  the  liberty  of  going  wherever  they  plciised.  Upon  this  they 
exclaimed  aloud  that  they  would  never  give  him  again  any  cause  to  be  angry,  but  would 
follow  his  orders. 

Towards  midnight  on  the  same  day,  which  was  Thursday,  the  commander  was  in- 
formed that  a  Spanish  soldier  had  arrived  at  the  first  barrier  of  the  village,  bringing  a 
letter  from  Don  Pedro  dc  Padilhe,  and  Don  Augustino  Inique,  maitrcs  de  camp  of  the  Spa- 
nish  army,  which  he  sent  for  to  the  barrier,  not  being  willing  to  speak  to  the  Spaniard.  'Ihe 
subject  of  this  letter  was,  that  the  said  Padilhe  and  Inique,  being  convinced  of  the  ex- 
tremity to  which  the  commander  was  reduced,  and  the  risk  he  ran  of  his  life,  had 
begged  the  marquis  de  Smta  Cruz  to  have  it  preserved,  which  he  had  promised  them  : 
and  as  they  were  his  friends,  and  had  noticed  his  bravery,  and  that  of  his  companions, 
on  the  day  of  battle,  they  gave  him  intelligence  of  this  in  order  that  he  might  not  reiiise 
the  proffered  courtesy.  The  commander  gave  for  answer  verbally,  by  the  means  of  one 
of  his  captains,  who  bore  it  to  the  Spaniard  at  the  barrier,  that  he  was  much  obliged 
to  those  gentlemen,  who  were  more  concerned  for  his  life  than  he  was  himself; 
that  it  was  not  in  so  much  danger  as  they  imagined,  but  if  it  were  lost  with  those  of  his 
companions  in  the  service  of  the  king  his  master,  he  should  consider  it  well  expended,  but 
at  any  rate  they  should  not  be  cheaply  bought.  And  although  the  commander  was  under 
great  affliction  from  having  no  other  means  of  support  than  water,  which  ran  in  a  brook 
across  the  village,  and  scurvy  green  pears,  on  which  they  had  already  subsisted  for  eight 
or  nine  days,  very  little  ammunition,  and  few  soldiers  inclined  to  suffer  more  hardships 
with  himself  and  his  companions,  a  good  part  of  his  best  men  being  dead,  wounded,  or 
sick>  nevertheless  he  would  not  listen  to  any  capitulation,  without  first  consulting  with  the 
chief  Portuguese  captains,  who  were  in  the  mountains,  and  learning  from  them,  whether, 
after  the  fault  the}r  had  been  guilty  of,  in  abandoning  him  in  the  battle,  who  had  purposely 
come  to  risk  his  life,  and  that  of  his  companions,  for  the  preservation  of  theirs,  their  pro- 
perty, and  their  liberty,  their  courage  should  have  returned,  in  which  case  he  was  per- 
fectly ready  to  meet  the  enemy  afresh,  from  whom  they  had  as  little  mercy  to  expect  as 
the  French,  informing  them,  at  the  same  time,  that  a  capitulation  was  proposed  to  him, 
which,  however,  he  would  not  give  ear  to,  provid-d  they  determined  upon  an  honourable 
death  with  himself. 

Instead  of  answering  the  commander,  they  sent  his  letters  to  the  marquis  de  Santa 
Cruz,  to  whom  Francisco  Diez,  one  of  the  principal  Portuguese  captains,  wrote  as  well 
that  he  was  tne  humble  slave  and  subject  of  king  Philip,  and  that  if  he  had  not  declared 
as  much  before,  it  was  for  want  of  knowing  his  right  to  the  kingdom  of  Portugal ;  but 
that  if  his  services  were  acceptable,  he  w  ould  come  and  join  him  with  his  Portuguese, 
and  would  act  againt  the  French,  who  had  solicited  him  to  join  them,  that  he  would 
make  a  prisoner  of  the  count  de  Torrcvedros,  who  was  wandering  about  the  mountain, 
his  boat  in  which  he  had  attempted  to  save  himself  being  wrecked.  In  the  interim,  tlic 
commander  received  a  second  letter  from  Don  Pedro  de  Padilhe  and  Don  Inique,  in 
which  they  complained  of  the  commander  not  having  returned  a  written  answer,  and 
stating  their  surprise  at  his  resolution  of  so  unadvisedly  losing  his  life,  since,  having  no 
means  of  serving  his  master  by  that  sacrifice,  he  could  acquire  no  great  honour  by  it ;  that 
knowing  his  merit  they  were  much  concerned  in  his  fate ;  and  entreating  him,  if  he  had 
any  regard  for  himself,  he  would  send  some  gentlemen  of  his  party  to  treat  of  a  capi- 

VOL.   I.  5   p 


842 


1)E  CHASTE'9  VOYAGR  TO  TRRCEtlA. 


tulation,  bcForc  as  were  the  mar(juis'a  orders,  the  army  was  put  in  motion  to  overwhelm 
him.  The  commander,  in  rejoinder,  mt'ormed  them,  that  his  resolution  had  only  en- 
creased,  and  sought  them  not  to  trouble  themselves  further  with  attempts  to  per- 
suade him,  as  he  would  not  listen  to  them  ;  telling  them,  if  they  ventured  to  assail  him 
and  his  companions,  he  would  make  them  see,  in  a  different  manner  to  what  they  had 
ytt  done,  the  valour  ol  his  Frenchmen,  and  how  willingly  they  devoted  themselves  to 
death,  which  however  would  not  take  place  without  their  first  rendering  especial  ser- 
vice  to  his  majesty,  in  spite  of  any  suggestions  to  the  contrary.  This  however  was 
but,  as  is  said,  a  good  countenance  with  a  bad  hand.  In  the  mean  time  the  commander 
was  told  that  the  count  was  on  the  mountain,  his  boat  having  been  destroyed  on  his  at- 
tempting to  save  himself,  and  that  the  Portuguese  were  in  search  of  him,  on  account  of 
his  having  rendered  them  cowards,  and  engaged  them  to  ab-^ndon  the  French  in  their 
distress :  he  refjuested  him  to  furnish  them  with  bread  and  ammunition,  assuring  him, 
that  although  the  Portuguese  should  noc  listen  to  his  representations,  engaging  them 
to  join  him  in  battle,  he  would  yet  rather  die  than  capitulate  to  the  Spaniards,  from 
whom  he  looked  for  no  mercy.  In  his  answer  the  count  begged  to  speak  with  him,  re- 
questing that  he  might  not  allow  the  French  in  his  way  to  behave  injuriously  towards 
him,  which  he  was  greatly  apprehensive  of.  This  the  commander  promised,  not- 
withstanding he  had  more  cause  to  ill  treat  him  than  to  receive  him.  On  his  arrival, 
when  passing  by  the  French,  they  exclaimed.  ••  Look  at  the  coward  who  abandoned  us, 
and  who  is  the  cause  of  all  our  misfortune,  kill  him,  kill  him."  The  count  upon  this,  cry- 
ing bitterly,  covered  with  shame  for  his  behaviour,  addressed  them  thus :  **  Frenchmen, 
brothers,  and  friends,  you  have  just  reason  to  take  away  my  life,  but  beforehand,  in  the 
name  of  God,  I  beg  your  forgiveness."  The  commander,  hearing  this  exclamation  from 
his  house,  which  was  adjoining,  ran  out,  and  touched  with  pity  at  seeing  a  viceroy  on  his 
knees,  imploring  his  life  from  Frenchmen,  he  commanded  them  to  be  silent,  and  not 
to  speak  a  word  which  might  hurt  his  feelings.  I  can  safely  affirm  that  there  was  not 
a  brave  man  present,  however  much  he  might  suffer  from  his  conduct,  who,  seeing  him 
in  this  condition,  did  not  pity  him,  notwithstanding  his  previous  want  of  courage.  He 
informed  the  commander  that  there  were  no  means  left  of  furnishing  him  with  other  pro- 
visions or  ammunition  ;  that  he  had  been  six  weeks  without  tasting  bread,  and  abandon- 
ed  by  all  his  people ;  but  if  he  could  come  to  any  terms,  he  would  do  well  to  accept  them 
in  his  distressed  situation ;  in  that  case,  he  humbly  besought  him  that  he  might  be  includ- 
ed, and  his  life  saved.  The  commander  replied,  "  It  would  be  to  me  a  double  calamity 
to  keep  remembrance  of  you,  considering  the  little  title  you  possess  tomy  notice  from  your 
conduct ;  nevertheless,  if  it  be  possible  it  shall  be  done." 

At  this  instont  he  was  informed  by  some  of  his  captains,  that  sixty  of  the  poltroons 
who  had  been  mutinous  had  deserted  to  the  marquis  de  Santa  Cruz ;  and  that  the 
rest  were  inclined  to  follow  their  example,  and  were  throwing  their  arquebusses  and 
corslets  over  the  walls,  breaking  their  swords,  and  sending  aloud  to  the  devil  their  fathers 
and  mothers,  who  had  brought  them  into  the  world  to  suffer  such  calamity,  crying 
out,  '*  Let  us  go  to  the  galleys,  is  it  not  better  than  to  be  hung,  or  killed ;  we  are  all  lost,  and 
our  general  refuses  our  lives  when  they  are  offered  us."  The  poor  fellows  who  were  wound- 
ed hearing  the  cries  of  those  cowardly  scoundrels,  and  foreseeing  that  their  disloyalty 
would  involve  and  bring  to  a  miserable  end  the  better  sort  among  them,  lost  all  hope,  and 
hearing  on  all  sides,  to  arms,  to  arms,  the  enemy,  they  looked  upon  their  companions 
who  were  passing  by,  and,  unable  themselves  to  move,  exclaimed,  "  Alas !  is  there  none 
among  you  who  will  put  an  end  to  our  miseries,  by  the  means  of  a  shot  a  piece,  and  pre- 
ventthe  Spaniards  from  exercising  their  cruelty  upon  us."  The  commander  seeingthis,and 


1 


DE  CilASTE'S  VOYACE  TO  TERfERA 


84v 


) 


\ 


\ 


the  little  hope  there  was  of  receiving  succour ;  that  a  part  of  his  men  iiad  already  y,\iv- 
rendered,  and  given  account  of  his  distress ;  the  greater  part  of  those  reni.n.iing  JAiiig- 
ready  to  do  the  same  ;  some  dying  of  hunger  and  thirst,  and  the  wounded  lor  want  ui 
heing  dressed,  some  of  die  surgeons  having  gone  over  to  the  enemy,  and  the  otherij 
having  lost  their  unguents  J  he  assembled  his  captains,  who  entreated  him  to  propose 
terms,  and  preserve  those  who  were  dying  hourly  to  no  avail,  and  this  bting  resolved 
upon  among  them,  and  hearing  from  a  particular  friend,  a  knight  of  Malta,  who  was 
with  the  army,  that  the  enemy  was  in  motion  to  force  his  entrenchments,  and  who 
entreated  him  to  have  some  pity  on  him,  and  send  immediately  a  person  to  treat,  the) 
chose  the  commander,  du  Mayet,  for  that  purpose,  who  having  proceeded  to  the  Spa- 
niards,  made  proposals  as  advantageous  as  il'  we  had  been  on  e(|ual  terms  ;  he  was,  in 
consequence,  sent  back  again  by  them  with  derision,  without  any  other  answer  than  that 
it  was  a  great  folly  and  a  temerity  on  the  part  of  the  French,  whose  lives  were  in  their 
hands,  instead  of  humiliating  themselves  to  ask  for  them,  and  render  at  discretion, 
to  propose  to  make  the  boldest  and  best  conditions.     They  ordered  the  commander, 
du  Mayet,  to  withdraw  immediately,  and  informed  him  he  should  have  a  reply  to  his 
impertinent  requests  carried  by  fifteen  thousand  fighting  men.     Notwithstanding  this, 
Don  Pedro  de  Padilhe  did  not  discontinue  writing  to  the  commander  De  Chaste,  but 
acquainted  him»  tliat  having  sent  one  of  his  officers  who  had  no  reason  in  his  proposals, 
he  had  consequently  returned  without  concluding  any  treaty,  which,  from  the  affection 
he  bore  towards  him,  and  the  regard  he  had  for  his  life,  he  had  hoped  would  have  beet, 
concluded ;  that  the  marquis  de  Santa  Cruz   had  begged  and   forbid  his  people  to 
speak  to  him  any  more  about  capitulating  with  the  French,  as  he  would  see  the  end  of 
them  for  their  obstinacy  ;  however,  that  if  he  would  immediately  send  some  other  person, 
more  yielding  than  the  commander  du  Mayet,  the  whole  company  of  Spanish  cava- 
liers would  entreat  the  marquis  to  listen  to  him  ;  that  he  had  foreseen  that  his  reliance 
upon  the  cowardly  Portuguese  coming  to  rally  about  him  would  be  the  cause  of  his 
loss;  and  that  he  had  nothing  to  expect  on  that  score:  for  the  purpose  of  certifying  as 
much  to  him,  he  sent  him  the  letter  which  the  commander  had  dispatched  to  the  Portu- 
guese captain  Francisco,  which  had  afterwards  been  sent  by  him  to  the  marquis,  accom- 
panied with  an  offer  of  his  services  to  ruin  the  French ;  that  he  committed  himself  much 
m  courting  that  wretched  race,  having  been  already  deceived  by  them  ;  and  which  if 
joined  to  his  force  could  not  prevent  his  ruin.     Hereupon  the  commander  having  com- 
municated with  his  captains  selected  M.  Angernaques,  Maitre  de  Camp,  to  whom 
he  gave  full  power  to  treat  of  his  surrender ;  he  immediately  departed,  and  his  arrival 
caused  the  army  to  halt,  which  was  on  its  march  from  the  city  of  Angra,  to  force  the 
French  entrenchments ;  and  although  M.  Angarnaques  required  several  things  which  he 
had  no  hopes  of  obtaining,  he,  nevertheless,  with  great  difficulty,  concluded  the  follow- 
ing treaty.     1.  That  the  said  marquis  promised  the  said  commander  and  his  people 
should  be  allowed  to  return  to  France  with  their  swords.     2.  That  he  would  hire  ves- 
sels,  properly  victualled,  for  their  transport  with  their  baggage :  (which  would  not 
much  encumber  the  backs  of  the  French,  they  having  lost  every  thing,  preserving  no 
more  than  the  clothes  they  had  on  the  day  of  battle.)     And  3.  That  the  said  mar- 
quis, on  account  of  the  doubt  entertained  of  his  faith,  should  swear  upon  the  Holy  Evan- 
gelists to  observe  the  treaty  which  he  should  sign,  with  the  principal  officers  of  his  army. 
This  was  done,  and  these  articles,  agreed  to  and  signed,  were  carried  to  the  commander, 
who  was  on  his  way  with  his  troops  towards  Angra,  where  the  said  army  was.     At 
about  a  quarter  of  a  league  he  was  honourably  met  by  the  most  considerable  officers, 
and  assured  by  the  before  mentioned  Padilhe,  on  the  part  of  the  marquis,  that  he  might 

5  p  2 


844 


UK  CIIASTK'S  VOYAJ.K  TO  TKUCKHA. 


now  esteem  himself  amonf^  his  most  fuithful  lirothers  and  friends.  They  gave  him  u 
horse,  as  he  was  on  foot  at  the  head  of  his  troop,  and  caused  several  gentlemen  who 
followed  the  commander  to  moimt  behind  them  on  their  horses,  proceeding  to  the 
city,  where  quarters  and  provi^ions  for  the  French  were  already  provided,  the  same 
as  for  the  Spaniards.  The  commander  rode  on  direct  t(>  the  house  of  the  marquis, 
who  rcctivtd  him  with  great  politeness,  observing  to  him  afterwards,  that  he  was 
surprised  that  a  man  of  his  quality,  and  so  brave,  should  have  ventured  himself  in  a 
place  so  (lj..tant  from  his  own  country,  and  with  so  little  hope  of  prcserving  it,  or  even 
nis  own  life  and  honoiw,  being  accompanied  by  so  low  men  ;  and  to  assist  die  most  con- 
temptible nation  upon  earth,  th  l*ortuguese;  by  the  answer  of  the  commander  un- 
d  r>)t.  i\diiig  that  he  was  greatly  alHictod,  and  luTt  at  his  fate,  us  he  told  the  marquis. 
that  had  the  representations  made  by  the  king  Don  Anthony  to  the  king  his  muster 
and  the  (picen  mother  been  true,  his  enterprise  would  not  have  met  with  such  an  ad- 
verse destiny,  but  that  he  should  have  hindered  the  landing,  and  taking  of  the  island; 
us  he  would  yet  have  done,  if  the  galleys  had  not  reached  the  coast,  where,  Don  An- 
thony had  assured  them,  there  was  not  depth  of  water  for  them  to  navigate,  and  the  Por- 
tuguese  had  not  ubam' )ned  him ;  and  that  he  lamented  exceedingly  that  he  hud  not 
died  in  the  engagement,  and  so  been  spared  the  misibrtune  which  had  befallen  him, 
which  would  be  u  subject  of  affliction  to  him  as  long  us  he  lived,  the  murquis  observ- 
ed:  "  In  good  truth  Mr.  dc  Chaste  it  would  be  doing  too  much  wrong  to  the  French 
nation  not  to  allow  their  high  courage  and  valorous  enterprise,  but  you  must  grant  that 
they  arefrequenUy  inconsiderate,  and  too  hasty,  as  1  should  esteem  them  to  be  in  this 
instance,  but  for  the  apparent  reasons  which  you  alledge  ;  what,  however,  surprises  mc 
is,  to  hear  you  misname  good  fortune  bad  ;  for  as  you  were  deceived  in  the  principal 
point  of  your  intention,  which  is  no  fault  of  yours,  this  I  consider  alone  as  your  misfor- 
tune ;  on  the  other  hand  I  esteem  you  very  fortunate  to  recover  what  was  lost,  that  is 
to  say  your  lives,  and  bearing  away  only  great  renown  acquired  among  us,  as  we  have 
been  witnesses  that  you  and  yours  have  done  even  more  than  your  duty,  on  as  well  the 
day  of  landing,  as  in  having  fought  furiously  with  but  a  handful  of  men  for  a  whole  day 
against  so  large  and  strong  an  army,  shewing  nothing  in  your  ranks  but  a  contempt  of 
death ;  you  ought  therefore  to  rejoice,  and  consider  thut  never  before  did  any  cavalier  of 
your  nation  effect  so  much  for  obtaining  a  favourable  result  to  so  perilous  an  undertaking, 
or  was  more  remarkable  in  his  return  to  France."  He  spoke  in  cxcmplificiition  of  seig- 
neur Strossy  and  his  army,  the  expedition  of  the  French  to  Florida,  not  one  in  which  es- 
caped, and  several  other  battles,  where  they  had  been  worsted,  not  for  want  of  valour, 
but  from  bad  conduct  and  bad  plans.  After  this  long  conversation,  supper  time  came  on 
and  meat  wivs  brought  on  table,  with  which  the  gentlemen  who  accompanied  the  com- 
mander were  very  well  satisfied,  desiring  nothing  better  than  to  set  their  teeth  to  work, 
whatever  the  subject  of  discourse  ;  however,  they  did  not  sup  at  the  marquis's,  each  of 
the  Spanish  officers  taking  one  by  the  hand,  and  conducting  them  to  their  quarters,  where 
they  treated  them  (at  least  apparently)  with  much  good  will,  and  where  they  supped  with- 
out  waiting  for  sauce.  The  commander,  after  supping  with  the  marquis,  by  whom  he 
was  again  assured  of  a  faithful  observance  of  the  treaty,  and  that  they  should  speedily  be 
embarked  to  return  to  France,  wished  him  good  night,  and  withdrew  to  the  apartments 
of  Don  Pedro  de  Toledo,  son  of  the  former  viceroy  of  Naples,  a  very  civil  and  brave 
cavalier,  who  shewed  great  politeness  and  kindness  towards  the  French. 

The  next  day  the  marquis  published  a  law,  forbidding,  throughout  his  army,  that 
any  one,  of  whatsoever  rank  or  quality  he  might  be,  should  dare  to  molest  any  of  the 
French,  whether  by  words  or  otherwise,  under  pain  of  death ;  and  as  well  that  who- 


m:  ciiAs  rK'«  voyac.k  to  tf.kckha. 


845 


. 


ever  should  bring  him  the  Count  dc  Torrcvcc'''"09,  who  was  in  the  woods  of  the  moun. 
tuiiLs,  whether  dead  or  aUvc,  should  receive  live  hundred  dueuth,  the  eomniatidcr  iioi 
having  been  able;  to  include  hini  in  his  capitulation,  although  he  had  endeavoured  to 
do  so  more  out  of  commiseration  than  from  his  desert. .  Immediately  the  Spanish  sol- 
diers,  fond  of  money,  began  forming  into  parties  to  go  to  the  mountains  in  searcli  of 
the  count,  being  no  longer  afraid  of  the  rVench,  as  the  treaty  was  signed,  and  having 
very  little  regard  for  the  Portuguese  ;  a  corporal  and  eight  of  his  companions  proccecl- 
ed  thither,  and  on  the  skirts  of  the  wood,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  perceived  a 
negro,  who  ran  away  from  them  ;  he  spurred  on  his  horse,  pursued  him,  and  seizing 
him  by  the  collar,  his  sword  in  his  hand,  and  swearing,  said,  *' if  you  do  not  inform 
me  where  the  count  is,  I  will  certainly  kill  you."  TI  j  negro,  being  afraid  of  his  fury,  con- 
fcssed  to  him  that  he  had  been  his  groom  for  eight  years,  and  that  he  h  I  left  him  in 
a  cavern,  where  he  had  resided  seven  or  eight  days,  entirely  abai.doned  by  his  gentle- 
men and  domestics.  The  Spaniard  made  him  get  up  lx:hind,  quitted  his  companions, 
who  were  on  foot,  and  pursued  his  way  towards  the  count,  who  at  that  instant  came 
out  of  his  cave  to  see  if  his  negro  was  bringing  him  some  bread,  as  he  had  promised 
him.  The  count  had  no  other  dress  than  that  of  a  country  person,  and  a  wallet  fast- 
ened to  his  neck ;  the  corporal,  who  had  no  knowledge  of  him,  and  observing  his 
mberable  appearance,  and  that  he  was  drawing  back,  cried  out  to  him,  '*  here,  my  good 
man,  speak  to  me  and  fear  nothing."  The  count  approached,  his  hat  in  his  hand,  not 
having  been  able  to  regain  his  cavern,  and  said  to  him,  '*  What  do  you  want,  sir  ?  Are  you 
not,  said  the  corporal,  one  of  those  dogs  of  Portuguese  who  fought  against  us  ?"  "  I  can- 
not deny,  said  he,  that  I  am  a  Portuguese,  but  lama  |xx)r  wretch,  who  by  my  labour  main- 
tain my  wife  and  children  on  this  miserable  soil,  and  have  no  concern  with  war."  The 
corporal  then  observed,  "  I  shall  not  say  much,  but  if  you  Jon't  immediately  shew  me  the 
place  where  the  count  is  concealed,  you  shall  die  by  my  hand."  The  other,  being  a  party 
concerned,  observed  to  him,  "  Sir,  you  may  do  as  yo  please ;  as  to  shewing  you  the  count 
it  is  impossible,  for  it  is  a  long  while -since  I  have  seen  him."  He  held  a  ducat  in  his 
mouth  to  prevent  thirst, on  account  of  the  extreme  heat,  and  the  distress  in  which  he  was ; 

GTceiving  this  the  corporal  asked,  *'  what  is  that  you  are  rolling  about  in  your  mouth  ?" 
e  answered  that  it  was  a  piece  of  gold,  which  was  all  he  was  worth  in  the  world,  with 
which  he  wished  to  buy  bread  at  some  of  the  houses  in  the  mountains,  to  carry  to  his  chil- 
dren, whom  he  had  not  seen  since  they  landed  in  this  country,  and  he  was  dying  with  hun- 
ger.  The  corporal  took  the  ducat,  and  rummaging  him,  asked  him,  if  that  was  all  he  had. 
O  yes  sir,  said  the  count,  and  I  have  had  it  more  than  fifteen  years ;  but  for  the  love  of 
God  give  me  some  piece  of  money  .  Go  along,  you  rascal,  I  ought  to  take  away  your  life, 
said  the  Spaniard,  and  went  his  way.  The  negro  who  was  behmd  to  api)rehend  his  mas- 
ter was  fe -.rful  he  would  be  killed,  and  seeing  him  in  this  miserable  plight,  and  repre- 
senting to  himself  the  kindness  he  had  shewn  him,  was  moved  with  pity,  and,  the  tear 
standing  in  his  eye,  he  pretended  not  to  know  him  ;  but  the  corporal  gomg  into  the  woods, 
said  to  him,  *'  What,  you  poltroon,  will  you  make  me  ride  about  all  day  long  without 
bringing  me  to  this  cavern  ?  I  see  that  you  a*",  tired  of  living,  but  I  shall  do  for  you  pre- 
sently." Then  placing  his  hand  on  his  sword,  the  negro  exclaimed ;  "  forgive  me, 
sir,  you  have  just  left  him,  but  I  could  not  point  him  out  to  you  I  was  so  much  affected." 
'•  How,"  said  the  corporal,  '« is  it  possible  it  could  be  that  n>an  who  looked  so  mean  ?" 
When  galloping  back  and  finding  him  in  the  filthy  entrance  of  the  cave,  he  said  to  him, 
*•  hollo  father,  take  back  your  ducat,  I  have  not  the  conscience  to  deprive  you  of  it."  The 
count  then  approaching,  held  out  his  hand  to  receive  it,  which  was  seized  by  the  cor- 
poral, who  made  him  a  prisoner  in  the  name  of  king  Philip.  "  Wretch,"  then  exclaimed 


V 


»46 


UL  CHASTE'S  VOYAGE  TO  TERCERA. 


he  to  the  negro,  "you  huve  betrayed  your  master  ;  but  I  don't  cotnphiin  ;  I  was  but 
too  well  assured  thnt  1  must  lose  my  life,  having  already  lost  my  judgment  and  my 
courage."  The  Spaniard,  grumbling,  struck  the  negro  IVom  behind  him  by  a  stub  he 
gave  him  in  the  breast,  of  which  he  died,  and  placed  the  count  In  his  seat,  whom  he  car- 
ried before  the  marquis,  who  received  him  with  very  rude  langiuigc,  and  sent  him  af. 
terwards  on  board  the  great  Galleass,  belonging  to  the  fleet,  where  he  was  cruelly  treat- 
ed, in  order  to  extort  confession  from  him  of  what  were  the  plans  of  king  Anthony,  and 
those  on  the  continent  in  Portugal ;  condemning  him  afterwards  to  be  beheaded,  and 
instantly  executed,  in  spite  of  the  intercession  in  his  favour  made  by  the  most  consi- 
derable personages  in  the  army,  who  were  related  to  him,  and  were  desirous  of  saving 
his  life,  to  the  maripiis  of  Santa  Cruz  ;  but  his  council  were  of  opinion  that  their 
prayers  should  not  be  granted,  on  account  of  an  answer  he  had  sent  toaletter  which 
the  king  of  Spain  had  addressed  to  him,  to  entice  him  to  join  him  with  fair  words  and 
promises;  "thathe  would  rather  dohomageto  thedevil  than  to  suchaperfidioustyrant." 
At  length  he  died  as  a  good  Christian  should  do,  with  so  much  resolution,  that  he 
might  have  been  taken  for  one  of  the  bravest  of  men,  confessing,  as  1  have  before  stated, 
that  he  himself  had  been  the  cause  of  the  loss  of  the  island,  and  the  ruin  of  the  French, 
beseeching  the  marquis  to  respect  the  engagements  he  had  entered  into  with 
respect  to  them,  and  to  treat  them  as  men  of  honour,  such  as  he  had  always  found 
them.  The  whole  of  this  speech  was  made  in  presence  of  the  Spanish  army,  with 
a  smiling  countenance,  and  with  great  collectedness,  so  much  so  that  the  French 
Were  astonished,  having  witnessed  his  want  of  courage  on  emergency,  and  were  ex- 
tremely affected  at  beholding  him  led  forward  with  so  much  brutality,  in  a  wretched 
dress,  having  been  accustomed  to  see  him  treated  with  honour  and  respect  by  his  own 
people,  as  well  as  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  island,  in  as  great  a  degree  as  if  he  had 
been  their  king  ;  being  served  at  table  in  a  most  honourable  manner,  his  gentlemen 
and  domestics  remaining  always  bareheaded,  and  presenting  him  to  drink  kneeling, 
with  a  golden  salver  held  below  to  catch  what  might  fall  from  his  glass  ;  nevertheless, 
all  his  grandeur  did  not  prevent  a  death  so  odious  in  itself,  and  so  distressing  to  the 
French,  whom  he  ever  respected,  and  promised  to  assist  in  a  manner  the  Almighty  did 
not  allow  him  means  to  effect. 

Six  days  before  the  capitulation,  Don  Pedro,  son  of  the  late  viceroy  of  Naples,  was 
commanded  to  besiege  the  island  of  Fayai  with  three  thousand  Spaniards,  where  a 
Portuguese  captain  commanded,  accompanied  by  four  hundred  French,  with  captain 
Carles  of  Bourdeaux  at  their  head.  Don  Pedro  embarked  aboard  the  galle\  s  and 
some  large  vessels,  and  the  succeeding  day,  after  reconnoitring  the  island,  easily  effect- 
ed a  landhig  at  the  quarter  where  were  the  I'ortuguese,  w  ho  played  the  same  game  as 
at  Tercera,  running  away  to  the  mountains ;  nevertheless  the  French,  seeing  the 
landing  effected,  and  the  retreat  of  the  Portuguese,  resolved  to  fight  and  die  :  they 
shortly  cut  the  throats  of  fifty  or  sixty  Spaniuids,  who  had  gained  a  fort  on  the  shore, 
and  from  that  quarter  attacked  the  van  of  the  large  body  led  on  by  Count  Pedro, 
where  they  had  not  much  success,  on  account  of  the  inequality,  being  repulsed,  fight- 
ing all  the  way  to  a  fort  they  had  constructed  in  the  mountains,  where  they  ca- 
pitulated, upon  the  same  conditions  as  their  companions  at  Tercera,  to  which 
place  they  were  carried  by  the  said  count,  and  treated  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
otliers. 

Upon  their  arrival,  the  commander  de  Chaste  entreated  the  marquis  to  fulfil  the 
conditions  of  the  capitulation,  and  furnish  him  with  vessels  and  provisions  for  trans- 
porting him  to  the  coast  of  France,  together  with  his  people,  which  the  marquis  pro- 
mised should  be  done  on  the  succeeding  day.    The  next  day  the  marquis  ordered  Don 


4i 


HE  CIIASTE'S  VOYACETOTEUCF.nA. 


047 


U- 


-H  ; 


I.: 


Pedro  dc  I*adilhc  to  tell  the  coinnvuulcr  dc  Chaste,  that  he  must  procctil  with  his  pco- 

{)lc  to  Lisbon,  whirc  he  should  be  embarked  lor  Fr.ince,  as  he  ijad  not  the  pouer  of 
brvvurding  him  from  there,   not  having  u  sidfieicnt  tuimber  of  vessel:^  to  transport  his 
iirmy  back  :   with  this  the  commander  was  obliged  to  acruiicsce,  in  spite  oi  all  dispute 
to  the  contrary.  However,  while  waiting  from  day  to  day  lor  the  departure  of  the  army, 
he    was  informed  by  some  of  his  captains,  that  the  S|)aniards  endeavoured  to  seduce 
them  to  join  them,  with  their  troops,  in  order  to  Ix  present  at  a  battk  which  the  king 
Philip  meant  to  give  the  Moors  at  Laracbc,  where  Don  Sebastian  was  killed  four  year» 
Ix^fore,  and  lost  the  day.    On  the  same  day  the  commander  Ix-ing  invited  to  the  quarters 
of  Don  Pedro  de  Toledo,  where  the  principal  captains  of  the  army  were  assembled,  was 
repeatedly  pressed  to  Ix:  guy,  and  enjoy  himself,  on  account  c)f  his  appearing  sad  and  cast 
down  at  his  bad  fortune ;  upon  which  subject  Don  Lopez  de  Foulquoal,  Maitrc  de 
Camp,  general  of  the  army,  thus  expressed  himself:  '*  Mons.  de  Chaste,  in  my  opinion, 
rou  have  no  reason  to  grieve  in  the  manner  you  do,  seeing  that,  in  this  instance,  nothing 
las  occurred  but  what  has  been  advant;igeous  to  you.    I  will  refer  the  statement  of  your 
adventures  to  the  judgment  of  the  most  ex{)ericnced  warriors  in  the  world ;  I  am  certain, 
upon  explaining  every  circumstance,   that  they  can  form  no  other  idea  thereof,  than 
such  as  IS  entertained  by  myself  and  my  companions ;  which  is,  that  although  you 
should  have  had  all  the  good  fortune  possible  a|!;ainst  us,  you  could  not  aopeur  in  a 
braver  or  more  honourable  light,  nor  better  have  signalised  your  renown,  than  you  have 
done,  in  having  fought  with,  and  kept  a  whole  strong  and  numerous  army  employed  for 
an  entire  day   with  such  a  hundful  of  men,  who  cheerfully  exposed  themselves  in  the 
fight,  with  fixed  arms  advancing  to  give  a  shock  to  our  soldiers,  and  meeting  their  steel 
with  resolution,  to  bathe  their  own  in  the  blood  of  ours;  killing  a  great  nuniber  of  our 
bravest  men,  notwithstanding  your  being  abandoned  by  the  Portuguese,  and  their  chief, 
with  some  of  your  own  deserted  from  you  to  us,  informing  us  of  your  distress ;  in  this 
position,  engaging  the  marquis  dc  Santa  Cruz  to  enter  into  terms  with  you,  notwith. 
standing  the  inK)rination  received  of  your  being  a  prey  to  thirst  i;nd  hunger,  which  were 
destroying  your  people,  and  saving  your  lives  from  absolute  condemnation  ;  for  my  part, 
I  think  we  were  too  easy,  that  it  would  have  been  an  eternal  affront  and  stain  upon  the  ho- 
nour  of  our  nation,  if  we  had  had  the  disgrace  to  have  granted  beyond  what  we  have 
done ;  and  that  y*)u  have  to  thank  God  for  the  assistance  he  has  afforded  you,  and  that  you 
arc  at  present  in  the  hands  of  men  of  honour,  from  whom  you  receive  every  courtesy  you 
can  desire."  The  commander  thanked  him  very  humbly  for  his  politeness,  and  said  :  '*  I 
should  be  the  most  ungrateful  of  beings,  if  I  were  not  to  shew  proper  sentiments,  when 
opportunity  may  offer,  for  the  honour  and  kindness  shewn  me  ;  but  as  the  French  are  in- 
capable of  concealing  what  is  uppermost,  as  in  the  instance  of  myself,  I  shall  freely  observe, 
that  all  the  caresses  and  kind  treatment  shewn  us  are  done  with  a  design  of  which  I  can- 
not approve  ;  what,  for  two  days  back,  has  g^ven  me  greater  cause  of  vexation,  is  the 
hearing  that  your  captains  were  seducing  my  and  their  men  to  go  to  the  battle  of  Larache, 
which  1  gave  the  more  credit  to,  from  the  marquis  having  already  begun  to  break  the 
treaty  of  capitulation,  putting  off  the  embarkation  of  my  men  for  Franci.'j  which  should 
have  taken  place  from  this  island  to  Lisbon,  which  is  done  more  to  induce  us  to  make  a 
party  in  this  battle,  than  from  any  want  of  vessels,  as  he  says;  or,  if  this  be  not  the  cause,  it 
IS  for  thepurposeof  playing  off  somevillainy  uix>nmeand  mine;  breaking  hisengagements 
entirely.  He  is  not  to  conceive,  that  although  I  should  be  forced  to  go  to  Lisbon,  I  shall  the 
more  be  persuaded,  either  willingly,  or  by  constraint,  to  goto  the  said  battle;  for,  rather  than 
doso,  I  would  stab  myself  in  fifty  places,  as  would  all  my  companions,  except  we  were 
ordered  to  proceed,  by  the  king  my  master,  to  whom  1  shall  go  to  render  an  account 


i 

i 


HiB 


UK  «  fl\«1  K'!i  VOY.\(.K  lO  '1  KliC».l(A 


of  my  conduct.  To  lose  one's  life  or  fortune,  I  consickr  but  littlo;  not  m  of  my  honour.whicli 
would  be  lurfcit,  were  I  to  aet  otherwise  ;  or  else  the  circumstance  would  bervc  to  inunor* 
talize  the  want  offaith  of  Spaniards,  in  shewing  that  u  general  of  an  army,  witu  all  the  prin. 
r.ipiil  men  til' your  nation,  were  devoid  thereof,  aa  you  are  in  the  f.nr  road  todemonstraie." 
Upon  this,  they  all  answered  :  "  Mons.  de  Chakte,  you  do  us  an  injury  in  entertaining  no 
bad  an  opinion  of  our  faith  ;  do  not  for  an  instant  imagine,  unless  it  be  by  voluntary  con< 
sent  of  yourself  aiid  your  (Hople  to  accompany  us  to  tiu  glorious  battle  of  Larache,  where 
every  goo(1  christian  ought  to  Ik-  present  to  oppose  the  inlidcls,  that  the  nnir(|uis  would 
on  any  account  oblige  you,  nor  even  break  his  treaty  with  you  ;  and  if  he  should  Ijc  so 
disposed,  our  honour  is  so  preciouii  to  us,  we  would  rather  forfeit  our  lives,  than  sufl'er 
him  to  do  so."  After  Uiis  they  immediately  waited  on  the  marcpiis,  to  whom  they  repeat- 
ed the  observations  made  by  the  commander,  on  his  want  of  faith  in  taking  him  to  Lis. 
bon,  after  promising  him  shipping  from  Tereera  to  return  to  France.  They  represented 
to  him,  that  if  such  were  his  intentions,  the  commander  would  have  cause  to  complain; 
and  that  he  would  compromise  not  only  his  own  reputation,  but  that  of  the  whole  Spa- 
nish nation.  They  besought  him  to  keep  his  faith  and  promise,  and  ship  die  French  from 
the  island,  before  the  Spaniards  bailed  :  which  the  marquis  agreed  to  do,  upon  condi- 
tion that  the  commander  should  leave  Ic  Sieur  d'Anguaraques,  the  Muitrc  dc  Camp, 
with  four  captains  and  their  companies ;  not  being  able  to  embark  the  whole  for  want  of 
vessels.  The  commander,  upon  learning  this,  repaired  to  the  marquis,  and  told  him, 
that  in  the  capitulation  no  mention  of  hostages  was  made  ;  that  such  conduct  was  a  re- 
traction of  promise ;  and  that,  if  he  by  force  or  authority  should  be  constrained  to 
abide  by  those  conditions,  it  shoukl  be  himself  who  would  remain  .m  an  hostage,  and 
make  good  his  retreat,  running  his  cliance.  The  marquis  answered :  *'  Mons.  de  Chaste, 
leave  me  the  hosbtges  I  have  required  ;  I  esteem  you  too  much  to  consent  to  your  ruin, 
as  I  should  do,  if,  remaining  as  an  hosta^,  you  were  to  answer  for  the  disorder  which 
your  soldiers  might  be  guilty  of,  on  passmg  through  the  territories  of  the  king  of  Spain 
my  master,  from  bad  conduct :  you  must  embark  to-morrow  with  your  people,  in  three 
Biscayan  vessels,  each  of  four  hundred  tons,  and  a  bark  for  your  sick  ana  wounded ; 
these  shall  be  at  your  disposal,  with  provisions  and  people  to  conduct  you  to  the  French 
shores  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Fonterabia ;  and  as  soon  as  I  hear  of  the  treatment  which 
the  said  Discayans  may  have  received,  and  of  tlwir  arrival  in  port,  I  will  not  fail  to  ship 
the  remainder  of  your  people,  which,  however,  I  shall  take  to  Lisbon  :  this  is  all  I  can  do 
for  you  ;  and  on  which  I  am  resolved."  •'  Very  well,  said  the  commander,  the  strongest, 
as  you  do,  make  the  law,  sir."  When  taking  leave,  he  assured  him  of  sailing  with  his 
people. 

The  next  clay,  which  wai  Saturday,  14th  August,  they  went  aboard  in  such  con- 
fusion, that  the  vessels  were  full  of  French  soldiers  or  sailors,  and  a  great  number 
were  concealed  belonging  to  the  companies  which  remained  as  hostages,  being  appre- 
hensive that  this  would  be  their  last  chiuice,  which  was  the  cause  of  a  greater  part 
dying  of  hunger  and  thirst,  or  the  bloody  flux,  at  sea,  as  we  were  two  months  on  the 
voyage,  which  we  reckoned  upon  eflecting  in  a  fortnight,  if  the  wind  had  been  favoura- 
ble ;  but  being  contrary,  and  the  vessels  bad,  we  were  in  danger  of  foundering  on 
Tuesday  the  seventeenth  of  the  same  month,  and  the  men  were  consequently  so  much 
affected,  that  several  dead  were  thrown  into  the  sea,  the  remainder  beiiig  very  ill  of 
tl  e  bloody  flux,  the  consecjuence  of  the  disti-ess  they  had  to  combat  with  in  the  mountain 
of  Tereera,  before  the  capitulation,  and  on  board  continuing  to  live  so  wretchedly, 
thai  they  had  nothing  to  drink  but  a  small  sour  wine,  slinking  water,  broken  bis- 
cuit made  foui  years  before  at  Milan,  hard  as  a  s^one,  and  half  worm-eaten,  and  some 
spoilt  salt  fish ;  so  that  the  best  entcrtaiiinieut  the  poor  fellows  who  wer^  sick  and 


I 


I 


■J 


\  dlAI  I  h'H  VOYAfiK  TO  T^.RCKRA. 


HAU 


i 


I 


"in 


wouiulctl  could  ol)i.iin,  was  n  piece  of  l)i?icuit  lK)ilc<l  iei  im  carthcnwiifc  pot  in  MinliiiiK 
wulcrt  and  oi'  thin  bo  Hniall  n  (jiumtity,  uh  nrurcc  to  l)c  p*  rccptibic  when  Huallowcu. 
This  citiisid  so  K^vM  a  inoit.ility,  that  niorr  than  tvvn  hundrtd  perished.  Tiu-Mday, 
twcnty-loiirth  ol"  ihc  same  njoiitli,  the  vensel,  on  hoard  ol"  which  was  the  cominamler, 
was  near  sinking,  owing  to  the  dchperation  of  u  miilor,  who,  lying  under  the  cabin, 
( ither  vexed  at  livinp  so  nii^crahly,  or  in  angtiish  from  the  pain  he  ex|Krienced  from  a  shot 
which  had  broken  nis  leg,  foical  o|Kn  a  plank  of  the  vessel;  in  which  there  wan  al- 
ready two  feet  of  water,  and  hut  for  the  assistance  of  the  h;iilor»  who  pcrccivcfl  the  Uitl:. 
the  vessel  hid  Ik  <  n  lost.  'I'he  bame  vessel,  the  next  day,  was  a  second  time  n  dangci 
from  fire,  whiih  the  Trench  sailors,  running  totiic  part  where  some  drunken  hiscayans 
had  been  regaliiif^  tlumstlves,  extinguished;  these  latter  were  accustomed  to  cook 
and  enjoy  themselvei,  in  presence  of  the  poor  French,  who  with  joined  hands,  at  times, 
would  intrcat  a  morsel  of  them  for  the  love  of  (iod,  which  they  paid  small  attention  to, 
mocking  their  distress  ;  and  frequently,  on  p;issing  by  them,  ivould  give  them  kicks  in 
thel)elly  and  ihcicins,  telling  thcin  they  wca'dogs  and  swine,  to  huvu  blopd  voided  by 
them  below. 

How  the  poor  sick  were  treated,  who  died  while  lying  one  tipon  another  in  every  cor- 
ner of  the  vessel,  without  being  able  to  move,  or  help  themselves,  may  be  imagined. 
Frerpiently  speaking  of  the  most  wicked  nations,  I  have  heard  tii':in  compared  to  the 
Biscayans,  but  from  experience  I  am  affirm  that  they  are  the  most  barbarous  and  least 
friendly  people  upon  earth :  the  commander  was  even  informed  one  day  that  the  Bis- 
cjiyons  had  thrown  a  French  gentleman  overboard,  who  was  yet  alive ;  and  having  no- 
ticed this  to  the  captain  of  the  shin,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  their  bad  conduct,  he  answered 
him  that  he  was  so  much  hurt  at  naving  to  curry  people  so  much  afflicted,  as  were  the 
French  on  board  his  ship,  that  he  wished  the  devil  might  sink  her,  with  all  that  she 
contained  :  notwithstanding  this  insolence,  the  commander  armed  himself  with  patience, 
in  consideration  of  those  who  remained  as  hostages  behind,  who  r-^ight  suffer  for  any 

Eutiishment  inflicted  on  this  wicked  Biscayan  and  his  companions,  which  the  commander 
ad  yet  the  power  to  inflict. 
Friday  following,  the  twenty-seventh  of  the  same  month,  they  began  to  discover  the 
sea-coast  of  Gallicia,  where  being  desirous  of  touching  at  Cape  Finisterre,  to  take  in 
water  at  the  nearest  village,  such  a  violent  storm  arose  that  most  of  the  sailors  pre> 
pared  to  throw  themselves  overboard,  in  order  to  swim  to  shore,  but  God  calmed  the 
tempest,  their  vessel  passing  within  a  foot  or  thereabouts  of  the  rocks.  During  the 
whole  day  they  were  unable  to  make  the  land  ;  but  the  next  day  they  cast  anchor  in  a 
bad  road  of  a  village  called  Maujy,  where  several  Frenchmen  thinking  it  a  remedy  for 
their  sickness,  went  to  drink  at  a  spring,  and  after  filling  themselves  four  or  five  died 
upon  the  spot :  on  this  account  the  commander  caused  them  to  be  re-embarked.     A 

great  number  of  the  soldiers,  upon  returning  on  board,  besought  their  commander  to 
ischarge  them,  and  in  order  to  obtain  their  request  the  more  readily,  they  pretended 
to  have  made  a  vow  to  go  to  St.  James's  of  Gallicia,  six  or  seven  leagues  distant,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  out  of  danger.  The  commander  represented  to  them  their 
bad  health,  and  the  risque  they  ran  in  passing  through  Spain,  of  being  knocked  on  the 
head,  that  it  would  be  much  belter  to  wait  two  days  longer,  in  which  time  it  was  to 
be  hoped  the  N.  E.  wind,  which  prevented  the  continuance  of  their  voyage,  would 
change,  that  in  that  case,  in  twice  twenty-four  hours  they  might  run  160  leagues, 
which  was  our  distance  from  the  French  coast,  which  by  land  it  would  take  them  two 
months  to  travel  over :  he  assured  them  further  that  in  case  the  wind  should  not  become 
favourable,  he  was  resolved  upon  running  the  same  risk  as  themselves,  being  thereun^' 

VOL.   1,  ,  5  (^ 


850 


DE  CHASTE'S  VOYAGE  TO  TEHCERA. 


obliged  from  the  scarcity  of  provision,  which  was  so  great,  tliat  the  portion  of  each  sol- 
dier was  reduced  to  about  as  much  of  stinking  water  as  could  be  contained  in  the  hoU 
Inw  of  the  hand,  and  about  the  size  of  a  walnut  of  biscuit  .per  day.  But  the  comman- 
der being  importuned  to  discharge  them,  gave  his  consent  for  tliat  purpose  to  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty,  the  greater  part  of  whom  died  in  Spain,  owing  to  the  bad  treatment 
they  received,  or  the  illness  under  which  they  laboured. 

Tuesday,  sixteenth  of  the  month,   the  contrary  wind  appearing  to  change,  gave 

an  opportunity  for  weighing  anchor,  and  setting  sail,  after  the  captain  had  put  seven 

or  eight  casks  of  water  on  board ;  but  in  leaving  the  roads  a  fog  arose,  accompanied 

by  a  great  storm   which,  shattered   the  main  mast,   and   shivered   all   the  sails  in 

such  manner,  that  we  all  imagined  we  were  at  the  end  of  our  afflictions  ;  on  this  occasion 

the  Biscayan  captain  shewed  the  baseness  of  his  soul,  and  his  avarice  ;  for  full  of  rage 

he  exclaimed,  "  O  God !  wilt  thou  at  last  make  me  lose  my  dear  ship  which  cost  me  ten 

thousand  franks ;  rather  than  so,  let  the  devil  take  me."    On  this  occasion,  all  the  others 

aboard  invoked  the  assistance  of  the  Almighty,  who  again  preserved  them  from  this 

misfortune,  and  quelled  the  storm ;  which  separated  the  two  other  vessels  and  barks 

from  the  commander,  and  drove  them,  the  commander  du  Mayet,  who  was  in  one, 

into  Valentia,  in  Spain,  thirty- six  leagues  distant  from  the  commander ;  captain  Carles, 

of  Bordeaux,  to  the  islands  of  Bayonne,  twenty-four  leagues  distant ;  and  captain  Cam- 

pagnol,  who  was  with  the  sick  on  board  the  bark,  away  to  sea  a  considerable  distance 

from  the  commander ;  this  contrary  wind,  which  became  more  and  more  violent,  tossed 

them  about  nearly  a  fortnight,  during  which  time  ten  or  twelve  bodies  were  daily 

thrown  overboard,  from  the  commander's  vessel,  which  had  no  longer  any  thing  to  eat 

on  board,  and  very  little  to  drink ;  so  that  without  the  interposition  of  the  Almighty, 

who  by  earnest  prayer  was  induced  to  send  a  favourable  wind,  we  were  upon  the 

point  of  casting  lots  who  should  be  devoured  by  the  rest.     After  two  days  and  one  night 

in  this  condition,  they  arrived  at  the  part  of  the  town  of  Gueytarge  to  which  the  Biscayan 

captain  belonged,  where  they  immediately  obtained  bread  and  water,  through  the  medium 

of  a  French  gentleman  who  was  better  provided  than  his  companions,  and  who  lent  the 

commander  money.    It  was  ten  leagues  by  sea  from  there  to  Fontarabia,  to  which 

place  the  Bicayan  captain  was  ordered  to  conduct  us ;  he  however  told  the  commander, 

that  he  had  not  determined  to  carry  him  any  farther,  but  that  he  might  go  by  land  if  he 

pleased ;  upon  this  the  commander  immediately  gave  advice  to  the  governor  of  Fontara- 

bia,  informing  him  of  the  little  respect  shewn  by  the  Biscayan  to  the  orders  of  the  marquis 

of  Santa  Cruz,  and  that  owing  to  his  neglect  his-people  were  dying.     Immediately  upon 

this,  the  governor  sent  a  man  to  the  Biscayan,  ordering  him  upon  pain  of  death  to 

proceed  instantly  to  the  village  of  Andaye,  opposite  to  Fontarabia,  there  being  only  a 

small  arm  of  the  sea  between,  which  separates  France  from  Spain.    He  accordingly  im- 

mediatly  prepared  sloops  and  boats  to  carry  the  commander  and  his  people  to  Fonta- 

rabia,  and  as  they  were  passing  this  little  arm,  a  Spanish  gentleman  came  on  the  part  of 

the  governor,  to  offer  to  the  commander  provisions^  money,  horses,  and  clothes,  stating 

that  he  had  directions  from  his  Spanish  majesty,  to  shew  every  kindness  in  his  power  to 

him,  and  to  his  |)eople;  the  commander  thanked  him  but  accepted  nothing  of  him, 

but  horses  to  transport  him  and  those  who  were  the  most  ill  to  Bayonne,  about  ten  or 

twelve  leagues  distant.     At  length  they  landed  at  the  village  of  Andaye,  on  the  fourth 

of  October,  where  the  inhabitants  of  the  place  seeing  them  arrive  so  miserable  and 

ragged  received  them  into  their  houses,  and  treated  them  in  the  best  manner  they 

were  able ;  the  next  morning  the  greater  part  of  them  brought  their  mules,  and  asses, 

to  carry  them  to  the  trembling  bridge,  three  leagues  from  there ;  and  some  women 


i . 


f 


mf 


I 


DE  CUASTE'S  ^•OYAfiE  TO  TEHCEllA. 


851 


•  ^  ♦hpm   .,Q  111  this  neighbourhood  they  arc  very  r!.a- 

and  .iris  of  the  place  ^^^^'^H^d^^^^^^^^  ^^  '^^'  l'»^^^^  ^  V  ^Tr"™"' 

ritabTe.  The  commander  ^f^^^^*"" '"^*;^'^^^^^^  -.^  adjoining,  a  great  number  of  them  ; 
dated  in  the  hospital  of  St.  Jean  dc  Luz.  ^vhi^»^^  .  Jj^i^.  hgu,cs.  along  the  road  to  Bay- 
continuing  to  have  o  hers  m  ^^^^^'^^fP'X^^Sie  greater  part  died;  the  others  came  as 
onne,  ten  or  twelve  leagues  d'^^^"^ ;  wher^  the  jr         p  ^  ^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^  ^^ 

far  as  to  die  gates  of  Bayonne,  °  ™. '^^^^^^^^^  causing  them  to  '  c  accommodated 
them  to  reac^  their  houses,  ^^j"^^^^™  by  the  medium  of  Le  Sieur  dc 

with  carts  from  space  to  space  t^ro"gho^^^^^^^^  a  commissary  to  gu  de  them, 

Pasliere,  governor  ^^  ^f /«"" Vl^e  cSi^^^^^^^  having  thus  provided  for  h.s  people, 
and  provide  them  quarters.  ./^^^„_^*!?_7to  p^^is,  in  order  to  render  account  of  hi» 
took  post  at  Bayonne  aforesaid  to  pr^^^^^  'uee.T  mother,  from  whom  he  had  expressly 
comiiiission  ;  and  kissmg  the  ^^^"^  °J  ^'^^^^^^^^  her  with  an  abstract  of  this  rela 

received  the  orders  for  th|S  expedition,  he  prese^  ^^^^^^^^^  ^^_ 

tion.  adding.  "  Madam,  1  know  very  u^eli  tn^i  .^,^^»^j^/ ,^  ^.^  ^e  but  httle  agree- 

cessarily  occupy,  too  g^f  f  ^^^"f  ^  Zl  Xdam,  that  my  voyage  was  not  undertaken 
able  to  your  majesty  ;  I  am  extremely  «""»  •  ,-  '  ^-,0^  to  give  greater  satisfaction  to 
vvith  as  much  success  in  its  ff  °"^'^?!j^i^^5^^^^^  beeVdictated  by  truth  in 

your  majesty :  You  will  see  if  y°"  P>^J^J ^w  otn  i^^^^^^    have  made  me  for^t  for  an 

(his  paper;  if  y«"  ^""^^^^^^./^  11^^  ^br^gT^^^  ^''^  ^°  ""^^"'^  ^u  ^^ 
instant  the  duty  I  ^^%y^^\r£ii^r  le  Commandeur,  I  know  you  are  too  honest 
which  her  majesty  replied.  ,  ,™'^"'^i\!^^^^^  the  affection  which  I  know  you  bear 

?J^r  my  L^vte/r^^^^  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^'^"^  ''' 

means  of  promoting  your  welfare." 


END  OF  THE  FIRST  VOLUME 


jsr 


T 


i 


^/?A- 


:.yj. 


J 


'IK 


■i  \  W 


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